In the depths of a fever that burned like molten steel through his veins, Li Sining dreamed of gunfire, of ash-choked skies, of blood-slick roads crawling with monsters. He saw the shattered gates of Base Nine, the twisted remains of armored transports, and the blank, dead eyes of soldiers who once called him Commander.
Then the visions changed.
He was in a carriage—no, a prison made of gold—watching black-armored men fall one by one around him as arrows cut through the wind. The cries of his siblings echoed behind him. A sister's scream. A brother's curse. Blood soaking into the silks of royal robes.
And then darkness.
He woke in that darkness, two days later.
The fever had broken, leaving his limbs brittle and cold, sweat clinging to every inch of skin. Moonlight filtered in through a cracked wooden window. The room was quiet, save for the distant chirp of insects and the occasional crackle of the fire. His throat was dry, his stomach empty, but it was the storm in his mind that silenced him.
Li Sining exhaled slowly.
So this was the new world.And this body… was not his.
The original owner had been graceful—noble, even. A son of an Emperor. A Brother, one of the rare male-borns with the gift of life-bearing, treated with reverence and caution. The memories were clear now, tangled around his own like ivy. A child raised in silks, taught poetry and politics, groomed for alliance and motherhood.
And now?Now, he was a stowaway in a foreign kingdom, hiding under a false name in a village that smelled of wet straw and smoke.
He sat up slowly, his breath shallow. His heart ached—not from the fever, but from the weight of history crushed into his chest.
The Tianwu Empire, cold and proud, had taken them in. His father, the late Emperor of Yong'an, had gambled the last card he had: his children.
Twenty royal heirs, scattered like pearls across a bloodied chessboard. The usurper—his father's own brother—had struck fast and cruel. But the Emperor had been faster, if only by a heartbeat. Two hundred eighty shadow guards were dispatched that night. Two hundred gave their lives on the road.
Seven months.
Nineteen attacks.
Eight siblings dead in battle, one lost to fever, and now only eleven remained—wounded, hunted, stripped of titles and land.
Six of them bore fresh wounds, their bodies still bandaged. And Li Sining's host had been the last to fall—dying two nights after they had finally settled under false identities in a remote Tianwu village.
His body had died.And he, the Base Commander, had taken its place.
A soft shuffle outside drew his gaze.
Through the warped window slats, a figure stood rigidly in the moonlight. Thin armor, soot-streaked face, eyes sharp despite exhaustion.
Shadow Guard No. 28. One of the few remaining from the original elite corps.
His back was straight, but his lips were pale. He hadn't slept. Had probably stood watch since the fever took Sining. That quiet loyalty was a spear to the heart.
Li Sining reached for the thin robe beside his bed and pulled it over his shoulders. The floor creaked under his bare feet as he stepped to the back door.
The latch gave way with a soft click.
No. 28 turned sharply—but when he saw who it was, he dropped to one knee, fists clenched to his chest.
"Your Highness…"
Li Sining shook his head.
"No more titles," he said softly. "We're not princes anymore. Just… people who want to live."
He paused, eyes scanning the night horizon. "And take back what was stolen."
The air was cool against his fever-warm skin, but his heart beat steady.
The core was still there.
That mutant energy pulsed beneath the surface of his fragile new body. It was suppressed, not shattered. Three abilities—rare even alone, impossible together.
Space, to warp matter and distance.
Wood, to heal and grow.
Shadow, to hide, strike, and vanish like death's whisper.
In the apocalypse, these made him a god among soldiers.
Here, they made him a weapon waiting to wake.
Li Sining breathed deeply.
No more zombies. No more sirens. No more Base Nine. But war had simply changed its shape.
And he would survive this one, too.