As Evan Lin moved, his finger traced a circle on the glass. The section of glass he outlined shattered into tiny pieces the very next second.
Cold wind poured into the room through the gap where the glass had been.
Standing at the breach, Evan faced the wind, his expression calm as he slowly took a deep breath.
The scene resembled a giant whale gulping water; air outside the Graceford Grand International Hotel surged in like rivers flowing backward, wildly rushing through the opening as a fierce gale erupted.
Even the entire floor of the Graceford Grand International Hotel seemed to tremble, and faint sounds of stone and concrete breaking echoed from within the steel-reinforced structure.
Evan remained impassive, while subtle waves of air formed around him, as if the air had been utterly drained in an instant.
"What the hell is happening?!"
On the eleventh floor, Warren Wang’s eyes flew wide open. He shot to his feet, his iron-like body blocking his brother Zane Wang like a mountain, scanning the surroundings with full vigilance.
"What’s going on?"
Zane, seeing Warren suddenly tense up, instinctively stood as well.
Just as Zane asked, he suddenly realized that for a split second, he couldn’t even breathe!
It was as if the air had been squeezed tight, the whole space gripped in an invisible fist.
Following Warren’s gaze, Zane looked toward the nearby floor-to-ceiling window, only to see the window frame visibly warping at a speed he could see with his own eyes.
"What... is going on here?"
A chill ran down Zane’s spine, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
Warren said nothing, his muscles bulging like a coiled dragon, fully ready for battle.
Guests in other rooms throughout the Graceford Grand International Hotel also heard the commotion.
"What’s that noise?"
"Is it an earthquake?!"
"What the heck is happening?"
A bunch of people rushed out of their rooms, faces full of panic. The windows had already started caving inward from the pressure, glass bowing dangerously into the rooms.
The intense air pressure outside slammed into every window, pressing the glass with insane force.
"What the hell is that noise?!"
In a business suite, Brian Guang was already in a foul mood, ranting to Zack Guang on the phone about how he got scammed today, when the banging at the window started up, making him even more annoyed.
Brian felt like he could barely breathe. Swearing under his breath, he stomped over to the window to see what the heck was going on.
In Suite 1001, Evan Lin finally exhaled.
Whoosh—
In an instant, it was like rivers pouring into the sea—a raging hurricane of air blasted out from Evan, flooding the room.
The wild burst of air shattered the entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows in a heartbeat!
"Ah!"
Brian had just reached the window. Before he could even see what was wrong, the glass exploded right in front of him, sending a shower of tiny shards flying straight at him.
If Brian hadn’t reacted fast and turned his back, he’d be heading to the ER for reconstructive surgery. Even so, the shards left plenty of cuts on his back.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of glass shattering kept coming, one after another.
From outside the Graceford Grand International Hotel, you could see an entire wall of windows burst apart, raining down shards like a glittering waterfall.
Luckily, it was late and the alley below was empty—no pedestrians to get caught in the mess.
The whole building instantly descended into chaos.
Warren Wang stared at the shattered window in front of him, still shaken.
That crushing pressure finally faded, and he sucked in a few deep breaths, heart pounding like crazy.
"What the hell just happened? What kind of monster force could smash tempered glass like that?"
Warren muttered to himself, still spaced out and unable to snap back to reality.
In another room, Bella Xiao frowned, deep in thought about what just happened.
Brian Guang got sent to the hospital by Victor Xu for a quick patch-up. Lewis Lu and May Xia were watching TV, heard the noise, but had no clue what was going on.
Hotel security scrambled everywhere, phones ringing off the hook—total chaos.
And the culprit, Evan Lin, was standing at the ruined window, facing the cold wind, eyes closed, quietly feeling the changes inside his body.
"Back in the bomb shelter, when I practiced the Grand Dao Foundation breathing method, I could only draw a tiny bit of spiritual qi from the surroundings. But even with this kind of breathing, the qi comes way too slow."
Evan frowned slightly, clearly not satisfied.
Even with all that effort, he’d only gained a few wisps of spiritual qi. Those wisps flowed through his meridians into the dragon mark on his left hand, got sucked in by the sleeping dragon, then spat back out—each time a bit more refined and condensed—finally settling into his spiritual sea.
Not long after, there was a knock at the door. Evan opened it to find a sheepish hotel staffer, who offered to move him to another room. Evan just waved him off and sent him away.
That night, rumors flew—some said it was a mini earthquake.
Others claimed a master showed up and shattered all those windows in a duel.
Most people just scoffed—tempered glass is tough, and if there’d been a real expert fight, there’d be way more drama.
The Graceford Grand International Hotel incident became a late-night sideshow. Luckily, nobody got hurt. The experts called in wrote up a bland report blaming thermal expansion for the glass explosion.
Next morning, bright and early.
Around six, Lewis Lu came knocking on Evan’s door.
"May went to find her classmates. We’ll meet downstairs later, then head to the Moore estate and watch the show."
Lewis still had his old backpack. When Evan opened the door, he looked a little embarrassed. "About the room fee... I can’t pay you back right now, but once I graduate and get a job, I’ll pay you for sure."
"Don’t worry about it."
Evan shook his head.
"No way, you really helped me out yesterday! I can’t just keep mooching off you!"
Lewis looked stubborn, so Evan just nodded and let him have his way.
Seeing this, Lewis finally relaxed.
The two of them headed to the elevator—it was just coming down from the eleventh floor. When it reached the ninth floor, Lewis pressed the button.
Inside the elevator, Bella Xiao was still holding her DSLR, a hint of doubt in her eyes.
Beside her, Warren Wang was tense and on high alert, his whole body rigid.
When the elevator reached the lobby, they got off, and only then did it head back up to the tenth floor to pick up Evan and Lewis.