Two months.A span of time long enough for a palace princess to quietly weave a shadow network in search of one unknown young man.In truth, the King had strictly forbidden the effort. Not because the father failed to value the life of the daughter who had once been saved, but because the identity of that savior was utterly blank. No name, no clear clan, no regional origin—no one even knew whether the young man still walked within the kingdom’s borders or had long since wandered far beyond them.For a royal princess, committing resources to track a complete stranger with no background was no trivial matter.Yet the princess could not extinguish the young man’s image from her memory.She only wished to speak a single word of thanks.And if fate allowed— to offer something equal in return for the life he had once risked.For that reason alone, behind her father’s back, she still issued a secret order. Find him. That was the one absolute mandate she set.For two full months the chosen gu

A faint smile touched the corner of her sweet lips. For two long months she had not held even a single scrap of a name belonging to the man who had risked his life to protect her. Now a name rested in her grasp: Qin Zilong.Yet a great question still hung in her mind. If that young man truly was Qin Zilong… why had the figure she witnessed that night been so starkly different from the reputation of trash the world had pinned upon him?The man she had met radiated none of the despair of someone who had lost everything. On the contrary, there was an absolute calm that was difficult to explain—a calm that instinctively made anyone near him choose to remain cautious.She recalled that night once more. The young man had not even known her true identity. He had not known that the girl he helped was of the blood of the kingdom’s ruler. He had carried no conspicuous weapon either. What remained in her memory was only a pair of eyes as still as a frozen lake and hand movements that were clean

The Tianyi Sacred Lion roared again, its wings flapping harder until it swept away the black fog around them.Zilong took a deep breath. "It seems you have no intention of compromising."He raised his right hand.Whoosh.A black flash crossed the air, and the rusted black sword was instantly in his grip. As soon as his fingers closed on the hilt,THUD.A heavy vibration immediately spread through his entire arm. The sword demanded a supply of Qi again, though this time its pull was much more docile.Zilong exhaled slowly. "One week in the dimensional space was not wasted. I am starting to be able to control you."He raised his sword slowly. For the first time, the Tianyi Sacred Lion stopped its attack. The creature stepped back half a step, its red pupils shrinking. Hesitation radiated from there."You recognize this sword?" Zilong thought.However, before he could think any further, the lion lunged again with the remnants of its anger.BOOM!A violent collision occurred in mid-air.C

The Tianyi lunged again, but its movements now appeared chaotic. Its right claw moved faster than its left, and its wing flaps were unbalanced. Zilong dodged every attack with ease, only using the blunt side of his sword to parry without retaliating.CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!Every collision made the Tianyi increasingly restless. The creature looked as though it were fighting two enemies at once: Zilong in front of it, and something invisible inside its own body.Something is forcing it to attack, Zilong concluded.Suddenly, the Tianyi stopped. Its massive body bowed, and...THUD!Its head slammed hard against the ground. Once. Twice.The ground shook and cracked. Fresh blood began to ooze out from the creature's own forehead. Zilong froze in place for a second."You..."His sentence cut off when the Tianyi's eyes suddenly changed. That blood-red color faded for a fraction of a second, replaced by a flash of pure golden light. That gaze no longer radiated hatred, but deep fear.However, be

Zilong’s footsteps halted in the middle of a forest path still embraced by a thin mist. His eyes swept across the ground, then locked onto a broad leaf.There was a drop of thick liquid there. Black, viscous, and not yet completely dry. From that droplet, a faint scent of turbulent Qi wafted, raw and devouring one another.Zilong squatted down slowly. The tip of his finger touched the surface of the blood. Sshh.As soon as his skin made contact, his consciousness was dragged inward. His spiritual perception instantly stretched out, capturing the remnants of Tianyi’s aura left in the air: fragments of pure light that had now been torn apart by foreign, dark red threads of energy.“That seal…”A voice whispered softly, echoing directly within Zilong’s sea of consciousness."His blood is beginning to taint."Zilong closed his eyes tightly. He did not move, letting his mind calm while his spiritual perception crept through the mist, trees, rocks, and read the disrupted Qi currents around