Driving fast down a tarred mountain pass was a black Mercedes-Benz. Behind the steering wheel sat Old Mr. Carrington. Beside him in the passenger seat sat Elijah Langston, wearing the exact same emotionless expression he had worn the entire evening.The old man cleared his dry throat, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “Young Master, whatever happens tonight, I just want you to know that I appreciate what you are doing for my family today. We can never fully repay the part that we played after the extermination of your family.”Elijah raised his head slightly, his gaze shifting to the tree line blurring past the window. “Don’t you fear that things will really go wrong tonight and you’ll die? I’ve learned over the years that nothing really goes as planned.”“If you wanted to wipe out my Carrington family, you would have done it already. I think of myself as living on borrowed time. Whatever happens tonight is a result of the play my Carrington family set into motion fifteen years ago...

Meanwhile, deep within the walls of the Carrington Manor, every single member of the extended family was now gathered inside the Great Hall.Dozens of family members paced nervously across the rugs, while others sat on the sofas, their eyes darting constantly toward the door.Despite the terror of their situation, the anxious chattering and panicked whispers regarding the young man who had just emerged from their home remained relentlessly loud.“I do not know how Old Master trusts that guy. How does staying inside this room and not leaving help with anything?”“One of us will have to leave tonight just to prove him wrong. He cannot deceive me with this nonsense.”“If anything happens to us tonight, the blood is on his and Grandpa’s hands. We should just do whatever that man asks. We have survived for fifteen years without Elijah Langston.”“That is exactly right. We do not need the interference of an arrogant outsider to cause trouble for our Carrington family.” The middle-aged man m

Old Mr. Carrington remained perfectly still as he watched the display of dark arts. The unnatural liquid shadow that had drifted down from the Hex Master’s face now coiled around his forearm, sliding down to his wrist before viciously attacking the glowing red scale mark in the center of his palm.“I have always held the lives of your family in the palm of my hand, and for fifteen years, I have resisted the urge to simply crush them like eggs. But tonight, I will take twenty of them right now, just to remind you of the consequences of playing games with me.” The Man in the Hood clenched his shadowed fist. But then, the suffocating pressure in the area suddenly faltered.His grip slowly weakened. “No... No... that is impossible. It is not...”The liquid darkness escaped from his fist, completely rejecting the command as it trailed backward, snapping up his arm to merge back into the terrifying abyss of his face. Slowly, the Hex Master opened his palm to the moonlight.The red glow was

The terrified Carringtons scrambled backward, and pressed their bodies against the far wall of the Great Hall. There was absolutely nowhere left to run. The mercenaries had blocked the entrance, their drawn katanas looking like it was capable of slicing through solid bone without resistance.The Red Mask leader let out a harsh huff through his gear, taking a step forward. “It seems no one possesses the courage to embrace a painless death tonight. Since you desire an agonizing end, that request will be graciously granted. We will start by severing your hands, then we will take your legs, and we will butcher whatever sticks out until we finally decide to go for the head.”“Why are you doing this?! We did not offend you in any way!” Deb screamed, her voice cracking with fear as she threw her arms around her parents, burying her face in her father’s chest.“We take orders without question. We have been on standby in the shadows for long, and tonight we received the command to exterminate

Elijah Langston’s fist tightened until the tendons in his hand strained against his skin, yet he offered no verbal response. He simply stood perfectly still in the night, his cold gaze locked onto the unnatural abyss covering the face of the Man in the Hood.Here he was. After fifteen years, he was finally standing a few feet away from one of the architect of the Langston massacre. He had run through a thousand different thought of what this person would look like, but this was more disturbing.From where he stood, Elijah could easily tell that the swirling void was not an ordinary manipulation of shadows. It was actively drawing energy from a mystical source that felt fundamentally wrong to the natural order of the world.Even when Elijah focused his spiritual sight—eyes that could dissect the flow of qi and perceive the hidden truths of planes, his vision hit a wall. The darkness absorbed his spiritual probe completely, shielding the coward hiding behind the anomaly.“The longer you