Chapter 2 Disguise

As soon as Ashley came out of the basement, the anger on her face had been replaced with a pitiful and sad look.

Seeing this, Darren hurriedly walked over to her with concern. "What's wrong?"

Ashley shook her head and leaned in his arms with a trembling sigh.

"My brother refused to tell me where it was. And he said... He said that I didn't deserve to be the daughter of the Rong family! That he wanted to kick me out and leave me with nothing!"

There were even tears in her eyes as she said this, making Darren feel incredibly sympathetic towards her. "That's nonsense!" he said, gently holding her chin in his hand. "The Rong family doesn't deserve to have such a beautiful and kind-hearted daughter like you, Ash. Don't worry. We'll get married as soon as this matter is over."

With a gleam shining in her eyes, Ashley tentatively bit her lower lip. "But my brother--"

"Your brother is nothing but an ungrateful pest," Darren interrupted, his eyes as cold as ice. "We don't have to keep him alive."

Ashley leaned against Darren's chest. "But even after everything, he's still my brother," she mumbled weakly.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure to handle it in the best possible way. Albert will disappear from the face of this world forever, and you will rightfully take over the Rong family."

Hearing this, she lowered her head to cover the flash of contentment in her eyes. With his arm around her shoulder, he led her out of there.

Ashley then turned her head around to glance at the dark, iron door one last time. The corners of her mouth subtly raised up.

'Goodbye, my dear brother...'

Meanwhile, Albert stared at the dim light above his head. There was no more luster in his eyes.

For the past few minutes, he had been angrily punching his fists against the concrete. Blood seeped from his knuckles. Now, he just quietly sat in the dark, as if he was embracing his incredibly depressing state.

It felt like his life was slowly slipping away. His past two decades of existences flashed before his eyes. All the achievements he had made and the happy moment he had were nothing as compared to what Ashley had just revealed to him.

Because of the rune manipulating skill, the Rong family became one of the strongest households in all of Imperial City. All of Albert's relatives had paid the price for holding such a great power. Now, he was about to pay the price with his life as well.

The more Albert thought about his family, the more his heart ached.

There was nothing else he could do but close his tired eyes, tears steadily streaming down his face.

If there was an afterlife, he would definitely make sure that Darren and Ashley pay for what they had done!

Later that night, a huge fire engulfed the entire house. There was nothing left. Albert Rong, the head of such a powerful family, drew his last breath.

- - - - - -

"Hurry up! Catch that brat!"

In a dim alley, a chase pursued. A lanky teenager ran as quickly as he could. As he neared the end of the alley, a dozen people were suddenly there, blocking his way.

"You brat, you're pretty fast!" snarled a hooligan with bright yellow hair as he grabbed the boy's collar.

The teenager trembled, his teeth chattering. "You... What do you want?"

"What do we want?" The hooligan snorted coldly. After staring at the boy for a while longer, he loosened his grip. The teenager fell directly to the ground. His frail appearance made the other people around laugh out loud.

"Can't you try and figure it out, punk? How dare you harass Valerie Shen!"

The teenager shouted stubbornly, "I didn't!"

Blam! The hooligan punched the handsome boy's face, making him fall down hard on the ground. The corners of the boy's eyes immediately turned red and swollen.

"Tch! You are such a weak boy. How dare you approach Valerie? She is Mr. Jason's girlfriend. Do you think you deserve her?"

As they barked harsh words at the boy, the group of people punched and kicked him mercilessly.

After a long minutes, they finally stopped. The boy was shaking with pain. With a sneer, the leading hooligan, Hogan, gave him another kick directly on his stomach.

"Stay away from Valerie or next time you won't be so lucky anymore!"

The group laughed among themselves as they hurriedly left. Meanwhile, the boy panted heavily, his eyes filled with fury and hatred. After taking a few deep breaths, his body couldn't handle the severity of his injuries anymore. There, in the dark and dirty alley, he died alone.

The night wind blew through the alley, bringing upon a clear and crisp voice that seemed to come from afar.

"Master! Wake up, master!"

Albert opened his eyes in a daze. The pain all over his body made him gasp.

"Aaah..."

Enduring the pain all over his body, he tried to get up into a sitting position as he looked around in confusion.

"Where... Where am I?"

The last thing he could remember was being locked up in the basement before burning to death. Why was he here in this dark alley?

All of a sudden, he felt a severe pain in his head, and fragments of memory hit his mind. After a long time, Albert finally came to his senses.

He looked at his hands in disbelief. What was going on?

A small ball floated around him, the light fluctuating like a firefly in the night.

Albert stared at the orb in awe. Raising his hand, he reached up to touch it.

The light ball shook and made a faint sound.

"Master..."

The corners of Albert's mouth twitched. "Who... What the hell are you?"

The light ball rubbed against his face. "I'm the amulet that follows the master of the Rong family for the past century. Only the true and current master of the Rong family can wake me up," it explained in a soothing tone.

Amulet?

All of this sounded familiar to Albert.

When he took over the position as head of the Rong family, his grandfather had told him everything he needed to know -- how their family was powerful, how they were famous for the rune manipulating skill, and so forth.

From what he could remember, his grandfather also told him that the rune manipulating skill could be used to bring forth an amulet. A lot of generations of Rongs did all they could to bring it forth. None of them prevailed, until now...

Staring at the light ball, Albert suddenly remembered how he saw a light in the basement before he passed out.

"It was you ...who saved me?"

"Master, don't you know that the highest level of the rune manipulating skill is immortality?" The small light ball circled around him and said in a brisk voice, "Strictly speaking, it is the rebirth of the soul, or the rebirth of the consciousness. Master's body has died, and now your consciousness exists in this new body so master can survive."

Albert rubbed the corners of his eyes with his fingertips.

What the hell was this?

It was hard to wrap his head around everything that was happening right now. And that was not all...

As it turned out, Albert was really actually a woman! Apparently the rune manipulating skill of the Rong family could only be inherited by men.

In order not to lose the power, Albert's grandfather came to the decision to make Albert only appear to be a man.

Aside from her grandfather and parents, no one knew that the head of the Rong family in the Imperial City was actually a woman.

Not even her favorite sister Ashley nor her best friend Darren knew...

Thinking of the two of them, a murderous look flashed in her eyes.

Now that she had escaped from death, the two of them would go down to hell!

The small light ball trembled and rubbed her face, almost like a doting kitten. "Master, what should we do now?"

Taking a deep breath, she straightened out the broken bones in her hand. She didn't even flinch as it snapped back with a crack.

"Well, I'm glad you asked," she said, a smile forming at the corners of her mouth. An evil look flashed across her dangerously sharp eyes.