"Start from the beginning. Besides the Liu, who else betrayed the Su clan?" Ethan gestured for her to sit.Yan Su was too tight and too long in captivity. She sat, breathed deeply a few times, and her stomach chose that moment to growl, loud and shameless.Ethan paused. The kid had been locked up and starved. He softened. "Eat first. Then you can tell me everything. You're safe now.""Thank you, brother." She accepted it meekly, her eyes on the table. She hadn't eaten in what felt like days.Ethan pushed the fruit and pastries across to her. She reached out carefully, took one, and put it in her mouth. She ate slowly at first, then faster, as if she couldn't believe the food was real. Her shoulders stopped shaking after the third bite."Slow down. There's plenty."When she'd eaten, Ethan bought two more lots from the floor to keep up appearances. Yan Su steadied herself, wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, and spoke."I wasn't born when it happened. I only know what the old ances

Ethan had just returned to the Chenlong Star Domain when Yuliu's message came through. He had something to give him.Ethan was curious, but he went. The Galaxy Guild relationship was good so far, and he had no reason to end it yet. He also wanted to see what Yuliu was panicking about.When he arrived, Yuliu was waiting at the door and hurried him into the VIP room. He poured a drink, then sat up straight, earnest."Mr. Su, as a valued client, I've applied to headquarters for a Black Diamond Card. From now on, fifty percent off anything you buy from us. And if you run into trouble you can't solve, you can call on the guild for help. Three times a year."Ethan blinked. "Why?""We want a deep partnership with you, Mr. Su. When you choose who to work with, we'd like to be your first choice — not our competitors. Any goods you want to consign in the future, bring them here. No handling fees. None. Ever."Yuliu's tone was almost pleading. He'd never laid out terms like this before for anyon

"I'm telling you this so you don't kill us by accident." Ethan's tone had gone sharp in a way Tang had never heard. "When you move around Black Dragon City, nobody gets to know you're tied to the Su. Nobody. Better — don't even say you're from Earth. Out loud, you're from the Chenlong Star Domain. Act like it."Tang's posture straightened. He'd learned long ago that when Ethan slowed down and spelled things out, it was never small.Ethan had only understood the half of it himself on the ride home. Yuliu's file hadn't been neutral. Buried in the clan intel, tucked between star-system inventories, were little gaps — careful silences that meant look further up than the Mash. The people who'd actually destroyed the Su weren't sitting in the Black Dragon Star Domain. They were behind it. Behind them. Some treasure the clan had held — something that even a Cosmic Master would kill for, something a power above the Cosmic Masters still coveted.That was why a clan strong enough to field nine-

Ethan drifted over beside Chiyou and looked at the choking commander. "What happened?""Nothing much. Old Eight dropped by his home system. Dug up the whole family tomb while this idiot was halfway across the galaxy shooting at us." Chiyou waved it away like swatting a fly."Old Eight?" Ethan knew Chiyou was something like the sixth of his generation. An eighth?"Look for yourself." Chiyou jerked his chin at the screen.Ethan looked. The young man in the dragon robe was still smiling at the camera, and Ethan went very still.He'd seen that face before. In his old life, on museum walls and statues and textbook plates. The young Qin Shi Huang — the Ancestral Dragon, the first emperor, the man who'd unified the world five thousand years ago and died too young, his reputation dragged through the mud for centuries before history finally gave him back his name."Ancestral Dragon?" Ethan said, half under his breath.Chiyou's head turned. "Oh? You've met one of his leftover pieces? He used to

"Doesn't matter." Ethan waved it off. "I have money. And I consigned a few things; they'll sell."The Yellow Emperor's account. Eight hundred quadrillion cosmic coins. Ethan had barely registered the number when he inherited it. Now he understood it was the fortune of an entire ancient lineage — meant not for one man, but for the world he'd left behind."This belongs to Earth," he said, and told Tang the whole story — the old man on the time river, the account in his name, the scale of it. "I'll transfer a share into your account tonight. Stop worrying about money. The only question is what makes us stronger."Tang closed the catalog. When he opened it again, an hour later, he was circling items with a steady hand.The auction house was packed. The word was out — soul-tempering goods, the rarest currency in the galaxy, and nobody who owned star systems was going to miss them. The big Black Dragon families were small fish in this room; bidders had traveled from star domains Ethan hadn'