Chapter 91: Five Million for JunkThe first thing on stage was a painting.It was brought out by two attendants wearing white gloves, carried with the kind of solemn care that immediately made several guests sit a little straighter. The frame was old, carved in dark wood with faint gold lining along its edges, while the painting itself showed a misty mountain landscape with a lone pavilion half-hidden beneath pale clouds. St first glance, it had the quiet charm of an antique piece, the brushwork delicate, the colors aged enough to look valuable, and the entire thing carried that vague old-world feeling collectors often liked to romanticize. The auctioneer began introducing it with a polished voice, speaking of its supposed origin, the artist’s rumored connection to a forgotten scholar, and the careful preservation done over the years, yet Cassian only glanced at it once before his interest faded.Jackson, however, sat forward.His eyes brightened as he looked at the painting, and f

Chapter 93: What Did He Want?Hearing that, everyone froze and stared at Cassian.The hall, which had been filled with murmurs only moments ago, fell into a stunned kind of silence. Even those who had no real knowledge of ancient paintings understood the meaning of the appraiser’s words. At least ten million. A hidden painting nearly a thousand years old. A treasure sealed beneath what everyone had dismissed as an ordinary surface work. The first painting had looked like a cheap antique dressed up with an expensive story, yet Cassian had bought it calmly, peeled away its false skin in front of everyone, and revealed something that made the auction house’s own experts lose composure. It was not luck. Luck could make a man buy a cheap thing that turned out valuable, but luck could not make him find the exact seam, peel the layer without damaging the treasure beneath, and expose it with such steady hands.For a while, every gaze in the room carried a different meaning. Some were shocke

Chapter 95: A Favor Too HeavyCassian smiled and excused himself.Zora looked at him for a moment, her eyes carrying that same quiet suspicion she had been holding since morning, but she did not stop him. She only gave a small nod and stepped closer to the car, allowing him the space Damian had requested. Miranda, who was not too far away, also noticed the movement, her gaze lingering briefly before she turned away with practiced calm. Around them, guests continued leaving the auction house in small groups, cars sliding forward one after another, polished shoes stepping over the stone pavement, soft conversations floating through the air. Yet in the middle of all that movement, the small distance between Cassian and Damian felt strangely separate from the rest of the world.Cassian walked aside with Damian, stopping near one of the quieter pillars by the entrance. He did not speak first. He only stared at Damian with that relaxed, unreadable gaze, hands resting casually at his sides

Chapter 97: The Price of a CureSeeing the substances, Damien froze.For several seconds, he simply sat inside the bathtub and stared at the black and yellow residue spreading through the medicinal water. The color was unmistakable. He had seen it before, though never like this. It was the same color the poison revealed whenever it reacted violently inside his body, the same filthy shade that had once appeared in the blood he coughed out after forcing his strength too far. The physicians who treated him had tested it repeatedly, and every one of them had reached the same conclusion that the poison had already merged with his bloodstream, settled into his organs and meridians, and become so deeply entangled with his internal energy that trying to remove it directly would kill him faster than the poison itself.Some had tried to suppress it. Others had tried to weaken it. A few claimed they could isolate it, only to retreat after discovering how aggressively it reacted once disturbed.

Chapter 99: A Technique Beyond His ReachDamien froze, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets as Cassian’s words settled into the room. Discard what he had been practising? For a moment, he genuinely wondered whether he had heard incorrectly. The cultivation technique he possessed was not some common manual bought from an underground market or passed around among ordinary martial families. It had cost blood to obtain, and he had protected it with a level of caution usually reserved for his own life.It had carried him through battles, strengthened his body, sharpened his internal energy and given him the foundation that allowed him to enter the top hundred of the mercenary ranking. There had been times when enemies tried to discover its circulation route but Damien had guarded the secret carefully because he knew what it meant to possess a method others would kill to obtain. Yet Cassian was now asking him to throw it away.Cassian looked at his stunned face and shook his head,