The pitch-black underground cave was dark and damp. The tangled passages were like a spiderweb—just walking through them, you never knew where the darkness ahead would lead.

“Cough, cough... this won’t do.”

Standing at the edge of a cliff, Muen looked out over the space on both sides.

After another long stretch of travel, the narrow cave path in front of him finally cut off abruptly, dropping straight down into a sheer cliff face. Beyond it, the space opened up massively, and the whole cave suddenly became wide and open here.

Muen cast Light, brightening the area a little.

Above his head were still stalactites of all sizes. Jade- and gemstone-like hues stained broad patches of rock, and under the illumination they looked crystalline—beautiful beyond words.

The sound of running water came from far away; there should be an underground river flowing somewhere. A faint mist drifted through this broad space that was no less vast than a mountain ravine’s valley floor. The spectacular view made it hard to believe this was underground at all.

If this were his previous life, you could slap up a sign and this place would become a pretty incredible cave attraction.

“Too bad this isn’t the time to admire the scenery...”

Muen clutched his chest, his expression twisted with pain, and sank to one knee for the moment.

Several hours had passed, and the exhaustion and tearing in his mind showed no sign of recovery—if anything, it was worse.

Now, every step he took required enormous willpower. The scene before his eyes split and swayed without pause, doubling into afterimages, like he’d downed several bottles of high-proof liquor and then sprinted wild through a winter gale.

Muen knew he couldn’t keep going like this for long—but he had to keep going.

Because the crisis wasn’t over.

Even if he’d successfully fooled Zagu using the Black Book’s page and his own Light spell, that was only temporary—at best, it bought him a bit of breathing room.

Soon, an enraged, humiliated Zagu would come after him again with even more fury, and even more shameless moves.

“So... the problem of being locked onto has to be solved.”

Otherwise, the other side was cheating with a target box, while he was still stuck in the fog—how was he supposed to fight?

Muen looked down at his wrist.

That thin thread—the tiny chain split off from Myriad-Age Cycle—was still quietly coiled around his wrist.

There had to be a way to use this. For some reason, Muen’s intuition told him so.

But the problem was... how?

Ever since he woke up, aside from moments in battle when he had to focus completely, Muen had been trying to figure out how to activate and use this thing—pouring mana into it, layering battle energy onto it, chanting spells... basically trying every method he could think of.

And he still had no clue.

An hadn’t left any hint at the time, either.

It was like a rich woman waving her hand and tossing you a bank card, telling you to spend whatever’s inside... but she forgot to tell you the PIN.

It was maddening.

“In that case, I’m left with no choice but to use the last method...”

The corner of Muen’s mouth tilted up. He gave a wicked, charming smile.

Then he closed his eyes coolly—

“Black Book, save me!”

【......】

No response.

He kept going.

“Black Book, sir, please save me!”

Muen’s face was full of sincerity as he begged—like a scumbag who’d just been caught cheating but was still desperately maintaining his ‘good man’ persona.

“I know you’re the ultimate top-tier cheat that follows the ‘if you can avoid helping, you absolutely won’t’ free-range principle. You’re totally not like the kind in Zagu’s hands that’s useless except for cheating, and you definitely won’t take offense at me saying earlier that you’re not as good as other cheats... so please, save my pathetic life one more time.”

“No need to take me to farm Evil God wool again or anything. I just want to know how to use this thing. You, who even know an Evil God’s weakness, definitely know this too, right?!” 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

【......】

“Black Book, sir!”

【Sigh.】

That familiar sound of a sigh.

A heavy black book flew out from the depths of Muen’s cracked, fractured consciousness space. Pages flipped, and on the white paper, standard printed-looking letters began to appear.

【Myriad-Age Cycle itself carries a security lock from a thousand years ago. Only those permitted by its creator can use it; not even Shenyi has the qualifications or authority.】

“Huh?”

Muen froze.

If even Shenyi couldn’t, then he definitely couldn’t.

Was his intuition wrong?

【However...】

The Black Book had actually learned how to cut off a sentence.

After the two words that made your heart hitch—however—new letters slowly appeared.

【Muen·Campbell, you do.】

“I do?”

Muen froze again.

Even Shenyi didn’t have that authority, but he did?

Was it because... An?

No matter how he thought about it, that was the only possibility.

No wonder An hadn’t said anything when they split up—she’d already done what needed to be done.

“But... how exactly do I use it?”

Muen frowned, confused.

“I’ve already tried every way I can think of, and it did absolutely nothing.”

He was one step away from trying the classic drip blood to claim ownership.

Wait.

Did he really need to drip blood?

This was a western setting—why was it getting this xianxia?

【As the protective method of that era a thousand years ago, mana, battle energy, passwords, even blood, are all unsafe—because those things can be forged.】 More letters appeared on the Black Book.

“True.”

Muen nodded in agreement.

Just a moment ago, Zagu had been fooled by exactly those things.

【So you must use your soul.】

“My... soul?”

Muen’s eyes widened. The answer caught him off guard, but thinking about it carefully, it also made sense.

What was more unique than a soul?

But the issue was—

“How do I use a soul?”

Up to now, Muen had swallowed plenty of souls with the black fire, but no one had ever taught him how to use his own soul’s power.

After all, a living person didn’t need to learn how to use their soul.

【Feel for it carefully. You will know.】

Rustle.

The last line appeared. The Black Book quickly shut, then flew back into the depths of his consciousness space.

“...”

Muen stared at it—at the book that clearly didn’t want to talk to him anymore—and felt speechless.

Fine. Another riddle-speaker.

No—should he call it a riddle-book?

Muen opened his eyes again, his gaze dropping back to his wrist.

“My soul...”

Two words. Simple.

“Feel for it carefully,” also sounded simple.

But how the hell were you supposed to “feel” a soul?

Muen was completely at a loss.

Still, speaking of souls... there was someone who should know ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) a lot about that.

Muen turned his head and looked at the girl asleep on his back.

Ariel. Her teacher—the classic, textbook “old man hidden in a ring.”

Of course, since this was a phoenix-proud female-protagonist story, the old man in the ring naturally became a gentle, mature big sister instead.

But whether it was an old man or a big sister, that teacher’s mastery of souls had to be profound. After all, she only had a soul left—so she could probably answer his questions.

Only—

“We’re already at this point and that big sister still hasn’t shown herself. If I’m guessing right, this is the same classic trope: ring big sister fell into slumber for some reason, so the story can only rely on Ariel’s own plot.”

Muen sighed, troubled.

In the end, he still had to rely on himself.

“Feel for it... carefully?”

If he talked about the only time he’d had any real, practical sense of his own soul...

It was that pulling sensation from earlier—after Myriad-Age Cycle locked his soul.

Right. That pulling sensation. That sensation like he was about to be lifted up.

He should recall it carefully—carefully.

Muen grabbed the chain on his wrist, calmed his breathing, focused his mind, and began to recall, to feel...

...

【Beep—】

In a daze, Muen heard a sound.

【Soul fluctuation detected. Beginning soul information confirmation...】

【Beep... function incomplete... detection speed slow...】

【Beep... detecting... beep... detecting...】

【Beep... detection complete... soul information confirmed...】

【Beep... identity confirmed... identity is ▌▌▌▌▌... beep... error. Identity information has been locked by the highest authority and cannot be displayed...】

【Beep... usage permissions confirmed...】

【Beep... welcome to Myriad-Age Cycle, Seventh Branch, Mr. ▌▌.】

...

“This is...”

Muen stared at his wrist in shock.

After those blurred, stiff, hard-to-understand lines—clearly formed from ancient characters—flashed through his mind, the tiny chain around his wrist instantly changed, as if some switch had been flipped.

Small, dense, blood-red runes floated up from the chain, circling about ten centimeters away from his wrist. From a distance, it looked like a ring of dust and meteors in space.

It didn’t have the same mysterious grandeur as a true star ring, but it still gave off an indescribable sense of refinement and profundity.

“What is this—an operating mechanism?”

Even though he couldn’t understand its structure at all, Muen unconsciously reached out and lightly traced a finger across that “ring.”

Click-click—the “ring” slowly rotated three clock positions along the movement of his finger.

Muen’s vision swam. The world in his sight changed in an instant.

As if he’d put on a pair of red-tinted glasses, the entire world was washed in a faint blood-red veil.

And beyond that—

Muen turned to look at Ariel, and in surprise he found that her outline in his vision looked a bit blurry now, as if there were two of her in his sight—one solid, one illusory—overlapping into one.

And at the ring on her finger, a dense mass of light and shadow radiated an extremely intense sense of presence, so bright it almost stabbed his eyes shut.

“So that’s how it is. This lets me see what you call a soul with my own eyes?”

He’d seen a full million warped souls at the bottom of the Lost Land, and he’d sensed souls on the verge of shattering several times through black flame—

But this was the first time he’d ever looked at a living person’s soul so directly with his own eyes.

Muen lowered his gaze to himself.

Just like Ariel, the edges of his own body now had an overlapping phantom—one was his flesh, one was his soul.

But right now, a third layer of phantom was also around him: a girl.

That phantom was simply visible because it existed—after all, outwardly, he was still “Miss Muse.”

And besides that, on his left arm, there was a chain as thick as a baby’s finger. One end connected to his soul, and the other end...

It went straight through the thick stone wall, disappearing somewhere unknown.

“I see.”

Muen let out a cold laugh.

“So this is how you track my soul information?”