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This is what is called the "curse of the forbidden spell," but in truth, it's just the aftereffects of misusing chaotic power.

The war in the North has come to a temporary end. The barbarians have been basically cleared out, with over 500,000 killed and more than 200,000 taken captive. The captives are being sent back to the Orc Alliance, to be distributed to the war heroes as rewards. The orc armies, numbering in the tens of thousands, are also gradually returning to the south, leaving only a few thousand troops behind to garrison the area. However, our Fontainebleau troops remain stationed here for our own affairs.

Late at night, I sit in the residence of the former commander of Snowflake Harbor, reviewing two years' worth of records from Fontainebleau. My land has not known peace for these two years. While merchants from the human world have brought us great wealth, they have also brought countless dangers. Although the joint pressure from the Beast King, the War God Temple, and the "War Saint" Leimen has eliminated internal threats within the alliance, the external threats from the human world have never decreased. After I left Fontainebleau, four nations upstream of the Red River united to attack. The newly enthroned Duke of Langdon used domestic instability as a pretext to ignore the war. Fortunately, Katherine's genius military tactics dismantled the alliance of the four nations, defeating them one by one, and the now significantly weakened four nations lost much territory to the Langdon Duchy, which took advantage of the situation. However, soon after, the Holy Oasis Empire, one of the four major theocracies in the west, boldly sent troops across the Langdon Duchy, aiming to seize the golden trade route. The military might of this vast empire was far beyond comparison with the previous small nations. Even though Fontainebleau had expanded its army, it still stood no chance. Fortunately, Leimen received intelligence from spies embedded in the human world about the large-scale human troop movements. He dispatched two of his other disciples, along with 10,000 Armored Knights from the War God Temple and numerous Shamans, to support us. We barely defeated the enemy. However, the stubborn Oasis Empire later sent a small elite force led by a Dragon Knight, two Sword Emperors, and a level 10 mage to attempt a sneak attack on Fontainebleau. Thankfully, the "Gate of the Twelve Zodiacs" blocked the dragons and mages. With Chief Minos having reached the level of Sword Lord, and together with Katherine, they managed to jointly fend off the two human Sword Emperors, once again protecting the city.

After finishing all the documents, I couldn't help but let out a long sigh. As expected, Katherine and the others went through extremely difficult trials in my absence, which contributed to their current growth. Just as I had to endure countless hardships in the human world to gain extraordinary power.

Extraordinary power, huh...

Thinking of this, I smiled bitterly and raised my left hand in front of my eyes. A bright light radiated from my palm, not the Moon Flame aura of a Sword Master, but the Sword Emperor's Sunfire Aura, the boundless power of the "Sea of Stars." The breakthrough to the Sword Emperor realm comes from a change in the practitioner's mindset. My breakthrough came from the battle at Nameless Peak a few days ago.

During that battle five days ago, I fought indecisively, dragging things out with endless talk. In the end, not only did Xiluo manage to destroy the "Ice Mark" and escape, but Apu and Lansino also completed the heritage of the Holy Grail Knights before dying peacefully. I could have prevented this outcome, but I chose this path. On the surface, it was because of my soft heart and old sentiments, but deep down, I knew it was because of another voice in my mind that kept stopping me. That voice belonged to my former self—Chen Xuanfeng, the human.

In my previous life, although the world saw me as a murderous demon, using living people for cultivation, I was fundamentally human. That part of me was deeply ingrained in my heart. In this life, reborn as a werewolf, I gained far superior talents and opportunities than in my previous life. My strength soared to heights I couldn't have imagined before. The orc world's ethos of survival of the strongest made my previously cursed and shunned violent behavior seem natural. These changes made my previously cursed and shunned violent behavior seem natural.

However, after entering the human world two years ago, my mental state began to change slowly. After a long journey, I suddenly realized that deep within my soul, there was still a completely different spirit hidden—a soul from the elegant and flourishing Song Dynasty, from the refined and proud Peach Blossom Island, a human soul. Although the humans in this world have multicolored hair and eyes, and their appearances and figures resemble Persian foreigners rather than the people of central China, they still bear the form of humans, without wings, horns, or hooves. On many nights, after putting Jin Luosha to sleep, I would often indulge in such fantasies—

"Can I continue to live like this?"

"Can I become the person I was in my previous life?"

"Can I forever retain a human identity?"

Each time these thoughts arose, I would immediately suppress them, not allowing myself to remember them. However, on Nameless Peak, when I decided to sever my connections to the human world, these forgotten little delusions entangled my heart like cobwebs, causing me to hesitate and miss my opportunity. Even after reuniting with Katherine and returning to the orc world, a small part of my heart still felt unreal. When I told Xiluo that some things need to be faced bravely, those words were perhaps meant for myself as well.

Two days ago, when the search team brought back the bodies of Apu and Lansino, I finally confirmed my suspicion that Xiluo had escaped. Instead of feeling regret, a sense of clarity filled my heart. Some things are ultimately beyond human control. Let Xiluo live out the human side of me brilliantly.

Apu, Lansino, farewell, my friends. From now on, I will rename my self-created "Ice Prison Thorn Art" to "Holy Grail Aura" in memory of you two, the Holy Grail Knights.

In this realization, I unexpectedly tapped into a vast presence in the void, a magnificent energy distinct from the heaven and earth's vitality. It continuously poured into my body, transforming both my body and aura, granting me a power tenfold greater than before. Only then did I realize that I had reached the realm of the Sword Emperor.