The Capital thrived on secrets, but the Ye Family Estate was where all the darkest ones lived. For three hundred years, this place had decided who would rise and who would fall, whole industries, millions of lives, all twisted inside these walls. Tonight, the air felt heavy, thick with old incense and the sharp smell of fear.
Inside the Ancestral Hall, twelve Ye Family Elders sat in a curve, perched on high ebony thrones. Right in the center, Ye Ling gripped his dragon-headed staff so hard his knuckles turned white. He looked every bit the patriarch, but there was tension in his hands.
"He's at the gate," one of the younger Elders whispered, voice shaking. "He destroyed the Ghost Squad. He has the Empress's Seal. Maybe we should talk. Offer him a seat on the council—"
"Quiet!" Ye Ling's voice cracked through the hall, echoing off stone and wood. "He's a bastard son who forgot his place. I called the Heavenly Sentinels. No one survives the Hall of Three Thousand Trials, not even someone who mastered the Forbidden Breath."
Suddenly, the estate's huge iron gates didn't just open, they vanished.
A shockwave ripped through the courtyard, shredding the doors to splinters. Rain poured, dust swirled, and from the chaos, a single figure walked forward.
Ye Chen.
He wasn't in yesterday's blood-soaked rags. He wore a long, charcoal coat that snapped behind him, hair swept back to show eyes cold as winter. Up above, helicopters drummed through the night, Ye Qing's Valkyrie unit but they hovered, silent and waiting. This fight belonged to Ye Chen alone.
He stepped into the Ancestral Hall. His footsteps echoed. He stopped ten feet from the Elders and locked eyes with Ye Ling.
"Ten years ago," Ye Chen began, voice steady and heavy, "I knelt right here. You stripped me of my name, called me a stain on this family. You threw me out with nothing but a bounty on my head."
Ye Ling sneered and stood, spitting the words, "You should have stayed in the gutter, Ye Chen! You come back with a handful of mercenaries and stolen trinkets, thinking you can erase three centuries of blood?"
"I'm not here to challenge your tradition," Ye Chen said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the Golden SIM card and the Empress's Seal, then tossed them on the floor like they were nothing. "I'm here to bury it."
"Sentinels! Kill him!" Ye Ling shrieked.
Out of the shadows, twelve figures emerged. The Heavenly Sentinels, each one a living weapon, a master killer in a different art. They moved as one, silent and deadly, blades and chains catching the candlelight.
Ye Chen didn't flinch. He closed his eyes and breathed in, deep and slow. Heat shimmered in the air around him, rain on his coat turning instantly to steam.
"Forbidden Breath: Third Form," Ye Chen murmured. "The Sovereign's Domain."
Gold light rippled out from him, crackling through the air. It wasn't a punch or a blade just raw, unstoppable force. The Sentinels, men who'd never backed down from anything, froze. Their swords clattered to the floor. A few even dropped to their knees, clutching at their chests, as if the air itself had turned against them. Ye Chen hadn't touched them, but his presence alone made them crumble.
He walked straight through the stunned crowd, barely glancing at the Empress's Seal under his feet. All his focus was on the high dais, where the First Elder still sat at least, for now.
"You… you reached the Supreme Realm?" Ye Ling stammered, the color draining from his face. "That's not possible. No one's done that since the Founder!"
Ye Chen just smiled, cold and steady. "You spent a hundred years hoarding power, like some dragon sitting on its gold," he said, grabbing Ye Ling by the throat and lifting him off the ground like he weighed nothing. "I spent ten years fighting to survive. You hid behind old scrolls. I became them. That's the difference."
He turned to the other Elders, now cowering on their thrones, some even crying, desperate not to meet his eyes. "From now on, the Ye Family Council is finished.
Every asset, every secret account, every private army, it all goes to the Dragon Group. If you try anything, I'll release the dirt Han Mufeng has dug up: tax evasion, assassinations, human trafficking. You won't get a cushy private cell. The state will bury you in the darkest hole it can find."
Ye Chen looked back at Ye Ling, whose face had gone an ugly shade of purple. "And you… You called my mother a stain. Said her death was 'necessary' for the family's purity."
He squeezed tighter. The Elder's staff snapped in half with a sharp crack. "I'm not going to kill you, Elder. That'd be too easy. I bought the island where you sent my mother's family into exile. You'll spend the rest of your life there, in a mud hut, forgotten. You'll watch the world move on, and you'll be nothing more than a ghost."
He dropped Ye Ling to the floor. The old man just stared up at him, broken. He finally understood, the ant he'd crushed years ago had come back as his judge, jury, and executioner.
The New Dawn
Ye Chen left the Ancestral Hall, stepping out onto the balcony above the Capital. The city spread out beneath him, a sea of lights, glittering like stars that had fallen to earth.
A black car slid into the courtyard. Su Yan stepped out, with Ye Qing beside her. Su Yan looked up, relief and something deeper in her eyes. For the first time, she saw not just her husband, but the man who'd clawed his way back from exile, rebuilding his throne just to keep her safe.
Ye Chen came down the stairs, rain washing away the last traces of blood and dirt. He met Su Yan in the courtyard.
"Is it over?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.
He took her hand, steady and warm. The same hand she'd held when he had nothing. "It's over, Yan'er. Revenge is done. Now our life starts for real."
He glanced at his sister, Ye Qing, who snapped off a sharp salute. Helicopters peeled away overhead, their work here was finished. The Ye Family name was his now, to save or destroy.
"What happens now?" Su Yan asked, glancing at the huge estate.
Ye Chen looked out at the dawn breaking over the city. "Now we build something that doesn't need walls. Something real."
His pocket buzzed. He pulled out Han Mufeng's encrypted device. A message flashed on the screen not from his lawyers or his sister, but a string of symbols he hadn't seen in years. The code of the Global Shadow Council, the real puppet-masters behind the world's money.
[Young Master Ye, the Ye Family was just a branch. By claiming the Sovereign's Realm, you've caught the attention of the Forest. The True Masters are calling. Will you kneel, or will you fight the world?]
Ye Chen's lips curled into a cold, dangerous smile. He deleted the message and crushed the device in his fist. The broken pieces fell into the mud.
"Ye Chen?" Su Yan's voice cut through his thoughts.
He pulled her close, kissed her forehead. "Nothing, Yan'er. Just a reminder, this world's bigger than we think."
They walked to the car together, leaving the shattered old order behind. As the sun rose over the Capital, Ye Chen didn't just reclaim his place, he conquered it.
And now, finally, the world would see what happened when the Dragon woke up.