My Wife is a Hidden Big Shot

The voice belonged to Alvin Morgan.

Hugo Lowell was so shaken he couldn’t regain his composure for a long time.

The scene of the great purge in Kingsford twenty years ago seemed to be playing out right before his eyes.

His confidant advised worriedly, "Family Head, you absolutely must not go. It’s possible that Sunstone has discovered what the old patriarch did."

Hugo Lowell’s fists clenched, his expression grim. ’Is Heaven itself bent on destroying the Lowell Family?’

"Summon the descendants of the Lowell Clan. We’re holding a family meeting."

***

「At the same time.」

Dozens of people in black clothes and silver masks were heading toward a remote mountainous area.

An extremely ordinary power plant stood there.

Every day, people in blue work uniforms could be seen coming and going, humming little tunes.

"Hey, Zhang, on duty again?"

"Yeah! They’ve got me scheduled for three overnight shifts this week."

"That sounds rough."

The man, Zhang, gave a simple, honest smile.

After the other person left, he walked to his workshop as usual and pressed the doorbell. A mechanical voice suddenly rang out.

"Initiating identity scan..."

About two minutes later, the workshop door opened.

Inside was an elevator with four buttons.

He pressed the second-to-last button.

The elevator slowly descended.

It didn’t stop until it made a "DING" sound.

The doors opened to reveal a line of fully-armed men standing guard in front of another door.

"Professor Archer, please present your identification."

Professor Archer chuckled, pulled a card from his pocket, and swiped it on the device in their hands.

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Your card, sir."

The large door slowly opened, revealing what was truly inside.

This was The Morgan’s S-Class Weapons Institute.

A massive computer stood in the center, and next to it was a virtual projection of a man.

It was said to be the image of the Guardian from a hundred years ago.

"Good afternoon, Your Excellency!" Professor Archer greeted respectfully.

The virtual image, sitting cross-legged on the floor, gave a slight nod.

Professor Archer sat down at his computer terminal as usual and began checking the various data readouts.

Suddenly, the hologram’s eyes snapped open, and it stood up.

"Warning, enemy attack..."

A huge virtual screen appeared in the empty space beside it.

It displayed a dozen or so unfamiliar vehicles heading for the institute.

Professor Archer’s expression changed drastically. He immediately sounded the alarm.

Ten kilometers from the institute, a holographic warning appeared in front of the convoy.

"Warning! You have illegally entered a restricted area. Please turn back immediately—"

But the sunroof of one of the vehicles suddenly opened. A man in black stood up, mounted a heavy weapon on the roof, and fired defiantly, shattering all the holographic projection devices on both sides of the road.

With a deafening "BOOM—".

The convoy drove into an ambush and was completely annihilated.

It was like tossing an insignificant stone into a lake; after a small ripple, everything returned to calm.

***

「Meanwhile.」

A wretched scream once again echoed from a courtyard in Sunstone Village.

In just two short days, the backlash from the Evil Skill had turned Marshall Lowell into a withered, decrepit old man. His hair was gray, his skin aged.

He was now being kept alive only by Ronan Warner’s silver needles and medicine.

Alvin Morgan hung up the phone. He looked coldly at the man before him, who was suffering a fate worse than death, and said indifferently, "The real target of the person behind you is the super-AI. Lowell Patriarch, were you being used, or did you genuinely intend to collude with the enemy to seize power?"

Marshall Lowell groaned in agony, his mouth producing only unintelligible mumbling.

Alvin, growing impatient, told Benjamin Morgan to continue the interrogation and walked outside.

Outside, under a tree, sat two familiar figures.

Indie Lowell had grown terribly thin. Leigh Miles was taking her pulse, her face taut and her expression complex as she looked at her.

Indie kept her head down, her eyes filled with guilt and regret. ’If I had known that the price for my life was for my own blood relative to murder the Guardian, I would rather have died.’

’But I can’t die now,’ she thought. ’I have to live on and spend the rest of my life atoning for the Lowell Family and for myself.’

「At that moment, beneath the mountain waterfall.」

A silver-haired girl sat cross-legged, perfectly still, under the rushing current.

Her eyes were shut tight. Her face was as pale as paper, her lips bloodless. Both of her arms, from forearm to fingers, were wrapped in white bandages that were now soaked through.

A thin layer of Power enveloped her, fluctuating in intensity.

Alvin Morgan stood at the top of the cliff beside the waterfall, looking down.

Ever since she woke up, she had come here to cultivate in seclusion.

Two days had passed, and she still hadn’t returned.

In Leigh Miles’s words, she was holding in her anger, and as long as it didn’t dissipate, she wouldn’t come back.

The light in Alvin’s eyes dimmed. He shouted down at the waterfall, "Aurora Sinclair, we need to talk..."

But there was no sound from below.

"I’ll take that as a yes."

Then, Alvin leaped off. He was just halfway down when a pair of iron-hard arms wrapped around his waist.

He found himself staring into a pair of furious eyes.

Her lips were pressed into a thin line. The arm around his waist was as tight as a branding iron, squeezing him painfully.

A smile played on Alvin’s lips. He pressed closer to her, his hands holding her waist. "You can’t bear to let me go."

Furious, Aurora let go and pushed him the moment they landed. He fell straight into the water.

Alvin choked on a mouthful of water and stood up with a wry smile. He watched as Aurora returned to her rock beneath the waterfall and resumed her cross-legged meditation.

"How about we talk?"

Aurora didn’t answer, seemingly lost in meditation.

Alvin pursed his lips and swam toward the waterfall, intending to sit next to her.

Aurora opened her eyes again, anger flashing within them. "What are you doing?"

The Power emanating from her body diverted the falling water away from him.

"Let’s talk..."

"Speak."

Her voice was ice-cold, as if devoid of all emotion.

"Come out first..."

Aurora watched him for a moment, then shot up, picked him up, and walked across the water to the shore.

Her skill was breathtakingly profound.

Ronan Warner had said that Aurora’s strength might have already broken through to the "Super Self" realm of a Martial Lord.

This realm allows a person to gradually shed their mortal shackles and advance to a higher level.

Because a Martial Lord hadn’t appeared in Veridia for centuries, he couldn’t make an accurate judgment. However, the strength Aurora had displayed in the Kaelan Mountains was indescribably powerful, even more terrifying than Master Aerion at his peak.

"Aurora, I don’t want to lose you."

Alvin grasped her arm, his gaze earnest. But her body was as cold as an ice sculpture, without a trace of human warmth.

Her face remained unmoved. Her gaze, when it met his, seemed devoid of any emotion. Even the liveliness he saw when they first met was gone, replaced by a dead silence.

Alvin’s heart tightened. He asked again, "Your promise to protect me... does it still count?"

Aurora remained silent, her gaze cold as she looked at him.

"He told you to protect me..."

Alvin was no longer calm. His voice was urgent, and his grip on her shoulder tightened.

He stared intently into her eyes, wanting to see his own reflection in them once more.

Finally, she replied with a single word: "Yes."

Then she lifted him up, leaped up the waterfall, and returned him to the top of the cliff.

A single warning:

"Don’t come down here again."

She leaped, plunging back into the water.

Alvin stood at the edge of the cliff for a long, long time.

***

「On the seventh day.」

The Lowell Family respectfully followed a man dressed as a fisherman to Sunstone.

The man showed no fluctuations of Power and looked like an ordinary elder, but genuine fear was evident in Hugo Lowell’s eyes.

Even his breathing became unconsciously lighter.

This was the reinforcement the Lowell Family had summoned by gathering the clan seals of half the Great Families in Veridia’s Martial World.

He was a Basic Supervisor from Arcadia, responsible for overseeing the Guardians of the entire Arcadian Martial World to prevent wars between them that could destabilize the Martial World.

Therefore, a Basic Supervisor’s strength was at least that of an Advanced Great Martial King.

This time, the Lowell Family had swallowed their pride and risked a complete break with Sunstone to ask the Regulator to mediate.

"Where is the Guardian of Sunstone?"