Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Queen Medusa
"I heard someone calling my name," Haoran said, his voice smooth, cold, and carrying an authority that made Hua Lin's bone-sword tremble in her hand. "And it sounds like someone was threatening to turn my woman into dust."
"Who are you?! How dare you interfere in our private affairs!" Hua Lin glared at him, her pink snake tail thrashing the sand into a fine mist. "Are you courting death, Human!?"
Her bone-sword hummed with a lethal, vibrating frequency, yet even she could feel a cold sweat beginning to form at the nape of her neck.
Something about this man seems to make her feel very unsettled. This is the same unsettling feeling she has when facing the Queen, an absolute suppression of bloodline.
But how is that possible?
This man is clearly a human!
Shen Haoran didn't deign to answer her immediately, instead, he jumped down from the flying sword with a practiced, weightless grace, landing softly on the desert floor directly between the Lamia army and the two girls.
His golden-blonde hair caught the dying light of the sun, and his golden-purple robes fluttered in the dry breeze.
"Haoran!"
Huo Yue didn't hesitate for even a second as she leaped into his arms with a cry of pure, unadulterated joy.
All the fear of being swallowed by Lamias and all the worry of being a fugitive washed away in an instant just by the sight of him.
She buried her face in his chest, breathing in that familiar, warm scent that she had missed for two long years.
However, unlike Huo Yue's exuberant joy, Zhu Ziyan froze in absolute shock, and before she realised it, her body began to tremble, not with excitement, but with a primal, bone-deep fear.
She remembered him, yes, of course she does, she couldn't forget him even if she tried.
After all, this was the man who had single-handedly humiliated the entire Ogre Seven at their own academy because their teacher had acted arrogant.
He had literally crushed their pride and their bodies beneath his feet without breaking a sweat.
In her mind, this guy wasn't their savior, he was a demon.
And also...
'Fiancé?!' The word finally clicked in Ziyan's brain, and her head snapped toward Huo Yue, then back to Shen Haoran. 'This is the fiancé that she always bragged about?! The gentle, caring, and very romantic fiancé that she would always mention whenever she had the chance?!'
With how much Huo Yue had praised Shen Haoran over the past few days, Ziyan had actually begun to imagine him as a handsome Prince Charming—gentle, kind, perhaps riding on a white horse, a man who ignored his noble family to be with a commoner out of pure, selfless love.
Now... What Prince Charming? What gentle and kind?
Looking at the sharp, domineering aura radiating from the youth before her, Ziyan realized he was definitely a Demon King!
"Boy, it seems you are that fiancé the girl talks about," Hua Lin spat, her eyes slitting. "The one she wanted to give our Queen to so you could 'play around' with her until she forgot her own name."
Haoran blinked, a look of genuine confusion crossing his face as he turned his gaze down toward the red-haired woman currently clinging to his robes. "You said that?"
Huo Yue blushed a deep crimson, looking everywhere but at him as she scratched the back of her head. "Just... in the heat of the moment. I had to act tough, you know?"
Haoran offered a short, dry chuckle and patted her head before turning back toward the thousands of Lamias.
His expression immediately flattened into one of aristocratic indifference. "My name is Shen Haoran, and I am from the Imperial Capital. This woman is my fiancée. Why don't you give me face and let this matter go? I'm sure we can reach a civil understanding."
"Impossible!" Hua Lin retorted, her aura flaring with renewed vigor. "I don't care if you're from the Imperial Capital, from moon, or even from beyond the stars! That girl must hand over our Heavenly Flame and return our Queen immediately, or this desert will become your tomb!"
"No way!" Huo Yue stuck out her tongue, her spirit restored by Haoran's presence. "I got this fair and square through luck and ability! I can return your Queen to you, but the Blue Lily Earth Flame stays with me! I've already refined it!"
Let it be known that taking away a Heavenly Flame that has already been refined by an owner would cause a backlash so great thay your meridians frying itself from the inside is the best outcome.
Hua Lin gritted her teeth so hard it sounded like stone grinding on stone.
She wanted to kill Huo Yue immediately, but the mention of the Central Region gave her pause.
If she killed a scion of a Hegemon Clan, the retribution would mean the extinction of the entire Lamia race.
"Fine!" Hua Lin finally barked, deciding to compromise for the sake of survival. "Give us back our Queen! We will forgo the flame for now, but the Queen must be returned!"
Compared to a Heavenly Flame, the life and soul of their ruler were infinitely more important.
Huo Yue raised her arm, letting the colorful scales peek out. "Go, Xiao Mei. Your sisters are here to take you home."
From her sleeves, the rainbow-scaled snake slithered out onto Huo Yue's palm.
It looked around at the thousands of Lamias with a confused, and a tilted head, but then, to the horror of everyone present, it slithered up to Huo Yue's cheek and began affectionately caressing her skin, letting out a soft, content hiss.
"QUEEN!" Hua Lin and the other Lamias screamed in horror, seeing their absolute ruler acting like a common house pet to a human girl.
"Xiao Mei, these guys want to take you home. What do you think?" asked Huo Yue, stroking the snake's head.
Xiao Mei turned her head toward the Lamia army, observed them for a brief, cold moment, and then let out a distinct scoff before turning back to nuzzle into Huo Yue's cheek once more.
"No! Queen! Please return to us!"
"You bitch! You must have done something to her mind!"
"Yes! Yes! You must've tused a soul-control art!"
"An evil Cultivator! You are definitely an evil Cultivator!"
Haoran's eyes narrowed, and he let out a cold snort.
Suddenly, his Infinity Dragon God Divine Physique flared up, and a massive, invisible pressure erupted from his body, carrying the ancient, primordial weight of a True Dragon.
The effects were instantaneous.
Lamias are part snake, and snakes are distantly related to the dragon lineage.
Haoran's physique gave him an absolute, biological suppression against all dragon-type creatures and their subordinates.
The thousands of Lamias suddenly felt a sense of overwhelming dread and an instinctive urge to kneel.
"No need to get agitated," Haoran said, his voice echoing with authority. "Why don't I make a deal with your Queen first? She is clearly suffering from a damaged soul."
Indeed, he had seen earlier when Xiao Mei appeared. This innocent little snake seems to be a fragment of a soul of some powerful expert, left behind to control this body while the main soul was resting.
It isn't rare. Anyone from Nascent Soul should be able to do this, but generally, none wanted to do this because it's troublesome.
It's far easier to have their souls escape their body to survive and find another body to occupy.
He stepped forward, reaching into his spatial storage to produce a small, translucent glass bottle containing a few shimmering, emerald-green pills.
He handed the bottle to Huo Yue. "Feed it to that snake. It's a Rank 7 Soul-Nurturing Pill, it should be able to temporarily allow Medusa to regain control of the body."
Although Huo Yue was confused, she followed his orders without question as she took one pill and fed it to Xiao Mei.
The snake swallowed it eagerly, sensing the vast medicinal power within.
But for a moment, there was silence, as everyone stared at the little snake in confusion.
"Um, is the pill effec—"
WHOOSH!
Just then, the snake began to glow with a blinding, iridescent light before it hovered into the sky, its small form expanding and lengthening.
Within a few breathtaking moments, the light shattered, and in the snake's place stood an incredibly beautiful woman.
She had long, dark purple hair with a strands poking upward like an ahoge, and she wore regal, shifting robes that matched her previous scales.
She opened her eyes, revealing cold, piercing hazel orbs that seemed to hold the wisdom of centuries.
Not just that, her aura burst out—, and unlike the 9th stage Spirit Ascension Realm she was known for, this woman's strength was now a genuine, crushing aura of the Nirvana Rebirth Realm.
Even without someone telling them, they can already see...the Queen was awake!
She hovered in the air, her gaze landing on Haoran. "Human... what is it that you want from me?"
This woman was none other than Medusa, the Sovereign of the Great Tao Desert and Queen of the Lamias.
Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Negotiations
"Human... what is it you want from me?"
"Not even a thank you?" Haoran playfully asked, his voice cutting through the heavy, vibrating tension of the desert air.
He stood with his hands tucked behind his back, a posture of relaxed dominance that stood in stark contrast to the thousands of bared weapons pointed in his direction.
Medusa remained silent, her cold hazel eyes staring deep into his own golden orbs.
As the Queen of the Lamias, and having recently undergone a bloodline evolution into the Rainbow-Scaled Divine Serpent, her senses were far more acute than any of her subordinates.
So naturally, zhe could feel it—a terrifying, primordial resonance emanating from the youth before her.
It was a weight that pressed down on her very soul, a sovereign authority that seemed to speak directly to the draconic traces in her blood.
And just from that pressure alone, she realized with a flicker of dread that if his cultivation was even a little higher, perhaps just at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm or the threshold of Spirit Ascension, none of the Lamias here—herself included—would be able to resist his direct commands.
Even now, the only reason she remained mostly unaffected and could still stand tall was because her bloodline was of exceptionally high quality, bordering on the supreme.
"Let's make a deal," said Haoran, his tone conversational, as if he weren't surrounded by an army of man-eaters. "It would be a pity to slaughter your whole race here in the sand. It would be messy, and honestly, quite a waste of potential. So, why don't you ask your sisters to back off and lower their spears? In exchange, you will promise me that you will protect Huo Yue for three years. Be her shield, her shadow, and her guardian."
Hearing, not only Medusa and the Lamia, even Huo Yue and Ziyan were stunned at the ridiculous demands.
"Are you mocking me?!" Medusa's voice was like grinding silk, sharp and dangerous as her aura flared, the colors of her robes shifting brilliantly. "There is no 'deal' being made here! You simply want a subordinate! You want to turn me, the Queen of the Great Tao Desert, into a common bodyguard!? I'd rather die!"
Haoran shook his head slowly, a small, knowing smile playing on his lips. "There is most certainly a deal being made, Your Majesty. And that deal is this: in exchange for your three years of servitude, everyone present here gets to live. Your generals, your warriors, your sisters—they all get to return home instead of becoming ash in the wind. That's a very good deal, wouldn't you say?"
"Queen! Forget about what he says! He is bluffing!" Hua Lin roared from the front lines, her pink tail thrashing the sand into a frenzy. "So what if he's from the Imperial Capital? Distance is his enemy here! If we kill all of them right now and bury their remains under a thousand feet of shifting sand, no one will ever know! The Central Region is far, and the desert is vast!"
"That's right! Let's kill him, Queen!"
Medusa did not join in the shouting.
Instead, she pondered the choice with the cold, calculating mind of a ruler as she looked at Haoran—really looked at him—and saw the absolute lack of fear in his eyes.
Whether it's from arrogance or because he couldn't see reality, Medusa doesn't know.
But he really wasn't afraid.
"Kill me?" Haoran laughed, the sound echoing strangely across the dunes. "Oh dear. Queen Medusa, I'm sure you must've felt it, right? This suppression. This is the power of my Divine Physique. Once I unleash its resonance to full power, I don't even need to lift a finger. I can command the entire Lamia race to turn on one another. I can make your sisters kill their own kin, and I can even have them throw themselves at you until you are forced to slaughter them yourself just to stay alive. Do you want to gamble on whether or not I'm lying?"
Medusa froze. The air around her seemed to solidify as she had felt the "hush" in her blood when he stepped forward.
It was a biological imperative, a hierarchy established before the dawn of time.
Of course, Haoran was bluffing. This is the full extent of his dragon aura, after all, his physique was only at a Minor Completion.
But paired it with threats and his background, it is enough to be believable, especially if the Queen was really smart enough.
But of course, if push comes to shove, he has countless live saving artifacts waiting to be unleashed.
Just a Nirvana Rebirth, even if a Saint were to come, he wouldn't even bat an eye.
"What?! There is no way you can do that! You're just a Golden Core brat!" Hua Lin screamed, though her hand was trembling on her sword hilt.
"Queen, just give the word! We'll immediately impale them with our spears!"
"That's right! One volley and they'll be nothing but pincushions!" another general added.
Haoran remained smiling, his eyes never leaving Medusa's face.
He stood he was the eye of the storm, perfectly still while the world around him screamed for blood.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silent mental warfare, Medusa let out a long, ragged sigh as the killing intent radiating from her body dissipated like mist in the morning sun.
"You win," she said, her shoulders dropping slightly.
"But Queen!" Hua Lin tried to insist, her face twisted in disbelief. "We have the numbers! We have the strength!"
"Silence!" Medusa's glare was a physical blow, instantly shutting Hua Lin's mouth.
The Queen then turned her gaze back to Huo Yue, then finally to Haoran. "I just have to protect her for three years... that is all? No other hidden shackles?"
Haoran nodded, his expression turning more business-like. "In exchange for those three years, once the time is up, I will provide the resources and the guidance to help you ascend to the Saint Realm. Furthermore, I will provide the pills and spirit herbs necessary to let some of your most trusted generals reach the Nirvana Rebirth stage. Your race will no longer be 'powerhouses of a desolate region'; you will be a power to be reckoned with even in the Central Region."
"Saint..." Medusa muttered dreamily.
The word felt heavy on her tongue.
After all, despite having a Rank 10 bloodline, she was a realist, and she knew that reaching the Saint Realm required a staggering amount of resources, heavenly treasures, and high-level pills that the Eastern and Southern Regions simply could not provide.
There was a reason why the Four Cardinal Regions hadn't given birth to a Saint-Rank expert for thousands of years—they were resource-starved backwaters compared to the Central Region.
For Medusa, her only previous hope of advancing to the Saint Realm was to abandon her people, venture into the Central Region alone as a rogue, and search for opportunities while being hunted by humans who would want her for her scales and core.
But would she do that?
The answer was no.
And it's not because she was afraid of struggles or anything, but as the Queen of the Lamias, she had to put the interests of her people first.
If she left for the Central Region, who would guard the desert? Who would lead the tribe against the encroaching human kingdoms?
Without her, they were just waiting to be slaughtered or enslaved.
But if this youth was telling the truth... if she could gain the backing of the Shen Clan... her people would no longer be prey.
"So, do we have an accord?" asked Haoran, his smile widening.
Medusa nodded, her expression regal once more. "We have an accord. But before I leave with you, you must follow me to our Kingdom first. There are rites to be performed and protections to be set. There are things I must do before I can leave my sisters for three years."
"Very well. Lead the way," Haoran nodded, gesturing for the army to move.
Medusa turned toward the gathered Lamias, her voice carrying the weight of a divine decree. "Let us depart! Lower your weapons! We head back to the Kingdom!"
With a collective, confused murmur, the thousands of serpent-warriors began to turn and slither back across the dunes, their massive tails carving paths in the sand.
Huo Yue, who had been watching the negotiation with her mouth slightly agape, reached out and tugged on Haoran's sleeve. "Isn't that dangerous? Going right into their nest? What if it's a trap?"
"Don't worry," Haoran said, patting her hand reassuringly. "With me here, no harm will befall you or your... friend?"
Haoran's eyes narrowed as they landed on the silent, trembling figure of Zhu Ziyan.
He tilted his head, his golden eyes scanning her features. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"
Huo Yue blinked, finally realizing she hadn't introduced her traveling companion. "Ah! Haoran, this is Zhu Ziyan. She's been traveling with me through the desert. She's a good friend! And Ziyan, this is Shen Haoran... my fiancé."
Haoran's eyes sparked with recognition. "Ah, I remember now. You're that girl from the Ogre Seven, right? The feline one? A friend of Xueli's?"
Ziyan lowered her head, her cat ears flattened so far they were almost hidden in her hair and her voice was a mere whisper, trembling with the memory of the "greeting" he had given her team two years ago. "Y-Yes. It is an honor to see you again, Young Master Shen."
Huo Yue blinked, looking between the two. "Hey, Haoran, what did you do to her? Why does she look like she's seen a ghost? Ziyan is usually very brave."
Haoran smirked, a dark, playful glint in his eyes. "Nothing at all, Yue'er. Just a friendly greeting between fellow students of the martial path, I guess. She is simply overwhelmed by the joy of seeing a friend of a friend."
Ziyan shivered, thinking to herself: Liar! You're a complete monster!
But she didn't dare say it aloud.
She simply followed quietly as the group began their journey toward the hidden Kingdom of the Lamias, wondering how her life had gone from fleeing mercenaries to walking alongside a Demon King.
Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Zhu Ziyan
The Lamias.
In the annals of the Southern and Eastern Regions, no name carried quite the same weight of visceral terror as these creatures.
They were the apex predators of the shifting sands, a race whispered to be born from the blood of ancient demons and desert serpents.
Myths portrayed them as fierce, aggressive, and utterly devoid of mercy—monsters that viewed human flesh not just as an enemy, but as a delicacy.
Huo Yue, like every other child raised in the Eastern Region, had grown up under the shadow of these stories.
She vividly remembered her mother, frustrated with her picky eating habits, threatening that the "Scales of the Desert" would slither through her window and devour her if she didn't finish her vegetables.
And these legends weren't just bedtime stories; they were the foundation of a centuries-old geopolitical stalemate.
The human kingdoms had spent generations and untold fortunes ensuring that the Lamias remained confined to the Great Tao Desert, fearful of what would happen if the serpent-tribe ever truly ventured into the lands of men.
Yes, these creatures were the physical embodiment of a nightmare.
So why...
Why in the name of the Heavens was this happening?!
Huo Yue stood in the center of the Lamia's grand royal chamber, her eyes wide and her jaw practically touching the polished sandstone floor.
Before her sat a throne that belonged to the Queen of Lamias, Medusa—a massive, intricate chair carved from the fossilized remains of a prehistoric sand-leviathan.
And although it's a throne belonging to the queen, at this moment it was Shen Haoran who sat there, leaning back with a languid, bored grace that suggested he was born to rule the world.
And around him, the "nightmare of the desert" was doing something that no storyteller could have even imagined.
Dozens of beautiful Lamias, their scales shimmering in iridescent hues, had swarmed the throne.
At first Huo Yue was worried that they would attack, but her worries were unnecessary as they not only didn't attack, but they were even fawning over Haoran!
Some were fanning him with giant palm leaves, others were peeling rare desert fruits with delicate fingers, and more than a few were shamelessly trying to coil their tails near his feet, their eyes sparkling with a mix of adoration and primal infatuation.
They flattered him in hushed, melodic tones, completely captivated by his presence.
Beside Huo Yue, even Queen Medusa looked like she had been struck by a divine lightning bolt.
She had ruled these women for centuries, knowing them to be fierce warriors who viewed humans as beneath them.
And so at first, she had expected them to be wary, perhaps even hostile toward a male human intruder, but what she hadn't expect was for them to treat him like a long-lost deity.
She wondered if his aura was truly this potent—that her subordinates, who had never even seen him before, could be instantly reduced to star-struck handmaidens simply by catching a scent of his draconic essence.
They were acting as if he were their true King, completely ignoring their actual Queen standing right there.
Finally, snapping out of her daze as a Lamia tried to feed Haoran a grape with a suggestive giggle, Medusa's face turned a mottled shade of purple.
"STOP!" she roared, her Nirvana Rebirth aura shaking the room. "All of you! Leave this instant! Back to your posts!"
The Lamias let out a chorus of collective, disappointed groans as they uncoiled themselves reluctantly, moving toward the exits with the slow, lingering pace of children being dragged away from a candy shop.
Even as they left, they kept glancing back over their shoulders, their slitted eyes pleading for Haoran to call them back.
But he didn't.
Once the chamber was finally cleared of the fawning serpent-women, Medusa turned a blistering glare toward Haoran.
"Can you please retract that... that obnoxious aura of yours? You're turning my elite vanguard into a flock of giggling hens!"
Haoran shrugged, a small, arrogant smirk playing on his lips as he popped a remaining grape into his mouth. "There's nothing I can do about it, Queen. My body is just naturally irresistible to your kind. It's biology, not a choice."
"...You are incredibly narcissistic for a boy," Medusa said, crossing her arms over her chest in a gesture of pure disdain.
"Boy?" Haoran's eyes sharpened, showing a playful yet dangerous glint in his golden eyes. "This 'boy' has already tasted the finest pleasures this world has to offer—wealth beyond your imagination, power that can affect the empire, and the touch of the most beautiful women in the Central Region. A virgin queen like you, who has spent her life hiding in a sandbox, has no right to call me a boy."
Medusa felt her cheek twitch violently as her temper flared, but she suppressed the urge to strike.
She knew the weight of his words and the terrifying potential of his background so instead of arguing, she looked away, her voice tight. "Anyway, I have business to attend to regarding the clan's affairs. I will be ready to depart within a day."
With that, she turned and walked out of the room in a huff, her royal robes snapping behind her.
Haoran watched her leave, his expression softening only when he turned his gaze toward Huo Yue.
He motioned for her to come closer, and Huo Yue, never one to be shy with her fiancé, smiled brightly and practically skipped over, settling comfortably onto his lap.
She leaned back against his chest, sighing happily as she felt the steady thrum of his heartbeat.
Suddenly...
"Um, I think I'll go and... cultivate outside for a while," Zhu Ziyan spoke up.
She had actually been standing in the corner, trying her best to blend into the shadows and remain as silent as a statue.
But seeing that these two were about to get intimate, a single cat like her feels like she doesn't belong here and wanted to leave.
Haoran's gaze shifted to her, and the warmth he showed Huo Yue vanished instantly as a heavy, cold frown settled on his face. "Did I tell you that you could leave?"
Ziyan froze mid-step, her body trembled, and her feline ears stood bolt upright in a state of high alert.
"No, sir!" she squeaked, standing as straight as a spear.
"So," Haoran said, his voice dropping to a low, interrogative hum. "Why did you approach my fiancée in the first place?"
"Sir! I honestly didn't know she was your fiancée, sir!" Ziyan replied, her voice shaking but her answer immediate. "I just found her to be incredibly powerful and independent during my travels. I was lost and hunted, and I wanted to follow someone with her strength, sir!"
"A piece of trash at the Foundation Establishment realm wanted to follow my Yue'er?" Haoran glared at her, his pressure making the cat-girl's knees buckle.
Ziyan lowered her head in a mix of shame and silent indignation.
'Trash?' she thought bitterly. In the Eastern Region, a twenty-year-old at the 7th Stage of Foundation Establishment was considered a top-tier genius!
She had fought through blood and shadows to reach this level!
But...well, perhaps in the eyes of this monster from the Central Region, she was apparently no better than the dust on his boots.
However, she swallowed her pride and didn't say anything, after all, she couldn't really refute his words.
Also, she had a burning question that she needed answered more than she needed her dignity.
So she looked up, her expression a mix of seriousness and hesitation. "Um... Young Master Shen, if I may... how is Xueli?"
Haoran stared at her for a long moment, evaluating the sincerity in her eyes.
"She is well," he finally answered, his tone slightly less frigid. "She has obtained the core inheritance of a Supreme Emperor and has already reached the peak of the Core Formation realm. In three days, she will be traveling with me to the Central Region."
"I see..." Ziyan let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief.
A weight she had been carrying for two years seemed to lift.
At the same time, she couldn't help but feel a sharp pang of jealousy. Xueli... her playful, lazy friend who used to skip practice to nap in the sun, has now become a genius at the 9th Stage Core Formation realm.
Back in the Ogre Academy, Xueli only kept up with the rest of the Ogre Seven because her innate talent was so monstrously high that she didn't need to try.
Ziyan knew that if she had been born with Xueli's talent, she would have reached her current level 2 years ago.
Still, her friendship won out over her envy and she was truly happy that Xueli hadn't just survived, but had thrived.
After all, the fate of their group had been a tragedy.
"Tell me," Haoran asked, his interest piqued by her reaction. "What exactly happened to the Ogre Seven you were a part of?"
Ziyan hesitated, the memories of that bloody year resurfacing.
"During the finals of the regional tournament, everything fell apart," she began, her voice small. "Xia Ruo was discovered to be a reincarnated Demonic Beast. The Spirit Hall—the Pope herself—saw it as an ultimate insult and they attacked immediately. Tang Shan tried to save her, but he was nearly slaughtered and he only survived because the hidden remnants of the Tang Clan intervened and saved him. In the aftermath, the Spirit Hall turned their full fury on the Ogre Academy, branding us all as monsters. Most of our classmates and teachers were killed in the purge. Today... as far as I know, only Tang Shan, Xueli, and I are all that remains of the Ogre Seven."
The chamber fell into a temporary silence, as if the weight of the fallen academy hanging in the air.
Haoran looked at Ziyan, seeing the survivor's guilt etched into her face, and for the first time, his gaze held a flicker of something other than disdain.
Chapter 58: Chapter 58: Zhu Ziyan(2)
Haoran watched as Ziyan stood completely still, her frame trembling so slightly it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
One of her hand had already turned white from grasping her other arm as if trying to hold her own soul inside her body.
Her gaze remained pinned to the floor, and her cat ears were flattened so tightly against her skull they were nearly buried in her dark hair.
Silence permeated the room.
But for Ziyan, the silence was filled with the screaming of ghosts she had wanted to escape from.
Ziyan had always believed she never made the wrong choice.
When the Spirit Hall's army began to march through the Ogre Academy and wanted to burn it to the ground, and when her classmates and teachers all stayed to fight, she had tucked her tail and ran.
She had abandoned the teachers who taught her, the classmates who laughed with her, and a fiancé she had used as a shield.
She was a coward, and she knew it.
But, is that wrong?
She only wanted to live, to grow strong enough to break free from the suffocating grip of her family, and to see another sunrise.
She did not want to die.
But...
The price of that survival was a mind that never found rest, and for two long years, she had suffered nightmares almost every night.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw them—the rotting, bloodied corpses of the Ogre Seven and the academy faculty.
They would reach out with their rotting fingers, their voices a discordant chorus of wet gurgles, blaming her for their agony, trying to drag her down into the cold earth with them.
The only reason she had reached the 7th Stage of Foundation Establishment—a feat that defied her mediocre innate talent—wasn't because she was incredibly hard working or because of some noble pursuit of strength, it was insomnia.
She cultivated because the rhythmic flow of Qi was the only thing that kept the nightmares at bay.
Perhaps, ever since she had abandoned them, she became a hollow shell held together by the terror of her own memories.
Haoran stared at her for a long moment, his eyes devoid of even a shred of pity before he hummed softly, the sound vibrating through the silent throne room.
"Are you feeling guilty?" he asked.
Ziyan flinched as if he had struck her, but she said nothing, her head sinking even lower until her chin touched her chest.
"You shouldn't be," Haoran said, his voice cold and clinical. "There is nothing wrong in choosing your own life over the lives of others. In fact, it is the only logical conclusion a sentient being should reach."
He patted Huo Yue's arm as she got up from his lap before he stood up from the throne, and looked down at Ziyan with the detached gaze of a scholar examining an insect.
His words were blunt, completely bypassing the messy, emotional trauma she was drowning in.
"The universe is governed by the law of the jungle and survival," Haoran continued, his tone conversational yet brutal. "Those teachers and students you mourn? They died because they were weak and lacked the foresight to flee. Their deaths were already a statistical certainty the moment they chose to stand against a superior force. By staying, they didn't prove their bravery; they only proved their incompetence at basic self preservation."
After all, it is wanting to confront another force if they are equal in power, but to confront another knowing full well victory and death is certain...what could that be aside from plain stupidity?
He tilted his head, watching her as a tear hit the sandstone floor.
"To feel 'guilt' is to suggest that your life has less value than a collective of corpses," he said, his voice flat. "If you had stayed and died with them, what would have changed? The Spirit Hall would still rule, the academy would still be ash, and there would simply be one more rotting body in the dirt. Your survival is the only tangible profit from that entire disaster. To regret it is to insult the very instinct that makes you a cultivator."
Ziyan trembled harder, her breath hitching as every words from him hammered her soul.
She wanted comfort, or perhaps a justification that she was 'doing what they would have wanted.'
Instead, Haoran was stripping away the sanctity of her grief and replacing it with cold, hard mathematics.
"You are useful because you are alive," Haoran added, indifferent to her hitching breath. "A dead genius is a tragedy but a living coward is a resource. Stop wasting your mental energy on ghosts that can no longer provide you with spirit stones or cultivation progress. They are gone, and the world has already forgotten them. You should do the same, not out of kindness, but out of efficiency."
He turned back to Huo Yue, dismissing Ziyan's internal collapse as if it were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
For Haoran, feelings were the baggage of the mundane. In his world, there was only the path forward, and the bodies used as stepping stones to reach it.
Without another word, Haoran turned towards the door and walked out the room, leaving behind Huo Yue and Ziyan.
Huo Yue watched Haoran's retreating back as he exited the throne room, his footsteps echoing with a cold, unwavering certainty.
The air always seemed to grow a few degrees warmer the moment he left—not because his presence was cold, but because the sheer, frozen logic he carried with him was enough to chill any heart.
She turned her gaze to Ziyan. The cat-girl looked as though she had been stripped bare, her shoulders shaking as she processed the blunt, surgical words Haoran had left behind.
Huo Yue hopped down from the throne and walked over, her movements soft and fluid.
"Forgive him," she said softly, her voice like a warm breeze after a winter frost. "He's like that. He's incredibly blunt and cares nothing for what other people feel. To him, the world is just a series of paths and obstacles, and he doesn't see the baggage that others carry, he only sees the direction we're moving. And if he thinks we're wrong, he will say it, no excuses."
Ziyan let out a shaky, half-broken breath as she shook her head.
She didn't look up, but her voice was filled with a strange, hollow resonance. "No... no, he... he has a point. If I had stayed, I would be a corpse. I chose to live, and my guilt doesn't change the fact that they are gone and I am here. It's... efficient, just like he said."
"Not entirely."
Huo Yue smiled sadly as she reached out, gently taking Ziyan's trembling hands in hers.
Finding them ice-cold, she didn't hesitate and stepped forward, pulling the girl into a firm, warm hug.
At first, Ziyan was stiff, her body unaccustomed to such simple, human warmth, but as Huo Yue held her, radiating the gentle heat of her internal flames, the tension began to leak out of Ziyan's frame.
"Haoran is right that you shouldn't let the past hold you," Huo Yue whispered into her ear, her voice steady and kind. "But he's wrong to say those lives were just statistics. You didn't survive because you were being a cold-hearted coward, Ziyan. You survived because you believed that your life is precious and shouldn't be wasted on an inevitable outcome. And that's okay."
Huo Yue pulled back just enough to look Ziyan in the eye, her hands resting on the other girl's shoulders.
"Moving on doesn't mean forgetting," Huo Yue continued. "Haoran thinks memories of the dead are just 'wasted mental energy,' but I think they're something to be remembered. Those teachers and friends... they are a part of why you are standing here today. If you cast them aside like trash just to be 'efficient,' then you really would be losing yourself."
She reached up and tucked a stray strand of black hair behind Ziyan's feline ear.
"Don't let the nightmares pull you down, but don't turn your heart into stone to escape them either. You can live for yourself, and you can be happy, all while carrying a small part of them with you. Don't think of your survival as something cursed, but think of it as a second chance. So, don't just cultivate because you're afraid to face your nightmares. Cultivate so that one day, you can stand in the sun and feel like you've earned the life you chose."
Ziyan looked at her, stunned.
Earn the life I chose?
Me? The coward who will abandon everyone for the sake of my selfish desire of survival?
Do I also....deserve it?
For the first time in two years, the screaming of the ghosts in Ziyan's mind grew quiet.
They didn't disappear, but they stopped reaching for her throat.
She looked at Huo Yue, and for a fleeting moment, she saw not just a powerful cultivator or a Demon King's fiancée, but a girl who understood the weight of a soul.
Ziyan's eyes welled up, and this time, when she cried, it wasn't out of fear or regret.
She leaned her head onto Huo Yue's shoulder and let out a long, shuddering sob of relief.
"Thank you," Ziyan choked out. "Thank you, Sister Shen."
Huo Yue just held her, stroking her hair as the desert sun began to set outside the sandstone windows, casting long, golden shadows across the room.
Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Flowers
"Sister Shen, huh?"
Huo Yue watched the heavy doors of the throne room creak shut behind Ziyan's retreating figure.
The cat-girl's footsteps were still light, but they no longer held that frantic, uneven cadence of a person fleeing from her own shadow.
Huo Yue stood alone for a moment in the settling dust of the hall, scratching the back of her head with a wry, self-deprecating smile.
'I forgot I haven't even told her my real name yet,' she realized.
The name "Shen Huo" was simply an alias she had used during her travels, a combination of her own last name 'Huo' and Haoran's last name 'Shen'.
She thought for a moment, her finger tapping against her chin, then she simply shrugged the thought away.
There would be plenty of opportunities for introductions once the girl had actually washed the dried salt of tears from her face.
Then, with a flick of her robes, Huo Yue turned and left the room, her presence flickering like a dying ember before she vanished into the corridors.
She began to expand her senses, letting her consciousness ripple outward through the cooling sandstone of the palace and search for his man.
It didn't take long before she found him, after all his presence was like a pillar of absolute zero in the middle of the desert's residual heat—impossible to miss, yet difficult to approach.
She followed the traces of his Qi and found him on a high, secluded balcony, his silhouette framed by the darkening orange sky as he observed the sprawling expanse of the Lamia Kingdom.
Below them, the winding streets of the kingdom began to twinkle as lamplighters touched torches to oil basins, and the orange glow of the light spreading like a slow-moving wildfire against the encroaching blue of twilight.
Huo Yue walked toward him, her footsteps intentionally heavy to announce her arrival and just stopped a few paces behind him, her brow furrowed in a deep, disapproving line.
"You were too harsh on her," she said, her voice echoing slightly against the balcony's stone balustrade.
Haoran remained silent at first. He didn't turn around, his gaze fixed on the horizon where the sun was dipping below the dunes, bleeding a deep, bruised purple into the sky.
"I don't think so," Haoran said finally, his voice devoid of any defensive edge. "She's a cultivator. If something as simple as choosing her own life over others made her crumble that way, then she would be better off giving up on this path entirely. It would be a mercy."
He turned slightly, his profile sharp and unforgiving in the twilight. "The world of Cultivation is incredibly cruel, Yue'er. It isn't a place for the faint of heart to wander. It is a meat grinder fueled by ambition and greased with the blood of the sentimental."
He gestured vaguely toward the darkening sands. "Betrayal, fathers slaughtering sons for a breakthrough, sons poisoning fathers for an inheritance, the depravities of demonic cultivators who weave tapestries out of human skin... throughout the recorded history of the Heavens, there has never been a single person who survived and ascended while possessing such a fragile heart. So, to coddle her would be to hand her a death sentence."
Huo Yue sighed, the sound escaping her like a tired weight as she walked to the edge of the balcony to stand beside him.
Having endured three long years of bitter humiliation, watching her own family turn their backs on her after she lost her talent, and weathering the verbal abuse of those who once bowed to her, she knew his words were an undeniable truth.
The world didn't care if you were "good" or "bad", it only cared if you were powerful enough.
"Still..." she countered softly, looking down at the flickering torches below. "You should've been gentle with her. She was on the edge of a mental collapse and if I wasn't there to comfort her, who knows what crooked thoughts would have filled her mind? She might have taken your logic and turned it into a reason to become a monster herself."
"But you were there." Haoran's voice softened, just a fraction.
He turned fully toward her, revealing a small, knowing smile tugging at the corners of his lips before he reached out, his movements fluid and possessive, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her into the cool circle of his embrace.
Huo Yue felt the familiar warmth of his Qi, something she had missed in the past two years as she let out another sigh, this one less burdened. "Yes, yes, whatever you say. So you said those words because you knew I would come and comfort her, righ?"
Haoran didn't answer that directly, instead resting his chin lightly atop her head as they both looked out over the kingdom.
"...So," he murmured, "how were the past two years for you, truly? Have you encountered any danger?"
Huo Yue shrugged within his grip, her tone turning casual yet proud.
"Nothing much. But I didn't let the past two years go to waste, you know. I've already become a Rank 4 Alchemist, and also got my Rank 2 Artificer Licence, not to mention I reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm. But," she added with a mock-pout, "I've already used up the hoard of resources you gave me. I'm practically a beggar now."
Of course, those resources she stole doesn't count!
"It doesn't matter," Haoran said, his voice vibrating against her. "The one thing I do not lack is cultivation resources. I will bury you in Spirit Stones and Heavenly Herbs if that is what it takes to see you reach the Nascent Soul stage by next spring."
Huo Yue smiled, turning in his arms to look up at him as the moonlight was beginning to catch the golden embroidery of his robes. "And what about you? How were your past two years? I doubt you were just sitting in meditation the whole time."
"Oh, nothing much," Haoran replied, his eyes dancing with a cold, playful light. "I found an interesting girl during my travels, and I've decided I want to take her back to the Central Region with me."
Huo Yue's nose wrinkled instantly, her eyes narrowing as she poked him hard in the chest. "You spent the past two years with her? Alone? Then you've probably already devoured her whole, you lecherous snake!"
Haoran didn't deny it and simply chuckled. There was really no need to deny it,
"That's not fair!" Huo Yue huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm your fiancée! I've been working my fingers to the bone over alchemical cauldrons while you've been 'collecting' interesting girls!"
Haoran's expression shifted, his hand moving from her waist to grasp her chin gently but firmly, forcing her to meet his gaze.
The playfulness in his face vanished instantly, replaced by a terrifyingly focused intensity. "Indeed you are my fiancée. And you are special, Yue'er. Never mistake my interest in others for a lack of recognition for what you are."
Huo Yue clicked her tongue, though her heartbeat quickened despite herself. "You probably say that to every girl you meet. 'You're so special, little kitten, stay by my side.'"
She said the last part with a mock imitation of his voice.
"Not every girl," Haoran corrected, his thumb tracing her lower lip. "Just the ones who pique my interest. And that is a very, very short list."
"Oh? I'm honored," Huo Yue said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "And pray tell, what kind of girls can pique our 'illustrious' Young Master Shen's interest? What is the criteria for entering your prestigious collection?"
Haoran went still, his gaze drifting past her as if he were looking at a mental ledger of the souls he had encountered across the realms.
He thought for a long moment, the silence between them stretching until only the sound of the wind whistling through the sandstone arches remained.
"There are three qualities," Haoran began, his voice taking on a clinical, lecture-like quality. "Three specific traits they must possess for them to even be considered 'resources' worth my personal investment."
He looked back at her, his eyes cold as ice yet burning with a strange sort of aesthetic appreciation.
"First, they must be a Noble Maiden. This has nothing to do with the blood of kings or the gold in their vaults. To be 'noble' in my eyes is a matter of the soul's carriage, it is a girl who possesses an innate pride—one that remains even when she is stripped of her status, her clothes, and her power. I have no interest in the common, the vulgar, or those who grovel easily. I want the girl who can look at the face of death and spit on him."
He paused, his grip on her chin loosening slightly.
"Second, they must be a Virgin. Again, do not mistake this for a mere obsession with physical purity or the 'red plum' on the bedsheets. To me, virginity is a metaphor for an untainted path. I want a soul that has not been shaped or warped by the philosophies, or the touch of another man's Will. I want a blank scroll of the highest quality, so that when I write my own laws upon it, there is no lingering ink from a previous author."
Huo Yue listened, her breath hitching slightly as she thought of his terrifyingly possessive philosophy.
"And third," Haoran continued, "they must be a Flower that blooms after braving the storms. A girl who has lived a life of sheltered peace is useless to me, for she is nothing but a porcelain doll that will shatter the moment the Grand Dao demands a sacrifice. I seek the girl who has been crushed by fate, who has tasted the dirt and the blood of betrayal, yet refused to wither. I want the one who has endured the coldness of the world and used that very coldness to harden her petals into steel, after all only a flower that has survived the storm truly understands the value of the sun."
He leaned in closer, his breath warm against her ear. "A Noble Maiden provides the dignity; the Virgin provides the potential; the Storm-braved Flower provides the resilience. Do you understand now, Yue-er? Why I chose you? And why I made an effort to awaken that little cat-girl?"
Indeed. For Haoran, Zhu Ziyan possessed a high potential, and helping her out was only a small matter; if she blooms beautiful, then great, if not, then he loses nothing.
Huo Yue looked at him, a chill running down her spine that had nothing to do with the desert night.
She realized then that Haoran didn't love people; he curated them, like he was a gardener of human suffering, picking the most beautiful survivors to decorate his path to the peak.
Of course, in the process of picking the most beautiful flower, he might grow fond of them and never let them go.
For Haoran, Huo Yue and Xueli are exactly those kinds of flower.
"You... You're a very heartless man, Haoran," she whispered, though she didn't pull away.
"I am a Cultivator," Haoran corrected simply. "The two are often indistinguishable."
Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Imperial Academy
"So? How long are you planning to stay?" Huo Yue asked, her voice carrying a hint of a tremor she tried to mask with casual curiosity.
She leaned against the cool stone of the balcony, the desert breeze tugging at her hair, her eyes searching his face for any sign of a lingering attachment to the present moment.
"I'll leave for the Central Region in three days," said Haoran.
He didn't look at her as he spoke, his gaze still fixed on the distant horizon where the stars were beginning to pierce through the veil of the sky.
"I wanted to stay for a bit more, the air in this wasteland has a certain... uncomplicated quality to it, but my mother has sent word that she wants me to return because there's an unfinished business that needs to be taken care of. A matter of lineage and legacy that cannot be deferred any longer."
"I see." Huo Yue looked a bit sad, her shoulders slumping almost imperceptibly.
The silence that followed was heavy with the things she couldn't say. She wanted to spend more time with him, after all two years was a vast ocean of time to have spent apart, and three days felt like a cruel, microscopic drop of water offered to someone dying of thirst.
She had imagined their reunion would involve long discussions, shared breakthroughs, and perhaps a moment of intimacy only for those who are to be wed, like holding hands, or kissing, or even something even more intimate.
But instead, the countdown had already begun.
"Don't worry," Haoran said, sensing the shift in her mood as he turned slightly, his eyes reflecting the flickering torchlight from the streets below. "At your current level, and with the talent you've reclaimed, it won't be long before you will have enough strength to leave this Desolate Region, after all the borders of the Eastern Region are only a prison for the weak."
He paused, calculating her path with the same clinical precision he used for everything else. "Hmm, once you reach Nascent Soul, yes... no, preferably Spirit Ascension. By then, you'd probably already explored the entire Eastern Region and found its limitations stifling. And with that level, even if you don't have any background, you don't have to be afraid of forces in outer layer in the Central Region."
In the novel about the Flame Empress that he got from his cousin, Huo Yue would actually travel to Central Region a year from now, when she was only at 7th Stage of Golden Core Realm.
One of the reason why she dared venture into the Central Region with such a weak cultivation is because of her confidence in Fairy Liu, and also because Queen Medusa, who was at Nirvana Rebirth realm, was helping her.
Oh yes, there is also that poison girl, but Haoran doesn't know if Huo Yue already met her, or maybe Zhu Ziyan replaced that poison girl?
"Spirit Ascension... that's too long," said Huo Yue, a frown deepening on her face.
To a cultivator in the Eastern Region, Spirit Ascension was a realm of legends, a peak that many spent centuries failing to climb.
So the idea of waiting that long to stand by his side in the Central Region felt like an eternity she wasn't prepared to endure.
Haoran thought for a moment and nodded, his expression darkening with a rare moment of agreement. "Indeed. For the average talent, it is a lifetime."
Huo Yue nodded at that.
"If you wanted a shortcut, or rather, if you don't want to wait until you are Spirit Ascension, then your only choice is the decennial Imperial Academy Recruitment."
"...What's that?" asked Huo Yue, her interest piqued.
Haoran stared at her and thought. In the Flame Empress novel, the Imperial Academy didn't make any appearance.
Or rather, the Imperial Family didn't make any appearance, and only the 9 Immortal Clans, all of whom are at the same level as Shen Clan, made an appearance.
"It is the crucible of the Empire," Haoran explained, his voice taking on a rhythmic, instructional quality. "Once every ten years, the Imperial Academy opens its gates to recruit talents from every corner of the empire. It is a winnowing process designed to find the gold amidst the dross."
Huo Yue nodded. I see, it's understandable. After all, the Empire needed talents so that they won't decline or stagnate, so having this recruitment was a logical action for them.
"But, although anyone from the Central Region can apply with relative ease, the rules for the Four Cardinal Regions are much more stringent."
Huo Yue tilted her head, "How so?"
Haoran explained, "For the outskirts, they only grant ten slots per region. That means the Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern regions can only send ten geniuses each to try and pass the grueling entry exams."
Huo Yue frowned, her mind already racing through the implications. "Exams... so it's not guaranteed that they will get accepted, right?"
Ten slots for an entire region containing billions of cultivators was a terrifyingly narrow gate.
"Yes. It is far from a guarantee," Haoran replied, a cold smirk touching his lips. "In fact, it is a slaughterhouse for ambition. From what I can remember, in the past one hundred years, no one from the Four Cardinal Regions has managed to pass the examinations. It's kind of funny, really. They arrive with the titles of 'Number One Genius' from their home provinces, only to realize they are nothing more than frogs at the bottom of a very deep, and very crowded well."
Haoran had seen many people from the cardinal regions completely lose all hope after seeing the geniuses of the central Region, with some even suffering from a heart demon.
"...What?" Huo Yue's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. "Not one? In a century?"
Haoran nodded, seemingly unfazed by the dismal statistics.
"The gap in resources, techniques, and early-stage tempering between the Central Region and the outskirts is a chasm most cannot leap. So, after hearing all that..." he tilted his head, his eyes locking onto hers, "would you like to try? Would you like to be the one to break a century of failure?"
The sadness of Haoran's departure and shock of century of failure that had clouded Huo Yue's face moments ago vanished, replaced by a fierce, burning light.
Huo Yue grinned brightly, immediately regained her determination and nodded. "Of course! The only reason why no one from the four cardinal regions have managed to pass is because I wasn't born yet! If they want a genius, I'll give them one they'll never forget."
Haoran smiled, a genuine flash of amusement and perhaps a sliver of pride crossing his features. "Indeed. That is the spirit I expect from my fiancée."
"So? How can I apply for those slots? And what are the requirements?" asked Huo Yue, her practical mind already shifting toward the logistics of her new goal.
"The specific information and the tokens for the slots will be given to the dominant power of a region," Haoran said. "In the Eastern Region's case, that power is the Spirit Hall. They act as the gatekeepers for the Empire, and as for the requirements, if I remember it correctly, then an applicant must be at least twenty years old and no older than fifty. And most importantly, they must at least have a Golden Core realm cultivation just to step through the door for the first test."
Huo Yue furrowed her brows in thought, her fingers tracing the edge of her sleeve. "Golden Core... I'm at the Peak of Core Formation now. With the right environment and a bit of luck, I can reach that level soon in about a three months, one or two if I'm lucky."
She began to ponder of her training...well, she'll leave it all to Fairy Liu, after all, she's the master, right?
"By the way, Haoran, when will this recruitment start? How much time do I have to prepare?"
Haoran thought for a moment, calculating the celestial cycles and the Imperial calendar in his head. "Counting the time... it should be in about three years. That will be the day when the star of the Great Emperor aligns with the Imperial Pillar."
"Three years..." Huo Yue breathed a sigh of relief, her mind spinning with a training schedule. "Within three years, with the foundation I have and the momentum I'm building, I can probably reach the Nascent Soul realm. If I enter the exams as a Nascent Soul instead of a mere Golden Core, my chances will skyrocket."
She looked at him then, a sudden thought occurring to her. "Haoran, will you also attend the academy?"
Haoran nodded, his gaze turning serious. "Yes, I will be there. Although you may not know this, but Yue'er, the Imperial Academy is more than just a school. It gathers all the 'Luck' of the empire into a single geographic point, so studying there, walking its halls, and being recognized as a student basically guarantees various opportunities that the heavens would otherwise deny."
"Luck?" Huo Yue frowned.
Haoran nodded, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Luck is a nigh-intangible resource even for those at the highest levels of cultivation. But in short, think of being able to avoid calamities that should have killed you, finding treasures in a pile of trash because you felt a 'whim' to look, surviving life-or-death situations by a hair's breadth, having a higher chance of a smooth breakthrough without heart-demons... those things are all governed by the invisible flow of Providence. Once you are enrolled in the Imperial Academy, you are tethered to the Empire's destiny and you will receive a share of that collective luck."
It is also for this reason why despite Immortal Clans like the Shen Clan would like to send their heirs to the Imperial Academy, because the luck would simply be incredibly useful for them.
Not just them, even other Academies and Sects posessed luck, just not as potent as the Imperial Academy.
"I see. I understand," Huo Yue said, her voice quiet.
Luck, huh. For some reason, she couldn't help but think of herself and the bizarre trajectory of her life.
Those kinds of things like the narrow escapes, the sudden windfalls, finding some hidden legacy, or even being able to find herbs and such that she desperately needed.
All of those had happened to her so frequently in the last two years.
So, was she already being guided by some unseen force? Or was she simply an anomaly in the weave of fate?
The heavy atmosphere of the balcony began to lift as the stars fully claimed the sky, the weight of the future was still there, but for a moment, the present felt more vital.
"Come," Haoran said, breaking her reverie as he reached out and took her hand, his fingers cool but his grip firm. "Let's go and enjoy our reunion. We have three days before the world demands our attention again. It has been two years, after all. Let us not waste the tonight on talk of exams and empires."
Huo Yue shook her head to rid herself of the lingering thoughts of destiny and luck as she smiled at him, her eyes bright with a warmth that rivaled the torches of the city below. "Alright. Let's go."
As they walked back into the palace, the long, golden shadows of the setting sun were replaced by the silver glow of the moon, casting a serene light over a pair whose journey was only just beginning to truly entwine.