"System," I commanded, my eyes locked on the glittering skyline outside my penthouse window. "Chen Fan is a Reborn Immortal. He relies on spiritual arts, illusions, and Qi manipulation. Give me the absolute worst nightmare for a cultivator."
The holographic interface unrolled in the dark room, casting a faint blue glow over my face.
[Ding! Filtering System Store for 'Anti-Cultivation' and 'Domain Suppression'...]
[Purchase Option: 'Heaven-Sealing Nullification Array' - Cost: 8,000 Points. Effect: A localized, invisible domain (100-foot radius). When activated, it instantly severs the connection to the Heavenly Dao, completely draining and locking all external and internal Spiritual Qi in the area. Note: This reduces all magic-users to their base physical attributes.]
I let out a low, predatory laugh.
Chen Fan had possessed the body of an eighteen-year-old, malnourished high school student. His entire threat level came from his 500-year-old soul using magic to manipulate reality. If I turned off his magic? He was just a scrawny kid who weighed a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet.
Meanwhile, my body had been physically forged to the Peak of Foundation Establishment by the Ancestral Dragon Vein last night. Even without Qi, my bone density and muscle fibers were like woven titanium.
Buy it, I ordered.
[Ding! 8,000 Points deducted. Heaven-Sealing Nullification Array bound to Host's command!]
Four small, invisible metallic nodes materialized in my inventory, ready to be deployed.
[7:30 AM - The East Wing]
I walked into Su Qingran's master suite without knocking.
She was standing in front of the full-length mirror, adjusting the collar of a sharp, pearl-white blazer. She looked immaculate, every inch the ruthless Acting CEO of the Chu Consortium.
She didn't jump when I entered. She just met my eyes in the mirror, a faint, genuine smile touching her lips. "Good morning. You're up early."
"We have a slight change of schedule today, Qingran," I said, leaning against the doorframe, crossing my arms. "I'm coming to the office with you."
"Oh?" She turned around, raising an elegant eyebrow. "Checking up on my management skills?"
"No," I replied smoothly, completely deadpan. "Someone is going to try to kidnap you today."
Su Qingran froze.
In a standard web novel, the female lead would immediately panic, drop her makeup brush, and beg the male lead to hide her in a bunker.
But Su Qingran was at 100% Max Affection. Her worldview was entirely bound to mine. She didn't panic. She just let out a long, slightly annoyed sigh and picked up her diamond earrings.
"Is it my grandfather again?" she asked, clipping an earring into place. "Or someone from your Uncle's faction?"
"Neither," I stepped into the room, walking up behind her. I rested my hands on her shoulders, my Overlord Aura projecting a warm, heavy blanket of absolute security around her. "It's the teenager we threw out of the lobby yesterday. He's a severely delusional martial artist with a few parlor tricks. He wants to use you as a hostage."
Su Qingran looked at my reflection. "So, what's the plan? Do we lock down the building? Call Old Chen's security detail?"
"No," I smiled, leaning down so my lips brushed the shell of her ear. "We let him in. We leave the window open. And when he thinks he's won... we crush him."
A shiver ran down her spine, a flush of color rising to her cheeks at the sheer, unapologetic dominance in my voice. She leaned back against my chest.
"Okay," she whispered, her eyes burning with absolute trust. "I'll be your bait."
[2:00 PM - The Chu Consortium Headquarters, 80th Floor]
The Acting CEO's office was a massive, open-plan room with floor-to-ceiling reinforced glass overlooking the entire city.
Su Qingran was sitting at the massive obsidian desk, typing methodically on her laptop. She was perfectly calm.
I was lounging on the plush leather sofa near the back of the room, sipping a glass of iced Americano, casually scrolling through the financial news on my tablet.
I had already planted the four invisible nodes of the Heaven-Sealing Nullification Array in the four corners of the office. The trap was set. All we needed was the rat.
Suddenly, the ambient temperature in the room plummeted.
The heavy, reinforced glass of the 80th-floor window didn't shatter. It simply dissolved, melting away like wax under a blowtorch, leaving a gaping, wind-swept hole in the side of the skyscraper.
A figure stepped through the open air, literally walking on the wind, and landed silently on the plush carpet.
Chen Fan.
The Immortal Venerable looked terrible. His high school uniform was stained with dried black blood from his severe Qi Deviation last night. His face was deathly pale, his eyes sunken and completely bloodshot.
But his arrogance was still completely intact.
"Mortal woman," Chen Fan wheezed, clasping his hands behind his back, projecting what little Immortal Aura he had left. "Your security is a joke. Your technology is pitiful. Did you really think you could hide from this Venerable?"
Su Qingran stopped typing. She didn't scream. She didn't cower. She just closed her laptop with a soft click and looked at him like he had tracked mud onto her clean floor.
"You're the kid from the lobby," she said flatly. "Do you realize how much that window cost?"
Chen Fan sneered, his ancient soul disgusted by her capitalist mindset. "Money is an illusion for ants. You possess the Extreme Yin Physique. You should be honored. I am taking you to be my human cauldron. Your vital Yin energy will heal my ruptured meridians, and in exchange, I might let you live as my servant."
He reached out a hand, a swirl of dark, coercive spiritual energy gathering in his palm. He was preparing to cast a 'Soul-Binding Tether' to drag her out of the building.
"Hey, ghost," I called out from the sofa.
Chen Fan's head snapped toward the back of the room. Because I had completely masked my presence using the Void Emperor's Art, he hadn't even noticed I was there.
When he saw me lounging with an iced coffee, his eyes widened in absolute, furious recognition.
"You!" Chen Fan roared, the memory of being tossed onto the street burning in his mind. "The arrogant ant from the lobby! Perfect. I will refine your soul into a screaming lantern, and then I will take your woman!"
"Refine my soul?" I mused, taking a slow sip of my coffee. I set the glass down on the coaster. "You couldn't even refine the Dragon Vein in my basement last night."
The Immortal Venerable froze.
The dark energy swirling in his palm sputtered and died. His ancient eyes bugged out of his teenage skull.
"You..." Chen Fan's voice trembled, pure horror bleeding into his tone as the puzzle pieces slammed together. "You took it? YOU stole the Ancestral Dragon Vein?! A mortal?! IMPOSSIBLE! Your body would have exploded!"
"I have a great digestion system," I replied smoothly, standing up. I buttoned my suit jacket, my eyes locking onto his.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Driven completely mad by the revelation that the arrogant billionaire had stolen his golden ticket, Chen Fan abandoned all caution. He didn't care about his ruptured meridians anymore. He formed a rapid, complex hand seal, drawing upon the absolute limits of his 500-year-old soul.
"NINE HEAVENS ANNIHILATION STRIKE!" Chen Fan screamed, his hands glowing with a terrifying, blinding white light. It was an immortal-tier spell. In his past life, it would have leveled a mountain.
Even in this weak body, it was enough to vaporize the entire 80th floor.
Su Qingran flinched, shielding her eyes from the blinding glare.
I didn't blink. I simply snapped my fingers.
[System Command: Activate Heaven-Sealing Nullification Array!]
BZZZZT.
An invisible, absolute dome of silence snapped over the office.
The blinding white light in Chen Fan's hands didn't explode. It didn't launch forward. It just blinked out. Like a cheap lightbulb popping.
The immense spiritual pressure in the room vanished instantly. The wind howling through the broken window died down.
Chen Fan stood there, his hands thrust forward in a dramatic, magical pose. But absolutely nothing was happening.
He blinked. He looked down at his empty, pale, non-glowing teenage hands.
"W-what?" the Immortal Venerable stammered. He aggressively rubbed his palms together and threw his hands forward again. "NINE HEAVENS ANNIHILATION STRIKE!"
Nothing. Not even a spark.
He tried to tap into his Dantian, the core of his spiritual power. It was gone. It felt like a massive lead weight had been dropped onto his soul, completely severing his connection to the Heavenly Dao. He couldn't feel the elements. He couldn't feel his Qi.
He was entirely, completely, 100% mortal.
"What did you do to me?!" Chen Fan shrieked, his voice cracking violently, a cold, mortal sweat breaking out across his forehead. He stumbled backward, his scrawny legs shaking. "My magic! My cultivation! Where is it?!"
I casually rolled up the sleeves of my dress shirt, revealing the dense, terrifyingly sculpted muscle forged by the Dragon Vein.
"Your magic?" I asked, a dark, utterly ruthless grin spreading across my face as I began to walk toward him. "It's gone, Chen Fan. The Heavenly Dao isn't answering your calls in this room."
Chen Fan backed away, bumping hard into the edge of Su Qingran's obsidian desk. He looked at the towering, muscular billionaire walking toward him, realizing for the first time that his physical vessel was just a malnourished 110-pound kid.
"You... stay back!" the 500-year-old Immortal Venerable panicked, frantically looking around the room for a weapon. He grabbed an expensive crystal paperweight from the desk and raised it defensively. "I am Chen Fan! I conquered the Northern Heavens! If you touch me—"
I closed the distance in a single, blurring step.
Before he could even swing the paperweight, my hand shot out and wrapped completely around his throat.
I lifted him entirely off the floor with one arm.
Chen Fan dropped the crystal, his hands desperately clawing at my wrist. He kicked his scrawny legs in the air, his face turning purple as his mortal airway was instantly crushed.
"You conquered the Northern Heavens?" I whispered, my Overlord Aura completely suffocating his fracturing mind. I brought him close, staring directly into his bulging, terrified eyes. "Congratulations. Welcome to Earth. Now bleed."