*****The Revercrest patriarch's heart skipped violently inside his chest. ‘My son?’His thoughts immediately descended into chaos, confusion filling him for a brief moment.Then suddenly…‘Since it certainly wasn't Borgia nor his third brother,’ he thought blankly to himself, his heart heavy. ‘Then there was only one possibility.’His eyes widened in the next second.Silas.As soon as this realization dawned on him, an incredibly complicated expression surfaced on his face.Shock, confusion, guilt, disbelief, then finally… Pure relief.'I survived because of the son I had always neglected and never truly valued?' he thought bitterly to himself.The irony was so absurd it was almost laughable.If someone had told him this earlier, he might have ordered their execution on the spot for telling such a bad joke, yet now…'I will make things right with him,' he decided instantly. 'I will compensate him.''And I will…'But just as the thought formed completely in his mind, Xavier's forefing

*****Unlike their father, the two brothers didn’t faint even after they realized they had lost their cultivation and their four limbs.If anything, they directly lost their minds once they processed what had happened.“You… you…” Borgia trembled violently from head to toe, every vein on his neck bulging as his face twisted into something ugly and ferocious. “You'd better return my limbs and cultivation!”He roared so loudly his voice nearly cracked apart, thick veins bulging along his neck.“Bastard Bastard! What did you do to me?” The third brother screamed beside him, his expression equally distorted, his eyes bloodshot and wild like a cornered beast that had suddenly realized its fangs had been ripped out.The two glared at Xavier with eyes overflowing with hatred, resentment, and disbelief, looking as though they wanted nothing more than to tear him into countless chunks.After all, what Xavier had taken from them wasn't merely strength.It was their status, power, and authority.

*****Xavier simply walked past the groups of mercenaries and private soldiers as though they were nothing more than part of the background and continued forward step after step.Eventually, he reached the completely crazed and unhinged brothers, and instantly… every trace of madness inside them evaporated.Fear reclaimed complete control, their expressions changing so quickly it was almost artistic.One moment, the two brothers looked like lunatics who needed to be locked away, but the next, they looked like men who had suddenly realized the Grim Reaper was coming back to claim their souls once and for all.Cold sweat streamed down their faces in batches, their breathing became ragged, and their eyes trembled violently.Still, Xavier showed no intention of stopping.He continued walking.One step, two steps, three, then suddenly…He stopped.The simple action nearly scared the living daylights out of everyone still conscious. Instantly, their hearts skipped beats simultaneously, and

*****Every mercenary and private soldier still conscious… and still fortunate enough to possess a functional mind began to sob in relief.Some dropped to their knees, some clutched their chests like men who had just survived ten consecutive heart attacks, and others lifted their faces to the sky and cried so loudly one would think they had been reborn on the spot.Pride? Dignity? Reputation?Those things had all been strangled to death the moment Xavier casually walked past them like they weren’t worth the effort of crippling.And honestly, after wetting themselves, shaking like leaves in a hurricane, and nearly dying of fear from a man who didn’t even bother glaring at them, none of them really had an image left to protect.“I swear on my ancestors, I’m resigning first thing tomorrow morning!”“Tomorrow? I’m resigning once I leave here!”“Leave here? I had sworn to God that if I ever survive today’s ordeal, I am going back to my village immediately to become a farmer!”The chaotic s

*****By the time the driver finally reached his home, the taxi looked as though it had survived an armed robbery, a natural disaster, and a deeply personal grudge from the road itself.But the driver didn’t care.He flung the door open and rushed out of the car like a man whose backside had just been set on fire, sprinted toward his tiny one-bedroom apartment, and burst inside so violently that he nearly tore the curtain off the doorway.His wife, who had been outside doing laundry, was so startled she almost dropped the basin in her hands.“Husband?” she cried out, jolting upright in alarm.But the man didn’t answer.He tore past her, barged into the bedroom, launched himself onto the bed, grabbed the duvet, and covered himself from head to toe like a terrified child hiding from thunder. Beneath the blanket, his entire body shook so violently that the bed frame rattled in sympathy.The wife stood there for a second, completely flabbergasted.Then concern exploded across her face, an