The first rays of dawn finally reached Humeyin.
She stood at the peak of Shamrock Sanctuary, completely exposed beneath the open sky.
For several moments, she didn’t move. She simply stood there, allowing the sunlight to touch her.
The gentle warmth of the morning sun seeped through her skin and spread throughout her body. It flowed through her like a gentle stream, reinvigorating her flesh and nourishing her bloodline.
Humeyin slowly raised her hand.
Golden sunlight rested upon her palm.
She stared at it in silence.
It had been so long.
Too long.
She had been barely ten years old the last time she had watched the sun rise.
Back then, she had been nothing more than a young girl who had woken up early enough to watch the horizon slowly turn golden. She remembered standing outside and feeling the first rays of sunlight touch her face.
She remembered thinking that the morning sun was beautiful.
Then her bloodline had awakened.
At first, the changes had been gradual.
The sunlight that once warmed her skin began to sting.
Then it began to burn.
Eventually, even the mild light of evening became dangerous.
Something as ordinary as standing beneath an open sky had become a luxury she could no longer afford.
Little by little, the bright world outside had been taken away from her.
The sunrises.
The sunsets.
The open sky.
Even the gentle glow of dusk.
All of them had become things she could only experience through memories.
Until now.
Humeyin closed her eyes.
The sunlight continued to bathe her body.
She could feel her Blackblood Bloodline functioning exactly as it always had.
The Light Essence entered her body.
Her bloodline devoured it.
The light was converted into energy.
But there was a fundamental difference now.
She was no longer being overwhelmed by her own power. She was controlling it.
The energy flowed through her body according to her will. She could determine how much was absorbed, how quickly it was converted, and how much energy was allowed to remain within her vessel.
The power that had once been her greatest torment had become something she could finally command.
Humeyin opened her eyes.
She looked toward Aksai.
He stood only a short distance away, silently watching her.
The morning wind swept across the mountain peak, carrying the fresh scent of the sea and mountains with it.
Humeyin’s eyes became misty.
She lowered her head.
Then she bowed deeply.
"Thank you, Lord Aksai..."
Her voice trembled.
"For freeing me from my curse."
She paused.
Her fingers slowly curled into fists as she felt many emotions budding inside her heart at the same time.
"I..."
Humeyin took a slow breath.
She had already made her decision.
"I am eternally indebted to you."
Her voice became steadier.
"Even if I come across as naive for saying the same thing, I don’t care. If you don’t mind..."
She raised her head and looked directly at Aksai.
"I would like to go ahead with my late father’s arrangements with you."
For a moment, Aksai simply looked at her.
Then he smiled and stepped forward.
Before Humeyin could react, Aksai reached out with both hands and lifted her.
Humeyin’s eyes widened as she received a peck on her forehead. Fortunately or unfortunately, Aksai didn’t give her a chance to resist.
"L-Lord Aksai?"
Aksai laughed as he looked at Humeyin’s expression.
"Congratulations, Lord Humeyin."
He held her steadily before him.
"You’ve broken through your bloodline shackles."
His expression became gentler.
"Although you received my help, much of the credit still belongs to you. You were the one who survived the process."
Humeyin’s lips trembled slightly.
Aksai continued.
"And as for being eternally indebted..."
He shook his head.
"You don’t need to feel that way at all."
His gaze softened.
"You are my late master’s daughter."
Aksai looked toward the rising sun for a moment.
"Your father helped me greatly when he was alive. He gave me guidance when I needed it, protected me when I was still weak, and treated me as his true disciple despite the short time he had."
He looked back at Humeyin.
"This is simply me paying that debt back to him through you."
Humeyin stared at him.
Her misty eyes finally overflowed.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Aksai looked at Humeyin for a long moment. He gently wiped away the tear trailing down her cheek.
Humeyin’s body stiffened slightly.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
Aksai then leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
"As for the marriage arrangements between us..."
Aksai smiled.
"I accept as well. This time, with conviction. And since we’re going to get married, we don’t need to feel like we owe each other for everything we do."
Joy immediately bloomed within Humeyin’s heart.
It was followed almost immediately by shyness.
She suddenly became painfully aware of how close Aksai was standing.
Only a small distance separated them.
His hands were still around her, and for a moment, it looked as though he might embrace her.
Humeyin’s face turned crimson.
She quickly stepped backward.
Then another step.
She turned around and faced the horizon as though the sunrise had suddenly become the most fascinating thing in the world.
The rosy blush spreading across her cheeks was especially noticeable beneath the golden dawn light.
Aksai watched her reaction.
He had indeed been thinking about giving her a light embrace.
But seeing her hesitation, he decided not to push the matter.
He smiled wryly and scratched the back of his head.
Perhaps that was a little too fast.
He then decided to change the subject in order to ease Humeyin’s mind.
"Humeyin."
The moment the name left his mouth, Humeyin’s shoulders moved slightly.
It was the first time Aksai had addressed her without the formal honorifics usually observed among the cultivators of Dadangar.
The simple change carried more meaning than either of them acknowledged aloud.
Humeyin glanced over her shoulder to see him smiling.
"Not being afraid of the light wasn’t your only gain, right? Can you show me what else you can do with your current bloodline powers?"
Humeyin turned fully toward him.
"Of... of course."
Humeyin was also eager to show him what she was capable of after her bloodline shackles had been removed. She looked down at the sphere of condensed sunlight hovering above her palm.
For a while, she remained silent.
Then her expression became thoughtful.
"Lo—no... Aksai..."
She looked at Aksai with a firm gaze before continuing.
"You know... I understood something while I was unconscious."
Aksai’s interest immediately sharpened.
"Hmm? Did you have some kind of epiphany while you were asleep during the procedure?"
Humeyin nodded.
"Yes. At first, I thought the Light Devouring Physique could only devour light. That it could only absorb and manipulate the light around me."
She slowly closed her fingers around the sphere.
The condensed radiance disappeared between her fingertips.
"But I was wrong."
Her gaze became distant.
"The Light Devouring Physique can do much more than simply devouring light and converting it into energy."
"It can devour concepts as well and bend them according to the owner’s will."
Humeyin raised her hand and looked at her palm.
"Before this, whenever I tried to fully utilize my bloodline to accelerate my cultivation or strengthen my Spirit Spells, my body would gradually become transparent."
She gave a small, almost embarrassed laugh.
"My Light Devouring Physique would turn my vessel glass-like."
Humeyin shook her head.
"But that wasn’t actually a characteristic of the true physique. It was a deformity caused by the bloodline shackles."
Aksai’s eyes narrowed.
"How can a vessel that devours light turn itself into glass?"
Humeyin smiled.
"Hehe. The Glass Physique would have been a much more appropriate name for me back then."
Aksai chuckled softly.
Humeyin continued.
"A true Light Devouring Physique, free from those shackles, doesn’t need to become transparent."
She looked directly at him.
"It can simply become invisible."
Aksai’s expression became serious.
He actually knew what Humeyin was trying to say.
This was because the Blackblood Lord had already told him about the past deeds of the Blackblood clan when it was at its peak and why they were hunted in the Eternal Sea to the point of being exiled to this subcontinent. However, knowing about the history and actually witnessing it as it was unfolding were two different things.
Humeyin raised one finger.
"That’s because the physique doesn’t merely consume the physical light surrounding me. It can also devour the concept attached to the laws of light and shadow."
She slowly waved her finger through the air.
"The laws governing how matter behaves when exposed to light and shadow. If I devour that concept, I can alter how the world perceives my existence."
Her lips curved upward.
"Not just the naked eye."
She paused.
"Perception itself."
As she said this, Humeyin simply disappeared, as if she had never existed on the mountain peak in the first place.
There was no flash, explosion of Spirit Essence, or distortion in the surrounding space.
Aksai’s expression immediately became solemn.
His Spirit Sense spread outward but found no trace of another human presence apart from him.
Humeyin was nowhere to be found.