Kai's gaze fell upon the clock face—three in the morning. The memory stirred like morning mist: he had begun reading at midnight's first chime. Strange currents flowed through his thoughts. Three years of bone-deep training seemed to pulse in his meridians, yet only three hours had passed in this realm of ticking clocks and electric lights.
Perhaps it had been nothing more than a dream born of exhaustion...
Around him stood four strangers, their eyes fixed upon him like hunters who had cornered their prey.
The two women bore the names Liu Yu and Liu Yue—the Twin Willows of Jade and Moon. Liu Yue carried herself with the stillness of deep water, her sensitivity hidden beneath layers of careful observation. Liu Yu radiated warmth that carried an edge of playful menace, like sunlight glinting off a blade. Dark hair flowed around their shoulders like silk banners, framing eyes sharp with cunning intelligence. Their robes bore silver embroidery and dark runes that whispered of dangerous arts.
The two men wore robes of blinding white that seemed to drink in the fluorescent library light. The elder was Zhao Tianyang, who had carved his reputation as the Righteous Blade—his presence alone exuded the weight of absolute conviction, though his gaze burned with barely contained hostility. His companion, Bai Fu, possessed the lean hunger of youth paired with unwavering confidence, his sharp eyes glinting with naked ambition.
The older man's lips curled in disdain.
"Step aside, wretched demons. That manual belongs not in the hands of such filth."
The twins whirled like striking serpents, their playful masks falling away to reveal cold fury.
"We found him first. The Manual chose him."
"That manual belongs to those who serve true righteousness!" The second man's voice scraped like steel on stone. "Surrender it now, or we shall take it by force."
Zhao Tianyang's blade sang against some invisible barrier. "Foolish demonic witches—do you comprehend what forces you meddle with? Surrender now, and your deaths will be swift."
Liu Yu's smile turned predatory. "Oh? A 'righteous' dog barks orders? How terrifying..." She pressed a mocking hand to her chest. "Sister, do you hear this? The poor fool believes himself a hero!"
Liu Yue's voice carried the chill of winter streams. "A hero? I see only a butcher draped in white silk."
Bai Fu's laughter held no warmth. "Why waste breath arguing, senior brother? We take the manual and his head."
Liu Yu giggled like wind chimes in a storm. "His head? Oh no, no, no. We want him breathing!"
Liu Yue's tone sharpened to a blade's edge. "But if you insist on violence, we can carve you both into suitable pieces."
The two men exchanged a single glance—and launched themselves forward.
Their forms blurred with impossible speed, moving like phantoms wreathed in killing light.
Kai's body turned to stone.
No time existed for thought or reaction.
At the final heartbeat, the two women moved.
"Get back!"
They intercepted the assault, their blades meeting the attack with a violent explosion that shook the very air.
Kai stumbled backward, his heart hammering against his ribs like a caged beast. Around him, a fierce battle erupted with the fury of clashing storms.
Steel rang against steel in a symphony of violence. Dark energy met divine radiance in cascades of sparks and shadow. The twins flowed together like dancers in a deadly performance, their movements elegant as falling leaves, swift as striking vipers, fending off their attackers with fluid precision.
The ground cracked beneath the pressure of their exchanges. Shadows and light painted the walls in violent strokes, sparks flying with each collision of weapon and will.
But the tide turned against them.
The women were losing ground.
Kai's mind reeled like a ship in a typhoon. He was nothing more than a librarian! A keeper of books and silence!
Why did these cultivators clash around him—over him?
One of the white-robed men—his hair now wild with battle-fury—struck past Liu Yue's guard with ruthless precision.
She cried out as the blow sent her flying backward, her body striking a pillar with a sound like breaking thunder.
Her sister darted to defend her, but the other man had already closed the distance.
With a brutal palm strike that carried the weight of mountains, he sent Liu Yu sprawling across the floor.
Kai's breath caught in his throat like a trapped bird.
"They're... falling?"
The realization struck him like lightning to the spine. He would be next.
And indeed—
One of the men turned his merciless gaze toward Kai, eyes burning with killing intent.
"Enough delay."
The man lunged forward, his sword radiating golden energy that hummed with vicious purpose, surging toward Kai in a strike meant to end everything.
The world slowed to the consistency of honey.
Time crawled like a wounded beast.
Kai could see every detail—the terrifying speed, the raw power aimed directly at his heart.
Helplessness crashed over him like a black wave.
Death approached on wings of golden fire.
But then—
His body moved without conscious command.
His arm shot upward, palm intercepting the strike in a single fluid motion.
Boom!
The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the air like disturbed water.
The attacker's eyes widened in pure disbelief.
Kai had not merely blocked the attack—somehow, impossibly, he had deflected it.
His fingers twisted by instinct alone, redirecting the energy flow, turning the technique aside with perfect precision.
A lost art made manifest.
"Impossible..." Zhao Tianyang whispered like a man witnessing the dead rise. "That technique—I have never seen its like. How could you have mastered such a method? It must spring from the manual!"
Kai's mind spun like a prayer wheel in a hurricane. The manual? What meaning did his words carry?
But no time remained for contemplation.
The two men came at him together, moving like paired wolves.
His instincts blazed to life once more.
Kai's feet shifted without thought, his body flowing like water around stone.
A powerful strike shot forward, slamming into the first man's chest with the force of colliding boulders.
A whirl of motion—he spun past an incoming blade, his leg sweeping upward in a fierce counterstrike that sang through the air.
Boom!
Both men skidded backward across the floor, their faces twisted in shock and growing rage.
Kai stared down at his own hands as if they belonged to a stranger.
What... was that?
That had not been him. That was not anything he had ever learned in this lifetime.
Yet his body knew exactly what to do, every movement flowing from some deep well of knowledge.
The techniques, the forms—they lived within him like sleeping dragons.
His years of training under the old master had not been mere dreams.
They were real. They were his.
Zhao Tianyang recovered with the resilience of tempered steel, using his momentum to launch a second assault. Panic flared in Kai's chest as he attempted the same technique—
Nothing happened.
He stared at his palms in helpless confusion and tried again.
Zhao Tianyang instinctively ducked, but faced only empty air and an ordinary palm.
The man's smile turned predatory. "So... you have no mastery over your own power," he said with dark amusement, realizing that Kai's earlier success had been mere fortune. Victory lay within easy reach.
Zhao Tianyang gathered his Qi into his sword arm, channeling power that could cleave a mighty oak as easily as a knife parts silk.
Kai flinched, bracing for the inevitable—
Chink!
The screech of metal against metal rang through the air.
Liu Yu had reacted with desperate speed, using her blade to intercept the blow aimed at Kai's heart.
Her sword snapped upon impact with Zhao Tianyang's Qi-enhanced strike, the broken fragment spinning through the air to embed itself deep in a wooden bookshelf.
Liu Yue grasped Kai's arm with urgent fingers. "No more games—we must leave!"
She raised her hand, tracing rapid symbols that glowed with shadowy light.
A portal began forming, swirling with mist dark as midnight.
Kai hesitated, his mind racing like a caged animal.
Should he trust them?
These women carried no aura of pure righteousness, but the men in white? They had struck at him with techniques meant to kill!
He glanced at the twins—they possessed an undeniable beauty. And honestly?
If he faced a choice between death at the hands of merciless cultivators or following two dangerous but lovely women into the unknown, the decision seemed obvious.
"To hell with it."
The portal shimmered, reaching completion like a flower blooming in reverse.
The two men recovered swiftly, launching themselves forward in a final desperate assault.
Too late.
Liu Yu seized Kai's wrist and yanked him toward the swirling gateway.
The world around him twisted and collapsed like a house of cards in a windstorm.
The last image burned into his vision was the furious expressions of the two men as they vanished into the mist, their rage echoing across dimensions like distant thunder.