Chapter 847: The Trillion-Dollar Grudge
"Shen Corporation..." Zhao Hao spat the name into the damp forest air, his voice trembling with a toxic mix of rage and newfound arrogance. "In the past, I was powerless. It was impossible for a man like me to contend with a behemoth like you—a top-tier financial conglomerate that controls half the world."
He paused, his chest heaving as he stared into the dense foliage of the wilderness. "But now? You didn't expect this, did you? I, Zhao Hao, am just like the protagonist in a novel. I've awakened the Wilderness Challenge Livestream System. As long as I broadcast my survival in these death zones, I can harvest popularity points and rewrite my destiny!"
He slammed a fist against the rough bark of a nearby ancient tree. "Even a trillion-dollar empire... I will tear it down with my own two hands! When that day comes, the suffering you inflicted upon my family will be returned a hundredfold!"
Zhao Hao gritted his teeth, a feral intensity contorting his otherwise handsome features. His eyes burned with an all-consuming hatred.
Not too long ago, he had been a quintessential rich second-generation heir. He had never known the meaning of struggle. His days had been a blur of endless indulgence—surrounded by young models, dining on premium black abalone and king crab, washing it all down with vintage Romanée-Conti, and hosting debauched, week-long parties on his private yacht.
Eventually, the sheer excess had bored him. Having exhausted the thrills of beautiful women, fine wine, and exotic delicacies, he had turned to extreme sports just to feel his pulse race. Free solo climbing skyscrapers, wingsuit flying through narrow canyons, deep-sea diving, illegal high-speed street racing... he had sought out the razor's edge of death simply because he had nothing better to do.
His father had managed the family's wealth, sitting on tens of billions in assets. Their company had been the undisputed leader in its highly specialized niche market. As the sole heir, Zhao Hao knew that as long as he didn't gamble his inheritance away or foolishly attempt to start his own business, he could never spend it all in a dozen lifetimes.
Then, the Shen Corporation abruptly entered the market.
Like a leviathan invading a small pond, the trillion-dollar giant crushed everything in its path. Zhao Hao's family company was entirely outmatched. The collapse was absolute. In just over a year, their once-proud enterprise was driven into total insolvency. Broken and drowning in despair, his father had swallowed a lethal handful of pills, ending his own life.
Zhao Hao had been unceremoniously evicted from his sprawling eight-hundred-square-meter villa, left entirely homeless. The banks had confiscated and auctioned off his yachts, his luxury watches, and his fleet of supercars. The sycophantic models and fair-weather friends who used to fawn over his every word had immediately turned on him, kicking him while he was down and mocking his ruin.
Overnight, he had plummeted from the highest heavens straight into the darkest pits of hell.
Just thinking about those humiliating days made the resentment in Zhao Hao's chest boil over. He clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white, his teeth grinding together hard enough to chip.
Before the System, he had been utterly powerless. Retaliating against a financial titan like the Shen Corporation, an entity commanding trillions in capital, was a laughable pipe dream. He wouldn't have even been able to clear the astronomical debt he had inherited in a single lifetime.
But now, things were different. Having read countless web novels in his youth, Zhao Hao understood the power he now wielded. He firmly believed he could rise from the ashes and turn the tide, just like those legendary protagonists. His destiny was finally in his own hands, not dictated by the heavens.
Even a trillion-dollar giant would eventually crumble beneath his boots.
...
High above, concealed within the dense canopy of the ancient tree, Shen Anyu stood perfectly balanced on a thick branch. He looked down at the muttering, red-faced Zhao Hao and offered a light, entirely innocent shrug.
The Shen Corporation hadn't even deliberately targeted Zhao Hao's family. It had just been standard commercial warfare—a routine expansion into a new sector. There had been no illegal tactics, no underhanded sabotage, merely the overwhelming application of immense capital to dominate the market.
Zhao Hao's family had gone bankrupt, and his father had chosen to take his own life. Was that really Shen Anyu's fault?
The older Zhao had simply been too stubborn. Instead of cutting his losses and accepting a buyout, he had taken out massive loans and high-risk financing, foolishly trying to fight a war of attrition against the Shen Corporation. The tragic outcome had been entirely self-inflicted.
, all of that had happened over a year ago—long before Shen Anyu had even awakened the memories of his past life. Back then, he had been just like Zhao Hao: a spoiled rich heir who spent his days eating, drinking, and chasing pleasure.
It truly was a case of a pot falling from the sky to smash him on the head. He hadn't personally done a single thing to this man, yet the Child of Destiny already harbored a blood feud against him.
Of course, Shen Anyu was pragmatic enough to admit that if he were in Zhao Hao's shoes, he would be just as hateful. There was no absolute right or wrong here, only a brutal clash of opposing positions. And this kind of hatred was absolute—a zero-sum game that could only end in death.
'A fated enemy, indeed...'
Shen Anyu let out a faint, silent sigh. Even if the business dispute had never happened, the universe would have contrived some other reason to spark an irreconcilable conflict between them. After all, he was the Great Villain of Destiny. Standing in opposition to the Children of Destiny was woven into the very fabric of his existence.
Even if Shen Anyu retreated into the mountains and refused to provoke anyone, his relatives, friends, or subordinates would inevitably cross paths with a Child of Destiny and incur their wrath. He could hide for a day, perhaps two, but not for a lifetime.
It was just like the disciples of the Jie Sect in the ancient myths. No matter how hard they tried to stay in their caves and avoid the great tribulation, fate inevitably dragged them into the slaughter, turning them all to ash.
The only alternative was to turn a Child or Daughter of Destiny into an ally, but that was only possible if there was no pre-existing blood feud.
Shen Anyu could only be thankful that his family hadn't formed any deep grievances with Chen Yuhua. Otherwise, he would be forced to find a way to assassinate her. And Chen Yuhua, being the reincarnation of a Heavenly Venerate, would undoubtedly unleash a catastrophic burst of power upon facing death, much like the Sword God Ye Linyuan had.
Except, while Ye Linyuan's dying desperate strike had only reached the Land Immortal realm, Chen Yuhua's final outburst would easily hit the Spirit Transformation Stage. Calling it a strike that could 'destroy heaven and earth' wouldn't be an exaggeration. Just thinking about facing that made Shen Anyu's scalp tingle with genuine danger.
Subduing a Daughter of Destiny through emotional attachment over time was viable, but taming a male Child of Destiny was nearly impossible.
Male protagonists were inherently unwilling to bow their heads. The underlying logic of their existence was fundamentally different from female protagonists. In male-oriented fantasy epics, if an emperor stood in the protagonist's way, the emperor was slaughtered. If it was an empress, she was usually conquered and added to the harem.
In female-oriented historical fantasies, however, the logic often baffled him. A female protagonist could possess world-shattering power, yet she would still kneel before a mortal emperor. A lowly Junior Sister at the Qi Refining Stage could somehow successfully bully and slander a senior sister at the Mahayana Stage without being instantly obliterated.
The male-oriented doctrine was simple: Overturn the chessboard. My fate is mine to dictate, not the heavens.
The female-oriented doctrine was often bound by rigid, exaggerated societal rules, leading to absurd tropes like the 'Di-Shu Cult,' where a mortal prince born of a legitimate wife was somehow treated as inherently nobler than an emperor born of a concubine, regardless of actual power.
Shen Anyu remembered reading a highly praised female-oriented reincarnation novel in his past life, a work supposedly on par with the legends of Fairy Pei and Daoist Zhao. Despite the female lead possessing the sheer martial might to casually depose and enthrone emperors at will, she still spent the novel kowtowing to the throne, eventually retiring to the countryside and willingly placing her neck on someone else's chopping block.
It had left him staring at the screen, his face a mask of absolute bewilderment. The prose had been beautiful and captivating, but the logic was maddening.
Pulling his scattered thoughts back to the present, Shen Anyu looked down at Zhao Hao, who was now resting against the thick roots of the tree. Shen Anyu's mind was made up.
He wouldn't casually kill someone like Wei Yunteng—a harmless Child of Destiny who just wanted to research black technology in peace and hadn't yet entangled himself with any female leads. Unless a direct conflict arose, Wei Yunteng could live.
But Zhao Hao? A man with zero utilitarian value to Shen Anyu, who harbored a deep-seated, irreconcilable blood feud against Yanxia's Shen Clan? He absolutely had to die.
Although Zhao Hao was currently weak, a System-bound Child of Destiny possessed infinite terrifying possibilities. Shen Anyu had no intention of leaving such a venomous snake alive to bite him later.
A cold, predatory curve graced Shen Anyu's lips. Dealing with Zhao Hao in this isolated wilderness was going to be remarkably simple.
...
"Alright, I've rested enough. Time to start the livestream again. If I can accumulate a thousand popularity points today, I can exchange them for another ten years of martial arts cultivation!"
Having vented his frustrations into the empty woods, Zhao Hao felt a fresh surge of energy coursing through his veins.
His Wilderness Challenge Livestream System operated on a simple premise: broadcast to the world, gain popularity, and reap the rewards. He hadn't quite figured out the exact conversion algorithm yet—it definitely wasn't a flat one-to-one ratio of viewers to points—but the core truth remained. The more eyes he had on his stream, the faster his points would skyrocket.
And those points were a currency of miracles. A mere thousand could be exchanged for a full ten years of grueling martial arts cultivation.
During his previous trek through the perilous Shennongjia reserve, Zhao Hao had managed to generate a decent wave of traction. His Douyin account had crossed the hundred-thousand follower milestone, netting him over two thousand popularity points in total.
Desperate to prove he hadn't lost his mind, he had immediately spent a thousand points on the martial arts cultivation, and another five hundred on a complete mastery of wilderness survival knowledge.
He remembered the sheer anxiety of that moment, terrified he would wake up in a psychiatric ward. But the System had delivered. It wasn't a hallucination. A decade's worth of pure, refined internal energy had flooded his meridians, and an encyclopedic understanding of flora, fauna, and survival tactics had permanently etched itself into his brain.
Thanks to the System, Zhao Hao now stood at the Post-natal Early Stage, having officially crossed the threshold into true martial arts.
While ordinary martial artists had to endure a decade of agonizing training through freezing winters and scorching summers just to feel their qi, Zhao Hao had bypassed it all with a few clicks on a screen.
It was why he hadn't panicked in the slightest when he encountered that wild leopard earlier in the day. If he hadn't been worried about the legal nightmare of killing a Class-A protected species and getting his livestream permanently banned, he could have shattered the beast's skull with a single punch.
What was a mere leopard to a martial artist?
"As long as I keep farming popularity points, supreme martial strength and endless wealth will be mine for the taking. My future is destined to be brilliant. Shen Corporation... Yanxia's Shen Clan... just wash your necks and wait for death."
Zhao Hao's ambition burned brighter than ever. His ultimate goal for this deep dive into the treacherous Qinling Mountains was to break one million followers and harvest over ten thousand popularity points.
Brimming with confidence, Zhao Hao pulled out his phone and opened his Douyin app to start the broadcast.
However, the moment the screen loaded, his confident smirk froze, leaving him utterly dumbfounded...
[Akarin's Note: The "Jie Sect" (Jie Jiao) is a major faction in the classic Chinese mythos Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi). Its disciples tried to avoid the catastrophic heavenly war by hiding in their mountains, but fate and duty continually dragged them into the conflict until their sect was nearly annihilated.]
[Akarin's Note: The "Di-Shu Cult" (嫡庶神教) is a sarcastic internet term mocking a common trope in female-oriented historical romance novels. It refers to stories that place an extreme, almost religious emphasis on the status difference between children born to a legitimate wife (Di) versus those born to a concubine (Shu), often ignoring logic or actual power dynamics to enforce this hierarchy.]
[Akarin's Note: Douyin is the original, Chinese version of TikTok.]
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