Chapter 423: Your Entire Family is Doomed!
Xu Ruoxue's frosty face immediately flushed crimson. She quickly glanced at her sister, Xu Ruoshui, before lowering her head and softly murmuring, "Husband."
The moment the words "family rules" left Shen Anyu's lips, a jolt, hot and electric, shot through Xu Ruoxue. Her legs, once steady and poised, suddenly felt like fine silk, threatening to buckle beneath her. The mere mention of that intimate, ruthless discipline conjured memories that sent a tremor of both profound fear and a forbidden, addictive thrill through her very core. It was a discipline designed to break her pride, to mold her, and it always left her utterly spent, unable to even lift a finger for days.
Even knowing her own sister, Xu Ruoshui, was watching, Xu Ruoxue didn't dare hesitate. A moment's defiance would only provoke Shen Anyu, and she knew all too well the outrageous and humiliating lengths he would go to enforce his will. The single word, "Husband," escaped her lips in a breathy whisper, barely audible, yet it hung in the air with the weight of a thousand unspoken confessions.
After speaking, a wave of profound unease washed over her. She kept her head bowed, her silver hair hiding her burning cheeks, terrified to see the look on Xu Ruoshui's face. 'Will she be angry? Disgusted? Will she think I'm shameless?' The questions swirled in her mind, a maelstrom of guilt and anxiety.
But Xu Ruoshui wasn't angry. A complex cocktail of emotions was swirling within her, but anger wasn't one of them. Instead, a sense of weary inevitability settled in her heart. 'As expected,' she thought, a faint, bittersweet smile touching her lips. She had long suspected the undercurrents flowing between her impossibly proud younger sister and the man who dominated their lives. She had seen the subtle glances, the charged silences, the way Ruoxue's icy demeanor would crack ever so slightly whenever Shen Anyu was near.
What else could she do but forgive them? One was her closest kin, the other half of her soul since their birth. The other was the man she loved more than life itself, the man who had irrevocably claimed her heart. And then there was the impossible reality of their situation—the sharing of a single soul, a bond that tied the three of them together in a way the world could never comprehend.
Xu Ruoshui had already steeled her resolve: if their souls could never be separated, then they would simply have to share him. The thought was both daunting and strangely exhilarating.
Seeing her sister's mortified reluctance to meet her gaze, Xu Ruoshui felt a pang of amusement. It was adorable, in a way. But this wasn't the time for sisterly teasing. A far more pressing matter had presented itself.
Her beautiful eyes, which were usually full of playful light, hardened with a rare seriousness. She turned her sharp gaze upon Long Hao, the self-proclaimed prophet of doom. Her voice was cold and clear, cutting through the tension.
"You said my brother-in-law is facing a great calamity. What, exactly, is going on?"
In Xu Ruoshui's world, nothing—not sisterly drama, not pride, not even their bizarre shared soul—mattered more than Shen Anyu's safety. He was her anchor, her sky. If anything threatened him, she would become the storm.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Long Hao is envious and jealous. Plundering +9999 Destiny Points!]
The system prompt flashed in Shen Anyu's mind, a satisfying notification of his enemy's turmoil.
A bitter, acidic envy churned in Long Hao's gut. Seeing these two magnificent sisters, each a peerless beauty in her own right, display such genuine, fierce devotion to Shen Anyu felt like swallowing shards of glass. This wasn't an act for public consumption; their concern was real, raw, and absolute.
'And his fiancée, Su Hongmian, is another goddess among women! How? How did all the world's fortune fall into the lap of this one man?' he seethed internally. 'This scoundrel, Shen Anyu… could it be that his luck has turned in this lifetime? That he's no longer the destined stepping-stone villain?'
The thought was unsettling, but it also sparked an idea. Greed warred with his hatred. Shen Anyu was powerful, influential, and clearly possessed an outrageous amount of luck. Perhaps… perhaps he wasn't just an obstacle to be crushed.
Thinking of this, Long Hao's mind clicked into a different gear. With his Investment Return System, even an enemy could become a resource. He officially listed Shen Anyu as a potential high-yield investment target.
With this new perspective, his confidence surged. He straightened his shoulders, adopting the posture of a profound sage revealing heavenly secrets.
"Heh heh," he began, his voice dripping with condescending wisdom. "I am not fabricating a single word, Shen Anyu. You are indeed on the brink of a great calamity. And it's not just you. The colossal Yanxia Shen Family that backs you… it will crumble into dust within two to three years!"
Long Hao stared at Shen Anyu, Xu Ruoshui, and Xu Ruoxue, his expression a carefully constructed mask of prophetic certainty. He imagined he looked like a master strategist, a hidden dragon revealing the world's chessboard. To everyone else, however, he looked like a monkey wearing a crown—comical and utterly out of place.
As his audacious words echoed through the silent hall, a wave of shocked gasps and furious murmurs swept through the opulent space. Not just from the twin sisters, but from every Shen Family guard and Zhenxiu Pavilion employee present.
The Yanxia Shen Family… collapsing? In two or three years? The idea wasn't just absurd; it was blasphemous.
This was the Shen Family! A titan of Yanxia that had stood for thousands of years, weathering the fall of entire dynasties and the march of empires. They were an undisputed, top-tier super-aristocracy, a behemoth whose roots ran deeper than the mountains. And now, under Shen Anyu's leadership, the family was at its absolute zenith, its power and influence blazing like a glorious, untamable fire. How could such an entity possibly collapse in a mere handful of years?
"Oh? Is that so? The Yanxia Shen Family will collapse?"
Shen Anyu's voice was light, laced with a deliberately exaggerated surprise. He leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed on Long Hao with a look of predatory curiosity.
Of course, Shen Anyu already had a very clear idea of what this reborn fool was about to say.
Long Hao was a Child of Destiny reincarnated from a comprehensive novel timeline, a world where Shen Anyu, the ultimate villain, evidently didn't exist. That was the only explanation for his suicidal bravado. If Long Hao had been reborn from a world that did feature Shen Anyu, he would either be hiding on the other side of the planet, praying Shen Anyu never found him, or he would have charged in with the monstrous, self-destructive hatred of a man willing to perish just to land a single blow. This calm, idiotic posturing was proof of his ignorance.
Currently, this reincarnated rat possessed two things of immense value.
The first was his Investment Return System. It was a powerful tool, but Shen Anyu had already sensed its nature. It was a cowardly, parasitic entity. The moment he had directed his killing intent at Long Hao earlier, the System had practically shrieked in terror, ready to abandon its host and flee. Once he accumulated six million Destiny Points, he could devour it whole.
The second, and perhaps more immediately useful, was the intelligence locked in Long Hao's memory. Information about future Children of Destiny, their powers, their destined heroines—it was a treasure map leading to a fortune in Destiny Points.
Shen Anyu had no intention of capturing and torturing Long Hao for this information. Intelligence extracted under duress was often flawed, incomplete, or outright fabricated by a desperate mind. No, it was far more elegant to play the long game. With Long Hao now on his radar, Shen Anyu could simply let the rat lead him to the other rats. He would undoubtedly seek out future protagonists to "invest" in, and Shen Anyu would be watching from the shadows, ready to reap the rewards.
Beyond these two primary assets, there was a third item of interest.
Shen Anyu's gaze flickered subtly to Long Hao's neck, where a pendant carved from lustrous black jade in the shape of a Qilin hung. It was an extraordinary treasure. It pulsed with a faint, almost imperceptible power, a reservoir of protective energy that even a Heavenly Human expert would struggle to break. Shen Anyu knew that without borrowing the god-like power of his wife Su Hongmian through their Super Divine Skill, even he would have trouble shattering it.
The pendant's defensive capabilities were the only reason Long Hao, a pathetic third-stage Inner Strength weakling, was still breathing. It made forcefully seizing the item a complicated affair. Shen Anyu had observed that the black jade Qilin flared with protective light anytime he contemplated inflicting genuine harm on its owner. His earlier threat of castration was pure psychological warfare; without Su Hongmian's power, neither he nor his guards could actually carry it out.
Of course, Long Hao was completely oblivious to the fact that his life was hanging by the thread of a jade trinket. He mistook Shen Anyu's feigned surprise for genuine shock and swelled with satisfaction. He puffed out his chest and unceremoniously barked at the two elite Shen Family guards whose hands were still clamped on his shoulders like vices.
"Why haven't you released me? Can't you see I am an important guest of your Young Master!"
'Damn it, are all of Shen Anyu's subordinates this dense?' Long Hao fumed internally, wincing as the pressure on his shoulders intensified. 'This is my shoulder, not a piece of scrap metal! It's about to be dislocated! Do you have no awareness at all? I'll have to tell Shen Anyu to discipline these brutes properly later.'
The two guards didn't budge. Their eyes, hard as polished steel, flickered to their young master, awaiting a single command.
A slow, chilling smile spread across Shen Anyu's face. He looked at the posturing fool and gave a lazy, dismissive wave of his hand.
"Release him," he said, his tone deceptively casual. "I want to hear what valuable information this... esteemed guest can provide. If his words prove to be worthless, then you can proceed with the castration."
Long Hao's legs instinctively clenched together.
"Yes, Young Master!" the two guards replied in unison, a flicker of grim excitement in their eyes. They released their grip, and Long Hao stumbled forward, rubbing his bruised shoulders with a theatrical groan.
He took his time, slowly massaging the aching joints before finally lifting his chin, his expression a mask of supreme arrogance as he faced Shen Anyu.
"Shen Anyu, you should consider yourself lucky that you met me today," he declared. "Otherwise, both you and the entire Yanxia Shen Family would be finished."
A glint of amusement flashed in Shen Anyu's dark eyes. He leaned back in his chair, the very picture of relaxed patience.
"I'm all ears."
Xu Ruoshui, Xu Ruoxue, and every single person in the hall fixed their gazes on Long Hao, their collective breath held in suspense. What earth-shattering secret could this man possibly possess that could threaten the monolithic Shen Family?
Basking in the undivided attention, Long Hao's ego inflated to its bursting point. He was certain that once he revealed the truth about Ye Yan and his mysterious master, Tian Yunzi, Shen Anyu would be terrified. He would surely bow down, treat him like a revered sage, and shower him with wealth and respect.
"Five years ago, the Magic City Ye Family and your Yanxia Shen Family clashed, resulting in their ruin. However, the last remnant of the Ye Family, Ye Yan, did not die. Instead, he had a miraculous stroke of luck, turning misfortune into a blessing. He was rescued by a grandmaster at the Heavenly Human Unity level, who took him as a disciple and has been diligently teaching him martial arts..."
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