His eyes slid to Helena instead, a small smile tugged at his lips, casual and cruel, the kind that made Helena's feet turn to ice.

"Do you like this guy?" he asked.

Helena's breath caught hard in her throat, her mind spiraled, fear colliding with instinct. If she nodded, she felt like she was signing Lukas's death warrant. If she shook her head, she'd be lying so badly it might be worse.

Her words spilled out before she could stop them.

"Take me instead," she said, voice choking, "Spare him. He's innocent, h-he doesn't know anything."

Wang Xiao's gaze on her now, slow and unhurried. Strong body, disciplined posture, royal blood hidden beneath a soldier's skin, under any other circumstance, she would've felt the weight of his eyes crawling over her.

Right now, fear drowned everything else.

"Well?" Wang Xiao asked again, letting a thread of pressure seep into his voice, "Do you like him or not?"

Helena bit her lip until she tasted blood, eyes burning as tears gathered. She nodded once, small and helpless.

"Good," Wang Xiao said calmly. "Then marry him in a month."

"...!"

The words struck like a hammer.

Lukas's hands clenched instantly, excitement flooding him before reason could catch up.

He turned halfway, staring at Helena with disbelief and joy blazing across his face, grinning like a man who'd just beaten fate itself.

Helena stood frozen, mouth slightly open, her thoughts lagging behind reality, 'Did I imagine all of it?'

Even Ning Xue stared at Wang Xiao, momentarily wrong-footed by the sudden turn.

Wang Xiao didn't care, Judgment bored him.

His gaze shifted instead to Aisha, and Evan, standing a few steps behind her, hope still present stubbornly to his eyes.

"What about you two?" Wang Xiao asked casually.

Evan's heart jumped as he instinctively took a step forward, courage borrowed from Lukas's stand, but Aisha moved first, faster and cleaner.

"I have nothing to do with him."

"!!"

The words froze Evan in place, shock rippled across his face as he stared at her, like the woman he'd chased for years had suddenly turned into a stranger.

Wang Xiao smiled faintly, amused by the mess of human emotion laid bare so easily.

"Oh?" he said lightly. "I don't think he agrees."

Aisha bit her lip, embarrassment flickering across her face. She knew Evan liked her; she'd just never accepted it. "I… I wanted to avoid suitors," she said softly.

To Evan, it felt like nails hammered straight through his chest. Three years of chasing, waiting, hoping, and this was all it amounted to.

No confession, no closure, just this hollow ending.

So this was all he was…

He didn't even get time to speak his thoughts.

Blue flame bloomed in Wang Xiao's palm, cold and precise, beautiful in a way only destruction could be.

SWOOSH!

It surged forward instantly, swallowing Evan whole before a scream could form.

Majestic blue flames flared briefly, illuminating the chamber, and then there was nothing, no body, no ash, no proof that he'd ever mattered.

Wang Xiao withdrew his hand as if brushing dust from his sleeve.

"Since he isn't needed," he said calmly, "I'll remove him, extra baggage gets people killed."

Lukas's legs trembled violently. For the first time, real fear sank its claws into him, not fear of refusal, but fear of hesitation.

'I-If I hesitated earlier.... That would be...'

In this world, indecision didn't get you rejected.

It got you erased!

Ning Xue exhaled quietly, for a moment she'd wondered if Wang Xiao had changed.

Now she relaxed.

Same man... Same monster... Good!

Aisha smiled bitterly. She felt a twinge of guilt, but if Evan hadn't chased her here, he'd still be alive.

Attachment wasn't love, and kindness wasn't desire.

Men often misunderstood that, wasting years waiting outside with umbrellas while the woman they worshipped moaned someone else's name inside.

Evan didn't even get the chance to hold the umbrella.

No one mentioned him again.

They left the pyramids soon after. Yuriko reinforced their bodies so the Netherworld's mist wouldn't rot them from the inside, then Wang Xiao poured the basic language of Nethworld into their minds like an afterthought.

______

A day later…

Above the skies of Snow Moon Country, a region skirting the outer territories of the Yin Faction, the heavens looked deceptively gentle.

A vast blue firmament stretched endlessly, stars shimmering faintly even in daylight, while a pale moon stood shamelessly beside them, as if night and day had tossed each other senseless and forgotten whose turn it was to exist.

From above, a massive phoenix-like beast descended, red and blue feathers blazing like living flames, resembling a mystical blue Luan, its wings folding as it landed on the outskirts of the bustling town.

Six figures dismounted, their silhouettes briefly framed against the sky before they melted into the flow of life below.

The town was strangely gloomy yet lively.

Buildings of dark stone rose in uneven rows, their red walls weathered and scarred, roofs layered with black tiles that drank in the light. Narrow streets cut between them like veins, balconies low, windows small and watchful, as if the town itself were quietly breathing.

It resembled an old war-era town from their world, somber, enduring, but something else lay beneath it, a muted mysticism that spied every corner.

Strange trees like ancient banyan lined the streets, their trunks twisted and ancient, leaves lit faintly as if soaked in sunlight. From their branches hung fruits that looked familiar, round, glossy, almost tiny, yet carried shapes and hues that defied recognition, as though copied imperfectly from memory.

Pagoda-like structures rose here and there, solemn silhouettes against the sky. In the shadows below, small cat-shaped figures stirred, only they were no cats.

Slender white foxes watched in silence, eyes sharp and unblinking.

They were not beasts, but eyes.

Through them, the entire town was being observed, by the presence seated deep within the largest pagoda, the true master of this place.

The first thing that reached them wasn't danger, nor hostility, but noise.

"A fifth Great Lord has risen!"

"They say envoys from every faction are waiting outside his territory!"

"The barrier of new lands still hasn't opened!"

The words crashed over the streets like waves, repeated endlessly by mouths eager to gossip, to speculate, to worship something unseen.

They didn't know, they couldn't know.

That the universe they whispered about had already been swallowed, folded, and remade.

That Wang Xiao had merged his world with this one, carved out the 'Wuxian Dynasty', and sealed it behind a barrier that froze time and space itself like a god slamming a door shut mid-breath.

So they waited.

All of them.

Outside.

With gifts clutched in hands, eyes full of hope and fear, kneeling in spirit even when standing upright, like ants pressed against the edge of a god's shadow, praying the shadow wouldn't twitch.

What none of them expected was that the god they worshipped wasn't inside that sealed domain at all.

He was here.

Walking among them.

Wang Xiao strolled through the town streets with another shiloutte at his side, unhurried, casual, while the rest had already been sent elsewhere to gather information.

The silhouettes around them were more human than what they'd encountered before, less twisted, less grotesque, closer to something that once belonged to flesh and memory.

Seeing familiar shapes made people relax.

Though Wang Xiao walked openly through the streets with a woman whose beauty naturally drew countless gazes, not a single person dared to interrupt them.

The gentle and graceful woman at his side carried an aura of terrifying depth, an existence that, even on the outskirts, stood among the pinnacle experts, powerful enough to level mountains with ease.

"This… isn't Earth," Ning Xue murmured softly, her gaze lifting to the sky.

Stars in the daytime, a moon that refused to hide, something about it made her chest feel tight.

"Hm," Wang Xiao replied thoughtful. "The sun is not real. It is merely a blazing transcendent phoenix, bound in chains, forced to burn forever within her own endless flames."

"Nethworld isn't like your universe," he continued. "There are no planets moving in neat orbits. Everything here was forcibly merged into a single, boundless plane, folded inward again and again. Think of it as… a world that devoured itself, until there was nowhere left to flee."

Ning Xue absorbed his words in silence. Yet her gaze still drifted, almost uncontrollably, toward the glaring sun above. Only now did she understand, why that crushing pressure bore down from the heavens, and why it carried with it an unspeakable sorrow that struck upon her soul.

Wang Xiao had already sent Yuriko and Athlaea ahead with Lukas, Helena, and Aisha.

With those two around, nothing in this remote town could even dream of hurting them.

As they walked, the same topic followed them like a curse.

The fifth Great Lord.

Every time someone mentioned it, Ning Xue's expression stiffened, her steps slowing almost imperceptibly. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Your father's already famous here," Wang Xiao chuckled softly. "Seems like even another world isn't far enough to escape him."

Her shoulders tensed.

Her face darkened.

She already knew who this "fifth lord" was. His words only confirmed it.

She snapped her head toward him, suspicion flickering in her eyes, "Are you from this world?"

"... how do you know so much?"