A Supernatural Live Stream: The Real Young Master is Trending Again - Chapter 1

PS: The cover is a template purchased from a designer; it has no direct connection to the protagonist. It is copyrighted, and any similarities to other covers are normal.

“Brother, I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose my family. I’m sorry, I had no choice but to do this. Please, forgive me. Don’t hate me.”

The sobbing farewell was scattered by the sea breeze.

These were the last words he heard before being thrown off the cliff.

The whistling wind shrieked past his ears, followed by a thunderous crash.

The agonizing pain jolted him awake from the effects of the drugs. Every bone in his body felt as though it had been shattered into pieces.

Si Ye struggled to turn his neck to look up. A seaside cliff—the probability of being discovered here was nearly zero.

His brain buzzed, the pain so intense he could barely breathe. Every breath required his full strength just to ensure he didn’t scream and further agitate his broken ribs.

His hair was matted messily against his face, and blood trickled continuously from the corner of his mouth. His pale face was etched with resentment and agony.

As the pain caused his consciousness to flicker, his thoughts drifted away with the ocean breeze.

He had been raised alone by his mother, Liu Yunyan. He always believed his father had passed away, until his sixteenth year—just before high school—when his mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. At the same time, the Shi family forcibly reclaimed him.

Only then did he learn he was the illegitimate son of Liu Yunyan and the head of the Shi family, Shi Hai. Because they couldn’t afford his mother’s medical bills, and because the Shi family refused to let an illegitimate heir roam free, he was forced into the Shi household.

Shi Hai’s wife, Ji Mengxue, naturally despised him. The bullying in high school, the car accident before the college entrance exams…

Targeting, threats, intimidation—police reports that led nowhere. He wanted to run away with his mother, but Shi Hai and Ji Mengxue refused to let him go.

The person who hit him with the car only paid a fine and spent a few years in jail; there was no evidence linking the act to anyone else. It was then he realized that all his efforts were nothing more than the futile struggles of an ant before the powerful.

Until his mother, perhaps speaking kindly on her deathbed, told him the truth.

He and Shi Jingning had been swapped at birth. Shi Jingning was Liu Yunyan’s child, and he was Ji Mengxue’s.

It had all happened because Ji Mengxue, in her obsession to be with Shi Hai, had driven the Liu family to ruin. Shi Hai was forced to be with her. Separated from his childhood sweetheart Liu Yunyan and held under Ji Mengxue’s thumb, Shi Hai was filled with rage and impotence. To get revenge on Ji Mengxue, he swapped the two infants.

Knowing the truth, Si Ye didn’t know how to face the man called his father, nor the mother he had protected for years—nor his biological mother, who, kept in the dark, had personally inflicted endless suffering upon him.

Before he could decide what to do, Shi Jingning—who had stolen his life—decided not to let him live.

The icy seawater slapped mercilessly against his wounds, bringing waves of heart-wrenching pain. Broken ribs punctured his internal organs, and bright red blood seeped out, staining the surrounding water crimson.

Between the drugs and the physical trauma, his consciousness grew fainter, yet his resentment and hatred burned deeper. His vision blurred until only a thick, inescapable darkness remained. The rise and fall of his chest grew weaker.

He was about to take his indignation at being toyed with by fate and his monstrous hatred down to hell with him.

In the final second before he plummeted into the abyss of unconsciousness…

“Are you willing to live?”

A distorted male voice echoed in his ear.

Si Ye exhausted his remaining strength to force his eyes open. Thick blood dripped from his lips.

The “person” before him was very tall. Black goat horns spiraled from his head, and beneath the hem of his mist-shrouded robes, something twisted and crawled. Blood-red vertical pupils stared fixedly at him. Something at the man’s neck seemed ready to burst through the skin, eager to catch a glimpse of the person before him.

It was a terrifying scene that would make anyone shudder. His face, beautiful to an inhuman degree, did not diminish the danger; it only made the man seem more eerie.

Like a demon from hell.

For some reason, looking at such a dangerous creature, Si Ye felt no fear. He subconsciously let out a bitter smile, coughing up more blood.

“Are you a demon?”

“A demon come from hell to strike a bargain with a pathetic wretch toyed with by fate?”

Looking at the boy’s lower limbs, twisted from the impact, a flicker of strange emotion seemed to pass through those blood-red eyes.

He reached out toward the dying person on the rocks and said calmly: “I can make you live. If you are willing, I can give you everything you desire. Revenge against those who dared to harm you.”

Si Ye gasped for air, a fierce light of defiance exploding in his eyes.

At this moment, he had only one thought: Live. No matter what the thing in front of him was, no matter the price, he would slaughter the people who dared play with his life.

Even if he had to fall into hell, he would drag those people down with him.

Using every ounce of strength, he gripped the large, cold hand.

At that moment, time ceased to flow.

The stalled wheel of fate began to turn once more. The high tower was about to be crested; the trumpet of Judgment had sounded.

In the Dungeon Hall, a cold male voice announced the start of the game.

At the very top of the tower, seven men of varying appearances sat upon different thrones. Some were napping, some stroking kittens, some playing with exquisite jewelry, and some swirling mellow wine…

Danger and eeriness permeated the silent air.

Suddenly, they all sensed something. Their expressions shifted from casual to solemn.

They looked toward the center at a violet book shrouded in dim starlight. Having not moved for ten thousand years, it now quietly flipped its pages.

[Welcome to the Paradise of the Seven Deadly Sins—Greed]

Amidst the terror and numbness of the crowds within the tower, no one heard the faint cry, laced with the joy of regaining something lost.

…

Above the sea, the night wind howled.

Shi Jingning stared blankly at the bottomless cliff, his brown eyes flickering with a fractured light as he muttered to himself.

“I didn’t mean to kill you, Brother… I didn’t mean to kill you. Don’t hate me, Brother. Brother… I’m sorry, I didn’t want it to be like this.”

Behind him, a red-haired man with a rakish appearance watched the scene, his eyes filled with unrestrained delight.

He leaned down and smiled at the boy kneeling by the cliff. “Shi Jingning, you should be happy. Now, no one will ever know his identity, and no one will ever know about that matter…”

Shi Jingning seemed to hear nothing. He remained kneeling, staring into the abyss, apologizing incessantly.

“I’m sorry. Please, don’t hate me.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Si Ye.”

Shi Jingning lowered his head, tears streaming down his face, a dry, hoarse sob breaking from his lips.

[God bestowed upon him a crown of pure gold, gave him abundant blessings, granted him protection, and gave him love and a home.

Greed germinated, eroding reason, selling the soul, turning one into a beast that devours all.

All that was desired and sought turned to ash; accompanied by fear, undying and unceasing.]

— Excerpt from “The Book of Truth: Greed”