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