Lin Tian Dies, Dragon King's Origin Acquired

...

Jinling City, First Detention Center.

3:00 AM.

The rain was pouring heavily, smashing against the tin roof with a dull, heavy noise. The medical room was located at the end of the corridor, deprived of sunlight year-round. The air was a mix of musty disinfectant and a faint scent of blood.

Lin Tian lay on the pale sickbed.

He slowly closed his eyes, recalling his past. His former glory seemed to blow past like a frayed silk thread in the wind.

In his youth, he was the master of the Dragon King Palace, dominating overseas. With a single command, a hundred thousand soldiers would march.

But now, he was like a half-rotted mummy.

From his chest to his limbs, thick medical bandages wrapped him tightly. Seeping blood dyed the white cloth a glaring dark red. To prevent him from self-harming or lashing out, his wrists and ankles were locked with thumb-thick steel shackles, firmly secured to the bed frame.

It had been three days.

For these three days, his dantian felt as if it were being repeatedly churned by a blunt knife. His martial arts foundation had been crippled, his meridians shattered inch by inch. With every breath, his lungs wheezed like a broken bellows, bringing tearing, agonizing pain.

Beep—beep—

The vital signs monitor next to him let out a monotonous sound.

Footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the door.

Very light, but highly rhythmic.

Accompanying them was the voice of the detention center's warden, kept very low and dripping with extreme sycophancy.

"Young Master Shen, watch your step. The medical room's conditions are crude, I apologize for the inconvenience."

"All surveillance cameras have been cut off, and there is no one within a fifty-meter radius. Please go inside and take your time; I'll keep watch outside for you."

On the bed, Lin Tian snapped his eyes open.

Those eyes, clouded from severe injuries, instantly became bloodshot upon hearing the words "Young Master Shen," turning as crimson as a wild beast's!

The iron door let out a piercing screech as it was pushed open.

A cold wind, carrying the chill of the corridor, poured in.

Shen Fei walked in.

He wore a minimalist, tailored pure black suit, not even wearing a tie.

His leather shoes stepped on the grime-covered concrete floor without catching a speck of dust.

Because of his presence, this foul-smelling medical room seemed to instantly transform into a VIP private room of some high-end club.

This was the innate aura of a top-tier wealthy family's scion, an absolute, condescending dominance.

The warden respectfully pulled the iron door shut from the outside and locked it.

Only the two of them were left in the room.

"Shen! Fei!"

An inhuman roar erupted from Lin Tian's throat.

That sound seemed to be squeezed out from the very depths of hell.

He struggled like a madman. The steel shackles on his wrists and ankles rattled loudly as they were yanked, the metal digging into his flesh. Blood dripped down the iron chains, pattering onto the floor.

But he remained completely oblivious to the pain, staring dead at Shen Fei, his eyes nearly splitting from their sockets.

If looks could kill, Shen Fei would have already been sliced into a thousand pieces.

Ding!

Detected that the Son of Fortune, Lin Tian, has entered a state of extreme frenzy.

The final 700 Fortune Points have transformed into an obsessive counterattack. Host, please take precautions.

The system's cold notification tone rang out in his mind.

Shen Fei's expression remained entirely unruffled.

He quietly watched this dying wild dog on the bed, his gaze so calm it was despair-inducing.

There was no mockery, no smugness.

Only pure indifference.

Shen Fei walked up to the bed, pulled over a rusty folding chair, and sat down casually.

"Yelling so loudly, it seems you've recovered quite well these past few days." Shen Fei crossed his legs, his tone as flat as if he were exchanging pleasantries with an old friend.

"I'm going to kill you... I will absolutely kill you!!"

Lin Tian ground his teeth so hard they cracked. His lips were bitten open, and blood mixed with saliva ran down his chin.

"You're despicable! You used schemes and tricks to destroy the Dragon King Palace! Not only did you steal my foundation, but you also forced Ruobing to marry you!"

"Shen Fei, you animal! Ruobing was forced by you! She doesn't love you at all!"

"As long as I have a breath left, even if I turn into a vengeful ghost, I won't let you off!"

Lin Tian roared madly.

This was the final obsession at the bottom of his heart.

He believed that Lin Ruobing loved him, and that all her cold actions were forced by Shen Fei, this overwhelmingly powerful wealthy young master.

He had converted all his hatred into the drive to survive. This was exactly the source of those final 700 Fortune Points.

As long as his conviction didn't collapse, the Son of Fortune would always have a chance to turn the tables.

Shen Fei listened to his furious roaring without refuting.

He simply took out the latest model of a tablet computer from his inner pocket.

"Are you done talking?"

Shen Fei tapped his finger on the screen.

"If you're done, then watch something."

He placed the tablet on Lin Tian's chest, the screen facing Lin Tian's face perfectly.

A video began to play.

The footage was very clear; it was the VIP conference room of Jinling City's top law firm.

Sunlight spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the mahogany table.

Lin Ruobing sat at the table.

Today, she was wearing a soft beige trench coat, her hair casually pinned back. She lacked the tense, anxious, and exhausted demeanor she usually had in front of Lin Tian.

Her complexion even radiated a healthy rosiness.

A document lay on the table—a divorce agreement.

The lawyer handed a fountain pen to her.

Lin Ruobing took the pen.

She didn't hesitate in the slightest, nor did she show any of the supposed agony of being "forced."

Her hand was very steady.

The pen tip glided across the paper, making a clear rustling sound.

The three characters for "Lin Ruobing" were signed smoothly and with firm pressure.

The moment she finished signing, the Lin Ruobing in the video put down the pen and let out a long, deep sigh of relief.

She leaned back in her chair and turned her head to look at the bright sunlight outside the window.

The corners of her mouth curled into an extremely relaxed, extremely natural smile.

That was a true sense of liberation.

It was as if she had finally thrown off a thousand-pound burden that had weighed on her shoulders for years, like a person who had trudged through a mud pit for a long time finally washing clean the mud spots on their body.

There was no lingering attachment whatsoever.

She didn't even have a trace of hatred.

Because she simply didn't care anymore.

The medical room was deadly silent.

There was only the white noise coming from the tablet and Lin Tian's increasingly heavy breathing.

"No..."

Lin Tian stared fixedly at the screen, his pupils contracting violently.

"This isn't real... This is impossible!"

His voice was hoarse, like a mouse in a broken bellows.

"You forced her! Shen Fei! You forced her to sign it, didn't you?! You had someone stage this video!"

Shen Fei spoke indifferently, "This was signed at 10:00 AM today at Shenghe Law Firm. After signing, she went to the mall, bought two new outfits, and then got her hair done."

Shen Fei's tone was straightforward, yet it acted like the sharpest scalpel.

"Lin Tian, she was never forced by me."

"She merely finally recognized a fact—that by staying with a piece of trash like you, who only knows how to stir up trouble and make empty promises all day, she gets nothing but fear and anxiety."

"Leaving you makes her very happy."

Shen Fei reached out, his fingertip tapping on Lin Ruobing's relaxed smile on the screen.

"Look how beautifully she smiles. In all these years, has she ever smiled at you like this?"

This sentence became the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Lin Tian stared dead at the screen.

He tried to find any trace that Lin Ruobing was being forced, trying to spot even a hint of pain or disguise.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing.

Only genuine relief.

"Pfft—!"

Lin Tian violently coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.

The blood splattered across the tablet screen, obscuring Lin Ruobing's smiling face.

The love he took such pride in.

The dignity he fought to the death to protect.

The last pure land in his heart.

In this moment, it all collapsed, shattering into pieces.

He had always believed himself to be a God of War bearing heavy burdens, the Dragon King lying dormant in Jinling just to protect his wife.

As it turned out, in his wife's eyes, he was nothing but a heavy, disgusting burden she couldn't wait to throw away.

Lin Tian's eyes instantly lost their focus.

The strength that had supported his frantic struggles drained away in an instant, like a punctured balloon.

The iron chains stopped rattling.

He slumped on the bed like a puddle of mud, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Tears mixed with blood flowed into his ears.

His Dao heart was shattered.

[Ding!]

[Child of Fortune Lin Tian's convictions have completely collapsed!]

[Dao heart shattered! Fortune Value cleared to zero!]

[Heavenly Dao protection has been lifted! Target's current status: Killable!]

Listening to the system broadcast in his mind, Shen Fei took back the tablet, grabbed a piece of medical gauze nearby, and slowly wiped the blood off the screen.

It was over.

Stripped of his Heavenly Fortune, the man before him was no longer the Dragon King with heaven-defying luck.

He was just an ordinary, pathetic worm on the verge of dying from illness.

Shen Fei stood up and slipped the tablet back into his pocket.

He walked to the edge of the hospital bed, looking down from above at Lin Tian, who lay there like a dead dog.

Lin Tian's eyes shifted slightly to look at Shen Fei, his lips trembling weakly.

"Kill me..."

He didn't even have the strength to roar anymore; his voice was as faint as a mosquito's.

Shen Fei didn't reply.

He slowly raised his right hand.

His index finger extended.

The true qi of a peak Grandmaster compressed madly at his fingertip, yet it didn't leak the slightest bit of presence.

It was restrained to the absolute limit.

Shen Fei's index finger tapped lightly on the center of Lin Tian's forehead.

There was no sound of shattering bone.

There was no splattering blood.

It was just a formless and tyrannical surge of true qi that pierced into Lin Tian's brain like an incredibly fine steel needle.

The true qi violently exploded deep within his brain!

All the meridians and blood vessels in Lin Tian's brain were shredded into a pulpy paste in a tenth of a second.

Lin Tian's body convulsed violently.

His eyes widened abruptly, and the last trace of vitality in his gaze instantly dissipated, turning into a dead, ashen cloudiness.

His chest completely caved in, never to rise again.

The wavy line on the vital signs monitor next to him instantly flattened into a straight green line.

A piercing, continuous beep rang out.

The Dragon King was dead.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, Host! Successfully killed the Child of Fortune, Lin Tian!]

[Completed the second Fortune First Blood!]

[Extracting the target's core essence...]

Shen Fei did not withdraw the finger resting on Lin Tian's forehead.

An incredibly dense, almost visible ball of golden qi was forcibly extracted from Lin Tian's corpse.

The golden qi hovered in Shen Fei's palm, faintly emitting a low dragon's roar.

[Item obtained: Dragon King Essence!]

Shen Fei closed his fingers, grasping the ball of golden light into his palm and absorbing it into his body.

Taking one last look at Lin Tian's corpse, Shen Fei turned and walked toward the door.

He knocked on the iron door twice from the inside.

The sound of unlocking immediately came from the outside.

The warden pushed the door open. He glanced at the flatline on the monitor, then at Lin Tian, who had died on the bed without any external injuries. His face paled for a moment, but he immediately lowered his head.

"Young Master Shen, please rest assured," the warden kept his voice extremely low, even carrying a hint of fawning. "The prisoner, Lin Tian, suffered a massive rupture of cerebral blood vessels due to severe complications from heavy injuries. After failing to be resuscitated by the prison doctor, he died of natural causes at 3:15 AM. The death report will be submitted first thing tomorrow morning."

Shen Fei didn't look at him.

He simply said flatly as he walked past, "Clean it up well."

"Yes! Yes!" The warden bowed at a ninety-degree angle.

Stepping out of the detention center's main gate.

The rain outside had stopped.

The air was filled with the damp scent of soil.

A solid black, bulletproof Rolls-Royce glided silently to the bottom of the steps. Ling Shuang opened a black, straight-handled umbrella, shielding Shen Fei from the residual water dripping from the eaves.

Shen Fei got into the back seat.

The car door closed, isolating the cold air outside.

The bulletproof Rolls-Royce sped smoothly along the empty expressway.

The cabin was so quiet that only the faintest tire noise could be heard.

Shen Fei leaned back against the rear airline-style seat, his eyes half-closed.

Outside was the residual late-night rain of Jinling City; inside the car was his own personal moment of harvest.

[Ding!]

In his mind, the system's cold and mechanical prompt arrived as expected.

[Detected that the Host has completed the second Fortune First Blood!]

[Calculating hunting rewards...]

[Calculation complete!]

As the last words fell, an energy so massive it was hard to describe with words exploded within Shen Fei's body without warning.

There was no heart-wrenching pain.

There was only a complete, bone-deep remodeling.

[Congratulations Host for obtaining the SS-rank physique: Heavenly Demon Body!]

Shen Fei could clearly feel the bones, muscles, blood vessels, and even the most microscopic cells in his entire body undergoing a frantic qualitative change.

The original color of his blood gradually darkened, revealing a profound black-gold luster.

His meridians were broadened by more than ten times.

If the true qi in his body before was a river, then now, it was a boundless ocean.

"Breathe," Shen Fei muttered in his heart.

With a single breath, the free energy in the surrounding air surged into his pores like all rivers flowing into the sea, instantly converting into pure true qi.

The system panel provided the most direct annotation:

Heavenly Demon Body (SS-rank): True qi is almost perpetual, with the chance of exhaustion infinitely approaching zero. Physical recovery speed increased by a hundred times. Immune to all toxins and hidden weapon damage below C-rank.

In a conventional martial arts world, this was equivalent to turning on a cheat code for infinite health and infinite mana.

As long as his heart or brain wasn't smashed to pieces in a single blow, he could recover in an extremely short amount of time.

The rise in power had not yet stopped.

[Congratulations Host, martial arts realm advanced: Peak Grandmaster!]

Within his qi sea, the true qi that had previously seemed a bit superficial instantly solidified, turning into a dark golden cyclone that slowly rotated.

Every rotation burst forth with incredibly destructive power.

Shen Fei slowly opened his eyes.

He clenched his fist.

The air in his palm was instantly crushed, letting out an extremely deep popping sound.

Ling Xue, sitting in the driver's seat, and Ling Shuang in the passenger seat, both stiffened at the same time.

They were both experts of the Innate Realm, possessing a beast-like intuition for danger.

In that brief moment just now, even though the young master in the back seat hadn't made any movements, they felt as if they were being stared down by an ancient, ferocious beast.

That absolute suppression from a higher level of life made it extremely difficult for them to even breathe.

"Young Master..." Ling Shuang swallowed hard, her voice a little tight.

Shen Fei dispersed the true qi winding around his fingertips.

That terrifying oppressive feeling vanished instantly.

"Focus on driving," Shen Fei said in a flat tone.

Ling Shuang and Ling Xue simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing their backs were covered in a layer of cold sweat.

The system's tallying continued.

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a high-level destiny item: True Dragon of Destiny x1 (with passive skill: Imperial Aura)!]

Shen Fei's vision entered the dimension of destiny.

The scattered golden lights of destiny he had previously plundered were now frantically converging. A five-clawed golden dragon, several times larger than the one that had hovered above Lin Tian's head, took shape in the void.

It didn't roar; it just quietly coiled above Shen Fei's head.

Yet, its majesty was as profound as an abyss and as towering as a mountain.

Imperial Aura, passive effect activated.

This wasn't any substantial attack skill, but an absolute domain.

Wherever it went, tens of thousands would submit.

For Shen Fei, who was about to take over the power of a noble family in the capital, this was more practical than any cultivation technique. What a person in power needed most was an imposing presence that commanded respect without needing to show anger.

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a faction item: Military God Token!]

A black token, made of neither gold nor jade, appeared in the system space. Carved onto it was the traditional character for Kill.

Military God Token: Crushing it summons a shadow death squad of a thousand men. All members are at the early stage of the Grandmaster realm! They feel no pain, have no emotions, and are one hundred percent absolutely loyal to the host.

Looking at this token, a ripple of emotion finally appeared in Shen Fei's eyes.

A thousand Grandmasters.

What kind of concept was this?

Currently, all the publicly known Grandmasters in the entire Great Xia combined probably wouldn't even amount to a hundred.

If this death squad were released, it would be enough to completely flatten any so-called century-old noble family overnight. This was a trump card that could truly flip the chessboard.

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a special item: Loyalty Conversion Talisman for 100,000 Soldiers!]

Conversion Talisman: Can be used on the remnant forces of the original Dragon King Palace. Upon use, the 100,000 overseas members of the Dragon King Palace will forcefully change their allegiance and revere the host as their absolute sovereign.

Seeing this reward, Shen Fei fell silent for two seconds.

Then, without hesitation, he threw it into the very bottom of the system inventory.

To gather dust.

Why not use it?

Heh.

What exactly was the Dragon King Palace?

"A motley crew that started out overseas as mercenaries, relying on looting, smashing, and burning. They are used to barbaric acts without rules and have absolutely no discipline."

"I, Shen Fei, am the eldest young master of a top-tier noble family in the capital. My subordinates can be cold-blooded death warriors or suit-wearing corporate elites, but they absolutely cannot be a bunch of second-hand military thugs used by someone else."

"Does this kind of trash even deserve to be dogs for the Shen family?"

Shen Fei's train of thought was exceptionally clear.

Although he was a villain, he wasn't a junk collector.

The Dragon King Palace might have been awe-inspiring in the original book, but in the face of a real state machine and top-tier noble families, once such an illegal overseas armed force entered the borders, they would only be target practice.

There was no need for him to take over this ticking time bomb left behind by Lin Tian.

He had the Shen family's hundreds of billions in assets and the thousand Grandmasters from the Military God Token. That was more than enough.

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining Villain Points: 30,000!]

With the points credited to his account, Shen Fei's system balance became extremely abundant.

This meant that when he encountered even more troublesome Children of Destiny in the future, he could exchange for targeted, lethal items from the system shop at any time.

The tallying was completely finished.

"Young Master, are we returning to the villa?" Ling Xue asked respectfully from the driver's seat.

Shen Fei leaned back against the leather seat and closed his eyes, feeling the faintly boiling power within his body caused by the assimilation of the [Dragon King Origin].

The Child of Destiny in Jinling had probably been completely drained dry by now.

Staying here wouldn't squeeze out anything of value anymore.

But it couldn't be helped; the old man was the one who made him stay here.

"Let's head back for now."

Shen Fei was silent for a moment before speaking.

The bulletproof Rolls-Royce sped past the side of the road, gradually turning into a black dot as it clearly vanished into the distance.