No matter the answer to his question, it wouldn’t change the fact that he was now up against this person. He looked at the woman frostily and asked, “Are you part of this organization?”The woman smiled gently. “That’s an interesting question. Have you forgotten what this organization’s called, or did you just not bother looking into its background?” Her voice was sweet and melodious, and her smile captured Edward’s attention.Darius didn’t even blink. He looked at her disdainfully and said, “You don’t realize how ridiculous you sound, do you? Anyway, you already tried and failed to get me with that move. Why were you stupid enough to try it again?” He smiled mockingly.The woman’s expression shifted, and she forced out through gritted teeth, “Darius Reid, I know you’re powerful, but your arrogance will be the cause of your downfall!” She gave him a menacing look.Darius’ smile grew, but he didn’t say anything in response. Instead, he channeled his life force to his palms. He still di

Edward turned to look at Isabella with a smile, but all she could sense was his mockery. She snorted and shut her eyes, which immediately made Edward feel clear-headed. Now, he knew why Darius wanted him to ask the questions. He said, “Mr. Reid, she seems to be more powerful than Drake Moore, but you managed to defeat Drake with a snap of your fingers. In fact, he had no objection to you recording a video of him. We didn’t even break a sweat when dealing with him.”Isabella opened her eyes and looked at them suspiciously. Darius tucked his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Maybe it’s because Drake knows his limits. He looked at Isabella, stepped back, and cocked his head. “Edward, why don’t you send the video to Miss Brightstone? Perhaps she’ll learn a thing or two from it.”Darius sounded relaxed, but Isabella paled—she now believed everything he said, though she still didn’t know why Drake had chosen to go down without a fight. Despite being on edge, she still couldn’t help being

Darius leaped into the air just as Isabella launched her attack, so it missed him. He looked down and saw a black vortex where he had stood a second earlier; everything within a certain radius of the vortex was sucked inside.Edward’s lips twitched when he saw this, and he immediately moved away. He couldn’t guarantee his own safety, but he was sure if he came into contact with that vortex, he’d immediately lose his life. As he tried to think of a way to deal with Isabella, he subconsciously shuddered as the temperature around him suddenly dropped. It wasn’t because of a change in the weather—someone had laid their eyes on him. He frowned and turned to look in the direction the gaze was coming from, which led him to Isabella’s smiling face.For some reason, he suddenly didn’t feel cold anymore. On the contrary, a warmth filled him, which confused him. Just a second earlier, he’d found Isabella to be more terrifying than he had imagined. What was going on? Then, he jolted in shock as

She’d never once experienced her life force being affected by external factors, which flustered her. Isabella kept her eyes trained on Darius as she watched his every move. She refused to believe his attacks were flawless; there had to be a weak spot somewhere. However, when she felt like she was onto something, something else caught her attention—someone was coming at her from behind while she was facing Darius.She was sandwiched between them, and if she couldn’t get out of this, she’d die a horrible death. The pressure Darius was exerting on her would turn her into mush, much like she’d done to her victims in the past. She raised her arms, turning one palm to face Darius and the other to face the person behind her, then released her life force. In that instant, she felt her breathing return to normal and relaxed. She sneered and looked at Darius mockingly. “I thought you were a formidable opponent, but it looks like I was wrong. Is that all you’re capable of? You were running yo

The scene before him brought him great discomfort, but he forced himself to start moving again. This time, he headed for the debris that used to be the Sierra Group’s headquarters. He could sense Isabella’s presence there; her breathing was almost undetectable, but it proved she was still alive. Darius wanted to shake her awake and discover what had happened in that split second of pain.As he approached the debris, he saw something that made him raise an eyebrow in surprise. Isabella lay on the ground, and in her arms lay a man who looked many years her senior—he was probably old enough to be her grandfather, but what was more surprising was that Darius recognized him. He was the founder of the Sierra Group, Sierra Stevens Soderbergh, and the person Darius was truly after. Unexpectedly, he’d turned out to be absolutely unimportant.Darius watched them coldly, feeling uncomfortable. He looked at Isabella, who took a long while to calm her ragged breathing. She used all her strength

Since his instinct told him something was up, it meant Isabella’s death wasn’t due to natural causes. Still, it was simple enough to see whether she was truly dead. Darius had a smile on his face as he walked to Sierra Stevens Soderbergh, whose breathing was almost undetectable. He raised an eyebrow—now, he knew why Isabella had been so weak earlier despite her being only slightly weaker than him. As an enlightened martial artist, it was unfathomable for her to have sustained such serious injuries from a single cry, but now it seemed she’d sacrificed herself to protect Sierra.Darius raised an eyebrow again. This conclusion seemed ludicrous, but it was the only one he could think of. Whatever the truth was, it wouldn’t change the result—Isabella was not a humane person with a conscience. She had to have her reasons for protecting Sierra; perhaps she could’ve gotten something out of it. Darius frowned. He wanted to know what her motivations were—an enlightened martial artist’s body

“You’re doing something dumb by giving me that innocent look.” Darius looked at Edward contemptuously. The look in Edward’s eyes slowly morphed at his words—indeed, half of it belonged to the actual Edward, but the other half made one’s hair stand on end. When he opened his mouth, his voice was hoarse. “I’m surprised you actually managed to see I’m not truly Edward. It’s not something that would’ve occurred to the average individual, yet you immediately thought about this.”Isabella suddenly smiled, giving Edward’s face a creepy vibe. She could only control half of Edward’s body and struggled to drag the other half forward. Darius raised an eyebrow when he saw this and stood in Edward’s way with his hands behind his back.He looked calm, but his hands betrayed him as he tapped the fingers of one hand on the other. Isabella couldn’t see this; all she knew was he was standing in her way.She frowned and said gratingly, “You’d better get out of my way! All you’re doing is making me angr

She pointed a trembling finger at Darius, but the arm soon fell back to its side, and the eye on the side of Edward’s body under her control widened in surprise. The corner of her lips twitched, but she couldn’t make a sound.Darius noticed this and raised an eyebrow. He raised his arms again and enveloped Edward in his life force. He’d originally intended to help Edward attack Isabella, but he couldn’t accurately pinpoint her with his eyes open. On the other hand, she could see his life force and easily avoid him, which meant he could injure Edward at any time. And so, that wasn’t the right way to handle this. However, he could boost Edward and help him defeat Isabella by enveloping Edward in his life force. There was a plus point to this method—if Isabella were to take the opportunity to absorb his life force, it would injure her instead of giving her a boost because it’d be extremely difficult for her to refine Darius’ life force.He didn’t yet know this, but his life force was g

At this moment, Isabella broke free of Edward’s grasp and made a beeline for Darius. Unfortunately for her, Darius had expected this and was on his guard—he didn’t believe for a second she would agree to end her life so easily. As expected, he was right.Darius raised an eyebrow at the black sphere that was zipping toward him and smiled mockingly. “You’re dumber than I thought.” He started channeling his life force to form an enormous web in mid-air that emitted a faint, gold glow. The black sphere abruptly stopped before switching directions and trying to flee. Then, she stopped and fell to the floor—there was nowhere else for her to run because she was surrounded by the web.She took a deep breath, and the black sphere started to morph. This time, Darius wasn’t surprised. He’d already seen her go from looking like a young woman to an old one; this time, she was just going from a black sphere to her actual state. He stood there and watched as she slowly morphed back into a human st

Isabella looked at Darius with jealousy. He’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and even though an accident caused him to grow up in poverty, it hadn’t taken his life or intelligence away. Instead, he’d grown into a handsome young man and made his way into the country’s most prestigious university, Kingston University, even managing to be at the top of his class. While working odd jobs to support himself, he didn’t encounter any hardened hooligans who could take away his good looks or brains, and he’d made it out on top.Isabella’s lips parted and sealed a few times. Eventually, all she said was, “You have no idea how jealous I am of you. If I were you…” Before she could continue, she saw his finger twitch, and she quickly held up a hand to stop him. “Alright, alright. I’ll cut the crap and tell you what you want to know. Firstly, you wanted to know when Drake and I met, but I think what you really want to know is what our relationship was. It’s as you expected—we were bot