Ten years ago.The Hollow estate.It had been past midnight.The family was asleep when the explosion tore through the front wing of the mansion. Windows shattered. Smoke filled the corridors. The sound of gunfire followed seconds later.Security guards didn’t stand a chance.They were slaughtered before they could return fire.Kade’s parents burst into his bedroom. His father grabbed his shoulder while his mother rushed to his little sister.“Kade. Sofia,” his mother whispered urgently. “No matter what happens, you stay in this room. Do you understand?”“Daddy and I will handle it,” his father added, forcing a calm smile that didn’t reach his eyes.Kade was shaking.He held his sister tightly as their parents stepped out and closed the door behind them.The gunshots grew louder. Voices echoed through the hallway, Sofia buried her face into Kade’s chest. He couldn’t breathe. He moved slowly toward the door. Just enough for him to see through the small opening, he watched his parents f

For ten years, Kade had finally seen the outside world. He stood beneath an open sky.For a long moment, he didn’t move. His eyes rested on the asphalt stretching beyond Tartarus’ massive gates.They took ten years from me. His jaw tightened slightly. They stole his childhood. His name. His future.A dark, simmering vengeance coiled through his veins like a living thing.And I will take everything back.“Shall we go ahead?” Jeffrey asked politely, careful with his tone.Kade gave a small nod.A black SUV waited outside the prison gates. Armed guards opened the door respectfully.Jeffrey instinctively moved toward the back seat—But paused.Kade had already taken the rear executive seat without hesitation.Jeffrey quietly followed, sitting beside him.The driver entered and the vehicle pulled away smoothly, leaving Tartarus behind.An hour later, the SUV stopped in front of South City’s most prestigious private hospital.Glass towers, private security. This was a hospital only the elit

Every eye in the room turned toward the physician.The head doctor of South City’s most prestigious hospital stood frozen.His mind was in chaos.Honey. Ginger. Pepper. Boiling water.What kind of medicine was that?He had spent thirty years studying abroad.He had chaired conferences. He had authored papers. And this young man…this former inmate had walked in and overturned everything. He looked around the room.Jeffrey Sky, Vanessa Sky, the nurses, the security guards. All watching and waiting.His reputation hung in the balance. How could he kneel? To an ex-convict? To a man with no degree?His pride rebelled violently.“Don’t get cocky, you scammer!” he snapped suddenly, his face flushing red. “She recovered because of my earlier treatments and antibiotics! Her body was already stabilizing!”He pointed accusingly at Kade.“It was coincidence! Timing! Not your ridiculous potion!”The room stiffened. Vanessa’s expression darkened. Jeffrey’s eyes turned cold.The doctor pressed on de

The moment Kade stepped fully into the chamber. He could feel the pressure. The air itself seemed heavier, as if the atmosphere had thickened around the long obsidian table.Twelve elders. Twelve sources of restrained power.Their auras were not unleashed, yet even in suppression, they radiated dominance.Kade’s senses sharpened instinctively.Each of them…At least Dragon Lord level.A rank beneath the Celestial Realm.In the world of martial arts, power was divided into distinct realms that separated men from monsters.Sentinel, Regent, Sovereign, Dragon Lord, Celestial Realm, Primordial and Apex Primordial Kade himself had only recently ascended into the Celestial Realm.And yet…These twelve men and women sitting before him were monsters in their own right.Their eyes assessed him. Disgust surfaced.“A young man?” one of them muttered under his breath.“Is this some kind of joke?”Murmurs spread around the table.Disappointment and skepticism. A heavyset man with streaks of silv

Zia dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it had formed.Celestial Realm.Impossible.She had spent fifteen years inside Azure, surrounded by some of the most gifted warriors in the City. She understood better than most what it took to reach the upper echelons of cultivation. Dragon Lord alone required decades of disciplined training, refined technique, and a natural affinity for Aether that perhaps one in ten thousand people even possessed.Celestial Realm was something else entirely.In all of Azure’s thirty year history, only one person had ever stood at that level.Master Zucker.And even he had taken a lifetime to get there.This young man was barely twenty-four. He had spent the last ten years inside a prison. No matter how gifted he was, no matter what Zucker had taught him inside those walls, the idea that he had reached Celestial Realm was simply…She shook her head slightly.Don’t be ridiculous.He was confident. Perhaps genuinely strong. But confidence without matching