Gold-Red Star Tears Through the Darkness

Deep within the stronghold, silence reigned. Xiang Yi sat cross-legged at the edge of the Life-Sustaining Formation, his hands hovering over it, veins bulging across his forehead as sweat rolled down. He squeezed out the last thread of his mental power, desperately holding onto the strand of energy at the formation's core, thinner than a spider's silk—Ming Shiyin's face was ashen, and every faint breath made that dim glow tremble wildly, on the verge of going out.

Blood-red words stabbed into his mind:

[Warning: Ming Shiyin is in critical condition! Formation efficiency collapsing!]

[Energy Points: 0]

[Mental Power: 165/360 (continuously draining)]

At this life-or-death moment—

The main screen erupted with a beep! A CNN livestream labeled "Top Priority" instantly took over the display!

Outside Stark Industries. Reporters crowded together like vultures that had scented carrion. The timestamp showed that Tony Stark had been missing for three months.

Interim CEO Obadiah Stane wore an expression of rehearsed grief as he prepared to announce that fatal "obituary"—

BOOM—!!!

A bolt of gold-red lightning, wrapped in a sonic boom that shattered glass and a shockwave cloud, crashed through the center of the press conference like a shell! The concrete ground exploded! Dust and shattered stone shot into the sky!

The cameras shook wildly!

As the dust settled, it revealed a figure that made the entire world hold its breath.

The Mark III Armor! Its gold-red paint was cold and hard as a blade, its angular edges radiating power. The Arc Reactor on its chest glowed a deep blue, like the heart of a god. The armor was covered in windblown scratches and scorched cave marks—a brand-new shell bearing the medals of hell! The faceplate snapped open.

Tony Stark's face was exposed beneath the flashing cameras.

All his extravagance had been stripped away. Wind and sand had carved into his bones, the cave had stained him with rust, and his sunken eyes held the grief of Ethan's death... along with the icicle-sharp clarity of a man returned from hell! Yet in those caramel-colored eyes burned the fire of rebirth, ready to incinerate the old world!

Silence! The venue froze for five seconds! Then camera flashes and screams exploded into the heavens!

Tony ignored the instantly pale, twisted face of Obadiah beside him. The armor strode forward with a metallic clang, and he swept the stiff Obadiah aside as if shoving away trash.

He braced both hands on the podium, his gaze like a searchlight sweeping over the frenzied sea of cameras.

"Quiet."

His voice was not loud, yet it boomed like Arc Reactor energy, instantly crushing every clamor! Flashes froze, shouts caught in throats, and the venue was pressed into an abyss of dead silence by the oppressive presence of the gold-red armor!

Tony drew a deep breath, as if inhaling all the smoke, sand, blood, and rebirth. His voice struck the world like a funeral bell:

"I'm back."

"I saw Stark weapons with my own eyes, shoved into the hands of scum! I saw what they destroy!"

"I watched a young man die for me..." A trace of choked emotion was crushed beneath an iron will. "I understand now... my company and I have a greater responsibility to this fucked-up world!"

He paused. His gaze pierced through the cameras and stabbed toward the scorched earth. His voice abruptly rose, like the blade of judgment:

"So, effective immediately! The weapons manufacturing division is shut down!"

"Until—" He swept his gaze across the venue, every word a hammer striking Obadiah's and the shareholders' hearts, striking Wall Street's nerve endings. "Until I redefine this company's path! Redefine its place in the world!"

BOOM—!!!

Tony's words were like pressing the button on a financial nuclear bomb! On another screen before Xiang Yi, the intraday chart for STK stock—collapsed!

A guillotine! A sheer vertical plunge!

A waterfall of crimson numbers poured downward!

-10%! -20%! -30%!

It was as if an invisible giant hand had kicked it into the abyss! Every movement was Wall Street's heartbreak! Sell orders collapsed like mountains! Panic devoured souls like a plague! The candlestick chart plunged vertically toward hell!

Xiang Yi's hands remained as steady as stone, maintaining Ming Shiyin's final breath. But his eyes were frozen over, reflecting both the crimson waterfall of numbers and the high-frequency trading interface of Cosmos Holdings Limited!

The anonymous "Cosmos" code opened its greedy maw like a beast from the abyss! The instant STK fell, preset ultra-low buy orders were activated by cold programs and began devouring shares madly!

[STK Market Buy: 500,000 shares @ $21.50] [Filled!]

[STK Market Buy: 750,000 shares @ $20.80] [Filled!]

[STK Market Buy: 1,000,000 shares @ $19.20] [Filled!]...

[Filled!] [Filled!] [Filled!]...

The monotonous electronic tones counted like Death himself, joining the crimson cascade of obliterated wealth in a cold symphony.

Xiang Yi's breathing synchronized with the faint light of the formation. Yet his mind operated like a precise killing machine, coldly calculating the peak of panic and the limits of greed. This was not gambling. This was a hunt!

On the livestream, reporters screamed, "Shutting down the weapons division means cutting off the company's revenue! What about shareholder interests? Is Stark going bankrupt?!"

Facing the accusations and Obadiah's corpse-like expression, Tony's lips curved into an arrogant smile. Turning sideways, he pointed at the deep-blue Arc Reactor in his chest.

"The future? This is the future!"

"Clean energy! Clean Energy!"

"I'll use it to remake heaven and earth!"

His declaration ignited the final powder keg! STK instantly smashed through the -30% circuit-breaker threshold! The scarlet circuit-breaker warning flooded the screen like blood!

During the suffocating trading halt, a cold gleam erupted in Xiang Yi's eyes!

"Five seconds before the halt ends! Hit it all with tenfold leverage! Clear the excess! Load the bullets!" His mental command stabbed into the system like an icy blade. "Target: the bottom of the panic valley! Limit price: $15.00! Fucking smash through the floor—eat it all!"

Trading resumed!

[STK Trading Resumed! $18.50]

[Cosmos Holdings Limited Market Buy: 2,000,000 shares @ $18.50] [Filled!]

[STK Continues Falling: $17.20... $16.50... $15.80...]

[Cosmos Holdings Limited Limit Order Triggered: Buy 3,500,000 shares @ $15.00] [Partially Filled!]

[STK Low: $14.75!]

[Cosmos Holdings Limited Account: Out of Cash!]

[STK Close: $16.20 (-46.7%)]

The refresh stopped. The interface froze. The Cosmos account showed:

[Cash: $3,821.15]

[STK Holdings: 8,673,200 shares]

[Average Cost: $16.88]

[Market Value: $140,500,184.00] ($140 million)

Four hours of financial hell! Eight million shares of bloodstained black gold! A millisecond-level hunt!—A 17.5-fold profit!

The instant the last of the funds ran dry, the nearly extinguished light at the core of the Life-Sustaining Formation suddenly gave a faint, weak "pulse"! A crack was forcibly torn into Ming Shiyin's deathly gray face by an invisible flood of "wealth aura"!

Xiang Yi slowly withdrew his hands. The dizziness of overexertion washed over him, but his back remained straight as a spear. He walked to the console, where the "Cygnus" mark and the astronomical market value on the screen silently made their declaration.

"The first pot of gold," Xiang Yi said into the dead silence, his voice cold and certain, "is ours."

At the top floor of Stark Tower, Tony had removed his armor. In an oil-stained undershirt, he leaned exhaustedly against the table. Pepper handed him a document, her voice stunned.

"Tony! During the market crash, a Cayman ghost fund called 'Cygnus Holdings' swallowed thirty percent of the panic sell-off like a giant shark that smelled blood! Its cost basis... was terrifyingly low!"

Tony lazily took it. His bloodshot eyes swept over the numbers and the name "Cygnus," leaving his expression unchanged. When his gaze landed on the Cygnus emblem, his fingertips unconsciously tapped the cold wrench. He tossed the document aside, picked up the wrench, and beside the sketch board on the cluttered workbench, a sharp interest lit beside the fire of a new era in his caramel eyes—the interest of a scientist discovering the unknown.

"Cygnus?" Tony murmured, his tone venomous and amused. "A swan... pecking at carrion amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood?" The wrench carved a rough yet clear "∞" into the edge of the workbench sketch board.

Screen light reflected in Xiang Yi's eyes. It was as though he had crossed time and space, completing a silent, cold exchange of gazes with that madman who had just torn apart the old era with a gold-red iron can.

The gold-red star tore through the darkness, declaring the arrival of a new era.

In the shadows, the Dark Court's fangs, forged from bloodstained capital, had finally... driven themselves viciously into the first gap between the teeth of fate!