Pain.... Endless, bone-deep pain.

Breathing felt difficult. Thinking felt worse.

And when Su Ningyan finally managed to force his eyes open, he found himself trapped within a strange, desolate realm.

Chains bound his limbs, forcing him to kneel upon cold black stone. Around him, stretching endlessly into the darkness, countless demon tools had been planted into the earth, bells, whips, spears, swords, staffs, halberds, blades of every shape and era. Tens of thousands of them.

Every single one radiated a suffocating black-red demonic aura. And all of it was flowing into him. Absorbing. Devouring. Assimilating.....

The force poured endlessly through his meridians, through his bones, through the crystal within his body until agony became the only thing he could understand.

Then, one by one, the demon tools began to vanish.

Each disappearance sent another wave of unbearable pressure through him as the dragon crystal inside his body swallowed them whole.

Time lost meaning.

Ningyan no longer knew how long he had been there.

Days?

Years?

Centuries?

He could not tell.

His senses dulled. His thoughts scattered. Sometimes he wondered if he had already died again and entered another reincarnation.

Yet every time consciousness returned, all he found was pain.

And slowly.... His memories began to fade.

The memories of his past life. The memories of this life.

The memories of love. Of warmth. Of the people who once mattered to him.

Faces blurred. Voices dissolved. Emotions withered into emptiness.

Everything drifted away like smoke scattered by the wind until Ningyan felt hollow, like a shell that merely existed because it had not yet been allowed to disappear.

Then one day, someone appeared.

The first living being Ningyan had seen in what felt like an eternity.

A tall phoenix beastman dressed in white-gold robes stood before him, black hair cascading over his shoulders, vivid purple eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. He was handsome, almost unnaturally so, and there was a smile on his face as he gazed down at Ningyan like one would admire a priceless treasure.

Somewhere within the haze of Ningyan’s broken thoughts, a single question surfaced.

Is he here to save me?

"You have finally returned, Su Ningyan," the man’s voice softened into something dangerously affectionate.

"You truly are perfection itself. Such a glorious rebirth... exactly as we intended."

Ningyan did not understand. He could not even speak.

It felt as though an invisible force had sealed his entire existence while the crystal continued absorbing the demon tools endlessly.

The phoenix beastman crouched before him and grasped his chin gently, forcing Ningyan to look at him.

A grin slowly spread across his face.

"Together, we will reclaim everything that was stolen from us," he whispered. "Our lives. Our glory. Our rightful place."

Ningyan frowned faintly.

Su Ningyan...

Was that his name?

Questions flooded his mind, but his lips would not move.

The man smiled even more tenderly.

"I am Xie Zhenting," he said. "Your loyal servant."

His fingers brushed Ningyan’s face reverently. "The one who adores you more than anything."

Another demon tool vanished.

The dragon crystal within Ningyan pulsed violently.

No.

It was not a dragon crystal anymore.

It had changed.... Corrupted.

The once-violet crystal had become something monstrous, overflowing with black-red demonic energy, severing the connection it once held with a certain dragon entirely.

Xie Zhenting slowly rose to his feet.

"I know you are suffering," he murmured. "But endure a little longer. It will soon be complete."

Then he turned and walked away.

Ningyan wanted to stop him.

He wanted to ask questions. He wanted to scream.

But no sound came from his throat.

Darkness swallowed him once more.

^°^

When consciousness returned again, Ningyan found himself standing inside the crystal space.

Except, It no longer resembled the space he once knew.

The endless violet glow was gone.

In its place was suffocating darkness illuminated only by black-red light.

The crystal floated at the center of the void, enormous and ominous, overflowing with demonic aura powerful enough to distort the space itself.

And coiled around it was a massive black-red serpent.

Its eyes slowly opened.

Then its body twisted violently.

The serpent transformed. Feathers erupted from scales. Wings unfurled.

The creature became a phoenix forged entirely from demonic energy before it dove directly into Ningyan’s beast soul and merged with it completely.

The entire space trembled.

Ningyan stood before the crystal silently, his violet eyes dim and unreadable.

Then he slowly reached out.

The moment his fingers touched the crystal, he woke again. Back in chains. Back in agony.

Ningyan lowered his head and released a long, exhausted sigh.

Time continued to pass.

A very long time.

Eventually, only one demon tool remained.

A sword.

It hovered directly before Ningyan, its blade aimed toward his face.

Then... It vanished. Absorbed by the demon crystal.

And at that exact moment, BOOM!

A terrifying pressure blasted through Ningyan’s body.

He screamed.

The sound echoed through the cavern as black veins erupted across his torso, spreading rapidly over his skin like living corruption. They crawled upward toward his neck while demonic energy rushed wildly through every meridian in his body.

The pain was so intense it felt as though he were being torn apart and remade simultaneously.

All of a sudden, It stopped.

The veins halted at his neck.

The agony receded.

Ningyan gasped heavily, trembling breaths escaping his lips as sweat drenched his body.

Silence followed.

For a long while, nothing happened.

The longer Ningyan remained there, the more aware he became of his surroundings.

A cavern.

He was inside some kind of ancient underground cavern.

And he waited. Waited for Xie Zhenting. Waited for anyone.

Unknown to him, he had remained suspended between life and death for an immeasurable amount of time.

But now, he had fully awakened.

He had returned completely to the realm of the living. And the instant that awakening occurred, a terrifying wave of pressure burst from his body and swept across the entire Heavenly Realm.

Ningyan waited a little longer until impatience surfaced.

A deep frown creased his handsome face.

Crack.

Every chain binding him shattered instantly.

Ningyan slowly rose to his feet.

His hand lifted to his neck as he tilted his head stiffly, bones cracking softly.

His body had changed.

His torso was toned and powerfully built, black veins winding beautifully across pale skin like cursed markings.

His long white hair now reached all the way to his ankles.

He had grown taller. Older. More mature.

He was no longer resembling a youth, but a man who looked to be around twenty-five.

The torn black trousers hanging low around his waist were the only remnants of what remained.

The cavern trembled faintly as Ningyan lowered his hand and stared into the darkness ahead.

Then, slowly, he spoke.

His voice was deep and unfamiliar even to himself. "Su Ningyan..."

He paused as though testing the name upon his tongue. "That... is my name."

He took a step forward barefooted.

The moment he emerged from the mountain, blazing sunlight crashed against his eyes.

Ningyan narrowed them shut with a sharp inhale, lifting a hand to shield himself. After existing within endless darkness for so long, the light burned.

It hurt.

A shaky breath escaped his lips as cold wind swept across his bare skin and long white hair.

Slowly, he lowered his hand. And froze.

He stood atop the peak of a dormant volcano.

Below him stretched a breathtaking sight. A vast hidden clan flourishing beneath the heavens themselves. Towering golden palaces shimmered beneath the sunlight, rivers of molten gold flowed between mountains, phoenix statues stood proudly across the land, and countless figures dressed in white-gold robes filled the enormous clan grounds below.

An entire phoenix kingdom hidden within the Heavenly Realm.

And every single phoenix beast present was kneeling toward him.

Their voices rose together like thunder shaking the skies. "All hail the Beast god! All hail the Beast god who has returned to save us all!"

The chants echoed endlessly through the mountains.

Ningyan stood motionless as cold wind stirred his robes and white hair.

Confusion clouded his expression.

Beast god...?

Were they speaking about him?

He slowly descended from the volcano peak, his bare feet touching black stone before finally reaching the vast gathering below. Thousands of phoenix beasts remained bowed deeply before him, none daring to lift their heads.

Then Ningyan saw him.

Xie Zhenting.

The phoenix approached with a radiant smile upon his face while two attendants followed behind him carrying an elaborate black robe embroidered with golden phoenix patterns.

By now, Ningyan had grown taller.

He and Xie Zhenting stood nearly at the same height.

"Your Greatness," Xie Zhenting greeted warmly, his eyes filled with reverence as he personally draped the robe over Ningyan’s shoulders.

The heavy fabric settled against his body like a flowing night.

"Are you overwhelmed?" Xie Zhenting asked gently. "Please forgive us. Everyone is simply too excited by your return."

His smile deepened. "After all... it has been three hundred years."

Ningyan’s mind blanked.

For a moment, he forgot how to breathe. "...Three hundred years?"