From darkness, he emerged into the light.

The small town sprawled below him, with people walking the streets unaware of Ningshun's arrival—shadows spreading their wings around him before vanishing. He gazed down at the world moving beneath him, invisible, above the apartment where Meilin lived. Yet the horizon beckoned him, enticing his gaze as if it longed to capture the dreamy eyes of a long-lost lover... with a piercing glare.

Ningshun hissed. The blinding, setting sun cast a warm glow over the icy hue of his green irises, forcing him to squint and raise an arm to shield them before dropping his gaze—blinking at a strange yet familiar sight.

Below, a faint blue light arced in a dome around the apartment, the buzzing almost impossible to hear.

Eyes flew open as if something had ripped them apart from within, the intensity of his focus piercing. "That's..."

The closer he got, the louder the buzzing became.

"My power... in the mortal realm?" Ningshun dropped to a low whisper, his aura flaring from within like swirling slivers of blue. "But how? Unless..."

Electricity crackled around the surface as he came so close that he almost sensed the response.

But just as quickly, the dome shrank, collapsing into a single, bright room within the building—Meilin's residence.

His gaze darkened. Could his assumption be true?

"Interesting." Ningshun closed his eyes, lips curling into a taunting smirk. "But stolen power never obeys a thief... and neither do I."

In the blink of an eye, his vortex whisked him away again.

He could feel it—the rush flowing through his veins after searching for the rest of his powers for so long. Faster, faster—faster. It was close, so close, almost within his grasp, as if his power called to him, yearning for him to claim it as his.

'What the—' Ningshun stopped dead. His breath caught, and a dry, rasping sound escaped his throat. Speechless—for what he witnessed had changed everything.

"Ah, finally," she groaned as she pulled her shirt over her head. "Stupid, stupid bra!"

In the next chapter, Ningshun faces a difficult decision due to a dilemma. What conflicts will disrupt his comfort zone?