"Before meeting Chen Gu for the final briefing, Yin Lie still owed Su Li one last task—crippling Qi Yan's financial spine."
The Gilded Lotus looked like a dream carved out of gold.
From afar, it was all elegance—glass petals unfolding in the heart of the financial district, reflecting neon like a celestial bloom. Up close, Yin Lie saw the truth in the seams: the building smelled like desperation dressed in perfume. The air was rich with oxygen and ambition, a place where fortunes lived for thirty minutes and died in thirty seconds.
He walked through its gleaming halls like a man wearing someone else's skin.
Su Li's preparations had been flawless—tailored suit, flawless invitation, and an untraceable credit chip that made him just another high roller floating through the Lotus' glittering predators' den.
On the surface, Yin Lie was unreadable: calm steps, cold eyes, a glass of ice water in his hand. But beneath the mask, everything inside him stirred.
The wolf tasted fear—real fear—from the gamblers clinging to their last chips like life preservers.
The ice traced surveillance patterns overhead like invisible frost flowers, each camera and sensor a tiny, humming star.
And the Keystone… it saw everything else. Power currents. Control nodes. The subtle hierarchy of the casino's true rulers.
From his bar seat, Yin Lie could already see the pulse of the building: the data heart deep below, a bright geometric flare in the dark.
Su Li was right.
The Lotus wasn't a casino.
It was a machine.
And he was here to break one of its bones.
He moved at just the right moment.
A server passed. Yin Lie's hand brushed hers—barely a whisper of skin. But in that inch of contact, he manifested a touch of impossible cold. Enough to numb her fingers for half a second.
She didn't notice.
But he felt the keycard slide into his palm, crisp and unnoticed.
He slipped through the staff door like a ghost slipping between worlds.
The kitchen was chaos—steam, metal, shouting. It was a different kind of battlefield, one that hid him perfectly. In the confusion, he found the service elevator and tapped the card. The door sighed open.
As the elevator dropped, calm filtered back in. The city's noise vanished. The wolf went quiet. The Keystone's perception sharpened into a crystalline grid.
There—
A presence.
Human. Calm. In a place no human should be.
The elevator opened onto a white corridor leading to a vault door that whispered money, secrets, and rot. A single man stood next to the biometric lock.
Gray suit. Pale face.
A man built of caffeine and code instead of muscle.
"The Onyx Room is for guests," he said lightly. "Staff only in this area. You're lost."
Yin Lie studied him.
Calm breathing.
Controlled heartbeat.
Awareness sharp enough to cut.
Not a guard. Not muscle.
A warden.
"I'm looking for a way out," Yin Lie said.
"That's the problem," the man replied. "There isn't one—not for you." He tapped his slate, eyes narrowing. "Thermal and biometric scans say you're not real. Ghosts don't belong in my corridors."
His smile was small. Precise.
"I'm Cain. I keep the accounts."
"And I'm your reminder that Qi Yan should've hired better help," Yin Lie murmured.
Cain's fingers flicked.
The world turned red.
Shutters slammed down behind Yin Lie.
Ceiling panels dropped.
Turrets unfolded like mechanical vipers, targeting lasers jittering across Yin Lie's chest.
"A ghost in a box," Cain said. "Let's see what you're made of."
The turrets fired.
Not bullets.
Microwave pulses—pure heat meant to boil flesh and scramble organs.
The wolf howled inside him.
But Yin Lie didn't flinch.
He dropped to his hands, palms pressed to the metal flooring.
And exhaled.
Cold tore through the corridor—a tidal surge of impossible, devouring zero. The metal screamed as frost exploded across it. Moisture turned instantly to ice crystals. The microwaves evaporated into the chill, their heat devoured faster than the machines could produce it.
Frost crawled up the turrets.
They shuddered, sparked, and died.
Cain's mask finally cracked.
Yin Lie stepped through the frozen haze like a winter god draped in shadow and steel. He didn't spare Cain a glance as he placed his hand on the biometric lock.
He didn't hack it.
He killed it.
Cold burrowed deep into the circuitry; ice blossomed behind the panel. The scanner died with a muted whine, and the vault unlatched with a heavy, reluctant groan.
Inside, the server room glowed blue—like walking into an artificial moon.
Cain's voice broke behind him.
"You're going to cripple half the city's financial core. This isn't just dirty money—you'll drag down legitimate corporations too!"
"I know," Yin Lie said softly, placing his hands on the central core.
Then he let go.
The wolf.
The ice.
The Keystone.
Aligned.
Power poured from him into the machine with a roar of cracking crystal and screaming processors. Blue lights intensified to white. Ice spread like a living thing, climbing the racks, snuffing out the pulse of Qi Yan's empire.
Then—
Silence.
Everything died.
Not broken.
Frozen in the moment of its heartbeat.
The job was done.
Yin Lie turned, walked past Cain—who looked like a man who had just seen the world end—and touched the data slate in his hands. It froze to his skin instantly, trapping his fingers.
"Better start typing your excuses now," Yin Lie said.
Above them, a blown turret left a jagged hole in the ceiling. Yin Lie leapt, gripped the edge, and pulled himself into the service tunnels.
By the time security arrived, he was already gone.
A ghost.
A warning.
A cold promise.
The diversion had begun.