In the tranquil dream, Ye Xu—or rather, the current Ye Lalar · Tianluo—slowly opened her eyes.
This was her soul world.
An endless expanse that should have been serene and peaceful, emanating a deep and mysterious purple light beneath the night sky.
Surrounding her, Sentencedivine pillars rose from the ground, encircling the magnificent and majestic night-purple divine pattern at the center.
This was the foundation of the “Night God Throne System.”
A discordant light poured down from above, causing Ye Lalar’s brows to furrow slightly.
She slowly raised her head.
In the firmament of her soul world, within the night sky that should have been adorned only with starlight, three lines of glaring text now floated menacingly:
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- Direct members of the imperial family must fulfill the duties of the royalty.
- Direct members of the imperial family must not commit any act harmful to the empire.
- Direct members of the imperial family must not kill one another.
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This was something that had been forcibly implanted into her body and invaded her soul two years ago, when she was captured by the empire, along with that Emperor’s Crest—the three foundational laws of the bloodline grand magic that the founding emperor had woven into the bloodline of all imperial clansmen.
It was also the source of the endless torment that plagued her day and night.
Even with the protection of the Night God Throne System, her thoughts had never been truly twisted, yet she was still forced to obey these three laws.
This prevented her from taking any action that would harm the empire or the imperial family.
Every time she entered her dreams and saw these three lines, the events of two years ago would involuntarily resurface in her mind…
Strictly speaking, it was far crueler than a mere “nightmare.”
Days of continuous mental disorientation, which she had arrogantly attributed to lack of rest.
By the time she realized what was happening, she was already imprisoned deep within the empire’s palace dungeons.
The thing above her head was a grand magic of unparalleled magnificence.
It was a masterpiece jointly created by the founding emperor of the empire and the original “Thirteen Sages” of humanity.
It existed through the imperial bloodline.
All direct members of the imperial family—be they emperor, prince, or princess—were bound by it.
The reigning emperor could even use this magic to forcibly peer into or control the consciousness and spirit of anyone bearing royal blood—as long as the generational gap in bloodline did not exceed twelve generations.
How ridiculous is that?
Right?
Who could have imagined that someone would stuff a top-tier grand magic into a bloodline???
As long as the bloodline gap did not exceed twelve generations, even if you carried only a trace of imperial royal blood, the emperor—as the supreme holder of the current bloodline grand magic—could perform a specific ritual to forcibly probe your will and control your spirit.
The founding emperor had regarded it as the empire’s self-rescue and life-prolonging mechanism.
No matter how perfect a system was, once it grew large enough and lasted long enough, flaws would inevitably appear.
An empire that had stood for nearly ten thousand years and encompassed nearly half of all human territory was naturally not immune to corruption and decay.
Even though the royal family was restricted by the bloodline grand magic, ensuring that its members would never be utterly incompetent even if they lacked world-shaking talent, it was still the same.
Thus, the founding emperor and the Twelve Sages came up with a “desperate move”—
Every male member of the royal family, upon relinquishing the position of crown prince, had as their primary duty to sire as many descendants as possible within the empire.
Thereafter, once the imperial family judged that the empire’s corruption had reached an irredeemable state, the reigning emperor would secretly allow those bearing royal blood to form rebel armies.
Once it was confirmed that the leader possessed both the will to rebel and sufficient ability, the emperor would capture them, return them to the imperial family, perform a special bloodline purification ritual to restore their bloodline to the first generation, and implant a thought seal centered on the bloodline grand magic.
That pitiful soul forcibly brought back into the fold would become the next emperor; and the imperial family would then use the rebel army that person had built to purge and reshape the empire’s ruling class.
And by sheer cruel coincidence, the former Ye Xu happened to possess exactly twelfth-generation blood, standing at the very limit where the bloodline grand magic could still affect him…
“Young Master, are you awake?”
Eyes like deep and tranquil purple gems slowly opened.
Ye Lalar · Tianluo—the current first in line to the imperial throne, the noble “Emperor’s Daughter,” revered by the empire’s people as the “Night Princess” for her beauty and peerless talent—gradually awoke inside a carriage traveling along a remote path.
Yet at this moment, she was slightly different.
Thanks to the specialized technique she had spent two years developing, targeted at the bloodline magic and the alchemical agent injected into her body back then, she could, under the support of magical power, temporarily restore her former bloodline and appearance, thereby evading the control of the royal bloodline magic.
Of course, there were limits.
She was merely “avoiding” it; the bloodline magic still flowed within her body. Her essence remained “Ye Lalar · Tianluo,” not “Ye Xu.”
The moment her magical power was overly depleted and could no longer sustain the technique, or the moment she committed an act harmful to the empire and triggered the bloodline magic’s bottom line, the technique would fail, and the Emperor’s Crest within her body, along with her thoroughly purified bloodline, would forcibly revert her to her original form.
But… for now, this was enough.
“Huu~”
She took a deep breath, slowly poked her head out the window, and said to the coachman, “You may drop me at the station. Someone will come to pick me up there.”
“Alright.”
The coachman smiled and nodded, flicked the reins, and the carriage cheerfully picked up speed.
Ye Xu sat back down, and the memories of two years ago surged once more.
That experience, even calling it a “nightmare” felt too pale.
His spine had been split open, flooded with the alchemical agent that purified his bloodline, as he felt the blood he despised growing within him.
The thought seal forged by the bloodline grand magic had been buried deep into his flesh, eroding his soul.
In a single day, he had fallen from the rebel army’s greatly admired young master—the savior seen by the world—to the empire’s despised, corrupt Emperor’s Daughter.
His beliefs, his will, the great war of resistance he had led—all of it had come to an abrupt end in that moment.
As Ye Xu closed his eyes once more, the scenes of that day came crashing in like a tide—
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“BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM—!”
“Zii… Zzzzz~!”
A series of heaven-shaking explosions tore through the sky.
Nine streaks of light, swift as lightning, shot from the horizon and the earth, heading straight for the resplendent imperial city in the distance.
“Stop them! Stop them!!!”
“Quick, for the emp—”
“BOOM!!!”
As the energy core was instantly pierced, before the final word “empire” could leave his mouth, the esteemed captain of the imperial city’s magitech knight squad—a noble knight—collapsed together with his 4.1-meter-tall, platinum-armored “Radiant Sun Empire Standard Magitech Knight · Captain Model.”
The supposedly indestructible armor proved useless; a scorching giant hand had already pierced through the cockpit, gouging out both the magitech core and the knight’s life.
Behind that magitech knight, dozens of ordinary auxiliary soldiers clad in magitech armor witnessed their lord’s fall and fled in terror.
“Sir Larsen—!”
Wails of anguish came through the communication channel from his comrades.
They glared with eyes filled with rage and fear at the custom magitech knight that seemed like a demon god descended—six meters tall, pitch black all over, dark red patterns spreading like blood vessels, blazing flames surging around it, its crimson horizontal head monitor contemptuously surveying the battlefield.
“That damn Eternal Night Knight!!!”
The remaining four knights of the squad burned with fury, gripping their magitech cutting swords, ready to cleave the demon from behind.
But in the very next instant…
“Zizz… Zii!”
A flash of lightning passed in the blink of an eye. The four proud imperial knights didn’t even have time to react before they were reduced to four piles of scrap metal.
In their place stood a five-meter-tall custom magitech knight gleaming with gold, thunder serpents coiling around it, adorned with dark gold patterns and a V-shaped monitor.
“Lawey, the mission is urgent. We must seize every moment to rescue our lord. Now…”
A cold, silent voice emanated from within the golden magitech knight.
The response was an equally cold yet infinitely furious, steady voice: “I know.”
Inside the cockpit, Lawey took a deep breath and swept his gaze across his comrades on the battlefield: the elegant pink machine “Butterfly” soaring through the sky, pouring fire with countless butterfly-shaped floating escorts; the pure white knight “Apocalypse” decorated only with black patterns, charging across the ground with a giant sword, tearing through enemy lines.
They all swore loyalty to one person and fought for the same faith.
Their only shared symbol was that their machines were predominantly dark in color, or adorned with striking dark patterns.
“The Nine Eternal Night Knights.”
They were the pride of the rebel army, members of the “Eternal Night Knight Order” who had sworn to offer their lives and souls to their master.
They piloted the “Eternal Night Knights” created by their young master, and their pilots were honored as “Eternal Night Knights.”
On the battlefield, each of them possessed terrifying combat power capable of rivaling a hundred men.
Yet clearly, even with such strength, they could not face the empire head-on, an empire that possessed nearly endless magitech knights.
Therefore, they had come here embracing the belief that they had no chance of survival.
And all of it was for atonement… to wash away the sin of allowing their master to be abducted by the empire due to their negligence.
“Huu…”
“Gerashi, buy me time.”
The “Eternal Night Core” trembled wildly. “Ifrit” roared, spewing even fiercer flames.
Seeing Lawey move, the knight called Gerashi—who piloted “Thunder Lord”—calmly nodded.
In the next moment, the nine custom magitech knights that had been sweeping the battlefield began converging on “Ifrit.”
Nine streaks of light burst forth once more, circling “Ifrit” as they launched a do-or-die charge toward the towering city walls radiating terrifying magical fluctuations!
“Bzzz~ Bzzz~ Bzzz~”
The Eternal Night Knights roared.
The closer they drew to the imperial city, the more they felt the reality that their Creator was imprisoned here, and the more their cores surged with furious power.
“Lawey, Vilar, begin gathering power now!”
“The rest, cover them!”
From the sky, Navila—the leader of the Nine Eternal Night Knights soaring in the pink machine “Butterfly”—issued orders as calmly as possible.
The next moment, with the Eternal Night Core driven to its limit, “Butterfly” unleashed its power.
Countless butterfly-shaped floating weapons formed from magical energy surged outward like a tide, hurling themselves at the mountain-like sea of imperial knights trying to block their advance.
This battle was far too strange.
The imperial knight legions were inexplicably “accommodating,” allowing them to slaughter their way right up to the foot of the imperial city.
There were no signs of army-level grand magic being chanted, and the terrifying magitech weapons within the city remained silent.
She knew this was highly abnormal.
But… they had no choice.
Just as the war of resistance began to glimpse the light of victory, their master had been abducted from their base by the empire—because of them, these “Eternal Night Knights” who had once boasted they could turn the tide of battle single-handedly.
Without the young master, this war would be nothing but an illusory bubble; that was the consensus of every rebel army member.
Thus, they had only one path left: using the terrifying individual power of the “Eternal Night Knights” created by their master, storm the imperial palace, capture the emperor alive, and force him to release their lord.
“Understood.” “Roger.”
A low middle-aged male voice and a cold young female voice answered simultaneously.
The red and blue machines protected at the center rose into the air.
Behind “Ifrit,” a massive magic circle slowly rotated as a terrifying flame dragon took shape within it; on the other side, the ice-blue “Ice Spirit”—adorned with dark blue patterns, possessing a W-shaped monitor, and surrounded by countless ice-crystal casting units—began brewing its own extreme blizzard.
“Kill them! They’re going to attack the imperial city—stop them!!!”
Seeing the Eternal Night Knights hovering in the air, countless magitech beams and magical attacks rained down like a storm. Countless close-combat models activated flight modules and charged skyward with the fury of wind and thunder!
“All units, activate cores! For the rebel army, for our lord!”
“Yes——!!!”
To buy time for the two with the strongest firepower, for their ideals and future, at Navila’s command, the Eternal Night Knights revealed their final trump card.
The Eternal Night Cores began frantically devouring surrounding magical energy, unleashing the terrifying authority sealed within the “Night God Throne” system.
The laws of the world seemed to twist. Accompanied by nine terrifying waves of magical power, overwhelming counterattack force surged forth!
Thick earthen walls rose from the ground, layers of pure white magical barriers reinforced, violent thunderbolts gushed from within the fortifications.
Riding the momentum of thunder, shadowy butterflies danced in coordination, mercilessly reaping the lives of these noble knights.
The Eternal Night Knights felt their magical energy draining at terrifying speed.
Clearly, even they could not truly challenge an empire possessing tens of thousands of magitech knights and a million auxiliary troops with just nine machines.
But…
“ROAR——!”
“HWAAAAA——!!!”
Amid the flame dragon’s furious roar and the blizzard’s howling, they knew—they had succeeded!
“Lawey! Vila!!!”
Amid their teammates’ shouts, all magical energy converged on the two central machines, granting them the greatest amplification.
In the next instant, “Ifrit” and “Ice Spirit” unleashed every bit of the destructive energy they had accumulated onto the exact same point of the city wall’s protective barrier!
“Kacha kacha kacha—”
“BOOM!!!”
“CRASH—!”
In the earth-shattering explosion, under the horrified gazes of countless imperial knights, the imperial city wall—capable of withstanding top-tier army-level magical bombardment and having stood for ten thousand years—was forcibly blasted open by these nine machines!
“Enter the palace, rescue our lord!!!”
The Eternal Night Knights gave the enemy no chance to breathe.
The instant the breach opened, they poured all their magical energy into their flight modules and shot into the imperial capital like meteors.
The capital’s defenders couldn’t even delay them for a moment; in the blink of an eye, they turned into gorgeous yet fleeting fireworks.
In the next moment, nine streams of differently colored light plunged straight toward the depths of the distant, golden and magnificent imperial palace!
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