Walnut City.

The moment Moba and his lackeys were dealt with, Hauge didn’t wait so much as a second before racing back to the shop to find Ganlin.

But Ganlin was gone. In his place: a still-wet pool of blood spreading across the threshold, clearly fresh. Hauge didn’t bother ordering his gold-tier lion construct to flatten the shop that had brought him such humiliation. He didn’t bother killing the proprietor whose face alone was enough to turn his stomach.

Right now, the only thing on his mind was finding Ganlin.

“He — he — he was taken away just now, by Young Master Moba’s men. It’s not my fault, it has nothing to do with me!” The blood-streaked shop owner trembled, shaking like a leaf.

“Nothing to do with you?” A fellow stockboy, who’d worked alongside Ganlin in the same shop, found his courage the moment he saw Hauge return riding a gold-tier lion construct — the kind of construct only a city lord had any business owning. He stepped forward at once to point an accusing finger at the proprietor. “Hauge, that blood on the ground — that’s from him. Moba’s thugs were dragging Ganlin away, and the boss chased after them with the construct rod he always uses to beat us, and he cracked it straight across Ganlin’s head—”

“If anything happens to Ganlin, you will die in a way that leaves nothing of you to bury.” Hauge loomed over the proprietor like an enraged lion, the man already trembling so badly he’d wet himself. Part of Hauge wanted to grab this worthless wretch and smash him into the ground like a flea underfoot.

But somewhere after ending Moba, his fury had cooled into something colder and more deliberate.

Killing the man would be easy.

But the deeper, more satisfying punishment would be letting him live — letting the reckoning come slowly, with time to settle every account properly. Plenty of other people likely had their own grievances against him too, waiting to be heard.

More importantly: right now, Hauge needed to find Ganlin. Wasting time torturing garbage like this proprietor wasn’t worth it. He shoved the man aside, deciding Iron Lion’s mercenaries could deal with him properly, swung himself back onto his golden lion, and tore off at full speed, praying he could reach Ganlin before Moba’s men did something irreversible.

The slum district on Walnut City’s outskirts was a sprawl of filthy makeshift shelters — garbage everywhere, sewage running in the open, squalor in every direction.

In truth, this was simply where the city dumped its waste.

Only in a place this unwanted, somewhere even stray dogs avoided lingering, could the city’s poor find shelter without nobles bothering to drive them off. And yet nearly half of Walnut City’s population lived crammed into this small stretch of misery — the same destitute people whose blood and labor quietly fed the merchants, petty officials, and corrupt nobility feeding off them from above. Most of the poor here could see Walnut City’s walls every single day, close enough to touch, and yet might go an entire year without ever passing through the gates.

Some were born in this district and died here without ever once setting foot inside the city proper.

Ganlin’s sister, Gancao, was exactly such a person.

Barring some extraordinary turn of events, this blind, fragile young woman had been destined to spend her entire life confined to a bed — her furthest journey ever being the few meters to the foul-smelling drainage ditch outside their door, and the most comfortable seat she’d ever known was the crude stone bench Hauge had hauled in and roughly carved by hand.

Now, the extraordinary turn of events had arrived. For Gancao, it was anything but good news.

The frail, perpetually ill young woman had been wrenched roughly from beneath her threadbare but warm blankets by her hair and flung onto the filthy ground. The patched-up wooden door Hauge had repaired had already been reduced to splinters, fragments still drifting through the air. Her brother Ganlin lay nearby, blood streaming from his scalp, struggling desperately to crawl toward his sister, but a foot pressed down on his back with crushing weight. He clawed at the dirt with both hands, fighting to break free, to no avail.

His fingers had torn open, blood mixing with the filthy mud beneath him.

“Sis… sis, let her go, let her go!” Ganlin struggled weakly, but against raw brute force, his resistance counted for nothing.

“What did we do wrong?” Gancao, by contrast, forced herself into sudden calm. Blind as she was, she understood her only remaining defense lay in invoking the law itself. Before her enemies could silence her, she had to try to protect herself, whatever small chance remained. “We haven’t broken a single rule. We’ve always kept to ourselves!”

“Listen to that — what lovely words.” The hulking man who’d torn her from her bed sneered without a trace of mercy.

“Even an ant struggles a little before it dies,” one of his companions added, with contempt.

“Why don’t we hear what she has to say first,” another suggested.

“We’re commoners, yes, but we’re also children of the divine. We haven’t committed any crime, you can’t attack us like this — the will of the gods is mercy, the gods would never let us be harmed, you can’t act against the divine will!” Gancao, unable to see how powerful her attackers truly were, tried to invoke the law’s protection.

“Very clever. Of course we’d never act against divine will. But people like you aren’t who the gods protect — you’re who the gods mean to punish, and we’re simply carrying out that punishment in their stead. You say you haven’t committed a crime? Ha — funny, isn’t it? Don’t you know everyone living in this garbage heap is a criminal by definition? Forget that, though — let’s address the real charge. You say you’re innocent, but your brother stole property — valuables worth more than a lifetime of labor could ever repay — and you, as his sister, are guilty of incitement and harboring stolen goods. We caught him red-handed. Care to deny it?” The hulking man, foot still pressing down on her thin spine, laughed with smug satisfaction.

“I didn’t steal anything, I didn’t, I didn’t!” Ganlin thrashed desperately, screaming his innocence over and over.

“The evidence is conclusive. You think a pair of thieving siblings get to simply deny it?” The man standing over him drove his heel down harder. Ganlin coughed blood and lost the ability to speak at all.

“You—” Gancao understood now. They were fabricating a charge from nothing, and no amount of pleading from either of them would untangle it. These men had already decided their deaths.

“We found the gold necklace already.” A voice called out from inside the house.

“And pearl earrings, jade bracelet — all of it, hidden in this filthy shack.” Another man emerged, holding a finely crafted box wrapped in rags.

“What a pair of thieves, stealing goods this valuable. Clearly, if we don’t make an example of brazen criminals like these, we’ll never deter the rest, never maintain order in Walnut City.” The hulking man pressed down on Gancao’s spine again — not even with much real force, but for someone as frail as her, it was nearly fatal, her fragile vertebrae creaking, on the verge of snapping.

“Confess. Right now. Tell us how you stole it, when you first decided to, when you carried it out.” Someone idly kicked at Ganlin’s face, demanding a public confession.

The gathered crowd of poor onlookers understood exactly what this was.

The siblings had clearly offended someone powerful, and this was the manufactured retaliation.

No one believed for a second that any gold necklace or jewelry had genuinely been stolen — everyone here knew Ganlin wouldn’t have dared steal so much as a water jar, let alone find himself anywhere near pearl earrings or jade bracelets. A lowly stockboy, a laborer — Ganlin had probably never even seen a gold necklace up close in his entire life. How could he possibly have stolen one?

This was, plainly, nobles manufacturing a pretext to destroy the siblings.

Everyone understood it.

But understanding changed nothing.

As commoners, they had no standing to even speak. Anyone who dared step forward in their defense would simply become a second accused accomplice.

Heads dropped, one after another.

No one dared meet the eyes of these powerful men, terrified of being swept into the punishment themselves.

“No, I won’t confess, I didn’t steal anything, you’re framing me, I’ll never confess, I didn’t steal!” Ganlin refused, no matter what. He understood — confessing meant certain death, for both himself and his sister.

“Quite stubborn, aren’t you. No matter — this lord has plenty of methods to extract a confession.” The hulking man wasn’t surprised in the slightest; he’d done this far too many times to be caught off guard by resistance. If Ganlin had simply confessed outright, that would have been the strange outcome. A little physical persuasion, followed by an insincere promise of leniency, and resolve always broke eventually — and with a little guidance afterward, the whole case would close perfectly, with no loose threads.

“We’ll confess. But before we do, I need to understand something — why?” Gancao suddenly screamed. “We never wronged anyone. Why? Why is this happening?”

“It’s simple, really. Young Master Moba wanted that stubborn Hauge living like a dog in Walnut City, kneeling at his feet for the rest of his life. And the two of you decided to fund him instead, give him a way out? That’s a death sentence, plain and simple.” The hulking man leaned down and murmured it directly into Gancao’s ear, his tone as casual as a slave owner deciding to dispose of a few troublesome slaves.

“Sis, sis—” Hearing her willingness to confess, Ganlin broke down sobbing. “I didn’t steal anything, I never stole anything, don’t confess!”

“I know you didn’t steal. I know that. You’re a good boy.” Gancao suddenly smiled — her small, mud-streaked face taking on a strange, sorrowful beauty. Her sightless eyes seemed, somehow, to carry a faint glow. “Brother — there’s no hope for us now. Confess or not, we die either way. But it doesn’t matter. Hauge — Hauge will succeed. He will. He’s a man with a real dream, and whatever hardship he’s facing now is only temporary. He’ll succeed eventually… the dream we could never reach ourselves, he’ll achieve it for us… Brother, if I ask you to do this — will you regret it?”

“Sis — I’ll do what you say. I won’t regret it!” Ganlin, still being crushed beneath the man’s foot, cried out through the pain. “I — I won’t regret it!”

“I always hoped, once he succeeded, he’d take you with him, so you’d never go hungry again. It’s a shame you won’t get to see that day…” Gancao’s tears fell freely now.

“Is that your final statement, then?” The hulking man looked at the weeping pair without an ounce of feeling, his heart utterly unmoved.

“Hauge will come back. He’ll avenge us. And someday — someday — someone will judge all of you. You’ve defied the will of the gods, broken the order the gods themselves established. Parasites like you — heaven’s punishment will find you eventually!” Gancao screamed with everything she had left. “Even if you kill us, you’ll never make us bow our heads. We’ve done nothing wrong. Even if you kill us — we were never in the wrong!”

“How inspiring. Does anyone here agree with her?” The hulking man swept a menacing gaze across the gathered crowd of onlookers.

“…” The crowd recoiled in fear, a ripple of panic moving through them.

In the face of raw power and brutality, no one could stand against it.

The poor seethed with silent rage and said nothing.

Heads dropped, one after another.

No one dared meet the eyes of these powerful men, terrified of being swept into ruin alongside the siblings.

The hulking man seemed pleased with the crowd’s cowed silence. He slowly summoned a bronze-tier construct, muttering half to himself. “Pity she’s so thin — nothing but bones to play with, not even fun. Otherwise we could’ve kept her around for a few more days. Forget it, let’s just finish up and report back. Hey, second — you interested in that boy’s backside? Want a turn? Probably more entertaining than those catamites Young Master Moba keeps at home.”

Ganlin, hearing this, prepared to bite through his own tongue.

At the same moment, Gancao’s fingers found a sharp stone on the ground. Gathering the last of her strength, she raised it toward her own forehead.

“A turn? I’ll give you a turn, you absolute—” A roar erupted across the sky like rolling thunder, shaking every shack across the entire slum district, the shockwave more violent than a hurricane making landfall.

A gold-tier lion construct cleared several hundred meters in a single leap.

A shadow vast enough to blot out the sky and sun descended on the hulking man, who stared up at it in pure terror.

It came down like judgment.

A single sweep of one massive paw flattened the man and the bronze construct beneath him into the ground, the way one might swat a fly.

The man riding the lion’s back rolled off and slammed into the ground himself, indifferent to the filth and stench of the mud beneath him. He had only one focus — at the exact instant the sharp stone touched Gancao’s forehead, his hand shot out and seized her thin wrist, his other hand wrenching the blood-stained stone from her grip. He crushed the stone to dust on the spot, fury radiating off him in waves, and rose to his full height, letting out a roar that rolled like thunder across the heavens. “You absolute bastards — daring to exploit loopholes in the law to torment commoners like this. If the gods won’t punish you today, then I’ll deliver that judgment myself. Die — every last one of you, scum lower than the garbage you crawled out of!”

“That’s — that’s Hauge?” Someone in the crowd recognized the man who’d ridden in on the lion’s back.

“How is he back? How does he have a gold-tier construct?” The hulking man’s companions went white with terror.

“Drag every one of them out. I want my lion fed with their flesh.” At Hauge’s command, several mercenaries riding silver wolves came tearing in from a distance, easily overpowering the hulking man’s companions and dragging them outside the shack to be dealt with.

Hauge personally lifted Ganlin off the ground.

He pulled the bloodied, sobbing boy into a tight embrace. “Brother — don’t be afraid. From now on, you’re with me. As long as Hauge has a meal to eat, you have a meal too. You have no older brother — I’m your brother now! No one will ever lay a hand on you again. I swear it — as long as I draw breath, no one touches you, and nothing like today ever happens again…”

Ganlin trembled all over, his lips shaking too hard to form words as he listened to Hauge’s words.

He simply broke down, sobbing openly.

Once he’d settled Ganlin, Hauge walked over to where Gancao still lay on the ground, unable to rise.

He knelt slowly before this blind young woman, two streams of silent tears sliding down his face. He reached out with hands far too large and rough for the task, cradling her the way someone might hold a porcelain doll, terrified that the slightest pressure might shatter her. Hauge — fierce, red-haired, a man who had never in his life shown this kind of tenderness — gently, so gently, helped the blind girl up into a sitting position.

Gancao, unlike her brother, had far better command of her emotions.

Tears still streamed unceasingly from her sightless eyes, but she forced a faint smile onto her face. “You’re back? I knew you’d come back. I just didn’t expect it to be this fast… I can’t see with my eyes, but I can see with my heart. I know you defeated the wicked men. Hauge — a man like you was always going to succeed. I knew it from the start…”

“This success isn’t something I earned through my own effort. But it doesn’t matter — all you need to know is that I have succeeded! I have the strongest friend in the world. He’s as remarkable as a god. In my darkest, most hopeless moment, he found me and gave me hope!” Hauge wiped the tears from the blind girl’s face with clumsy, careful hands, then produced a handful of Heaven Crystals from his storage ring and pressed them into her small, thin hands, letting her feel their weight. “These — these are Heaven Crystals. I have money now, Gancao. You and Ganlin, both of you, come with me. We’ll never go hungry again… What do you think? Aren’t you happy? I have money now — this is the advance pay for working for my friend. I decided I couldn’t accept his gifts without earning my keep. I’m working for him. I’m currently Star Diamond Castle’s chief steward, overseeing every mercenary under him — hundreds, soon to be thousands. There’ll be more, eventually. I can support you and Ganlin both now. Gancao — will you come with me?”

“Before, I wasn’t a good man. Women, to my old way of thinking, were just toys for satisfying desire. Then I met you. Your kindness taught me what actually matters in life, what’s actually worth treasuring… If you hadn’t been there, I might still be the same kind of villain, hurting whoever crossed my path. So, Gancao — will you stay by my side, keep me the man I’ve become today? Your eyes can’t see — let me be your eyes. My heart can’t see the future clearly — use your heart to help me see it. Will you?”

“You’re the most important woman I’ve ever encountered, Gancao. Come with me. Give me a real answer. Let me take care of you for the rest of my life. Will you?” Hauge remained kneeling, his massive frame like a small mountain looming protectively over the frail, sightless girl, waiting for her answer.

“Sis!” Ganlin, overcome, couldn’t help calling out, urging her toward an answer.

“Don’t speak.” Gancao waved him off. She seemed lost in thought — her expression shifting between smiles and tears, contemplation and small shakes of her head, as though wrestling with the hardest decision of her life.

“Say yes, Gancao. I mean every word.” For the first time, Hauge lowered his head.

“But I’m blind. And I could die from illness at any moment…” Gancao’s face carried visible inner struggle.

“I already told you — I’ll be your eyes. And Gancao, I won’t let you die. As long as I’m alive, I won’t let you go.” Hauge made the promise immediately, with absolute conviction.

“Can I touch your face first?” Gancao suddenly reached out a hand toward him.

“This — Gancao, I’m not exactly… what I mean is, I’m not particularly… if you don’t mind that I’m not—” For the first time, it was Hauge’s turn to hesitate. He knew exactly what he looked like. Set against someone like Titan, handsome enough that women on the street needed a mask just to walk past unbothered, Hauge couldn’t even compete with an average man. If anything, his features leaned closer to monstrous than handsome. If looks were scored, his number would be solidly negative.

“Actually, I’ve already touched it. While you were sleeping.” Gancao suddenly smiled. “You and Ganlin sleep on that cold floor, snoring loud enough to sound like thunder. On the nights I couldn’t sleep, I used to wonder — what kind of wanderer gives up a comfortable life outside just to come back to Human Valley and live as a commoner? You’re clearly someone with real pride, and yet you’ve made yourself small enough to fit into our shack, wearing the most threadbare clothes, eating the worst scraps, and even going hungry yourself sometimes just to leave a little extra for us. What kind of strength sustains a man living through hardship like that? Eventually, I figured it out. It was a dream. You came back to Human Valley to chase a dream. From that day, I decided — whatever it took, I would help you reach it. But I’m just a fragile, sickly thing, blind, unable to see anything at all. Hauge, the only thing I had to offer you was that small pouch of crystals. I have no greater ability to help you. What you need isn’t me — you need a woman who can actually be useful to you!”

“What I need is you. There are millions of women in this world, and the only one truly suited to me, truly capable of helping me — is you.” Hauge, alarmed, quickly guided her hand to his own face. “If my ugliness doesn’t frighten you, if it doesn’t matter to you — then say yes. I can have your illness cured. I’ll seek out anyone necessary to heal your eyes, let you see this vivid, brilliant world for yourself!”

“No need to seek anyone out.” A young man wearing an elegant silver mask stepped forward from the crowd, smiling. “Just ask me.”

“Really?” Hauge’s face lit up with pure joy.

“You went around flattering me, comparing me to a god — well, I suppose I should live up to a little godlike capability, or what would your praise be worth?” The young man in the silver mask continued, smiling. “Young lady Gancao — right now, the only person capable of helping and changing Hauge’s fate is yourself. And Hauge, with the capability he has, can help an entire group of mercenaries — and in time, considerably more than that. Which means your decision carries real weight. If you say yes, Hauge will be able to work for me with a settled heart. Don’t you want to see him achieve his dream?”

“My lord — are you someone who can make his dream a reality?” Gancao’s face lit with hope at the question.

“Hauge tells me I’m as remarkable as a god, capable of giving people hope. Ha — a bit of flattery in that, admittedly, but since he’s already said it, I suppose I should make it true. Young lady Gancao, let me put it plainly: I can not only change Hauge’s fate, give him hope, and help him realize his dream — I can change yours too, give you hope, help you realize your own dream. In fact, I can change the fate of countless people, give all of them hope, help every one of them realize what they’ve never dared hope for. There’s one condition, though — I’ll need the help of many people. Hauge, you, your brother Ganlin, and many more besides. Everyone contributing their strength together is how we move forward faster, more completely… If you want to see a new order born — one without exploitation, without persecution, without more people like you trapped in this kind of suffering, without more desperate wanderers like Hauge — then follow me. I’ll build you a new order. And those who exploit loopholes in divine law to commit atrocities like this — I promise you, heaven’s judgment will find every one of them.”

The crowd fell into stunned silence at his words.

“My lord.” Gancao, overcome, pressed herself to the ground in a deep bow. “Hauge’s success has always been the single greatest wish of my life. If it can be achieved under your leadership, I am willing — willing to stand beside Hauge and serve you, however insignificant a blind girl like myself may be!”

“Good. Then the first order I give as your lord is this — I grant the two of you marriage.” With that, the young man turned and walked away without ceremony.

“My — my lord, could you tell this humble servant your name?” Ganlin had never in his life worshipped anyone the way he worshipped this man in this moment. To him, the silver-masked young man standing before him seemed nothing less than the living embodiment of the divine.

“Listen carefully — our lord’s name carries great honor, and isn’t to be spoken carelessly. But since you’re new to all this, I’ll tell you, just this once.” Iron Lion, now one of Yue Yang’s guard captains, swelled with proud reverence, fiercely protective of any disrespect toward his lord. Rather than answering loudly in front of the crowd, he pulled Ganlin close and whispered the answer directly into his ear. “Our lord is the great master of Star Diamond Castle himself — known across Human Valley as Baron Titan.”

“Yes — yes!” Ganlin watched the figure ride off on the wind, a warm swell of hope rising in his chest. Following a lord like this — would there ever be hunger again? No. He would follow this man to the ends of the earth, help him change Human Valley, help him give more people the same chance he’d just been given.

(End of Chapter)