Bo City looked unusually still that night. The distant alarms had faded for now, and the cold breeze drifting over the rooftops felt oddly peaceful—like a final calm before everything changed.
Xu Mang stood alone on the balcony of a quiet guestroom inside the Lu Residence. The lantern-light behind him flickered across the marble floor, but he paid it no mind. His gaze remained fixed on the sprawling streets below.
He did not feel fear.
Nor anxiety.
Only a steady, sharpened clarity.
"This city won't remain much longer," he murmured to himself.
Most students would never dare speak such a thought aloud. But Xu Mang had walked into this world with knowledge no one else possessed—knowledge of the tragedies that would shape the future nation.
He wasn't here to change fate.
Not all of it.
Not yet.
He was here to prepare for what came after.
He leaned on the railing, letting the stillness sink into him. The city lights shimmered like dying embers, and the sound of distant soldiers preparing defenses reached him faintly.
But Xu Mang's thoughts were already far away.
"I can't let everyone stay this weak. I won't let this story break us."
Faces passed across his mind—people he had already marked as essential.
Mo Fan, who hid a storm inside himself.
Zhao Manyan, whose arrogance hid the potential to become an unbreakable fortress.
Zhang Xiaohou, loyal to the bone but destined to struggle.
And himself…
The outsider who arrived with a reading history instead of memories.
Someone who understood far too well just how cruel the future would be.
Bo City… was only the first calamity.
Pearl Institute.
National Tournaments.
Forbidden Curse wars.
Monarch beasts.
Ancient ruins.
Dimensional invasions.
Xu Mang exhaled slowly.
"To survive that, we'll need more than talent… we'll need advantages."
The kind no one gave freely.
The kind stolen from places no one dared approach.
His eyes lifted toward the east—toward the direction of the Imperial Capital.
The heart of the Mu Clan.
The core of several forbidden research projects.
And the vault holding the technique that could reshape destiny:
Innate Talent Transfer.
A method that, in the right hands, could transform even an ordinary mage into a once-in-a-generation genius.
Dangerous.
Illegal.
Hated by every major family.
But effective.
"I need that technique. Not for myself… not only for myself," Xu Mang corrected quietly. "It's for all of us."
The plans unfolded in his mind one by one:
Zhao Manyan.
Arrogant, shameless, loyal only to himself—yet capable of becoming a mythical wall if given the right seed.
Xu Mang could already imagine it:
Water Calamity Wu Ku's soul seed implanted into Zhao Manyan, forging an unbeatable defense that even Monarchs would struggle to shatter.
A future guardian.
A shield for their generation.
Zhang Xiaohou.
Deserving of a speed talent worthy of his courage.
Mo Fan.
Someone who could handle the chaos of layered innate awakenings better than anyone alive.
And then there was—
Xu Mang paused.
The balcony door slid open behind him.
Lu Jun stepped out, dressed simply, but carrying the same kind of tired clarity that Xu Mang had worn since awakening in this world.
"Still thinking ahead?" Lu Jun asked quietly.
Xu Mang didn't turn. "Seems like you are too."
There was a silence—comfortable, knowing, unspoken.
They didn't need to explain it.
Because Lu Jun was the same as him.
Another reader.
Another outsider.
Someone who had arrived in this world with memories of a novel instead of a childhood.
Someone who understood exactly how terrifying the future arcs would become.
Lu Jun stepped beside him and looked out over the dark city.
"You want to go to the Imperial Capital after this," he said.
It wasn't a question.
Xu Mang nodded.
"The technique is there. If we want a real chance at surviving what's ahead, we can't rely on natural talent alone."
Lu Jun's expression stayed calm.
"And the Mu Clan won't hand it over easily."
"Which means," Xu Mang replied, "we won't be asking."
A short silence.
Then Lu Jun smirked slightly.
"Good. Because I wasn't planning to ask either."
Xu Mang finally looked away from the city and toward the two moons hanging above the rooftops.
Bo City would fall.
People would break.
But from those ruins, something new would rise—because he and Lu Jun refused to let the world follow its original script.
He stepped away from the railing.
"After Bo City… we begin."
Lu Jun nodded once.
"The Imperial City awaits."
And under the quiet night sky, two reincarnated minds made a silent pact—
A promise to forge a future stronger than the story they once read.
A future where their generation wouldn't just survive…
They would dominate.