Shen Chi transmigrated into the Lord Era three years ago, where at age eighteen everyone underwent the Lord Awakening Ceremony to gain talents ranging from E to SSS and then entered the Endless Lands to compete as lords. Dragon Country had incorporated lord courses into schools, and the average awakening rate reached thirty percent. Shen Chi, an orphan, studied independently and ranked first in all five simulated lord exams at Longhu High School, raising high expectations for his awakening. During his ceremony, he placed his hand on the Lord Awakening Stone, which first emitted a pure white light indicating E-grade talent, the lowest tier. Some onlookers began to mock him. Then, suddenly, the sky changed: dark clouds gathered, the temperature dropped, and a massive ancient battlefield miracle appeared—broken flags stuck in the ground, rusty armor piled high, collapsed cities, dried blood covering thousands of miles of dust, and bones scattered across plains, valleys, and swamps. Faint booming shouts of killing came from the clouds. The celestial phenomenon, unseen in Longhu City for over ten years, was the mark of an S-grade talent or above. Everyone fell silent in shock.At the same time, a mechanical voice declared that Shen Chi had awakened a God-Tier talent—Nether King. A panel visible only to him revealed fifteen talent traits, whereas an SSS-grade talent had at most nine. The first trait, Forbidden Gaze, activated, preventing anyone from spying on his information while granting him the ability to see through anything. Grade Director Tang Jing, a level 42 elite lord, attempted to appraise Shen Chi with his professional glasses but received a red cross and a warning that the rank was too high to be observed. The staff member responsible for registration, having witnessed both the low light and the grand phenomenon, could only record Shen Chi’s talent as unknown.The next day, Shen Chi learned that the Zangshan Guild, the top lord guild in Longhu City, had rejected his application, spreading word that his talent was the E-grade Nether Perception, the most common and weakest undead talent. According to guild records, seventeen undead lords with similar celestial phenomena in the past thirty years all ended mediocre or died young, so Shen Chi’s phenomenon was deemed meaningless. Xu He, an A-grade awakener who had always resented Shen Chi’s academic dominance, used his connections to broadcast this news and humiliate Shen Chi. Then Lu Qingyue, the school beauty whom the original owner had confessed to three years ago, entered the classroom with Xu He. She told Shen Chi that she had chosen Xu He, expecting him to be heartbroken. Shen Chi responded with indifference: “Oh. So what?” and added, “Whether you two are together or not, what the hell does it have to do with me?” When several classmates without any talent tried to attack him, Shen Chi named them directly—Jiang Hao, Song Lei, Sun Yiyun—and asked how they could despise an E-grade talent when they had none. The room fell into awkward silence. Tang Jing arrived, scolded the troublemakers for twisting the truth, and publicly defended Shen Chi. He warned them that they might lose graduation eligibility and, softening his tone, told Shen Chi that the Novice Trial had no death penalty, encouraged him to do his best, and promised to apply for a stipend for him after the trial.At ten in the morning, the Novice Trial started. Shen Chi entered Trial Ground No. 9657 with 999 other new lords. A heavenly voice announced the rules: the trial lasted seven days; a monster wave attacked each noon; the first twenty-four hours granted territory protection, after which monsters and other lords could invade; being killed or having the Lord’s Core destroyed meant permanent loss of lord status and ejection from the trial. Shen Chi named his territory Nether Realm and placed his Lord’s Core, creating a small hut within a protective barrier. He then opened the novice barracks gift pack and drew the Masterless Lone Grave, which could only recruit Tier 1 Skeleton Soldiers, the weakest undead troops. Disappointed but resolved, he placed it. Then his Nether King trait Nether Guidance activated, detecting a weak barrier between the current coordinates and a Nether plane. The Masterless Lone Grave automatically evolved into the Mythical-grade Ancient Battlefield, breaking the planar barrier and forming a Spatial Passage leading directly to the Nether realm. A deep purple vortex portal appeared before Shen Chi, marking the true beginning of his journey as the Nether King.
