He turned to study the young man beside him, rubbing his hands together with an evil grin. “Now it’s your turn.”
Chen Guan raised an eyebrow. “Me?”
To be honest, Chen Guan was having doubts too.
Even White Tiger, who was always full of clever tricks, had been unable to do anything about that coffin and had been sent flying instead. Could he really get close?
If White Tiger hadn’t exaggerated in the slightest when describing it, even a seventh-order wolf had been instantly given a fresh start in life. What if Chen Guan got restarted too the moment he approached?
His immortality was strange, and this coffin was just as strange. Chen Guan couldn’t be certain that he would still be able to rise from the dead.
What if he couldn’t and got his account permanently banned on the spot? Wouldn’t that be a huge loss?
White Tiger grinned. “Who else would it be?”
“We went to all this trouble to bring you here. It wasn’t so we could invite you to the Northern Frontier to admire the snow, was it? Don’t tell me you’re content to just stand here and watch.”
He jerked his chin toward the front.
“Go on, give it a try. Let’s see whether the genuine article gets any special treatment in front of that identical model.”
Chen Guan remained silent for a moment, but in the end, he stepped forward.
The closer he got, the stronger the faint yet indescribable attraction coming from the black coffin became.
The sensation reached straight into the depths of his soul, issuing a silent summons.
He stopped at the edge and stretched out his right hand, his fingertips reaching toward the black coffin.
White Tiger folded his arms and stared intently, gathering strength beneath his feet, ready to snatch Chen Guan away at any moment.
The terrifying recoil he had expected never came.
Chen Guan’s fingers passed straight through the invisible barrier. Then his entire body entered the area around the black coffin without hindrance.
Outside, the smile faded from White Tiger’s face. He muttered to himself, “You really did get in. Looks like I was worrying for nothing.”
Chen Guan paid no attention to what was happening behind him. His gaze remained fixed on the black coffin in the center of the valley, while the coffin on his back began to vibrate in resonance.
Baal’s tone suddenly became extremely strange.
“How interesting. This is too interesting.”
His words broke off halfway. Chen Guan stopped as well and withdrew his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“That’s the scent of a Rule.”
“That’s the Rule of Emotion. There’s the power of emotions inside that coffin.”
The stranger Baal’s words became, the stranger his tone grew.
The Old Demon had been dead for who knew how long and even dismembered, yet why was he everywhere?
Chen Guan’s heartbeat skipped a beat.
The same question arose in his mind as in Baal’s.
Why is it you again?
Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, he continued forward.
No matter what was hidden inside, he had to uncover the truth today.
Now that he was only a stone’s throw away, he realized that this coffin was even more ancient than his own. Its age was unmistakable.
The patterns on the lid had been worn away by the passage of time, leaving them mottled and indistinct. The snow around it had been scorched completely black.
He raised his right hand, his fingertips hovering in midair. Then he pressed his palm against the cold coffin lid.
The instant he touched it, the wind and snow around him were completely cut off. The entire world seemed to have been muted.
A mechanical electronic voice, both familiar and unfamiliar, echoed deep within his mind.
“Ding! Host, I’m back.”
The voice was crisp, even carrying barely suppressed excitement. It clashed sharply with the deathly silence around him.
A pleasant surprise?
No. Extreme vigilance.
Not a single one of Chen Guan’s fingers trembled. He kept his hand firmly pressed against the coffin, while his mental power instantly contracted into the tightest possible barrier, firmly protecting the core of his consciousness.
“Who are you?”
He asked the question in his mind, his voice as cold as the snowstorm in the valley.
“It’s me, Host.”
The voice replied cheerfully, like a little pet happily reuniting with its owner after a long separation.
“I am your personal System.”
Chen Guan did not lower his guard. Everything about this was bizarre.
The Sys had been missing for so long, yet it had chosen this exact moment to reappear?
It was too coincidental.
So coincidental that it felt like a carefully laid trap. Baal had just said that remnants of emotional power existed inside this place.
He remained silent, his mental power sweeping out like quicksilver, but he couldn’t detect the slightest trace. It didn’t seem as though he had fallen under an illusion.
“You’d better give me an explanation.”
Chen Guan’s mental voice carried an undisguised threat.
“Why did you suddenly disappear without a trace? And why have you come back now?”
“Oh, boss, hear me out—I can explain. I didn’t want this either. I went to ask the Main System what was going on, but an accident happened. I couldn’t return. I only managed to come back after sensing you just now, Host.”
“Prove your identity.”
Chen Guan didn’t believe vague claims that could not be verified. He issued his final ultimatum.
The System seemed troubled, but it quickly spoke again.
“Boss, do you remember? On the day you first reported to Huaqing Academy, because of… ahem, a little accidental mistake, you went through the wrong door.”
A crack appeared in Chen Guan’s mental barrier.
“To save time and get on camera, you didn’t take the main road. You took a shortcut and made your first appearance in front of the audience looking utterly disheveled.”
The System’s voice grew more and more excited. “At the time, you even—”
“That’s enough.”
Chen Guan interrupted it expressionlessly. “Stop. I believe you’re the Sys.”
That embarrassing bit of history was something no third party could possibly know—not unless it had been there with him back then.
Seeing Chen Guan standing motionless in front of the coffin, White Tiger grew worried that something had happened and shouted, “Hey, kid! Are you over there trying to develop feelings for the coffin?”
Even Baal, inside his mind, began urging him on. “Kid, why are you standing there spacing out? What happened?”
Chen Guan came back to his senses. His confidence in the Sys’s return increased somewhat.
White Tiger was one thing, but since even Baal hadn’t detected anything unusual, it was probably really the System.
After all, even if that Emotional Demon had appeared at the height of its power, it would probably only have been a minor monster for Baal to farm. Baal’s presence was reassuring.
Ignoring the urging from the outside world, Chen Guan submerged his entire mind into his conversation with the System.
“You said you encountered an accident. What accident?”
“It’s like this… Didn’t I go to the Main System to ask about the situation? On the way back, I sensed a fluctuation of the same origin at this location.”
“I figured I’d come over and take a look. Maybe I could scrounge up some treasure for you, boss. But this same-origin entity… it played dirty!”
“Get to the point.”
Chen Guan’s patience was running thin.
“It locked me inside and forced me into hibernation! I only just got activated by you, boss!” the System explained rapidly. “Boss, this was absolutely an accident. Please don’t question my loyalty because of it!”
Chen Guan ignored the useless final sentence.
An entity of the same origin?
He gathered his mental power once more and examined the black coffin, half-buried in the frozen soil before him.
It was far more weathered than the one on his back. The marks carved into its body clearly showed their age; unlike his own coffin, this one did not look freshly manufactured.
“You mean this coffin shares the same origin as you?”
The System corrected him. “Well, it wouldn’t be quite right to say that we’re completely one and the same.”
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.
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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!
