— Several Days Later —

Within Thousand Treasure City, a place where merchants, mortals, and cultivators mingled, the streets thrived with wealth and resources of all kinds from around the world.

On this morning, as business began and people worked to feed their families, a piece of news stole everyone’s attention. It overshadowed updates about the latest shipments and even news of newly exploitable scam realms.

The news of the annihilation of the Heaven’s Spire Sanctuary drew all attention away from the usual matters that people in this city of wealth would normally care about.

And it was understandable. This was a powerful sect that resided within a secret realm, one of the hidden powers from ages past.

The number of direct casualties in this incident was more than 35,000. Even though it was a powerful hidden sect, the term "hidden" meant that the number of people living within it and serving as disciples and warriors was limited to that scale.

But... the collateral damage was far greater than the direct casualties. As in most wars, the majority of victims were not warriors, but civilians.

In this case, all cities and towns near the secret realm, whether known or unknown, were affected by the phenomenon known as a realm collapse.

Usually, all secret realms were built to last. Even scam realms were designed with millions of years of structural integrity and were not meant to collapse easily.

But like many artificial creations born from human ingenuity, they could also be destroyed by human hands.

The annihilator of the Heaven’s Spire Sanctuary seemed intent on wiping out everything within the realm. They triggered the collapse by destroying its core, causing the entire realm to fall apart on its own.

It was like destroying the main pillars of a high-rise building. A few well-placed explosions could bring the entire structure down.

The power of the realm collapse shattered space itself and released immense destructive energy across a radius of more than 10,000 kilometers. All life within that range was wiped out, and every trace of civilization was erased as space fractured, dragging all matter into disintegration.

From this collapse alone, more than ten million lives were lost.

This became one of the major incidents that shook the merchants of this city of wealth. A large portion of the market had effectively vanished overnight, forcing merchants to find new markets, new trade routes, and new products to sell.

This did not only affect merchants. Mo Xingyao was also impacted. The Heaven’s Spire Sanctuary, despite being a troublesome rival that had annoyed her endlessly, still owed her twenty-five million spirit stones, including interest.

And now... that money was gone. She could not even attempt to salvage anything from their sect grounds, as the realm collapse had completely disintegrated everything within it.

And this... left her grumbling all day.

Within the executive office, Wei Chen sat at the guest table not far from the executive desk, playing Uno with little Ningning and Dream Butterfly, while Mo Xingyao’s agonized grumbling sounded in the background from time to time.

"Uggghhh, nghaaahhh! Chenchen! Help me! This month’s profit is not going to match last month’s projections!" Mo Xingyao’s despairing voice rang out as she tried to drag Wei Chen over, though he was already used to her antics during profit calculations.

"But you still have profit, don’t you? You should be content. I heard some merchants in the city are crying rivers and going into debt because their main market suddenly vanished into thin air... literally," Wei Chen replied nonchalantly as he placed a draw two card.

"Husband! You are mean!" Dream Butterfly protested as she drew two cards.

Little Ningning agreed. "Hmph! That’s right! Sister Yuyu, this bad guy is a meanie. He even made me draw ten!"

"Didn’t I just use reverse on you? You’re the one who tried to make me draw ten," Wei Chen retorted.

Hearing their casual banter, Mo Xingyao finally snapped.

"Gaaah! Why are you all so relaxed!? Aren’t you worried that we won’t have enough money!?" Mo Xingyao burst into the group, protesting as she tried to use crocodile tears to gain sympathy.

"Didn’t you just donate some of your profit to the Sky-Severing Demon Valley last week? And last I checked, the people working in your vault didn’t seem worried. So where is this problem coming from?" Wei Chen shot back with facts.

"But... but... if the profit doesn’t match my projections from last month, those elders... those elders will definitely make things difficult for me!" Mo Xingyao pointed out another concern.

"Umm..." Dream Butterfly thought for a moment, then said, "Weren’t those old foxes already quiet after your engagement ceremony with husband? I don’t think anyone would want to court death by antagonizing you over something this minor."

"You... you’re siding with him, Yu’er?" Mo Xingyao feigned shock.

"I’m just stating facts, Sister Yaoyao," Dream Butterfly said with a sigh. She knew exactly what her good sister was trying to do by acting this way.

Mo Xingyao wanted them to help her push her profits to match her projections. Not because of the reasons she claimed, but simply because she loved money a little too much.

"By the way, Yu’er, are you free this afternoon?" Wei Chen asked.

Dream Butterfly smiled. "Even if I’m not, I’ll always make time for you, husband."

"Ugh... could you two please stop being lovey-dovey in front of a child?" Mo Xingyao retorted.

"Why? Are you jealous? If you weren’t such a scaredy-cat back then, you would already be joining the fun too," Wei Chen teased with a sneer.

"Are you going to keep making fun of me about this forever?"

"Always..."

"You!" Mo Xingyao repeatedly hit Wei Chen on the shoulder to vent her frustration, but he only chuckled.

While the three were bantering and enjoying themselves, Wei Chen’s U-Phone rang.

He took it out and checked the caller.

"Sorry, I need to take this. You guys keep playing," Wei Chen said, placing his cards face down. Mo Xingyao immediately flipped them face up as revenge, and the other two players watched without saying anything.

Wei Chen walked out of the room and onto the nearby balcony, then set up a soundproof barrier before answering the call.

"Yes, Ms. Youqi?" Wei Chen said.

"Mr. Wei, you must have already heard about the sect annihilation incident, right?" she asked.

"Yes, Ms. Youqi. It must be very busy down there. How are things going?" Wei Chen replied politely.

"Yes, it’s very busy. And we all know this is something beyond your control. But... could you at least help... I don’t know... make those psychos rethink their strategy? I mean, what is the point of dragging millions of people to their deaths along with their enemies?" Youqi complained. In the background, he could hear the rapid clacking of keyboards. It sounded like things were pretty intense over there.

"Yes... Ms. Youqi, I also haven’t made public content for quite some time. I think I’ll go back to what I’m good at. Honestly, dealing with all this.... Jianghu nonsense is about to make me have an aneurysm," Wei Chen said jokingly.

"Yeah... then we’ll be counting on you," Youqi said tiredly before hanging up.

Wei Chen looked at his phone and let out a sigh. This was not going to be easy, was it? Even though the death rate caused by reckless young masters had clearly decreased, he had only addressed half of the problem.

The other half was the issue of all those Heaven’s Chosen psychopaths. He knew it looked cool and domineering. Even myths, folklore, and history were filled with this kind of excessive retaliation trope, used to make protagonists seem powerful, intimidating, and dangerous.

And in novels, it did look cool. What reader would not want their enemies to see them as someone too dangerous to offend?

But... in reality, this was nothing short of the behavior of a late-stage psychopath.

Killing your enemies? Fine. That was understandable. But what was the point of wiping out your enemy’s entire population? And he meant those people who had nothing to do with the grudge.

Those who lived in the enemy’s city or sect without knowing anything about it. Did the chef who had just joined the sect two months before its annihilation know anything about your grudge? Were they involved in it at all?

No.

If that was not late-stage psychopathic behavior, then he did not know what was.

"Sigh..." Wei Chen let out a long breath. Setting his frustration aside, he needed to prepare content and also find some guests of honor.

A Heaven’s Chosen or two who were not psychopaths would be nice.

It was time for him to draft a list.

Wei Chen returned to the executive room, and the scene in front of him made him want to smack those girls’ butts.

He saw his cards flipped open, and the two girls were giggling along with Mo Xingyao as they added more cards to his pile.

Even Dream Butterfly was giggling with them too... just you wait. Tonight, I’ll teach you who’s boss!