The Rolls-Royce Ghost cut through the city like a black blade.
Mo Li sat beside him, posture perfect, but her hands clenched in her lap hard enough to leave marks.
"Talk," Lin Feng said.
She talked.
Fast. Precise. No defiance left; only the sharp intelligence of a woman who had built an empire from scratch and now watched it become his toy.
"Four Great Clans rule this region from the shadows.
Qin Clan: enforcers. Lethal Tranquillity arts; one palm can stop a heart without leaving a bruise.
Mo Clan: my bloodline, distant. They control spirit herbs, pills, and elixirs; the lifeblood of cultivation.
Zhao Clan: politics. They own half the government officials who think they're in charge.
Sun Clan: finance. Ancient money that predates banks.
They trade in Qi stones, thousand-year ginseng, dragon bones; things mortals would start wars over.
They stay hidden because they can kill anyone who notices.
And they've noticed you."
Lin Feng listened, Absolute Comprehension filing every name, weakness, and supply route into permanent memory.
"Qin Yue," he said. "Tell me about her."
Mo Li's voice softened; almost reverent.
"Prodigy. Late Core Formation at twenty-three. Purest Tranquillity constitution in three centuries. The elders call her the next Patriarch. She's never lost. Never even bled in combat.
She'll come for you herself if the elders fail."
Lin Feng smiled out the window.
"Good."
Back in the penthouse, the air shifted.
Five Qin Clan formation masters, deep in their mountain compound, finished weaving a city-wide detection array; invisible talismans, Qi threads, spiritual pressure nets.
They reached for the Azure Spire.
And touched oblivion.
Every talisman burned to ash mid-air.
Every thread snapped.
The five masters coughed blood in perfect unison, meridians cracking from feedback.
Lin Feng felt it like a mosquito landing on steel.
He walked the empty floors of his fortress, palm dragging along walls, glass, steel.
DING!
Godhand → Target: Azure Spire (entire structure)
Core concept: Fortress
Refined → Eternal Bastion (SSS++)
Permanent, self-sustaining domain.
Any hostile intent below SSS+ is nullified on approach.
Trespassers suffer an existence tax: 1 % permanent cultivation loss per second inside the radius.
The building hummed once.
Then went silent.
Impregnable.
The Qin Clan tried subtler knives.
Team one: two stealth cultivators infiltrated Li Wei's secret medical lab; Qi corruption vials ready to rot every spirit herb and research drive.
Team two: one assassin in the garage, needle of soul-severing poison aimed at Wang Chao's neck; hostage plan.
They never got close.
Absolute Adaptation woke like a sleeping dragon.
In the lab: corruption Qi reversed, purified, amplified.
The two infiltrators dropped to their knees as their own dantians flooded with foreign healing essence; too pure, too violent.
Meridians burst. Cultivation scattered.
They woke hours later as mortals, babbling about a merciful god.
In the garage: the assassin's shadow step failed.
Gravity tripled. Bones creaked.
Wang Chao blinked as the "homeless man" collapsed foaming at the mouth.
Called security. Went back to polishing the Rolls.
All threats neutralised in 0.7 seconds.
Lin Feng didn't even pause his conversation with Li Wei.
She noticed the flicker in his eyes anyway.
"Pests?"
"Exterminated."
He stood at the window, city lights reflecting crimson in his pupils.
Defence was flawless.
But the defence was boring.
He turned to Li Wei and Mo Li; Xiao Yan was kneeling silently in the corner with fresh reports.
"Freeze all market activity for forty-eight hours.
Mo Li; full dossier on your clan's herb routes. Weak points. Guards. Formations. Everything.
I'm going hunting."
Li Wei's voice was steady. "The Qin compound?"
Lin Feng nodded.
"Alone?"
He looked almost offended.
"I'm never alone. I have Hell on speed dial."
He walked to the elevator.
Mo Li called after him, something dangerous in her tone.
"You're walking into a dragon's den with twelve Core Formation elders and one half-step Golden Core monster."
Lin Feng pressed the button for the roof.
The doors closed on his smile.
"Then the dragon's about to learn what happens when it swallows the sun."
DING!
New quest activated
[Dragon's Den]
Infiltrate Qin Clan ancestral grounds.
Primary: Extract Qin Yue alive.
Bonus 1: Steal the clan's sacred scripture.
Bonus 2: Leave zero casualties; only broken spirits.
Reward: First cultivation technique adaptation + Qin Yue loyalty route unlocked.
The Ghost roared to life below.
Wang Chao opened the door without being asked.
Lin Feng slid inside.
"Drive to the mountains.
Then wait.
You'll know when to come pick me up."
The car vanished into the night.
Behind him, the Azure Spire's new barrier shimmered once; like a predator stretching before sleep.
Somewhere in the mountains, Qin Yue opened her eyes in meditation.
Felt the air change.
And for the second time in her life, shivered.
The devil was coming to her house.
And he wasn't knocking.
Rental clock:
99 years, 347 days, 22 hours…
Lin Feng watched the city lights fade in the rear-view.
Time to collect a dragon.