“Honored master. What do we do next?” Evan’s mania had bled away, leaving him cool as frost on stone.

“Rest for now,” Era said, patting a metal canister that seemed to appear from nowhere, smile thin as a blade of moonlight. “Without the Demon Race’s support, if I rely only on my Black Demons, too many gaps remain.”

Evan flicked a mocking look at the canister, like a cat eyeing a tin fish. “Master, when does my ‘big brother’ come out?”

Era laughed, bright as sparks in dry grass. “What, can’t wait to see him?”

“Yes.” Evan’s smile was cold as winter water. “He always pressed me down in everything. Now, serving you, I can finally grind him under my heel.”

Era watched him with a sunny, knife-edged warmth. “Good, good. But wait a little. Regan Osborne’s will is a touch stronger than yours. Corroding it fully won’t be easy.”

“Is that so.” Evan frowned, a shadow crossing glass, displeasure rising like smoke.

Era shook her head, a weary willow in wind. These people were truly beyond saving.

She left the sealed chamber and stepped into the meeting room, eyes falling on the list spread across the table like fallen leaves. She frowned. “Those princes all cling to the empire’s outskirts, timid as field mice, even worse than that idiot Fourth Prince. Grabbing them wastes my strength.”

“Closer are Second Prince Andra Osborne and Third Prince Kait Osborne.” Her voice was a quiet drum under fog. “But that one clashes with the present Crown Prince. If I seize him, I won’t know where to place him.”

Her gaze settled on a spot highlighted like fresh blood on snow. “So… Third Prince… Kait Osborne… we’ll plan this with care.”

Just then, Era felt a current surge inside her, a river breaking its thaw. The power scattered a hundred years ago stirred and crept back, starlight returning to a shattered sky.

It was still meager, a candle in rain, but compared to the earlier trickle, it was lightning across a plain.

Era blinked, staring at her own hands as if seeing roots under bark. “This… is the Commander’s radiance of the Demon Race?”

Her eyes lit like dawn. “The Demonic Lord has stepped into the Sacred Rank!”

She lifted the crystal at her brow, linked it, and spoke with a tremble like spring thunder. “Reni, Reni! Do you hear me? Reni?”

Reni had been brooding over a black mist as still as a pond at midnight, when Era’s shout rippled through. She snatched up her crystal with a sigh sharp as a reed. “What now? Need support? No. I told you—don’t stir trouble. His Majesty the Demon King is at a critical moment. Don’t mess it up.”

“Hey, little Reni, you don’t know yet? The Demonic Lord already entered the Sacred Rank!” Era’s joy flared like a bonfire.

“Huh? How do I not know?” Reni stared at the inert black fog, puzzled as a sparrow in smoke.

Era thought for a beat, tapping memory like a drum. “Emmm, the Commander’s Mark on me came when the Demon King still reigned. You were born at the Demon Race’s end. Not having it is normal.”

“Huh?” Reni froze, mind blank as snow. “What Commander’s Mark?”

“Ah, it’s hard to explain. Ask the Demonic Lord later.” Era’s excitement kept chiming like bells.

“Oh… so you’re saying His Majesty has entered Sacred Rank. But I feel no ripples nearby.” Reni’s confusion drifted, a cloud with no rain.

“That should be the Demonic Lord keeping it secret.” Era’s tone softened, a veil across a lantern.

“But His Majesty still hasn’t come out.” Reni’s doubt hung like mist.

Era paused, a stone dropped into water. “Uh… that I don’t know.”

“...Fine. I’ll wait a while longer. If the Demonic Lord’s fine, all will be fine.” Reni exhaled, tension loosening like a drawn bow allowed to rest.

“Mm…”

Right then, the newly Sacred Demonic Lord had herself curled tight, a little ball of storm, squatting in a corner as unsteady as a leaf in wind.

She had just stepped into the Sacred Rank and wished the Demon Race to grow in secret, quiet as roots under earth. Better they not learn another Sacred Rank had bloomed.

So she pulled back the spilling energy, drawing it inward like tide returning to the moon.

All was smooth, a silk thread unbroken—until she forgot one small, mortal thing. She no longer wore the Demon Race’s indestructible armor.

She wore a little girl’s white dress.

As demonic aura surged, every stitch vanished, clothing evaporating like frost under dawn.

Edlyn curled in the corner, eyes on her pale, unmarked skin, at a loss, a deer caught in lamplight.

Outside, a host of demons waited, a field of spears, expecting her to stride forth. Going out bare felt wrong, a winter without a coat.

And her heart’s whisper begged for privacy, a curtain over the moon. No one could see her now.

“I’m doomed… What do I do… Is my rare chance to swagger just going to slip away?” Edlyn’s blush bloomed like peach petals as she hid in the secret chamber’s shadow, shivering like bamboo in wind. (Yes, priorities.)

Back at the Ninth Prince’s manor, Eli and the others slowly undid the chains of the room’s magic array. Eli glanced at sleeping Yiyi and sighed, a reed bending in rain.

Li Gongxuan patted his shoulder, palm warm as sun on stone. “What’s wrong, brother? Your sis should be fine, right? No sudden worldview collapse?”

Eli’s smile twisted, half bitter, half amused, like tea steeped too long. “Getting kissed by a girl won’t shatter her worldview.”

“Then why the grim face?” Li Gongxuan’s confusion hovered like fog over water.

Eli looked at him for a moment, then shook his head, a bell rung once and stilled. He didn’t answer.

Liqianyu would blurt it to her brother soon enough. No need to waste breath here.

Eli had stepped into the Sacred Rank. His avatar would be fed Sacred energy at all times, rain on a field that never dries. The array kept it apart for now, but she couldn’t stay inside forever.

So he would learn the private space Albert used for his avatar, a pocket of quiet like a hidden grotto.

He felt a touch of regret, a cloud shading noon. The little one wouldn’t roam freely until his breakthrough stabilized.

Since she was his avatar, he knew himself too well—his chaotic nature hated a small room like a bird hates a cage.

Irritated, a drumbeat under skin, he stored sleeping Yiyi into the avatar space right in front of Li Gongxuan. Then he said, voice plain as bread, “It’s late. Sleep early. Tomorrow we escort the Ninth Prince to visit the Church.”

While the other man stood stunned, Eli walked to the bed like a soldier to camp.

He fell flat and slept, a stone into a pond. Five seconds later, snores rose like soft thunder.

Watching this entire operation, Li Gongxuan’s mouth twitched, a bowstring slackening. Hell, first time he’d heard that someone at Sacred Rank still needed sleep.

He waved a hand, shut Eli’s door, and jogged off to find Liqianyu, steps light as a fox.

Liqianyu’s room.

“Sis, you really won’t come home?” Li Gongxuan grabbed an apple and took a bite, crisp as ice on bark.

“I’m not going.” Liqianyu rolled her eyes, a star spinning. “What’s good back there? Dad’s strict. He meddles in everything.”

“But Father’s arranged marriage?” Li Gongxuan’s grin was wicked, a crescent knife.

“Bro, you know me.” Liqianyu shrugged, shoulders like wings. “Even if he drags me, I might as well die on the wedding day.”

“Brother, you also hate the Sun family’s daughter being pushed onto you.” She hugged the apple basket like a shield and looked him dead on.

“That’s different, okay?” Li Gongxuan shivered, a dog in cold rain. “Miss Sun… she’s the kind to scare ghosts and gods. I see her and want to puke.”

The siblings stared at each other, silence like a stone wall.

After a moment, Liqianyu noticed something. She pointed at the sword at his waist, finger quick as a sparrow. “Bro, where’s Jade North Star’s scabbard?”

“Huh?” Li Gongxuan glanced at the Qinglong Ting in his hand, then at Jade North Star at his waist, thoughts turning like mills.

He remembered a purple-haired girl tied in the primal forest, his scabbard turned to rope around her like snow-white vines.

Li Gongxuan’s mouth skewed. “Oh, crap…”

Deep in the primal forest where Eli and Li Gongxuan had fought, the scabbard had shed its white-rope form, and with his departure, returned to a true scabbard, quiet as a sheathed blade.

The purple-haired girl hugged it and moved with care through the pitch-black woods, the scabbard’s faint white glow her single candle in endless night.

“Awoo!”

A wolf’s howl snapped the air like a whip, and the girl jolted, hiding behind a tree, clutching the scabbard as if it were a lifeline.

Earlier, Li Gongxuan had sealed all her magic, an iron lid on a pot, and hadn’t undone it. She had never trained Battle Aura. Right now she was no different from an ordinary girl, a reed in wind.

She was hungry and thirsty, lips dry as dust, yet she’d noticed one heart-lifting thing—the forbidden curse the Crown Prince had placed on her had vanished, a knot undone by invisible hands.

“Did that Far East man’s clash with the other guy shake it loose?” She puzzled, thoughts circling like moths around a lamp.

She couldn’t imagine the Crown Prince had already been killed, a pillar toppled without a shout. Though the pre-mission curse had annoyed her, she believed he had skill; in her mind, he couldn’t be cut down silently without a cry for help.

Grrr— Her stomach growled, a drum in an empty hall, and her daydreams broke like foam.

She clutched her belly. “I’m starving…”

No choice. If she kept sitting, draining every drop of strength, she’d die here for sure, a candle snuffed in a cave.

She stood and staggered forward, steps like leaves on water.

She only hoped to find a stream, a silver ribbon, and drink at least a mouthful.

Dazed, she bumped into something, a soft thud against bark. She rubbed her eyes and saw a brown tree ahead, two unknown fruits hanging like small suns.

Joy flashed, quick as lightning. She reached out to pluck one, fingers closing on promise—only to find a green viper as thick as her thigh coiled on the branch, watching her with cold emerald eyes.

She raised the scabbard high, its weak glow washing over scales like moonlight on river stones. She swallowed and gently put the fruit back. “Uh… I… am just passing by.”