The air in the hospital hallway felt thick, almost like it was pressing in from all sides. Even the fluorescent lights seemed to struggle, flickering and humming overhead.
Ye Chen drifted away from the ICU, his footsteps soft, almost soundless. He didn't have the look of someone who'd just done the impossible, more like a hunter who'd caught the scent of another predator.
He reached the elevator. The doors slid open.
A man stepped out, dressed head-to-toe in a blinding white silk suit that shimmered in the harsh lights. Four men trailed behind him, each one huge, eyes flat and empty, hands rough and scarred from years of ugly work.
The man in white was Ye Jun, Third Young Master of the Ye Family. Ye Chen's half-brother.
"Ten years," Ye Jun said, voice as smooth as glass, not a hint of warmth anywhere. He pulled out a silver cigarette case, tapped it, and grinned. "Ten years in this dump, eating leftovers, bowing your head to nobodies. I almost pitied you, brother. Thought maybe the 'Prodigious Son' finally turned into a mutt."
Ye Chen stopped, ten feet between them. The air in that gap felt like a vacuum, pulling everything tight. "The Ye Family swore never to set foot in this city. My exile was a deal. You broke it."
Ye Jun just shrugged, lips curling into a smirk as he lit his cigarette, ignoring the 'No Smoking' signs. He blew a stream of blue smoke right into Ye Chen's face.
"That deal died when the Old Man got sick. The Elders want the Golden SIM card. They want the Shadow Account codes. And since you made such a splash bankrupting the Zhaos, here I am. I'm here to collect."
"And if I say no?"
Ye Jun's grin widened. His teeth were too white, almost predatory. "Then I kill that little wife of yours. Then her father. After that, I burn this hospital down with you inside. You know how the Ye Family clears its debts, Chen. We don't leave evidence."
Su Yan's name was all it took. The hallway seemed to freeze.
"You always were the dumbest of us, Jun," Ye Chen said, voice barely above a whisper.
Ye Jun rolled his eyes, bored now. "Kill him. Bring me the card while it's still warm."
The four bodyguards moved as one, quick and silent. These weren't street punks like Tiger, these were the Ye Family's 'Iron-Level' martial artists, the real deal. The leader lunged, fist cutting through the air like a hammer.
Ye Chen didn't even blink. At the last instant, he tilted his head. The punch missed, smashing a hole in the marble wall behind.
Thud.
Ye Chen's palm shot out, looked gentle, almost casual. But the sound was a deep, muffled boom. The guard's eyes went wide. Ye Chen shattered his ribs like they were twigs, sent him flying into the elevator doors hard enough to leave a dent.
Ye Jun's cigarette fell from his lips. "What?"
The other three guards rushed him at once. One swung a baton at Ye Chen's head. The others aimed for his kidneys and knees.
Ye Chen moved like a shadow, weaving through them quick, lethal, impossible to track. His hands struck out, fast as snakes.
Crack.
Snap.
Thud.
Five seconds, that's all it took. Now the hallway was littered with broken bodies. One guard's arm bent the wrong way.
Another slumped unconscious against the wall, out before he even hit the floor. The last one, he choked under Ye Chen's foot, clawing at the air, the pressure on his throat grinding everything to a halt.
Ye Chen glanced up at his brother, and right away, something was off, his eyes weren't brown anymore. They glinted with a cold, golden light, sharp and hungry.
"You really think ten years in the gutter broke me?" His voice came out rough, almost a growl. "I didn't just hide, you know. I hunted. I crawled through the worst corners of the world and learned things you never even imagined. While you sat around reading family secrets, I became the thing you all feared. I'm not the same kid you kicked out. I'm the monster the Ye Family made."
Ye Jun stumbled back, face drained of color. He fumbled inside his jacket for a pistol, but before he could even grip it, a silver needle shot through the air.
Ping!
The needle stuck in Ye Jun's wrist, pinning his sleeve and a bit of skin to the wooden doorframe.
"AHH!" he screamed, grabbing at his arm.
"That was your only warning," Ye Chen said, walking toward him, slow and steady. "Next one goes through your eye."
Ye Chen wrapped a hand around his brother's throat and lifted him right off the floor. The so-called Third Young Master of the Ye Family kicked and struggled, gasping for air, looking nothing like the proud heir he'd always claimed to be.
"Go back to the Capital," Ye Chen spat. "Tell the Elders if they want the card, they'll have to come themselves. And make sure they hear this: Every hand that touched my mother's casket, every tongue that lied to exile me, I'm coming for them. I'll cut them out myself."
He hurled Ye Jun into the elevator. The guy scrambled to hit the 'Down' button, eyes wide with a terror he'd never felt before.
As the elevator doors slid shut, Ye Chen doubled over with a sudden, stabbing pain in his chest. He coughed hard, blood splattering the floor. That 'Seven Star Resurrection' trick from before had drained him way more than he'd thought, and the fight just now had nearly ripped open his half-healed wounds.
"Master!" Han Mufeng came running, a medical team right behind him. He stopped in his tracks, taking in the wreckage. "We tracked the Ye Family's jet, but we got here too late. Are you—"
"I'm fine," Ye Chen lied, wiping the blood from his mouth. "But the war just got real. Han, move Su Yan and her father to Cloud-Peak Manor right now. Use the Phantom Guard. Lock that place down so tight not even a mosquito gets in unless it passes a retinal scan."
"And you, Master? Where are you headed?"
Ye Chen stared out the window at the city lights. "The Zhao family thinks they've still got a move left.
They ran to this city's 'Underground King' for protection. I'm going to rip his throne out from under him."