Two days after the garden incident.
Azure Spire, 88th floor.
Lin Feng reviewed acquisition lists while Li Wei stood beside him, radiant and merciless in her efficiency.
A whisper of foreign Qi brushed his outer shroud; thin, cowardly, probing.
Some Qin Clan rat in a janitor's uniform, three floors down, trying to scan the "anomaly."
Lin Feng let it touch him.
Absolute Adaptation + Absolute Refinement triggered.
The probing Qi didn't bounce.
It didn't break.
It was unmade, converted into raw data, and deleted.
Down in the service corridor, the "janitor" screamed once, clutched his dantian, and vomited black blood as his cultivation base cracked like cheap glass.
He crawled out of the building on hands and knees, leaving a trail of spiritual fragments that would never reform.
Lin Feng didn't even look up from the tablet.
Message sent.
That night he threw the party.
Tsingfeng University Grand Ballroom; reserved for state visits and royal weddings; now his.
Budget: whatever made the old elite choke on their champagne.
Xiao Yan, in a severe black dress that cost more than her former life, managed every detail on her knees if she had to.
She personally ensured every student who'd ever laughed at the "dying trash Lin Feng" received a gilded invitation they couldn't refuse.
Wang Chao stood outside in the rain, holding an umbrella he wasn't allowed to use himself, guarding the Ghost like a statue of regret.
Inside, crystal chandeliers, caviar flown in from the Caspian that morning, string quartet playing arrangements worth six figures.
Lin Feng entered late.
Li Wei on his left; quiet, lethal competence.
Xiao Yan was two steps behind, head bowed, carrying his drink on a silver tray like a maid.
The room knelt without being told.
Then the doors opened again.
Mo Li.
CEO of Li Group.
Ice-queen power suit, heels sharp enough to sign contracts in blood.
Net worth: 38 billion RMB and falling.
She walked straight to the balcony where Lin Feng stood, the crowd parting like the Red Sea, sensing a tsunami.
"Lin Feng."
Her voice cut through the music like a guillotine.
"You've been choking my supply chain for two weeks. Tonight it ends."
She slapped a thick injunction packet against his chest.
Lin Feng didn't take it.
He tore it in half without looking.
"Litigation?" He smiled. "Cute."
Ten seconds.
Digital Dominion + Infinite Wallet → precision strike.
Target: Li Group's AAA-rated corporate bonds.
Massive buy → forced downgrade trigger → instant sell-off cascade.
Mo Li's phone erupted in red alerts.
Her face went from porcelain to ash.
"Credit rating… plummeting… liquidity freeze… how…"
Lin Feng leaned in until their breaths mingled.
"I don't play by your rules, Ms Mo.
I write new ones between heartbeats."
He let Devil's Charm flood her mind; not full force, just enough to taste inevitability.
Her knees buckled. She caught the railing to stay upright.
"I can finish the job by dawn," he whispered. "Or you can kneel, tell me everything you know about the Cultivation Clans watching my city, and keep your empire as my vassal."
Mo Li's empire, built from nothing, every brick earned in blood and boardrooms, crumbled in ten seconds.
She looked down at the ballroom full of worshippers, then back at the man who had just executed her company without raising his voice.
Her pride died with a soft exhale.
"I accept," she said, voice steady but eyes burning with something darker than defeat. "But mark my words, Lin Feng. One day you'll need me more than I need you."
He allowed himself a real smile.
"Good. Ambition looks better on you than fear."
He turned to the crowd, raised his glass.
"To new management."
The room roared approval.
DING!
Third heroine acquired.
Mo Li loyalty: 87 % (rival → vassal)
Hidden intel unlocked: Qin Clan mobilisation confirmed; 12 Core Formation elders inbound.
New quest:
[Barrier of Gods]
Survive the Qin Clan's assassination wave.
Bonus: Make them beg for mercy without killing a single elder.
Midnight.
Azure Spire rooftop.
Lin Feng stood alone, wind whipping his coat.
Far below, twelve shadows in ancient robes converged on the building; Qi signatures blazing like dying stars.
He cracked his neck once.
Absolute Refinement hummed.
"Let's see how unbreakable your barrier really is."
He stepped off the edge.
Didn't fall.
Just walked down the side of the tower like gravity was a suggestion he hadn't accepted yet.
The elders looked up.
For the first time in centuries, the Qin Clan felt what prey feels.
Lin Feng landed in front of them, hands in pockets.
"Evening, gentlemen.
You're late to the party."
The first elder attacked.
Lin Feng didn't move.
The strike hit an invisible wall and reversed; every joule of Qi was redirected into the ground.
The plaza cracked in a perfect circle 50 meters wide.
Eleven elders are left standing.
Lin Feng sighed.
"This is going to take all night if you insist on doing it one at a time."
He raised one hand.
Unbreakable Barrier (improvised SSS++ skill) deployed.
A dome of pure black essence snapped into existence around the entire Azure Spire; 360 degrees, subterranean to stratosphere.
Inside the dome: his rules.
Outside: reality could knock all it wanted.
The elders hurled everything: Lethal Tranquillity palms, formation arrays, and ancestral treasures.
Every attack fed the barrier.
Every second they wasted, their cultivation bases eroded by 0.1 %.
Permanent.
By dawn, they would be mortals.
Lin Feng's voice echoed inside the dome, calm and bored.
"You have until sunrise to kneel and swear fealty.
After that, I start collecting cultivation bases as souvenirs."
Inside the penthouse, Li Wei, Xiao Yan, and Mo Li watched from the glass wall.
Mo Li whispered, almost reverent.
"He's not fighting them.
He's farming them."
Lin Feng looked up at the camera he knew Li Wei was watching through, and winked.
DING!
Barrier holding: 100 %
Elder despair levels: rising
Rental time remaining:
99 years, 348 days, 4 hours…
He sat cross-legged in mid-air, waiting.
The night was young.
And the Qin Clan was learning what "unbreakable" really meant.