No! I don't want to be a Super Necromancer!

He lifted Qian Yuze halfway out of the fountain, dunked him back in, then hauled him out again only to knee him straight in the gut.

Qian Yuze gurgled, coughing up water and pride.

"You think military rank gives you a license to die stupid?!" General Maru shouted as he stomped on Qian Yuze's soaked coat. "Colonel my ass! If your father doesn't disown you after this, I'll disown him myself!"

A few of the surrounding B-Rank mages winced in sympathy. Others just looked impressed.

"Holy shit." one muttered. "Did he really say he wants General Maru to eat balls? I don't know if I should be impressed at his guts or his willingness to die."

"That was a perfect spinning slap combo. I saw that in an elite corps tournament once."

"Are they gonna kill him?"

The leader of the rescue mission shook his head sagely from the side. "If they wanted to kill him, we'd be picking up his atoms with tweezers. This is just a welcome beating."

Qian Yuze tried to crawl out of the fountain again.

General Hong Fei jumped in and tackled him back down.

"This is for making us skip dessert, you spoiled phoenix-branded brat!"

The four generals continued to thrash all three of them in a rotating cycle of boots, slaps, furious yelling, and occasional dramatic martial arts poses.

Finally, after a long, glorious, and very public beatdown, General Riki straightened his coat, exhaled, and looked around.

"Alright. Anyone else want to kill my grandson?"

Damien's eyelids twitched violently.

Just when the heck did he become this lunatic's grandson?

Not a single soul moved.

Even the air refused to shift.

A distant cat meowed and promptly ran off.

General Maru turned to Damien, who was casually leaning on a lamppost, arms crossed, eyes only mildly interested in the chaos that had just unfolded.

"You okay, kid?"

Damien gave a half-shrug. "I'm o—"

"BOSS!" Fatty interrupted loudly, practically vibrating with righteous fury. "Don't forget about the stuff they stole from you!"

"What?!" General Maru's eyes widened in fresh outrage. "Those bastards even dared to rob you?!"

"I'll get it all back, Boss!" Fatty shouted as he dove into action with terrifying speed and zero hesitation.

Before anyone could stop him, or even fully process it, Fatty was already looting everything remotely valuable off the indignant but completely mute trio: wallets, accessories, enchanted rings, Sheila's daggers, even one of the guy's smartwatches. He held up a series of IDs triumphantly.

"They move fast! Look at this! They even stuffed their IDs into the wallets they stole from me!" he shouted, indignantly removing each ID and flinging them back at their owners with dramatic flair. Then he kept the rest without blinking.

Every soldier and mage nearby twitched. Eyelids. Lips. Fingers. But none of them said a word.

The four generals were also very pointedly looking in entirely different directions.

"I'm done!" Fatty declared cheerfully. "I've recovered the, ehm—the evidence!"

He returned to Damien's side lugging a suspiciously stuffed bag.

"Uh." Damien coughed lightly and slightly awkwardly at the obvious reverse robbery. "I'm… hungry. Let's go eat?"

Fatty's eyes lit up. "Boss! There's a midnight duck bun place two streets down! Their sauce is a secret recipe passed down since the Warring States!"

The generals all nodded like monks receiving divine truth.

"Get the boy his duck." General Liang said solemnly. "He's earned it."

And so the infamous four old geezers, fists bruised due to excessive use after years of neglect, furious, and proud, surrounded Damien like an honor guard and escorted him through the streets of Beijing toward the most sacred destination imaginable: steamed duck buns.

Behind them, Qian Yuze lay face-up in a glowing mana fountain, soaked in humiliation, wheezing in disbelief. At some point, his entire world had stopped making sense. Likely around the second kick to the kneecap.

Across the plaza, Lian Yue stood with her guards, still watching.

"…So that's why he wasn't scared," one of her masked bodyguards muttered, visibly shaken. "He's backed by Four of the Eight Heavenly Generals."

Lian Yue's gaze lingered on Damien's retreating figure, her expression unreadable.

"Let's return," she said softly. "Father needs to hear this. A new powerhouse has emerged."

Across Beijing, the gossip spread like wildfire.

No, like a strategic mana detonation in the middle of a crowded teahouse.

Snippets of hushed conversation rippled through coffee shops, academies, military offices, and even top-floor executive lounges.

"Did you hear? Four Heavenly Generals publicly beat the son of Colonel Qian Jian!"

"No, no, not just beat, he got thrown into a fountain! One of them yelled about balls!"

"I heard it was because the idiot tried to kill General Riki's grandson."

"Wait, General Riki has a grandson?!"

"Apparently. Nobody knew. Until now."

"It wasn't just General Riki, you know. General Maru, General Liang, and even General Hong Fei were all there. They stormed the plaza like the apocalypse was late and this was its warm up."

Everywhere from dusty cultivation sect courtyards to the sleek corridors of the Mecha Research Division, voices whispered, eyes widened, and theories bloomed.

In a high-level meeting room deep beneath the National Defense Headquarters, a group of senior strategists sat in grim silence.

A large holoscreen replayed surveillance footage on loop.

Damien calmly leaning on a lamppost, then four of China's most terrifying retired generals exploding out of a hovercar like enraged war gods.

One official broke the silence with a long exhale. "This is going to be hell to explain to the press."

Another leaned back, hands steepled. "Forget the press. What's terrifying is that the four of them actually expressed gratitude to the kid, instead of the other way around! Just who is helping who?!"

The screen showed the aftermath, the generals surrounding Damien like overly protective lions.

"Thank you for your mercy."

"Thank you for your patience."

"Thank you for your wonderful benevolence."

"Thank you for not eating that boy and his bodyguards."

It was surreal.

But it made one thing terrifyingly clear to everyone watching:

Damien Bloodbane wasn't just someone with powerful backing.

He was a monster himself.