"Uncle. Get out of my chair."
The words weren't shouted. They were spoken with the calm, terrifying certainty of a king addressing a peasant.
My newly acquired Aura of the Overlord surged outward, flooding the eighty-story boardroom with a suffocating, invisible pressure. Several of the older billionaires around the obsidian table physically flinched, their breathing suddenly shallow.
Sitting in the Chairman's seat, my Uncle, Chu Yun, froze. He opened his mouth to laugh, to mock my arrogance in front of the board, but the sound died in his throat. A cold sweat broke out across his forehead. His instincts were screaming at him that if he didn't move, he was going to die.
His legs moved on their own. Before he even realized what he was doing, Chu Yun stood up and took two steps back, his face pale.
I didn't gloat. I simply walked forward, pulling out the heavy leather chair and sitting down. Su Qingran stood perfectly at my right shoulder, her presence a silent, undeniable confirmation that the multi-billion dollar Su Family merger was locked in.
"Chu Feng!" Chu Yun finally snapped out of his fear-induced trance, his face flushing with humiliation. He slammed his hands on the table. "You arrogant little brat! Do you think walking in here with Miss Su changes anything? The merger was just the final straw! This board has lost confidence in your leadership!"
He looked around at the twenty board members, expecting them to back him up. "Right, gentlemen? We vote today!"
A few of the older men, loyal to Chu Yun, shifted in their seats and prepared to speak.
I leaned back, resting my elbows on the armrests, and let the [Absolute Insight Eye] do its work.
Glowing red text floated above the head of Director Zhao, the loudest supporter of my uncle.
[Secret: Transferred 500 million of company R&D funds to a private shell company in Macau to cover gambling debts.]
"Director Zhao," I said smoothly, cutting him off before he could even open his mouth. I didn't look at him; I was casually inspecting my fingernails. "How was the weather in Macau last weekend? I heard the Baccarat tables at the Grand Lisboa were particularly brutal. It would be a shame if the auditors found out where that 500 million missing from our tech division went."
Director Zhao went rigidly stiff. The color drained completely from his face, leaving him looking like a corpse. He collapsed back into his chair, his mouth opening and closing like a suffocating fish. He didn't say another word.
Chu Yun panicked. "Zhao? What is he talking about? Speak up!"
I shifted my gaze to Director Lin, the next man about to vote against me.
[Secret: Maintaining a second family in Singapore. His legal wife's family owns 40% of his shares and will strip him of everything if they find out.]
"Director Lin," I smiled faintly. "Has little Tommy recovered from his cold in Singapore? I'm sure your father-in-law would love to see the medical bills you expensed to the company."
Crash. Director Lin knocked over his water glass, his hands trembling violently. He looked at me with absolute, unadulterated terror. "Y-Young Master Chu... I... I fully support your leadership. Completely."
The boardroom descended into dead silence.
In less than thirty seconds, I had financially and socially castrated the two most powerful men in my Uncle's faction without raising my voice or bringing a single piece of paper into the room.
[Ding!] [Host has exerted absolute psychological dominance over the Chu Consortium Board!] [Su Qingran's Affection +5! Current Affection: 95 (Utterly Devoted)!]
My Uncle was hyperventilating, backing away from the table. "This... this is blackmail! You have no proof! You're just bluffing!"
"Uncle Yun," I said, my voice dropping an octave as my glowing eyes locked onto him. [Secret: Orchestrated the assassination attempt on Chu Feng's father three years ago, currently disguised as a car accident.]
The air in my lungs turned to ice.
The original Chu Feng had thought his father's crippling car crash was a tragedy. It wasn't. It was the man standing right in front of me.
"Uncle," I whispered, the killing intent rolling off my body so thickly it felt like the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. "Pack your desk. My security team is escorting you to the police station. The file regarding my father's brake lines is already sitting on Captain Xia Luo's desk."
Chu Yun's knees buckled. He hit the floor, completely broken. The Overlord Aura, combined with his darkest secret being exposed, entirely shattered his mind. He couldn't even form a coherent sentence as two of Old Chen's guards dragged him out of the room by his collar.
"Well," a slow, arrogant clapping sound echoed from the far end of the table.
Everyone turned.
The young man in the pristine white suit, the proxy for the Dragon Sovereign, stood up. He had a smug, condescending smile on his face, entirely unfazed by the brutal corporate massacre he had just witnessed.
"Impressive, Young Master Chu. Truly ruthless," the man said, adjusting his custom silk tie. "But secrets and intimidation only go so far against real power."
Su Qingran leaned down, whispering in my ear, her breath warm against my neck. "That's Han Lin. He represents a massive foreign hedge fund. He showed up an hour ago and offered to buy 51% of the Consortium at double the market value."
I nodded slowly, keeping my eyes locked on Han Lin.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Han Lin said, tossing a thick folder onto the obsidian table. "I represent the Dragon Temple. My boss has fifty billion dollars in liquid capital ready to flood this market. You can either sign over the Chu Consortium to me right now, and walk away a rich man, or we will hostile-takeover your supply chains, crush your stock, and leave you begging on the streets by Friday."
He smirked, waiting for me to panic. Fifty billion was an astronomical sum. It was enough to bury anyone.
But I just let out a quiet chuckle.
I activated the Absolute Insight Eye one more time, staring directly into the proxy's arrogant face.
[Target: Han Lin (Dragon Temple Vanguard)] [Secret: Secretly skimming 10% of the Dragon Sovereign's war chest into a private Cayman Islands account. If the Dragon Sovereign discovers this betrayal, Han Lin will be executed.]
"Fifty billion," I mused, tapping my fingers rhythmically against the armrest. "That's a lot of money, Han Lin. Tell me, does your boss know you're only using forty-five billion of it?"
Han Lin's arrogant smirk instantly vanished.
"What did you say?" he demanded, his voice dropping.
"I said," I leaned forward, my Overlord Aura crashing down entirely on him, "how is that Cayman Islands account doing? The one under your mother's maiden name? Skimming five billion off the top of a mercenary king's war chest takes serious guts, Han Lin. Or serious stupidity."
Han Lin staggered backward as if he had been physically shot. The blood drained from his face so fast he looked translucent. "You... how... nobody knows about that! It's completely encrypted!"
"I know everything," I said coldly. "And right now, I'm wondering what your boss, the great Dragon Sovereign, would do to you if I texted him the routing numbers."
Han Lin panicked. The arrogant vanguard of the new protagonist completely lost his mind. He reached into his suit jacket, pulling out a sleek satellite phone. His hands were shaking so violently he almost dropped it.
"I'll kill you!" Han Lin screamed, completely forgetting he was in a corporate boardroom. He lunged forward, grabbing a heavy glass ashtray from the table, intending to smash my skull.
I didn't even blink.
Before he could take a second step, Old Chen stepped out from the shadows. The veteran bodyguard moved with terrifying speed, driving a brutal front kick directly into Han Lin's kneecap.
SNAP.
Han Lin screamed in agony, collapsing to the floor, dropping the satellite phone. It clattered across the polished obsidian table, stopping right in front of me.
The screen was lit up. It was currently connected to an active call. The contact name simply read: [The Sovereign].
I picked up the phone.
The entire boardroom held its breath. Su Qingran watched me, her heart pounding in her chest as I brought the phone to my ear.
"Han Lin," a deep, magnetic, and terrifyingly cold voice came through the speaker. It was a voice that commanded armies and slaughtered nations. "Why am I listening to you scream? Have you secured the Chu Consortium?"
I smiled, my eyes glowing with absolute, unapologetic malice.
"Han Lin is a little tied up right now," I replied, my voice perfectly matching his cold intensity. "You must be the Dragon Sovereign. Let me give you a piece of advice. Jinghai City is my territory. If you want to keep your billions, turn your private jet around and go back to whatever jungle you crawled out of."
There was a heavy, murderous silence on the other end of the line.
"I see," the Dragon Sovereign finally spoke, the killing intent practically vibrating through the satellite connection. "You have a lot of courage, Chu Feng. Keep my seat warm. I will be landing in Jinghai in exactly two hours. And when I arrive, I am going to rip your empire apart piece by piece."
"I'll put the kettle on," I replied smoothly.
I hung up the phone and casually dropped it into my half-empty coffee mug.