He stepped forward within the projection, leaning down until his glowing golden face was just inches away from hers.

Lin Wan could literally feel the cold, intoxicating scent of his dark aura washing over her face, making her mind go slightly hazy again.

"Then come back to my bed and collect your interest, my little master," Cassian whispered, his smile turning incredibly wicked. "Run further. Run as fast as your little legs can carry you. Let’s see how long they will last before I personally hunt you down and break them. The more you run, the tighter the leash will pull."

*Whoosh!*

With a final, dark laugh, the giant golden projection shattered into a thousand pieces of black smoke, disappearing into the cold air.

The heavy pressure vanished, and the bright, gloomy gray sunlight peeked through the broken roof of the cave once more.

Lin Wan fell forward onto her hands, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

*Gasp.*

*Gasp.*

She was shaking so hard she could barely keep her balance. The psychological weight of his words was too much.

He wasn’t just hunting her to kill her, he was treating this entire chase like an addictive game. He was playing with her like a cat plays with a tiny mouse before snapping its neck.

"Weiwei," Lin Wan whispered, her voice completely broken as a tear finally slipped down her cheek. "He is crazy. He is completely unhinged. What do we do now? We can’t teleport, and he knows exactly where I am."

[He doesn’t know your exact physical location yet, host,] Weiwei tried to calm her down, though her digital voice was still buzzing with high anxiety. [That projection was sent through the connection in your mark. He used his spiritual aura to scan the area, but because you are fifty miles away, his real body is still back at the border city. But we have a problem. The entire Middle Realm border is now crawling with his personal shadow scouts. If you stay in this realm, their tracking crystals will find this cave within the hour.]

Lin Wan wiped her tears away with her dirty sleeve, her eyes hardening with a desperate survival instinct. "Then where do we go? If the Middle Realm is a trap, where can I hide?"

[We have to do the absolute opposite of what he expects, host,] Weiwei said, her voice dropping into a serious, calculating tone. [He thinks you are trying to run backward, deeper into the lower worlds to hide. He has blocked all the downward portals. Our only choice... is to cross directly into the Upper Realm.]

Lin Wan’s breath completely caught in her throat. "The Upper Realm? That is his home! That is his territory! Why would I run straight into his arms?"

[Because the capital city of the Upper Realm is the biggest, most crowded commercial center in the universe,] Weiwei explained quickly. [Thousands of high-tier dragon warriors, ancient phoenixes, and supreme beast kings walk those streets every single day. Their overlapping divine auras are so dense that they will completely drown out your unique human scent like an ocean. His tracking crystals will become completely useless there. It is the only place where we can hide until the mark on your neck naturally fades away.]

Lin Wan looked up at the broken roof of the cave. She looked at her bloody hands, and then at the burning mark on her collarbone.

She had no choice. To escape the hunter, she had to step directly into the hunter’s backyard.

She stood up slowly, her jaw locked tight as she pulled her dark cloak back over her head.

"Let’s go," Lin Wan said, her voice dropping into a firm, quiet tone. "Let’s go to the Upper Realm."

...

The journey to the border checkpoint of the Upper Realm took another full day of agonizing travel.

Lin Wan spent the entire night hiding inside a slow-moving, dirty merchant carriage that was carrying large crates of stinky mud-herbs toward the higher territories.

The smell of the herbs was absolutely disgusting, but it helped hide her pheromones from the flying shadow beasts that constantly circled the sky above the mountain passes.

By the next afternoon, the carriage finally stopped.

Lin Wan peeked through the small crack in the wooden wall of the carriage, and her eyes went completely wide with awe and terror.

Standing right in front of her were the Black Obsidian Gates of the Upper Realm.

The gates were absolutely towering, stretching hundreds of feet into the sky like two massive black mountain peaks.

They were carved from pure, indestructible dark stone that absorbed the sunlight, making them look cold and terrifying. Massive iron chains hung from the top, and thousands of glowing red protection runes lined the edges of the walls.

Below the gates, a massive crowd of travelers, merchants, and wealthy beastmen were lined up in a straight line that stretched for miles. The atmosphere here was incredibly tense.

Dozens of elite manticore soldiers dressed in heavy gold and black armor stood at the checkpoint. They carried large, curved execution blades and long spears.

They were stopping every single person, checking their identity tokens, and passing specialized, glowing crystal tracking spheres over their clothes.

"Everyone line up!" a loud, ruthless guard captain shouted, his voice echoing over the crowd. "Anyone who tries to bypass the border check will be thrown into the dungeon immediately! By imperial decree, we are searching for a runaway criminal!"

Lin Wan swallowed her saliva silently.

*Swallow.*

She stepped out from the back of the merchant carriage, pulling her large hood as far down as it could possibly go.

She kept her hands buried deep within her pockets, blending into the middle of a large group of tall, noisy bear merchants who were carrying large barrels of honey ale.

Compared to the massive, seven-foot-tall bear beastmen, her small human frame looked completely insignificant.

"Weiwei," Lin Wan whispered, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as the line slowly moved forward. "Are you sure the stealth barrier will hold? Look at those crystals. They look much bigger than the ones at the tavern."

[The barrier is at maximum capacity, host,] Weiwei answered quietly inside her mind. [But do not make eye contact with the guards. Keep your head lowered. The moment we pass through these gates, the numerous divine auras of the city will mask you completely. Just twenty more steps.]

Lin Wan took a slow, deep breath.

*Inhale.*

She counted the steps in her mind.

’Ten... nine... eight...’

Suddenly, the noisy chatter of the thousands of people in the crowd died down instantly. A strange, suffocating silence dropped over the entire border checkpoint, so quiet that even the wind seemed to stop blowing.

*Step.*

*Step.*

From the main path leading inside from the Upper Realm, a magnificent, gold-plated royal carriage pulled by four massive, white winged horses arrived at the gate.

The carriage doors were carved with the intricate, sharp symbol of the Manticore Royal House.

The moment the carriage stopped, every single guard at the checkpoint—including the ruthless captain—instantly dropped to their knees, slamming their chests against the dirty ground in absolute submission.

"We greet His Imperial Highness, Prince Cassian!" the soldiers shouted in perfect unison, their voices shaking with deep awe and terror.

Lin Wan’s entire body went completely rigid. Her eyes widened under her hood, and her hands turned ice-cold.

*He was here.*

The heavy, gold-plated door of the carriage slowly swung open. A large, black leather boot stepped out onto the ground, followed by a tall, magnificent figure.

It was Cassian. But he did not look like the dirty, chained slave she had bought from the cage anymore.

He was fully dressed in his flawless, high-tier imperial robes of deep crimson and gold. A long, black silk cape lined with rare white furs flowed majestically behind his broad shoulders.

His long dark hair was perfectly braided back, revealing his sharp, aristocratic jawline and his flawless, breathtakingly handsome face.

He looked impossibly regal, cruel, and beautiful—a supreme ruler who held the power of life and death over millions of souls in his hands.

His slitted golden eyes swept across the massive crowd of travelers like a cold blade.

A terrifyingly dense, pitch-black residual aura slowly oozed from his skin, making the air around him distort from the sheer weight of his power.

Cassian walked slowly down the line of travelers, his hands resting casually behind his back. The heavy black iron cuffs were gone, replaced by beautiful gold rings that flashed under the sunlight.

*Click.*

*Click.*

His boots made a slow, rhythmic sound against the stone floor as he walked straight toward the section where the bear merchants were standing.

Lin Wan felt her breath completely stop. Her fingers clutched the fabric of her cloak so tightly that her knuckles turned completely white.

*Gasp.*

She didn’t dare to move a single muscle. She stood perfectly still behind the massive back of a large bear merchant, her head lowered toward the dirt as Cassian stopped his steps just three feet away from her position.