Hades Has Returned

Chapter 002

Winter Lacy’s expression darkened instantly. The flawless porcelain of her face was marred by a shadow of irritation, her earlier detachment cracking under the weight of his defiance.

Deep down, in the recesses of her heart that she rarely acknowledged, she had felt a tiny, nagging prick of guilt for tearing up the marriage contract so publicly. It was a humiliation, she knew that. She had intended the business card—and the offer of menial employment—as a form of compensation, a charitable act to soothe her own conscience. She had expected gratitude, or at least a pathetic acceptance of his fate.

She did not expect this. She did not expect a convict, a man with nothing to his name but the clothes on his back, to look at her with such utter disdain.

"I tried to offer you a lifeline," she said, her voice dripping with disappointment. "But I see that you still haven't recognized the reality of your situation. How pathetic."

She shook her head, her eyes cold. "I have said all I need to say. Look out for yourself."

Without waiting for a response, Winter Lacy turned on her heel and slid into the driver's seat of her blood-red Ferrari. She slammed the door shut, sealing herself away from the dust and the filth of the prison exterior. The engine roared to life, a beastly growl of high-performance engineering that shattered the silence of the desolate island.

With a screech of tires that sent gravel spraying like shrapnel, the Ferrari peeled away, leaving deep tracks in the dry earth. The vehicle vanished into the distance, leaving behind a billowing cloud of exhaust and yellow dust that seemed to mock Jack Brooks’s impotent rage, swirling around him as if to say he was worth no more than the dirt on the ground.

"Psychopath," Jack Brooks muttered, staring at the taillights fading into the horizon.

He looked down at the spot where the business card had fallen into the mud. His eyes narrowed, and he stomped his foot down.

Boom.

It wasn't a loud sound, but the vibration was intense. The business card, buried in the earth, didn't just crumple; it disintegrated. The paper fibers were pulverized instantly by a surge of invisible force, turning into nothing more than fine white powder that blew away in the wind.

Standing a few yards away, the old man from The Hanks Family witnessed this casual display of terrifying power. He could only shake his head in disbelief, a bitter smile touching his lips.

He thought of the super-clans in the Imperial Capital—families with trillions in assets, dynasties that controlled the fate of the nation. Those patriarchs would give up half their fortunes just for the chance to shove their granddaughters into Hades' bed. They would beg for a marriage contract.

And here was this girl, Winter Lacy, blind as a bat. She had a true dragon standing right in front of her, a man who could command the world, and she had personally torn up the connection between them. It was the height of absurdity. A tragedy of ignorance.

Sensing an opening, the old man straightened his Traditional Tunic Suit and stepped forward, intending to plead his case again, to perhaps invite the legend to the capital.

Buzz. Buzz.

Jack Brooks’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He held up a hand, silencing the old man before he could speak a word.

Jack pulled out an old, battered smartphone and looked at the screen. It was a text message.

"Uncle George?" Jack whispered, his cold expression softening for the first time that day.

George Sutton.

In the dark years after Jack and his mother were hunted down and exiled to Northriver, George Sutton had been their only lifeline. He was the benefactor who had hidden them, fed them, and protected them when the rest of the world wanted them dead.

The text read: “Jack, you’re out today, right? Come straight to my place in Northriver. We need to discuss the wedding details for you and Tia.”

Jack stared at the glowing screen, his brow twitching slightly.

Tia Sutton. Uncle George's daughter.

Memories surfaced from the haze of his childhood. He remembered Tia Sutton as a young girl—even back then, she was a beauty in the making, with bright eyes and a spirited personality. Over ten years had passed; she must have blossomed into a stunning woman by now.

George Sutton had always been adamant. He had sworn that when the children came of age, he would marry Tia Sutton to Jack to ensure Jack always had a family.

More importantly, this was also the dying wish of his mother, Lana Way. Before she passed, she had made Jack promise to honor the arrangement if the Suttons still wanted it.

Jack let out a long sigh. He could crush warlords and defy empires, but he could not defy his mother's final wish.

He typed a simple reply: "OK."

Then, he looked up at the old man and the young girl from The Hanks Family, who were still standing in the baking sun, sweat soaking through their expensive clothes.

"If you have business with me," Jack said dismissively, waving his hand as if shooing away flies, "wait until I come to the Imperial Capital. I have things to do."

Northriver International Airport.

The hustle and bustle of the arrival hall was a stark contrast to the desolate silence of the prison island. Travelers rushed back and forth, dragging suitcases and shouting into phones.

Jack Brooks stepped off the plane, walking through the terminal with his hands in his pockets. But the moment he entered the main waiting area, his face sank. His brow furrowed deeply, forming a tight knot of annoyance.

"How did I run into this woman again?"

Sitting on a plush leather sofa in the VIP rest area, visible through the glass partition, was Winter Lacy.

She spotted him at the exact same moment. Her body stiffened. A look of sheer disbelief washed over her face, followed immediately by a wave of intensified disgust.

"He chased me here immediately after getting out," she thought. "He really doesn't know when to quit."

She stood up and walked to the edge of the area, intercepting him.

"Jack Brooks," she sighed, shaking her head as if looking at a unruly child. "Is this really necessary? Let me make this clear: even if you stalk me to the ends of the earth, even if you pester me until the day I die, I will not marry you."

Beside her, her secretary Tina Cheney stepped forward. Tina was a sharp-looking woman with a bob cut and a perpetually judgmental expression. Seeing Jack, her face twisted into a sneer.

"My Lady has already annulled the engagement," Tina Cheney said, her voice loud enough to attract the attention of passersby. "And yet you follow us here, shameless and thick-skinned? Is this interesting to you?"

She looked him up and down, sneering at his cheap clothes. "I've seen plenty of toads lusting after swan meat in my life, but I have never seen a man as devoid of self-respect as you!"

Tina’s voice grew colder, laden with hostility.

Jack’s eyes turned icy. He looked at them calmly. "You're thinking too much. I was just passing by."

"Just passing by?" Tina Cheney scoffed, a harsh, barking laugh escaping her throat. "Do you think we are idiots? You probably saw that my Lady is beautiful, wealthy, and successful, so you planned this 'chance encounter' to play the role of the devoted admirer. You think if you act like a loyal dog, she'll be moved?"

"It's useless!" she spat. "You two are from completely different worlds!"

"Let me give you a piece of advice," Tina continued, pointing a manicured finger at his chest. "Stop wasting your time on dreams that are out of your reach. Go find a construction site or a dishwashing gig. Focus on feeding yourself before you starve to death!"

"A generic ex-convict like you... no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you struggle, you will never be worthy of carrying my Lady's shoes!"

Winter Lacy stood silently by her secretary’s side, her face covered in a layer of frost. She didn't reprimand Tina because she agreed with every word.

This man was ridiculous. Sneaking onto the same flight, following them to Northriver, and then pretending it was a coincidence when caught? It was repulsive.

People needed to have self-awareness. How could a cockroach crawling in the dark corners of a prison ever hope to catch the eye of a star shining in the heavens?

Jack Brooks listened to their tirade, and then he laughed. It was a cold, short sound. The corners of his mouth lifted in an arc of pure contempt.

He didn't bother to argue. He didn't even look at them again. He simply walked past them to a nearby row of seats and sat down, pulling a sleek card key from his pocket and twirling it between his fingers.

He was waiting for his ride.

Before he left the prison, Victor Zane, known to the underworld as the King of Northriver, had been informed of Jack's arrival. Victor Zane had immediately arranged for the richest man in Northriver to come and pick Jack up personally.

The card key spinning in Jack's fingers wasn't for a motel. It was the access key to the most expensive property in the entire region—the Capital Grand Manor.

The villa, worth over three billion dollars, was originally the property of the War God Tyler Jennings. Now, it belonged to Jack.

And inside his pocket sat the Gilded Dragon Black Card. It carried a balance of three hundred million dollars in liquid cash, more than enough to buy half the airport if he felt like it. And that was just pocket money. With his status as Hades, he could summon tens of billions in capital with a single phone call.

But he felt no need to explain this to the two women glaring at him.

Winter Lacy saw that Jack wasn't leaving. instead, he had sat down nearby, looking completely unbothered. Her mood turned foul. He was lingering like a bad smell.

Just as she was about to turn and leave the terminal to get away from him, a commotion broke out near the exit.

Thump.

An elderly woman, walking with a young girl, suddenly collapsed to the tiled floor.

"Grandma! Grandma!" the girl screamed.

"Someone fainted!"

"Help! Is there a doctor?"

A crowd instantly formed a circle around the fallen woman.

"I am a doctor! Everyone step back, give her air!"

A middle-aged man wearing wire-rimmed glasses pushed through the crowd. He knelt beside the old woman, checking her pulse and lifting her eyelids. His expression quickly turned grave.

After a moment, he let go of her wrist and sighed, shaking his head.

"Heart failure," he announced solemnly. "I'm afraid she's gone."

"What?!" The young girl’s face went pale. She dropped to her knees, grabbing the doctor’s arm. "Impossible! Grandma has always been tough. She was fine just a minute ago! How can she have heart failure?"

The doctor adjusted his glasses, his voice sympathetic but firm. "Your grandmother likely had a hidden condition. These things hide for years and then strike like a landslide. The onset is sudden and catastrophic."

"Her heart has stopped," he explained. "Unless we could administer a high-dose cardiotonic shot immediately, there is no hope. But even then... the chances are slim."

He looked at the airport exit. "The nearest hospital is Northriver General Hospital, but that is twenty minutes away. Even with an ambulance, she won't make it."

The doctor stood up, helpless.

"No... no!" The girl broke down, weeping uncontrollably. She threw herself over the old woman's body. "Grandma, wake up! Please, wake up! Don't die... please don't leave me... sob..."

Her cries were heart-wrenching, tearing at the emotions of everyone in the circle. The bystanders looked on with pity, shaking their heads.

"Little girl," a passenger murmured, "life and death are determined by fate. There is nothing to be done. Call your family."

"That doctor is a Chief Physician at Northriver General Hospital," another whispered. "If he says there's no hope, then there really isn't."

"So tragic. Alive and kicking one second, gone the next. Life is impermanent."

The atmosphere was heavy with grief.

"NO! Grandma don't die! You are my only family left..." The girl wailed, shaking the lifeless body.

In the back of the crowd, Jack Brooks frowned.

He stood up and walked closer, his sharp eyes scanning the old woman. Her lips were a ghostly white, her forehead was covered in a cold, dense sweat, and her hands were clenched in a spasm.

It was severe myocarditis triggering sudden cardiac arrest.

To an ordinary doctor, or even a specialist in Western medicine like the man in glasses, this was indeed a death sentence outside of an ER. Without equipment, they were powerless.

But to Jack Brooks, this was child's play.

He didn't need adrenaline shots or defibrillators. He just needed to infuse True Energy into three specific points to jumpstart the body's hidden reserves.

Western medicine focused too much on the mechanics; Traditional Chinese Medicine manipulated the life force itself.

Guanyuan. Juque. Tiantu.

If he stimulated these three points, the old woman's heart would restart within two minutes. Furthermore, the True Energy would clear the blockages permanently—she wouldn't even need to go to the hospital afterward.

A faint, bitter smile crossed Jack's face. He couldn't just watch her die.

He stepped through the crowd, ignored the murmurs, and squatted down beside the body. Without hesitation, his fingers moved with blurring speed.

He pressed his fingers firmly onto the woman's lower abdomen—the Guanyuan Point.

Then, he moved up to the center of her chest, striking the Juque Point.

Finally, his fingers pressed into the hollow of her throat—the Tiantu Point.

He held his fingers there, channeling invisible energy into her meridian system.

From the outside, it looked bizarre.

"Miss, look at what Jack Brooks is doing!" Tina Cheney gasped, grabbing Winter Lacy's arm. Her face flushed with anger and revulsion.

"He's a complete p*****t!" Tina hissed. "The old lady is already dead, and he's not only smiling, but he's also touching her body all over! He's groping a corpse!"

"This man is mentally deranged!"

Winter Lacy’s brows knitted together so tightly they almost touched. She saw Jack’s hands on the old woman's chest and throat, and a wave of nausea hit her.

As Jack finished the procedure and began to stand up, Winter Lacy couldn't hold back. She marched toward him, her heels clicking aggressively on the floor, her eyes burning with righteous fury.