MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

When Shuri walked into the bar with her bag in hand and a beautiful black gown donned above her glamorous body, she was startled when she heard what could only be called an angel-like voice.

Looking up at the stage, she could see none other than Cinder, singing in a low voice with nothing to accompany him aside from a violin that could hardly keep up with the sheer beauty of his voice.

It was a sad tune and the lyrics of his sounds tugged at her heartstring as she fell in reminiscence about her life and the things she had to do to reach her current level and how much of her integrity she had to sacrifice to attain her goals.

She went from a young starry-eyed lawyer who believed in miracles and justice to a jaded old woman who recognized how ugly the world truly was and saw it in its truest colors.

Some people called this process— growing up. Others called the process— inching closer to spiritual death.

Recognizing that dreams were dreams because they could not happen in reality was the first step of growth or so they said. Giving up on unrealistic desires and focusing on what you could hold onto with your capabilities was the true realization of one's reality.

This was one of the reasons she loved Cecilia so much. Because despite clearly knowing the darkness of the world, her gaze was still filled with light and her heart was that of an innocent childs, who believed in the infinite possibilities that this rotten world held.

She envied her as well in a way.

Sighing, Shuri shook her head and continued to walk into the bar.

She had something important to discuss with Yui tonight and… while it was sad that she would not be able to listen to this song for a little more time, she had already made her choice to focus on work for today.

When she walked along the usual stairs, her mind was preoccupied with the fact that Adam was not answering her calls.

She had started to build the necessary resolve to break all the teaching she had received from her elders and make a choice about her stagnant situation with the boy she held infatuation for. The blessing that Cecilia bestowed her with had tremendously helped her in lowering the amount of guilt and hesitation she felt within in going through with this immoral relationship.

'Then again. If my speculation is right, I think I know where he is.'

She smiled and finally reached the door and knocked on it a few times.

"You can come in."

Shuri opened the door, only to show a surprised expression.

Right now, Yui was not clad in her usual attire but rather in a body-fitting suit and yoga pants while being immersed in a stretching position.

Her legs were opened wide at a 180-degree angle and her torso was touching the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you think I am doing?"

Yui chuckled as she spoke while stretching her arms as far as humanly possible.

"Do you wanna give it a try."

Shuri hurriedly shook her head. Just watching her working like that was enough to make her grimace in horror. She could only imagine how many bones she would break if she were to try this out.

"Don't be scared. Women's bodies are naturally very flexible thanks to our pelvis and since you can't run every day, doing some yoga would do you good."

While speaking with Shuri, she changed positions, moving in a way so that her forehead was touching her knees.

"Though of course, you shouldn't try doing what I am doing from the start or alone for that matter."

What she was doing was not just any form of yoga. It was also a form of breathing exercise in a way that she used and had been training in since she was young.

Kundalini Yoga.

In her body, a violent flow of energy was coursing through her veins with every beat of her heart and every breath she took.

On her back, the dragon tattoo seemed to squirm as if it would come alive at any moment. The claw of the dragon aligned perfectly with her heart and her Great Chakra Vein, greedily absorbing in the energy of the world before converting it into physical power and Prana.

She had slowed down her training lately because of her gang. But after two Devil Prince summonings in a row, one didn't need to be a seer to know that something big was brewing in the background.

She did not like feeling powerless and she needed to make sure that she could protect herself and Adam when the time of reckoning was upon them.

Thankfully, unlike so many other supernatural creatures who only relied on time or faith to naturally grow stronger, the immortals of the Jade Emperor court all specialized in breathing exercises and immortal techniques to ascend to the Heavens.

Kundalini Yoga was an art that focused on using the energy hidden in the chakra pathways and as long as a human had enough talent, it wouldn't be impossible for them to awaken on their own while practicing it and opening the Heart Chakra.

Her version of this was different since she already had her own Chakra pathway that was different from your average human and she had no hope of ever opening the Heart Chakra in her life.

Finally moving her legs, she placed them together and began to breathe in the lotus position.

If anyone could see her back, they would realize that the coiling dragon was placed in such a way that each coiling of its body was placed around where one of the main chakra pathways should have been.

Her face was covered in sweat and her breath was a little shallow as she focused on the breathing technique. Her bones were making rather unnatural sounds as if they were breaking and then mending themselves.

"Should I come later?"

Yui shook her head, "Take a sit and tell me what you want. Sorry for the sweaty appearance though."

"I don't mind."

Shuri did not care about such superficiality. Sighing, she opened her purse and took out a tablet from within.

"The first thing that I would like to discuss is about the company we stole from the now-extinct Blue Sharks gang. They are now slowly stabilizing and the shareholders wish to prepare for a meeting between the major shareholders. Do you need a representative?"

"No. I have waited quite a long time for this. Now I can proudly walk in the open with no care for others."

"Very well. For the second thing, as we had expected from the start, some foreign investors are trying to join into the process and take a piece of the fresh cake that we made for ourselves."

"Let them. This is a tacit agreement between us members of the underworld. As long as they don't try to eat too much, they can get their small crumbs of cake."

Shuri nodded. She knew that one should never try eating a big cake alone in the business world. Otherwise, the result would not be pretty for anyone.

"Finally… I want to know… How good are you at making someone vanish?"

Yui stopped her breathing exercise and directed a rose eyebrow-filled gaze toward Shuri before giving her a lopsided smirk.

"Seems like you know who attacked you."

"I do."

———

(AN: I won't lie. I have been pushing the Shuri moment too much. I think the main reason is that I switched the genre as I wrote. When I started, the Gigolo work was supposed to be the main point, the story was called Netori Prince at one point.

A few of my old readers knew I initially wrote 10 chapters of this story 2 years ago but back then the story was purely in the modern world and in Japan with no Magic involved whatsoever. Adam was an experienced Gigolo from CH 1 and was already in a relationship with Shuri from CH 1. By CH 10 he was making the move on Natasha for a job.

But when I restarted the story, I realized that I was not really as interested in Romance and Harem as in SHK.

In SHK by CH 2 Sol was having sex; by ch 292, Sol was having a fivesome, and one of the four women was his aunt. He already had 10+ official harem members and made love with a group of maids. Very different style as you can see.)