"Let's see you escape now." A cunning smile spread across the white-haired old man's face as he drove the boulder hurtling toward Rulu.

  Rulu went pale with shock. Pinned down by the powerful wind, he could no longer ride it to move quickly, and had almost no way to dodge the boulder bearing down on him. In his panic, his eyes fell on the rge hole the boulder had smashed into the cargo compartment moments ago.

  Rulu threw every bit of his strength into summoning a gust, pushing it straight ahead of him, and at the same time pnted his feet and shoved off the ground. With a hiss, he shot through the gaping hole in the compartment and tumbled inside — narrowly dodging the boulder's impact.

  "That was close…" Rulu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, relieved to have made it out alive. He began looking around, taking in his surroundings.

  The compartment was lit and bright inside. It was otherwise bare and empty — but in one corner sat a green-haired girl dressed in a long white robe. Her hands were bound behind her back with rope, and a strip of cloth had been tied over her mouth, preventing her from speaking.

  "This woman… is she the one the Sanctuary's emperor wanted?" Rulu thought to himself, walking slowly toward the girl and studying her carefully.

  She was snow-pale and slightly built, appearing to be around sixteen or seventeen years old, with long blue-green hair that fell all the way to her waist. At that moment, the green-haired girl was watching Rulu approach with an expression of quiet sorrow and longing.

  The instant their eyes met, a strange, inexplicable feeling stirred in Rulu's chest. His mind grew heavy and dim, and a cascade of bizarre, indescribable visions flooded through his thoughts.

  He seemed to see countless stars glittering in the darkness, revolving around him — and then the birth and death of countless lives across the long river of history. His spirit was shaken to its very core. He sank into those strange visions and could not pull himself free. He stood where he was, as though his soul had left his body, his gaze locked on the green-haired girl's sorrowful eyes.

  "Oh — you can see me?" The girl's brow shifted, and a look of surprise crossed her face. Her mouth hadn't moved, yet Rulu felt as though he'd heard her say it.

  With an enormous bang, the walls of the cargo compartment burst apart on their own. The truck toppled to one side, and both Rulu and the green-haired girl were thrown out, tumbling to the ground beside the overturned vehicle.

  Before Rulu could recover, a powerful current of air materialized above him and pressed down across his entire body. It felt as though a boulder of a thousand jin had been loaded onto his back. Fttened by the wind, he y face-down on the ground, unable to move a single limb.

  "For His Majesty the Emperor — please die." The white-haired old man realized Rulu could no longer flee. A mild smile settled on his face as he directed the two-meter boulder toward Rulu, lying prostrate on the ground.

  A white figure suddenly streaked out and pced itself between Rulu and the boulder.

  "No—!" The white-haired old man's face went white with arm. He frantically swung his golden staff, trying to stop the stone before it hit the white figure — but the boulder was too heavy and too fast. There was no stopping it in time.

  A dull, heavy thud. The boulder smmed into the figure, sending her flying six or seven meters before she crashed to the ground beside Rulu.

  "Why? Why would you sacrifice yourself to save me?!" Rulu stared in arm at the green-haired girl lying beside him, his mind reeling with bewilderment. Her face was deathly white, blood flowing freely from her mouth — it was pin she would not survive.

  "I… I finally found you…" The green-haired girl's lips parted and closed, forming faint, indistinct words. She y on the ground and looked up at Rulu with distant, grieving eyes, as though she were trying to say something to him.

  "You… what do you want to say?" Rulu reached out with trembling hands and pulled the cloth binding away from her mouth.

  "Hold… hold me…" the girl said in the faintest of voices. She strained to shift her body along the ground, pressing herself toward Rulu.

  Rulu froze. After a long moment, a look of quiet acceptance settled over his face, and he said softly, "I don't know you, and I don't know why you saved me — but having someone to walk the road to the underworld with is far better than dying alone."

  With those words, Rulu reached out his arms and drew the green-haired girl against him, pulling her into his embrace. At that moment, the girl parted her lips and pressed them to his.

  "What—?!" Rulu's pupils contracted sharply. In that same instant, the strange visions returned to his mind — and this time they were far clearer and more vivid than before. Rulu felt as though he had been drawn into an otherworldly space, where a strange voice spoke to him:

  "Do you want to live? Do you want to obtain great power — even if that power brings you endless suffering, and drives you into the depths of darkness…?"

  "Who… who are you? What do you want from me?" The Rulu within the vision cried out toward the voice.

  "If you are willing to accept this power, then answer me," the voice said again.

  "From this moment forward, your fate will be bound to mine. My wish will become your wish. I will grant you a power that stands above all others in this world — a power that may save you, and transform your life entirely. Or it may bring you ruin, and cast you into a hell from which there is no return. If you have the resolve to bear such a power, then answer me…"

  "Heh heh heh — now that's interesting." The Rulu within the vision ughed. "I don't know who you are, or why you've come to me — but if you can truly give me power like that, I could ask for nothing more. To achieve my goals, I will pay any price. Even if I must become a demon and fall into a hell of no return — I am willing."

  "Is that so? Wonderful…" the voice murmured, and then fell silent.

  A sharp, stabbing pain exploded through Rulu's head. He felt something force its way into his mind — leaving behind new memories and knowledge that had not been there before. Rulu lost himself in them, unable to surface. He lost all sense of time. Though the moment sted only an instant, to Rulu it stretched on like hundreds of years.