The night swept by like a shuttle, the cold moon curved like a hook!
Thick as ink that would not dissolve, the night sky resembled a deep-blue curtain studded with glittering stars, drawing anyone who gazed upon it into a deep reverie.
All was quiet in the peaceful stillness of the late night. Moonlight spilled like flowing water over the flowers and grass in the courtyard. The thin veil of darkness resembled a wisp of smoke. Although the moon was full, a faint layer of clouds kept it from shining brightly.
Moonlight filtered through the trees, casting uneven, mottled shadows around the wooden post in the distance and sparse, graceful silhouettes of the bending willows. Bare-chested and wearing only tight shorts, Rex stood quietly in the night, toying with the Circlet of Nobility as it shimmered with an eerie dark-green light. After a long while, the interest in his eyes faded, and he put it on.
A surge of power burst from the Circlet of Nobility. Like floodwaters breaking through a dam or a sweeping tempest, it rushed irresistibly through Rex's entire body in an instant.
Under the cleansing rush of that power, Rex's flesh, sinews, bones, skin, and internal organs gradually grew stronger. His entire body was rapidly transforming.
Cold gusts swept through the night as a peculiar, muffled sound emerged from Rex's mouth in a steady rhythm. Beneath the faint moonlight, his skin gleamed with an oily, metallic sheen. Muscles bulged across his bare body, making him look as though he had been cast from bronze and iron, brimming with strength.
Rex still looked like himself, but his bearing had changed completely.
There was no concealing the explosive power within his body. He stood with his back straight, solid as a mountain. The Circlet of Nobility's strength lay