*****"How dare that b!tch not return to her office yet!? She must still be with that vile spawn!" Inside a somewhat dark room thick with tension, an enraged and ferocious Dominic, who had turned into an entirely different person from the don known to the world, suddenly snarled, his grip on the wine glass of wine in his hand tightening until finally;“Damn her!!!” He hissed, his teeth grinding against each other and then unable to hold his emotions together again: the glass flew from his hand, shattering against the wall like the fragile threads of his composure, causing the secretary nearby to flinch slightly.The secretary had already gone pale, overwhelmed by the intense aura emanating from her E-rank fighter boss, an aura that would have long crushed ordinary people.She watched in absolute stupor as her typically calm and composed boss lost his temper and control, something she had never seen before despite having worked with him for years.'That b!tch is certainly so fortu

*****Xavier didn’t depart immediately after the little girl had gone, instead, he observed her as she hurried over to a street vendor, eagerly handing over the money he had just given her, her eyes locked on the noodles she was about to buy as though it was a sort of delicacy which anyone would die for.Eventually, after making sure the little girl was okay, he sighed deeply and then brushed off the emotions that threatened to surface, before turning and leaving the market.Barely five minutes after Xavier had left, however, four scruffy-looking roadside gangsters appeared in front of the little girl, who was crouched on the ground, happily devouring the bland-looking noodles she had just purchased as though it were the most delicious meal she had ever tasted in her life.“I see you’ve got cash on you to buy such an expensive-looking meal,” the man who seemed to be the leader, a cigarette dangling from his lips, said abruptly, and the instant the little girl, who was lost in her

*****Of all the possibilities the two brothers had imagined, they had never, not even in their worst nightmare considered what their third brothers had just uttered.Their father, the patriarch of one of Riverton City's six first-rank families—a man who was practically a god in the city, having been controlling the fates of others for decades—was being controlled by someone? It was unthinkable.“Are—are you sure about what you just said?” Aldric and Roland asked in unison for the umpteenth time, their voices dark, cold, and filled with apprehension.“I’m 90% sure,” Darian, the third brother, responded, forcing out a deep breath as he tried his best to contain his emotions.“According to my research, there was an ancient, lost art of acupuncture, one that belonged to a terrifying and evil faction that had terrorized the entire world for centuries. This technique specializes in one thing: controlling the bodies and souls of its hosts.”“This…” Darian’s words sent a cold shiver do

*****The elderly driver continued staring at Xavier with a deep sense of pity from the rearview mirror, seeing in him the reflection of a younger, hopeful version of himself—naive, thinking he had found an easier way, only to be met with a bitter disappointment and everlasting regret.He continued waiting patiently for Xavier to respond, but when none came, the old man finally let out a small sigh, already ‘knowing’ the answer."I’ve been there, my friend," he said softly, breaking the silence that had enveloped the car. He paused for a moment, then sighed again. “If you’re open to a bit of advice from an old beggar like me, I’d say you should return home.”His tone was so sincere, coming from deep within, that Xavier couldn’t help but turn his gaze toward him, and noticing this, the old man quickly clarified, not wanting to be misunderstood. “I’ll take your number and let you know if the Blackwoods ever announce another charity session in the future, because, to be honest with y

*****For what felt like an eternity, but in reality, just a brief moment, the old driver remained frozen in space after what he had just witnessed, utterly stunned with his mouth widely ajar.He continued to gape in absolute disbelief, unable to reconcile the scene before him until finally. ‘Could—could it be that I’m now seeing and hearing things because I haven’t eaten all day?’ he wondered dazedly in his mind, struggling to accept the reality before his eyes.Although he hadn’t seen it firsthand, his deep interest in the Blackwood family and years of listening had made him well aware of the stories and rumors surrounding its elite security forces, which is that intruders were never shown any mercy, no matter what.In fact, there had always been a popular saying that had been circulating among them that; “Execution first, ask later. Yet, here they were, showing an entirely unexpected level of respect that completely contradicted the rumor surrounding them.….“I must be hallu