The Thorn Flute

In the future, the world is dominated by superpowered beings who live for a thousand years. Those living on the Eastern Continent have divided it into five regions: the Central Imperial City, the Eastern Jungle, the Western Frostlands, the Northern Desert, and the Southern Waters. In the early years of their rule, the rulers' poor enforcement of the law gave rise to the "Piercing Flute" factor, which threatened the peace of the entire continent. They eventually managed to suppress its threat for the time being, but the remaining humans disappeared from the rulers' sight, while the division of superpowered beings into different races became increasingly apparent. As the division into combat classes neared completion and superpowered families grew more powerful, even carving out their own city-states, the rulers began to panic. They even stripped the entire Ming family of its official status, despite the family being their most trusted ally and having five different races with abnormal combat abilities within its ranks. After the Ming family established itself in the Western Frostlands, it split into three factions: the Return to the Throne faction, which sought to return to the Imperial City; the Self-Preservation faction, which aimed to protect itself; and the Guerrilla faction, which relied on guerrilla warfare to seize living territory from demons. These demons had once fled the West in the early years and now possessed Eastern blood. The once-wise elders led their people to slaughter one another, ultimately causing irreparable losses. Internal conflict within the Return to the Throne faction resulted in the second case in the history of superpowered beings of a human soul turning demonic. He even became the adopted son of the first Demon King of the Frostlands. In their shortsightedness, the family allowed a little Demon King to come into being. While the Ming family's research into demons was in disarray, the most dangerous prehistoric child they had adopted escaped with the help of a contract demon while they were distracted. Years later, mercenary-class demon warriors appeared, infamous for their cruelty. They even controlled the little Demon King and destroyed everything the Ming family had accumulated over the years...

As the demon warriors wreaked havoc across the land and panic spread, the Northern Desert endured a war without precedent, pitting one man against several clans. An Cheng, the newly appointed first warrior of the An family, a family of battle mages, single-handedly slaughtered two clans in four years. After nearly dying beneath a demon warrior's great axe, he ended up bringing back his future wife by sheer happenstance: Linda Na Woods, the Western Continent's foremost assassin-mage. After their marriage, the couple joined forces to create the greatest threat to the rulers: the An royal family of the Northern Desert. Yet even An Cheng, who spent more time with the queen than anyone else, never knew that the love of his life was the sole surviving subject of the "Piercing Flute" factor research group...

In the 207th year of the An Dynasty, the Northern Desert's first little prince, An Teli, was born. The little prince was brilliant and exceptionally handsome, with his mother's golden hair and violet eyes. But Queen Linda Na discovered that, unfortunately, he had inherited most of the "Piercing Flute" factor from her. So she concealed everything about his true identity from him, even risking exposure by making An Cheng pose as the head of a branch family with her, in order to prevent any future upheaval. But before the event she feared could take place, a devastating war arrived first. The Cheng family, a family of shadow mages hidden in the Eastern Jungle, joined forces with the Imperial City on the grounds that negotiations had gone poorly. Their price was the extermination of their clan, and they nearly wiped out the entire Northern Desert. In the end, An Cheng abandoned the kingdom, and Linda Na took her secret to the grave along with his body.

Lin Moming, former chancellor of the Northern Desert kingdom, risked his life to enter the ruined royal city and retrieve An Cheng's battle-mage sword. Later, he took An Teli, the Northern Desert prince, away from Cheng Chen, the eldest daughter of the Cheng family. From then on, they hid in his hometown, Hundred Lark Valley, and lived in temporary peace...