The Tianrao Purple Vine, Descendant of the Battle Emperor

One of the Kaman raised his Staff and pointed it at Lu Yuan. Water mist coalesced around the tip, forming a Water Arrow that launched forward with a sharp **hiss**.

Beside him, the shield-bearing Kaman let out a low growl and stepped in front of the Staff-wielder. Stone-like veins crawled across his pale gray skin, spreading across his shield as well.

*Petrified Skin,* Lu Yuan noted. The first Combat Technique he had ever learned himself. He knew it well.

*Not bad defense.*

Amy cast a sidelong glance at Lu Yuan, barely concealing her contempt. *Don't tell me he needs me to carry him.*

The Water Arrow tore through the air.

Lu Yuan's expression didn't change. He raised his sword and cut.

The arrow shattered.

All three Kaman froze in alarm. In two breaths, Lu Yuan had closed the gap entirely. Along the way, the Water Arrow Kaman fired off two more shots — Lu Yuan batted both aside without breaking stride.

*Ranged fighters. Always the most annoying kind.*

Those arrows packed real power — a notch stronger than the Ancient Sea Giant Crocodile boss he'd fought before. But Lu Yuan's face remained stone-calm. His eyes went cold as he zeroed in on the Staff-wielder first.

Before the Kaman could condense another Water Arrow, Lu Yuan was already there. A flash of red sword light — and the Kaman crumpled.

**Clang!**

The remaining sword-wielding Kaman gritted his teeth and wheeled on Lu Yuan, heavy greatsword shimmering with a pale gray light. That edge carried a genuine threat — even with Crimson Copper Light active, Lu Yuan felt it.

Their weapons crashed together. The sword Kaman's face went white. He staggered backward, both hands trembling from the sheer force.

*One hit to rout.*

A flash of savagery crossed Lu Yuan's eyes. Crimson light blazed across his body as Black Steel Force erupted at full power.

**Boom!!**

The force caught the stone-skinned shield Kaman full-on. He flew backward and crashed to the ground, vomiting blood.

The sword Kaman tried to scramble away — but purple vines coiled around him before he could escape. He snarled and hacked at the tendrils, but Amy bit her lip and drove her Spirit Power to its limits. The vines came endlessly, relentlessly, cutting off every path he tried to open.

His pupils shrank.

A sword flash swept across his vision.

Then darkness.

Lu Yuan stepped over to the stone-skin Kaman, still struggling to drag himself upright from the dirt. One thrust finished it.

All three Kaman: dead.

*This human...* had been the Kaman's final thought, equal parts terror and disbelief. *What kind of monster is this?! Defense like a fortress and strength like that — both?!*

Standing to the side, Amy's large violet eyes — the rare, striking kind people called Cazaland eyes — shimmered with undisguised surprise. She had seen these Kaman fight before. She knew exactly how strong they were.

*From his Spirit Power fluctuations, he can't have been First-rank for long. But that strength... that defense... nothing about him matches a newly promoted warrior.*

Amy released her vines and slumped against a nearby tree, breathing in shallow bursts. She'd pushed the Tianrao Purple Vine to its limit to keep the vines coming, and the effort had drained her completely — her face was chalk-white, her small frame trembling.

Lu Yuan turned after finishing the last enemy and looked toward her. "You alright?"

"T-totally fine! A little thing like this couldn't possibly stop me, Amy Algaibi! Don't underestimate me!" She waved a hand with as much bravado as she could manage.

*She'd be more convincing if her body would stop shaking.*

He said nothing. He reached into his pack and produced a Spirit Power potion and a healing potion, then held them out.

She took them with a slightly awkward expression and tilted her head back, gulping both down in one go.

The color returned to her cheeks quickly. The trembling stopped.

While Amy recovered, Lu Yuan glanced over toward where the Gene Warriors had fallen earlier. Spirit Crystals, scattered materials — and one battle axe glinting faintly with pale green light. The armament of that elite Gnoll.

He walked over to collect them.

Amy watched him, a curious look in her eyes. "Aren't those things basically worthless? Why bother picking them up?"

*When will I ever be well-off enough to find picking up loot annoying?*

He smiled and kept gathering.

*People like her and Yeye are just built differently.* Elites didn't bother with anything below a certain threshold. Meanwhile, here he was, gleaning Spirit Crystals one by one.

By the time he finished, Amy had fully recovered. She stood up straight, brushed the dust from her purple robes with meticulous care, and turned to face Lu Yuan with an expression of utmost gravity.

She stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder, then thumped her own chest — *thud, thud, thud* — with the air of someone making a solemn vow:

"You saved this young lady. From now on, you follow me. With me here, no one will dare lay a hand on you."

Lu Yuan watched the small fist drumming against her collarbone and felt the corner of his mouth twitch.

*She'd be slightly more convincing if it didn't look like she was about to cave something in.*

Seeing her smug, he couldn't quite resist the urge.

He nodded gravely, tilted his head skyward at a precise forty-five-degree angle, and settled into the expression of a man bearing a noble and unspoken burden:

"Isn't it said that a life-saving grace can only be repaid with one's hand in marriage? I assumed you were letting me follow you because you found me ugly."

Amy's snow-white face went scarlet in an instant.

She blinked. Blinked again. Then stumbled backward a full step until her back hit the tree trunk behind her.

"Y-you — you you you — how could it *possibly* be marriage?! That requires — requires *liking* each other first! And — and *holding hands!!* How can you say something so shameless?! You should be *embarrassed*! I am not letting you follow me anymore!"

Lu Yuan: ...

*I really should not have said that.*

He watched Amy's spectacular outrage and stayed quiet.

After a moment, Amy huffed out a long breath, crossed her arms, and lifted her chin.

"Although I am *not* letting you follow me anymore — you are still my lifesaver. Great-grandpa always said: one must repay kindness. So if you ever run into trouble, come find me. I'll handle it."

Lu Yuan listened and let a small smile surface.

He hadn't saved her with this in mind. But Amy's offer was an unexpected bonus — and not a small one. *The promise of a Battle Emperor family's heir carries real weight.* He had enough self-awareness to recognize that clearly.

*Besides —* he glanced at her *— this one genuinely has a good heart.* He found himself wanting to protect that.

After gathering his things, Lu Yuan glanced back at Amy. "Right — almost forgot."

"Oh!" Amy blinked up at him. "What's your name?"

"Lei Feng."

"Lei Feng?" Amy tilted her head. "Surname Lei?" She thought about it, then frowned slightly. "I don't think there's a Lei family among the Battle Emperor clans... You're not from a Battle Emperor family?"

Lu Yuan: "..."

"Haven't you heard of the Algaibi family?" Amy pressed, with the tone of someone who found this ignorance genuinely bewildering. "Surely you've at least heard of the Tianrao Battle Emperor?"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. "You're a descendant of the Tianrao Battle Emperor?"

A proud smile lit up Amy's face. She held out her small palm. Spirit Power flowed, and a short length of purple vine curled lazily in her hand, swaying gently — small, almost playful-looking.

"He's my great-grandpa! The Tianrao Purple Vine, and you didn't even recognize it." She let out a bright string of giggles. "Hehehe~ How dense!"

"So you're really the Tianrao Battle Emperor's descendant," Lu Yuan said.

"Obviously. Everything Amy Algaibi says is correct."

He studied the girl with quiet curiosity. "Amy, which Battle Emperor family are you from, exactly?"

Amy stared at him as though she suspected he was testing her. "The Algaibi family. The one I just said. My great-grandpa is the Tianrao Battle Emperor." A pause. "You genuinely haven't heard of us?"

"Not even a little."

Amy gaped.

*So she's genuinely from the Tianrao Battle Emperor's bloodline.*

Lu Yuan turned this over. The Red Maple Empire had, if he recalled correctly, only four Battle Emperors total — and across all of Great Qi Star, the count couldn't be much higher.

He couldn't help the flicker of envy.

Other people toiled and bled and risked everything for the chance to engrave a single Elite Grade gene — and heirs like Amy simply *inherited* Boss Grade or higher Transcendent Genes as a birthright, without lifting a finger. Meanwhile, he was out here hunting Feral Beasts one at a time for every Spirit Crystal he earned.

*Yeye was the same way.* First gene, already on an entirely different level.

But then — he thought it through more carefully. The original Battle Emperors hadn't inherited anything either. They had climbed from nothing to that height through sheer effort, step by step. Their descendants' easy inheritance was simply the return on that investment. Couldn't begrudge them that.

Envy was pointless regardless. Better to push through to Battle Emperor himself — then his own descendants would be the ones everyone else envied.

And Battle Emperor wasn't even his actual ceiling. His goal was War God — and beyond that, if possible.

"By the way," Lu Yuan said, "how old are you?"

Amy blinked, caught off guard. "Me? I'm sixteen! Already an adult, for your information."

Lu Yuan: ...

*Sixteen. Genuinely believes that holding hands is how babies happen.*

*[shocked bystander.jpg]*

He kept his voice even. "Besides cartoons — you haven't looked anything else up?"

"Other things? What other things?"

"Does your home not have internet?"

Amy planted her hands on her hips, offended. "Of *course* we have internet! I go online to watch cartoons all the time!"

Lu Yuan stared at her. He opened his mouth. Closed it again.

*This world's general level of openness really isn't that different from my last one.* In his experience, most people had a basic understanding of these things well before sixteen. And yet here stood Amy, a sixteen-year-old operating on an entirely cartoon-derived understanding of human biology.

He tilted his head back at a forty-five-degree angle again, the expression of a man heavy with profound regret:

"So it's not — holding hands? And then — having babies?"

"WHY ARE YOU REPEATING IT?!" Amy's face went scarlet. "Have you absolutely *no* shame?! *None?!*"

*[shocked bystander.jpg]*

She shook her fist at him, cheeks blazing. "Your mind is *so* improper!"

*I was wrong. I was truly, deeply wrong.*

And yet, try as he might, he could not form a coherent counterargument.

*I'm sorry. As a thoroughly corrupted adult, I sincerely apologize.*

After Amy's outrage had run its course, she looked at him again — the anger cooling into something that had started out as annoyance and was drifting, slowly, toward curiosity.

"If you haven't even inscribed an attack-type Transcendent Gene yet," Lu Yuan said, "you're already this powerful with just your first one?"

*Just like Yeye. Elites of the same stripe.*

Amy straightened with a huff. "If those cowards hadn't ganged up and ambushed me — and if I'd already inscribed a Transcendent Gene suited to myself with actual attack capability — they wouldn't have been a challenge at all!"

She mimed a chopping motion with one hand to reinforce the point.

*So she just Awakened this year.* Lu Yuan considered this. With the Tianrao Purple Vine as her foundation and a Battle Emperor lineage's resources behind her, breaking through to First-rank would have been effortless.

Amy's curiosity finally won out. "So — are you really that strong? Are you one of those once-in-a-million geniuses?"

Lu Yuan cleared his throat. He tilted his head skyward once more and assumed the bearing of a man who had spent a long time concealing something significant:

"So I've finally been exposed. I really did want to keep a low profile. But when I saw someone of my own kind surrounded and under attack by a foreign race..." He let the gravity hang for a moment. "I couldn't suppress the anger in my heart."

Amy looked at him flatly.

Then she snorted. "Hmph. I suppose you have *some* taste. If you weren't so hopelessly improper, I might actually let you follow me."

Lu Yuan: ...

*No grounds for rebuttal whatsoever.*

Amy finally seemed fully composed. She gave her purple robes one last pat, put her hands on her hips, and looked at him with bright, decisive eyes.

"Let's go! I've recovered. You're heading to Tianrao City too, right? We'll go together — my Tianrao Purple Vine is unmatched for crowd control, and you handle the slashing."

Lu Yuan nodded.

"Sure."

*His destination was already Tianrao City — home of the Tianrao Battle Emperor himself. If anything, this arrangement was convenient.*

He glanced at Amy as they set off. *From her first gene alone, already at this level. She really is the same type as Yeye.*

The two walked in the direction of Tianrao City.

Then, without warning, thick fog rolled in from the distance.

It moved with unnatural speed. Within moments, it had swallowed everything — the trees, the light, the path ahead — blanketing both Lu Yuan and Amy in a pale, featureless murk.

Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed.