After Lan Qi finished the autumn product launch presentation in the sanctuary—
Suddenly, the screen began to move, and deep, slightly healing music played from the church’s pipe organ.
The great poetess of love was sitting at the keyboard connected to the air tank. Wearing a red dress, her smooth gray hair draped over her pale back, leaving only her slender silhouette as she focused earnestly on playing.
“What kind of love can make people truly resonate?”
Lan Qi’s gentle voice sounded again, narrating to the spectators in the real world.
“It’s hard to describe, but it’s truly there.”
With his words, the camera slowly panned, showing every detail of Lichtensteinein Castle in full view—sacred and magnificent.
“Look, everything here is different.”
The lens cut to stained-glass windows where dawn’s light crisscrossed, piercing every corner, while coffin lids continued sliding back and forth.
“The air is filled with vitality.”“The sound caresses you.”
“The sunlight fills you.”
“Under the frosty heavens, all beings bask in freedom.”
Until finally, outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the mountaintop forest stretched lush and verdant, full of the vigor of life.
The camera gradually passed through the grand hall of the sanctuary, moving to the garden and lawn where lounge chairs stood. Beneath patio umbrellas, several men and women were preparing barbecues and fruit platters, enjoying a leisurely holiday.
“If you are lucky enough, love will dwell in your life forever.”
Lan Qi’s voice continued, accompanied by the swelling music and the lens pulling back.
“It is like the morning star, purifying your soul, flowing in your blood, driving out the knots in your heart.”
“With just one glanced, everything gains meaning.”
At the final moment when the music stopped, the screen turned into a black curtain, printed with one logo and two lines of text:
【Great Love Company】
【From the Kingdom of Hedon, Ikerite】
【Make your life extraordinary】
“……”
At this moment, in Ikerite Academy—
The students seated on the stone steps didn’t know how to comment, nor did they dare.
All they could say was: it’d be better if this company never sought investment.
“By the way, the academic delegation from the Kingdom of Yaloran arrives tomorrow morning.”
“What a pity they missed this product launch.”
The students forcedly shifted the topic with stiff small talk.
If not for Lan Qi’s vampire-targeting specialty, the vampires probably would’ve risked their lives to tear down this ridiculous invention.
Though it was just a conceptual design, not necessarily practical—
Lan Qi’s idea spread like a virus, teaching people how to ultimately insult vampires.
At the edge of the square—
“Lan Qi… what on earth is he doing?”
Noé gave two awkward laughs, his facial muscles stiff.
He couldn’t figure out what those two coffin creatures were, nor whether Lan Qi had any talent for advertising.
But whatever Lan Qi was doing—it was definitely sacrificing merit by the second!
Yet—
The students’ reactions were far calmer than Noé had imagined.
Perhaps it was a generation gap between him and the youth, leaving him unable to understand.
Or maybe people in the capital Ikerite were just very avant-garde, while he, living long on the border abroad, couldn’t keep up with the trend.
Was Lan Qi crazy—or had the entire school gone strange with him?
“Lan Qi is accumulating virtue and doing good deeds!”
Beside him, the little reporter Luwesiel excitedly snapped photos, laughing in delight.
“?”
Noé stared at her abnormal expression, feeling the school’s eerie atmosphere grow heavier.
Moreover—
Those three who dragged the coffins earlier—though looking gentle and solemn—their aura carried a terrifying abnormality. Just locking eyes with them felt like his tombstone, engraved with his name, had already been erected.
Even through the screen, one felt a chill to the bones!
Clearly not good people.
Noé became extremely worried that Lan Qi had fallen in with bad company.
“Wait, that background… is it really inside the academy?”
Noé suddenly realized.
He had assumed the sanctuary was just a school building, until the camera changed angle, showing scenery beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows—like being atop a towering mountain.
But Ikerite’s terrain was flat, crisscrossed with rivers, an exceptionally livable city.
Whereas those mountains looked more like the northern highland cities of the Kret Empire—not anything the Hedon capital Ikerite should have.
“The scene is inside the Shadow World.”
Before Luwesiel could reply, a student on the stone steps answered Noé’s doubt.
This uncle clearly hadn’t seen Lan Qi’s thrilling Shadow World expedition yesterday.
“Shadow World?”
Noé asked blankly.
Normally—
For a first-year freshman, just two months into school, obtaining a registered challenger license from the South Continent Shadow World Association was already impressive.
How had Lan Qi already gone into a Shadow World?
And this Shadow World was obviously no low level!
Because those three terrifying figures were definitely not ordinary challengers.
“Of course. Uncle, you definitely don’t know who that man on screen is, right? He’s our school’s fiercest freshman! Yesterday he took down the resurrected cult’s Destruction Saintess, captured the Kret Empire’s Princess Alexia, and today turned a vampire count into a mummy!”
The students on the steps enthusiastically explained to Noé.
On weekends, many city residents often visited Ikerite Academy as a public attraction.
So not understanding Lan Qi’s bizarre Shadow World was quite normal.
Noé: “???”
His brain spun furiously, trying to process the flood of information.
“This… impossible…”
“If you don’t believe, uncle, just buy today’s Hedon Times. There’s a column recording Lan Qi and his team’s Shadow World expedition yesterday!”
The nearby students all kindly recommended it.
“Thank you…”
Half-dazed, Noé rushed to a nearby newsstand, bought a copy of the Hedon Times,
and flipped rapidly through.Soon he found the column.
His eyes scanned left and right, his face growing increasingly pale.
Meanwhile, the giant outdoor screen continued broadcasting the latest scenes.
After the commercial, the live Shadow World resumed.
At the sanctuary’s center—
“Mr. Lan Qi, won’t you reconsider joining the Goddess of Fate’s church? We hope to continue receiving your guidance.”
The North Continent priest at the front spoke sincerely.
“Though our faiths differ, our goals and pursuits are the same. Perhaps one day we’ll meet again—then, too, we shall still fight as warriors for a world of Great Love.”
Lan Qi encouraged the three of them.
“The world will surely be filled with light and love. Love is invincible.”
“It is for love that we exist.”
“We must spread Mr. Lan Qi’s great philosophy across the North Continent.”
The executioner, paladin, and priest all conversed with Lan Qi inside the sanctuary.
“……”
Noé slowly turned his head, staring from the newspaper photo to the giant screen.
Those three…
They were clergy of the Goddess of Fate?
At once, his heart pounded wildly as he read how those priests had transformed inside the Shadow World—
From normal people into indescribably extreme fanatics.
In just one day.
“Dear Goddess…”
“If this is a nightmare… please let me wake up…”
Darkness flooded his vision, and Noé collapsed to the ground.
“Someone’s fainted!”
“He’s still breathing, must’ve just blacked out from the shock!”
“See? Lan Qi’s Shadow World really can’t just be publicly screened on holidays—otherwise you scare random uncles passing by!”
“Who has communication magic? Quick, call a doctor from the Alchemy Academy!”
The scene around the newsstand became chaotic, students quickly crowding around.
Soon, a few with medical training began moving the handsome uncle who’d suddenly fallen ill, rushing him to the Alchemy Academy for treatment.
Dad, dad, dad, give me your votes, votes, votes, votes, votes!