2025-12-31 18:13:16The black SUV glided through the streets of River City like a silent predator.
Thick was the atmosphere inside. Viper drove with a white-knuckled concentration, terrified to make an error; I sat in the back, looking out of the tinted window.
Sarah was furthest away from my side, pressed tightly against the door. Her eyes surveyed my hands-the same hands that just so easily snapped a billionaire's bones like twigs.
"Where are we going?" she whispered. Her voice sounded hoarse.
"Home," I simply stated.
Her gaze fell back to her lap. "We... don't have a home," she whispered. "The Millers took the villa. They took the apartment. They even took your car."
"I know."
"I'm living in the North District now," she murmured.
My eyes narrowed. The North District? That was the slum of River City. It was a place for rats, beggars, and criminals. A place where the drainage system didn't work and the police didn't go.
"Viper," I commanded. "North District."
Viper hesitated, just for a moment, surprised that a "Dragon King" would go to such a hellhole, but nodded immediately. "Yes, lord."
Twenty minutes later, the luxury SUV landed in front of a crumbling concrete apartment block. The contrast was jarring-in fact, the car probably cost more than this entire building.
Garbage was piled up on the sidewalk. The air smelled of rotting fish and stale urine.
I stepped out, my expensive leather shoes crunching on broken glass. I looked up at the building. The walls were peeling like dead skin. Mold grew in dark patches under the window ledges.
Was this the place where my wife had lived for five years?
While I was mastering martial arts and medical skills in prison, she was rotting here?
I could feel a surge of killing intent burning in my chest. The temperature on the street fell sharply. A stray dog, close by and barking at me, whimpered and fled.
"Ethan?" Sarah stepped outside, shivering. "It's... not a lot. Just cheap."
I stayed silent, though. Just tightened my jaw. Too gracious a punishment for the Miller family. "I'll make them live in a sewer."
"Lead the way," I said.
We climbed up four flights of stairs. The elevator had been in disuse since the nineties. Sarah was breathless by the second floor. By the fourth, she was gasping, her countenance turning alarmingly gray.
She staggered, her hand pressed against her chest.
"Sarah!"
I grabbed her before she hit the dirty floor of the hallway. Her skin was burning hot and she shivered.
"I'm... I'm fine," she gasped, trying to push me away. "Just tired. I work double shifts at the factory...
"Shut up," I snapped.
I pressed two fingers on her wrist. Didn't need a stethoscope. Nine Heavens Medical Art. My Qi flowed from my fingertips into her meridian points, acting like a sonar scanner.
System Diagnosis. BEEP. [Patient: Sarah Wright] [Condition: Severe Malnutrition, Chronic Fatigue, Blocked Heart Meridian.] [Warning: prolonged stress has damaged the liver. Life expectancy reduced by 10 years if untreated.]
Ten years?
My heart went cold. The Millers had worked her to the bone. They had slowly been killing her.
"Open the door," I said to Viper, who had followed us up.
Viper kicked the frail planks open.
The apartment was a tiny one. One room. A mattress on a floor. A hot plate for cooking. No heating.
I laid Sarah down onto the mattress. She was now moaning in real pain, clutching at her chest. The heart meridian spasmed from the shock of the evening.
"Ethan... it hurts..." tears leaked from her eyes "my chest... "
"Viper, guard the door," I commanded. "If anyone enters, kill them."
"Yes, Lord." Viper turned his back, standing like a statue in the doorway.
I was gazing at Sarah. "Have faith in me."
I didn't have my gold needles; thus, I had to use the Sovereign Finger Technique.
I raised my palm. The index and middle fingers were glowing faintly white; this was pure Qi, life energy cultivated from hellish training.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
I struck three points on her chest with lightning speed.
The 'Spirit Hall' point. The 'Heavenly Pool' point. The 'Gate of Life' point.
"Ah!" Sarah gasped, her back arching off the mattress.
"Bear it," I said, focusing. "I am burning away the blockages."
I pressed my palm over her heart. I poured my energy into her. Sweat beaded on my forehead. This technique consumed a massive amount of stamina, but I didn't care.
""Tonight'' was what I ordered coldly. ''I want my wife to sleep on a king-size bed tonight. Get the paperwork done. Tell him that the Dragon King is asking it if the owner refuses to sell.'' ''Understood.'' Viper pulled his phone out and stepped out into the hallway.
Sarah stared. She rose from her seat and started walking, slowly approaching me. She touched my arm, as if to check if I were real.
''Ethan...who are you?'' she asked with her voice trembling. ''You break bones. You cure incorrigible diseases. You make Viper take orders from you. You have mansion purchases on your mind. You...you aren't the Ethan who went to prison.''
I looked at her. I couldn't tell her everything. This world of mine-the one living in blood and martial arts, ancient sects-was too much danger for her.
''I am Ethan,'' I said gently. ''But I learned a few things inside.''
Bang, Bang, Bang! All of a sudden, a fist hammered at the open door frame.
''Hey! Sarah!''
A screechy voice yelled from the hallway, and in waddled a middle-aged woman with curlers in her hair. She looked like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
''I heard voices!'' The Landlady glared at us, then spotted Viper in the hall. ''Who are these thugs? Sarah, I told you, no men!''
She marched into the room, crossing her arms.
''And I got a call from Mr. Miller's secretary,'' the landlady sneered. ''They said your husband is a fugitive and a violent criminal. I don't want trouble!''
She pointed at the door.
''Get out! Both of you! You're evicted!''
Sarah's face turned pale. ''Mrs. Higgins, please! It's midnight! We have nowhere to go! And we paid rent until the end of the month!''
''I don't care!'' Mrs. Higgins shouted, kicking Sarah's meager bag of clothes. ''The Millers said if I keep you here, they’ll bulldoze my building! Get out before I call the cops!''
I watched Mrs. Higgins kick Sarah's bag.
My eyes went cold thereby.
''You kicked her bag'', I said softly.
Mrs. Higgins sneered at me. ''Yeah? And what are you going to do about it, jailbird? Hit me? I'm an old lady! Touch me and I’ll sue you for everything you-''
''Viper,'' I said.
Viper appeared in the doorway, holding his phone. ''Yes, Lord. The Villa is purchased. The helicopter is on its way.''
''Good,'' I nodded and pointed at the Landlady.
''Buy this building, too.''
Mrs. Higgins froze. ''What?''
''Buy this building,'' I repeated, looking at Mrs. Higgins like she'd just stepped on my shoe. ''And then evict her.''
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The First Algorithm (Series Finale)
Deep Space, the absolute center . Time, the end of the journey.That slipspace tunnel didn’t exactly go out with some dramatic spatial ripper, you know. It didn’t throw them into a freezing void, nor did it dump them into a chaotic plasma storm.No, it just kinda faded. quietly, like somebody dimmed a lamp.On the bridge of the hijacked Praetorian dreadnought, the loud alarms started to shut themselves off, one after another, as if they were embarrassed to keep screaming. The heavy, thrumming vibration from the dark matter drives eased down into this deep, total stillness, like the ship had forgot how to move.Ethan pushed himself up, slow , from the pristine white deck. He used the command console for support because his knees felt… not right. Krax came up beside him, his massive dark matter broadsword resting across his shoulder, that yellow cybernetic eye widening in a way Ethan almost never saw, pure uncut awe.“Twig,” Krax said, low , like a prayer, “where are the stars ?”Ethan
The Hijack
Deep Space. The Sanctuary Cluster Perimeter. Time: 4 Months, 2 Days Post-Architect defeat.Out there, the vacuum just… did what it always does, no friction no sound no warning, like the universe was being polite. Ethan’s drop-pod cleared the three-kilometer span between the dying Archivist and the enormous Praetorian dreadnought, in a few seconds flat, too fast for anyone to even blink.Through that small, reinforced viewing slit, in the dark matter capsule, the pristine white porcelain hull of the enemy flagship kept swelling, until it basically ate his whole field of vision.“Brace for impact twig!” Krax’s voice cracked through the local comms, loud enough to make his teeth feel loose.CRASH.The drop-pod’s heavy modified nose slammed right into the dreadnought’s primary forward viewport. The kinetic velocity was basically violence on rails. It shattered the flawless Progenitor glass. Ethan’s pod punched straight through the bridge deflector screens and skidded hard across the g
The Broken Math
Deep Space. The Sanctuary Cluster Perimeter Time: 4 Months, 2 Days Post-Architect DefeatOut there, the void beyond The Archivist kind of lit up, not with that clean, disciplined beamwork of absolute zero plasma, but more like a messy… frenzied firestorm, erratic and uncaring. The Harvester remnants, now stripped of their flawless logic, were throwing themselves forward like zealots who forgot why they started.“Assimilate the Glitch. Format for the new absolute,” the broken chorus of millions of drones chanted, over the open comms channel, like it was normal.“Kill the broadcast!” Ethan yelled, over the shriek of tearing metal, as a plasma beam just grazed the forward viewport, once. “I don’t need a choir!”Elena slammed her fist down on the comms console, severing the external audio feed , like she could cut the chaos by pressure alone. “They aren’t aiming for the bridge or the engines! They’re targeting the hangar bays and the airlocks! They’re trying to board us!”“Let them tr
The Supernova's Wake
Deep Space. The Sanctuary Cluster Perimeter. Time: 4 Months, 2 Days Post-Architect Defeat .Slipspace was supposed to be frictionless , a harmonic tunnel through the fabric of dimensions, you know, smooth and calm like nothing ever resists. But riding the absolute kinetic fury of a dying star? yeah, that “corridor” became a tearing washing machine of cosmic energy , violent, inconsistent, and way too eager to rip at the walls of reality.Ethan clung to the exterior dark matter hull of The Archivist. Under Jarek’s massive ironwood-and-steel chassis he flattened himself, like if he stayed small enough, the dimension shear might pass around him. His hybrid Titan frame had driven what was left of his biological roots deep into the ship’s armor plating, an odd, stubborn anchor, shielding him from that lethal dimensional tug.“Hold your breath, kid!” Jarek’s synthesized voice roared over the local comms, static violently chewing up the words into fragments. “We are dropping out of the s
The Heart of the Lotus
Deep Space. The Perseus Arm. The Cradle.Time: 4 Months, 1 Day Post-Architect Defeat.The central spire of the Cradle was, without exaggeration, a First Epoch engineering marvel. A towering needle of woven bio-steel and glowing crystal that literally speared the sky and kept reaching toward the suspended blue-white dwarf star.Now it was a slow, decaying staircase into hell.Ethan sprinted up the massive spiraling crystalline steps. His lungs burned, drawing in that thinning ozone-heavy air, like it had teeth. Without the limitless push-and-breathe stamina of his Dissonance Core, the moment had teeth too, he could feel the human cost stacking up past exhaustion.Above, the massive containment rings holding the dying star in stasis hummed with a low, unstable frequency, wrong somehow. Like the structure itself was trying to remember how to quit."Intruder detected. Entropy required," a chorus of grinding metallic voices hissed from the landing above, all at once, too close.Ethan skidd
The Rotting Stars
Deep Space. The Perseus Arm. The Cradle.Time: 4 Months, 1 Day Post-Architect Defeat.The sky above the crystalline city did not just break; it decayed.A massive, jagged fissure tore through the glowing bio-steel canopy of the Cradle’s petal .The protective atmospheric shielding flickered and then died, replaced by this awful pouring rain of purple light, like it wanted to seep into every thought."They’re through the roof!" Warlord Krax screamed, tracking the breach with his cybernetic eye, no pause, no breath.Hundreds of rusted, jagged shapes dropped from the gap . They were the Purge’s foot soldiers. In a vague, horrifying way they reminded you of the Praetorian drones used by the Harvesters, except there was no clean geometry here, no pristine order. Their chassis were asymmetrical and made from corroded dark metal that flaked away , then re-formed again and again in this constant state of entropic flux. They didn’t glide. They fell with jerky, wrong spasms, optical sensors bur
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