Chapter 9: E9. She Didn’t Expect This

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Ethan Smith has nothing left to his name: no money, no marriage, no respect. Then an ancient inheritance wakes inside him, cultivation, alchemy, arts long thought lost, and overnight the untouchable elites of River City find themselves with an enemy they never saw coming. He humbles men who once mocked him, cures illnesses doctors had given up on, and floods the market with a miracle Soul Nourishment Pill that the mighty Hill family cannot forgive. War follows, and Ethan intends to win it alone. Watching from the shadows is Emily Taylor, Capital City’s untouchable Ice Queen, quietly testing him, quietly shielding him, waiting to see what he’s really made of. Ethan refuses to be the man propped up by her money or her name. He gives himself one year to tear the Hill family down by his own hand and rise far enough to stand beside her as an equal, not a burden she chose to carry.

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