After a long while, that ancient voice finally echoed in Chen Guan’s mind, carrying an incomprehensible bewilderment.
“Just… because it’s troublesome?”
That reason was clearly even harder for the King of the Tower to accept than being cleaved apart by a blade.
“Trouble is the biggest problem in this world.” Chen Guan’s reply contained not the slightest hint of a joke.
That utterly laid-back attitude left the King of the Tower completely silent.
The speech he had prepared over thousands of years had all gone to waste.
He couldn’t understand how anyone could choose to retreat in the face of supreme power that was within arm’s reach.
And not just once—Chen Guan had retreated twice.
The King of the Tower was a lifeform created by the Lord of Nothingness. In his memories, his master had always seemed to be in a state of urgency.
Even after becoming the strongest being in the world, the Lord of Nothingness remained anxious, desperately craving even greater power.
The King of the Tower didn’t understand what had driven the Lord of Nothingness to constantly pursue greater strength. In his eyes, since the Lord of Nothingness was already the strongest in the world, it had to be because He possessed a heart devoted to martial prowess.
If that was the case, then why was the person before him acting like a complete slacker?
Could he have found the wrong person?
No, that was absolutely impossible. The King of the Tower sank into deep thought.
“I understand now.”
After a moment of contemplation, the ancient fixation in the King of the Tower’s voice disappeared, leaving behind only a trace of self-mocking relief.
“The throne was never the path meant for you. I was wrong.”
“You reject every predetermined path. Your road lies neither in the past nor in the present.”
Chen Guan raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
So what? What kind of cryptic nonsense was this guy spouting now?
“Go. If you don’t intend to return, then consider me nonexistent. If you do intend to return, I will always be here.”
With that, the King of the Tower turned around, leaving behind only a desolate figure.
Chen Guan stared at the figure before him, speechless. He reached back and removed Baobao, who was still sprawled on top of his head like a tiny purple hat, then cradled her in his arms.
The little creature felt feather-light in his hands. Her warm body heat seeped through his clothes, bringing a comforting sense of peace.
She was far better than this cryptic weirdo.
Chen Guan turned around and walked toward the iron-tower-like figure standing at the edge of the platform.
“You…”
Li Yan had barely uttered a single word when Chen Guan raised a hand to stop him.
“Teacher, don’t ask yet.”
Looking exhausted, Chen Guan interrupted Li Yan before he could begin his interrogation. He carried the catlike creature and walked straight past Li Yan toward the spiral staircase leading to the lower level.
He had already guessed what Li Yan was about to ask.
Come on, think, you idiot.
“Stop.”
“You owe me an explanation. What exactly happened just now?”
“Why did you stop? And why did it give up attacking? The two of you stood there for nearly ten minutes. What were you doing?”
A barrage of questions came flying at him like cannonballs.
Chen Guan seemed to give the matter serious thought. Then, all at once, his expression brightened with realization.
“Oh, that.”
He jerked his chin toward the lonely throne in the center of the platform and said in an innocent tone, “Maybe I’m just too handsome. My kingly aura intimidated him, so he decided to abandon evil and turn to the light.”
He couldn’t come up with a proper explanation at the moment, so he might as well give a nonsense answer and be done with it.
The muscles on Li Yan’s face twitched violently. A vein at his temple throbbed repeatedly.
His fists clenched.
He really wanted to punch this grinning brat and see if it would knock his brain back into working order.
Couldn’t he even be bothered to make a decent excuse?
At that moment, a childish voice rang out.
“You’re not as handsome as my master.”
The voice was soft, but every word was perfectly clear, carrying an unquestionable certainty.
Every muscle in Li Yan’s body instantly froze.
He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the little leopard in Chen Guan’s arms.
Baobao held up her tiny head, her golden slit pupils filled with solemn seriousness.
Li Yan’s mouth slowly fell open.
This creature… this little thing that had only just finished evolving…
It could not only speak, but also pronounce every word clearly. It even knew how to use comparatives.
This was no longer mere intelligence. This was independent logic—and an independent sense of aesthetics.
“It… It…”
Li Yan pointed at Baobao for a long moment, yet failed to form a complete sentence.
The murderous aura he had displayed earlier was completely washed away by this sudden shock to his understanding.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Teacher.”
Seizing the opportunity, Chen Guan said, “My Baobao is very smart. She’s even officially registered as a legal demon beast.”
He patted Baobao’s little head. Baobao immediately cooperated by letting out a soft, adorable growl before rubbing her head against Chen Guan’s chin.
The man and the leopard worked together with perfect understanding.
Watching this scene, Li Yan felt as if everything he knew about void creatures had turned into a pile of useless scrap paper.
“How much time do we have left?” Chen Guan suddenly asked.
“Huh?” Li Yan’s mind was still frozen. He answered instinctively, “There… there are still a few days.”
“That’s great.”
Chen Guan’s eyes lit up. His face shone with the delight of someone who had just discovered a mountain of treasure.
“Teacher, opportunities like this don’t come twice.”
He looked at Li Yan with complete sincerity and suggested, “Since we’re idle anyway, why don’t we go downstairs and farm through everything again? Or we could clear out another area.”
“It would also be a good chance for Baobao to practice and get familiar with her new abilities.”
Li Yan: “…”
He looked at Chen Guan’s handsome face, which practically radiated the spirit of frugality and domestic diligence, then at the innocent little leopard in his arms, who was licking her paw.
Suddenly, he felt that compared with these two, the immortal throne at the top of the tower didn’t seem so difficult to understand after all.
In the end, Li Yan still couldn’t bring himself to punch that self-righteous handsome face.
He was his own student. Don’t get angry. Don’t get angry…
And so, in the time that followed, this area experienced the darkest day since its construction.
Boom!
With a casual slash, Chen Guan split apart three crystalized hounds fighting in coordination, along with the ground beneath their feet. He then bent down and skillfully picked three crystal cores out of the charred fissure.
“Teacher, I don’t think we cleared all the monsters in this area.”
He looked up and called out to Li Yan, who was leaning against a wall in the distance with his eyes closed, taking a nap.
Li Yan didn’t even raise an eyelid.
He had already given up thinking. He even felt that he had come all this way for nothing. Who could possibly do anything about this brat?
What he couldn’t see couldn’t bother him.
Let him do whatever he wanted.
“Eek, eek.”
High in the sky, more than a dozen bats the size of a palm, their bodies formed entirely from black crystal, simultaneously locked onto Chen Guan below.
Crystal-Energy Bats, Tier Seven creatures. Their strengths lay in their numbers and speed.
“Oh? A few stragglers.”
Chen Guan stopped walking and was just about to raise his hand to deal with them.
One of the bats suddenly accelerated, transforming into a streak of black lightning. It cunningly bypassed Chen Guan’s front and lunged for the back of his neck from an extremely tricky blind spot.
The entire sequence of movements happened in the blink of an eye. Even Li Yan, standing behind him, reacted, his eyes shifting as he prepared to call out a warning.
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
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.
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.
