If anything, Bai Ming did have someone to worry about.

What did it feel like to possess power? In one word: boredom.

Utter, soul-crushing boredom. Humans were a species driven to innovate endlessly—and precisely because of that, they grew weary of what they already owned.

Knowledge. Wealth. Life itself. Even emotions.

Truthfully, Bai Ming should have shed all negative feelings long ago. Standing atop the pinnacle, gazing upward yielded nothing but an endless expanse of blue sky—no other scenery remained.

Yet now, he felt anger. He felt worry.

Not for others. Only for his younger sister—Bai Ruoshui—who gave him reason to cling to human emotions and keep living.

So he had to feel anger. He had to use it to remind himself.

To prevent the tragedy of ten years ago from repeating.

“You finally show yourself. I’d begun to think this much commotion wouldn’t even draw you out.”

Ignoring the rubble behind him, Bai Ming faced another figure that had materialized before him.

In this moment, one man mattered more than an entire building—simply because he could *speak*.

“Well now. Full of life, aren’t we, human?”

A slight furrow of the brows darkened the space between his eyes. Hunched and slovenly, the figure flashed sharp, unsettling fangs as he took a step toward Bai Ming.

Sheer presence alone made it clear: this man in black outmatched Bai Ming. As the figure advanced, Bai Ming sensed a colossal shadow stretching from his back, swallowing the space around them, pressing forward like a physical weight.

Listen closely, and that shadow emitted a low, guttural *growl*—as if Death itself had taken the form of a ravenous wolf, hunting lost souls to devour.

“That shadow… what is it?”

The longer Bai Ming stared, the clearer the shape of that *thing* became.

It was undeniably real.

“Oh? You can *see* it?” The man in black tilted his head back with a mocking laugh, spreading his arms wide. He planted a sleek black spear upright into the ground with a *thud*. “How… unexpected, human.”

A vicious grin split his face—a wolf on a cliffside cornering a wounded goat.

“Human. What brings you here?”

“I don’t have time for your games.”

Bai Ming had no patience to waste. His only thought was finding his sister and bringing her back—safely, to his side.

**[Potential Unleashed 10%]**

Bai Ming vanished from the man’s sight—reappearing instantly behind him. Fist coiled at his waist, weight centered, he drove a devastating blow forward.

But as his knuckles neared the man’s face, Bai Ming’s arm suddenly grew heavy. His own momentum dragged him two steps forward. When he stopped, the man stood behind him once more.

“Searching… for that girl?”

The grin never left the man’s face. Calm, almost bored, he let out a derisive chuckle at Bai Ming’s futile strike.

In that instant, Bai Ming understood. He *had* landed a hit—but only by passing *through* it.

Like touching a projector’s beam on a screen: no matter how you reached, it held no substance.

What he’d struck was a lingering afterimage—a phantom born of speed beyond mortal sight.

“So. Here to *save* her? Or perhaps… to save your *sister*?”

“You talk too much.”

Bai Ming realized, too late, that this man had already trapped him.