The Luòtiān Imperial City usually smelled of ancient incense and rain, but today, the air tasted of ozone and absolute authority. I sat on the edge of the imperial fountain, my small legs dangling over the side, but my mind was a web stretching across the Heavenridge Continent.

  I wasn't just Lu Xian, the five-year-old prince anymore. I was the "Shark" of a bygone era, and the Zhou Empire was a company whose stocks I was about to short into oblivion.

  "Lingshu," I whispered into a communication jade. "Execute Phase Two."

  In the Zhou Capital, the chaos was no longer just economic. It was systematic. 6th Sister Lingshu, the future business tycoon, had spent the last three hours buying up every "Debt Note" the Zhou Empire had ever issued to the Starfall Continent.

  "With pleasure, Little Brother," Lingshu’s voice crackled through the jade, dripping with venomous glee. "I’ve just called in all their loans. As of five minutes ago, the Zhou Emperor officially owns nothing. Not his palace, not his crown, and certainly not his army’s loyalty. I’ve offered his generals a 200% pay raise to simply... stay home today."

  While Lingshu strangled their gold, I moved my focus to the shadow realm. "Chenyi. The Blackthorn Sect."

  "Already done, Xian-er," the 4th brother replied. He was currently standing in the center of the Zhou’s secret intelligence hub, surrounded by frozen statues of spies. "I’ve rewritten their orders. The assassins they sent to 'monitor' our borders are currently being redirected to the Zhou Emperor’s private bedchamber. It’s amazing what a little Void Emperor spatial manipulation can do to a map."

  Stolen story; please report.

  I stood up from the fountain. The white light of my Origin Dao Body was no longer a pillar; it was a subtle, shimmering aura that made the space around me ripple.

  I felt a presence beside me. It was Qin Chenfeng. He looked at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and fanaticism. He had seen me dismantle a Rank 6 empire from a fountain without lifting a finger.

  "Is this how you fight?" Chenfeng whispered. "No blood? No spears?"

  "Blood is messy, Chenfeng," I said, my voice echoing with a cold, adult clarity. "And spears take too much effort to polish. Why kill an emperor with a sword when you can kill him with a bankruptcy notice and a shattered reputation? It’s much lazier."

  But I wasn't done. The "Shark" doesn't just win; he ensures the competition never restarts.

  I reached out my hand toward the North. The Space Root within me hummed. I didn't need to travel to the Zhou Empire. Through the connection of the curse they had placed on Consort Li’er, I had a direct line to their soul.

  "You touched my family," I murmured.

  I closed my fist.

  Two thousand miles away, the massive defensive formations of the Zhou Capital—ancient arrays that had stood for millennia—simply vanished. It wasn't an explosion. It was a liquidation. I had deleted the space they occupied.

  The "Legendary Monster" Lu Xian was born that day. Not through a bloody massacre, but through a display of power so casual and so absolute that the Tian Empire observers actually stopped breathing for a full minute.

  I had turned a Rank 6 Empire into a lawless wasteland in the span of a lunch break. And I did it all while holding a half-finished juice box.