Eunuch was not a man returned from death. He was something else—an entity born of unresolved will, forged by necromancy, animated by a fragment of Taryn’s soul.

  

  “Her name... is Felis,” he answered.

  Though his body still bled faintly from old wounds, he stood straight. The glow in his sockets pulsed dimly.

  

  “We were lovers once. When we were nothing. When the world hadn’t yet decided her value.”

  Taryn remained silent.

  

  “I was a scholar,” Eunuch continued. “Brilliant, but poor. She was breathtaking. A marvel. When the Cosmic King noticed her beauty, he recruited her to become one of his concubines.”

  

  “She accepted. She left. Just like that.”

  His voice didn’t crack—but something deeper did.

  

  “And yet… she didn’t abandon me entirely. Whether from guilt, pity, or some fractured remnant of love… she began to sponsor me. In secret. Gold. Materials. Books. I never asked, but I never refused. I needed what she gave me.”

  

  “With her backing—and my own obsession—I rose. From obscurity to prominence. Eventually, I was named Chief Scholar of the Sun Kingdom.”

  He paused. The silence said more than words.

  

  “But power is a lonely thing.”

  He looked down at his mutilated hands.

  

  “The king eventually discovered the truth. That his favored concubine had been funding a man. In secret. Repeatedly. He demanded an explanation.”

  

  “She gave him one.”

  

  “She told him I had extorted her. That I had… assaulted her.”

  Taryn’s gaze sharpened slightly.

  

  “At the time,” Eunuch continued, “I was traveling with the Sun Kingdom alliance. We were investigating the Merlin Sect ahead of the invasion.”

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  “And then the order came. Straight from the capital. Signed by the Sun King.”

  

  “Immediate execution. No trial. No chance to speak.”

  Taryn exhaled through his nose.

  

  “And now you live again. Of a sort.”

  

  “Yes, master. Because of you.”

  Taryn nodded slowly.

  

  “Do you remember anything else? About the alliance that attacked the Merlin Sect?”

  Eunuch shook his head.

  

  “Only the betrayal. Everything else is fog.”

  That was to be expected. Eunuch wasn’t truly the man he once was—just a lingering soul shaped by resentment. Reborn, yes. But incomplete.

  

  “What are your abilities?”

  

  “I was once a Stellar Cultivator, bound to the Keppa Star. With your blessing, my imprint has evolved into something greater. I now sit at the Cosmic King level.”

  Taryn raised an eyebrow. That was no small feat.

  

  “The Keppa Star is common. How did you leap so high?”

  

  “Because you gave me more than a sigil. You gave me a fragment of your soul—imbued with your Netherworld domain. Your blessing evolved my imprint. It’s not a true S-Class, but a pseudo S-Class sigil.”

  He stepped forward respectfully.

  

  “A blessing is not a bond. It is permission. You have granted me access to compatible energy drawn from your domain—Gehonom Valley.”

  Taryn narrowed his eyes.

  

  “But Gehonom isn’t stellar. It has no stars.”

  Eunuch smiled faintly.

  

  “Perhaps not. But many of the souls that enter Gehonom upon death once were stellar cultivators. Their cosmic imprints linger. Their spiritual residue remains.”

  Taryn stilled.

  

  “You’re saying... you can absorb their cosmic signatures?”

  

  “Yes, master. Through the combination of your undead blessing and my pseudo sigil, I can consume the imprints of the dead.”

  The weight of it hit Taryn.

  

  “Then… theoretically…”

  

  “I could inherit the essence of millions of stars,” Eunuch finished. “With time, planning, and the right offerings… I could rebuild a cosmos within myself.”

  Taryn stared, calculating.

  He hadn’t just revived a servant. He had unintentionally anointed a devourer. A scalable weapon. A scholar’s soul in a warlord’s shell.

  Had he gone too far? Or not far enough? Even now, he couldn’t tell.

  What he didn’t know was this: in his inexperience, Taryn had granted one of the highest-tier blessings—a true Anointing. A costly, near-irreversible spiritual bond that very few cultivators in history had ever issued.

  And Eunuch? He had not been ordinary in life.

  He had been the top scholar of the Sun Kingdom, once heralded as a genius equal to sages. That intellect—though fractured—had not faded. In death, it had sharpened. Clarified.

  Combined with the Undead Scripture and the laws of Gehonom, it had evolved.

  Taryn gave a rare smile.

  

  “Then I chose well.”