The comments said I was deeply affectionate, I just added points by using an alternate account.

Having achieved his goal, there was no point in saying more. Chen Guan cast an illusion spell and left.

Although both were at the fifth rank, it wouldn't be so easy for An Changqing to break free of his illusion.

Carrying the coffin on his back, his figure moved through the night and soon returned to the dormitory building.

Long Ao's self-torture training should have ended by now, and the next room has returned to quiet.

Chen Guan pushed open the dormitory door.

The curtains were not drawn, just as they were before he left.

The cool moonlight streamed in without any obstruction.

But the light brought no warmth whatsoever; instead, it shrouded everything in the room in a frosty, deathly aura.

Under the moonlight, a gaze immediately fell upon him at the doorway, sending a chill down his spine.

A young girl leans against the window frame with her arms crossed.

Her long, silvery-white hair shimmered like mercury in the moonlight.

She just stood there quietly.

A pair of dark eyes were silently watching him.

In that deep blackness, there was a chilling coldness that made one's heart tighten.

She stood silently alongside the full moon.

I don't know how long I've been waiting.

The dormitory door closed silently behind Chen Guan.

Even the soft sound of the door lock returning to its place was swallowed up.

Even the moonlight outside the window was tinged with a sickly, dim yellow.

The pressure made his chest feel tight, even more uncomfortable than when facing the mutated monster.

By the window, the silver-haired girl stood with her arms crossed, motionless.

She stood there, not like a living thing, but more like a statue sculpted by moonlight.

After some time apart, she remained the same, even more chilling than before.

It's not just him and the other children of the world who can improve; even Guan Jinyue is making progress.

Chen Guan's gaze met those dark eyes in mid-air.

That gaze fell upon him, devoid of any emotion.

Chen Guan broke the silence first: "Did Baal send you?"

She nodded slightly, then extended her hand without saying anything more.

"My payment."

Chen Guan's reply was concise and left no room for discussion.

He didn't ask any further questions. Since Baal didn't step in to stop it, there must have been His instruction behind this.

The girl raised her hand, and a piece of iron the size of a palm appeared out of thin air in her palm.

The iron sheet was completely black and covered in rust, looking like a remnant that had just been dug out of some industrial ruins.

She flicked her finger, and the metal piece silently stopped in front of Chen's coffin.

Chen Guan took it, and as soon as he held the iron piece in his hand, a tingling sensation ran from his palm straight into his bones.

[Reverberation that can be recorded has been detected.]

[Mythology Series - Echoes (Storm), Record or Not]

Chen Guan reached into his robes and took out the core of the abyss worm, temporarily ignoring the system page.

Without the slightest hesitation, he casually tossed it forward, the core tracing an arc in the air before an invisible force field gently supported it, suspending it in front of the girl.

The girl reached out her hand, and the core obediently fell into her palm.

She glanced at the core the moment she grasped it, then put it away. A portal appeared behind her. She turned to leave, but her steps faltered in mid-air.

"The demon race has been making unusual moves lately. Huaqing is the first stop." She said, her back to the coffin, "Don't die there."

Chen Guan's fingers tightened for a moment as he gripped the metal plate.

Was it her personal reminder, or Baal's intention?

"Why are you telling me?"

The girl didn't turn around, she just turned her face to the side.

The moonlight outlined the clear bone lines of her jaw.

"Baal doesn't have many toys. If one breaks, the rest of the work will have to be done more."

She turned around, her gaze returning to the coffin.

There was a sense of shared suffering in those dark eyes.

"We are merely His instruments."

Before she finished speaking, she had already stepped into the spatial portal.

Only a light, fleeting word remained, echoing in the empty room.

"Also, don't believe in Him too much."

The room fell silent once more.

Chen Guan stood there, stroking the iron plate in his hand.

He and Guan Jinyue didn't have much interaction; they only met a few times.

However, it's not hard to see that she's a contractor who doesn't have much loyalty to Baal. Chen Guan still can't understand why Guan Jinyue would work for Baal. In terms of talent, she's second to none, so why bother?

Inside the room, the spatial fluctuations left behind by Guan Jinyue's departure gradually subsided, the sickly dim yellow light dissipated, and the cool moonlight once again covered the ground.

Chen Guan stood there, his fingertips tracing the rusty piece of iron.

"The demon race is making unusual movements, and Huaqing is the first stop."

"Don't believe in Him too much."

Guan Jinyue's two sentences lingered in his mind.

The first sentence was intelligence, the second was a warning, but why did she tell him these things?

As for Baal, from the moment the contract was established, Chen Guan never fully trusted this demon god.

The basis of cooperation is mutual value. Once his value is exhausted, or Baal finds a more interesting toy, this contract may become a death sentence at any time.

Looking at the empty room, he suppressed his distracting thoughts and focused his attention back on the piece of iron in his hand.

The cold touch felt like holding a piece of stubborn iron just taken out of an ice cellar.

[Mythology Series - Echoes (Storm), Record or Not]

"Record it." He confirmed in his heart.

The moment Chen Guan confirmed the record, an overwhelming torrent of will, carrying images that seemed to have existed since the beginning of the world, forcefully crashed into his spiritual world.

boom!

It felt as if millions of tons of explosives were detonated simultaneously in his mind. Chen Guan's vision went black, and he couldn't even utter a muffled groan before his consciousness was violently torn out of his body.

This time, he was no longer just watching videos; he was thrown directly into a chaotic and unfamiliar place.

There is no sky, no earth, only the wind that endlessly intertwines destruction and creation.

His soul seemed to become a small boat, tossed about in this ocean of concepts. The wind was an invisible giant hand, kneading the primordial dust and shaping the prototype of the nebula, and also the sharpest razor, cruelly shattering all formed structures.

Next came thunder.

That wasn't lightning; it was a deafening roar that shattered stillness, a blazing declaration that barriers had been forcibly breached. Thunder, carried by the gale, exploded, each burst like the first heartbeat of the universe at its birth. The lightning pierced his consciousness, bringing indescribable agony.

Wind and thunder are not two separate things, but two sides of the same great force. The ceaseless wind is "eternal change," the process itself; while thunder is the most intense and decisive result in this process.

Together they constitute the essence of a storm: endless movement, and the inevitable, all-tearing outburst that arises from that movement.

If the raging flames are the domineering fire that burns everything, then this storm is the primordial power that drives all things to change and gives birth to infinite possibilities in destruction.

Its status and complexity far exceed the current carrying capacity of the coffin!

Just as he was about to be completely assimilated by this great power, the mark in his spiritual world that represented the pact with Baal suddenly lit up intensely.

Immediately, Chen Guan's mental energy constructed a dam to contain this violent experience. The whole process took only a moment, and the scene before him returned to the appearance of the dormitory.

The system panel pops up automatically.

[Record Successfully Recorded]

[Echoes already collected: Rage, Storm (Remaining collection attempts: 1, more collection attempts can be unlocked through popularity points)]

[Echo (Storm): Consumes mental energy to recreate the echo of a storm, unleashing an indiscriminate cutting attack on a designated area. Note: This skill also places a burden on the user; use with caution.]