The Blood Moon Marsh stretches like a crimson-lit dream, where still waters mirror the soft glow of the eternal blood moon.
Mist curls gently among clusters of reeds and willow-like trees, their leaves shimmering with a faint red light.
Rare herbs and flowers dot the marsh, filling the air with delicate fragrance, while gentle creatures move quietly through the reeds.
The marsh hums with tranquil magic—a serene and mysterious land where life thrives beneath the moon's enchanting glow.
Long before the beginning of the Age of Darkness, the Divine Moon Peak Empire had become the strongest force on the entire Divine Continent.
At the height of its supremacy, the empire gave birth to some of the era's most powerful Legend-rank Demon Spiritualists.
Each of these supreme experts from the Divine Moon Peak Empire enjoyed unimaginable prestige during their time.
Wealth, resources, and influence were bestowed upon them by the emperor himself, and they reveled in the benefits of being the empire's esteemed protectors.
Except for one.
Her name was Suo Leiyue—the empire's strongest weapon.
She was a one-of-a-kind genius born to a commoner family, raised in one of the many farming villages within the Divine Moon Peak Empire.
In exchange for half of their harvest, the Divine Moon Peak Empire allowed commoners to live and farm on its limited lands.
One such family was the Suo clan, whose eldest daughter was Suo Leiyue.
Though her childhood could not be called entirely blissful, Suo Leiyue lived a relatively peaceful and content life with her loving parents and younger siblings.
Most days, she stayed home to care for her brothers and sisters while her parents tilled the fields beneath the open sky.
From dawn until dusk, her world revolved around simple chores, warm meals, and the quiet rhythm of rural life.
Suo Leiyue never dreamed beyond the boundaries of her birth.
Though she knew of Demon Spiritualists and the extraordinary power they wielded, she never once imagined becoming one herself.
She was of common descent—the daughter of two humble farmers.
By law, cultivation techniques were forbidden to people like her; such arts were reserved for the children of nobility and wealthy merchants.
Those paths were never meant for someone of her standing.
But fate has a cruel sense of humor.
One day, a group of experts from the Divine Moon Peak Empire's royal family arrived in their village.
All children below a certain age were ordered to be tested for spiritual talent.
A massive soul crystal was placed in the center of the village square.
Parents hurriedly brought their children forward to have their innate talent examined.
The Suo family was among them.
Suo Leiyue noticed the relief on many parents' faces when their children were declared mediocre in talent.
She also felt her father's rough hands tighten around her shoulder as they drew closer to the soul crystal.
At the time, Suo Leiyue was completely unaware that the moment the huge soul crystal reacted to her touch, is the same moment she will be separated from her family.
Just like her, the commoners who were deemed to possess high innate talent, and worth nurturing to be a warrior, were secured to be part of the Royal family's army.
Within the empire, there existed a long-standing tradition of "recruitment"—a system designed to strengthen its rule by nurturing talented children into supreme experts.
This custom had been in place since the founding of the Divine Moon Peak Empire.
In the beginning, it had been voluntary.
But as the empire rose to prominence, the resources required to maintain its authority grew ever greater.
And resources included people.
The empire's nobles looked down upon red-blooded commoners, believing they existed solely to serve the nobility.
This belief was extended even to the commoner children they raised into warriors.
So how did the royal family secure the undying loyalty of an army born from oppression?
The method is quite simple.
Through a soul slave imprint.
The moment gifted children were recruited—while they were still young and powerless—a soul slave imprint was forcibly branded upon them.
It was an invisible shackle etched into the depths of their souls.
With it, the commoner soldiers could never disobey.
A single word from their master would be enough to condemn them to a miserable death.
And that is how Suo Leiyue became one of the Demon Spiritualist soldiers, serving under Divine Moon Peak Empire's royal army.
Suo Leiyue absolutely hated it, but like her fellow slave, she had no choice but to obey her master, bound by the slave imprint.
All because her innate talent is slightly better than others.
Over the Years.
Despite the limited resources and a brutal environment, Suo Leiyue rose steadily through the ranks. She was forged in endless battles of life and death; each time she survived, she emerged even stronger.
Eventually, she stepped into the realm of a Legend-rank Demon Spiritualist—a feat only a handful of commoners had ever achieved.
Naturally, the royal family granted her more favorable treatment. She was given her own courtyard, exquisite meals, high-quality armor and weapons.
She was even allowed to roam the empire freely, almost as though she were one of noble blood.
But no matter how gilded the cage became, it remained a prison that Suo Leiyue was unable to break free from.
Despite her power, achievements, and all contributions to the empire, the royal family saw Suo Leiyue as nothing more than a tool to preserve their authority.
A weapon to be discarded once she outlived her usefulness.
Every promise of freedom had been nothing but sweet words, offered whenever they needed her to exhaust every last drop of her strength for the empire.
Time passed, and eventually she reached the apex of power within the Tiny World.
Suo Leiyue was known as the strongest Demon Spiritualist of their era.
Yet despite such prestige, many of her fellow Demon Spiritualists looked at her with pity.
Those who fell by her hand would sometimes laugh in their final moments, because in the end, unlike her, they would die as free men.
The royal family, astonished by her achievements, grew greedy. They sought to uncover the secret of her physique. If such a monster could be replicated, the empire's strength would multiply severalfold.
Then came the night Suo Leiyue was ordered not to resist—no matter what her master did to her.
That was the night Suo Leiyue was reminded that she was nothing but a tool.
Her strength could be described as unrivaled beneath the heavens. Yet under the shackles of the soul slave imprint, her master could push her around like a defenseless doll.
After that night, Suo Leiyue stopped dreaming of brighter days.
She simply continued to obey.
She fought.
She plundered.
She killed.
And when the nobles were bored, she entertained them.
She stopped caring.
At times, she even wished that someone stronger would appear—someone capable of overpowering her in battle and ending her lifelong servitude to the royal family.
It was a wish that fate might finally be granted to her.
One day, a mysterious expert appeared out of nowhere and revealed to the royal family the truth behind her physique.
Suo Leiyue felt neither fear nor sorrow as the Moon Peak Emperor's gaze grew greedy when it fell on her
Suo Leiyue knew that she was no longer being looked at as a person, instead the eyes of everyone was looking at her like nothing but an unrivaled treasure.
Something they can pluck once her physique is ready to transfer.
One hundred and thirty years.
That was what the mysterious expert told the emperor. He would need to wait that long before the Glaze Blood within Suo Leiyue fully matured—only then could the emperor harvest the glaze blood and claim its power for himself.
The emperor's greed proved boundless.
After that revelation, Suo Leiyue was ordered into a treasure chamber, a hidden place where the emperor stored his most precious treasures.
With that move, Suo Leiyue, the strongest Demon Spiritualist of their era, the Moon-Chained Goddess, had vanished from the face of the Divine Continent, never to be seen again.
If Suo Leiyue had believed she could sink no lower, she was proven wrong.
A Legend-rank demon spiritualist expert, whose strength could determine the fate of entire kingdoms, was reduced to guarding a treasure chamber.
She called it "guarding," though in truth she herself was one of the treasures. The thought itself is enough to make Suo Leiyue's stomach churn.
Beside her, there were several other people who were under the shackle of the soul slave imprint, who also ordered to protect both her and the treasure in the treasure chamber at all costs.
Because of this, Suo Leiyue spent her remaining days within the treasure chamber, waiting for the day the emperor would harvest her Glaze Blood.
At the very least, the other servants became something like family to Suo Leiyue. For those who got reduced to disposable tools, finding solace to one another forming bonds came pretty easily.
In some ways, Suo Leiyue's days in the treasure chamber were more bearable than the years she had spent among nobles.
But fate always carried a cruel twist.
Suo Leiyue was dying.
It began without a warning. During one of Suo Leiyue's routine walks, she suddenly lost her balance and collapsed unconscious.
After that incident, Suo Leiyue's body gradually weakened. Standing or even sitting upright for too long left her exhausted.
The royal physicians were baffled. None could determine the source of Suo Leiyue's affliction.
Unlike the Moon Peak Emperor, who immediately panicked upon hearing the grave news, as he was scared to lose the glaze blood.
On the other hand, Suo Leiyue felt strangely detached, she felt no fear.
Perhaps Suo Leiyue was simply tired of being treated as a tool or She had long since abandoned hope of freedom.
The thought of her own death meant little importance to her.
After all, wasn't that the same outcome awaiting Suo Leiyue once the Moon peak emperor took the glaze blood from her.
Just like Suo Leiyue the other slaves guarding the cave shared the same indifference toward their own mortality.
All of them had borne the soul slave imprint since they were small. With that curse on them, the only thing that would free them from their life long servitude is death.
And yet, even death was not something they could choose freely.
If their master forbade them from dying, their bodies would struggle desperately to survive, clinging to life against all odds simply to fulfill that command, so they did not fear death, they long for it.
The Moon peak emperor, however, did not share their sentiment.
There were still a hundred years left before the Glaze Blood would fully mature. If Suo Leiyue died too soon, the Glaze Blood would decay with her.
The Moon peak emperor immediately began searching for a solution to his delima, by first consulting that mysterious expert.
With the expert's help, the Moon peak emperor exhausted vast amounts of his wealth to search all over the world for a treasure capable of preserving the glaze blood.
The answer came in the form of the Eternal Tomb—a sacred relic from a distant kingdom.
Which ended up razed to the ground by the Moon peak empire after the kingdom had refused to surrender their ancestral treasure.
The Eternal Tomb, along with a Soul Attachment Crystal and countless other treasures, was seized and thrown into the emperor's treasure chamber.
A few years later, Suo Leiyue finally succumbed to her illness.
Suo Leiyue's remains were placed inside the Eternal Tomb, which preserved her body in an undying slumber, while her soul drifted into the afterlife.
Preserving Suo Leiyue's body for the day the Moon Peak Emperor would claim her Glaze Blood.
But the Moon Peak Emperor wouldn't have a chance to do so.
In that very same year, the Divine Moon Peak Empire, along with other human kingdoms, was trampled by overwhelming hordes of demon beasts.
This left humanity on the verge of extinction, as no superpower of that era possessed the strength to withstand such a catastrophe
Thousands of years later, only fragments of humanity remained, scattered across the Tiny World and struggling endlessly for survival.
Three figures now stood amidst the ruins of the fallen Moon Peak Empire, searching for the long-lost treasure chamber of its emperor.
Blood Moon Marsh, present time.
Mist coiled through the marshlands below. From a wind-carved cliff, two hooded figures stood beside a white demon-beast donkey. A golden box was strapped to its back, its surface glinting faintly beneath the crimson glow of the eternal moon.
In the distance rose a small, unremarkable mountain, half-veiled in fog—silent, ordinary, and utterly inconspicuous.
Yet that mountain concealed the remains of an empire that once ruled the world.
After months of travel, they had finally reached their destination.
Xue Hui and Chen Zhenlong exchanged a look.
This was it.
Once they retrieved the Glaze Blood and used it to rebuild Chen Linlin's soul realm, they could finally return home—to Glory City.
End of Chapter 24