In my whole life, I always had that one same dream which every human on the planet would dream of.

Earn money so much that even the god of wealth would feel like a beggar.

For that what I did was just a simple things, learned banking, advance technology -currency, cyber, trading and everything that smells money.

Luckily enough, blessed with photographic memory,I trained my gift to much higher level than it was supposed to be at.

On my path to success, I fought hard enough to see myself bleeding and struggling.

At the age where talent flourished, I was one of many who was fighting for his dream.

What does success ask for ?

It ask for sacrifice.

And what does sacrifice ask for ?

It ask for commitment.

And what is commitment ?

It is your attitude .

Attitude for your dream and ambition , if your attitude isn't firm and strong, you won't have resolve for sacrifices. And if you don't give sacrifices, you won't achieve success.

Sacrifice your time, effort and everything.

Sacrifice your old world to build new, where you are the king and everyone are but a mere subject.

With that, from a small country situated between China and India, I rose like a Phoenix and soared no less than a Dragon.

From assesst of nothing, I earned hundred of billion dollars .

Of course, the fact that those money were coated with blood of my enemy and those whom I left for sacrifice, I won't deny anything .

After all, on the path of greatness, you must learn to advance your perception and not to stagnate on where you are.

Beauties, money, castle, buildings, everything was within my grasp and I was the king.

But....

Even a successful man dies, yes, I died from aging.

Although human can fight against the world and porverty, they can never win against aging and death.

This was much bitter than my reality born in slum, I didn't want to die after doing all those hardwork.

When at the bed of death , that is when I realized that the most terrifying thing is not about being successful or failure, it's about seeing your success fade away before your very eyes while you can do nothing but complain.

The castle you build after all those pain stalking effort, those billion of assesst you earned, the empire you established by your very own hand, leaving them while you die .

That was terrifying, soul-stirring.

I don't want to die...

I don't want to die.....

Please.... save me, I don't want to die.

I kept on begging for life, I didn't want to die for I shall lose all that I have earned in my life.

I sacrificed my family, my friends, my past, my youth, my present, everything for a better future.

So why am I dying without getting an opportunity to enjoy any of those ?

I am scared, this sensation where my body and mind continues to remind me that I am soon gonna perish within the empty void.

Is this what death feels like ?

But I want to live !!

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Money Is Power

Volume 1 : The Magic Of Money

Author : Sagar Rai [ Blank Demon ]

Chapter Prologue

"A Man Dies When He No Longer Feels Sense Of Responsibility " Said Heavenly Devil.

*****

"Sheek" The sharp sound of a blade piercing flesh and bones resounds each corner of the room, alerting evil spirits and the divine from their slumbering.

Inside a luxurious chamber where king-size bed was decorated beautifully, walls adorn by ancient paintings and furniture placed everywhere, a young lady staggers back with all her strenght.

She does her best to muster as much strength as she can albeit the injury she just received directly in her abdomen.

A longsword with the blade soaked with her fresh blood, piercing her abdomen, reaches behind.

The sharp blade reflects the dazzling light of the moon while reflecting the image of cold eyes of a young man clad with exotic outfit befitting ancient officials.

"Why— did you do this ?" The originally beautiful white skin of the young lady has now paled in complexion, her whole body losing strength for the grip on the hilt of the sword.

Her voice was weak and shaky, as if someone close to death was struggling to breath.

Listening to that ragged breath, the young man who was tall and handsome, possessing pair of cold black eyes, smiles with no guilt surfacing on his attitude.

He flips his sleeve and the long robe flutters along,he turns back and unhurriedly walks to the wooden chair not far from him.

Those pair of desperate eyes reflects the image of silhouette of a young man walking away, resting on the chair and calmly preparing tea for himself.

"Whoosh" The fragrant tea brewed using highest gradei ingredients was not something insignificant, just the fragrance alone was enough to captivate the heart of king and emperor.

"Princress, why do you ask such silly question when you do know the answer " The young man has bulky physique, board shoulders and strong muscule. Wearing exotic outfit, he looks man with status and power.

Drip-drip

The blood continues to drop from the tip of the sword, each second the young lady successfully loses her blood and weakens her body.

[ I must escapse ]

Her desperate eyes seeks for the escapse route yet she finds none, causing her to deeply fall in despair more than she was currently.

"Don't bother with such desperate struggle , I have already planned everything for you and your little lover " The calm voice of the young man was no less than sentencing her to death, as if he is a god of death.

"— why are you doing this ?" She asked, roaring and struggling to keep her calm.

"—Man seeks success " Slowly sipping his tea, Xuan Yong unhurriedly meets his cold glare with those desperate eyes " Success ask sacrifice "

"Sacrifice demands commitment and commitment sought for diligence " Xuan Yong coldly utters, sending chill on everyone's bone " to possess the heart with no restrictions or limitation for your ambition is what I call diligence "

" And you my love, is but a whetstone for me to climb higher on my journey to success" His cold eyes were calm and chilling, not even the blade devouring the blood was as cold as those eyes.

The long white angelic dress with hem almost reaching for the floor, untainted before by any filth of the world was soaked and drenched by the fresh blood of princress of an empire.

She does her best to channel qi within her meridians yet she realises her dantians refused to utilize any form of energy supplement, this result in much desperate situation compared to before.

Again and again, her desperate struggle was proving to be futile.

Her brows grows heavy, vision bleached by haziness and the remaining strenght dissipating.

"My love, the sword was soaked with Meridian Severing Poison and the Gear Stagnation Powder before using on you so stop your futile struggle, you look more and more desperate while struggling to live " Xuan Yong was as emotionless as void, not even shred of emotion fluctuated from him.

His face devoid of any form of sentiment, only cold and ruthless picture could be seen.

"You—cough" Finally her body lost to the poison, coughing blood she collapsed on the floor with nothing but despair within her heart.

Was she gonna die just like this ?

But she has not even live her life with all her heart free .

She didn't want to die.

She was born as the eldest princress of the empire, someone with unfathomable power within her grasp.

She didn't need to struggle like those ordinary mortals, even among powerhouses, she was at the top of foodchain.

Where did everything go wrong ?

Where did her life take turn ?

How did she fall into such desperate situation ?

No, she can't die here !!

[ I must live ]

When she was still in state of shock and confusion, she heard a loud steps closing to her.

"Creak" Soon she saw the door open, with her blur vision she saw a young man running to her.

This young man was wearing bronze armor and carrying long silver sword on his left waist, with handsome appearnce and celestial like aura around him, he was man to reckon.

"Princress !! Princress !!" He was anxiously calling her, anyone can feel pain and agony within his voice as if he was afraid of losing someone dear to him.

"—Tian—Dong " She reached her left hand for him , her long jade-like arm with soft touch and snow white skin reached him, wanting to touch his face.

The young man kneel on the ground and help her to get up, resting her head on his chest while half her body in his embrace.

"Princress !!" Those eyes slowly turns wet and starts to drip tears from them, failed to hold his emotions back, he silently cries .

"Tian— Dong— R—Run" She wanted him to escapse, after getting introduced with her husband's real personality, she has been left traumatised.

She was afraid of her husband, the man who stabbed sword on her.

How can he kill his own wife ?

They both had swore to Heaven and Earth to live and die together so how can he betray her trust and be so cruel enough to kill her ?

He wasn't a human, he was a demon hiding in human skin.

"Princress, don't worry, I have a healing pills with me" Although the princress was in critical situation where she could die at any moment, Tian Dong fortunately possess invaluable medicine pill he had received in the past from a medicine master.

That day he didn't use the pill since the pill was of a master grade, something even rarer than rare medicine ingredients.

He had kept that medicine so to use it in desperate situation but he didn't imagine that he would be using such priceless treasure like this, to save someone he loves.

Yes, before Princress Yuan married to Xuan Yong, they used to be a couple but their relationship was kept secrect. While Tian Dong is a famous General of the empire's military power, Princress Yuan is the eldest princress of the empire.

Both had fallen deeply in love before yet they never got the opportunity to be together. Although they promised to forget each other , the love never succeeded on disappearing.

"Take this, you will recover in no time" A golden pill with golden light emitting, the golden light was strongly emanating medicinal affinity to the point of just breathing the fragrance in would grant a mortal extra hundred years of life.

The golden pill was small in size, no less than a candy yet the medicinal property inside the golden pill was no less than that divine pill from heaven.

"Gulp" Princress Yuan swallows the golden pill, the moment she swallows the golden pill, she can feel her throat washed away from impurities.

Her blood circulation that was poisoned and severed, even her meridians were starting to reform, connecting back so to heal her internal injuries.

Her pale complexion began to return to become healthy while her closed dantians started to open, gush of qi started flowing within her whole body as if god has suddenly breathed life on her.

Miraculously enough, the person who was close to the gate of death was revived back to health with no sign of injuries.

"Princress, you are all fine " Seeing Princress Yuan return back to health, Tian Dong sigh with relief and excitement.

Fortunately nothing happened to her.

Just when both of them thought that everything returned to normal, something unexpected happened.

"Sring" A long white arc in the air was forcefully opened, the arc was thinner than the air itself yet dangerous enough to cause the soul to shudder.

Before the eyes of Princress Yuan, a long crimson line, thin enough to be mistaken for illusion was opened on Tian Dong's throat, soon enough, something extremly terrifying took place.

The thin crimson line soon dissappeared and was replaced by bloody fountain. The head of the young man fell on the floor, rolling not far from the body and finally stopped.

The face turned to look at the headless body, it was as if watching it's own death.

The blood continously spurtted out of the headless body of Tian Dong, each drop of blood was as clean as pure water. The night sky reflected in those drops of blood while horrified looks from the princress did as well.

She couldn't muster even a bit of energy to scream or fight back while continuously getting soaked with the blood from beautiful fountain falling on her.

" I hate to interrupt your romantic hero saves the damsel moment but you see, when someone ignores me, I make sure they ignores me forever " With a gentle smile on his face, Xuan Yong calmly and unhurriedly utters.

In his right hand was long thin sword where dragon was coiling on his blade whiles Yin-Yang diagram was imprinted on the hilt. Gently wiping those stain of blood with his white handkerchief, Xuan Yong shrugs both of his shoulders.

[...he killed Tian ]

Princress Yuan was already broken through and through. She thought that she was saved after swallowing the divine pill yet who knew that her saviour would be killed so effortlessly .

"Yin-Yang Dragon Sword, forged by a master using ancient dragon's whole body and Yin-Yang Dao. It was gifted to me during our wedding, wasn't it ?" Xuan Yong resembles that unweavering ocean where no fluctuations could be found

Calm yet hidden with him were dangers ready to devour heart and soul of all living sentiments.

"You— Karma will get you back" Princress Yuan grits her teeth hard, she was barely restraining herself from jumping on Xuan Yuan.

"Sigh" Xuan Yuan finally sighed, revealing an exhausted expression on his handsome face " To tell you the truth, the reason why General Tian died is actually all because of you"

"Me ?" Princress Yuan was confused and was also taken back by sudden surprise given to her " What—do you mean ?"

"Oh my love, I wanted a chess piece for myself to climb the hierarchy " Unhurrdily approaching close to Princress Yuan, Xuan Yong crouched down and lifts her chin up, meeting his cold eyes with her confused eyes " And luckily I found one, that was you "

Her eyes were fluttering and wet, almost as if ready to tear up.

"I got close to you, woven the web and made sure you are trapped by my art " He coldly whispers into her ears no less than a lover " Played some moves,intentionally hired a knight to protect my queen and made sure they falls in love with each other "

Each and every words revealed by him was heart-wrenching , she can clearly remember all those time she had spend together with him and after their wedding.

"What a wonderful love story , don't you think my love ?" He slowly stands up and walks to the window, moonlight shines on him while the darkness remains silence.

"A princress falling in love with a general, dreaming to be together forever while promising to possess love to last for eternity "

"Unfortunately a dramatic change causes them to be separated, while the princress marries someone else, the general spends his life crying for her "

"Yes, one day they suddenly reunites only to die together "

A cold smile with spine chilling aura reflects with each ray of light, such terrifying get picture was more than just horror story.

"Now that you will die, I will make sure to inform everyone that you two committed suicide since you both failed to be together "

"As for me, I will cry for you after your suicide "

"So sad of me " He wipes his illusory tear and teases the princress.

"So please die for me " With a calm smile, he plays with the long sword in his hand.

"No....no" Princress Yuan horrified by what she saw and heard, she starts to stagger back with both of her limbs desperate enough to survive.

"My love, I love you and I hope you love me too" Xuan Yong raised his right hand up in the air with the longsword clutched " So please die for me "

His last word were extremly swift and simple yet majestic intent could be felt from them as if emperor of the world himself has just birthed universal law, unbreakable by any force in the world .

Without any hesitation, he slashed his sword, followed by fresh blood splashing everywhere around him yet not even a bit of said blood reached him.

"Baam" Something collapsed on the floor, creating an impact which resounded for a few second.

"Hm..." Xuan Yong silently stood there for a long time while observing the moon , deeply immersed in his thoughts.