The plywood covering the living room window of the Lin family home was a stark, ugly reminder of the Level 5 tiger that had almost ended them.
Lin Hao stood on the porch, his face set in a mask of brotherly concern. His mother opened the door, her eyes still shadowed with sleeplessness.
"She's... she's not feeling well, A-Hao," Jia Li whispered, ushering him in. "She says her stomach hurts. Maybe it's stress? From the... attack?"
"I'll take care of her, Mom," Lin Hao said gently. "I'm taking her for a drive. Fresh air. Away from the city. She needs to clear her head."
It was a simple lie, and his mother, desperate for her children to be safe and happy, bought it instantly.
Lin Meng walked out of her room. She looked pale, her movements sluggish. The Meridian Overload from the night before had rattled her deep. She looked at Lin Hao, her eyes filled with a mixture of shame and relief.
"Let's go," he said.
He walked her to his black sedan. He opened the door.
As they pulled away from the curb, leaving the terrified suburb behind, Lin Hao's demeanor shifted. The "concerned brother" vanished. The "Hidden Boss" emerged.
He drove in silence, navigating the city traffic with [Level 8] precision. He hit the highway, heading north, toward the mountains.
"Where are we going?" Lin Meng asked, her voice small. "This isn't the way to the park."
"We're going to my home," Lin Hao said.
"Your... dorm?"
"No."
He turned off the highway, onto the unmarked asphalt road that snaked up Iron Cloud Mountain. The trees closed in. The air grew colder.
And then, they hit the fog.
To a normal human, it looked like a dense, boring bank of gray cloud. But Lin Meng was now a [Level 4: Common Root] talent. As the car plunged into the mist, she gasped.
"The air..." she whispered, pressing her hand to the window. "It feels... heavy. Like static."
"It's a barrier," Lin Hao said calmly. "Ignore it."
They drove for another minute in the gray void. And then, as if a curtain had been pulled back.
Sunlight.
They burst through the top of the fog bank. The sky was a brilliant, piercing blue. The air was crystal clear.
And directly ahead, looming over them like a dark, modern castle, was Skyview Manor.
Lin Meng's jaw dropped. "Lin Hao... what... what is this place?"
He didn't answer. He pulled up to the massive, twelve-foot steel gates. He didn't punch a code. The gates, sensing the RFID tag in his car (installed by Fatty), groaned open automatically.
He drove up the winding driveway, past the jagged, black iron posts of the "Phantom Fear" array. Lin Meng shivered as they passed them, a subconscious dread prickling her skin, but because she was with Lin Hao, the array let her pass.
He parked in front of the massive, brutalist concrete-and-glass entrance.
A man in a sharp, expensive suit was waiting on the steps. He was heavyset, sweating slightly in the mountain sun, holding a tablet.
Fatty Zhang stepped forward as Lin Hao got out. He didn't wave. He didn't say "Hey man."
He bowed slightly, his face a mask of professional deference.
"Welcome back, Mr. Lin," Fatty said. "The West Wing is prepped. The... supplies you requested are in the secure storage."
Lin Meng got out of the car, staring at the stranger. "Mr... Lin?" she repeated. "Who is that?"
"That is Mr. Zhang," Lin Hao said. "He manages the property."
"The property?" She looked around. The manicured lawns. The sheer drop of the cliff. The massive mansion looked like it belonged to a movie star. "You... you live here?"
Before Lin Hao could answer, a shadow detached itself from the porch.
It was silent. It was massive.
Blackie, the [Level 2: Adept] Spirit Beast, trotted down the steps. His fur was like black iron wire. His muscles rippled under his coat with terrifying power. His eyes, swirling with blue mist, locked onto Lin Meng.
She froze. She knew dogs. She knew the "mutated" ones from the attack.
This was not a mutation. This was evolution.
The dog stopped five feet away. It didn't growl. It sniffed the air, smelling her bloodline connection to the Alpha. It dipped its massive head in a respectful nod.
Lin Meng backed up against the car, her mind reeling.
The mansion. The fog barrier. The servant in the Italian suit. The spirit wolf that bowed.
And her brother, standing in the center of it all, looking not like a student, but like a lord in his domain.
She looked at him. Really looked at him. The "stress" was gone. The "poverty" was gone. There was only a calm, terrifying, absolute power.
"Lin Hao..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "Who... what are you?"