Early morning hit the Purple Flame Marquis Mansion differently.Not peaceful. Not calm.More like that strange silence right before a storm breaks—when even the air feels a bit… off.Outside the main gates, rows of armored guards were already lined up. Perfect formation. Too perfect, honestly. Their armor caught the pale sunrise and threw it back in cold flashes. Swords at their waists hung heavy with intent, like they were already waiting for blood that hadn’t been spilled yet.Nobody talked. Not even a cough. Just the faint clink of metal and the steady press of boots on stone.In the middle of it all stood Yu Haoxuan—though in truth, it was Kaelen Viremont.And today, he didn’t look like any “young master” anyone remembered.He wore purple-gold battle armor, regal and heavy, like it had been born from thunder and flame itself. It fit him too well. Almost like it was made for him from the start. The kind of presence he gave off now… yeah, it wasn’t something you’d associate with a l

Everyone there just froze.Seriously—no one moved for a moment.All eyes were locked on the young man in purple-gold armor standing casually above the fallen Blood-Clothed Marquis.Kaelen Viremont had one foot pressed on the marquis’s chest like it was nothing. Like the guy wasn’t a terrifying noble ruler… just some unlucky criminal caught at the wrong time.The entire Imperial Dragon City street went quiet.Too quiet.And then it broke.Voices exploded everywhere.“I can’t believe it… that so-called Playboy was actually a hidden monster!”“We all thought Yu Haoxuan was useless, but this level… even imperial geniuses can’t compare!”Shock. Disbelief. Awe.It spread through the crowd like wildfire. You could literally feel people rethinking their entire understanding of him in real time.Because the Blood-Clothed Marquis?Yeah… he was supposed to be untouchable.A symbol of power. Fear. Authority.And now he was just… lying there. Crushed under Kaelen’s foot like it meant nothing.It f

The first light of dawn had just started to creep across the sky when Kaelen Viremont opened his eyes.Night was already behind him, fading like it never really mattered—but something subtle still lingered in the air. A faint scent. Soft. Almost unreal. It hung in the sheets beside him like a memory that didn’t want to leave.He just lay there for a moment.No expression. Calm eyes. Hard to read.Then he let out a quiet breath, pushed the blanket aside, and got up.He didn’t look back.This was Mu Qingqing’s residence. And honestly, it wasn’t just a “house”—it was more like an entire world carved into elegance. Outside stretched manicured greenery, artificial hills shaped so naturally you’d think they grew that way, slow-moving streams catching the morning light, and white stone paths linking grand pavilions like threads in a painting.Everything here screamed one thing.Status.Power.Kaelen moved slowly through the courtyard. The air was cool and fresh, carrying dew and the scent of

The moment Kaelen Viremont stepped through the stone door, everything just… changed.No warning. No transition.One second, he was inside the pagoda—the next second, light was gone.Color too.And what replaced it was a dead, endless wasteland stretching as far as the eye could see.The sky above looked wrong. Heavy. Gray. Like time had gotten stuck in some permanent dusk and simply refused to move on. No sun. No moon. Just this dull, lifeless glow pressing down on everything.And then there were the graves.Thousands of them.Old, broken tombstones are scattered everywhere. Some stood upright, cracked and worn like they’d survived too many ages. Others had already fallen, half-swallowed by the earth. A few were tilted at odd angles, as if they were even tired of standing.Black crows perched on top of them.Silent… until they weren’t.Now and then, one would let out a rough, scraping cry that echoed across the wasteland. The kind of sound that made the place feel even more empty than

Guided by the ancient map, Kaelen Viremont and Thalindra traveled swiftly through the ancestral land.The deeper they ventured, the quieter the world became.Life itself seemed to have abandoned this region.No birds sang among the trees.No insects crawled through the grass.Even the wind felt strangely absent.A heavy silence hung over the land, pressing against the senses like an invisible weight.Less than half a day later, they arrived at the location marked by the crimson dot on the map.The moment Kaelen stepped into the area, his expression hardened.The Yin energy here was far denser than anywhere else they had encountered.Dark mist drifted between the dead trees.The ground was cracked and lifeless.An overwhelming aura of death lingered in the air, refusing to disperse.More importantly, a faint feeling of danger stirred within his chest.It was difficult to describe.He felt as if something ancient was sleeping beneath the earth.Something that should never have awakened.