Chapter 89: The Hall

The castle hall.

What?!

The instant he heard the ring's name from Rosa's lips, even though Xia Xia Mingyu had strained to keep his facial muscles calm, a flicker of shock inevitably betrayed him.

In a fantasy world with a medieval backdrop, hearing the phrase "Starfire" was simply too unbelievable!

Could this really be a coincidence?

Could there be other transmigrants?

Xia Xia Mingyu's mind was a tangle of chaos.

Rosa, who had been observing his subtle expressions, smiled faintly, then bowed slightly and turned away.

She knew—she had finally found the person her husband had been searching for all along.

Afterward, the lords of the southern region took their leave to personally lead troops to intercept Nightshadow Lord's messengers, while Caron hurried off to rally the army and prepare supplies.

They said they would arrive in three days, meaning he had only one day to prepare—and must depart the very next day.

Upon hearing that Blackwolf Lord would launch a war of honor against Nightshadow Lord, Boge was ecstatic—he ran to Xia Xia Mingyu, dropped to one knee, and pounded the floor with his fists, begging relentlessly for permission to join the war.

At first Xia Xia Mingyu wondered what deep grudge they held, until Boge, teeth clenched, revealed that Victor was the lord who taxed even breathing—and Xia Xia Mingyu agreed without hesitation.

Even a slave owner wouldn't stoop to taxing breath.

Better to hang his head on the city wall soon!

Afterward, it was the usual routine—knee pillow, feeding, reading, teasing the little girl—and the day passed like that.

Evening fell; the night sky lowered, spilling the river of stars.

Lying on the soft silk bed, Xia Xia Mingyu soon drifted into sleep.

Hall of Starfire.

Above the towering crystal dome, artillery never ceased, and warriors never halted their advance.

On the bronze-floored ground, twelve black prismatic pillars rose skyward, blazing with torchfire.

"Is this kid really someone who shares our same will?"

"Hegex, are you questioning the Prince's choice?"

"... Tamerlan, I'm not questioning the Prince. You know I've always regarded him as a god—so do you think he's like us?"

"Hmm, I also think he doesn't seem like it, but I learned from the Prince's last lesson to me: don't judge by appearances—just like I did with you back then."

Xia Xia Mingyu had just entered the grand hall when he heard Tamerlan and Hegex whispering behind him.

From their words, it seemed the Hall had gained a new member.

Thinking of this, Xia Xia Mingyu's heart stirred with quiet delight.

After all, the two he had summoned before had already brought him great surprises.

One, though a slave, was a prodigy who reached the Morning Star rank at twenty-one—and now had ascended to the New Moon rank, awakening the heavenly gift of Thirteen Rebirths.

The other, even more astonishing—the Grand Pontiff's grandson, born with a divine gift, had achieved the Crescent Moon rank at such a young age—it was terrifying!

Xia Xia Mingyu suspected that even across the entire world, Tamerlan ranked among the most gifted, as if heaven itself treated him like a favored son.

"Who will the third one be? Prince, knight, mage—or perhaps not even human, but an elf or orc...?" Xia Xia Mingyu mused aloud:

"I'm back."

"Your Highness, good evening!"

At the sound of his voice, Tamerlan and Hegex instantly turned and knelt before Xia Xia Mingyu in unison.

Only then, as the two towering men knelt, did Xia Xia Mingyu finally see the person behind them—a tiny, emaciated dwarf beggar, trembling with fear.

He wore a tattered linen robe, its fabric faded, sleeves and pant legs frayed to rags, exposing bony, blackened wrists and ankles that looked as if a single touch would snap them.

His hair clung in matted strands to his forehead, his face caked in grime, obscuring his original features, and his body emitted a thick, foul stench—as if he had never bathed.

The odor made Xia Xia Mingyu instinctively pinch his nose.

"Fourteen... billion?!"

The moment the beggar saw the text hovering above Xia Xia Mingyu's head, his entire worldview shattered—he screamed in terror.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Suddenly dragged into this magnificent hall, surrounded by terrifying war projections above, and scrutinized by a giant and a knight—

Now faced with a prince so exalted he seemed beyond imagination, the beggar collapsed under the crushing weight of psychological shock and nearly fainted.

Seeing this, Xia Xia Mingyu silently snapped his fingers.

In an instant, the stench vanished, and the beggar was cleansed as if bathed—his true form revealed: a red-haired boy, barely eight or nine years old.

"Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you. Eat something, relax," Xia Xia Mingyu said softly, walking to the stunned boy and gently stroking his fiery red hair.

Moments later, the bronze table was laden with steaming dishes—braised pork buns, fried shrimp, Peking duck, sweet-and-sour fish.

All of them were creations from Xia Xia Mingyu's memory, conjured within the Hall of Starfire.

"Delicious! Delicious! Worth dying for!"

The red-haired boy sat on the second chair to the right, one hand clutching two pork buns, the other grabbing food from the table and wolfing it down.

He had no manners whatsoever—he looked more like a ravenous beast than a child.

Tamerlan and Hegex, by contrast, were refined—they accepted the chopsticks Xia Xia Mingyu offered, and with astonishing bodily coordination, mastered their use in seconds, delicately picking up each morsel.

"What's your name?"

After the boy finished every dish on the table and still patted his swollen belly with longing, Xia Xia Mingyu asked softly.

To avoid frightening him, Xia Xia Mingyu even forced a gentle smile onto his face.

"Prince, thank you for this feast! I've never eaten anything so delicious, nor have I ever been this full!"

The boy leapt from his chair, dropped to his knees, and crawled forward on them until he reached Xia Xia Mingyu's feet, gazing up at him with adoration.

This prince was so kind—he had washed him, fed him such precious food, and granted him his life's dream: the feeling of being full.

"My name is Brown Nose," the boy said awkwardly.

At this, Tamerlan's handsome face broke into a smile, and even the ever-serious Hegex twitched the corner of his mouth upward.

In this world's culture, "Brown Nose" was a mocking term—deriding someone who groveled so desperately to please others that their nose became caked in dirt.

In plain terms, the boy was saying his name was "Suck-up."

"Why that name?" Xia Xia Mingyu asked, stroking the boy's head with curiosity.

Honestly, the texture was nice—nothing like Hegex's bristly, needle-like hair that pricked his fingers.

"My parents died of hunger before they could name me. I survived by begging food from neighbors and passersby. The other kids called me Brown Nose, so I kept it."

The boy spoke timidly.

His head felt so warm. If only this prince would keep stroking it forever.

Tamerlan and Hegex's smiles froze.

Xia Xia Mingyu fell silent, lost in thought.

This was the first time he had encountered someone from the lowest stratum of this world—a child, no less.

Technically, Hegex, as a slave, was lower than a common pauper—but not all slaves were equal. Hegex, a prodigy, was cherished even by slave masters, fed well and treated kindly.

"Prince, please take me as your servant! I swear I'll do anything you ask—just let me stay in this grand house, stay by your side."

The boy pleaded, bowing his head to kiss Xia Xia Mingyu's shoe tip—but Xia Xia Mingyu lifted him off the ground.

"Child, this isn't reality—it's my dream. When you wake, you'll return to your old life, and the food you just ate won't exist. Hunger will still haunt you," Xia Xia Mingyu explained patiently.

"Ah... so this wonderful place was just a dream. Someone as filthy and ugly as me could never deserve to be touched by someone as noble as you..."

The boy's new dream shattered. He slumped, head bowed, eyes reddening, whispering sobs.

Watching him, Xia Xia Mingyu felt a strange mix of amusement and pity.

Starfire... I need allies to change this world. Are you turning this place into an orphanage?

Xia Xia Mingyu sighed inwardly in exasperation.

"Huh." He took a deep breath, suppressing his frustration and resentment.

If you can't clean your own room, how can you clean the world?

If he abandoned this crying child, how could he ever uphold his resolve to help all people live like human beings?

"Child, though I cannot change your cruel reality, I can give you knowledge—so you may gain the strength to change it yourself," Xia Xia Mingyu said slowly.

Then he turned his gaze to Hegex beside him.

"Hegex, can you teach him how to become a warrior?" Xia Xia Mingyu asked.

"Forgive me, Your Highness. Even a warrior apprentice requires hundreds of full battles and countless scars. His physical condition makes it impossible," Hegex shook his head.

Xia Xia Mingyu turned his pleading eyes to Tamerlan.

"Your Highness, in knightly cultivation, breathing techniques are essential. I can teach him my breathing method—it might help him become a knight apprentice," Tamerlan smiled.

"Then please, Tamerlan. Teach him tonight."

"Yes, Your Highness. As you command—I happen to possess a gift for teaching others."

Xia Xia Mingyu was startled.

This boy had another gift besides his lie-detection ability?!

Tamerlan then led the dazed Brown Nose to an open space to teach him the breathing technique, while Xia Xia Mingyu and Hegex returned to their seats and resumed reading.

"Brown Nose, normally this breathing technique requires facing the sun—but here there is none. Just meditate on it in your mind."

Tamerlan's teaching drifted to Xia Xia Mingyu's ears as he read. He rested his chin on his hand and snapped his fingers.

In an instant, the crystal dome vanished, replaced by a blue sky and a blazing sun.

Tamerlan: "???"

The boy: "?!"

"What an awe-inspiring power!" Tamerlan gazed at Xia Xia Mingyu's back with profound reverence.

The boy beside him also looked at Xia Xia Mingyu with boundless admiration.

The Prince is so powerful! Could he be the god the priest spoke of—the one who brings light?

Moments later, the master and disciple exchanged a glance, and an unexpected warmth and unspoken understanding arose between them.

Hargex, seated at the long table, reacted with calm indifference; he had long since deified the Prince in his heart. To him, no feat the Prince performed could ever be surprising—after all, the Prince had even reversed his death.

After an entire night, as the pillars of the hall gradually turned translucent, Tamerlan finally taught Brown Nose his Sun Child Breathing Method.

"You have excellent talent. Train hard," Tamerlan said gently, stroking the boy's head with praise.

But his inner cultivation is terrible—I've never taught a student this slow.

"Yes!" The boy nodded vigorously, then ran toward Xia Xia Mingyu.

"Your Highness, thank you."

Before he could finish speaking, his body dissolved into a burst of flame and vanished completely.

The dream ended.

Blade City.

Slums.

Brown Nose slowly woke from sleep, gazing around at the dilapidated thatch and garbage-strewn ground. Recalling the grand hall from moments before, he felt as if he had crossed a lifetime.

"Was it a dream? So real," Brown Nose murmured, then noticed something unusual about his body.

His stomach was full to bursting; his body was clean and free of all grime, though his clothes remained tattered. The memory of the Breathing Method in his mind was crystal clear—every detail firmly fixed.

"Great! It wasn't a dream—the Prince was just teasing me!"

Brown Nose let out a long sigh, a radiant smile—unprecedented on his thin, childlike face—spreading across his features.

"Oh no, I need to collect garbage—otherwise I'll be late!"

Remembering his work, Brown Nose scrambled up from the straw and rushed out in panic.

He had a job: each day, he cleared garbage and obstacles from the cart-only roads of the city, to prevent carts from overturning or dirtying the eyes of the Masters.

If he cleaned thoroughly each day, he received a loaf of black bread the size of a fist—his sole daily ration.

He cherished this job. For some reason, no adults ever competed with him for it.

(End of Chapter)