A bleak wind swept through a dilapidated estate.
Ye Bei stood in the courtyard for a long time. This was the old Ye residence, the place where he had once lived with his parents.
After the family's brutal destruction, people had begun calling it a haunted house. No one had dared buy it.
Seven years had passed. Ruin filled the sprawling courtyard, deepening the desolation in Ye Bei's heart.
He was the master of Godslayer Hall. He could defend China's vast territory and hundreds of millions of people, yet he had failed to protect his own parents.
His wife and daughter had nearly been harmed beyond saving too...
"Hall Master." Lü Zhongyuan stood behind him, his eyes red in his resolute face.
"Have you found out everything?" Ye Bei did not turn. He gently touched a pomegranate tree he had planted with his father.
"Yes, sir!"
Lü Zhongyuan clenched his fists. Rage made him tremble uncontrollably, and a terrifying killing intent surged from him. The surrounding trees shook without wind, shedding their leaves.
Ye Bei watched the falling leaves in a daze.
Lü Zhongyuan was the calmest of the five War Gods. That was why Ye Bei had chosen to keep him here.
Now even he could not restrain his killing intent. Fortunately, there was no one nearby. Otherwise, corpses would already have littered the ground for hundreds of meters around.
According to his investigation, Ye Bei had been deliberately drugged and framed. What he had never imagined was that the person who had drugged him was his own maternal uncle, Sun Zhengming.
At Ye Bei's coming-of-age banquet, his father had announced his intention to turn the company over to him. His uncle, the company's vice president, had been consumed by jealousy. He had devised the scheme to seize control of the business.
What he had failed to anticipate was the Gu family's fury—and their decision to destroy Ye Bei's family.
The Gus had also come to despise Gu Moli and her parents, believing she had disgraced them all. They had expelled all three from the family.
When Gu Moli discovered she was pregnant, she could not bear to abort the child. She gave birth to her daughter, Xinyu.
That had infuriated the Gus even more. They had ordered every company in Jinghai not to employ any of the three, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Gu Moli had opened a little flower shop to scrape by. But when her daughter was three, she had been diagnosed with heart disease. Keeping her alive required a great deal of money every year, and she could not have surgery until she was ten.
Countless times, Gu Moli had returned to the Gu family for help. Each time, they had driven her away with abuse.
With no other choice, she had borrowed at exorbitant interest from Master Tiger to save her daughter.
"The Gu family! What a family!" Icy light flashed in Ye Bei's eyes.
"Hall Master, Gu Changfeng's birthday banquet is tomorrow night. Give me the order, and I'll take our men there and slaughter every last one of them," Lü Zhongyuan said through gritted teeth.
Ye Bei waved a hand.
"I will avenge my parents myself."
Just one street away stood a magnificent estate covering more than sixteen acres—tens of thousands of square meters. It had everything from landscaped grounds and swimming pools to a golf course, forming a stark contrast with the towering buildings around it.
This was the residence of Jinghai's foremost family, the Gus.
Now visitors streamed through its gates. Luxury cars crowded the entrance, including rare limited-edition models that were seldom seen elsewhere.
"Has Zehao been taken care of?" Gu Changfeng wore a Zhongshan suit. Though in his sixties, he showed no sign of frailty. His back was straight, his bearing imperious.
"Yes, sir. He's been settled in and confined to his room," the butler replied.
A quick look at will leave you more fulfilled.
Gu Changfeng's eyes were cold. Ye Bei had severed his eldest grandson's legs. Beyond his rage, the act was a monstrous humiliation for the family.
Today was his birthday. Whatever happened, the guests must not learn about it.
"The general manager of Shida Trading, presenting a golden Buddha statue!"
"The president of Lingyun Group, presenting a piece of Tang dynasty sancai pottery!"
"The president of Hong Group, presenting Zhang Daqian's Lotus Painting!"
...
Every guest brought a valuable gift, none worth less than ten million yuan. That alone showed the Gu family's influence in Jinghai.
"Sir, please lend me a hundred thousand. Even fifty thousand will do. I have nowhere else to turn."
Seated at the center of the hall, Gu Changfeng was adjusting his clothes, preparing to rise and greet his guests. At the voice, his expression darkened instantly.
"What are you doing here? Who let her in? Throw her out!"
Two bodyguards hurried over, seized the woman, and dragged her toward the door.
"Sir, Xinyu is ill. She needs treatment urgently. She's your own descendant. Please, save her!"
The sobbing woman was Wang Huizhi, Gu Moli's mother and Xinyu's maternal grandmother.
She had come to the Gus for help countless times and always been refused. She had hoped Gu Changfeng might be more generous on his birthday. Instead, he was as heartless as ever.
"Really, Second Sister-in-Law, how can you behave like this? Everyone else brings gifts for Father's birthday, and you come asking for money." A woman of the Gu family sneered at her.
"Exactly. You may not be ashamed of yourselves, but we are. How do you have the nerve to show your face?"
"Get out already. Don't spoil the occasion."
...
Disgust covered the faces of the Gu family.
"This is your last warning. Never come here again, or don't blame me for being ruthless. Throw her out!"
Gu Changfeng straightened his clothes and walked outside without so much as looking at Wang Huizhi.
At the courtyard gates, well-wishers continued to arrive.
"The Ye family presents a Maybach... How do you say this? Ah, a Maybach Uranus!" the butler called.
As he spoke, a brand-new Maybach pulled up outside the estate.
"What? A Maybach Uranus?!" a young man from a wealthy family exclaimed.
"What's the fuss? It's just a Maybach." The girl beside him scoffed. Her own family owned plenty of luxury cars, Maybachs included.
The young man swallowed, excitement in his voice. "You don't understand. The Maybach Uranus is no ordinary car!"
"It's named after the planet Uranus. There's only one in the whole world. I heard it was custom-built for one particular person. That's a real symbol of status. No amount of money can buy it!"
"What? Who would give something so valuable?" The girl stared.
"I think the butler just said... the Ye family?"
"The Ye family?!"
They cried out together. There had only ever been one Ye family in Jinghai: Ye Bei's family, slaughtered seven years earlier.
They were not the only ones. People around them whispered and turned toward the gates.
Then, to everyone's confusion, a large excavator rolled up. Its boom reached over the fence and dug a deep pit inside the estate.
What happened next shocked them even more. The excavator scooped up the Maybach and dumped it into the hole.
"Holy shit!"
Everyone was stunned.
"What kind of wastrel is this? If he doesn't want it, give it to me!" The young man beat his chest in anguish. Owning the only car of its kind in the world was something money could never measure.
The Gu family noticed that something was wrong too. A square-faced middle-aged man strode to the gate, his cold eyes sweeping the crowd.
"Who dares cause trouble here?"
This was Gu Baosong, the leading member of the family's second generation. Only the patriarch, Gu Changfeng, held more authority.
When no one answered, Gu Baosong picked up the gift register.
"The Ye family!"