Novels by Lily Monroe

A tidal blaze unfurled between heaven and earth, and within the flames—“Holy Emperor…”The warriors of the Solar Kingdom froze.This moment—This was the end.Their power swelled, vast and violent.From all directions the distant onlookers—those who had kept their distance—felt their hearts lurch.The Holy Emperor had fallen.The great factions witnessing it didn’t even dare show their faces.“Kill!”“Kill that brat!”The Solar Kingdom’s elites were enraged.At once they broke into furious curses.In an instant, the crowd drowned in wrath.The strong of the Solar Kingdom were terrified.No one hesitated.All of them lunged to kill Dragon-Slayer and Anthony.“You really want to die together?”The next moment—Anthony struck once.A swath of top-tier experts exploded, their bodies smashed to pieces.Squelch!Some heads spun off into the air.Dead.The Holy Emperor had been killed.But they… were powerless.They could not keep fighting. If they did, the entire Solar Kingdom might be gro

Dragon-Slayer grunted, swallowed the pain in his seams, and rose into it, the sword-edge cutting a white arc.Beside them, Thirteen Smith muttered a curse. “Stupid kid.” The Holy Emperor only sneered, eyes full of scorn.Dragon-Slayer didn’t answer, his grip biting down. “Hnh. I’ll carve you up.”He fought with everything, every stroke meant to kill. Anthony watched, his gaze shifting—he seemed to read the intent, and held his tongue.Boom—the air rolled like a tide swallowing the field. The Holy Emperor’s rampage had passed understanding; each strike was huge and ruthless.A heartbeat later, the gale rose again. His offense poured like a rain-screen, fists and palms crossing, killing intent spearing the clouds. He was a hammer overfilled with thunderfire—blow after blow grinding down.Dragon-Slayer braced in a flash—swordlight fierce—meeting edge with edge.Boom! He staggered back several steps, heart pounding, a flicker of disbelief breaking through his eyes. Why? What in hell did h

Dragon-Slayer dropped lightly to the ground; a tap of the heel, dust settled. He raised his eyes to the figure standing high above, gaze cold, voice low but heavy enough to hold the field.Though his chest still heaved, he ground out each word: “I’m not afraid of you.”“Today, I’ll defeat you—and kill you.”“The Solar Kingdom will never be a match for Ardenia.”“Your warriors are garbage.”The Holy Emperor laughed softly, a rasp like a blade dragging over stone. “You’re sure? Sure you’re not afraid? Then today, I’ll cut you to pieces.”Dragon-Slayer stepped in instead of back, a short drive of the foot, his body tipping forward, killing intent sliding free like a naked edge. He lifted his head and met the sword-hard gaze above, unflinching.The cold in his eyes cut sharper than steel. “To me, you’re—nothing.”“Today, you die.”“I will kill you.”“You think that boy can really keep you safe?” His words fell like a war banner rammed into open ground, snapping in the gale. Wind licked hi

“Y-you—why are you this strong…”Anthony’s mouth pulled into a cold curve. “It’s not that I’m strong. It’s that you’re useless.”Before the last syllable faded, he surged upward, a raptor cutting through knives of wind and sleet, and stooped.Boom!Explosions flowered across the sky, force scattering like invisible hammers pounding the void. Killing intent poured down like a tangible blaze.He raised another fist. Before it even landed, the gale at its edge flayed the dust to air.Bang!The Holy Emperor’s chest was punched straight through. Blood burst like a flower. His armor shattered; a hideous hole tore open across his front. He was blasted backward, blood running in a steady ribbon from his lips, his eyes wide with a terror that couldn’t focus—grasping at reality’s edge and finding nothing.The rim of the armor writhed, trying to stitch itself—futile against the gaping wound.He lifted his gaze in disbelief, and for the first time, true fear flooded his eyes—the primal dread of t

He pulled a breath, dragging his sight back from the dark. He looked up into the Ardenian youth’s face—indifferent, eyes like a winter lake, unruffled.“Your strength isn’t bad,” Anthony said, mild, with a flat contempt folded into it. “Unfortunately for you, you’re facing me. Which makes everything you do useless.”He tipped his chin, the cold at his eye’s corner cutting sharper. “So this is the Solar Kingdom’s best? No more than this.”Contempt, complete and entire.“In all martial ways, speed breaks all.” He sheathed in one clean motion, his pace itself a declaration. The Holy Emperor was fast—unquestionably. But he was facing Anthony. That alone sealed his tragedy.In a handful of exchanges, Anthony had hammered the Holy Emperor’s confidence to splinters. He had never imagined the man before him could be this absurdly strong. Terror—there was no other word in the minds of those watching.To Anthony, it was nothing. His gaze stayed cold; his killing will drew tighter.The Holy Empe

The heaving air over the four quarters suddenly sank. A darkened silhouette dragged itself out of the heights of the sky, like a deeper thread of night within the night, easing toward them. It had no sound, no scent; even the grain of its aura felt sanded smooth—more secret than a ghost, like a frost-sheathed dagger settling wordlessly to the throat.A heartbeat later, a figure fell from the heights. He touched down without a sound, yet his presence tore the silence around him. It was a tyranny that needed no words; with just an inch of ground underfoot, hearts clenched.“Holy Emperor!!”“The Holy Emperor is here!”“Lord Holy Emperor, a god forever…”“Lord Holy Emperor, mighty and unyielding!”“We can kill these Ardenians now…”“We must kill them…”The boiling shouts surged like oil set alight, raising the temperature of every throat at once. The Holy Emperor revealed himself—a man in his middle years, features unassuming, but a severity honed to lethal stillness. When his gaze droppe

Daisy seemed to recover only then from her astonishment and could not help asking, “Thank you for saving me. May I ask your name? Were you sent by Adrian to protect me?”“Heh.” The woman gave a soft laugh, said nothing at all, and turned to leave.In little more than a few blinks, she vanished into the night.From beginning to end, she left behind nothing but shock and wonder, not a single word in explanation.…At the Foster family estate, the screams still had not ceased.The Foster family’s elite had suffered countless casualties and were now all but wiped out.Clifford Foster and the martial wardens were in an even sorrier state, scarcely fit to look upon.Looking down coldly at the half-dead Clifford Foster, Adrian said, “Well? Do you have any last words?”Clifford Foster looked at Adrian and suddenly burst into laughter.That laugh left everyone bewildered.“Adrian, surely you don’t think I came without a backup plan. Let me tell you the truth—by the time you arrived at the Fost

Clifford Foster spat out a mouthful of blood, his face drained of all color, disbelief written across every feature.“How is this possible? Divine Invocation should have raised our strength by leaps and bounds, and yet we still can’t defeat this brat. What in the world is going on?”The six martial retainers exchanged glances, retreat already stirring in their hearts.“Patriarch, perhaps we should—”“We cannot retreat! There is no road left for us now. Today, either he dies, or we do!”With that, Clifford Foster’s eyes hardened with resolve as he began chanting again.“The Foster family offers its reverence—invoke the divine once more!”Adrian watched the men before him with amused interest and gave a scornful laugh. “Even if you invoke them again, what of it? Your talent places a limit on your power. Summon whatever you like—you still won’t be my match.”The moment the words fell, Clifford Foster and the others coughed up blood in unison. Their faces grew paler by the second, yet the

Clifford Foster clenched his teeth and agreed at once. He knew perfectly well that without resorting to extraordinary measures, there was no hope of killing Adrian.“Fine. In that case—invoke the divine!”At his command, the other six men stepped forward and gathered together, each pressing a talisman to his forehead.Hand in hand, they began chanting obscure incantations no one else could understand.At once, a low, resonant murmur drifted through the air like a song from some forgotten age.“The Foster family offers its reverence—divine spirits, aid us! Descend!”Almost the moment the words fell, all seven men began to glow at once.Ethan Miller and the others stared at the impossible sight, too stunned to utter a word.The light seemed to pour straight down from the heavens, and for an instant, it truly looked as though some godlike presence had descended.The members of the Foster family joined in as well, murmuring the chant in unison. Some of them even clasped hands and sang an

The moment Clifford Foster realized Adrian had mocked him, he flew into a rage.“You reckless little fool!”As he spoke, Clifford Foster struck with a palm, nearly all the power in his body concentrated into that single hand.The full strength of a centenarian martial master was enough to shake any man to the core.Anyone except Adrian.Adrian answered with a punch, calm and unhurried. It looked utterly ordinary, a simple blow devoid of any visible force.Clifford Foster was overjoyed. With this palm alone, crushing Adrian to death should have been effortless.But before he could savor that thought, fist and palm collided—and Clifford Foster was sent flying backward.The bones in his injured hand had already pierced through flesh and skin, stark white against the blood, a ghastly sight to behold.Quentin Foster froze. He could hardly believe what he had just seen.“How could Dad possibly lose to that brat? He’s barely in his twenties, and our father is a centenarian martial master!”“

“If you want to keep me here, you’ll have to prove you can.”Hearing Adrian’s open provocation, Clifford Foster was oddly less enraged than before.He was, after all, a man who had weathered more than his share of storms, and it did not take him long to recover his composure.“Whether I have the ability or not, you’ll soon find out.”Clifford Foster glanced at Iris Lloyd and Emptiness behind Adrian, then at the leaders of the four major business associations.“So you truly mean to stand against my Foster family?”Emptiness and Iris Lloyd curled their lips in disdain. They had never taken the Foster family seriously in the first place.To people like them, an old aristocratic house was hardly something to fear.As for the representatives of the four major business associations, they had no intention of wavering either.Adrian was, at the very least, the next Lord Buddha. If they were not going to stand against the Foster family for him, then were they supposed to oppose their future ma

Even so, he had expected nothing less. Adrian was only a hotheaded young man in his early twenties—if they truly meant to kill him, how difficult could that be?“Quick, bring them in!”Unable to wait another moment to hear the good news with his own ears, Clifford Foster hurried personally to the gates of the estate.The great gates of the Foster estate stood wide open as one business van after another pulled up and came to a stop.The first to step out were indeed the representatives of the four major business associations. Clifford Foster greeted them with a broad, eager smile.“At last, you’re here. Is Adrian dead?”Ethan Miller and the others looked at Clifford Foster as though he were a fool, not even bothering to answer him.The smile on Clifford Foster’s face immediately faltered. Never in his life had anyone so openly slighted him.Least of all a mere alliance of business associations. How dare they show him such disrespect?What Clifford Foster had not expected, however, was