Liu Chengjun continued, “What do I have now? Sixth-tier strength, the status of the Liu family’s legitimate eldest son, and the support of most of the clan. Father is dead, so I no longer have to worry about surprise siblings, mistresses, or stepmothers appearing. I’m already standing in a secure enough position.”
His voice paused.
“No one can poison my tea anymore.”
“What is the Azure Dragon Token to you?” Liu Feiyu asked.
“Frosting on the cake.”
Liu Chengjun answered without hesitation.
“Or perhaps it’s inertia. I’ve fought for it for twenty years, and I’ve forgotten why I was fighting in the first place. I simply can’t stop.”
“I’ve grown accustomed to fearing everything. I’ve grown accustomed to firmly taking hold of anything that might threaten me.”
Liu Feiyu stared at him. His eyes held scrutiny, probing, and some other emotion even he couldn’t quite put into words.
“Big Brother, don’t you think you’re making it sound too simple?”
“What part is simple?”
“You say you’re going to withdraw, just like that. But what about the people caught up in your competition? The collateral branches you suppressed? And Second Brother?”
Liu Feiyu’s tone sharpened.
“You can’t escape responsibility for how far he went. Can you wipe the slate clean with a single declaration that you’re done competing?”
Liu Chengjun did not evade the question.
“No, I can’t.”
“Then how can you—”
“It’s precisely because I can’t that there’s even less reason for me to continue.”
Liu Chengjun cut him off, his voice carrying a strange calm.
“Feiyu, you heard what Second Brother said at the end.”
Liu Feiyu’s throat bobbed.
Never forget your original intention.
“My original intention was to survive. Now I’m alive, and I’m living safely.”
Liu Chengjun continued, “If I keep fighting, I’ll only create another Liu Xiao. If you take the initiative to reach for something dangerous, you have to bear the consequences.”
“There’s a saying: a barefoot man has nothing to fear from a man in shoes. But now I’m the one wearing shoes. I’m afraid.”
In the distance, an ambulance siren sounded, slicing sharply through the night before gradually fading away.
Liu Feiyu pushed himself away from the railing and took two steps forward, closing the distance between them to within arm’s reach.
“You’re serious.”
“I am.”
“You’re not testing me.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re not waiting for me to lower my guard so you can make your move.”
Liu Chengjun let out a laugh, bitter yet relieved.
“Feiyu, when did you become so suspicious?”
“Anyone raised in the Liu family who isn’t suspicious won’t live to see twenty. Even with all my suspicions, I’m only eighteen.”
Liu Feiyu’s reply was cold, but the edge in his tone had dulled somewhat.
Liu Chengjun nodded without arguing.
“You’re right. That’s a problem with our family.”
He straightened from the railing and stood facing Liu Feiyu.
“The Azure Dragon Token is yours.”
For a moment, Liu Feiyu’s expression froze, but it quickly returned to normal.
“I never said I wanted it.”
“You don’t?”
Liu Chengjun raised an eyebrow.
“You think I don’t know what you did in the Northern Frontier? All those connections you cultivated in secret?”
Liu Feiyu’s expression did not change, but he did not deny it.
“I have my own plans, but I don’t need your charity.”
“I’m not giving you charity.”
Liu Chengjun shook his head. “This is my choice. It has nothing to do with you. I simply don’t want to compete anymore. I can already survive, and whether you want to fight for the means to survive in this world is up to you.”
“Let’s make one thing clear: the position of heir to the Liu family belongs to me, and me alone. No one is allowed to compete with me for it.”
The two men looked at each other.
The night wind passed between them, carrying the chill unique to late autumn.
Liu Feiyu was the first to look away. He turned back toward the night view beyond the railing, resting both hands on the cold metal bar.
“Big Brother.”
“Hmm?”
“Never mind. It’s nothing.”
Liu Chengjun froze for a moment.
Then he turned as well and stood beside Liu Feiyu, leaving a person’s width between them.
Silence spread through the air. But this time, it was different from before. There was no tense standoff, only two brothers who had grown up beneath the same roof yet had never truly spoken, standing on the same side for the first time as they looked up at the same stretch of night sky.
Starlight spilled down, tracing the outline of Liu Feiyu’s profile. His expression was difficult to make out.
His mind churned with countless thoughts.
For him, Big Brother’s withdrawal was obviously a good thing. With his greatest rival gone, the Azure Dragon Token was practically within reach. All that remained were matters that could be settled with money.
But Liu Xiao’s death felt like a thorn lodged in his heart.
He remembered the look Second Brother had given him before dissipating.
“Big Brother.”
“What is it this time?”
“When we go back, don’t tell the others in the family what you just said.”
Liu Chengjun looked at him.
Liu Feiyu’s gaze rested on the distant afterglow that was slowly fading away, and his voice was soft.
“When I obtain the Azure Dragon Token, I’ll make sure the Liu family never needs anyone to die again.”
“No one will ever have to fight for their life again.”
……
“As expected, it went exactly as you predicted. I lost again.”
In the dim room, a young girl’s bored voice rang out.
The girl was, naturally, Santai.
“Liu Feiyu’s victory was the most reasonable outcome. Liu Chengjun already possessed everything. Just as the architect of order would never personally tear that order apart, he had already lost the courage to advance.”
The glow of the computer screen illuminated another person’s face. It was Southern Dipper.
“What about Second Brother Liu? I actually had pretty high hopes for him too.”
Santai leaned over curiously, resting her head near the screen. She had always thought Liu Xiao had the best odds. After all, he had brought in a demon god as an angel investor.
“That’s right, Liu Xiao’s odds were indeed the best—but only on paper.”
Southern Dipper rolled the pen he had just picked up between his fingers. “He brought Astaroth into the picture and obtained the power of a six-winged projection. According to conventional projections, he should have been the person with the greatest potential to become a variable.”
“Exactly, exactly! So how did he lose?”
Santai tilted her head, resting her chin on the edge of the desk while her legs swung back and forth beneath the chair.
“Because he thought he was the player.”
“Those who make contracts with demon gods are never the ones moving the pieces.”
“He was merely a piece on the board—a piece that believed it could move beyond the board’s boundaries.”
Santai tilted her head in thought. “You mean Liu Xiao thought he was using Astaroth, when in fact Astaroth was using him?”
“Not entirely.”
Southern Dipper’s voice remained even. He had foreseen Liu Xiao’s fate long ago; he simply had chosen not to interfere.
“Astaroth needed a vessel to bear the ritual, while Liu Xiao needed power to shatter the Liu family’s established order. Their needs happened to align perfectly. It was a transaction, and both sides understood exactly what they were giving up.”
“Then where did things go wrong?”
“The problem was that Liu Xiao’s driving force was fear.”
Southern Dipper turned his chair to face Santai.
“People driven by fear are predictable in the way they act, because every choice they make points toward the same end: eliminating the source of their fear.”
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
] [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!"
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
