THE WALL STREET IMMORTAL

Chapter 4 A Strange House

Ulricth Pax, the old man whose hair had turned perfectly white, continued to stare at Li Wei with an intensity that seemed capable of piercing through concrete. The trembling in his hands wasn't from age, but from pure shock. In a world that had forgotten the art of cultivation and only worshipped numbers on a stock exchange screen, seeing the Western Heaven Seal Ring was like seeing a ghost from mythology come to life.

Li Wei remained motionless. His face was as flat as the surface of a lake in winter. He could feel the sharp gaze of Onyxa Storm standing beside him, filled with suspicion and suppressed embarrassment. To Onyxa, this was just another sickening moment where her "contract husband" caused trouble with an important guest.

"Mr. Pax, I believe you’ve had too much champagne," Li Wei said, his voice low yet possessing a resonance that made the hair on Ulricth's neck stand up. Li Wei slightly twisted the ring on his finger, a simple movement that actually released a small wave of Qi to cloud the old man’s mental perception. "This is just a cheap imitation I bought at an antique shop on the outskirts of Brooklyn. Nothing more."

Ulricth Pax blinked. The heavy pressure he had just felt suddenly evaporated, leaving a hollow sense of confusion in his head. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the ring again. True, it looked ... dull? Ordinary? Had his eyes truly deceived him?

"Ah ... perhaps ... perhaps I misread it," gummed Ulricth, his voice hoarse. "Forgive me. The shape is very similar to ... ah, never mind. Excuse me."

Onyxa took a deep breath, a sigh heavy with suppressed frustration. Without saying another word, she grabbed the sleeve of Li Wei’s suit and pulled him away from the crowd before any further commotion could arise.

"Come with me now. We're leaving," Onyxa hissed. "I've been embarrassed enough for one night."

They walked out toward the lobby of the grand gala building. A black limousine was already waiting out front. The driver, a sturdily built man named Raventhorn, opened the door with an expressionless face. Li Wei entered first, followed by Onyxa, who immediately leaned her head back against the leather seat, closing her eyes as if all her energy had been squeezed out.

The journey toward the Storm Mansion in New York's elite district took place in a stifling silence. Li Wei gazed out the window, observing the concrete forest that glowed yet felt spiritually dead. To him, this city was a paradox; teeming with life, yet utterly devoid of pure energy. The air he breathed felt heavy with pollution and the negative emotions of millions of stressed humans.

When the car finally passed through the giant iron gates leading to the Storm family mansion, Li Wei furrowed his brow. Something felt wrong. As soon as they crossed the yard's boundary, the temperature inside the car seemed to drop several degrees, but this wasn't the kind of cold that could be measured by a thermometer. This was Yin Qi—a cold, sticky negative energy.

"We're here," Onyxa said coldly. She stepped out of the car without waiting for assistance.

The mansion was a masterpiece of modern architecture, dominated by glass and steel, but in Li Wei’s eyes, the building was shrouded in a thin black mist invisible to the ordinary human eye. The mist swirled slowly, coiling around the pillars of the house as if it were slowly strangling the inhabitants.

Upon entering the main hall, Onyxa threw her designer bag onto the leather sofa. Her beautiful face looked pale under the crystal chandeliers. "Listen, Li Wei. Our contract is clear. You are forbidden from entering the second floor unless I tell you to. Your room is in the west wing, a former servant's room that I've renovated slightly. Tomorrow morning, at six sharp, I want black coffee without sugar and a healthy breakfast on the table. Don't expect any domestic staff to help you; I’ve sent them all home for the time being."

Li Wei did not listen to the instructions closely. His attention was focused on the flow of energy in the room. "This place ... who designed the furniture layout?" Li Wei asked suddenly.

Onyxa snorted cynically while massaging her throbbing temples. "The best interior designer in Manhattan. Why? Doesn't it suit your 'rustic' tastes?"

"It's not about taste," Li Wei replied flatly, his eyes scanning every corner. "The airflow ... it's blocked."

"You talk too much. Just go to your room. I want to rest; I feel like my head is going to explode," Onyxa dismissed him harshly. She began walking up the spiral staircase toward her room on the upper floor.

Li Wei watched Onyxa’s back. Her movements looked heavy, as if an invisible weight were pressing down on her shoulders. In Li Wei’s inner eye, he saw strands of black thread dangling from the ceiling, attached to the nape of Onyxa’s neck. It wasn’t just work fatigue. It was a curse.

After Onyxa vanished behind her bedroom door, Li Wei didn’t head straight to his own room. He stood still in the middle of the hall, closing his eyes and letting his soul perception expand. He could feel the house's heartbeat—and it was erratic. There was something parasitic here, draining the occupants' vitality to strengthen itself.

"A modern cult or some low-rent dark arts practitioner?" Li Wei thought cynically.

He began to walk soundlessly, his feet barely touching the floor. He followed the thickest flow of Yin Qi, which led him directly toward Onyxa’s master suite. The contract forbade him from entering, but Li Wei wasn't the type to let his "safety investment"—Tamsara’s orphanage—be threatened just because his benefactor died from a cheap hex.

Li Wei channeled a small amount of Qi into his palm and pressed it against the thick teak door. Without a single click, the lock disengaged automatically. He stepped into the spacious room. The scent of expensive perfume mingled with a faint, foul stench that only a cultivator could detect—the smell of rotting meat within spiritual energy.

Onyxa was already in bed, still wearing her gala dress, appearing to be in a deep sleep brought on by unnatural exhaustion. Her breaths were short and shallow. Li Wei approached the bed, his eyes fixed on the area beneath it.

He knelt, reaching his hand into the dark crawlspace under the bedframe. There, he found a small object wrapped in dull red cloth, bound with human hair and held together by a rusted nail coated in dried blood.

"A Soul-Sucking Amulet," Li Wei muttered. His eyes flashed coldly. This was a low-level but lethal technique if left for months. Whoever planted this here wanted Onyxa to die a slow death via organ failure that would look like "natural death due to stress."

Li Wei gripped the amulet. The negative energy within it tried to lash out at his nervous system, but to an Immortal who had once bathed in celestial fire, this energy was nothing more than a mosquito bite. With a swift motion, Li Wei bit the tip of his finger. A single drop of golden blood—the pure blood of a high-level cultivator—dripped directly onto the amulet.

Sssssss!

A thin wisp of black smoke rose from the amulet as Li Wei’s blood burned it spiritually. The hair bindings snapped, and the rusted nail crumbled into ash within seconds. Instantly, the atmosphere in the room felt lighter. The air temperature seemed to return to normal.

Li Wei stood up, wiping the drop of blood from his finger. However, his act of neutralizing the curse triggered a chain reaction. Because Onyxa’s body had adapted to the pressure of negative energy for so long, the sudden disappearance of that pressure shocked her nervous system—much like someone suddenly inhaling pure oxygen after hours of drowning.

Onyxa’s eyes snapped open. She sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air. Her vision was blurred, and the first thing she saw was the silhouette of a man standing at the foot of her bed in the darkness.

"Who ... Li Wei?" her voice was hoarse, thick with terror.

"It is I," Li Wei replied calmly, trying to maintain his distance so as not to violate the contract any further.

Onyxa tried to stand, anger beginning to creep onto her pale face. "What the hell are you doing in my room?! I told you not to—"

Her sentence cut off. The world around Onyxa suddenly spun violently. Her blood pressure plummeted as the remnants of negative energy in her body were purified by the aura of Li Wei’s presence. Her legs felt as weak as jelly.

"Li ... Wei ...."

Onyxa’s body tilted forward, falling helplessly from the bed. Before her head could strike the hard marble floor, Li Wei moved like a flash of lightning. In one seamless motion, he caught the woman’s slender frame.

Onyxa lost consciousness completely in Li Wei's arms, her head lolling against the chest of the man she considered a 'parasite.' At the same time, Li Wei realized that Onyxa’s heartbeat was incredibly weak—too weak. The curse had taken root deeper than he had anticipated, and neutralizing it was only the first step in a war that had just begun.