177: Chapter 177 Old Master Chen Fainted While Watching the Live Stream

Across the Pacific, Jinghai, Huaxia.

The night was deep. Inside the Chen family's sprawling, century-old courtyard house, a thick scent of medicine permeated the air. The pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with expensive calming sandalwood incense did not bring peace; instead, it exuded the aura of a setting sun, full of decay and death.

In the intensive care unit at the deepest part of the backyard, only two dim wall lamps were lit.

"Clatter."

An extremely crisp sound suddenly rang out in the deathly silent room. A top-quality old-pit ice-type jade teacup had slipped from a withered hand and shattered into pieces on the blue brick floor.

Scalding ginseng tea splashed everywhere, steam rising from the floor.

But at this moment, Old Master Chen on the hospital bed had no time to worry about the million-dollar cup. His skeletal body was trembling violently, and his clouded eyes were fixed on the tablet computer leaning against his quilt.

The light from the screen hit his face, which was covered in age spots, reflecting an extreme terror and regret that defied description.

On the video, a high-definition recording that had just been sent back from the foreign internet was playing on a loop.

It was a five-meter-tall black biological mecha. It sprayed ghostly blue plasma exhaust, and in a terrifying manner that defied human physics, it tore open a main battle tank's armor with its bare hands amidst a hail of American bullets.

And inside the cockpit of that monster...

Chen Yuan was wearing a black tactical vest, facing the camera and the entire world, raising a slender middle finger. The arrogance, disdain, and overbearing aura of looking down on the world in his eyes were like a red-hot blade, ruthlessly stabbing into Old Master Chen's heart.

"This... this is that bastard?"

A raspy breath, like a broken bellows, came from the Old Master's throat. His shriveled fingers gripped the corner of the silk quilt tightly, his knuckles turning a bloodless white from the excessive force.

He didn't want to believe it, nor did he dare to.

In his memory, Chen Yuan was always that thin youth kneeling at the Chen family's main gate on a rainy night, begging like a stray dog. Because of his status as an illegitimate child, his inheritance rights were stripped away with a casual remark, and he was swept out of the house like trash.

But now, this 'trash' had actually built a terrifying empire across the ocean that was capable of rivaling the American state machine.

"Beep, beep, beep."

The vital signs monitor at the head of the bed began to sound an urgent alarm. The Old Master's blood pressure was skyrocketing, and his heart rate was about to break the critical threshold.

The massive influx of information and the extreme sense of contrast were frantically tearing at his already weak and exhausted heart.

He thought of the catastrophic disaster the Chen family had encountered these past few days.

The Chen Group's stock had hit the limit-down for consecutive days, and its market value had evaporated by tens of billions. The bank presidents who usually called him brother had all changed their faces, demanding early loan repayments. Even those old connections in the political world avoided them like the plague.

A century-old foundation, a building on the verge of collapse.

And the perpetrator of all this was the grandson he had personally driven out of the house. If he hadn't favored Chen Tianba and his wife back then, if he could have shown a sliver of mercy to that Jiangnan woman, with Chen Yuan's current wealth and his possession of beyond-the-era military technology, how could the Chen family fail to stand at the pinnacle of the world?

"What... what sin have I committed?"

Two lines of cloudy tears slid down the Old Master's shriveled eyes and seeped into his white beard.

There was no family affection in these tears, only extreme regret for having missed out on overwhelming wealth. He had personally forced a true dragon that could have made the family soar into a fierce tiger that had returned for revenge.

Just then, the door to the ward was pushed open in a panic.

Chen Tianba rushed in with Zhao Ya. They had obviously heard the commotion in the ward, and their faces bore heavy dark circles from the stress of the family's bankruptcy crisis.

"Dad. Why are you awake?"

Chen Tianba walked quickly to the bedside. Just as he was about to reach out to support the Old Master, his gaze suddenly fell on the tablet. When he saw Chen Yuan's arrogant face on the screen, his expression instantly turned ashen.

"Who brought this to the Old Master? Do you want to anger him to death?" Chen Tianba turned and roared at the nurse at the door.

"You... you shut up."

The Old Master suddenly erupted with a burst of strength from nowhere. He swatted away Chen Tianba's hand and tremblingly raised his skeletal index finger, pointing directly at his son and daughter-in-law.

He looked at Chen Tianba's hypocritical face, then at the trembling Zhao Ya beside him.

Then he compared them to Chen Yuan on the screen, who had left The Pentagon helpless, and the eldest grandson Chen Yu, who was locked in a dog cage and wetting his pants in fear.

A wave of towering rage instantly surged through him.

These were his chosen heirs. A group of idiots who only knew how to be bullies at home and who had pushed the family into an abyss of no return.

"Beasts... you pair of beasts..."

The Old Master's chest heaved violently as he opened his toothless mouth, wanting to curse them out. He wanted to curse Chen Tianba's stupid short-sightedness and Zhao Ya's malicious scheming.

He wanted to vent all of this regret on these two culprits.

But he was too old.

The extreme anger caused his windpipe to spasm instantly. The thick phlegm stuck in his throat, accompanied by the blood rising from his heart due to fury, forcefully blocked his last airway.

"Ugh... ugh..."

The Old Master's eyes suddenly rolled back, the whites showing prominently. His finger pointing at Chen Tianba froze in mid-air, twitching violently twice.

Immediately after, a mouthful of dark blood sprayed from his mouth, speckling the tablet computer that was still playing the footage of Chen Yuan.

His whole body seemed to have its bones removed as he slumped heavily back onto the pillow.

"Beep——!!!"

On the precision medical instrument beside the bed, the wavy line representing his heartbeat instantly flattened into a piercing green straight line. The long alarm sound pierced the night sky of the Chen family courtyard, like a shrill funeral song.

"Dad. Dad, wake up."

Chen Tianba was scared out of his wits. He grabbed the Old Master's shoulders and shook them desperately, but the body gave no response.

The private medical team outside heard the alarm and rushed into the ward like crazy, pushing the defibrillator and emergency cart.

"Move. Get out of the way. The patient has ventricular fibrillation, prepare for electric shock."

The attending physician, drenched in sweat, pushed Chen Tianba aside and quickly tore open the Old Master's hospital gown, pressing the defibrillator paddles firmly against his thin chest.

"Thump."

The massive current caused the Old Master's body to bounce off the bed and then fall back heavily.

But that green straight line still showed no fluctuation.

Chen Tianba stood dazed in the corner.

He looked at his lifeless father on the bed, then at the straight line symbolizing death on the instrument. An unprecedented chill rushed up his spine to his head.

The Old Master was dead.

At this most critical moment when the family was in turmoil and pushed to the brink by Chen Yuan, the Chen family's final pillar of support had been literally angered to death.

The building was falling, and there was no one left to turn the tide.

"Tianba... what do we do? Is Dad..."

Zhao Ya covered her mouth, leaning against the wall with a pale face, her voice trembling. She knew that once the Old Master was gone, those collateral relatives who had long been eyeing the position of family head would definitely pounce like hungry wolves to swallow them alive.

Chen Tianba suddenly turned his head.

In his bloodshot eyes, there was now only the extreme madness and despair of a cornered beast.

He pushed aside the busy doctors and strode toward the ward door, letting out a hysterical roar into the silent corridor outside.

"Notify all the spokespersons for the collateral branches!"

"Gather everyone immediately for an emergency meeting in the Council Hall!"