Baal’s voice was full of the delight of someone enjoying a show.
“Kid, want to give them a hint? Otherwise, this performance will go on until dawn.”
Baal didn’t believe Chen Guan had failed to think of that answer.
Chen Guan calmly replied inwardly, “Not yet.”
He wanted to see whether Liu Feiyu could figure out that least likely answer on his own.
Just then, Liu Feiyu spoke again.
“There’s one more.”
He forced out a few words, his voice so faint they were almost inaudible.
“There’s one more… but it’s impossible. He’s already dead.”
An Changqing keenly noticed his loss of composure and realized that he, too, had thought of the name everyone had overlooked.
“Liu Feiyu, who did you think of?”
Liu Feiyu raised his head and let his unfocused gaze sweep over everyone present, as though searching for someone to deny it.
“My second brother.”
He struggled to utter the words.
“Liu Xiao.”
“His ability is ice as well.”
“Because of that, Father always thought, deep down, that he wasn’t strong enough. That’s why he favored Eldest Brother’s flames.”
Hong Yuan couldn’t help interrupting. “But wasn’t he already dead? Wasn’t that video showing him being killed? Even if the murderer was fake, the body should have been real, shouldn’t it?”
“Yes, he’s dead.”
Liu Feiyu nodded forcefully, repeating it again and again as though trying to convince himself.
“I personally saw the body pulled from the bottom of the lake. It was him. There’s no way I could have been mistaken.”
“How could a dead man kill someone? This is absurd.”
An Changqing’s brows drew together tightly. He looked at Liu Feiyu, then at the computer, whose screen had already gone black.
The entire matter had entered a paradox.
The mysterious caller’s analysis pointed to ice. An Changqing didn’t know who was on the other end of the phone, but he knew that person was extraordinarily capable—and that they were on Liu Feiyu’s side.
Yet the prime suspect was already dead.
And the evidence proving his death had been confirmed as fake by that same mysterious person.
Logic had formed a closed loop, trapping everyone’s thoughts inside it.
Chen Guan, who had remained silent until then, finally raised his head.
He walked slowly over to Liu Feiyu and looked at him.
“The video was fabricated.”
Chen Guan finally spoke. Every word carried clearly to the ears of those present.
Liu Feiyu nodded. “Yes.”
“Then why did all of you assume that the person killed in the video had to be the real Liu Xiao?”
Chen Guan had raised a question everyone else had overlooked.
Liu Feiyu’s body swayed, and he froze completely.
“If someone could fabricate a murder video to frame your eldest brother…”
Chen Guan’s gaze swept over everyone present before settling once more on Liu Feiyu. He asked, each word deliberate:
“Why couldn’t they also fabricate a corpse to prove that Liu Xiao was dead?”
…
Magic City. In a safe house unknown to anyone, soft lighting illuminated luxurious furnishings.
A massive LCD screen mounted on the wall was broadcasting the chaos unfolding in real time at the Liu family estate.
A man who should have been dead was leisurely swirling the crimson liquid in his goblet.
Watching Liu Chengjun’s face twist with rage on the screen, he laughed.
He was the real Liu Xiao.
“Father, you’re so easy to fool.”
Liu Xiao spoke softly, reporting everything to the presence within his mind.
“He truly believed that because I never fought for anything, he had no reason to guard against me.”
He turned and looked at the woman standing motionless behind him. It was Su Qing, the woman who should have escaped after attempting to assassinate Liu Tiancheng.
Now, however, her expression was vacant, her eyes hollow. She showed not the slightest trace of a living person.
Liu Xiao walked up to her, his gaze sweeping over her face as though inspecting a useful tool.
“See? The first step of the plan went perfectly.”
He spoke to Su Qing as if reviewing a brilliant game of chess.
“I had her carry out the assassination, but made sure she couldn’t succeed. The only purpose was to create enough panic and draw everyone’s attention.”
He lifted his glass and took a small sip before continuing.
“Then, my frightened son would be able to enter the study he trusted most.”
A mocking expression appeared on his face.
“Until the moment he died, he probably never imagined that the person who would personally close the door to the secret chamber was the son he had least guarded against.”
“And as for the corpse at the bottom of the lake?”
Liu Xiao smiled.
“Just a counterfeit molded from demonic power—a little prop to deepen the conflict between my beloved eldest brother and my third brother.”
He paused, then turned his eyes back to the screen, where they landed on An Changqing’s calm, analytical face.
“Even their arrival was something I suggested to Father.”
“It was simple. As An Changqing’s schoolmate, I’m familiar with his personality, and I understand Long Ao’s abilities. I knew they would investigate until they uncovered every detail.”
“Every clue they found would point perfectly to the scapegoat I had prepared long ago—the fake Liu Xiao played by Thousand Faces.”
Everything had been within his calculations.
Everyone was merely a pawn on his chessboard.
“Eldest Brother’s greed, Third Brother’s façade, and Father…”
The smile vanished from his eyes, leaving behind nothing but disgust.
“This family, rotten to the core, should have been burned to ashes long ago.”
He wasn’t after the Liu family’s wealth, nor that ridiculous position of heir.
“If I don’t kill every one of them, I’ll die sooner or later.”
The murmurs of Astaroth in his mind had already faded away, yet he continued muttering to himself, as though trying to convince his own heart.
Liu Xiao raised his right hand. On his pale palm, a frost mark radiating cold slowly emerged, flickering faintly like a living creature.
“The demon god’s power isn’t meant only for killing.”
He was the true contract holder of that demon god.
Su Qing and Thousand Faces were merely pawns whose minds he had controlled with demonic power—tools he could discard at any time.
His gaze shifted once more, finally coming to rest on the silent figure in the corner of the screen.
For the first time, Liu Xiao’s brows furrowed.
“The plan is perfect. Practically flawless.”
“But Chen Guan…”
A trace of irritation entered his voice.
“He’s an unexpected variable.”
“He can actually peer into Thousand Faces’ memories. The Chen Guan in my memories never had such a troublesome ability.”
That accident had disrupted the rhythm of his perfect script.
Liu Xiao’s fingertip slid across the cold screen, stopping over Chen Guan’s face, which was unnaturally calm.
“Look, Su Qing.”
He spoke softly, sharing an interesting discovery with the wooden woman standing beside him.
“Everyone is in character. My dear eldest brother, my pitiful third brother, and even An Changqing.”
“They’re angry, suspicious, and afraid. Each of them is delivering a brilliant performance exactly as I wrote it.”
“Everyone except him.”
Liu Xiao’s gaze never left the figure in the corner of the screen.
He didn’t like this feeling.
Everyone’s reactions should have been simulated thousands of times over on the battlefield of his mind.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
