That day, two big stories shook Veyra City.
The first played across every local news channel.
The 88 Club by the Azure River—exposed for running an underground ring of exploitation and black-market schemes. The man behind it, known by aliases Quinlan and Haoxuan, was finally under arrest. Six young victims had been rescued.
The case was cracked by the Voss Legal Department, working directly with the Veyra City Police.
The news anchor repeated clearly:
"We thank the Voss Group for providing critical evidence and legal support."
The second story never made television.
But every powerful family in the upper circle received it—quiet, sharp, and final.
The Voss family had unilaterally announced the end of Kael Voss's engagement to Lila Hart.
From that moment, Kael's phone did not stop ringing.
The first call was from Lila's mother.
Just like Lila, she relied on guilt and pressure from the very start.
"Kael, I heard you're cutting things off with my daughter. You can't do this! Everyone in our circle knows you're together. If you end this, how will Lila ever show her face? How will she marry?"
"Auntie, Lila never wanted to marry me. The Hart family has been feeding off the Voss name long enough. It's time to stop."
"You ungrateful boy! You're ruining her! Do you have any idea how this looks? You're being irresponsible!"
Kael listened to the endless accusations, calm and unaffected.
When someone tried to trap you with morality, all you had to do was step outside their rules.
"Don't worry about Lila's reputation," he said softly, but with ice beneath. "The Hart family was never part of this circle. Once we end the engagement, you won't be in it at all. So reputation won't matter."
His words cut straight to the bone.
Before she could scream back, Kael hung up.
The next call was Lila's father.
He took a softer, gentler approach.
"Kael, young people fight. It's normal. I know you've always cared for Lila. I'm sure she made a mistake. I'll tell her to apologize. But you can't mean this engagement talk."
Kael smiled coldly.
"Uncle, you always were clever. When I was a child, I didn't care for Lila at all. You were the one who kept me around, whispering in my ear that I had to marry her. You're the one who planted that idea."
The truth, hidden for years, burst into the open.
On the other end, the line went completely silent.
After Kael publicly ended the engagement, Mr. and Mrs. Voss were suddenly swamped.
Every influential family in Veyra City sent marriage proposals.
The Voss Group was the wealthiest name among the four top families.
To marry into Voss was to climb straight into power.
In just half a day, the Voss family received more than a dozen offers.
Every family was well-established.
Every daughter or niece was beautiful—every bit as stunning as Lila Hart.
Only the most confident dared reach out.
When the Harts heard, they panicked.
They had spent years manipulating Kael.
Now, just as Kael was old enough to marry, their perfect wealthy son-in-law had slipped away.
Unable to reach Kael, they called Lila home immediately.
She arrived still dazed, broken, lost.
Her parents did not care.
They shouted at her the second she stepped through the door.
"What happened?! You said you had him wrapped around your finger! This is how you control him?!"
"Do you know how many girls would kill to marry into the Voss family? Money, status, power—everything! After all these years, you let him go?!"
One parent yelled, the other sighed, both pressing down on her.
Lila snapped.
"Rich? I can be rich too!"
Her parents stared at her, helpless and furious.
They knew how impossible that sounded.
Lila knew it too.
Deep down, she understood how much the Voss family had given them.
The money, the gifts, the connections.
She only refused to admit it.
Her father frowned. "The engagement can be fixed. Kael chased you for years. He can't just stop loving you. He still cares. You have to win him back."
Her mother was far more direct.
"You will get Kael back. Do whatever it takes. Trick him. Drink with him. Get close. If he still tries to leave, you cause trouble at his house, at his company. Make the Voss family ashamed. He'll have no choice but to marry you."
Her father nodded eagerly.
Lila stared at her mother in disbelief.
"Mother! What do you take me for? I'm not doing something like that!"
"Everything has a price," her mother snapped. "Marrying into the Voss family is worth any price. You succeed, and we all live like kings."
"I won't! I don't need the Voss family! I can be successful on my own!"
Her parents grew more and more frustrated.
They could not make her understand.
Finally, a boy spoke up from the side.
Lila's younger brother.
"Mom, Dad, she's right. Why should we beg for Voss scraps? They make millions and give Dad some small manager job? They treat us like servants!"
Her father slammed his hand on the table.
"Shut up! That small manager job is everything! Our house, our cars—all of it is from the Voss family! If they cut us off, where will we live?!"
The boy rolled his eyes, unconvinced.
He had been spoiled since childhood.
He quit school after middle school and wandered the streets, pretending he had connections.
He constantly asked his family for money.
When his parents refused, he went to Kael.
Kael always gave him hundreds at a time.
The boy never once thanked him.
He thought Kael was cheap.
To him, the Voss family was just a chain holding the Harts back.
The argument went nowhere.
No one backed down.
By evening, Lila's mother did not call her for dinner.
Lila stayed locked in her room, lost in thought.
Then her brother quietly slipped in.
His first words made her freeze.
" Sis… do you want to make real money?"
Lila turned sharply.
At that moment, making money was all she cared about.
She wanted to earn enough to stand before Kael and look down on him.
She wanted to make him crawl back to her.
But she still had sense left.
"How? Nothing illegal."
"Not illegal!" the boy said excitedly. "You just need to be good at math. My friend made tens of thousands in a week! With your grades, Sis? We could overtake the Voss family in a year, easy!"
A middle-school dropout with street "connections" promising easy, legal money.
Anyone with real experience would have laughed and walked away.
But Lila had no experience at all.
She was a top student at Havenshire University.
She trusted her intelligence.
She leaned in, listening closely.
Meanwhile, after gaining the ancient medical inheritance, Kael saw the world differently.
A faint, invisible energy flowed through everything.
Inside every human body, countless lines pulsed with life.
Breath flowed into those lines, creating vitality.
Young, healthy people had bright, strong, flexible lines.
Older, weaker people had dull, sluggish lines.
Sick people had lines that were blocked, stiff, or near-breaking.
Kael realized he could not only fix damaged lines but awaken and strengthen the others.
In the ancient teachings, those lines were called energy pathways.
Clear them, and illness vanished.
This inheritance was a divine reward from the system, unlocked after he completed certain actions in his vision of the future.
And that gave him a sudden thought.
Were those future flashes actually mission clues?
Kael had seen two fragments so far.
One was military training, ten days from now.
It had not seemed meaningful at first.
But now he replayed it carefully, studying every detail.
Aurora Hale returned to her dorm with her roommates, face flushed from training, hair stuck to her skin from sweat.
They chatted softly.
Suddenly, Lila burst in, eyes red, staring at Aurora as if she were an enemy.
Without a word, the two girls lunged at each other.
Another girl, lying on her bed and checking her phone, sat up excitedly, quickly hid her news screen, and started recording.
Wait.
Kael's eyes snapped open.
He replayed the moment again.
A news message.
A text news alert, from the future.