After work, Qin Ya returned to her villa and shut herself in her room, refusing to see anyone.
For the first time, she began to doubt herself.
She doubted her own abilities, doubted everything she had always believed in.
That night, she sat alone in the empty living room, watching the myriad lights of Jingzhou outside the window, yet she felt no warmth.
Only a biting loneliness.
Just then, the doorbell of the villa rang.
She didn't want to answer it, but the bell rang persistently, over and over.
Finally, with irritation, she got up and opened the door.
Standing outside was Huangfu Chengshi.
He was wearing simple athletic wear, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead, as if he had run all the way there.
In his hand, he carried a thermal lunchbox.
"Ya Jiejie."
Looking at her pale face and dim eyes, the heartache in his gaze was almost overflowing.
"I... I heard..."
His voice was very soft.
"I brought you some congee."
"My mother used to drink this when she was unhappy."
Qin Ya looked at him, at his face etched with caution and worry.
The string that had been pulled taut in her heart suddenly snapped.
She didn't say a word, simply stepped aside silently to let him in.
That night, he didn't ask a single extra question.
He just quietly kept her company, watching her finish the bowl of plain congee that had gone slightly cold, sip by sip.
Then he quietly packed up the thermal lunchbox and left.
From start to finish, there wasn't a single superfluous word of comfort, yet it made Qin Ya feel a long-lost warmth more than any consolation could.
Huangfu Chengshi walked home, the night breeze blowing against his young face.
His mind replayed, over and over again, Qin Ya's fragile and exhausted face.
He clenched his fists.
For the first time, he hated his own powerlessness so intensely.
He could ward off a few annoying flirtatious men for her, could use playful whining to get her out of a few tight spots.
He could even borrow her influence to scare off fools like Huangfu Chengxuan.
But when she truly faced a crisis, when she was betrayed by those closest to her, when she sat alone in the cold darkness...
He could do nothing.
All he could do was deliver a bowl of bland, harmless plain congee.
What use was that?
It wasn't enough. Far from enough.
Merely being her "pendant," merely being her "lackey" was far from enough.
What he wanted wasn't to hide under her wing seeking shelter; what he wanted was to be able to hold up a piece of the sky for her.
He needed to possess real power.
Powerful enough to crush petty schemers like Qin Huai.
Powerful enough to make her father never dare to sacrifice her lightly again.
Powerful enough to completely rescue her from that cold, calculating family.
At that moment, the clarity and dependence belonging to a youth completely faded from Huangfu Chengshi's eyes.
Replacing it was a flame, belonging to a beast—obsessive, craving strength.
His goddess had fallen into hardship.
He, her most devout believer, had to grow up quickly.
Then, take up arms and fight for her.
...
That failure was like a tempering by fire.
Qin Ya did not shatter.
She was only forged harder, colder, and sharper.
During her six-month suspension, she did not wallow in despair.
She turned herself into a sponge.
Frantically absorbing any knowledge that could make her stronger.
Finance, law, psychology.
She operated like a tireless machine at high speed.
Six months later, Qin Ya returned to the management of the Qin Group.
This time, she was like a newly sharpened blade.
Whoever stood in her way would be mercilessly cut down.
Including her cousin, Qin Huai.
She spent three months setting up an intricate trap.
She paid Qin Huai back for his methods of framing her, with interest.
Qin Huai was completely removed from the line of succession.
She had won.
She won cleanly and decisively, but she also won as a loner.
She grew increasingly powerful, and increasingly lonely.
She crafted a perfect mask for herself.
Aloof, capricious, willful.
This mask could help her scare off suitors with ill intentions.
It could also let her lull her opponents in brutal business negotiations.
Over time, even she almost forgot what she was like beneath the mask.
Only when facing Huangfu Chengshi.
Would she occasionally remove the mask, revealing a hint of genuine impatience and helplessness.
Because she knew this little "brother" posed no threat to her.
He was just that sticky pendant who would always follow behind her.
Time is the best catalyst.
Huangfu Chengshi grew like a vine in the shadows, climbing upward frantically.
His height surpassed Qin Ya's.
His shoulders broadened.
His voice shed its youthful timbre, becoming deeper.
He also grew increasingly handsome.
He was now a tall, seventeen-year-old youth.
His feelings for Qin Ya also quietly transformed during this silent pursuit.
From dependence to worship, to the possessive desire quietly sprouting in adolescence.
It was a turbulent emotion even he couldn't fully understand.
He only knew that when he saw other men appear by Qin Ya's side...
The silent beast in his heart bared its fangs for the first time.
That man was called Wei Xianzhe.
The second son of the Wei family, another prominent clan in Jingzhou.
Handsome, outstanding, elegant and poised.
Most importantly, Wei Xianzhe was a second son.
And the Wei family was only slightly less influential than the Qin family.
Wei Xianzhe was widely considered one of the top choices for a son-in-law among the elite circles.
Wei Xianzhe launched a fierce pursuit of Qin Ya.
A daily bouquet of blue roses air-freighted from Holland.
Limited-edition jewelry sent to Qin Ya's office at the Qin Group from time to time.
He would reserve entire restaurants just to have a meal with her.
He would appear at every one of her public appearances.
His gaze was gentle and focused.
He told everyone that Qin Ya was the only woman he ever wanted to conquer.
All of Jingzhou watched, observing this top-tier love game between the prince and the queen.
Qin Ya remained cool and aloof towards him.
But she didn't explicitly reject him either.
To her, this was just a boring game on the social scene.
A relatively useful shield to fend off her family's pressure to marry.
She calmly accepted Wei Xianzhe's attentions, seemingly also enjoying the thrill of having him wrapped around her finger.
But in Huangfu Chengshi's eyes, all of this...
Was the most serious violation of his sacred territory.
His goddess was being coveted by another believer.
He could not tolerate it.
Huangfu Chengshi began his silent hunt.
He no longer just followed behind Qin Ya.
He began to investigate Wei Xianzhe.
Investigate this man who dared to challenge his claim.
He used every means at his disposal.
Using a program he wrote himself, he infiltrated Wei Xianzhe's social networks.
He browsed all his public information.
And those private posts he thought he had deleted.
Like the most patient hunter, he sifted through vast fragments of information, searching for his prey's weakness.
He believed that, like most scions of wealthy families,
Wei Xianzhe, this seemingly brilliant golden boy, was in private nothing more than a complete hypocrite.

lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...

ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!

ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!

iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."