A New Beginning, a Familiar Threat

Luo Shang finished off their opponent, and Bai Que arrived shortly after.

“Are you alright?” Bai Que asked Su Han gently, his smile as refreshing and comforting as a spring breeze.

However, Su Han’s thoughts were not on him.

Her gaze was fixed on the golden-haired youth, and feeling her heart pound, she couldn’t help but pat her flushed cheeks.

“Um… may I ask your name?” Su Han murmured shyly, her head bowed as she fidgeted with her fingers.

‘Oh, what am I even doing?’ Su Han wondered, her hand still on her burning cheek.

In that moment, she truly didn’t know what she intended to do.

‘Since the world has already abandoned me, why not try being a girl from now on?’

Su Han clenched her fists, as if making a firm decision.

“Hmm, maybe I can try!”

Luo Shang turned, giving Su Han a placid glance, his golden eyes shining with an intensified brilliance.

“Luo Shang.”

The two words, spoken so calmly, made Su Han’s heart pound more than twice as fast.

‘Is my body producing too much estrogen?’ Su Han wondered about the changes within her.

Nonetheless, she managed, “A-anō (Um), my name is Su Han. Thank you for saving me!”

“Mm.” Luo Shang simply nodded, offering no further words.

‘So, Su Han? What a beautiful name!’

While Luo Shang remained silent, Bai Que, standing nearby, appeared lost in thought.

“Er…” Su Han turned back, only to see Bai Que’s face flushed crimson.

Mistaking it for exhaustion from the intense battle, she asked with concern, “Are you… alright?”

“Ah? Me?”

“What could possibly be wrong with me!” he replied with a beaming smile, his expression radiating pure delight.

“Mm… that’s good then.”

At that moment, Luo Shang spoke, rather unseasonably, “Bai, it’s time to move on to the next task.”

“Ah? Leaving already? Can’t we wait a little longer?”

“If you’re not coming, I am.”

With that, Luo Shang tore open a spatial rift and stepped inside.

“Well then, I’ll be going too. See you around!”

Bai Que gazed at Su Han, his eyes filled with reluctance, yet he dared not delay.

Black flames swirled around his body, and in a flash of dark light, he vanished.

‘Luo Shang.’ Su Han made no attempt to stop him, knowing it would be futile.

Instead, she quietly etched the golden-haired youth’s face into her memory.

“Interesting, truly interesting~” Ye Minghuang’s playful smile drifted through the air with an ethereal lightness.

His lips curved subtly, as if in casual amusement.

“Tell me, how does the one Nigore favors compare to the one I’ve taken an interest in?”

“Compared to him, I actually prefer that little one, Su Han,” Ye Yuan remarked, standing atop the walls of the Undying City and gazing out at the lands beyond.

A moment later, Ye Yuan turned to Ye Minghuang.

“I heard Luo Yu has awakened?”

Ye Minghuang smiled, his voice as calm as still water.

“After a century of dormancy, it’s ultimately no longer their era.”

Suddenly, a black shooting star streaked across the sky of the Underworld, passing directly over the Undying City.

Ye Yuan instinctively looked up.

“Yuan, the inheritor of the Ghost Dragon Wings you crafted has appeared!”

“And it seems they’re right here in the Underworld!”

“Merely a failed creation, nothing to dwell on,” Ye Minghuang purred, licking his crimson lips as he spoke in a low voice close to Ye Yuan’s ear.

“Also, don’t call me Yuan. That’s just a codename for missions. If you can, call me A Huang instead.”

Zhan Ling secretly slipped out of Cangnan Academy and made his way to the Azure Heron Empire, the closest nation to the academy.

From his storage ring, he retrieved a pair of black wings.

Wisps of dark mist coiled around them, seemingly designed to incite a thirst for slaughter in others.

“This thing is truly sinister!” Zhan Ling whispered, extending a hand to caress the soft feathers of the black wings.

“To think that good-for-nothing had such a treasure in his storage ring. It was wasted on him. I wonder where he got it.”

Indeed, these black wings were none other than the “Ghost Dragon Wings” Su Han had encountered previously.

The storage ring belonged to the self-proclaimed genius from the inner court, whom Zhan Ling had killed—the very owner who had acquired the “Ghost Dragon Wings” at auction.

It was precisely because he had murdered that person that Zhan Ling had been suppressed and assigned to guard the inner test caves.

“Damn, it was worth it!”

“If I hadn’t killed that good-for-nothing, I never would have gotten such a treasure! Even being suppressed was worth it!”

Zhan Ling gathered his vital blood at his fingertip, then pricked it with a dagger.

A pea-sized drop of blood fell onto the black feathers, and a bizarre scene unfolded.

As the blood touched the feathers, it let out a shriek like a blood bat.

Immediately, the black mist coiling around the wings spread out, enveloping Zhan Ling in an instant.

Moments later, Zhan Ling found himself in the Underworld.

Now, a pair of black wings sprouted from his back, allowing him to float in the air like a fallen angel.

The enormous black wings curled around him, encasing him within their embrace.

Through a slender gap, one could discern a cinnabar mark carved between his brows; upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be a black lotus.

‘Is this the inheritance of a Fallen Angel?!’

‘This feeling… it’s truly marvelous~’

Zhan Ling stretched his limbs with a joyous groan, and black ripples of energy emanated from his body, spreading outwards in the vast expanse.