In Qingcheng's high-society circles, there's an open secret: anyone who can get Lu Chen's "golden touch" can turn a seemingly hopeless situation around.
Lu Chen's superpower is called 'Probability Manipulation'. At a time when causality has broken down, he extracts the 'tiny bits of luck' from tens of thousands of ordinary people and gathers them into 'extreme fortune', which is powerful enough to defy fate. He has used this power to shut down a near-bankrupt chemical plant a second before it exploded and to ruin a transnational smuggling case with irrefutable evidence when a key witness suffered a sudden heart attack.
Tonight, Lu Chen sits in the private club on top of the Lin Twin Towers, swirling his glass of red wine. Sweating profusely, several real estate tycoons sit across from him.
'Mr Lu, as long as we can get the demolition permit for that piece of land approved, you can name your price.'
Lu Chen smiles slightly. Above his head, an invisible, shimmering aura like golden sand floats — the fortune he has plundered.
'Luck is never free.' Lu Chen's voice carries a morbid elegance. 'I harvested the "Safe Return Home" stories from three blocks of the slums to secure this "inevitable" approval for your permit, so my cut...'
Your cut is every single breath you've ever taken in your life."
A chilling voice suddenly echoed throughout the private room. The alloy door, which was supposedly capable of withstanding rocket attacks, melted inwards like a softened candle.
Yanfu walked in.
He wore a faded black trench coat and his leather shoes left dark red ripples on the expensive, hand-woven carpet with each step. Behind him, Abang stood like an iron tower. A jet-black command token, engraved with the blood-red character for 'judgement', was slung across his shoulder and his breath radiated a chilling aura.
'Who are you?' Security! Superpowered Guard!" Lu Chen stood up abruptly. He could sense that the "Extreme Luck Golden Sand" that surrounded him was trembling with fear.
'The security guards all went into the basement ten minutes ago due to "probabilistic getting lost".' Yanfu's left eye, the 'Vision of Cause', slowly rotated and locked onto the golden sand above Lu Chen's head.
'Lu Chen, aged thirty, altered cause and effect, resulting in 4,211 people being disabled due to "accidents" and nine public facilities collapsing due to "logical fatigue".' Yanfu's voice was flat, yet it echoed like layers of judgement in the hall. 'I've seen your ledger.'
"Insolent!" Lu Chen laughed maniacally. He frantically activated his power, exclaiming, 'I have Extreme Luck protecting me! On my turf, bullets jam and floors collapse. You can't get close to me! Die!'
With a casual wave of his hand, the golden sand transformed into countless tiny blades attempting to sever Yanfu's causal threads. However, the expected event did not occur.
Yanfu continued to walk steadily forward while Lu Chen was horrified to see the 'chain of misfortune', which was powerful enough to topple skyscrapers, vanish into nothingness within three metres of Yanfu.
'You altered "probability", while I wield "inevitability".'
Yanfu slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers grasping at the air.
'Soul-Binding Noose—The End Returns.'
Instead of chains flying everywhere, only a slender, jet-black hook with a cold, metallic feel silently shot out from Yanfu's sleeve.
Lu Chen desperately activated his 'Extreme Luck', trying to deflect the chain.
His first intervention involved creating a slight refraction in space in an attempt to steer the chain off course.
However, the chain actually pierced through the folds of space, as if it had always been within Lu Chen's heart.
Second Intervention: Lu Chen tried to stop his heart from beating at that moment to avoid being detected.
Causal feedback: Yanfu's right eye — the Vision of Effect — suddenly snapped open. 'Your death three seconds from now is predetermined.'
*Thud.*
The black hook pierced Lu Chen's chest precisely, yet no blood flowed because what was hooked was his spiritual core, not flesh.
'Help... help me...' Lu Chen felt an irresistible force forcibly pulling his consciousness from his body.
'This hook is for those ordinary people who died at your hands due to "bad luck".'
Yanfu pulled him back coldly.
Under the horrified gaze of the real estate tycoons, Lu Chen's figure split in two: one was still seated in the chair with vacant eyes and drool dripping from his mouth, while the other was a semi-transparent form that was struggling frantically as it was dragged slowly into the shadows behind Yanfu by a black chain around its neck.
Lu Chen's body had completely lost its logical connection at this moment, entering a 'vegetative state' — still breathing, but forever unable to awaken. 'Abang, clear the area.'
Yanfu turned and left. The 'Extreme Fortune Gold Sand' that Lu Chen had stolen instantly disintegrated, turning into countless tiny specks of light that flew to every corner of the city and returned to their owners.
Several real estate tycoons collapsed to the ground, having witnessed firsthand the dragging away of Lu Chen, the 'God of Fortune', like trash.
The next morning, Qingcheng City was in an uproar.
The top-tier superhuman Lu Chen had mysteriously disappeared from the heavily guarded Lin's Building, leaving only an unmarked, soulless shell at the scene. Similar reports subsequently emerged: several powerful figures who had evaded justice due to "insufficient evidence" had become "living dead" overnight.
Without exception, a faint symbol composed of charred ash was left at the crime scenes of these individuals—the mark of Yama-Deva.
The phrase 'Urban Legend: Night Judge" quickly took over short video platforms and underground forums.
'Won't the authorities intervene?'
'How could they?' There were no signs of violence at the scene and all physical constants were normal. That person will never wake up again..."
Qingcheng City Special Affairs Bureau.
The director stared at Lu Chen's corpse on the screen, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Two men in sharp black suits sat before him, their lapels bearing an inconspicuous shield emblem — the Official Causal Investigation Team (CIB).
'This is no longer an ordinary crime involving supernatural abilities,' said the leading official in a deep voice. 'Someone is circumventing the law by physically eliminating the causal chain. We must find Yanfu at all costs.'
Meanwhile, at the very top of the Lin Twin Towers, Lin Cangye looked at the fragment of Lu Chen's soul in his hand and a cruel smile crept across his face.
'The first cries of judgement? Very well, then let this judgement be the death knell for the entire city.'
The Lin Twin Towers are the financial centre of Qingcheng City.
This is the city's main financial hub, where hundreds of millions of dollars are traded globally every second. However, behind every number is a meticulously planned crime.
Tonight, the Lin Group is holding its annual financial report celebration — a brightly lit gathering of celebrities. But to Yanfu, the entire building resembles a gigantic, festering tumour, frantically sucking the city's life force.
'Halt! This is private property. Please show your...'
Two genetically modified bodyguards, each two metres tall, blocked his path. However, their voices vanished within a three-metre radius of Yanfu.
Yanfu didn't even look up.
Abang, who was standing behind him, suddenly stepped forward, his right hand flashing as a jet-black command arrow drew a chilling arc in the air.
'Execution by the Underworld, living beings recoil.'
The command arrow didn't hit the bodyguards, but instead embedded itself in the air beside the door. In an instant, the two bodyguards were horrified to find their legs seemingly sinking into an abyss. No matter how hard they struggled, they were unable to move an inch — in the dimension of cause and effect, Yanfu had temporarily stripped them of their mobility and transferred it to their future ageing.
Yanfu pushed open the heavy, gilded doors and entered the banquet hall, which was filled with insincere laughter. The music stopped abruptly.
Hundreds of ceremonial dignitaries turned to look at the two intruders who were so out of place in this setting.
"Who are you? Is this a place you can come to?' a bloated real estate developer shouted, pointing at Yanfu.
Yanfu slowly raised his left eye.
'Vision of Cause — Tracing the Source.'
A phantom ledger instantly appeared above the developer's head, clearly showing that a man-made fire had been used to seize land in the south of the city, resulting in three deaths and twelve injuries.
"Chen Dafu, your debt is due."
Yanfu's voice wasn't loud, yet it drowned out all the whispers in the hall. He lightly touched the air with his slender fingers, and an invisible Soul-Binding Noose instantly pierced Chen Dafu's forehead.
"Ah—!"
Chen Dafu let out a short scream, but no blood gushed out. He collapsed stiffly into the champagne tower like a puppet with its strings cut; his soul was dragged into the Abyss at that very moment. His remaining body, though still beating, was devoid of consciousness.
"Murder!" A scream instantly shattered the glamorous façade. 'Seal the exits!'
Several hidden supernatural bodyguards from the crowd instantly unleashed their powerful auras, attempting to suppress Yanfu.
However, Yanfu simply stood in the centre of the hall, looking gloomy and aloof. The phantom of the Vajra Throne behind him flickered in and out of existence, releasing an overwhelming, crushing pressure.
'Since you've shared in the Lin family's profits, you must also bear its karmic consequences.'
Yanfu spread his arms, his right eye — the Vision of Effect — blazing with crimson flames.
'Judge's Divine Art—!'
The high-octane moment arrived. Under the full-screen scan of 'Visions of Samsara', the karmic threads connecting all the dignitaries present were forcibly linked together.
Scene 1: The once arrogant socialite suddenly felt her throat crack — the thirst of the villagers who died after the chemical plant she sponsored polluted their water source.
Scene 2: The young financial whiz suddenly experienced excruciating pain in his legs, as if they were broken — the despair of the victims he had driven to suicide through loan sharking.
Scene 3: All the security personnel found their weapons jamming inexplicably and their supernatural abilities draining away. This was because, in this instant, the 'Lin family karma' they served was completely collapsing.
"No one here is innocent." Yanfu stood at the centre of the vortex of fear, his tone cold and devoid of warmth. Just as the hall descended into hell, the roar of a helicopter could be heard through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Several powerful beams of light pierced the room and the Causality Investigation Bureau (CIB) issued its ultimatum over the loudspeakers:
'Listen up, you superhumans below! You are interfering with the city's primary causal stability. Cease all trial proceedings immediately. Otherwise, we will deploy 'Causality Anchored Missiles'!"
Yanfu looked up at the helicopter outside the window, a mocking smile playing on his lips.
'Is this the official order meant to maintain this maggot-infested prosperity?'
With a casual wave of his hand, three Soul-Binding Nooses burst through the window. They did not attack the helicopter, but locked directly onto the "probability line" of its engine operation.
To the pilot's horror, the engines, which had previously been functioning due to 'one in ten thousand metal fatigue', malfunctioned collectively and the helicopter veered and plummeted towards the helipad on the top floor of the building. However, at the last moment, Yanfu's divine power caused the helicopter to hover in mid-air.
This was a blatant demonstration of power.
"Tell your master that tonight's audit is just the beginning. After the 'Heart of the Underworld' has beaten ten thousand times, I will personally dismantle your so-called 'Core of Order'." Yanfu's voice pierced through the clouds, echoing throughout the city. Amidst the chaos, Lin Cangye, who had been sitting on the platform, remained motionless.
He held a glass of red liquid in his hand and looked at Yanfu playfully.
'Brilliant.' Lin Cangye clapped his hands; the sound was particularly jarring in the empty, desolate hall. 'Yanfu, do you think you're settling debts? No, you're just helping me get rid of these useless pawns.'
He stood up, exuding a strange mixture of the stench of corpses and sandalwood.
'You devoured the remains of that ancient god, unaware that it was bait I had deliberately left for you. The moment you believed your divinity to be invincible, you became my puppet."
Lin Cangye's figure transformed into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared into the shadows on the top floor, just before Yanfu's chains could reach him.
Yanfu stood in the ruined hall, clenching his fists. The 'Heart of the Underworld' in his chest suddenly contracted and he was struck by a sharp, knife-like pain.
He knew the real battle had only just begun.
Inside the banquet hall, the saxophone — usually a symbol of power and elegance — now emitted a piercing, mournful sound.
As Yanfu invoked 'collective punishment', hundreds of powerful figures were simultaneously dragged into an invisible meat grinder. This was not physical dismemberment, but rather the stripping away of their very survival logic.
A financial tycoon, who had amassed his fortune through illegal fundraising, watched in horror as his hands rapidly turned to sand. In the realm of cause and effect, his extravagant lifestyle, acquired by mortgaging the 'secure retirement' of tens of thousands of families, was being forcibly severed by Yanfu and returned to those shattered, impoverished families.
'Give me back my money! My life!' the tycoon roared, his voice gradually growing hoarse until he finally turned into a pile of lifeless ashes, scattered across the expensive cashmere carpet.
Yanfu stood with his hands behind his back, his black trench coat fluttering in the divine power that was fluctuating around him.
'This isn't deprivation.' His left eye, the 'Vision of Cause', pierced the hypocritical hearts of everyone present. 'This is called restoring balance. You squandered 'cause' that wasn't yours, and now you must repay all the 'effect'. Anyone who dares to move will die!"
Seeing the tide had turned, several superhumans from the Lin Group's "death squad", who had been trained to use specially crafted karmic fire vibration blades, drew their weapons and charged madly towards Yanfu.
"Clowns."
Abang suddenly took a step to the side, his massive body resembling an insurmountable black mountain. He slammed the black command arrow in his hand into the ground, unleashing a dark red shockwave that swept outwards from him.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Before the death squads could get close, their bones cracked under the pressure.
'The boss is conducting an audit. All bystanders, kneel down and prepare to be punished!'
Abang stretched out his massive hand, his fingers like steel hooks, and gripped them.
Abang stretched out his massive hand, his fingers like steel hooks, and gripped the head of a suicide soldier. Enhanced by Yama-Deva's will, his terrifying strength acquired the attribute of 'absolute judgement'. No matter how the opponent activated their defensive abilities, they were as thin as paper before the Underworld Soul Collector.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the soldier was smashed into the wall like trash, his meridians burned clean by the chilling karmic fire emanating from the command arrow. Meanwhile, outside the building and inside the helicopter that Yanfu was forcing to hover, CIB (Official Causal Investigation Team) agents were sweating profusely as they operated a device flashing with eerie blue electricity.
'Report, Director! 'Causal Anchored Missile' cannot lock onto the target!"
'Why? He's a physical entity, not an imaginary one!' came the Director's furious roar through the microphone.
"No, sir. It's not that we can't lock onto him; it's that his causal weight is too immense." The agent's voice trembled as he looked at the wildly fluctuating numbers on the screen. 'Yanfu's causal weight alone now exceeds the total weight of the entire financial district below. If we forcibly anchor him, half of the city's logical foundation will melt instantly due to overload!"
This is the terrifying aspect of the Yama-Deva staircase evolution.
He's not escaping the rules; he's becoming the new rule, overriding the old order by force. Yanfu walked to the giant LED screen at the front of the hall. The scrolling stock price information had completely disappeared, replaced by an overwhelming list.
These were the people he had 'audited' in the hall earlier.
The names on the list turned red one by one. The disappearance of each name signalled the downfall of a powerful figure in reality.
"Lin Cangye." Yanfu stared at the only name at the top of the screen that hadn't turned red yet, his eyes as cold as blades. "You think you can escape?"
He slowly raised his hand, tracing a line in the air with his fingertips. A massive 'Soul-Binding Noose' emerged from his shadow like a black dragon, ready to devour its prey. It pierced the door to the secret chamber behind the stage directly.
Boom!
The chamber exploded, but Lin Cangye was not inside. Only an empty obsidian chair and a holographic countdown display were visible.
In the projection, Lin Cangye was sitting in the old orphanage school building, where Yanfu had spent his childhood.
"Yanfu, your judgement was brilliant, but you forgot that gods who are too far removed from Earth cannot see the traps beneath their feet." Lin Cangye smiled slightly at the camera and pointed to the sleeping children behind him. 'Every powerful person you kill will have their "evil consequences" transferred to these innocent people simultaneously through my device.'
'You saved Su Xiaoxiao, but can you save this room full of karmic sacrifices?' Yanfu's pupils suddenly constricted and a shrill roar erupted from the 'Heart of the Underworld' within his chest.
He could feel streams of malicious karmic retribution, which should have been his to reap, bypassing his defences and striking at the most vulnerable parts of his memory like countless venomous snakes.
"Lin… Cang… Ye!"
Yanfu roared for the first time.
At that moment, the glass of the entire Lin's Twin Towers shattered, and a faint, subtle crimson crack representing madness appeared within the dark golden divine light surrounding him.
This was a sign of the tyrannical personality of Yamāntaka, the Demon Lord of Hell.
He had wanted to be a sober judge, but the Eternal Life Society was forcing him to become an Asura that would destroy the world.
A storm raged through the Lin Twin Towers, pouring through the shattered French windows and smashing the expensive champagne tower to pieces.
Yanfu stared at the hypocritical face of Lin Cangye in the holographic projection. The 'Heart of the Underworld' in his chest beat like a piston out of control. The dark karma that should have been borne by the powerful was transcending dimensional barriers and piercing the sleeping children in a distant orphanage like poisonous needles.
'Yanfu, this is the pleasure of cause and effect.' In the projection, Lin Cangye took a sip of wine, his smile growing increasingly cruel. 'The more people you kill, the heavier the "collateral damage" you incur. When your redemption can't keep up with the debt incurred by your destruction, your godhood will collapse on the spot.'
'Boss!' Abang whirled around. He saw the dark golden divine light surrounding Yanfu change rapidly, a thick, black, malevolent aura seeping from his fingertips.
This was a harbinger of Yamantaka — extreme rage was consuming the judge's reason. "Lin Cangye, your understanding of 'god' is limited to the calculations of mortals."
Yanfu's voice became repetitive and hoarse, as if a thousand wronged souls were speaking simultaneously. Instead of rushing towards the projection, he slowly closed his eyes and formed an extremely complex seal on his chest.
'Visions of Samsara—Logical Fault!'
At that moment, time seemed to stand completely still on the top floor of the Twin Towers.
From Yanfu's perspective, thousands of red lines, representing cause and effect, were clearly visible piercing the orphanage. However, he didn't try to sever them because doing so would mean the disappearance of karma, which would instantly rebound onto himself.
He made a move that none of the supernatural beings monitoring this place could comprehend:
He stretched out his left hand and suddenly plunged it into his own chest.
"Pfft!"
There was no blood, only a pure, dark golden divine light that gushed out. He tore a fragment of his divine essence apart with great force, transforming it into thousands of tiny underworld runes.
"Since you want to transfer the karma, I will create a false 'effect' for these 'causes'."
The runes traversed the void and enveloped each child precisely, just before the karma pierced their bodies. The karma struck the runes like a mud ox sinking into the sea and was completely channelled into a logical loop called 'nothingness'.
[System Judgement: Causal interception successful, debt transfer, target: Yanfu himself."
"Ugh…"
Yanfu groaned, his once-upright spine suddenly slumping under the weight of the evil karma of thousands of people pressing down on his divine core. Streaks of blood ran down his skin like shattered porcelain.
But he smiled, a smile both chilling and holy.
'My turn.'
He suddenly opened his eyes and a red light erupted from his right eye. 'Vision of Effect' burned directly through the generator of the holographic projection.
'Soul-Binding Noose—Karma Reaps Retribution!'
In the void, a thick, dragon-like black chain burst forth from the ground. It did not attack anyone present, but pierced the remaining signal frequency directly.
Following the remnants of radio waves, logic and Lin Cangye's provocative smile,
it traversed thirty kilometres in an instant!
In the old school building of the orphanage in the distance, Lin Cangye's smug expression froze instantly. He could feel a chilling hellish aura creeping up his ankles.
'This is impossible! How could you still be free while bearing ten thousand times the karmic burden?'
Boom!
An invisible force shattered the wall of the school building, and a pitch-black chain coiled around Lin Cangye's neck like a venomous snake. On top of the Twin Towers, Yanfu slowly rose, his body covered in blood. Behind him, the 'Vajra Throne' had materialised from the immense karmic burden it bore.
He turned to the stunned CIB agents outside the window and boomed:
'Tonight, anyone with ties to the Lin Group is an "auditor awaiting investigation".'
With a sudden jerk of his right hand, a piercing scream echoed from afar — Lin Cangye's karmic arm had been ripped off by Yanfu from a distance.
'Abang, the purge will continue until every inch of this city is cleansed of blood.'
Yanfu strolled to the edge of the rooftop, letting the wind whip his tattered coat. Beneath his feet, the Lin Twin Towers were slowly sinking into the crimson Incessant Realm, starting from the top floor.
This was no longer just an arrest; it was a war between gods.
High up in the Twin Towers of Lin, the wind howled like ghosts.
The once magnificent hall had become a ruin. In the centre of the ruins, Yanfu leaned on a long black command arrow forged from karmic fire and gasped for breath. His tattered trench coat revealed a bare back covered in dark golden divine runes clashing fiercely with crimson karmic energy and emitting a sizzling sound.
He had forcibly intercepted the transfer of thousands of 'collateral damage', a price that had almost consumed his Yama-Deva essence.
'Boss, those children... survived.'
Abang walked heavily over, his bull-headed phantom fading, his right arm nearly bare of flesh. In his hand, however, he clutched a broken, blue-green limb that was still twitching — the 'karmic incarnation' that he had torn from Lin Cangye using the residual force of the chains across space.
"Surviving is just the beginning." Yanfu slowly straightened up, the almost manic red light in his eyes gradually settling into a deadly black. 'As long as the "brain" of the Longevity Society is still functioning, these children will forever be expendable material on the assembly line.' Outside the window, the C.I.B. helicopter formation that had been circling suddenly turned around and retreated frantically.
Yanfu's energy readings had disappeared from their radar monitors — not because he had weakened, but because the space he was in had been completely assimilated by the Incessant Realm. According to the laws of physics, it had become a moving, logic-devouring 'black hole'.
'Director, let's retreat.' The agent's voice was filled with despair over the signal channel. 'This isn't a target we can "anchor".' He just turned all the debtor elites in the entire building into vegetative beings. We can't salvage this scale of 'causal bloodshed'..."
'Retreat.' Only a single, dejected word remained on the other end of the line.
For the first time, the official order revealed its underlying weakness when faced with divine judgement. Yanfu walked to the ruins of the secret chamber where Lin Cangye had disappeared.
Beneath the overturned obsidian chair, a badge shimmering with an eerie metallic lustre lay silently in the ashes. Rather than the ouroboros of the Longevity Society, its design was a twisted, chained Vajra Throne.
Yanfu's pupils contracted sharply.
'The Vajra Throne is actually endorsing the Longevity Society.'
He picked up the badge. The instant his fingers touched it, a blurry image flashed through his mind: around the throne, which was built upon the bones of countless beings, stood not gods, but a group of actuaries in modern suits holding causal abacuses.
The so-called 'Guardians of World Balance' had long since become the largest wholesalers of causality. They allowed the Longevity Society to commit evil in order to harvest higher-dimensional energy through this 'controlled turbulence'.
"Is this what they call the 'general trend'?" Yanfu suddenly exerted his strength, crushing the badge representing power into pieces. 'Then let this "general trend" collapse even more completely.' As the first rays of morning sunlight pierced the gloom of Qingcheng City and illuminated the shattered glass façade of the Lin Twin Towers, the entire city seemed to sense a fundamental change.
Nearly a hundred powerful figures, usually so arrogant and domineering, fell into unexplained comas overnight. Their accounts were frozen, and evidence of their crimes appeared on the desks of every police chief. Meanwhile, the ordinary people they had oppressed experienced a long-lost sense of peace in their dreams.
On top of the ruins of the Holy Monastery, Yanfu sat on the newly formed Vajra Throne with Abang towering behind him.
'Boss, what's next?'
Yanfu looked at the 'Heart of the Underworld', throbbing more strongly in his hand. His voice was chillingly cold:
'The audit has only just begun. Lin Cangye has lost an arm, so he'll go to his 'master' for help. What we need to do is expose those 'dirty accounts' one by one and bring them into the light of day."