Chapter 2: Transcendence

Night.

On a warm bed, Dongbo Xueying leaned back, engrossed in a book, while the glow from a nearby fire crystal lamp illuminated the entire room.

The book was titled *The Ten Greatest Transcendent Knights*.

It was a biographical novel, a genre Dongbo Xueying loved most, especially tales of extraordinary legends. As a noble, and with his mother being a mage who possessed a vast collection of books, Dongbo Xueying had long been well-versed in many common knowledge.

For instance, knights were categorized into seven ranks: Human, Earth, Heaven, Meteor, Silver Moon, Named, and Transcendent.

Among them, Human, Earth, and Heaven Ranks were considered ordinary knights.

Meteor, Silver Moon, and Named Ranks were known as Star Knights.

Above Star Knights stood the Transcendent.

These were the three major tiers—each nearly impossible to cross! Even his own father and Uncle Tong were merely Heaven-ranked knights.

As for Star Knights, they were called such because on the battlefield, they shone as brightly as stars. They were impervious to countless arrows and could strike down enemy generals amidst entire armies, dominating the battlefield without equal.

Yet all of these were still mortal powers.

Even a Named Knight, capable of destroying an army of one hundred thousand, though hailed as a “One-Man Army,” the “Limit of Mortals,” or possessing “Near-Divine Power,” was still ultimately a mortal force—eventually, numbers could wear them down.

But to cross into the Transcendent!

That was a qualitative leap, a transformation in the very level of life itself. No longer a mortal, but a Transcendent being. Numbers of ordinary mortals were meaningless against them. Under normal circumstances, even countless mortals couldn’t exhaust or harm them. They wielded unfathomable, supernatural powers beyond the material world!

Even gods feared them.

Legends spoke of thousand-meter-tall lava giants and hellish demons from the abyss—these were all Transcendent beings. Yet humans too could cultivate and become Transcendent.

Human Transcendent warriors repelled invading demons and slaughtered all who dared resist!

They were the pillar of human clans, the terror that subdued all other races!

“If only I could become a Transcendent Knight,” Dongbo Xueying thought with a silly smile, imagining himself as one of those legendary heroes, “capture a few demons for fun, tame a dragon as a mount, and even share a drink with gods.”

Suddenly—

*Ping!*

The fire crystal lamp beside him extinguished itself.

“Eh? Why did the fire crystal lamp go out? So soon?” Dongbo Xueying, who had been absorbed in his reading, frowned in frustration. “It’s so pitiful having a mother who’s a mage. Even the fire crystal lamp shuts off automatically at a set time.”

“Well then, time for bed!”

Without light, he had no choice but to sleep.

Dongbo Xueying drifted into dreams where he became a Transcendent Knight, omnipotent and unstoppable. In his sleep, he couldn’t help but grin, clearly having a sweet dream.

…

At this moment, Dongbo Lie and his wife were also in bed, preparing to rest.

“Dongbo, I’ve felt uneasy lately,” his wife murmured, nestled in his arms.

“Don’t worry, A Yu. We’ve lived peacefully in Yishui City for eight years now. Your family hasn’t come looking for us. Rest assured, nothing will happen. Our family will live in peace for ten, twenty years… until our hair turns white together. They won’t find us. Never.”

Dongbo Lie gently embraced his wife.

She rested her head against his chest.

She didn’t say much, but she knew how powerful her family was. One day, they might be found. Still, a faint smile formed on her lips. She had no regrets about her choice years ago. If she had obeyed her family back then, that would have been her true tragedy. She had fled her family, adventured across the lands, and finally settled down with the one she loved. They even had two adorable sons. She was content.

“Dongbo, will you ever regret it?” she whispered softly. “If they catch us, they won’t spare you either.”

“After sharing life and death with you so many times, you still ask that?” Dongbo Lie chuckled.

“Mm.”

…

The night deepened, and the castle grew quiet.

Except for the soldiers still on duty, nearly everyone was asleep.

*Boom~~~* A massive bird, like a cloud, flew swiftly through the night sky. The thunderous sound of its passage shook the glass windows of the castle.

The bird halted midair.

A gray-robed figure and a silver-armored man gazed down at the castle below.

“We’ve arrived,” the gray-robed figure said, his eyes filled with complexity. “Sister… I really don’t want to drag you back.”

“Alert!!!” A mighty roar echoed throughout the castle—Copper Three, the lion-man.

“Is that an orc lion-man?” The silver-armored man looked down curiously.

“He was once a lion-man slave assigned to my sister by the family. I didn’t expect that even after so many years, this lion-man would still follow her. He’s actually quite loyal,” the gray-robed figure said, gazing at the lion-man below. He recalled the lion-man slave boy locked in a cage back then—silent and ever by his sister’s side. Now, he had grown into such a mighty figure.

The castle below spanned about two miles, divided into the outer and inner castles. The outer castle housed four battalions of soldiers and servants. Knights were allowed to bring their families and live in the outer castle. At night, one battalion of soldiers patrolled the outer castle walls.

“Enemies!”

“Enemies!”

The three hundred soldiers on the walls each grabbed the massive dark-red crossbows beside them. The heavy bolts were already loaded, aimed directly at the four-winged vulture high above.

“You go,” the gray-robed figure ordered.

“Yes.” The silver-armored man leapt from the sky, nearly fifty-six meters down without any preparation. His feet slammed onto the stone ground of the castle courtyard with a thunderous boom, shaking the earth and cracking the stone slabs beneath him.

He looked ahead. Dongbo Lie and his wife had already come out, and even Dongbo Xueying and his younger brother Qing Shi had been woken up.

With roars and loud noises outside, how could anyone sleep?

“What’s going on?” Dongbo Xueying held his younger brother behind his parents, watching.

“Mo Yangyu!” The silver-armored man stood in the castle courtyard, unbothered by the numerous soldiers on the distant high walls pointing their massive crossbows at him. He spoke coldly, “Have it come to this, and you still resist? Come quietly with us.”

“Look around you,” Dongbo Lie shouted.

The silver-armored man glanced around. On the distant high walls of the castle and even on the ground, soldiers surrounded him, each holding a dark-red crossbow. His pupils slightly constricted, then he smiled. “Star-piercing Crossbows? Impressive. A small county-level territory actually possesses so many Star-piercing Crossbows? With so many surrounding me, you actually have a chance of killing me.”

“You, as a Meteor Knight, one-on-one, no one in this castle could match you,” Dongbo Lie said. “But with five hundred Star-piercing Crossbows, each capable of wounding you, and with us joining the fight… we have the confidence to kill you.”

“This is the Dongbo Clan’s territory,” Zi Robe woman Mo Yangyu also spoke. “Invading a noble’s territory is an insult to our family. We have every right to kill you, and your death would be meaningless.”

Under the empire’s law, nobles had privileges, and their territories were sacred and inviolable.

“You two should just come with me and stop resisting,” the silver-armored man frowned.

“You would violate imperial law and abduct two nobles?” Zi Robe woman Mo Yangyu said coldly.

“Xiao Yu.”

A somewhat hoarse voice echoed down.

Everyone looked up. On the back of the giant bird high above, the gray-robed figure held a staff. Suddenly, a terrifying surge of power gathered. Thick clouds formed out of nowhere in the sky, crackling with countless lightning bolts. Below, in many parts of the castle, thin threads of electricity appeared in midair. In the night, these streaks of lightning were dazzlingly beautiful. They struck the soldiers, who immediately screamed, convulsed, and collapsed, their Star-piercing Crossbows scattering to the ground.

With a mere gesture, hundreds of soldiers were rendered helpless. He had even held back—if he had not, all would have been reduced to ash.

The four-winged vulture descended. The gray-robed figure stepped down and pushed back his hood, revealing a slightly pale but still handsome face. His features bore a strong resemblance to Mo Yangyu’s—about seventy to eighty percent.

“Xiao Yu, will you still resist?” the gray-robed young man asked.

“Brother…” Zi Robe woman Mo Yangyu’s eyes widened, her body trembling slightly.