Time raced like an arrow; months slipped by like a moonlit shuttle on a silent loom.

Campus days felt mild yet lively, a sunlit brook with laughing ripples; a whole semester blinked past, and the ranking match is just one dawn away.

I feel steady and sharp, like a blade cooled in moonwater; at full tilt I’m near Holy Peak, and with Shattered Light I can even challenge the Divine Realm—at least the fresh Divine Novices.

Gratitude warms me like winter tea; without Yuyi Mengliu and Eastern Moon Aixue sparring with me, thunder under clear skies, my rise wouldn’t have broken like dawn.

Yuyi Mengliu’s magic climbed to mid Sacred, her swordwork leapt like lightning; Eastern Moon Aixue and Faya stepped into the Sacred Realm, robes catching the wind like banners.

When boredom drifted in like mist, I walked with Xinuo and Qianji Sister; step by step, leaf by leaf, we traced Egisia Academy’s every stone and quiet corner.

Elsewhere storms gathered behind closed clouds; I barely cared, a passing glance like a sparrow skimming a pond.

Xinuo said it happened two months back, in November, on the night of the twentieth, the moon a thin blade over the roofs.

A dorm room. Steam curled like lazy dragons. “Ah, that bath felt good.”

Di Yue’er stepped out in a towel, water pearls on her skin; then a cold prickle—“Who?!”

Magic flared like frost; she shaped daggers and snapped her arm, knives streaking for the window like shooting stars.

“Mm, I knew crossing within twenty meters would trip your net.” A sultry voice rippled; the conjured blades sighed into mist.

By the once-empty window stood a woman, intoxicating as night-blooming flowers, enough to sway any man’s resolve; a delicate paper fan kissed her smile as she laughed.

“Nareinya, what are you doing here?” Di Yue’er’s willow brows tightened, her tone cool as shade; clearly, she disliked the sight before her.

“What else? You, the Dark Demon ‘ace assassin,’ have been nesting here so long with nothing to show. President Rangetsu sent a few of us.” Nareinya’s laugh tinkled like bells in wind.

Like Di Yue’er, she was one of Dark Demon’s top blades, but her mastery was arrows, not knives; her shafts ride the wind, kill at a thousand miles, even Sacred-levels fall like felled pines.

Against Divine Realm titans, she’s spilled blood by ambush and snare, shadow teeth in the tall grass.

Still, compared to Di Yue’er, Nareinya’s weight is lighter; her rank sits just behind.

“A few of you?” Di Yue’er’s brows knit tighter, a brushstroke deepening.

“That’s right, a few of us.” A hoarse girl’s voice rasped like ember on coal; black-violet flames drifted in, and a girl with a lollipop stepped from the window’s dusk.

“Ah—Heiyan! You came yourself?!” Surprise flickered like sparks across Di Yue’er’s face; Heiyan’s seat in Dark Demon rests just beneath Rangetsu, and not by much.

She’s a Demon Summoner at Divine high-tier, keeper of three god-tier summons, and when she calls the lesser hordes—demons, undead, monsters—billions upon billions answer like locust swarms.

They range from F-class to B-class; power aside, sheer numbers could erase a mid-sized empire in a blink, sandcastles under a black tide.

If she goes all out, even a Divine Peak expert would flee like leaves before a storm; Rangetsu stands above her only by that tie to the God King, and truth be told, neither can truly crush the other.

So, within Dark Demon, their stations rhyme more than clash.

“It’s simple. You went quiet too long, so we came.” Heiyan’s gaze brushed Di Yue’er like moonlight on steel; her voice stayed cold water calm.

She looks like a girl, but years coil around her like old roots—over three centuries, far older than Di Yue’er.

“Alright… is it just you and Nareinya?” Di Yue’er asked, doubt drifting like thin smoke.

“We’re here too!” Voices arrived before faces; three girls in black robes marked “Dark Demon” swept in through the window like swallows.

“Lady Heiyan, tasks complete.” The lead girl bowed, respect crisp as a drawn line.

“Tissia, well done.” Heiyan bit the lollipop stick clean, nodding with a winter-quiet smile.

“Huh? Tissia’s here too—and Haidiel and Mina.” Di Yue’er lifted a hand in greeting, a leaf-flick of courtesy.

“Mm.” The three nodded back, a simple tide-and-ebb acknowledgment.

Tissia and Haidiel are Dark mages at Holy Peak, shadows woven tight; Mina is a Sacred high-tier Demon Summoner, circles glowing like wildfire.

All three stand under Heiyan’s banner, so their names carry like drums in the night; Heiyan’s eye is hawk-sharp, and few meet her sky-high line.

She keeps few hands, but the ones she chooses are stormborn—geniuses or monsters with teeth.

“Enough. Di Yue’er, we’ll stay here a while and prepare.” Heiyan flicked the candy stick into the trash, an arrow finding its target.

“That’s fine, but… prepare for what?” Di Yue’er’s puzzlement rose like fog at dawn.

“To capture Yumigawa Sumeragi. He’s the Mizumi Clan’s young master.” Haidiel’s tone was matter-of-fact, a blade laid flat on the table.

“Oh. But… does this mean anything?” Di Yue’er’s doubt tapped like rain; Dark Demon calls itself the world’s second power, yet beside the Mizumi Clan of the Central Continent, it’s still ants beneath an elephant.

Ants daring to vow they’ll topple Mizumi, and now saying they’ll seize the clan’s heir—madness strung like taut wire.

Di Yue’er wouldn’t run with that fever; for this mission, her heart stayed cool, her effort a casual toss of pebbles.

“Meaning?” Mina understood the question’s bones, but the meat stayed vague; she shrugged like a cat under moonlight.

“Not your concern. Do your part. Enough talk—Di Yue’er, ready rooms for us.” Heiyan’s voice cut clean, a sword through reeds.

“…Alright.” The answer fell soft, a leaf leaving its branch.

And that, roughly, was the spark tossed into dry grass, the beginning of the disaster to come.