Ethan had chatted with Clara for a while, showered, and just settled into bed when Charlotte's call came through."Still not done? If you can't finish today, save it for tomorrow. No need to run yourself into the ground.""Just finished, actually. I'm exhausted." She rolled her neck, wincing. "So sore. Wish you could give me a massage right now."As she said it, her gaze drifted toward the window and stopped. A rope hung down from the roof outside, and a dark figure was rappelling along it."Oh no, there's someone dangerous"Before she could finish, the figure kicked the window open and dropped through with fluid, practiced precision. Clearly professional."Ethan, help"She only got half the sentence out before the intruder's hand chopped across her neck. She went down instantly, unconscious."Charlotte? What's wrong? Charlotte, are you there?"Ethan shot up from the bed, calling out repeatedly. Nothing. Dead air on the other end.He understood immediately, something had happened to h

The night was deep, and though headlights lit the scene brightly, the light carried a slightly artificial quality. Combined with Cobra's hood, Derek had no idea one of his own men had been swapped for someone else entirely.He extended his right hand, keeping the other tucked behind his back, striking a pose lifted straight out of classic action films."Kid, I'll let you use one hand against me. Meet whatever condition you want, and I'll agree to it."His confidence stemmed from a simple assumption, no matter how convincing the performance, these were still his own subordinates. Anyone with basic sense wouldn't actually humiliate their own captain.Behind him, Samantha was genuinely baffled."What exactly is he doing? At a moment like this, striking poses? Is this some kind of joke?"Nathan, defensive, said, "You don't understand. Our captain's confidence comes from genuine skill. He's actually capable."Ethan's brow furrowed slightly. He understood the impulse driving Derek, the enti

Nathan stood there, dumbfounded.He'd been waiting for an opportunity to hold Wang Jianfeng accountable for this entire mess. Instead, he'd just watched that same man handle the ruthless mercenaries with the ease of slicing vegetables.He'd genuinely looked down on Ethan Vale earlier. Now, watching what had just happened, he understood he wasn't even fit to carry the man's shoes.Wang Jianfeng's expression carried real astonishment. Once he'd gathered himself, he waved his hand, and his officers moved in, cuffing every surviving mercenary, gathering the dead.Ethan tore the ropes off Charlotte and asked, genuine concern in his voice, "How are you? Are you all right?"Charlotte threw herself directly into his arms."I'm fine, Ethan. You scared me half to death, thank god you got here in time."He patted her back gently. "It's over now. You're safe."Marcus walked over, dragging Cobra's unconscious body. "Ethan, what do we do with this one?"Samantha stepped forward. "Leave him to me. I

Sima Wei was not just hot-tempered but genuinely brutal in her attacks. Her opening move went straight for Black Mamba's face.Ethan clocked her as a Profound Rank practitioner, but something about her cultivation felt unstable, like she'd broken through recently and hadn't fully settled into it yet.The punch carried genuine force behind it, but Black Mamba's body twisted with unnatural fluidity, like a snake, sliding out of the strike's path entirely.His arms shot out immediately after, coiling around her neck with a similar serpentine motion.Sima Wei adjusted instantly, converting her hands into claw grips, catching both his wrists and twisting them back, pinning his arms behind him with a smooth grappling technique.An ordinary opponent would have lost all mobility from that position. Black Mamba's reaction was anything but ordinary.His head rotated, a full hundred and eighty degrees, defying every principle of ordinary anatomy, until he was facing her directly. Then his mouth

Ethan's expression shifted, and the actual problem became clear immediately.Sima Wei and Marcus had both suffered from excess Yang Qi, but their situations weren't remotely comparable.Marcus, being male, naturally produced Yang Qi at baseline, and Sable San had spent enormous resources pushing his levels further still, nearly to the peak threshold of full body cultivation. Sima Wei's excess, by comparison, was a fraction of that magnitude, nowhere near enough to fully absorb even a single Profound Yin Pill's worth of energy. Which was precisely why the balance had swung entirely the other direction, into overwhelming Yin.A modest excess of Yin would have been manageable, Sima Wei was a woman, and slightly cooler energy wasn't inherently dangerous for her.But the pill hadn't even released half its potency yet. Left unchecked, she'd freeze into a solid block of ice within minutes.The immediate priority was clear, boost her Yang Qi fast enough to offset the flood of Yin still pourin