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

Chen Guan picked up the leave slip and turned to leave.

Behind him, Chen Beixuan watched his disappearing figure with a complex expression.

He dialed a number.

"Hey, it's me... Yes, that kid just took leave... I know, you guys be careful."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Beixuan grabbed his already thinning hair in frustration and sank his entire body into the back of the chair.

"A bunch of troublesome brats."

"I didn't mean to say that the old folks are easy to take care of."

……

Outside the school gate, Chen Guan flagged down a taxi that was still operating at this time.

"Master, to the quarry in the western suburbs."

The driver glanced at him a couple more times in the rearview mirror, but still started the car.

"Why go to that godforsaken place so late at night?"

The driver muttered something, not expecting a reply.

The students at Tsinghua University are perfectly normal, everything is normal.

Chen Guan was also helpless; it was all because the evil Hakimi always liked to find such remote and dilapidated places, especially late at night.

The city lights outside the car window rushed past, from bustling commercial districts to quiet residential areas.

Finally, the outline of the tall buildings completely disappeared from the rearview mirror, leaving only endless darkness and the occasional flash of streetlights.

The car stopped in front of a dirt road overgrown with weeds.

That's all for now.

Chen Guan paid the fare, pushed open the door, and got out of the car.

He followed the navigation, stepping on the uneven gravel under his feet, and walked deeper into the quarry.

The moonlight was obscured by thick clouds, resulting in extremely low visibility.

After walking for about ten minutes, the outline of a huge circular depression came into view.

In the very center of the quarry stood a figure.

White Tiger.

Beneath his feet, a complex magic circle with a diameter of over three meters was emitting a faint, dark red glow.

Chen Guan walked to the opposite side of him.

"The entrance is right beneath your feet."

The white tiger said, "Once you go inside, the magic circle will immediately close, and the entrance will disappear as well."

He paused, his gaze fixed on the coffin.

"Forty-eight hours later, I will reactivate the magic array at the same time and in the same location."

"Remember, regardless of whether you are there or not, the entrance will only appear once, and the duration will not exceed ten seconds."

Chen Guan nodded, indicating that he understood.

His gaze swept past the white tiger and landed on the row of flattened cliffs at the edge of the quarry.

In the darkness, a slender figure leans against the rock wall, blending into the night.

Only her signature long silver hair gleamed with a cold light under the dark red glow of the magic circle.

Guan Jinyue.

Chen Guan had already told her the location, and she arrived early to keep the appointment.

At this moment, she stood with her arms crossed over her chest, as still as a statue, her pure black eyes fixed on this side.

Noticing Chen Guan's gaze, she straightened up and stepped out of the darkness.

"Let's go."

Just as Chen Guan was about to step forward to follow, Er Kang stopped him again.

"etc."

The white tiger's voice came from behind, and Chen Guan turned around upon hearing it.

Baihu walked up to him in a few steps, rummaged in his trench coat pocket, pulled out something, and stuffed it into Chen Guan's hand.

"Take it."

Chen Guan looked down.

It was a black stone about the size of a thumb, warm to the touch, with a surface covered in spiderweb-like cracks, as if it would shatter at any moment.

"It's for emergencies," the white tiger instructed. "Only crush it when absolutely necessary. It can tear open a spatial rift and forcibly send you back to the human world."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Remember, this thing can only be used once, and the landing point is completely random. It might drop you in the desert, or it might fall directly into the Pacific Ocean. The landing point depends entirely on your luck."

Chen Guan clenched the stone in his hand, the warmth flowing through his palm dispelling some of the chill of the late night.

He nodded.

"Keep it up!"

The white tiger reached out and patted his shoulder hard, with a strong force in its palm.

"It's okay if we don't succeed, just don't die in there." He grinned, revealing a not-so-pleasant smile: "At worst, I'll go myself next time."

Chen Guan didn't speak, carefully put the stone away, and then turned to walk towards the dark red light.

In the center of the magic array, Guan Jinyue was already standing at the heart of the array.

The moment Chen Guan stepped into the magic array, the pebbles beneath his feet seemed to come alive.

hum.

A burning sensation shot up from the soles of his feet, up his ankles and calves, all the way up, as if he had been branded with a hot iron.

At the same time, the complex magic array runes beneath his feet burst forth with blood-red light, turning the entire depression in the quarry into an eerie red.

Then came the feeling of weightlessness.

The ground beneath his feet vanished into thin air, and an invisible hand was grabbing his ankle, trying to drag him into an endless abyss.

The world before Chen Guan's eyes began to distort.

The white tiger's silhouette, the distant broken wall, the night sky overhead—everything was like an ink painting thrown into water, rapidly deforming, and finally completely merging into a ball, shrinking into an invisible point.

My eardrums were filled with a buzzing sound, like thousands of steel needles scraping my nerves, and all other sounds were swallowed up.

Then, a nauseating odor filled his nostrils.

It smelled of rust, mixed with a sweet, fishy odor from something that had been rotting for a long time.

Chen Guan felt as if his body was being disintegrated, every inch of skin, every muscle, every cell was being torn apart by a force, and then reassembled in a chaotic way.

The leopard in his pocket let out a soft, mournful cry, its body curled into a tight, furry little ball, clinging tightly to the fabric of his chest, too afraid to move.

Surprisingly, Baal remained silent in his mind.

Chen Guan gritted his teeth, letting the force drag him down into the endless darkness.

I don't know how much time has passed; it might be a moment, or it might be centuries.

The pulling force that seemed to be tearing him apart suddenly disappeared.

The piercing buzzing stopped abruptly, and the world returned to normal in an instant.

Chen Guan's knees slammed heavily onto the hard ground, and as he braced his body with his palms, coarse black grit immediately filled the spaces between his fingers.

He looked up at the dark red sky. The sun and moon were not visible in the dome; only the huge, slowly creeping crack directly above emitted orange-red light, illuminating the desolate land.

The surrounding air was filled with the stench of rust and rotting, fermenting meat, and every breath caused a burning and stinging sensation in the throat and lungs.

The dark gray earth beneath their feet was barren, and in the distance, rows of twisted black rock pillars stood on the horizon, stretching towards the sky at an illogical angle, like a group of deformed giants forcibly fixed in place.

Chen Guan used his palms to support himself on the ground, trying to stand up. At the moment of exertion, he noticed something was wrong. The gray energy in his body was pouring out and flowing away at an abnormal speed.

This eerie space was like a dry, greedy sponge, relentlessly draining every drop of energy from his body.

It seems that even if he doesn't use entirely spiritual power, he will still be punished by the rules of this place.