A million kiloters from Black Cloud City, across the vast black ocean, white Mist hung thick in the air.
A streak of crimson fla tore across the sky, trailing a scorching wave of heat and blinding light as it hurtled straight toward Black Cloud City. It resembled a teor—no, a fallen star. Its brilliance was absolute. Wherever it passed, the Mist instantly dissipated, clearing a swath several kiloters across. At the heart of that crimson light flew an ancient, luxurious black carriage drawn by six flood dragons.
They were not ordinary Mist Zone monsters, but Ghost-Faced Flood Dragons—their grotesque faces covered in countless golden eyes.
As undisputed apex predators of the Outer Mist Zone beyond the Boundary Wall, these creatures were Divine Descendants of the fallen Mist God, the Sun King. Yet here, those sa Divine Descendants—possessing bloodlines that rivaled top-tier Blood Ancestors—had been reduced to beasts of burden.
Inside the carriage, black beaded curtains swayed in the wind, faintly tracing the silhouette of a figure lounging within.
The curtain beads clattered as the drape lifted, revealing her face.
Cold and imperious, with pure golden pupils that radiated innate supremacy, the woman reclined on a soft couch—raven-haired, pale-skinned, her figure impossible to ignore. She held a pure white smoking pipe in one hand. Taking a light drag, she exhaled a translucent, grayish-white cloud of smoke that wreathed her face and hung in the still air.
"Where are we, Sisi?" she asked softly.
"Your Highness, we have arrived at the Black Scale Sea," the driver replied. She was also a woman, clad in a tight purplish-black outfit and a black mask that revealed only a pair of striking athyst eyes. A long ponytail snapped in the wind, lending her a fierce, martial air. "To avoid the solidification period—which would have been a nuisance—I reduced our speed slightly. Our crossing over the sea falls perfectly within the lting window."
The woman on the couch sighed.
"Then we're nearly there. Even if Black Cloud is the fourth-largest city in the Federation, isn't this location a bit too remote?"
"Your Highness is correct," Sisi agreed.
The woman sat up. Her long, dark red dress was styled like a qipao, with high slits running up both sides. Through the slits, a pair of shapely legs sheathed in black silk stockings were crossed in a languid line.
"If Royal Father weren't so singularly focused on exploring the Night Mist instead of attending to the assembly, we wouldn't have to travel this far. A single spatial hollow would have taken us straight there. How tireso."
"Your Highness is correct," Sisi said once more.
"Sisi, you are truly wonderful. You're the only one who agrees with
wholeheartedly, no matter what I say."
"That is because Your Highness disposed of everyone who disagreed with you," Sisi replied bluntly.
"Exactly." The woman smiled. "That's the way of things. Eliminate those who oppose you, and the entire world becos whatever you want it to be." She took another drag from her pipe, letting the grayish-white smoke veil her face once more.
"I hope this trip won't be a waste. Every so-called genius we've sought out before proved to be useless trash. If this one is the sa, I will have co all this way for nothing."
"Your Highness is correct," Sisi replied.
"I hope Xie Chang'an is wise enough to cooperate with . Otherwise..." The woman's voice softened to sothing quieter and colder. "I won't be so lenient this ti."
She lay back on the soft couch, her golden eyes slowly closing.
…
Upon returning from the floating mountain peak, Lin Hui imdiately gathered his things and set off for Eagle-man Island.
He had arranged for another teacher to cover his classes at the martial academy. His expectations for this trip were high—the life pulsations he stood to harvest were considerable, and given his current condition, cultivating the Star Breath Sword Canon would push his strength to another level entirely.
The more he understood the truth of this world, the more certain he beca that he had chosen the right path—one to walk without distraction. Had he wavered, the Lin family might already have suffered devastating losses through the successive tribulations in Tuyue, just like his disciple's Tao Clan.
He left the city and boarded the Moth Carriage, where Ouyang Yining and the others had already been waiting. His hundred-plus Black Army personal guards accompanied him as before.
High above the Jade Sea, Ouyang Yining stepped forward inside the Moth Carriage. Wearing simple silver-white three-piece armor, she draped a black cape embroidered with the Black Cloud insignia over Lin Hui's shoulders.
This was a commander's cape, a mark of rank. Ordinarily, only one person per unit was permitted to wear it, allowing outsiders to identify the leader at a glance.
Lin Hui didn't refuse. He rubbed the fabric between his fingers. "Is this… a Relic?"
"Exactly." Ouyang Yining nodded. "This is a special Relic called the Breath-Unifying Cape. It draws on all of our strength and channels it into you. It's one of the essential foundational Relics for a commander."
Lin Hui examined it with his senses and could indeed feel a minuscule trace of aura binding to him. His movents felt lighter, and a faint, transparent protective layer settled over his skin.
Every one of his hundred-plus Black Army personal guards was a carefully selected expert at the Circulation Realm. Individually, none ca close to Lin Hui's level—but pooled together, they still ford a reasonably solid defensive layer.
"Of course, our combined strength is far from sufficient," Ouyang Yining continued, straightening slightly. "But the cape's greatest value isn't the pooled power—it's what it does for intelligence-gathering. Once our auras are linked with yours, we can scatter. Anything we encounter or sense will instantly transmit a simple signal back to you through the aura."
"What's the range?" Lin Hui walked to the front of the Moth Carriage, took hold of the moth's two antennae, and began transmitting the departure command.
"Vast. Up to one hundred thousand kiloters," Ouyang Yining replied.
Lin Hui nodded. More than enough. He had yet to encounter any long-distance communication equipnt in this world. As a rule, the strong relied on private sound transmissions, making each person their own mobile relay station. The Breath-Unifying Cape filled that gap neatly.
"Alright. Let's move." Lin Hui could hardly wait—on an island as large as Eagle-man Island, he would certainly harvest a significant number of life pulsations.
"Yes." Ouyang Yining began sending out voice transmissions to initiate departure.
At that mont, Lin Hui frowned. "Was my personal guard unit swapped out?"
When he'd first boarded and swept his gaze over the Black Army soldiers in the various Moth Carriages, sothing had felt off. Now that he looked closely, the feeling only deepened.
"Many were indeed replaced," Ouyang Yining said. "Rest assured, all three City Lords approved it. The lineup is now permanently fixed—there won't be any further changes."
"Shouldn't replacing my personal guards require my approval?" His voice dropped.
"Apologies, Excellency. Because the Black Army's personal guards were initially only dispatched on a temporary basis, administrative decisions like reassignnts fell outside our authority. It wasn't until this morning that Commander Miluos of the Black Army formally transferred their affiliation to us. This will not happen again," Ouyang Yining said, her tone clipped and precise.
"I don't care about the administrative side of it." Lin Hui stared ahead. "What I care about is why my Black Army personal guards have all turned into won."
He looked expressionlessly at the young, curvaceous female soldiers stationed at each Moth Carriage.
"It was unavoidable." A trace of irritation crossed Ouyang Yining's face. "Nearly all of them co from bloodline families tied to the three City Lords. I had no grounds to refuse, so…"
Lin Hui said nothing. He understood imdiately.
He could push back against outsiders, but given his relationship with the three City Lords, refusal was simply not an option.
"By the way, we've already spoken with Lady Liu Xiao. She is very pleased for us to serve you, share her burdens, and contribute to the Lin family bloodline." Ouyang Yining added this before he could respond. "Do you have any further questions, Excellency?"
"No. Let's go." Lin Hui was at a loss for words.
He had never expected that after revealing his true combat power, the first serious problem he would face would be this. Everyone around him was scheming to use him as a stud—to pass down their superior bloodlines through his.
It wasn't difficult to imagine: the Mistborn Trueblood of the City Lords, combined with his. The offspring that would result…
Even Lin Hui couldn't predict what kind of absurd prodigy they might produce.
The Moth Carriage convoy ascended swiftly, heading for Eagle-man Island.
The journey was long. Ouyang Yining spent it practicing a stretching martial art reminiscent of yoga inside the Moth Carriage. The poses demanded constant extension and contortion, and her figure shifted and swayed directly in Lin Hui's line of sight.
She wore only a three-piece armor set—three palm-sized tal plates—and in certain poses, the armor covered nothing at all. Lin Hui suspected she was doing it deliberately. Word of his appetite for aphrodisiacs had clearly reached her, and she was making her intentions plain.
He gave up trying to ignore it, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and cultivated his Internal Force.
Now that the Typhoon Sword Technique was perfected, his Body Tempering had quietly continued to evolve. The Wind Disaster Force now seeped into his body through his hair in a constant, subtle flow, even at rest. The amount was small, but it never stopped. Without his noticing, this relentless influx had already transford his Internal Force into a blue, fluorescent energy—one that functioned identically to Internal Force in practice, but whose true nature Lin Hui couldn't identify.
By the ti he noticed, the transformation was already complete.
Fortunately, wielding it felt no different from before. After studying it for a ti, he catalogued its attributes, approximate strength, variations, and nature, and gave it a na: Disaster Energy.
Not long after, the Moth Carriage ignited its wings and turned into a blazing teor as it crossed the spatial hollow.
Soon, the vast silhouette of Eagle-man Island ca into view.
On the continent-sized island below, swarms of grayish-white, deford monsters with a tallic sheen were locked in a life-and-death struggle with the island's inhabitants. The ground was scarred with craters and scorch marks, strewn with the bodies of Eagle-n and monsters alike. High in the air, spear-wielding Eagle-n clashed fiercely against enormous, grayish-white creatures that moved like jellyfish.
"Do you need
to brief you on the monster tribes attacking Eagle-man Island?" Ouyang Yining asked from behind him.
"Are there any Blood Ancestor-level monsters?"
"None observed so far."
"Then no need." Lin Hui exhaled. "Alert the Eagle-n so they can tell friend from foe. Give them my title and purpose, and have them cooperate by clearing the area when necessary—I don't want them caught in my crossfire."
"Yes." Ouyang Yining pulled on a white, gold-trimd outer robe, leaped from the Moth Carriage, and flew straight toward a squad of Eagle-n locked in aerial combat below.
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