“Liu Chengjun is the source of his fear. Liu Feiyu is the source of his fear. The Liu family’s power structure is the source of his fear. When there are too many sources of fear, the only solution he sees is to obtain power strong enough to crush everything.”
Santai blinked.
“That’s why he accepted Astaroth’s contract.”
“Exactly. When someone driven by fear gains power beyond what he can bear, there is only one possible ending.”
Southern Dipper raised a finger.
“Self-destruction.”
The swinging of Santai’s feet came to a stop.
“Then what if he wasn’t afraid?”
“Someone who isn’t afraid would never make a contract with a demon god.”
Southern Dipper answered without hesitation.
“The essence of a demon god’s contract is trading one’s soul for courage. Only those terrified to the very limit would need such a bargain.”
“That sounds so miserable.”
Santai pouted.
“Did he really have no choice from the beginning?”
“He had a choice.”
Southern Dipper shook his head. “But he chose fear, and so he lost.”
There was more he did not say. Liu Xiao’s defeat had been inevitable.
So long as that legendary demon god remained alive, so long as humanity did not produce some peerless genius capable of suppressing the ages, the other demon gods would never have even the slightest chance to reveal themselves before the world. This was an eternal rule of the world.
But there was no need to tell Santai any of that yet. It was beyond her reach for now.
Santai lay facedown on the desk, tracing circles on its surface with one finger. “Southern Dipper, you really are so cold when you talk.”
“I’m only stating the facts.”
“Can’t facts be a little gentler?”
“Facts have no temperature.”
Santai huffed and buried her face in her arms, muttering in a muffled voice,
“People aren’t data.”
She regretted Liu Xiao’s death. Back then, she had been the one hired by Liu Chengjun—only to withdraw midway through the operation, along with a million others.
At the time, Beidou had told her about the connection between the Liu family and the Origin Group. That was why she had pulled out.
After that, she had kept an eye on Liu Xiao, watching him struggle to survive in the cracks.
Spring was almost here, yet he had still died. He had escaped one fatal calamity after another, only to die before spring arrived.
Southern Dipper did not respond. He turned back to face the screen and tapped a few keys, bringing up a new file.
Then the third person, who had remained silent the entire time, finally spoke.
“Are you two done talking yet?”
The voice came from the corner of the room by the wall, lazy and edged with impatience.
Chen Beixuan lounged halfway back in a folding chair, his long legs crossed and propped atop a cardboard box beside him, his hands tucked behind his head. His shirt hung half open, and he looked for all the world as though he were on vacation at the beach.
Santai lifted her head.
“Kongchen, you’re still awake? I thought you’d fallen asleep ages ago.”
“You two have been making noise right next to my ears for half an hour. If I could sleep through that, I’d be dead.”
Chen Beixuan lowered his legs from the box and sat up straight. “Southern Dipper, you didn’t call me here just to listen to the two of you chat, did you?”
Southern Dipper turned his chair around. “Of course not.”
“There’s still one problem left unresolved. I need your help.”
Santai perked up, springing upright from the desk. Her earlier sadness vanished at once, replaced by eager curiosity.
“What problem?”
“Astaroth made such a huge commotion in the human world. Even if the ritual was ultimately disrupted, the amount of information exposed in the process is frightening enough.”
“But that’s not what really concerns me.”
“It’s that little probe. Outside the story we already know, there are other people involved.”
“So the question we’re facing is this: who exactly wants to learn of our existence?”
……
Meanwhile, Chen Guan went alone to meet Yin Tianzheng.
When he arrived at the entrance to the Yin family’s ancestral residence, no one tried to stop him. Everyone knew that Chen Guan was an honored guest of the Yin family.
“Little fellow, how are you feeling?”
The moment Yin Tianzheng saw Chen Guan, he stopped rolling his walnuts and immediately pulled over a chair for him.
Yin Tianzheng’s tea room was small. Old calligraphy and paintings hung on all four walls, while a Yixing teapot sat on the table. The tea had just been brewed, and wisps of steam curled from the spout.
“Sit, sit. Don’t be shy.”
Yin Tianzheng pushed a teacup toward Chen Guan, then took the seat opposite him and casually picked up the pair of walnuts from the corner of the table, rolling them in his palm.
Chen Guan lifted the cup with his right hand and took a sip, but did not hurry to speak.
Yin Tianzheng spoke first instead. “I’ve heard the medical team’s report about that arm of yours. Demonic corruption—and not a minor case, either.”
“Mm.”
“Among the people I trust absolutely, the strongest life-element user is only at the sixth rank. Treating corruption of this level would be difficult. Do you have another option?”
“Someone has helped me get in touch with a tenth-rank life-element user.”
Yin Tianzheng’s hands paused for a moment as he rolled the walnuts, then resumed their steady rhythm. “A tenth-rank user? That’s more than enough. Now this old man can rest easy.”
Yin Tianzheng nodded, set the walnuts on the table, and wrapped both hands around his teacup as he looked at Chen Guan, waiting for him to get to the point.
He knew perfectly well that this young man had not come all the way to the Yin family’s ancestral residence just to drink tea, chat, and report that he was safe.
Chen Guan set down his teacup.
“Elder Yin, you once promised me something. You said that you owed me a favor, and that I could ask to collect it whenever I wished.”
Yin Tianzheng leaned back in his chair, resting both hands on the armrests. The smile on his face only grew wider. “Of course I remember. Yin Tianzheng always keeps his word. Let alone one favor—even ten would be fine.”
Chen Guan got straight to the point. “I want to take a look at your family’s ancestral shrine.”
Yin Tianzheng’s hands stopped moving completely. At the same time, his mind came to a complete halt.
“The ancestral shrine?”
“That’s right.”
“Student Chen, why would you be interested in the Yin family’s ancestral shrine?”
Yin Tianzheng was baffled. He would not have found it strange if Chen Guan had made an outrageous demand, but this… could barely be called a modest one.
And the direction of the request was strange as well. What was there to see in a pile of broken memorial tablets? They were nothing more than a spiritual anchor to the descendants of the family.
Yin Tianzheng shook his head. “Although the Yin family’s ancestral shrine isn’t exactly a secret location, it isn’t somewhere just anyone can enter, either. The ancestral rules are clear: outsiders entering the shrine…”
He looked troubled.
“You’re the head of the family. Ancestral rules are dead, while the people who come after them are alive.”
“That’s true in principle.”
Yin Tianzheng rose to his feet and paced twice around the tea room. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked to the window and gazed at the old locust tree in the courtyard.
“You really are something, child.”
Yin Tianzheng shook his head. His fingers reached for the pair of walnuts on the table again, rubbing them together twice before he finally let out a sigh.
“Fine. I’ll take you there.”
Chen Guan stood up. “Thank you, Old Master.”
Yin Tianzheng took a coat from the rack and draped it over his shoulders. He pushed open the door to the tea room, and the night wind rushed in at once.
“Come with me.”
The two of them walked through the corridors of the Yin family’s ancestral residence. Underfoot lay paths paved with bluestone, while dim yellow lanterns hung on either side.
After passing through a moon gate, the architectural style suddenly changed. Gone was the renovated appearance of the front courtyard. In its place stood gray-tiled roofs, white walls, and wooden structures. The paint on the beams and pillars had peeled and flaked with age, exposing the blackened wood grain beneath.
Yin Tianzheng stopped before a heavy wooden door and took out a bronze key.
“The Yin family ancestral hall was built one thousand four hundred and thirty years ago. It has been renovated several times since, but nothing inside was ever altered. Even when it was relocated, it was rebuilt exactly as it had been.”
He inserted the key into the lock. With a click, the bronze padlock sprang open.
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!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
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?!
