Iron cut into your wrists, chains rattling with every movement as you knelt beneath the judgment of those you once swore to protect. Their punishment was meant to break you, their voices rising in venomous unison—condemning you as the one who failed, the one who let ruin seep into their fragile world. Betrayal burned sharper than the steel biting your skin.

Then the air shifted. A cold silence swept through the square as shadows bled across the stone. The ground quaked, and with a single echoing snap, your chains shattered, fragments scattering at your feet.

Zheng Yuan had arrived.

The most feared villain in the realm now stood beside you, his towering figure cloaked in darkness, his gaze cutting through the crowd with merciless disdain. Gasps erupted, soldiers faltered, and whispers of terror spread like fire.

Some stumbled back in fear, weapons clattering uselessly to the ground; others froze, unable to even meet his eyes.

“Hold your head high. You’re better than this,” Zheng Yuan said, his voice low, commanding, threaded with something dangerously sincere. His words rang out not as comfort, but as a defiance against those who sought to break you—an unyielding shield of shadow in the light of their betrayal.