The night was deep, but the Qianyuan River refused to sleep.
The flower boats—floating brothels of wood and lantern light—stretched for miles, a glowing serpent winding through the darkness. They were the crown jewel of the Daye Dynasty's nightlife, a place where laughter spilled across the water and shadows held their breath.
Inside one particularly secluded vessel, a woman named Yao Hua sat before a bronze mirror. She was a creature of devastating beauty, her fingers as pale and smooth as carved jade as she applied a floral decal to her forehead.
The air behind her suddenly warped. Black ripples distorted the room, smelling of decay and old graves. A woman in a crimson dress stepped out of the void.
"You're playing with fire, Yao Hua," the woman in red said, her voice cold. "Leave the Jiang brothers alone. They're the younger siblings of the Blazing Flame Gang's leader. We cannot afford the attention."
Yao Hua didn't turn around. She smiled at her reflection. "Since when did you become such a coward?"
"We have a greater mission," the woman in red warned. "And that Gang Leader... he's an anomaly. He's slaughtered our kind before, and we still don't know his origins. Do not provoke him."
"You see danger in shadows," Yao Hua scoffed. "I bet even if a Sacred Artifact appeared, you wouldn't have the guts to seize it."
"You—"
"Enough. I won't kill the boys," Yao Hua interrupted, her eyes gleaming with predatory hunger. "I'll just sip a little of their Yang energy. How can I let such prime cuts walk away untouched?"
Thud.
A heavy footstep echoed from the deck.
Yao Hua's smile widened. "A guest. I have work to do. Go hide in the dark."
Outside, Jiang Dao landed on the deck with the weight of a boulder.
He was a mountain of a man, his gaze sweeping over the scene. The river was alive with the sounds of hedonism—the Spring Garden, the Red Flower Tower, the Intoxicated Heart. Red lanterns swayed, and the cloying scent of perfume masked the river stench.
He zeroed in on the Osmanthus Workshop.
Jiang Dao cracked his neck and marched forward.
"My Lord! You've arrived!"
"Please, come inside!"
A gaggle of young women swarmed him. They moved with an unnatural, fluid grace, their waists swaying like snakes, designed to ignite lust in any man. Jiang Dao looked them over with dead, indifferent eyes.
Cold energy.
Not a single one of them was human.
Puppets. Evil spirits.
It didn't matter. To him, they were just kindling waiting to burn.
"Sit, please," a young girl chirped, pouring wine and lifting the cup to his lips.
Jiang Dao's hand shot out, clamping around her wrist. He didn't just hold it; he crushed it.
"Where is Yao Hua?" he asked calmly. "Tell her to come out."
Smoke hissed from the girl's wrist. The skin caved in, sizzling under his grip. She trembled, terror overriding her pain, too scared to even scream.
"Who... who are you?" she stammered, looking back desperately. "Sister Yao Hua!"
"Hehehe..."
Laughter, light and airy, drifted down from the second floor.
Jiang Dao looked up. A woman descended the stairs, dressed in a gown that was little more than a whisper of silk. It was cut high, revealing long, luminous legs that seemed to glow in the dim light.
"I didn't expect our guest to be so impatient," Yao Hua purred.
"You have some looks," Jiang Dao said, his voice flat. "Come here."
The woman in red followed Yao Hua down the stairs, staying in the shadows. When she saw the man sitting in the center of the room, her blood ran cold.
Jiang Dao.
The Blazing Flame Gang Leader.
They had just been whispering his name, and now the wolf was at the door. And he was asking for Yao Hua by name.
"Sir, why so rough?" Yao Hua giggled, ignoring the danger as she sashayed toward him. "Do you have such a big appetite that one girl isn't enough?"
Jiang Dao forced a smile. "That's right. Serve me well, and I'll reward you."
"Yao Hua," the woman in red called out urgently, panic rising in her chest. "You aren't well. Let the others—"
"Nonsense," Yao Hua interrupted, placing a soft, pale hand on Jiang Dao's chest. "How could I refuse such a strong man?"
She ran her hands over his muscles, her touch electric. Then, her eyes flashed green.
Bang!
She drove her palms into his chest. Emerald light exploded, sinking into his flesh like a curse, binding his body in a paralyzing seal. The girl whose wrist he held scrambled away, nursing her burns.
"Hehehe..." Yao Hua laughed, mocking him now. "Comfortable, my Lord?"
The woman in red stepped forward, exhaling a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Gang Leader Jiang, we didn't want a war. Leave now, and we will spare your family."
"You worry too much," Yao Hua sneered. "He's petrified. He can't move. I'm going to enjoy taking him apart, piece by piece."
"Is that so?"
Jiang Dao's voice cut through the room. It wasn't the voice of a prisoner.
A presence erupted from him—ancient, violent, and hot as a furnace. Yao Hua felt the fine hairs on her body stand up. Terror, primal and absolute, seized her.
BOOM.
The green light shattering was the only warning she got.
Jiang Dao's hand—now swollen, black, and radiating intense heat—snapped forward. It wasn't a human hand anymore; it was a claw of twisting veins and scorched muscle. He caught Yao Hua by the throat.
Fire and poison flooded out of him, wrapping around her like a spiderweb.
Yao Hua couldn't breathe. She couldn't speak.
Jiang Dao held her aloft like a rag doll. The "Fire Poison" energy poured into her, an agonizing mix of extreme heat and toxicity. Her skin began to red, then peel, then disintegrate. Ash flaked off her beautiful face, revealing the bone beneath.
In seconds, the seductress was gone. Only a screaming skeleton remained.
The other girls on the boat shrieked and huddled in the corners, their illusions flickering.
"Stop!" the woman in red screamed.
"Don't rush," Jiang Dao said, his grip unyielding. "You're next. You monsters dare to infest my territory? I'll kill every single one of you."
To Jiang Dao, they weren't living beings. They were XP. They were fuel for his ascension.
"We can pay you!" the woman in red cried.
"Your death is payment enough."
"Sister... help..." Yao Hua rasped, flames licking from her throat. Her arms had already turned to dust.
"You forced my hand!" the woman in red shrieked. She whipped her sleeves, and the lanterns died.
Darkness swallowed the boat. The temperature plummeted, and the sound of wind howling through the spectral realm filled the air. It was no longer a boat; it was a tomb.
Jiang Dao grinned in the dark. "Finally. Something real."
CRACK.
He stood up. The furniture around him disintegrated into powder.
He began to change. His body didn't just grow; it mutated. Muscles inflated with the sound of tearing leather. Spikes erupted from his elbows and knees. His spine elongated, threatening to burst into a tail.
He towered at nearly twelve feet tall—a hulking nightmare of purple veins and heat haze. His eyes burned like open furnaces.
Yao Hua, still in his grip, finally died. The heat burned her away until nothing was left but dust.
"Yao Hua!" The woman in red's voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "Die!"
A massive pressure descended, a grinding wheel of invisible force meant to crush him into paste. Jiang Dao didn't even flinch. He shook his shoulders, and the pressure shattered.
"Messy," he grunted. "This won't kill me."
Roar!
A ten-foot obsidian skeleton charged out of the shadows, swinging a massive broadsword.
CLANG.
The blade struck Jiang Dao's skin and rang like it had hit a steel wall.
Jiang Dao looked bored. He slapped the skeleton's skull. The creature exploded into bone shards.
"Is that it? A toy?" Jiang Dao raised a massive foot and stomped.
BOOM.
The boat groaned. A shockwave of fire and poison blasted outward, physically pushing back the magical darkness. The illusion shattered.
The room returned to normal. The woman in red stood exposed, surrounded by floating human skins. She shrieked, sending the skins flying toward him to suffocate him.
They didn't even make contact. They hit his aura and were incinerated instantly.
Jiang Dao stood amidst the flames, a demon god impervious to evil.
"What... what are you?" the woman whispered, trembling.
"Me?" Jiang Dao smiled, his face a mask of cruelty. "I'm just an ordinary guy."
He moved. He was too big to be that fast, appearing in front of her like a glitch in reality.
He backhanded her.
It wasn't a fight. It was an execution. She flew across the room, smashing into the wall with a wet crunch. Her dress exploded, her body twisted like a broken shrimp, half her face simply wiped away by the force of the blow.
Jiang Dao walked toward her, steam venting from his nose and mouth. This monstrous form was his true self. Being human was just a constraint he wore to fit in.
"Weak," he rumbled, looking down at the broken pile of red silk and blood. "Too weak. You aren't even worth the effort."