” We need to leave as soon as..”
Shen Hao’s hand hovered over the car handle, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird, when a piercing, shrill scream erupted from the passenger seat.
Yui Ling’s voice cut off as abruptly as it began; she slumped over, lifeless, dropping like a stone against the dashboard.
Before Shen Hao could even process what had happened, he saw the dark silhouette behind the car.
It was Shen Tian.
With a terrifying, fluid motion, Shen Tian had reached through the open window, grabbed Yui Ling by the shoulder with a grip of steel, and effortlessly tossed her aside, her limp body landing softly on the forest floor.
“Yui ling”
Shen Hao froze.
He couldn’t even breathe.
Shen Tian stepped into the full glare of the SUV’s headlights, his face masked in shadow, his eyes burning with a cold, predatory intensity that made Shen Hao’s blood run icy.
He didn’t say a word.
He didn’t need to.
The sheer aura of death radiating from him was enough to crush Shen Hao’s spirit entirely.
Shen Tian locked his gaze onto Shen Hao—the look of a hunter who had finally cornered his prey and was savoring the final moments before the kill.
CRASH!
With a terrifying burst of force, Shen Tian slammed his bare fist straight through the driver’s side window.
Glass shattered into a thousand glittering shards.
Before Shen Hao could even scream, Shen Tian’s fingers locked around his collar like an iron vice.
With effortless, inhuman strength, Shen Tian dragged Shen Hao out through the broken window frame, tearing the metal door off its hinges, and hurled him onto the rough, dusty ground outside.
Shen Hao tumbled violently across the dirt, gasping for air as blood trickled down his face.
Before he could recover, Shen Tian walked over, grabbed him by his hair, and hoisted him up.
BANG!
Shen Tian’s fist slammed squarely into Shen Hao’s jaw.
The sound of cracking teeth echoed through the silent woods.
BANG!
BANG!
Punch after brutal punch rained down on Shen Hao’s face and chest.
Shen Tian was consciously holding back his true cultivation power, suppressing the destructive qi in his fists.
He knew that with a single uninhibited blow, he could easily crush Shen Hao’s skull into dust.
But a quick death was too merciful.
He wanted Shen Hao to feel every ounce of pain, terror, and bone-shattering impact for what he had done.
Shen Hao coughed up a mixture of blood and spit, his vision going blurry as he whimpered beneath the unrelenting assault, completely helpless in the hands of a monster.
“What did I ever do to you?!”
BANG!
Another brutal punch landed right on Shen Hao’s bruised face.
“I literally saved your father’s life!
Just because you couldn’t stand the thought of sharing a tiny slice of your family’s property?!”
BANG!
Shen Tian hurled another strike, his eyes burning with absolute hatred.
“You miserable bastard!
I called you my brother, and you tried to have me murdered!”
Shen Hao’s eyes rolled back as his consciousness flickered like a dying candle, his body completely broken and limp in Shen Tian’s grasp.
Seeing Shen Hao on the verge of passing out, a dark, low chuckle escaped Shen Tian’s throat.
“You know…” Shen Tian leaned down, whispering right into Shen Hao’s ear with a cold, terrifying laugh.
“I want to rip your head off right here and now.
But if I kill you today, your grandmother and grandfather father will turn heaven and earth upside down to hunt me down…
and I’m not quite strong enough to face their full wrath yet.”
A sinister smirk spread across Shen Tian’s blood-stained face.
“So instead, I’ll make sure you drift into a permanent coma.
You’ll never wake up again.”
Shen Tian glanced over his shoulder toward the unconscious Yui Ling lying in the dirt, his expression darkening even further.
He turned his gaze back to the fading Shen Hao, his smile purely evil.
“And as for Yui Ling?
Don’t you worry…
I will take extra good care of my dear sister-in-law.
You can rest forever now.”
Shen Tian raised two fingers and struck a precise pressure point right at the base of Shen Hao’s neck—disrupting his core nervous system permanently.
Shen Hao’s vision instantly went pitch black.
His mind was screaming in agony, every nerve inside him crying out:
No…
this can’t be happening!
Why…
why did I do this?!
I should have listened to Yui Ling!
Shen Tian isn’t human…
he’s a demon!
I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life…
‘I should have never dragged Yui Ling into this…’
Shen hao soul wept, heavy with crushing guilt.
He didn’t care about the fading sensation in his limbs, nor did he fear the endless darkness of the coma waiting for him.
The only thing tearing his heart to pieces was the realization that he was about to be trapped in a living death, completely helpless to protect the girl he loved from the monster standing over them.
With a final, desperate gasp, darkness swallowed Shen Hao whole as his body fell completely motionless onto the cold dirt.
An eerie, suffocating silence descended over the dark forest, broken only by the gentle rustling of the night wind through the trees.
“For a third-rate villain, you actually managed to put up quite a decent fight, Shen Hao,” Shen Tian scoffed, his voice dripping with arrogance.
He leaned in slightly, his eyes gleaming with merciless victory.
“But your fate was sealed the very second you decided to stand in my way.
In the end, your trashy execution will be no different from how it was written in the original novel—broken, forgotten, and thoroughly defeated.”
A dark, mocking grin spread across Shen Tian’s face as he glanced down at the unconscious girl in his arms, then back at Shen Hao’s fading consciousness.
“Oh, and don’t worry about your poor fiancé too …
I’ll be sure to take very good care of her too all in your place.”
Shen Tian slowly stood up, casting a cold, indifferent glance at the broken, unconscious body of Shen Hao lying motionless in the dirt.
Turning away, he walked over to where Yui Ling lay.
He leaned down and effortlessly scooped her up, wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her bridal-style into his arms.
Her head rested against his chest, her beautiful, sleeping face looking strikingly peaceful amidst the surrounding chaos.
Shen Tian gently reached out and brushed a stray lock of her long, silvery hair away from her face.
Gazing down at her, his expression softened slightly as he murmured under his breath, “Don’t worry…
I know Shen Hao must have manipulated you somehow.
In the original webnovel, you were never this evil.
You would have never willingly stood alongside a scoundrel like him.”
A faint, determined smile curved his lips.
“Whatever spell or manipulation he used on you…
I’ll make sure to break it.”
But Before Shen Tian could even take a single step forward with Yui Ling in his arms, his blood ran cold.
A sudden, paralyzing chill rushed up his spine, and the fine hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up on end.
Every survival instinct in his body screamed in warning.
He snapped his head around toward the spot where Shen Hao lay unconscious in the dirt.
A thick, crimson-red energy was bleeding out from Shen Hao’s motionless body, radiating an aura of absolute violence and bloodlust into the surrounding night air.
Shen Tian stared in utter shock, raw dread flickering deep within his eyes.
‘No…
This is impossible!’ Shen Tian’s mind raced as sweat beaded on his forehead.
‘In the original webnovel, when Shen Hao was pushed to the absolute brink of death, his primordial instincts completely took over his body, causing his strength to explode exponentially for a short time!
But…
but his ancient bloodline shouldn’t even be awakened yet at this point in the timeline!
Where the hell is this blood-red energy coming from?!’
The terrifying red aura continued to swell, twisting the atmospheric pressure around them as Shen Hao’s fingers twitched against the bloody earth.