When Xu Mun fell, Vera didn't look down for long. She simply turned. "The plan proceeds," she muttered quietly.
Seven days. That was all that remained.
Seven days until Xu Min's wedding. Seven days until the throne would fall into place. But Luo He was already moving. Because his vision extended far beyond this kingdom.
The desert stretched endlessly beneath the burning sun. Luo He stood at the edge of the fortress, looking toward the distant wastelands. "Su Kim…" he murmured. A sorceress. A warlord.
Leader of sixty thousand outlaws.
A woman who controlled chaos itself.
And hated the Flame Kingdom.
Perfect. Behind him, Vera approached.
"All is ready," she said. Luo He nodded slightly. But before he could leave a voice echoed through the courtyard.
"Luo He!" The ShaMo king. King Chan.
He stepped forward, his presence heavy, grounded like the earth itself.
"You challenge me?" the king said. Luo He turned slowly. "Yes." He said. "A duel." The king's eyes narrowed.
Then he smiled. " I Accepte" The battlefield was set. Open ground.
No interference. Just power. The king stepped forward, his aura rising.
Earth energy surged beneath his feet.
Solid. Unshakable.
Luo He raised his hand. Lightning crackled around him. Sharp. Violent.
Unpredictable. Without warning he struck first. A bolt of pure lightning tore through the air. CRASH. It struck the king directly. Dust exploded outward.
The ground cracked. For a moment
Silence. Then the dust settled the king stood. Unmoved. He stepped forward.
His counterattack came like a collapsing mountain BOOM. Luo He was struck.
His body was thrown back. He hit the ground and went still. Unconscious.
The battlefield fell silent. The king frowned slightly. "Too easy." But he turned away. Because the fight was over.
Or so he thought. Inside his body the plan had already begun.
The lightning strike was never meant to win. It was meant to deliver something far more dangerous. Hidden within his blood was tiny iron capsules. Coated in zinc.
Carrying cyanide. The moment the lightning struck the coating burned away.
And inside the king's bloodstream the process began. Iron plus Oxygen equals Rust. Slow. Silent. Unstoppable. Within days the capsules would break due to rusting. The poison would spread and the king would die.
Luo He opened his eyes minutes later.
Alone. Unnoticed. A faint smile appeared. "Checkmate." By the time anyone realized what had happened.
He was already gone. Riding across the desert. Toward Su Kim. With Vera and
Xu Mun.
With an army of sixty thousand behind him and a kingdom already beginning to collapse.
Soon The king would fall. His sons would fight. The throne would weaken and when the time came Luo He would return. Not as a guest. Not as a challenger. But as the man who decides who will rule. And Vera would sit on the sand throne. Because Luo He did not destroy kingdoms. He reshaped them and every piece was exactly where he wanted it to be.
On the way through the endless stretch of desert, Luo He finally allowed himself a rare moment of stillness. The wind howled softly across the dunes, carrying grains of sand that brushed against his cloak like whispers. Vera rode slightly behind him, silent as always, her presence steady.
Xu Mun followed at a distance, now freed but watched not as a prisoner, but not yet as an equal. Luo He's eyes dimmed slightly as he focused inward.
The system appeared. A faint glow only he could see. He began to check.
And for the first time in a long while He paused. "Maxed out?" His charisma skills. All of them. At their peak.
For a brief moment, even he didn't move.
He hadn't realized. Not consciously.
But now that he thought about it, everything made sense. The way people listened when he spoke. The way soldiers followed him without hesitation.
The way even enemies began to doubt themselves in his presence.
"So that's why," he murmured quietly.
"So that's why they follow me so easily."
His gaze shifted slightly, distant.
Every conversation. Every stranger.
Every negotiation. Every manipulation.
Each one had built this. He gave a faint, almost amused smile. "How many strangers have I spoken to?"
The answer didn't come as a number.
It came as memories. Markets. Battlefields. Prisons. Courts. Villages.
Enemies. All of them. He had spoken to countless people. Learned from them.
Used them. Understood them. "I see."
His expression returned to calm.
Then he shifted to the next skill. Medical.
Level 56. His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Still not enough." For someone else, that level would have been extraordinary.
But for Luo He It was lacking. He thought of the diseases he had seen. The limits of his knowledge. The things even he couldn't fix. "I still know very little," he admitted quietly. There was no frustration in his tone. Only clarity. It meant one thing. He needed to grow further.
By the time the system faded, the terrain had begun to change. The smooth dunes gave way to rougher ground. Broken earth. Deep trenches carved into the desert like scars. Smoke lingered faintly in the air. And then They saw them.
The rebels. Luo He's gaze sharpened slightly. They were exactly what he had expected or worse.
Men and women who looked like they hadn't bathed in years. Skin darkened with dirt and sun. Hair long, tangled, unwashed. Beards thick and wild.
Nails overgrown. Clothes torn and hanging loosely from their bodies.
The smell even from a distance was unpleasant. No order. No discipline.
No dignity. Just survival. Vera glanced at them briefly, her expression unchanged.
But Luo He observed everything.
Carefully.
"So this is her army." There was no mockery in his tone. Only analysis.
These were not soldiers. They were survivors. People abandoned by the world. People who had chosen chaos because they had nothing left to lose.
Dangerous in their own way. A group like this didn't break easily. Because they had already lost everything.
As Luo He and Vera approached, the rebels began to notice them. Eyes turned. Sharp. Suspicious. Hands moved toward weapons. Rough blades.
Improvised spears. Some even held rusted tools. No discipline. But instinct.
"Stop there!" One of them shouted.
A tall man stepped forward, his voice rough. "This land isn't for outsiders."
Vera didn't move. But Luo He stepped forward slightly.."We're not here for your land," he said calmly.
His voice cut through the tension. Not loud. Not forceful but it carried weight.
The man hesitated. Just for a moment.
Then another voice came from behind.
"Let them through." The rebels parted slowly. Reluctantly. And Luo He noticed it. Not obedience. Recognition. They weren't loyal to each other. They were loyal to one person.
They were led through the trenches.
The deeper they went, the clearer it became.
This hideout wasn't just chaos. It was structured chaos. Hidden paths.
Watch points. Traps. Crude but effective.
Luo He's eyes flickered slightly.
"Interesting." Even in this disorder there was control.
Finally they reached her. The sorceress.
She sat in the center of a hollowed-out section of the trench. Still. Silent a long, worn robe covered her body. Dark. Dirty.
A hood shadowed her face completely.
Only the faint outline of her form was visible.
She didn't move when they approached.
Didn't look up. Didn't speak. Luo He stopped a few steps away. He studied her. Carefully. He had expected something else.
Something crude. Something monstrous. But this this was different.
Stillness. Control. Presence. Hidden beneath that worn exterior there was something dangerous. Very dangerous.
Vera remained silent beside him.
Watching. Waiting.
Then Luo He spoke. Direct. Without hesitation. "I'm here to form an alliance."
The words landed cleanly in the air.
No introduction. No unnecessary talk.
No games. The figure in the robe remained still for a moment longer.
Then a faint movement. Slowly her head lifted. Just slightly and for the first time the air around them shifted. Subtly.
But unmistakably. Something had acknowledged him and Luo He smiled faintly because this was exactly what he had come for.