The scene before him brought him great discomfort, but he forced himself to start moving again. This time, he headed for the debris that used to be the Sierra Group’s headquarters. He could sense Isabella’s presence there; her breathing was almost undetectable, but it proved she was still alive. Darius wanted to shake her awake and discover what had happened in that split second of pain.As he approached the debris, he saw something that made him raise an eyebrow in surprise. Isabella lay on the ground, and in her arms lay a man who looked many years her senior—he was probably old enough to be her grandfather, but what was more surprising was that Darius recognized him. He was the founder of the Sierra Group, Sierra Stevens Soderbergh, and the person Darius was truly after. Unexpectedly, he’d turned out to be absolutely unimportant.Darius watched them coldly, feeling uncomfortable. He looked at Isabella, who took a long while to calm her ragged breathing. She used all her strength
Since his instinct told him something was up, it meant Isabella’s death wasn’t due to natural causes. Still, it was simple enough to see whether she was truly dead. Darius had a smile on his face as he walked to Sierra Stevens Soderbergh, whose breathing was almost undetectable. He raised an eyebrow—now, he knew why Isabella had been so weak earlier despite her being only slightly weaker than him. As an enlightened martial artist, it was unfathomable for her to have sustained such serious injuries from a single cry, but now it seemed she’d sacrificed herself to protect Sierra.Darius raised an eyebrow again. This conclusion seemed ludicrous, but it was the only one he could think of. Whatever the truth was, it wouldn’t change the result—Isabella was not a humane person with a conscience. She had to have her reasons for protecting Sierra; perhaps she could’ve gotten something out of it. Darius frowned. He wanted to know what her motivations were—an enlightened martial artist’s body
“You’re doing something dumb by giving me that innocent look.” Darius looked at Edward contemptuously. The look in Edward’s eyes slowly morphed at his words—indeed, half of it belonged to the actual Edward, but the other half made one’s hair stand on end. When he opened his mouth, his voice was hoarse. “I’m surprised you actually managed to see I’m not truly Edward. It’s not something that would’ve occurred to the average individual, yet you immediately thought about this.”Isabella suddenly smiled, giving Edward’s face a creepy vibe. She could only control half of Edward’s body and struggled to drag the other half forward. Darius raised an eyebrow when he saw this and stood in Edward’s way with his hands behind his back.He looked calm, but his hands betrayed him as he tapped the fingers of one hand on the other. Isabella couldn’t see this; all she knew was he was standing in her way.She frowned and said gratingly, “You’d better get out of my way! All you’re doing is making me angr
She pointed a trembling finger at Darius, but the arm soon fell back to its side, and the eye on the side of Edward’s body under her control widened in surprise. The corner of her lips twitched, but she couldn’t make a sound.Darius noticed this and raised an eyebrow. He raised his arms again and enveloped Edward in his life force. He’d originally intended to help Edward attack Isabella, but he couldn’t accurately pinpoint her with his eyes open. On the other hand, she could see his life force and easily avoid him, which meant he could injure Edward at any time. And so, that wasn’t the right way to handle this. However, he could boost Edward and help him defeat Isabella by enveloping Edward in his life force. There was a plus point to this method—if Isabella were to take the opportunity to absorb his life force, it would injure her instead of giving her a boost because it’d be extremely difficult for her to refine Darius’ life force.He didn’t yet know this, but his life force was g
At this moment, Isabella broke free of Edward’s grasp and made a beeline for Darius. Unfortunately for her, Darius had expected this and was on his guard—he didn’t believe for a second she would agree to end her life so easily. As expected, he was right.Darius raised an eyebrow at the black sphere that was zipping toward him and smiled mockingly. “You’re dumber than I thought.” He started channeling his life force to form an enormous web in mid-air that emitted a faint, gold glow. The black sphere abruptly stopped before switching directions and trying to flee. Then, she stopped and fell to the floor—there was nowhere else for her to run because she was surrounded by the web.She took a deep breath, and the black sphere started to morph. This time, Darius wasn’t surprised. He’d already seen her go from looking like a young woman to an old one; this time, she was just going from a black sphere to her actual state. He stood there and watched as she slowly morphed back into a human st
Isabella looked at Darius with jealousy. He’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and even though an accident caused him to grow up in poverty, it hadn’t taken his life or intelligence away. Instead, he’d grown into a handsome young man and made his way into the country’s most prestigious university, Kingston University, even managing to be at the top of his class. While working odd jobs to support himself, he didn’t encounter any hardened hooligans who could take away his good looks or brains, and he’d made it out on top.Isabella’s lips parted and sealed a few times. Eventually, all she said was, “You have no idea how jealous I am of you. If I were you…” Before she could continue, she saw his finger twitch, and she quickly held up a hand to stop him. “Alright, alright. I’ll cut the crap and tell you what you want to know. Firstly, you wanted to know when Drake and I met, but I think what you really want to know is what our relationship was. It’s as you expected—we were bot
“However, I can tell you this in absolute confidence—none of the martial arts the black-robed people practice are good. This includes that good friend of yours, Shelvin. I guarantee he’s hiding something from you. I’ve had my eye on him since he first showed up in Almiron City, and the type of martial art he’s displayed is innocuous enough. He told you he’s been practicing that since he was a child, but that’s impossible. He lied to you, perhaps to leave you with a good impression. Still, I don’t know what happened to him, but he’s definitely different from how he used to be in their secret base. You’re going to have to dig deeper on your own, though.”Isabella smiled after that, then continued, “Now, your last question was about meditation.” She sighed softly and looked at Darius. “Based on the emotions I sensed from you as I spoke, I can tell you honestly know nothing about meditation. It doesn’t matter—I’ll tell you everything you need to know.” She paused, then said, “The art of
“I chose to return to my former life to protect my child and secretly absorbed the lives of my blood relatives. Then, I’d return to my husband’s side as if nothing had happened. I thought I’d done a good job of hiding the truth, but I forgot how sensitive my husband was. He noticed the blood on my clothes and its scent all over me, but he didn’t say a word. We stayed like this until I was in labor. There were some complications, and I almost died in childbirth. However, as I lay there, Sierra came in with our baby. He asked the medical personnel to leave and told them he’d given up on me. I was filled with despair, but when we were alone, all he did was silently put our baby beside me.”“Then, he said something I’ll never forget—he told me he knew I could keep myself alive by absorbing the lives of my blood relatives. Since we were alone, I could do whatever I had to do, and he’d cover for me. He also told me I was the most important thing to him in the world. You have no idea how sho
"If you hadn't picked on me, I wouldn't have ended up like this. No matter how wealthy I've become, I'll never be able to take these black robes off!" The mysterious man's voice was shaky. He was extremely agitated.James frowned at that. He said curiously, "You keep saying I've done you wrong, but everything I did to you was what you did to others. I only gave you a taste of your own medicine."The mysterious man's breathing sped up when he heard that. He barked out a laugh and sneered, "I'll be honest with you. I never thought I'd have the chance to meet someone as dumb as you again."He shook his head. "I find it hard to imagine what your grandson will do when he sees you like this." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the door was kicked open with a loud bang. The man was caught off guard. He looked at Darius as his body trembled violently.Darius frowned when he saw this. It was completely different from what he'd imagined. He narrowed his eyes at the mysterious man, his
Gabriel smiled and nodded. "Alright, then. I'll return to my workstation and prepare a proposal on what to do with Noah."Darius nodded and smiled. "Good. That's all I ever wanted." He turned to leave. "You need to get to work, and I need to return to my hotel to get some rest."Gabriel stopped. Darius' words made him hesitate. "I'm sorry to be asking this because I don't think it's my place, but it's probably better for me to ask anyway. I don't remember there being any hotels nearby."You should head home if you wanna get some rest. I don't understand why you're heading to a hotel to rest."Darius raised an eyebrow, looking surprised. He turned with his hands behind his back to look at Gabriel helplessly. "I don't know how to feel about what you've just said. You're making me think you're a little silly. Wouldn't I know how to search for a hotel?"It won't take you long to prepare a proposal, but it'll take me ages to get home from here." Darius turned and left.Gabriel's lips twitc
"Because you realized the risk was far greater than what you were comfortable with," Darius said calmly.But Noah started trembling. He looked at Darius in terror. He didn't expect Darius to see right through him after some simple back-and-forth. His eyes widened in fear.Everything that was happening now made him feel like he was dreaming. Noah had only been a step away from success, yet Darius had ruined everything.Tears filled his eyes as he gazed at Darius. "I've said everything there is to say. I'm the lowest rung on this ladder, and I only have one purpose for being here. It's to make you come under the authorities' control. Once you're here, my mission's accomplished."Someone else from the authorities will be here to deal with you, but that has nothing to do with me. They wouldn't have told me about it, anyway."Darius put his hands behind his back without saying anything. He turned to leave. Noah's eyes widened as he stared in fear at Darius' back.Darius didn't see this, bu
When Darius straightened up, his face became devoid of emotion. He said calmly, "I've wasted too much time on you. Now, I only want frank answers. Otherwise, I'll punish you for every lie that you tell me. I don't see any hope in your eyes, but let's see whether you prove me wrong."Darius paused, then continued, "I've already said something similar once. That was a chance I gave you. From this moment onward, I want you to know that I won't repeat myself because I believe you've had enough time to prepare yourself."Gabriel stood beside him and put his hands behind his back as his lips twitched. He'd thought about the various reasons for Darius repeating himself. But the one thing that hadn't occurred to him was that Darius had done it to give Noah time to prepare.Gabriel felt like applauding Darius, but the rational side of him stopped him from doing so. His rationality told him he'd be in for trouble if he were to do that, so he only looked at Darius with a smile.Darius sensed Ga
Darius raised an eyebrow and smiled. Then, he said, "You're too nervous, Gabriel. It makes it seem like you don't trust me. In truth, there's nothing for you to worry about."He stretched his neck and continued, "I know very well how bad the consequences of destroying this building will be. Aside from those silly regulations, I'll also need to pay for it. I might be wealthy, but that doesn't mean I'll enjoy forking out a huge sum of money as compensation."Darius spread his hands and shrugged. At the same time, he pointed at the window and turned to look at Gabriel. Then, he said, "Look. The windows are perfectly fine. They're not even scratched. That shows my life force is non-destructive."That's why you have nothing to worry about. You can put your heart back into your chest."Gabriel straightened up and sighed in relief. Then, he gave Darius an embarrassed smile.Darius grinned but didn't say anything in response. He put his hands behind his back and turned to look at Noah. He sai
"We're classmates from the same major, too! We were interns at Dream Investment Group, remember? And we got kicked out on our first day. You broke my legs because of a tiny argument we had outside the building! The surveillance cameras captured all of this!" Noah cried.Darius tucked his hands into his pockets and rolled his eyes. Then, he said mockingly, "You're the biggest fool I've ever met. Do you think you're the only one who can tamper with the surveillance footage? Any footage that can be tampered with can also be restored."Noah's eyes widened in shock. He gulped and tried to think of a way to explain away the injuries Darius had inflicted on him. Still, he couldn't think of anything. Before he had the chance to think any further, Darius spoke.He said, "There's one thing you got right, though. Gabriel is on my side, so he'll stand up for me no matter what you say."Gabriel's lips twitched at that. He subconsciously opened his mouth to say something in return, but Darius bea
"And I don't think it's my job to make you see sense," Gabriel continued. He put his hands behind his back. He gave Noah a look that was an odd mixture of gentle iciness. "I've given you more than enough time and chances."Gabriel sighed. "It's obvious that you don't care for that, though. And so I think it's time for me to treat you as an officer should." He sat down on the other side of the desk again.Noah's face was white with fear. Gabriel acted like he didn't see this, though. He smiled. "As I mentioned, I gave you plenty of time and chances, but you didn't appreciate them."His gaze turned frosty. "If that's the case, I'm sure you won't object to me doing this per our guidelines."Noah cried, "No, wait! I don't know what Darius has promised you to make you side with him unconditionally, but there's no way I'll let you two get away with this. You have to make sure you do everything by the book. It's a reasonable request, and you have no right to turn me down!"He trembled viole
Gabriel put his hands behind his back as he looked at Noah with a smile. "Now, you've piqued my interest."Noah looked up at Gabriel. His voice was deep and hoarse as he said, "If you help me, I'll give you half of the Reid Consortium's assets once I get my hands on them. You should know that without me, there's no way you'll get a dime from the Reid Consortium."Gabriel snorted with laughter when he heard that. He straightened up and slowly circled Noah. He sounded mocking as he said, "You've lost me there. I tried to puzzle it out, but it doesn't make sense at all."Why would I want to get my hands on the Reid Consortium's fortune? Even without it, I'm perfectly independent. I don't need it to survive."Gabriel crossed his arms and looked at Noah mockingly. "Or maybe you're different from the rest of us. Maybe you'll die without the Reid Consortium's wealth." He smirked and gave Noah a sharp gaze.Noah raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You're the one making me laugh now. I don't know
Gabriel sounded gentle, but everyone knew that was far from the truth. This was especially true for Noah, who sat across from him. He felt incredibly nervous. He shut his eyes and breathed rapidly.Noah never would've expected to still be in danger after being taken in by the authorities. He frowned and looked up at Gabriel. "So, are you determined to help Darius now?" His voice was shaky, and his eyes were wide because of his nerves.His emotions were clear as he looked at Gabriel. Gabriel bit his lip, feeling like he was about to laugh. To stop Noah from noticing, he quickly exhaled and sat down with one leg over the other. At the same time, he leaned forward to place his hands on the desk.He tapped his fingers on the desk quickly but rhythmically. Gabriel's eyes were devoid of emotion as he looked at Noah. "Tell me, Noah. What happened between you and Darius? Earlier, you said he was the one who injured you. Do you have any proof?"Because we checked the surveillance footage, a