Night settled slowly over Wutan City.
In the dilapidated courtyard, Su Chen sat cross-legged on his bed, as motionless as a lifeless stone statue.
His breathing was so faint that, without the barely perceptible rise and fall of his chest, he might have been mistaken for a corpse.
This had become his daily routine.
When darkness fell and all of Wutan City sank into sleep, that was when he began his work.
His mind sank silently, like mercury spilling across the ground, into the Void Space hidden in the deepest part of his consciousness.
After the backlash from that failed experiment, the entire Stone Platform had dimmed considerably, like an old crystal drained of its energy.
But Su Chen knew full well that its core functions remained intact.
Especially its most fundamental—and most heaven-defying—ability: perception.
Su Chen's consciousness hovered before the Stone Platform without a moment's hesitation.
He issued a thought.
Humm—
A faint glow flickered across the dim Stone Platform.
The illusory pointer, formed from countless runes, appeared once more, stubbornly pointing toward a fixed direction in the city.
The Xiao Clan.
There lay his only "target" for now.
Su Chen's spiritual power became invisible tentacles. Following the pointer's guidance, he cautiously reached toward the brilliant Lighthouse representing the "Bone Spirit Cold Flame," like a hunter creeping through the deep sea.
He had repeated this process for several days and had long since mastered it.
He did it to steadily strip away and capture wisps of the Flame's essence data from that Lighthouse, gathering material for his next experiment.
He also did it to keep watch.
To monitor the greatest and most unpredictable "variable" in Wutan City.
As always.
His perception easily pierced the thick courtyard walls of the Xiao Clan estate.
The Lighthouse representing the Heavenly Flame still rested quietly in a room deep within the estate, radiating a pure and noble aura.
Over the past few days, that aura had been powerful, yet it had always carried the lifeless, dormant quality of a rootless duckweed.
It was like a divine weapon sealed within amber: its edge concealed, yet lacking a true "soul."
But tonight...
Su Chen's consciousness jolted to a halt.
"Something's wrong!"
His perception focused in an instant.
The aura belonging to the Bone Spirit Cold Flame had changed!
It was no longer lifeless.
It... had come alive!
If the aura before had been a deep, icy pool of still water,
then now that still water had begun to flow, slowly and steadily!
It was like a gentle stream, tamed and guided by an invisible embankment, beginning to circle around a certain core in a mysterious, rhythmic cycle.
With each cycle, the aura grew more concentrated and more stable.
It was as if the sealed divine weapon had found a scabbard perfectly suited to it.
Or as if a giant dragon, asleep for a thousand years, had finally opened its eyes!
The discovery made Su Chen's heart miss a beat.
Who?
Who was guiding this power?
Was it that mysterious soul hidden inside the ring?
Had he awakened?
Su Chen forcibly suppressed his shock and drove his perception to its utmost limit.
His spiritual tentacles did not touch the circulating aura of the Heavenly Flame. Instead, they skirted around it and reached even more cautiously toward the being serving as its "vessel."
Xiao Yan.
At that probe,
Su Chen's entire consciousness trembled violently!
He "saw" it!
He clearly "saw" the aura that belonged to Xiao Yan himself!
It was no longer the stagnant, muddied aura of before, tainted by resentment, repression, dejection, and despair.
In its place...
There was a spark!
A spark that had just been defiantly kindled amid endless darkness and ruin—faint, yet incomparably tenacious!
That aura was still pitifully weak, not even fully formed yet.
But at its core, a world-shaking change had taken place!
The dejection of the past had vanished, replaced by the keen resilience of a new shoot breaking through the earth!
It was the will of someone who, even crushed beneath a boulder and battered by raging winds, vowed to push through everything above him and greet the sky that belonged to him... unyielding!
Two utterly different auras had changed.
One was the awakened Bone Spirit Cold Flame, now beginning to circulate.
The other was the "good-for-nothing youth," broken and reborn, with hope rekindled.
There had to be an inevitable connection between them!
Countless bolts of lightning seemed to explode in Su Chen's mind!
A crystal-clear conclusion surfaced in his heart.
The old monster hidden inside the ring had awakened!
Not only had he awakened, but he had also reached some secret agreement with Xiao Yan!
He had begun formally guiding Xiao Yan's cultivation!
The "good-for-nothing" once mocked by all of Wutan City and trampled beneath countless feet was undergoing a true transformation at an unimaginable speed, in a corner where no one knew...
This is troublesome...
Su Chen's consciousness slowly descended from above the Stone Platform.
He didn't continue probing.
There was no point in probing further.
He forcibly severed his perception of the outside world and tore his mind from the Void Space.
Thump! Thump!
In the real world, Su Chen's heart began pounding uncontrollably in the deathly quiet room.
A chill crept up his spine and silently climbed to the nape of his neck.
It wasn't fear.
It was the warning a hunter felt upon discovering that his prey had suddenly grown fangs and claws overnight!
A Child of Destiny growing at an astonishing pace.
A mysterious, unfathomable soul of unknown origins.
The chemistry between them—and the danger they represented—would multiply at a terrifying, geometric rate!
All his plans had been built on the assumption that Xiao Yan was a powerless good-for-nothing.
But now, that foundation had begun to shake.
Su Chen slowly opened his eyes. His dark pupils held not a trace of panic, only a cold, abyssal stillness.
He rapidly weighed his options.
On one hand, as Xiao Yan grew stronger, he would activate the Bone Spirit Cold Flame within him more often, making its aura more active.
That would be a tremendous boon for stealing data and conducting simulation experiments.
But on the other hand...
A genius growing at high speed would also see his perception rise accordingly.
Could Su Chen's "non-contact scanning" still go unnoticed as it had before?
If he was discovered...
Su Chen had no doubt that the mysterious old monster would devour the "thief" spying from the shadows, skin and bones, without a moment's hesitation!
After a long while,
Su Chen slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.
His violently beating heart returned to a steady rhythm.
He rose from the bed and went to the shabby window. Through a crack, he gazed toward the Xiao Clan estate.
The night was still thick.
But in his eyes, that area was no longer a safe "resource point."
It had become an active volcano, ready to erupt at any moment.
The next morning.
The broad main street of Wutan City bustled with people.
Su Chen had changed into an unremarkable gray shirt and donned a battered bamboo hat that hid most of his face. Lost in the crowd, he drew no notice.
Like a true ghost, he waited quietly in the shadows at a street corner.
Before long,
a thin figure emerged from a distant alley.
It was Xiao Yan.
Su Chen's gaze locked onto him like a hawk's.
Although Xiao Yan's clothes were still plain, even a little faded from washing,
one glance was enough for Su Chen to confirm everything he had suspected the night before.
He had changed.
He had changed completely.
It was a change that came from deep within.
In the past, Xiao Yan had always walked with his head slightly bowed, his steps unsteady and his eyes evasive, as if he wanted to shut himself off entirely from a world full of mockery and disdain.
But now,
his back was straight as a spear thrust through the sky.
His steps were steady and powerful. With every footfall, he seemed to resonate with the earth beneath him.
His eyes had changed more than anything.
There was no more evasion, no more inferiority.
Those dark eyes were calm and deep.
When he looked at his surroundings, his gaze was no longer lost. It was cool, observant, and devoid of emotion, as if everything around him were merely scenery and could no longer stir his heart in the slightest.
It was the confidence and composure unique to the strong, forged by pressing every last bit of humiliation and pain down and turning it all into fuel!
Xiao Yan didn't linger on the main street.
He walked straight across it and headed toward the hills outside the city.
For the past three years, that had been his only refuge.
Now, it was also the training ground where he had been reborn.
Su Chen stood motionless in the shadows until Xiao Yan's figure disappeared around the corner.
Only then did he slowly withdraw his gaze.
"The storm is coming."
Su Chen's mind was crystal clear.
He knew his plans had to change as well.
Continuing to sell low-tier magical beast information under the guise of a "treasure hunter" would no longer support his next steps.
Nor would it provide a plausible enough explanation for the source of the batch of "new products" he was about to release.
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly beneath the shadow of his bamboo hat.
Perhaps...
It was time to meet that shrewd, beautiful, and equally ambitious... business partner.
He needed to use the Mittel Family's power to lay the groundwork for a larger scheme, both for himself and for the "good-for-nothing" undergoing his transformation.
A scheme... that would draw everyone's eyes away from him.
Before you continue