The velvet box in my pocket felt like a lead weight, yet I carried it as if it were the most precious artifact in the world. It was our third anniversary. Three years of marriage to Lin Xiaoran—the woman who had saved me from the gutter, the woman I had spent every waking moment trying to be "enough" for.I pushed open the heavy oak doors of our cliffside villa. The air inside was thick with the scent of expensive lilies and something else—a sharp, musky cologne that definitely didn't belong to me.I headed for the master bedroom, my heart thumping against my ribs. I wanted to surprise her. I had spent the last of my meager savings on a diamond that looked like a drop of frozen starlight. I was the "trash" husband, the man the city laughed at for being a stay-at-home lackey while his wife ran a business empire. But tonight, I thought, we would celebrate our bond.I reached the door. It was slightly ajar."The ocean is deep, Qin Ming," a voice drifted through the crack. It was Xiaoran.

The ballroom of the Grand Hanhai Hotel was a vacuum of silence. Every eye in the room was fixed on me, but I only had eyes for the two people on the raised platform who had left me for dead. Lin Xinyi—the woman I once called wife—clutched her silk robe as if it could protect her from the ghost standing in front of her."Ming?" she whispered again, her voice cracking like dry parchment. "How are you... how are you standing here?"I took a step forward. The expensive Italian shoes I’d just materialized through the System didn't make a sound on the plush carpet. "The Atlantic was a bit chilly, Xinyi. But the thought of our anniversary dinner kept me warm. You didn't think a few bullets and a three-hundred-foot drop would keep me from the party, did you?"Chu Haoran finally found his voice. He slammed his champagne glass onto the table, the crystal shattering. "I don't know what kind of trick this is, or what high-level illusionist you hired to wear your face, but you’ve got a lot of nerv

The ballroom air didn't just turn cold; it crystallized. The frantic wailing of Lin Xinyi and the ragged breathing of a broken Chu Haoran were cut short by a presence so sharp it felt like a blade against the throat.The crowd parted with a frantic, desperate energy."Step aside! It’s her!""The Ice Queen of the North... Su Qinghe is here."She walked in with the gait of a monarch. Su Qinghe, the CEO of the Su Group and the shadow ruler of this city’s economy, didn't look at the shattered marble or the bleeding man on the floor. Her eyes, blue as a frozen lake, were locked onto mine. Behind her, a phalanx of Rank-3 bodyguards moved in perfect synchronization, their hands hovering over their weapons."The Grand Hanhai is a neutral zone, Qin Ming," Su Qinghe said, her voice like cracking ice. "Whatever petty marital spat you have with the Lin family ends now. You are disturbing the peace of the elite."I stayed leaning against the pillar, the golden glow of my eyes dimming but not disap

The cold weight of the night hadn't even settled before the world I had known for three years began to disintegrate for the Chu family.Chu Haoran woke up on the floor of the Grand Hanhai ballroom, his face a purple ruin, his breath hitching in a throat that felt like it was filled with glass. The first thing he reached for wasn't a bandage; it was his phone."Xinyi..." he wheezed, looking at her as she sat shivering on a nearby chair, her designer dress torn. "Call the private doctor. Now."Xinyi’s hands were shaking so hard she dropped her gold-plated iPhone three times. "I—I tried, Haoran. I tried calling the clinic. They said... they said our membership was terminated five minutes ago for non-payment.""Non-payment? I have a pre-paid retainer of five million!" Haoran roared, then winced as his shattered jaw protested. "Use the Black Card. Just get them here!"Xinyi swiped her screen, her eyes widening. "Haoran... I just got a notification. The card is declined. All of them. The pl

The penthouse air still tasted of iron and pulverized masonry. Iron Fist Lu lay in a heap of broken pride, his mangled hand leaking a mixture of blood and spent spirit energy onto my floor. He looked up at me, his eyes wide with the realization that he had tried to assassinate a natural disaster."I told you everything I know," Lu wheezed, his voice bubbling with a punctured lung. "Warehouse 47... your sister... just let me crawl out of here.""I’m not done with you, Lu," I said, my voice vibrating with the 'God-Body' resonance. I grabbed a chair from the wreckage and sat directly in front of him. "The sister thing was a lie to lure me out. Tell me the real reason the Lin family kept me alive for three years. Why the monthly 'donations'? Why didn't they just kill me the moment they got the first drop?"Lu coughed, spitting a glob of dark red onto the marble. "You don't get it, do you? You weren't a husband, Qin Ming. You were a cultivation furnace. They weren't just using your blood f