Following the echoing shout, a woman strutted confidently into the dim bar from the street.
Adrian's dark eyes immediately locked onto the new arrival, conducting a cold, predatory assessment. She was petite but exuded an overwhelming, domineering aura. She wore a short, batwing-style strap dress that aggressively showcased her fair, athletic thighs. A pair of long, glittering earrings brushed against her bare shoulders, and she wore black, open-toe high heels that clicked sharply against the floorboards.
Honestly, judging solely by her revealing attire, it would be incredibly easy to mistake her for a high-end escort working the nightclub circuit. Admittedly, Shanghai possessed a liberal, modern atmosphere, but a woman as undeniably beautiful as Hu Yifei wearing such a slutty, provocative outfit was practically begging for men's imaginations to run wild.
However, the reality of the room was completely contrary to her outfit. Every single beta male in the bar actively ignored her. Even the drunken predators who were obviously prowling for easy hookups immediately lowered their heads, staring intensely at their drinks the moment she walked in.
Clearly, the local trash had already been violently educated. They knew this girl was an apex predator they absolutely could not afford to provoke.
"Yes! I'm here! I'm here!"
Cowering in the corner booth, Zeng Xiaoxian frantically wiped the pathetic tears from his face and shot up to attention like a disciplined dog answering its master.
"What the hell are you doing hiding in here crying?" Hu Yifei snapped, marching over and grabbing Zeng roughly by the wrist. "Wanyu and Zhanbo are flying back the day after tomorrow. Hurry up and come upstairs with me to get the apartments ready. I want to give them a massive surprise!"
Without waiting for his consent, Hu Yifei began dragging the grown man toward the exit.
"Wait, wait, Yifei, hold on—!"
Zeng clearly wanted to resist. Yet, despite being a towering man who easily weighed twice as much as the petite woman, he was effortlessly dragged along the floor. In terms of raw, explosive power, the pathetic radio host was completely outmatched by the female martial artist.
"Leaving so soon?"
Seeing his prey about to exit the hunting grounds, Adrian knew he couldn't just stand by in the shadows. It was always better to intercept a target head-on than to wait for an invitation. He took a smooth step forward, his tall frame completely blocking their path.
"Who the hell are you?" Hu Yifei stopped, tilting her head back to glare at the stranger. Her eyes narrowed with immediate, aggressive displeasure.
In her territory, for a man to actually dare block her path—he was practically begging for a trip to the emergency room.
"Landlord? Boss, you... you actually came outside in person?!"
However, before Yifei could unleash her temper, Zeng Xiaoxian cringed, staring at Adrian in sheer, undisguised shock. As the pathetic vice-chairman of the iPartment tenant committee, Zeng had obviously seen the reclusive billionaire's face on the lease documents.
'But why does the idiot make it sound like I've just risen from the dead?' Adrian mused coldly.
"He is our landlord?" Hu Yifei's aggressive posture faltered for a fraction of a second. She pointed a manicured finger at Adrian, looking at Zeng in disbelief.
"Yes! He personally owns a total of eight luxury units in this building alone, including our 3601 and 3602!" Zeng whispered frantically.
The iPartment complex, as the name suggested, was a massive residential building built by heavy corporate investment. Apart from the original development tycoons, the prime units were hoarded by incredibly wealthy private owners. As for the legendary promotional gimmicks—like half-price rent and free utilities for couples—those were merely cynical marketing traps designed by the investors. Very few desperate tenants actually qualified for the benefits.
"Wow. I didn't realize this pale, consumptive shut-in was so loaded," Hu Yifei muttered under her breath, giving Adrian a rapid, dismissive visual sweep before whispering to Zeng.
"My hearing is perfectly fine, Miss Hu," Adrian smiled, a dark, dangerous glint flashing in his eyes.
Upon hearing the arrogant woman casually dismiss his physical vessel as a 'consumptive shut-in', Adrian felt a surge of predatory amusement. It was true that this body was currently pale and lacking the hardened, lethal muscle density of his apocalyptic form. As a former degenerate gamer, the vessel lacked sunlight and nutrition. But to call a Sword Saint 'consumptive' was a fatal miscalculation on her part.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, Mr. Landlord, I really didn't mean it that way!" Caught completely off guard by his sharp hearing, Hu Yifei instantly shifted her tone, offering a hasty, embarrassed apology.
"No offense taken. In fact, I have heard that Miss Hu is a truly remarkable, lethal woman," Adrian said, clasping his hands behind his back and looking down at her with a calm, analytical gaze. "I wonder when you might have some free time to... exchange some pointers with me?"
Adrian's mind worked with cold, calculating precision. In terms of sheer difficulty regarding the System's hit list, the gold-digging whores from Tiny Times—Lin Xiao and Nan Xiang—as well as the desperate, debt-ridden Fan Shengmei from Ode to Joy, would be the easiest prey. With his crushing wealth and elevated status, as long as he flashed his bank account, he could effortlessly buy their submission and drag them straight into his bed.
In stark contrast, the women residing in his iPartment units presented the most complex psychological puzzles. Even the inherently materialistic ones, like Qin Yumo and Chen Meijia, possessed a bizarre, sitcom-logic innocence that made them resistant to straightforward financial extortion.
Fortunately, every prey had a fatal flaw.
Take the arrogant Hu Yifei, for example.
"Landlord, you must be joking, right?!"
Upon hearing the pale, reclusive billionaire actually challenge the terrifying Hu Yifei to a physical spar, Zeng Xiaoxian panicked, rushing forward to insert his pathetic body between the two of them.
Zeng was terrified. He only knew Adrian as the extreme, agoraphobic shut-in who collected their rent every month. To see the fragile billionaire casually challenge a national karate champion to a duel was suicidal.
"No, I am entirely serious. I have admired Miss Hu's reputation for martial excellence for quite some time. I wish to test her limits in the ring," Adrian replied smoothly, gently but firmly shoving the terrified radio host aside. He locked his dark, unblinking eyes onto Yifei.
Having completely integrated Masao Busujima's lifetime of brutal martial arts insights, Adrian was an apex predator. Although his current, untrained physical vessel limited him to utilizing a mere thirty percent of the Sword Saint's true, monstrous power, that was still exponentially beyond the capability of any modern athlete. Just like the extortion of Huang Baoqiang—a man who was considered highly trained among ordinary civilians—Adrian could effortlessly crush normal humans with a flick of his wrist.
"Are you sure? You aren't just messing with me?"
Seeing the cold, unyielding, and utterly fearless look in Adrian's eyes, Hu Yifei was genuinely stunned. For years, absolutely no man in Shanghai had dared to challenge her to a physical duel. Her reputation alone usually castrated them on the spot.
"I am absolutely certain. Unless, of course, the great Miss Hu is too afraid of a 'consumptive shut-in' to accept my challenge?" Adrian smiled slightly, weaponizing his mockery.
The simplest, most devastating way to shatter a proud, dominant woman like Hu Yifei was to violently defeat her within her own sacred arena.
'I know exactly how your mind works,' Adrian analyzed coldly. 'You desperately long for a man who is strong enough to completely, physically conquer you. But your resume—a twenty-eight-year-old PhD student and a national full-contact karate champion—intimidates every beta male in the city into submission.'
It was a classic psychological trap. It was nearly impossible for her to find a man who could genuinely overpower her in both intellect and raw physical violence. And if a man was truly that elite, why would he waste his time dealing with her aggressive, masculine temper?
Because she couldn't find a true conqueror, her biological clock had forced her to settle for a pathetic, submissive pet like Zeng Xiaoxian. It was the tragic coping mechanism of the modern, elite "leftover woman"—if she couldn't find a master to kneel for, she would find a worm she could endlessly dominate.
But Adrian was no worm. He was going to step into her ring, shatter her arrogant bones, and force her to realize what a true Master looked like.
.....
.....
.....
Support me and read advance chapters on patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter