Chapter 1181

Serena wasn’t surprised in the slightest. This was exactly the kind of atrocity the Obsidian Sun was known for.

She tightened her grip on the metal box. “So… when her blood sample was sent over, they… they realized she was still alive p>

The Old Man’s gaze was dead serious. “Yes. All because of that one vial of blood Patrick handed them p>

“The second her genetic markers hit their system, every single alarm in the Obsidian Sun’s core database went off p>

“They immediately tracked Patrick’s movements and pinpointed her exact coordinates p>

“That very night, a massive swarm of Mutated Augments surrounded the entire village p>

The mountain wind howled.

The leaves of the Ancient Oak thrashed violently in the gale.

By this point, tears were pooling in the Old Man’s eyes. “Your grandmother knew her cover was blown. To keep the innocent villagers from being slaughtered, and to make sure they didn’t discover you while you were out on a mission p>

His voice shattered, trembling with uncontainable grief. She torched everything in her lab once again. And then, she injected herself with an Obsidian Neurotoxin she had kept from thirty years ago p>

“Once administered, that toxin triggered a rapid, flawless illusion of natural, catastrophic organ failure p>

Which was precisely why even Serena hadn’t been able to detect anything wrong.

Using her own brutal method, Grandma Aria had forcefully severed every single thread leading back to her.

She saved the village.

And she saved Serena.

Serena stood beneath the Ancient Oak, completely paralyzed.

The wind whipped through her hair, drying the tears on her face.

She stared blankly at the massive tree.

Then she looked down at the box in her arms.

She remembered her grandmother in those final days, lying in bed, withered down to nothing but skin and bones.

Her frail, rough hands gently cupping Serena’s cheeks.

But even then, her grandmother had always greeted her with a warm, beaming smile.

Back then, Serena hadn’t been able to figure out what was killing her.

She hadn’t known p>

She hadn’t known anything at all.

She never knew what her grandmother had sacrificed for her, nor the agonizing torment she had endured entirely on her own.

Serena squeezed her eyes shut, feeling as if every drop of blood in her veins had instantly turned to ice.

And worse… her grandmother had died because of Patrick’s greed. His absolute stupidity.

He had forced her into ending her own life in the most excruciating way possible.

Serena couldn’t even begin to imagine it.

A neurotoxin designed to rapidly decay every internal organ in the human body. Once it hit her bloodstream p>

Just how much agony did her grandmother have to suffer through?

Serena clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles were stark white.

An ocean of repressed, murderous hostility churned beneath her icy gaze.

She hugged the box securely against her chest. “She left this for me. I’ll make sure it’s kept safe p>

Turning around, she stared down the mountain.

“I’m going to have a little chat with the Wynn family p>

Her tone was deceptively flat, but beneath that calm lay an incredibly oppressive,

lethal intent. “Old Man. I’ll pay you a visit later p>

With that, she strode purposefully down the mountain path.

“Kid!” the Old Man called out.

But Serena didn’t stop.

He let out a long sigh, grabbed his flask, and quietly followed her.

Back on the east side of the village.

The Wynn family’s shack was a filthy, dilapidated mess.

The family had already returned from their snooping.

For once, Marianne wasn’t complaining about the atrocious living conditions. She was frantically chopping vegetables and trying to start a fire at the stove, coughing violently as the thick smoke billowed into her face. sŵnovels

She scrambled around the kitchen, her face streaked with soot and grime.

She had always been a pampered

socialite who’d never done a day’s

manual labor in her life. it werent a

matter of sheer survival, she

wouldn’t have been caught dead

doing chores like this.

Usually, just stepping foot in a kitchen was enough to send her into a screaming fit.

But right now, there wasn’t a single

complaint leaving her lips. She was entirely focused on buttering Serena up, absolutely determined to convince her to bring the family back to Vaelion City.

She refused to spend another second in this godforsaken hellhole.

Inside the house.

Patrick sat at the rickety table, nervously rubbing his hands over his knees.