Present time. Unknown plane, unknown place.

A beautiful bell sound filled up an impressive hall of unseen proportions. And the only being present, who was sitting on a simple throne that looked misplaced for such a place stood up. It could be said that it was a male and most probably from the human race, but the powerful aura around him did not make it possible to observe his figure, and so even the latter could not be affirmed.

After standing up, words were spoken

"It seems that the devourers are back to try their teeth on me... Noa, we will continue later"

With this phrase, he (or it?) disappeared, leaving only a faint sensation of someone's presence and an absolutely empty hall. A full book could be used to describe the majesty of this hall, and there was enough to fill even several of them. If an observer was present, he would choose the describe the columns first as each of them was a masterpiece made of the cleanest and whitest jade, with dragons and phoenixes engraved on them and as the roof could not be seen, they simply rose into the unknown. The latter effect was so breathtaking that if not for the fact that the sun, sky, stars, or any other attributes of the skydome were present, one would think that actually the columns simply extended into the heavens.

The source of the presence felt revealed itself a few moments after the one sitting on the simple and chair-like throne left. First, it was practically invisible, but as it assumed a more visible form, any observer would have their breath taken away once again. It was an extremely beautiful female. But if one looked at her closely, they would find that she was not human, but actually someone from the highest undead race, the Vampire Emperors. Her skin was even paler than the white jade of the hall, while her long and flowing hair was blood red. Dressed into a black gown that hid far less skin than it revealed, she could be easily mistaken for the Vampire Princess that some adventurers liked to talk about.

This Vampire Empress referred to before as Noa was holding a few feet long scrolls that disappeared right when she fully materialized. And after she did, the first thing he did was to bow to the empty throne while muttering in a whisper

"This servant will wait to continue recording your memories, Lord of the Astral"...

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BOOK ONE, 'Wu Guang', END.