Inside Grace Ainsworth's Rolls-Royce Phantom...The interior of the luxury vehicle was usually a place of silence, but tonight it was filled with the venomous voice of Grace Ainsworth.She held her phone tightly against her ear, her knuckles white with rage.“It was a disaster!” she hissed, her voice dripping with rage. “A complete and utter catastrophe! Do you understand the definition of public execution? Because what I saw today was a circus!”On the other end of the line, the voice was raspy and defensive. It was the underground middleman she had met on the rooftop days ago.“Madam Ainsworth, please, lower your voice,” the man stammered. “Something… unexplainable happened today. I will get to the root of it. You must understand, the Shadow of Death has never missed a shot in his entire career. Not once!”“I don’t care about his résumé!” Grace snapped.“But, Madam!” the man persisted, trying to save his own skin. “He assassinated General Krig inside a moving tank from two miles awa

It took a few agonizing seconds for Grace Ainsworth and Commissioner Doyle to fully recover their composure after the sudden, violent display of power that had just unfolded before their eyes. They glanced briefly at Iron Skull, who was groaning as he forced himself back to his feet, clutching his heaving chest, before their gazes snapped back to the tall, imposing figure clad in matte-black tactical gear standing motionless in front of them. It was glaringly obvious to everyone present that this was no ordinary person. Swatting away a legendary underground prizefighter like Iron Skull with the casual ease of a man dusting off his coat, and simultaneously disabling five hardened mercenary guards in the literal blink of an eye wasn't simple. Iron Skull, however, had his pride. The humiliation of being tossed aside like a ragdoll ignited a furnace of rage. He gritted his teeth so hard they almost shatter; the metallic taste of his own blood filled his mouth from the internal impact,

At that very moment, the heavy gates of the Ainsworth Mansion opened, admitting a convoy of two black, armored SUVs. Leading them on foot was the elderly butler. The vehicles came to a synchronized halt near the entrance where Grace was standing, their engines cutting out. The butler approached Grace and bowed deeply, his breath steady and heartless as he delivered the news she had been waiting for. “We found him, Madam. He was getting himself drunk somewhere in the North District.”Grace didn’t even blink. She waved him off dismissively with a simple. “Inform Mother…”The doors of the SUVs were thrown open simultaneously, and several burly men, their faces obscured by tactical masks, swarmed out like angry wasps. They moved to the rear of the second vehicle, hauled open the door, and roughly dragged an elderly figure out from the plush leather interior. With no regard for his age or status, they threw him across the abrasive gravel of the driveway.“How dare you disrespect me?!

Elijah Langston didn’t take his eyes off the letter in his hand, but he wasn’t looking at the content anymore; his mind was already miles away, fitting pieces of this puzzle into place. It turned out his initial deduction had hit the bull’s-eye: the Man in the Hood really had something to do with the Six-Fold Binding Formation placed at Lilian Montclair’s residence. Not only had Elijah destroyed the buried talisman formation and the curse Lilian had unintentionally triggered by stepping on the sun talisman, but he had also violently kicked the Guardian Spirit back to the hellish dimension it belonged to. Such an underworld entity that existed beyond the mortal plane of this world, didn’t just pop up in Brooklyn Heights by accident. It appeared only when summoned, bound by a blood pact that required a level of forbidden knowledge that had been lost for centuries.A pact of that magnitude was not something simple to form, even for those steeped in the forbidden arts of the old tradit

“Wifey, don’t you miss me…?”Elijah’s expression brightened instantly, his weariness vanishing into playful affection. He opened his arms wide, standing in front of the door like a man expecting at least a warm hug from his beloved wife to wash away the stress of the day.“Don’t even bother me with your nonsense tonight. Hurry out of my sight…”Serena didn’t even look up. She adjusted the pair of thin-rimmed reading glasses perched on her nose with a sharp, dismissive movement and returned her focus to the stack of documents spread across the dining table. She held a pen in her hand, aggressively underlining clauses in the contract; the scratching sound echoed in the quiet room.‘Wifey, I’ve really had the most hectic day since we got married… shouldn’t you welcome me with a hug?’ Elijah thought, scratching the back of his head cluelessly. He let out a silent sigh. It seemed his fiesty CEO wife wasn’t in the mood for teasing tonight.Seeing that his charm was bouncing off her like p