The next morning, the winter sun shone faintly through the curtains of Darius’s room, casting a gentle warmth through the cold weather and cloudy skies.

Across Dragon City, people gradually stepped out of their homes and headed toward their daily work, while cultivators rushed toward the wilderness in search of demons, resources, and opportunities to grow stronger.

In such a world, no one dared remain lazy for long.

Tomorrow was never guaranteed.

On the second floor of the pavilion, Darius’s bed remained perfectly neat, illuminated slightly by the morning sunlight. However, the owner of the room was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, faint groans and exhausted breathing echoed nearby.

"Aghh... System, I can already do a hundred pushups without tiring, hehe..." Darius wiped the sweat from his forehead while lying flat on the floor, staring toward the ceiling with a satisfied grin.

His arms felt sore, yet strangely enough, he barely felt exhausted.

"System, you there?" he called out once more.

Before long, the familiar cold robotic voice sounded in his mind.

"Go open the pavilion. There is a lot of work to do today."

Darius chuckled hearing the reply.

For some reason, he had the vague feeling that the system was still slightly irritated from earlier.

***

A few hours before dawn...

"Ding! Host needs to wake up early. In the future, your cultivation, improvement, and many pavilion-related matters must be handled before dawn or during the night. Host shouldn’t become lazy simply because he obtained the system."

"Shut up. I’ve been awake for thirty minutes already." Darius slowly opened his eyes, a different light flickering within them. "I even thanked God countless times for this life and power."

He truly felt content with his new life.

Darius had never been someone who enjoyed slacking off.

Even the calm and mysterious demeanor he displayed inside the pavilion was mostly intentional. He was simply creating the image of an unfathomable Pavilion Master who remained calm regardless of the situation.

"..."

For once, the system fell silent.

Clearly, it hadn’t expected Darius to already be awake.

"Looks like you don’t know everything after all," Darius teased with a grin. "I honestly thought you were all-knowing when it came to my body and thoughts."

Tsk!

"Huh?" Darius blinked before bursting into laughter. "Was that you clicking your tongue?"

He stretched lazily before continuing with amusement, "Relax. Me and you share the same goal anyway. Besides, if you knew absolutely everything, I’d probably start worrying you might possess my body one day."

"Hahahaha!"

Darius laughed freely while staring at the darkness outside the window as dawn gradually approached.

For the first time in years...

He genuinely enjoyed waking up early.

***

After changing into a cleaner set of clothes, Darius glanced toward the ugly owl-shaped clock hanging on the wall before shaking his head helplessly.

The system truly had terrible taste.

In the past few days, it had only provided him with the bare minimum necessities. Bitter coffee, average clothes, and furniture that looked straight out of a horror movie.

Since he finally had some spare gold coins now, Darius decided to properly treat himself to breakfast before opening the pavilion.

Truthfully speaking, he was also curious whether the Immortal Pavilion would eventually sell food related to cultivation.

At that thought, the system’s proud voice immediately sounded.

"Host is ignorant, with all due respect. The Immortal Pavilion will eventually provide and rent nearly every service imaginable. Food is merely one of countless future features."

Darius sighed helplessly.

The system truly never missed an opportunity to sound arrogant.

Still, a smile appeared on his face afterward.

"No wonder you told me to find a guardian..." Darius muttered while walking downstairs. "At this rate, I’ll eventually need workers too if the pavilion keeps expanding."

Thinking this far, he quickly left toward the nearby restaurant he had visited previously.

The moment he entered, the waitress who had misunderstood him last time immediately became extremely attentive.

This time, she practically treated him like a noble.

Not only did she politely guide him to a clean table, but she even asked whether he had allergies or preferred additional flavors in his food.

Darius was briefly stunned by the sudden hospitality, though he quickly adapted.

Soon, he ordered a plate of chicken pasta, one of his favorite meals from Earth.

Since Sanctuary shared many similarities with Earth, the dish itself wasn’t much different.

However...

The taste of the meat was noticeably richer thanks to the spiritual energy present within this world.

"This chicken alone tastes twice as good as the one back on Earth..." Darius muttered while eating happily.

For several minutes, he enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere and warm food before eventually paying and leaving the restaurant. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Not long afterward, the Immortal Pavilion gradually entered his sight.

However, the moment Darius saw the scene outside...

His footsteps instantly froze.

"...What the hell?"

A crowd had already gathered outside the pavilion entrance early in the morning.

Calling it a crowd might have been a slight exaggeration, but there were indeed far more people than Darius had expected to personally visit this early. Some looked curious while others appeared excited and impatient to enter.

Naturally, among them were Any, Shen, and Moon, whose expressions didn’t look too pleasant at the moment.

More specifically, the three of them were staring rather coldly toward the two cloaked figures standing near the front entrance, especially the masked man positioned directly before the pavilion door as though he intended to enter first no matter what.

The once-empty street had suddenly become unexpectedly lively.

Darius stared blankly at the scene for several moments before rubbing his eyes.

’I expected a few people to visit after yesterday...’ he thought with disbelief.

’But not this many.’