Reaching the Top of the Mortal Realm, Not Rushing to Ascend

Thirty hours later.

Inside the Second Ring Road of the capital, the Shen family courtyard.

The mahogany doors of the study were tightly shut.

Shen Fei sat behind the spacious desk.

He had just taken a shower and changed into a clean black silk shirt. The stench of sulfur and blood he had brought back from the volcanic island was completely gone.

On the desk lay an encrypted intelligence briefing transmitted by the Dragon Abyss Supreme Command.

Gu Qinghan had delivered it personally.

Shen Fei didn't look up, casually flipping through the briefing.

Its contents were dry and filled with official jargon:

An unnamed active volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean has undergone drastic topographical changes, as detected by satellite.

Confirmed: Global wanted fugitives Chen Tie, Fang Ziyuan, Zero, and Pei Shaotian have lost all vital signs. Remains and traces of high-energy reactions were found at the scene.

Additionally, anomalous high-dimensional energy fluctuations were detected, suspected to be an ascension phenomenon from the cultivation system.

Wanted List Target Number One: Li Miaoyuan, missing. Extremely high probability of having left Earth's surface space.

When Gu Qinghan delivered this briefing, her expression was complicated.

She didn't ask what exactly Shen Fei had experienced on the island.

But she knew very well that these five Children of Destiny, who were considered monsters in their respective fields, had been ruthlessly wiped out in just a few minutes, crushed like bugs.

And the sole survivor had been forcibly taken away by the legendary Heavenly Dao.

This was no longer a mortal war.

It was a battle of gods.

Shen Fei closed the briefing.

He indifferently tossed it into the paper shredder beside him.

Buzz...

The shredder let out a muffled chewing sound, completely reducing those once arrogant and untouchable names into scraps of paper.

Shen Fei leaned back in his chair.

He closed his eyes.

Open personal panel, Shen Fei commanded in his mind.

Ding!

Host: Shen Fei

Current Realm: Foundation Establishment Peak (Half-step Golden Core)

Core Technique: Heaven Devouring Demonic Art (Evolved, can devour all non-material laws)

Physique: Heavenly Demonic Body (SS-Rank, Dual Absolute Defense)

Comprehensive Combat Power Evaluation: Mortal Realm Ceiling.

Special Prompt: The host's cultivation has reached the limit of the current world version. You can forcibly trigger the ascension lightning tribulation at any time and shatter the void to ascend to the Upper Realm.

The system's voice was cold.

He could ascend at any time.

As long as Shen Fei was willing right now, he could walk out into the courtyard, release all his Heavenly Demonic spiritual energy, and Earth's Heavenly Dao would impatiently send down the lightning tribulation to forcibly send away this dangerous cancer.

But.

Shen Fei opened his eyes.

In those extremely profound black eyes, there was not a trace of urgency.

What was the rush?

Li Miaoyuan had indeed gone to the Upper Realm ahead of time.

He might encounter tremendous fortuitous encounters, he might join some massive cultivation sect, and he might even have already laid out an inescapable net in the Upper Realm, waiting for Shen Fei to walk right into the trap.

But so what?

A villain's code of conduct was never to be led by the nose by hatred or an enemy's progress.

That was the behavior of a reckless brute.

A true superior would only flip someone else's chessboard when they themselves were perfectly and impeccably prepared.

Upper Realm.

Shen Fei slowly tapped the edge of the desk.

A completely unknown high-dimensional world.

My current strength is the ceiling in the mortal realm. But once I get there, I might just be a slightly stronger ant.

Shen Fei was clear-headed.

Li Miaoyuan had the protection of the Heavenly Dao and the blessing of destiny. His trip to the Upper Realm was like a protagonist entering a beginner village, with fortuitous encounters everywhere.

But Shen Fei going to the Upper Realm was like a villain entering a red-name kill zone.

The entire world would be filled with intense malice toward him.

He had to hold all his trump cards in his hand and forge the mortal realm, his home base, into an impregnable iron fortress.

He absolutely could not repeat the mistakes of those villains who were counter-killed by the protagonist because they were too eager for success and let their backyards catch fire.

One year.

Shen Fei set a clear time limit for himself.

He would use this year's time.

To completely turn Earth, this so-called beginner village, into the Shen family's private property.

Leaving not a single hidden danger.

Leaving not a single Child of Destiny who could potentially threaten him in the future.

System. Pull up the list of all potential targets globally with a destiny value exceeding 100 at present.

Shen Fei coldly issued a new command.

Since he still had a year.

Then he didn't mind harvesting a few more crops.

...

Over the next three months.

The entirety of Great Xia, and even the global underground world.

Felt a terrifying, suffocatingly bloody purge.

Shen Fei did not act personally.

He didn't even mobilize the thousand death warriors of the War God Token.

He merely plainly handed a list to Gu Qinghan of Dragon Abyss, and to Su Qingxue, who controlled the Dark Web.

There were over sixty people on the list.

Among these people, some were youths who had just awakened special abilities.

Some were martial arts fanatics who had accidentally obtained a fragmented sword manual in some deep mountain forest.

And some were live-in sons-in-law from fallen families who suddenly displayed extremely high business talent.

In the usual web novel tropes.

These people were all future Children of Destiny. As long as they were given time, they would show off, slap faces along the way, and eventually grow into overlords capable of shaking up a whole region.

But now.

Facing the precise, cold, and massive war machine of the Shen family.

They didn't even have the chance to shout the classic line, Do not bully the youth for being poor.

In the dead of night.

They were killed by dozens of Dragon Abyss agents equipped with Gauss sniper rifles, or by top-tier international assassin teams hired by the Shen family with heavy sums.

Cleanly.

Physically erased.

No one-on-one duels, no nonsense.

Only precise coordinate lockdowns and saturated firepower coverage.

Three months.

Sixty-three emerging Children of Destiny, along with the weak factions behind them.

Were uprooted.

During these three months, Gu Qinghan barely had a good night's sleep.

Looking at the mission reports sent back, her heart was filled with a complicated shudder.

She finally understood what the resource-sharing agreement Shen Fei signed with Dragon Abyss truly meant.

Dragon Abyss, this national sharp blade that once existed solely to protect the home and defend the country.

Under Shen Fei's terrifying coercion and capital infiltration.

Had completely degenerated into his tool for purging dissidents.

But Gu Qinghan could not resist, and even the higher-ups of Dragon Abyss tacitly approved of this cruel purge.

Because they discovered.

As long as they killed according to Shen Fei's list.

This world actually became stable.

Gone were the protagonists who easily killed opponents above their level and caused social turmoil; gone were the Dragon Kings and War Gods who constantly wanted to overthrow the old order.

Great Xia's economy was prosperous, and its public security was excellent.

The Shen family was like a massive, towering tree that even blotted out the sky.

Absorbing all the sunlight and rain.

But it also firmly suppressed all the restless elements on this land.

Senior Colonel.

At Dragon Abyss headquarters, the adjutant handed the final purge report to Gu Qinghan.

The targets on the list have all been thoroughly purged.

Word has come from Young Master Shen.

The adjutant swallowed hard in awe.

He said that for the next nine months. Dragon Abyss can take a vacation.

Gu Qinghan took the report.

She leaned back in her chair, looking at the gray sky outside the window.

The aura within her body, tainted by the Heavenly Demon's true qi, was secretly fusing with her thunder origin. Her current combat power was at least three times greater than before she met Shen Fei.

She didn't know if this was a gift or a brilliant form of control.

But she was certain of one thing.

The sky of this mortal realm.

Now bore the name Shen.

...

Another half year passed.

On the outskirts of the capital.

A hidden private sanatorium with a security level surpassing even that of the national treasury.

On the third underground floor.

Inside a luxurious yet windowless intensive care ward.

On a hospital bed equipped with an advanced life-support system.

Lay a man.

Lu Bai.

This divine tycoon who had once tried to win over Su Qingxue by throwing a billion at the Galaxy Charity Gala.

At this moment, he was reduced to nothing but skin and bones.

His eyes were hollow and wide open, staring fixedly at the snow-white ceiling.

Devoid of focus, devoid of life.

There was only the rhythmic ticking of the ventilator.

"Young Master Shen."

A top-tier neuroscientist stood by the bed, respectfully reporting to Shen Fei, who was sitting in a wheelchair reading a document.

"Half a month ago, the patient's brainwaves experienced an abnormal, precipitous decline."

"He has no organic lesions. But his subconscious seems to have been completely drained by some powerful force."

"He is now completely in a vegetative state."

Shen Fei closed the document in his hands.

He looked at Lu Bai on the bed, who was now like a walking corpse.

Of course, he knew exactly what had happened.

For an entire year.

Lu Bai had been kept in the Shen family's basement, enduring the terrifying torture of the Life and Death Talisman every day, endlessly farming money for the Shen family day and night.

That extreme exploitation had finally exhausted the very last bit of luck and foundation of this divine tycoon system.

Half a month ago, the system completely dried up and ruthlessly abandoned this host who had lost all his utility value, unbinding itself.

Having lost the system's support, Lu Bai's already collapsed soul instantly plunged into dead silence.

"How much money did he farm for the Shen family?"

Shen Fei asked indifferently.

Shen Qiuhan, standing behind him, held a miniature encrypted tablet.

"Young Master."

Shen Qiuhan's voice was calm, but it couldn't hide a trace of profound awe.

"Over this past year."

"Through the system's cashback, Lu Bai has provided the Shen family with a total of over three hundred trillion euros in pure cash flow."

"Using this massive amount of capital, we have achieved absolute controlling stakes in the core economic lifelines of forty-seven developed countries around the globe."

"This includes the seven major investment banks on Wall Street, the three major energy groups in Europe, and the oil control rights in the Middle East."

Shen Qiuhan closed the tablet.

"The current Shen Group."

"Is no longer just a financial syndicate."

"It is a financial empire... capable of easily buying the entire Earth."

Buying the Earth.

The phrase sounded absurd.

But for the Shen family, it was a cold, hard reality.

After listening to the report, Shen Fei stood up.

He casually adjusted the hem of his trench coat.

He didn't spare another glance at Lu Bai on the hospital bed.

"Pull the plug."

Shen Fei coldly issued his final order.

"There's no need to waste medical resources."

"Burn him, and dump the ashes down the sewer."

With that said.

Shen Fei turned and strode out of the oppressive ward.

Drained of his very last drop of blood.

Not even his ashes deserved a grave.

This was the fate of offending the ultimate villain.

Stepping out of the sanatorium.

The sunlight was dazzling.

Shen Fei stood on the steps and took a deep breath of the early spring air.

"The mortal realm... I will miss it."