Grandmaster. Raka was not a martial artist himself, but he was far from ordinary — and he had heard enough about the upper limits of the martial arts world to understand what he was looking at. You didn't need to have eaten pork to know what a pig looked like. A Grandmaster was the only kind of practitioner capable of projecting internal energy outside the body — wielding it as a weapon or a shield, extending it beyond the physical limits of flesh and bone. What had just stopped those bullets was not an accident or a trick. It was precisely that. And the man sitting on his sofa — the man Raka had barely registered as significant, the man whose name had only come up recently through news he hadn't paid much attention to — was one. The timing of it made his thoughts lock up entirely. He had come to Surabaya specifically to secure a Grandmaster's protection for the Wijaya family. He had come to find one. And the first Grandmaster he had ever seen with his own eyes turned out to be Ar

"AAHH!!!" Early in the morning, Thalya jolted awake on an unfamiliar sofa and screamed at the ceiling. "Where am I?" She looked around the room with wide, bewildered eyes, turning slowly until something clicked in her memory — and then she immediately looked down at herself. "This—" Still fully clothed. Nothing missing. Nothing wrong. Which only made her more confused. "What actually happened? I went to find Raka Wijaya's help, and then I blacked out, and then that man was just — sitting there. And there was also that feeling—" Thalya stopped abruptly, a faint color rising in her cheeks. It lasted only a second before she exhaled with relief, confirming that she was still wearing exactly what she had been wearing the night before. "This place... Is this where that insufferable man is staying?" She scanned the hotel suite again — and stopped. A small girl in a fluffy bear costume was standing a short distance away, hugging an orange cat, looking at her with an expression of

Thalya's face instantly turned pale, fear and panic beginning to take hold of her heart. Every word and sentence Arya spoke felt like a bolt of lightning scrambling her thoughts. And this Grandmaster's anger seemed to be something she simply couldn't withstand at all, leaving her frightened and breaking into a cold sweat. Recalling all the help and assistance Arya had given her over time, Thalya finally realized that she had gone too far in how she'd handled this whole matter. Not only had she never once thanked him, but she had also constantly been trying to squeeze benefits out of him. Perhaps because in all the time they'd known each other, Thalya had never once seen Arya truly angry with her, she'd come to think this man was probably the type who cared more about beauty than anything else. But it seemed she'd been wrong—terribly wrong. This man clearly didn't care at all whether you were beautiful or handsome—if you made him angry, you would always face the consequences. Just

"Don't play dumb! Don't you realize that you showing up now is making Clara sad?" Diana said again angrily, seeing Arya's innocent expression. "Me? What exactly did I do?" Instead of understanding, Arya only grew more confused by the anger Diana was showing. What did she mean, him showing up here was making Clara sad? Arya couldn't help but glance toward Clara, who now looked gloomy, her head bowed, whether out of sadness or embarrassment, a few creases forming on her forehead. "Damn it!" Seeing that Arya still didn't understand what he'd done wrong, Diana started shouting even louder, "Do you seriously not know that Clara still has feelings for you, and was hoping to be with you?! But what did you do? You rejected her from the very start, and then vanished without a word for five years! Never once giving an explanation or any word at all, and then suddenly showing up out of nowhere flaunting another woman! A

Gavin, walking a little ways behind the women, also glanced at Thalya and Clara for a while before unconsciously teasing Arya beside him. "Clara Anastasia... I never expected that girl would still be the same as before. Judging by the way she looks at you, could this be what I'm thinking? An old flame finally blooming again?" "An old flame blooming again?" Arya fell silent, glancing at him with disgust before replying, "Do you want me to help you sew your mouth shut." "Haha..." Gavin let out a dry laugh, continuing in a playful tone, "Come on, don't act all high and mighty. You know... before the yellow mushroom curls, anything can happen. Considering that little girl's mother still hasn't been found, who knows what might happen in the future? Don't you want to give your daughter a mother?" "Ara already has a mother." It wasn't Arya who answered, but the little girl herself, who suddenly spoke up, glaring at