Inside the Li Family mansion.
Li Xiujian expressionlessly tossed his tablet onto the desk. On the screen was an image of Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli smiling at each other.
"Yuanlong Technologies... What a move, Lu Chenyuan. A perfect golden cicada shedding its shell!"
The malice in his eyes was almost palpable.
He had originally thought Lu Chenyuan had been forced out by that fool Lu Mingshi's power play.
Now it was clear—everything had been orchestrated by Lu Chenyuan himself!
He had planned all along to abandon the sinking ship of the Lu Family and start anew.
This young man's cunning and tactics were far more terrifying than he had imagined.
"Boss," his trusted subordinate whispered beside him, "Our people investigating 'Far Star Real Estate' have returned. The company is just a shell, with layers of holding structures—impossible to trace the real owner. But... its registration date coincides exactly with when Lu Chenyuan began selling off his shares."
"Stop digging," Li Xiujian coldly cut him off. "It's him. No one else."
Everything fell into place.
While plotting his exit from the Lu Family, Lu Chenyuan had also secretly snatched the land parcel Li Xiujian had been eyeing.
Two moves, one in the light and one in the shadows, executed simultaneously—leaving him blindsided.
Now, his biggest leverage, "Sheng Tian Real Estate," had turned into a burning hot potato.
Lu Chenyuan had already jumped out of the game, and that idiot Lu Mingshi had been played yet again, with no funds to take over.
If Sheng Tian's problems exploded in his hands, not only would he suffer massive losses, but it would also expose the hidden networks he had spent years building.
No—this ticking time bomb had to be passed on, and fast.
And in all of Jingzhou, there was still only one person foolish and greedy enough to be the perfect scapegoat—Lu Mingshi.
"Prepare the car," Li Xiujian stood, a flicker of humiliation and resolve in his eyes. "We're going to Lu Corporation."
---
Lu Corporation, CEO’s office.
Lu Mingshi lounged in his expensive leather chair, feet propped on the desk, puffing leisurely on a premium cigar.
Though the recent stock plunge had annoyed him, the thrill of holding absolute power drowned out all concerns.
As he fantasized about reshaping Lu Corporation in his image—purging the old guard who dared defy him—his secretary knocked, voice tense.
"Chairman... Chairman Lu, a Mr. Li is here to see you. He said you’d know who he is."
"Li?" Lu Mingshi raised an eyebrow, lips curling into a mocking smirk. "Let him wait."
And wait he did—for a full hour.
When Li Xiujian finally entered the office, he was met with Lu Mingshi’s gloating face.
"Well, well, if it isn’t Chairman Li? To what do I owe the honor?" Lu Mingshi slowly straightened in his chair but made no move to stand, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
How the tables had turned.
Once, he had groveled before Li Xiujian, desperate to prove himself and secure investment opportunities.
Today, he would repay every ounce of humiliation tenfold.
Li Xiujian’s expression remained unreadable, as if the taunts had flown past him.
"Chairman Lu now reigns supreme. Naturally, I came to pay my respects."
"Flattery will get you nowhere," Lu Mingshi sneered. "Get to the point. I’m a busy man."
"Sheng Tian Real Estate," Li Xiujian cut straight to it.
"I know funds were tight for you last time, but as Lu Corporation’s new helmsman, that shouldn’t be an issue now. I’m willing to sell all my Sheng Tian shares to you—at a 10% discount from our last negotiation."
He kept his tone deferential. He had little leverage left.
Yet Lu Mingshi laughed—a loud, derisive bark.
"Ten percent? Are you trying to swindle me, Li Xiujian?"
He stood, jabbing a finger into Li Xiujian’s chest.
"Remember when I begged you to sell those shares to me? What did you say? Times have changed. This is my era now!"
He dropped back into his chair with a cold laugh.
"Let me make this clear—I’ll take Sheng Tian. But the price? I set it."
He held up five fingers.
"Fifty percent off your last offer. Take it or leave it."
Li Xiujian’s eyes flashed with lethal fury, the air around him turning glacial.
Fifty percent?
This wasn’t negotiation—it was outright robbery.
"Problem?" Lu Mingshi smirked, confident Li Xiujian had no choice.
"Don’t play dumb. Sheng Tian’s a sinking ship. If not for old times’ sake, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole!"
He wanted to humiliate him, to grind this once-untouchable man into the dirt.
Li Xiujian’s chest heaved, his gaze locked onto Lu Mingshi.
Then, inexplicably, the rage in his eyes vanished, replaced by an eerie calm.
"Fine," he hissed.
"Fifty percent. But the deal closes in three days."
He needed to sever all ties to Sheng Tian—immediately.
Lu Mingshi blinked, startled by his compliance, then swelled with triumph.
"Smart man!"
He summoned legal and finance with a call, gleefully watching as Li Xiujian signed the humiliating contract.
As Li Xiujian left, Lu Mingshi spat at his retreating back.
"Pathetic."
The moment Li Xiujian slid into his car, his composed mask shattered.
"BAM!"
His fist slammed into the window, spiderwebbing the glass.
"Lu Mingshi," he growled, voice raw like a wounded beast,
"You will pay—a thousand times over—for today."
He had been humiliated.
But his goal was achieved.
The bomb was now planted deep within Lu Corporation’s heart.
All that remained was to wait—for the perfect moment to light the fuse.
---
Yuanlong Technologies, top-floor office.
Lu Chenyuan set down the phone, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"President Lu," Zhang Qi entered, reporting, "Confirmed—Lu Mingshi just acquired all of Li Xiujian’s Sheng Tian shares at half the price."
"Good," Lu Chenyuan nodded.
Everything was proceeding exactly as planned.
From the very beginning, he knew that with Lu Mingshi's vindictive and arrogant nature, once the man gained power, he would inevitably seek ruthless revenge and humiliation against Li Xiujian.
And Li Xiujian, desperate to rid himself of the burden of Shengtian, would have no choice but to endure the humiliation.
What he exploited was precisely the conflict and human weaknesses between the two.
"Our mole inside Shengtian has also sent word," Zhang Qi continued.
"After taking over, Lu Mingshi immediately launched a high-profile internal overhaul, demanding all projects accelerate their progress to boost performance and stabilize the stock price. Many previously suppressed safety hazards and financial loopholes have been ignored."
"Expected," Lu Chenyuan replied, walking toward the floor-to-ceiling window as he gazed down at the bustling city below.
"Notify Su Yang. Have him anonymously send that secret ledger—the 'Project Emergency Reserve Fund'—to the heads of the Jingzhou Discipline Inspection Commission and the Tax Audit Bureau."
Lu Chenyuan's voice was calm and icy, as if discussing a trivial matter.
"The timing is ripe."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
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?!
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
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!
