Chapter Forty-Four: First Glimpse of the Sovereign Flame

A dragon has its reverse scale—touch it and you die. There’s no distinction between favor or disfavor. At this moment, the fury within Muxin boiled up from the depths of his soul, as uncontrollable as a sovereign’s wrath defied by a commoner: bloodthirsty, merciless, supremely proud.

“What the hell—die! Die! Die!”
The sudden turn of events shattered Zunye’s composure completely. With all his power unleashed, his senses were razor sharp. He could tell, more keenly than ever, that the figure before him was no mere dangerous convict. That terrifying power, spilling out unintentionally, was far beyond the scope of any dangerous prisoner.

A demon. He was a demon awakened.

Zunye slashed open his own flesh with claws like knives, tearing out chunks of bloody meat. In midair he crushed them, squeezing out the blood, which solidified into countless flying spikes of varying size. In a frenzy, he hurled them all at Muyou.

“I beg you—just die already!” Zunye’s face twisted beyond recognition, his voice breaking into a desperate, tearful wail.

“No!”
With a gentle sweep of his blood-red left wing, Muyou obliterated the flying spikes. In the next instant, he vanished from sight. His speed was so great that only a rippling trail remained where fire-scorched air marked his path. The next second, he appeared before Zunye. Without even glancing at him, Muyou slammed him straight into the earth. The blood-fire wings blazed even brighter, pushing his speed to another level as he skimmed across the ground, dragging his captive with him.

Zunye’s head carved a hundred-yard furrow into the ground. As the groove deepened, it filled with blood, until at last even a milky-white fluid could be seen within. Muyou yanked Zunye’s head from the ground—now shrunk to barely two-thirds its former size—and clicked his tongue in mock admiration. “Only managed to grind off this much? Tougher than I thought.”

With that, Muyou’s body came to a sudden halt. He kicked Zunye high into the air, then slammed his palm to the earth. In a burst of blood-red light, he shot skyward. Before Zunye could even begin to fall, Muyou seized him once more, dragging him into the heavens at a speed even greater than before.

At the same time, Muyou’s cold, arrogant voice resounded through the night, echoing across the sky: “All death-row inmates from the Thirteenth and Twelfth Floors, leave the Rockery Park immediately! I—am going to slaughter the floor!”

At these words, pandemonium broke out among the crowd below his feet.

In that moment, the death-row inmates of the Thirteenth Floor, seeing their leader’s awe-inspiring figure, were flooded with pride so intense that tears streamed down their faces despite themselves.

Tonight, countless lives had been lost—but at last, they had survived to see it through.

“All free men in the Death Row Playground, and all inmates on every floor—listen well!”
Muyou’s voice boomed above everyone’s heads. His body eclipsed the pale moon, blood-fire wings radiating their crimson glow without restraint, casting a bloody hue over the entire Death Row Playground.

An Ruxiang jerked her head up to the sky, and as Muyou’s icy voice reached her, a curious smile played at her lips. “What could have angered that little one so? Those wings are truly beautiful—sister is finding you more and more interesting.”

“Big brother?!”
Whitezai, still unable to move, looked up in shock, worry clouding his gaze as he stared skyward.

“Damn, I had no idea where the boss and that kid were—what the hell is this power? So friggin’ cool! Quick, everyone, follow me!”
The little-eyed prisoner’s eyes shone with excitement; now that he was almost back at his leader’s side, he shouted to rally the others, even more energized than before.

“Director Bai, the target... it looks like the target has ascended.”
A bodyguard in a sharp suit, blue-screen glasses perched on his nose, stared at his computer, tense and calculating, before suddenly pausing in confusion and turning to the acne-scarred man beside him.

“You’re the one who’s ascended! Your whole damn family ascended! I’m in a bad mood, so watch out or I’ll kill you right now!”
The acne-scarred man kicked the bodyguard hard in the backside, but the bodyguard, unfazed by the blow, simply stared blankly into the sky behind him.

Noticing this, the acne-scarred man turned around. At first, killing intent surged within him at the sound of Muyou’s voice, but soon greed overcame him. “Could this be the power of the Meridian Soul-Breaker Worm too? I have to get my hands on you, dangerous convict Muyou…”

“Quick, the place where Old Lady Xiao’s life signs vanished isn’t far—wait, right below that figure in midair. According to the final transmission before her death... still haven’t found the killer—what! The one in the sky—that’s him!!”

In that instant, almost everyone instinctively looked up, their faces a patchwork of reactions. The entire Rockery Park became the focus of all eyes.

The death-row inmates of the Sixth Floor, directly beneath Muyou, were terrified out of their wits. Sensing disaster, some immediately began to flee.

Seeing this, Muyou bit his index finger. Blood instantly covered his palm, and he slammed it downward. In a flash, a giant hand of flames enveloped the entire battlefield.

The Thirteenth Floor’s inmates obeyed their leader’s command, fleeing at once. Some weren’t quick enough and were caught in the fire, but the blood marks Muyou had drawn on their faces suddenly burst into flame as well, wrapping them in a protective blaze. The fire, impenetrable to others, parted for them as if it were water—they escaped easily and at speed.

Sixth Floor inmates tried to imitate them, but after three burned to death in succession, the rest fell into utter despair.

The wounded Hulei and Xuanyao of the Twelfth Floor had already retreated far away, supported by their fellows. The ordinary convicts were nearly on their knees praying for mercy; if not for the miraculous twist in Xuanyao’s relationship with Muyou, they would have surely suffered disaster tonight.

Hulei, staring at the raging inferno and the utterly defeated Zunye in Muyou’s grasp, felt his hands trembling. He clenched them in vain, unable to quell the visceral terror within. He quickly ordered everyone to withdraw even further. He could sense that Muyou’s long-suppressed rage had not been eased by the passage of time—it was only growing more rampant and uncontrollable. If it burst its banks...

At that thought, Hulei shouted, “Run! Don’t stop for anything!”

...

“Do you see?”
Muyou leaned close to Zunye’s ear, speaking softly. By now, all the spikes on Zunye’s body had been melted into blood by the searing heat. Despair consumed him. Trapped in Muyou’s grip, unable even to end his own life, he could only hope the wound in his temple would destroy his brain as quickly as possible—all he wished for was death.

“The ones beneath my feet—those are true ants. I have the right to call them that. You do not, because... you are one too.”

Under the moon, a smear of blood still clung to Muyou’s lips, making him look wicked and cold. Gripping Zunye’s head, he held it before his eyes, tilting his head to study him. There was no mockery in his gaze—only a wild, dam-breaking urge to kill.

On Muyou’s left chest, countless blood threads traced strange, wing-shaped patterns, from which the blood-colored wings had sprouted. Now those patterns shifted and flowed, spreading down his left arm and finally into Zunye’s head.

Immediately, Zunye bared his teeth, unable to utter a word. His entire head was now compressed with searing flame energy, his skull turning transparent, the energy within condensing until the blood-red hue transformed into a blazing gold.

Zunye was dead—or rather, he was dying. The petrification of his body made every neural impulse excruciatingly slow.

“From this night forth, any who lay a hand on my Thirteenth Floor convicts—no matter who you are—will meet the fate of Building A, entire sixth floor!”

With those words, Muyou released his grip. Zunye plummeted from the sky, falling like a sun shot down by Hou Yi, crashing to earth.

Muyou tilted his head, raised his hand, and snapped his fingers. The sound of judgment rang out in the night.

“First Gaze: Sovereign’s Flame!”