2026-06-24 17:13:59Lana scoffed, her jealousy flaring even hotter. "Girlfriend? A disfavored, poor young lady whose company is heavily in debt really thinks she can climb the social ladder by seducing a beggar. What a perfect match."
Lana crossed her arms triumphantly. "I would love to see how the two of you even get through the front door today. This is the Mercer Group. You can't just enter by smiling at the security guards."
Dane looked directly into Lana's arrogant eyes. "Let's make a bet then."
Lana paused. "What bet?"
"Whoever cannot get through those front doors tonight," Dane said, his voice echoing in the quiet courtyard, "must kneel right here at the entrance and publicly apologize to the other."
Mara's heart pounded in her chest. She grabbed Dane's sleeve and whispered frantically, "Dane, no! Maybe we should just leave. We don't have invitations. They will humiliate us."
Dane squeezed her waist gently, his eyes never leaving Lana. "Trust me," he whispered back.
More onlookers gathered around, whispering excitedly about the high-stakes drama.
Cade laughed loudly, completely confident. "You really are an idiot! Lana was selected as one of the city's top ten renowned female entrepreneurs this year. She gets more VIP invitations to banquets than she can even attend! There is absolutely no way she cannot get in."
"I agree to the bet," Lana sneered, her eyes gleaming with malice. She looked at Mara. "Prepare your knees. You are going to be scrubbing the pavement tonight."
Lana turned immediately to the head security guard standing at the door. "Guard! Check this woman's identity strictly. They are trying to sneak in to steal food!"
The head guard, a large man in a tailored suit, frowned and stepped in front of Mara. He looked her up and down dismissively. "Miss, please produce your official invitation. If you do not have one, I will have you physically thrown off the property immediately."
Mara froze, her hands shaking violently. She didn't have one. She had planned to wait in the lobby and beg to speak to a manager.
Dane frowned, his eyes narrowing at the guard. "Why are you only checking her invitation? You haven't even checked Lana's identity yet."
Lana laughed, flipping her expensive hair over her shoulder. "I am a regular VIP at these high-society banquets. How could I possibly be the same as you poor rats?"
She reached into her designer purse. "But since you asked so nicely, I will be gracious and show you."
Lana proudly pulled out a gleaming, heavy golden invitation and handed it to the guard.
The guard took it, barely glanced at it for one second, and bowed respectfully. "It is genuine, Miss Hayes. Please go inside."
Lana smirked and pointed directly at Mara. "Now check hers."
The guard turned back to Mara, crossing his massive arms. "Your invitation, miss. Now."
Mara looked down at her feet, her face burning with deep humiliation. She had failed before she even started. Horizon Corp was doomed.
"You've been awfully quiet all this time," Lana taunted loudly, enjoying every second of Mara's pain. "You must be feeling incredibly guilty because you can't produce a single piece of paper, right? Time to kneel!"
Dane calmly stepped in front of Mara. He reached into his cheap jeans pocket.
"Here," Dane said firmly.
He pulled out a simple, silver-gray card and handed it directly to the head security guard.
The guard took the silver-gray card. He looked at it for exactly two seconds. Then, a look of pure disgust crossed his face.
"Sir," the guard said loudly, making sure the entire crowd heard. "This invitation of yours is completely invalid."
Lana and Cade instantly burst into hysterical laughter.
"A fake invitation!" Lana wiped a tear from her eye. "You actually forged a Mercer Group invitation? You are going to jail!"
Mara felt her legs go weak. She pulled desperately on Dane's arm, tears stinging her eyes. "Dane, please. Let's just leave. I can't do this."
Dane stood like a rock. He looked the arrogant guard dead in the eye.
"Are you absolutely sure you are familiar with all types of VIP invitations for this company?" Dane asked coldly.
The guard sneered, stepping aggressively toward Dane. "I have worked here for years. I have never seen a cheap piece of cardboard like this in my life. It is definitely a fake. Get lost right now, both of you, and don't disturb our wealthy guests."
Lana clapped her hands together. "Guards! Throw them onto the street! And make sure they kneel first!"
Two more heavy security guards stepped forward, reaching out to violently grab Dane and Mara by the shoulders.
"Wait a moment!"
A sharp, authoritative female voice echoed loudly from the grand lobby.
Everyone froze.
A stunning woman in a razor-sharp business suit was power-walking toward the glass doors. Her high heels clicked aggressively against the marble floor. Her face was dark with absolute fury. Right behind her walked another sharply dressed woman with an imposing, icy aura.
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Chapter 208
Dane Mercer had played the part of the pathetic, struggling mercenary flawlessly for three agonizing weeks. He had slept in the freezing mud. He had endured the arrogant mockery of the outer-sect disciples. He had allowed the smug, condescending Young Miss of the Ye Clan to parade him around the gladiator pits like a purchased attack dog. He had forcefully choked down the world-ending power of his newly forged Heaven Grade meridians, completely subjugating his own pride for one singular, uncompromising purpose.Today was the final day of the tournament. Tonight was the Blood Moon Festival. Tonight was the night the Shen Clan planned to drag his wife onto an ancestral altar and butcher her.The grand colosseum of the Shen estate was a monolithic structure of white marble and reinforced spiritual stone, currently packed to its absolute maximum capacity. Over a hundred thousand immortal cultivators from every major faction on the continent filled the towering grandstands. In the elevated
Chapter 207
The impact sounded like a dry tree branch snapping in a quiet forest. The cultivator’s eyes bulged in absolute, breathless shock as his rib catastrophically fractured, instantly collapsing his lung. Before the immortal could even gasp for air, Dane ruthlessly swept his legs out from under him, slamming the young man onto the blood-stained stone. Dane dropped his knee directly onto the cultivator's sternum and raised a battered, blood-soaked iron gauntlet directly over the man's face, freezing the strike a mere inch from his nose.The referee, a towering enforcer of the Shen Clan, immediately struck the gong, formally calling the match.Dane staggered backward, keeping his head bowed, heavily clutching his bleeding shoulder as he limped toward the iron gates of the exit. The massive crowd booed loudly, throwing garbage and copper coins at the arena floor. They were thoroughly disgusted by the ungraceful, ugly, barbaric victory. They wanted elegant martial arts and explosive spiritual l
Chapter 206
Restraint is a far heavier burden to carry than absolute power.Dane Mercer stood perfectly still in the center of the massive, spiritually reinforced colosseum, the deafening roar of fifty thousand immortal spectators crashing down around him like a physical wave. For ten brutal years in the secular underworld, he had fought to unleash his potential, breaking his own bones and pushing his mortal limits to conquer the earth. Now, standing on the blood-stained white stone of the Ancient Hidden Realm’s most prestigious arena, he was fighting a desperate, agonizing psychological battle to completely contain it.He had buried the blinding, heavy golden light of his newly forged Heaven Grade aura so deeply within the absolute darkest depths of his core that it physically ached. It felt like trying to compress a nuclear explosion into the size of a single heartbeat. If he allowed even a fraction of his true, world-ending power to leak into the atmosphere, the Shen Clan’s highest-ranking eld
Chapter 205
Dane Mercer understood the mechanics of warfare better than any immortal god. He had not spent a decade conquering the secular underworld, bringing international syndicates to their knees, and ruling a global corporate empire by carelessly kicking down the front doors of heavily fortified enemy strongholds.He stepped out of the violently swirling dimensional rift and planted his heavy boots onto the solid, ash-covered earth of the Ancient Hidden Realm. The blinding, chaotic vortex of the boundary crossing snapped shut behind him with a deafening crack, completely severing his connection to the secular world, to his loyal vanguard, and to the billions of dollars he had voluntarily left behind. He was entirely alone in a hostile universe.But this time, the world did not crush him.The impossibly dense, heavy spiritual gravity that would have liquefied his mortal organs a mere twenty-four hours ago now flowed entirely harmlessly over his skin. Deep within his chest, his newly forged me
Chapter 204
Navigating purely by the architectural blueprints she had cleverly coaxed out of Elder Vane under the guise of "logistical planning," Berry made her way deep into the western wing of the estate. She slipped past terrified servants and bypassed the violently shaking courtyards, finally arriving at the towering, bronze doors of the Shen Clan’s restricted ancient library.The massive chamber was pitch black, silent, and smelling heavily of ancient dust and dried parchment.Berry moved quickly through the towering rows of mahogany bookshelves. She knew exactly what she was looking for. Her mother had not been a helpless victim; she had been the unparalleled Saintess of this clan, a woman brilliant enough to steal a sacred artifact and escape an immortal prison. A woman like that would never leave her legacy entirely unprotected.Following the subtle, almost imperceptible structural anomalies in the stone masonry—a trick she had learned from inspecting hidden corporate safes in the secular
Chapter 203
Berry Sterling spent exactly seven days dismantling a four-hundred-year-old immortal dynasty from the inside of a locked bedroom. She did not throw a single punch. She did not summon a drop of spiritual energy. She simply weaponized the ancient, festering greed of men who had spent centuries pretending to be infallible gods while operating like primitive, uneducated thugs.The elders of the Shen Clan were terrifying combatants capable of leveling entire cities with a wave of their hands, but in the ruthless, modern arena of political and economic warfare, they were absolute children. They had operated for generations on a stagnant system of blind feudal loyalty and brute force. They had never faced a Chief Executive Officer who had survived the bloodthirsty corporate battlegrounds of the secular world.Through a series of highly orchestrated, heavily guarded secret meetings within her suite, Berry flawlessly executed her strategy. She did not act like a terrified prisoner begging for
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