Truly Strong People Don't Believe in Luck

The Star Luo Palace, God-Servant City

Star charts were carved into all four walls, symbolizing Queen Star. Across the vaulted ceiling, a sea of Sun Cup flowers had been carved, symbolizing the Divine Messenger Polo and the Great God Yinsai.

Before the Sacred Lake, the Burrowing Demon Worm lay coiled like a mountain of flesh.

The terrible beast sent panic through everyone at the foot of the Sacred Mountain. One glance at the Sky Beast circling overhead and the Star of Death within the Sacred Lake, however, restored their courage and confidence.

Step by step, Henir entered the palace and knelt humbly on the floor.

The Star Luo Queen looked down at him. "Henir, you belong to the Volcano Kingdom and the Hosen family. What brings you to Star Luo?"

The Queen sat upon her throne, majestic yet gentle, with one hand resting on the Yinsai Scepter.

Henir straightened without relaxing his respectful bearing.

"Your Majesty, I am no Hosen. My name is Henir, and I bear no surname."

"I am only a smear of black mud beneath the Hosen family's feet."

Silence gripped the hall. No one could understand Henir's bitter loathing for the Hosen name. In this age, nearly everyone took pride in a family name. Even commoners liked to carry their forebears' names when speaking of themselves.

More than that, the Hosen family belonged to the Royal Bloodline itself.

No one knew Henir's past. Until that day, none of them had so much as heard his name.

Henir offered no explanation. He told them only what he wanted.

"I have come because only Star Luo, only Your Majesty, can grant me what I desire."

Once his desire was clear, Henir named the price he was prepared to pay.

"I command a power of my own within the Volcano Kingdom. Every force that once followed Weishi Hosen now answers to me, and the Burrowing Demon Worm is mine."

"With Your Majesty's aid, I can take the Volcano Kingdom for myself."

"If I become master of the Volcano Kingdom, I shall submit to you forever and acknowledge you as my king."

"From this day onward, there shall be no Volcano Kingdom and no Hosen family of the Royal Bloodline. I am willing to become the Grand Duke of Volcano and serve beneath your scepter and crown."

Then he offered a condition neither the Star Luo Kingdom nor the Xilong family could refuse.

"If Your Majesty wills it, I shall help you end the centuries of slaughter and strife among the Royal Bloodline, and return everything to Yinsai once more."

Still kneeling, Henir cried the words aloud with a grave, humble expression.

"All of it shall return to the Great Star Luo Queen, the last of the King of Yinsai's bloodline, the king of the Xilong family."

That single sentence kindled a fire in every heart within the Star Luo Kingdom and the Xilong family.

One by one, the priests and nobles turned toward the Star Luo Queen on her high throne.

Every eye glittered with longing.

One phrase had stirred them all, King of Yinsai.

The title was a glory carved into the mind and the memory of everyone in the Xilong family. Once, they had been the masters of Yinsai.

One who has never possessed something may think little of it. Once it has been held, however, its loss becomes impossible to accept.

No one spoke, yet an irresistible will had descended upon the hall and taken hold of every soul within it.

The Star Luo Queen maintained her composure, but even she could not suppress the longing of the entire Xilong family.

Looking down at Henir, she asked her final question.

"What reason have the Star Luo Kingdom and I to trust you?"

Henir answered with a reason no one could doubt. "I shall swear an oath before God Yinsai."

"On the day I become the Grand Duke of Volcano, I shall pledge my loyalty to Your Majesty."

"Before the temple, beneath the gaze of the divine and the Divine Messenger, I am willing to offer up the Great Poet Tito's Final Chapter."

After those words, every voice of doubt fell silent.

In a world that held a supreme God and a Creator, no one dared deceive the Great God Yinsai.

The Star Luo Queen descended from her throne and rested the scepter against Henir's shoulder, signaling her acceptance.

"Then you are welcome here."

"The Star Luo Kingdom shall aid you, my Grand Duke of Volcano."

Head bowed, Henir laid a hand over his chest.

"No honor could be greater, Your Majesty."

The Sky Temple

Before God Yinsai, Henir swore loyalty to the Star Luo Queen.

Wild joy swept across the faces of the Xilong family's priests. In Henir they saw a great turning that could reverse the course of the war, and a chance to reclaim the family's glory.

With Henir and his Burrowing Demon Worm on their side, the Star Luo Kingdom no longer had to live in dread beneath the siege of the Volcano Kingdom and the Samo Kingdom. Preparations for a counterattack had already begun.

From a corner, the young craftsman's son met Henir's gaze.

Henir recognized Stan Tito the instant he saw him.

Amid the bloodborn priests and nobles of the Xilong family, Stan Tito stood apart.

"Stan Tito. I know who you are."

"The Child of Fortune."

Henir approached him first. Never good with words, the craftsman's son bowed and nodded in greeting.

Stan Tito asked him, "You're of the Volcano Kingdom, and you're a Hosen by blood. Why would you do this?"

Without hesitation, Henir replied, "Because the Hosen family has fallen. They are no longer worthy to stand above others, wearing a crown they merely inherited."

In Henir's eyes, Stan Tito saw confidence and wildness, the kind of confidence that could change anything, the kind of wildness that dared to challenge anything.

It was something Stan Tito had never possessed.

The craftsman's son suddenly remembered a line from a conversation within a dream, one he could not be sure had ever been real.

"I once heard someone say I was like a marionette."

"Do you think that's true?"

"Did they mean I'm a man without a self of my own? Or was there some deeper meaning?"

That line had occupied Stan Tito's thoughts many times, and he cared deeply about what it meant.

Henir smiled. "Child of Fortune, the truly strong put no faith in fortune."

"Only one who swims against the current can master fate, and the world with it."

Henir clapped Stan Tito on the shoulder. "The day no one calls you the Child of Fortune, you will cease to be a marionette."

"Only then shall you become truly strong, a man worthy of the worship and awe of all who live."

Henir walked away calmly. The greatest challenge of his life awaited him, yet he felt no fear.

Stan Tito watched him go. "Henir. Black mud, you said?"

To him, what he had seen was no clot of black mud, but a dark and boundless swamp without end.

As Henir strode down the corridor outside the Sky Temple, a light kindled in his eyes.

Those words had not been meant for Stan Tito alone. They gave voice to the fiercest longing and strongest will in the depths of Henir's own heart.

"That is right. I will be the one who masters my own fate."