The next morning, the light that filtered through the tiny, cracked window of the attic room was a dull, dirty gray.

Lin Wan woke up with a sharp chest pain. Her body felt heavier than it ever had before. Her throat was dry and raspy, and every single bone in her legs throbbed with a deep, aching fatigue.

She sat up slowly, the rough straw mattress groaning loudly under her small weight. She rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the lingering fog of a deep, restless sleep.

For a second, she forgot where she was. She looked around the small, bare room, her eyes hitting the dark wood of the sloped ceiling.

Then, the memory of her frantic run through the fog came rushing back, making her heart give a heavy, terrified thud.

"Weiwei," Lin Wan called out in her mind, her voice trembling. "Are you there? Are the sensors clear?"

A faint, slightly weak digital chime echoed in her brain.

[System power is at twelve percent, host,] Weiwei answered, her voice sounding low and slightly robotic. [The local scanning field is stable. There are no royal manticore signatures within five hundred meters of this tavern. The thick grease and heavy spiritual noise of this slum are working perfectly. You are still hidden. But you cannot look like a wealthy lady anymore. If you walk out there looking clean, someone will notice you.]

Lin Wan knew Weiwei was right. She stood up from the bed, her legs shaking slightly as she walked over to the small, cracked mirror hanging above the wooden basin.

She looked at her reflection, and a small gasp escaped her lips. Her face was pale, her dark hair was a messy, tangled web around her shoulders, and there were dark purple shadows under her eyes. She looked completely exhausted.

But it was not her face that made her freeze.

Slowly, Lin Wan pulled down the high collar of her tunic to look at her collarbone.

*Gasp!*

Her eyes went completely wide with horror.

The black manticore crest, the sharp, wicked beast wing that Cassian had burned into her energy core, was not fading away at all. In fact, it looked even worse than yesterday.

The faint purple glow was gone, replaced by a deep, pitch-black color that looked like liquid ink under her skin. The dark lines had stretched slightly, crawling higher up the side of her delicate neck like a set of claw marks.

It was pulsing. It felt hot to the touch, sending a faint, thumping vibration straight into her throat.

"Weiwei!" Lin Wan cried out, her fingers pressing hard against the mark as if she could push it back down. "You said it would fade! You said once we put fifty miles between us and that courtyard, the connection would get weaker! Look at it! It is turning darker!"

[This... this should not be happening, host!] Weiwei’s voice suddenly grew frantic, the digital lines buzzing with static error codes. [A standard beast mark requires constant physical proximity to grow. The only reason a mark would darken across a wide distance is... is if the master’s own raw power is expanding at an unnatural speed! Host, he is unleashing his real strength. Every time he exerts his royal core to crush his enemies in the palace, the mark on your neck will absorb a tiny fraction of that dark energy and turn deeper!]

Lin Wan’s breath caught in her throat. She stared at the black claw marks on her neck, her skin crawling with a deep sense of dread. "So every time he kills someone... every time he wins a battle up there, I will feel it down here?"

[Yes, host,] Weiwei whispered tightly. [He is growing stronger by the minute. His broken core is completely fixed now. You must cover it completely. If anyone sees a royal manticore crest on a lone female in this slum, they will report you to the palace guards instantly to claim a gold reward.]

Lin Wan swallowed hard.

She immediately turned toward the wooden basin. The water inside was cold and covered in a thin layer of gray dust.

She dipped her hands into the freezing liquid, then reached down and scooped up a handful of dark, gray soot from the cold fireplace in the corner of the room.

She didn’t hesitate. She smeared the dirty, black soot across her beautiful, pale face.

She rubbed it over her forehead, along her jawline, and down her neck, completely covering her soft skin until she looked like a poor, dirty street beggar.

She took a sharp pair of iron scissors from her old travel pack and chopped her long, beautiful hair until it fell in rough, uneven patches around her ears.

Finally, she took a piece of old, drab cloth and wrapped it tightly around her neck, tying a thick knot right over the pulsing black mark.

She looked back into the cracked mirror. The wealthy, beautiful female who had entered the slave market was completely gone. In her place stood a dirty, ragged, ordinary street girl.

"Good," Lin Wan whispered, her voice hardening. "Now, I need to stay alive. I need a way to blend in without using my gold cards."

Lin Wan walked down the creaking wooden stairs, her boots making a soft, slow sound against the old wood.

*Click.*

The tavern on the ground floor was already dark and busy, even though it was just morning. The air was thick with the smell of roasting animal fat, stale ale, and the heavy sweat of the morning workers.

High-tier beastmen did not come here; the room was filled with low-tier goat-men, pig-mercenaries, and rough rodent-beastmen who did the heavy lifting in the capital’s docks.

Lin Wan walked straight to the kitchen door at the back. She pushed it open, stepping into a room filled with thick, blinding white steam and the loud, angry clanging of iron pots.

*Clang!*

*Sizzle!*

The old goat-female with the curved horns was standing over a massive, boiling metal vat, throwing large chunks of grey meat into the water.

She looked up, her yellow eyes narrowing as she saw Lin Wan’s dirty, soot-covered face and chopped hair.

"What do you want, girl?" the old woman barked, her voice rough like sandpaper. "I told you, if you cause trouble, you go into the street."

Lin Wan stepped forward, keeping her head lowered, her eyes fixed on the dirty floorboards. "I don’t want trouble. I want to work. I can wash dishes. I can clean the floors. I don’t need much money. Just a bowl of soup and to keep my attic room."

The old goat-female stared at her for a long, silent moment. She sniffed the air sharply.

*Inhale.*

The thick smell of boiling meat, burning wood, and heavy grease completely blocked Lin Wan’s sweet jasmine scent. To the old woman, Lin Wan just smelled like a dirty, desperate street female looking for a scrap of food.

"Can you scrub?" the old woman grunted, pointing a thick, clawed finger toward a massive wooden tub in the corner.

The tub was piled high with hundreds of greasy iron plates, heavy metal cups, and giant, burnt cooking pots. The water inside was black and covered in thick grease.

"Yes," Lin Wan said quickly, her heart giving a small leap of hope. "I can scrub very well."

"Then get to work," the old woman growled, turning back to her boiling vat. "If I see a single speck of grease on those plates by noon, I will kick your ribs in and throw you out."

Lin Wan did not waste a single second. She walked over to the wooden tub, rolled up her rough sleeves, and plunged her hands straight into the greasy, freezing water.

The work was brutal. The heavy iron pots were rough and scratched her raw skin, and the strong lye soap made her scraped palms burn with a sharp, stinging pain. Her back ached from leaning over the low tub, and her lower belly still throbbed with her periodic cramps.

But as she scrubbed, a strange sense of peace settled over her. The kitchen was incredibly loud.

The maids were shouting, the fires were roaring, and the heavy steam kept her completely hidden from the outside world.

Here, she was just an invisible nobody. Cassian was an imperial prince; he was probably sitting on a gold throne, surrounded by beautiful servants, planning his royal wars.

He would never dream that the female who had bought him was currently kneeling in a pile of dirty dishwater, scrubbing grease off a pig-man’s plate.

Suddenly, a loud, thunderous shout echoed from the main street outside the tavern.

*BOOM!*

The heavy wooden walls of the kitchen shook slightly, making the iron pots rattle against each other.

*Clang!*

Lin Wan froze, her hands stopping inside the dirty water. Her breath caught in her throat.

"What was that?" she whispered aloud.

The kitchen door was suddenly kicked open, and a young rodent-maid ran inside, her face completely pale, her whiskers twitching with pure terror.