RETURN OF THE DRAGON: Made 100 Trillon in A Day

Chapter 9: The Poison in the Blood

The penthouse air still tasted of iron and pulverized masonry. Iron Fist Lu lay in a heap of broken pride, his mangled hand leaking a mixture of blood and spent spirit energy onto my floor. He looked up at me, his eyes wide with the realization that he had tried to assassinate a natural disaster.

"I told you everything I know," Lu wheezed, his voice bubbling with a punctured lung. "Warehouse 47... your sister... just let me crawl out of here."

"I’m not done with you, Lu," I said, my voice vibrating with the 'God-Body' resonance. I grabbed a chair from the wreckage and sat directly in front of him. "The sister thing was a lie to lure me out. Tell me the real reason the Lin family kept me alive for three years. Why the monthly 'donations'? Why didn't they just kill me the moment they got the first drop?"

Lu coughed, spitting a glob of dark red onto the marble. "You don't get it, do you? You weren't a husband, Qin Ming. You were a cultivation furnace. They weren't just using your blood for Haoran’s rank."

"Speak," I commanded.

"The Lin family... they're just a branch for the Eternal Spring Sect," Lu gasped. "They were harvesting your 'Primal Blood.' It’s the purest essence of longevity. They’ve been refining it for three years to create a 'Longevity Pill' for the Sect Leader. If they killed you, the blood would have gone cold, lost its vitality. They needed you alive, doting, and docile so the essence wouldn't be tainted by cortisol or rage."

"Docile?" I repeated, a cold, hard knot tightening in my stomach. "So those three years of 'domestic bliss'..."

"Were a controlled environment," Lu laughed weakly. "Xinyi wasn't just cheating; she was a parasite. Every time she kissed you, she was checking your pulse for purity. Every time she 'fell ill,' it was a ruse to get you into that clinic to drain another pint. You were being farmed, boy. Like a prize pig."

I stood up, the chair splintering under the sudden pressure of my grip. The betrayal wasn't just a sudden bullet on a cliffside—it was a calculated, three-year-long consumption of my soul. Every "I love you" was a tally on a ledger of my life force.

"Secretary Su!" I barked.

Su Qinghe stepped over the debris, her face as pale as the moon. "Yes, Chairman?"

"Take this trash to the basement and hand him over to the authorities. I have a guest arriving."

"A guest, sir? Security hasn't reported anyone."

"She’s already in the lobby," I said, my golden vision piercing through the floors. "She’s desperate. She’s dirty. And she’s about to try and sell me the same lie she used for three years."

Ten minutes later, the elevator chimed. The doors slid open to reveal Lin Xinyi.

She looked nothing like the "Ice Queen" of the gala or the polished CEO I had once supported. Her designer dress was stained with mud and salt, her hair was a matted mess, and her mascara had run down her face in jagged black rivers. She collapsed onto the floor before she even reached my desk.

"Ming! Oh, God, Ming!" she wailed, reaching out with trembling hands.

I didn't move. I stayed seated in my high-backed leather chair, the shadows of the office casting my face in stark, unforgiving lines. "You're late for the anniversary dinner, Xinyi. I already cleared the table."

"Ming, you have to listen to me!" She crawled toward me, her voice a frantic, breathless sob. "Everything you saw... everything Haoran said... it was a lie! He forced me! He held my family hostage! He told me if I didn't help him harvest the blood, he’d kill my parents!"

"Is that so?" I leaned forward, resting my chin on my laced fingers. "The gun you held on the cliff? Was that forced too? The way you looked at me when you pulled the trigger—that looked like genuine passion to me."

"I had to make it look real!" she screamed, clutching at the edge of my desk. "He was watching! He had a sniper trained on us! I aimed for your shoulder on purpose, Ming! I knew the water would save you! I’ve been praying every second since you fell!"

"You're a talented actress, Xinyi. Truly. If the business world failed, you could have won an Oscar."

"It’s the truth! I love you! I’ve always loved you!" She looked up at me, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. "Look at me, Ming. Remember our first year? Remember the house? We can have that back. With your new wealth, we can be the most powerful couple in the country. Just forgive me. Please."

I looked at her, and for a second, the old Qin Ming—the househusband who lived for her smile—almost felt a pang of pity. Then I remembered Lu’s words. Farmed like a prize pig.

"Secretary Su," I said quietly. "Do we have the recording from the villa’s hidden security suite? The one the Chu family thought they deleted?"

"Ready on the main screen, Chairman," Su Qinghe replied, her voice steady and cold.

I tapped a button on my desk.

The wall-sized monitor flickered to life. It was a video from the night before the anniversary. Xinyi and Haoran were in the same bedroom, sitting over a bottle of wine.

"How much more can we get out of him?" Haoran’s voice echoed in the room.

"The doctors say his marrow is almost white," Xinyi’s voice responded—clear, cold, and dripping with malice. "Another two pints and he’ll be a husk. I can't wait to be rid of him, Haoran. Do you know how disgusting it feels to let that 'trash' touch me? I have to hold my breath every time he comes near. Once the Longevity Pill is finished, I want to be the one to push him off that cliff. I want to see the look on his face when he realizes I never loved him for a single second."

The video cut to Xinyi laughing—a sharp, shrill sound that filled the office.

The real Xinyi, currently kneeling on my carpet, turned a shade of grey that didn't look human. The sobbing stopped instantly. Her face froze into a mask of pure, naked horror.

"Ming... I... that was... we were joking..." she stammered, her voice barely a whisper.

"Joking about my death? Joking about the blood you drained from my veins to feed your lover?" I stood up, the golden light in my eyes erupting with the force of a supernova. The desk between us cracked down the middle from the sheer aura I released.

"You didn't just want me dead, Xinyi. You wanted me humiliated. You wanted to extract every ounce of value from my body and then throw the rind in the trash."

"I... I can explain..."

"Explain it to the street," I said. I looked over her head at the two massive security guards standing at the door. "Security. Take this garbage and throw it into the incinerator."

Xinyi screamed, her eyes bugging out.

"I mean... the street," I corrected with a dark, mirthless smile. "But make sure she lands hard. And strip her of that robe. It was bought with my blood. She doesn't get to keep a single thread of my life."

"No! Ming! You can't! I'm your wife!"

The guards grabbed her by the arms, dragging her toward the elevator as she kicked and shrieked. Her cries faded as the doors closed, leaving the office in a heavy, ringing silence.

I turned back to the window, the city lights reflecting in my eyes.

"Chairman?" Su Qinghe asked softly.

"The Lin family is gone. The Chu family is bankrupt," I said. "But the 'Eternal Spring Sect'... they still have my blood. And they still think I’m their furnace."

[System: Alert! Hostility detected within a 500-meter radius. The 'Sect Envoys' have arrived to collect the final 'Longevity Pill'—and they’ve brought a Rank-3 Grandmaster.]

The windows of the office didn't shatter this time; they melted. A man dressed in ancient white robes floated outside the 80th-floor window, a glowing jade sword in his hand. "Qin Ming," he said, his voice echoing in my mind like a funeral bell. "The Sect Leader is hungry. Give us your heart, or we will turn this city into an altar."]

[System: Would you like to spend 50 Billion to activate 'Heavenly Sword Defiance' or 100 Billion to 'Sacrifice' the Su Group's assets for an Instant Kill?]

I looked at Su Qinghe, then at the man in white. "Secretary," I said, my hand glowing with golden fire. "Hold my calls. This is going to be expensive."