I recognized the subtle knock the moment it tapped against the secure door of the private suite. Luo Bing had arranged the location with her usual precision, choosing a neutral suite across the city where no eyes or ears could intrude. It was already past midnight, the kind of hour when only desperation or danger makes someone brave enough to request a meeting. Lin Yue had done both. She had called me ten minutes after my icy confirmation over the phone, and her voice alone told me she was unraveling. She moved now not out of ambition, but pure terrified survival.“Let her in,” I said calmly to the Qin guard stationed outside.The guard opened the door and Lin Yue stepped into the dimly lit suite. The moment she crossed the threshold, I saw immediately that this wasn’t the polished fiancée from the ballroom disaster. Her tailored suit looked slightly wrinkled, her makeup was fading around the edges, and her usual sharp confidence had collapsed into a frantic, hollow-eyed panic. She cl

The Qin guard stationed outside the apartment door was a silent shadow, immovable, unblinking. Luo Bing had placed him there after I tracked Madame Lin down, and I didn’t even glance at him. My eyes were on the fragile figure in the armchair, the air in the room thick with fear, stale tea, and the faint metallic tang of worry.She looked up as I entered, flinching violently, teacup rattling against its saucer. “Kai,” she whispered, a wheezing sound like it came from deep within her chest. She tried to rise, shaking, but her effort faltered. “You… you shouldn’t be here. They’ll know. They’ll know you’re here.”I closed the door behind me, the click loud in the quiet room, and stood, a statue of implacable judgment. “The time for hiding is over, Madame Lin,” I said, my voice low, calm, but absolute. “Zheng Fei is arrested. Jade Health is collateral on a defaulted 2.8 billion Yuan illicit debt. Li Cong’s power play has been destroyed on the international stage. Every single disaster that

I stood over the shattered remains of the composite door, the small, dark ampoule containing the Volatile Neurotoxin B-11 clutched carefully in a forensic containment sleeve. The silence in the annex was absolute, broken only by the low hum of the System running its deep analysis. Luo Bing returned from the control room, pale but resolute, having confirmed the Master’s complete disappearance and the status of the Li Family’s financial fallout.“The Li Family is denying all knowledge of the Master, Mr. Jiang, and their security forces are publicly blaming the damage on a faulty industrial HVAC unit explosion,” Luo Bing reported, his voice tight with controlled disbelief. “They are executing a masterful cover-up, leveraging their political ties to silence the media about the Crimson Ascent crash. However, the internal damage is catastrophic. Li Cong is effectively neutralized financially, but he is protected by an invisible hand.”I didn’t look up from the ampoule. “The Li Family doesn’

The Master, Tier 1 Apex, stood frozen within the invisible radius of the Reverse Energy Field. His presence, which moments ago had threatened to obliterate me in an instant, now faltered. The power that had radiated like a tidal wave from his body—the internal energy he wielded with lethal precision—had been turned back against him. I watched his eyes widen, the anger in them flaring like wildfire, mixing with something sharper: disbelief. How could this happen? How could a single human, a so-called “janitor,” outmaneuver a Master of his caliber?“The Shadow Apothecary,” he hissed, his voice trembling with barely contained fury. His stance shifted subtly, the fluid rhythm of offense turning stiff, defensive. “You are not merely an heir; you possess the core techniques. You are the source of the leak, boy. You are the reason Li Cong’s debt was exposed, the reason we lost the formulas! I will carve the truth out of your flesh!”I pushed myself away from the cold, concrete pillar I had u

The adrenaline pumping through my veins burned hotter than the sharp, twisting agony deep within my injured core. My body felt like a malfunctioning engine—sparking, overheating, threatening shutdown—but none of that mattered. My need for answers was stronger than the pain. Zhao Min. That greedy, scheming corporate worm. He wasn’t just another corrupted executive; he was the linchpin. The damn key. The one who knew the mole’s identity. The one who could expose the true puppeteers hiding behind the Li Family. Everything pointed to him. And I had exactly thirty minutes before he vanished into the shadows for good.His encrypted rendezvous message was clear: a warehouse district near the old harbor—a place notorious for silent asset transfers, secret exits, and disappearances that were never reported. That was where he planned to sell out everything. That was where I would take back what belonged to me.“Luo Bing, you have the coordinates,” I said through clenched teeth as I threw myself