“Wildcat! What are you doing!?”

Gu Xin’s shout cut through the rooftop air like a snapped bowstring.

Wildcat’s disguise peeled away like mist at dawn under her stare.

“Wildcat…”

Tang Coco whispered the codename like tasting iron on her tongue; she’d never heard it, yet the other Tang Coco in her bones knew it like an old scar.

“You calling me?”

The young man glanced at Gu Xin, surprise flickering like a startled bird; he hadn’t expected to meet the princess and Phantom here.

“No need to keep acting. With how well we know you, you think that mask fools us?”

Meng Yuting spoke with brows knit tight like storm-clouds nailed to the horizon.

“Hahaha—”

His laugh rang hollow, like wind through an empty alley.

“Didn’t expect a small place like this to net two old teammates.”

He showed his fangs with a calm like midnight snow; he admitted it—Shadow Division’s Wildcat.

“Why? Why did you join them?”

Meng Yuting’s voice trembled like a string pulled too hard.

“You think I wanted to?”

Wildcat’s reply was a cold river under ice.

“You know the feeling? Walking into a home you haven’t seen in years, and finding your kin butchered?”

His words fell heavy, like stones into deep water.

“What!?”

His eyes, red-threaded like storm-tossed seas, flashed with a brief sorrow that cut like winter wind; shock rippled through Gu Xin and Meng Yuting like a sudden squall.

“I had no choice… because of this.”

He stripped off coat and shirt with hands like knives through hemp, revealing skin pale as old paper—and a device sunk into his chest like a parasitic root, energy pulsing in its seams like fireflies trapped in resin.

“What is that…?”

Gu Xin and Meng Yuting gasped, voices fluttering like startled sparrows.

“No way out… so, if you can, kill me.”

Wildcat’s smile twisted like a cracked mask.

Gu Xin and Meng Yuting stared, rigid as statues under frost; their minds churned like dark rivers, unable to fathom this path.

“I do have a question. Who are you?”

Wildcat’s gaze slid to Tang Coco like a blade cutting silk.

“What’s with your Anomaly Power?”

His voice probed like a cold needle.

Tang Coco said nothing, her silence pooling like ink.

“Do you two know?”

Wildcat asked Gu Xin and Meng Yuting; both shook their heads, small leaves in a wind they couldn’t read.

“Where did they install that thing?”

Tang Coco finally spoke, her tone low as thunder under a mountain; her eyes pinned the device like a hawk pinning prey.

“Detected I Energy. System entering standby. All Armor on alert.”

The system’s voice fell in her mind like rain on metal.

“You know this?”

Wildcat’s question flicked like the tongue of a snake.

“I’m asking you.”

Tang Coco’s words struck like a bell; violet Armor unfurled over her like a blooming night flower, and the twin blades in her hands began to hum like charged storm-lines.

“Coco?”

Gu Xin’s confusion fluttered like a moth; if Coco was Tang Ke, knowing Wildcat was once a teammate, why draw steel?

Thump!

Wildcat’s chest device jolted like a heart kicking against a cage.

“Again… it’s starting again…”

The young man murmured like someone listening to distant thunder.

“Detected I Energy spike. System entering combat mode.”

The system’s voice slid in, cold as frost.

“Wildcat… you—”

Gu Xin’s shock cracked like thin ice.

“Heh… hehe… Treat Wildcat as dead. I’m not him!!!”

His shout tore like a ripping banner; he shoved Li Muyan aside, steel claws blooming from his knuckles like predatory petals, and he sprinted at Tang Coco like a loosed arrow.

“Hmph.”

Tang Coco’s snort was a blade’s sigh; she surged in, twin knives flashing like moonlight on water.

Clang!

Steel kissed steel, a scream of metal like lightning striking a bell.

They traded blows, a tempest of edges; her long blades wove in arcs like swallowing swallows, speed and agility matching his claws like mirrored waves.

“System, parse his I Energy.”

Tang Coco’s thought was a pebble dropped into deep well-water; she held him, measured like a hunter circling prey—true strength sheathed, curiosity burning like banked coals.

“What do we do?”

Meng Yuting’s nerves twanged like harp strings.

“We can’t help. And Coco feels like she isn’t using full force; she should be safe.”

Gu Xin’s frown was a mountain ridge; she drew her phone, a modern talisman gleaming like black jade.

“It’s me. Send people to pick up the delegation.”

Her voice steadied like a lighthouse in fog.

“Got it. My people are en route.”

Ningxin’s reply was efficient, rustle of paper turned action.

Blades still sang; Tang Coco and Wildcat clashed like storm and reef.

“You’re not him! Your attack rhythm isn’t his at all!”

Wildcat’s shout rolled like thunder over stone.

“Heh.”

Tang Coco’s smile was a thin crescent moon.

“System: data collection complete.”

The voice fell clean as a chisel’s edge.

“Good. Then he can die.”

Tang Coco’s tone cooled like winter glass.

“Warning: Fragment detected inside target’s body.”

The words struck like a thrown stone; Tang Coco’s hands paused, a falcon folding its wings mid-dive.

“So he’s one of hers too? He has a Fragment.”

Her thought coiled like smoke; the other Tang Coco knew him—that thread tightened like silk under heat.

“Fine… that makes it simpler.”

Her blade flashed once, a line of lightning; she slid back with the grace of flowing water, and Wildcat halted, guard lifted like a rampart.

“Is that it? You’ve got more than this.”

He grinned, teeth like white thorns.

“Activate Fragment. Initiate I Field.”

Tang Coco’s command fell like a temple bell.

Zzzla—

The device in Wildcat’s chest crackled like a nest of wasps waking.

“What’s happening?”

He looked down, fear flickering like a shadow on snow.

“Different I Energy repels itself. And they planted that thing inside you.”

Tang Coco’s words were frost, neat and final.

“Ah! Ah—ah!!”

Wildcat’s scream shredded the air like torn silk; sparks spat from his chest like fireflies dying, black smoke roiled like ink boiled by fire.

“Ah!!!!”

The cry peaked, then broke; he collapsed like a felled tree, and the device went silent as a grave.

“This is ‘my’ fault. I didn’t expect the Fragment I left you would become their tool to remake you.”

Tang Coco stepped to his side, voice light as drifting ash.

“Coco?”

Gu Xin moved, worry rising like heat—

“Don’t come.”

Tang Coco’s warning snapped like a bowstring.

“How long will you hide?”

Her voice arced toward the stairwell like a thrown spear.

“Hehe—such a lovely fight. I haven’t had my fill yet.”

A sultry voice floated up like perfume in warm air; Avril strolled onto the roof, hips swaying like reeds.

“You dare stand before me again.”

Tang Coco spoke without turning, back straight like a sword.

“Mm—found something interesting. How could I quit midway?”

Avril waved lazily, fingers coiling like vines.

“Fine. Let’s settle last time’s tab as well.”

Meng Yuting’s anger flashed, silver daggers blooming in her hands like twin lotus buds; memory of betrayal burned like salt.

“Wait, Yuting.”

Gu Xin’s call cut like a crisp gust.

“Hm?”

She paused, balance held like a crane.

“She has a backhand. Otherwise she wouldn’t stand here so calm.”

Gu Xin’s eyes watched Avril like a hunter watches a fox.

“Correct. Clever of you.”

Avril’s smile opened like a flower; beneath their feet, the hotel’s top ceiling crawled with vines like a green sea, the entire rooftop swallowed by creeping growth.

“Father, what do we do?”

Li Muyan’s voice trembled like a reed in wind.

“We stay put. We’ll only add trouble.”

Li Shoujing’s calm was old stone under moss.

Li Muyan looked at Tang Coco, silence heavy as dusk.

“What’s your goal?”

Gu Xin’s brow pinched like tightened silk.

“Goal? Her, of course.”

Avril pointed at Tang Coco, finger like a thorn.

“System, send Stealth Armor to retrieve the device from the young man.”

Tang Coco’s thought moved like a blade in a scabbard; she turned to Avril with eyes cold as a winter lake.

“You’re that interested in me? Show some sincerity.”

She sprang without another word, a violet streak like lightning through a night garden.

“Sea of Blossoms!”

Avril’s shout bloomed; vines ruptured the roof like spears from soil, a forest of tendrils stabbing at Tang Coco like a storm of snakes.

Her twin blades cut in arcs like cold moons, slicing the vines clean as silk.

“Flower-Butterflies!”

Behind Avril, a cloud of butterflies poured out like a river of petals, surging at Tang Coco like a bright gale.

“I Field.”

Tang Coco raised her defense, a shimmer like a glass dome; butterflies hit and shredded like paper in rain.

She burst through the fluttering wall like a hawk through leaves—then stopped; nine identical Avrils stood ahead like a ring of mirrors.

“Floral Doppelgänger.”

Avril’s confidence glittered like frost at sunrise.

“Well?”

Nine voices overlapped, a chorus like chimes in mist.

“Facing nine of me.”

Their words dripped one by one like water from eaves.

“What will you do?”

The question coiled like a vine around thought.

“Hehe—kill them all.”

Tang Coco raised her blades, locking the hilts into one, twin-edged like a moon fused to itself.

Kekeke—

As she moved, a voice oozed behind her like damp chill from a cave.

She turned; Wildcat, once lifeless, stood up like a puppet jerked by black strings. His eyes were pits of ink, no human light within, and his steel claws had punched through the Stealth Armor beside him like a spear through charcoal—hand and claw rammed into its core like a nail through wet wood.

“System, why no alarm?”

Tang Coco’s frown cut like a ridge.

“Investigating cause. Detection failed. I Energy interference.”

The voice faltered like weakened lantern-light.

She saw it too—black energy flowed in Wildcat’s chest device like smoke in a bottle.

“Keke… confirmation… Martial God… present in… this plane…”

His mouth leaked words like broken gears grinding in oil.

Tang Coco watched him, eyes narrowed like crescents.

“System disrupted. Partial functions failing…”

The alert rang like a cracked bell.

Wildcat ripped his claws free and hurled them at Gu Xin with speed like a lightning bolt.

“Damn!”

He was too fast, a shadow crossing sunlight; none expected him to strike at Gu Xin, and the claws arrowed for her chest like a shooting star.

A violet figure flashed, swift as a swallow diving; at the last heartbeat, she stood before Gu Xin like a wall of tempered jade.

Crack!

Wet thud!

Armor split like ice under a hammer, and steel sank into flesh with a dull bloom like ink in water.

“Co… Coco…”

Gu Xin’s eyes went wide, shock freezing her like frost on glass; she stared at the girl in violet Mech.

“Coco!”

Li Muyan cried out, voice breaking like a snapped string; even Avril’s gaze flickered, surprise biting like cold.

“Damn it. That energy pierced my Armor.”

Tang Coco’s brows tightened like knotted cord; blood traced her lip like a thin red thread, but she didn’t care, standing steady as a pike planted in stone.

“Coco, are you okay!”

Gu Xin screamed, but Tang Coco shoved her aside; in that split-second, a pale-blue glint flashed in Coco’s eyes like moonlight on ice.

"Mission... complete..." rasped Lynx behind them, and the device on his chest shuddered like a cornered beast.

"Detected extremely high energy signal. Confirmed: Dark I Energy. Extreme danger. Host, evade as fast as possible," the system blared like a siren.

"Damn!" Fear hit first, cold as winter surf; she hadn’t expected Anomalous Energy from back home. She’d been careless.

"Activate Jin Yushen!" Tang Coco snapped, voice like steel on stone.

"System control is interfered. Unable to command more Armor," the system replied, its tone clipped like static.

"Gu Xin, Yuting, get to the delegation!" she shouted. Gu Xin stalled, but Meng Yuting yanked her, sensing wrongness like a chill wind.

"System, dismiss close-combat Armor! Start Jin Yushen. Energy dome, full-power release!" Tang Coco barked, urgency pulsing like drums.

"Understood."

The purple Armor winked out; she tore the steel claw from her back, blood running hot like a broken spring.

The olive Armor’s eyes flared like twin lamps; it sprinted to the delegation, and its thick arms slammed earth.

Mechanisms yawned open, forming a blinding blue shield, a dome that covered the delegation, Gu Xin, and Meng Yuting.

"Coco!" Li Muyan and Gu Xin cried, tears welling like rain, because Tang Coco didn’t come inside.

"Host, take emergency evasive action!" the system urged, its voice taut like a stretched bowstring.

Lynx’s shape was gone, his body eaten completely by the black energy, like ink dissolving paper. The black surge neared its limit.

Boom!!!! Energy erupted outward like a collapsing star.

In that heartbeat, Tang Coco flashed toward one of Avril’s doubles, then burst to Avril’s front and wrapped her in a head-on embrace.

The last thing Avril saw was pale-blue eyes beneath Coco’s red hair, like ice burning under flame.

"I Field, maximum expansion!" Tang Coco cried, unfurling a blue I Field by her own strength.

In a blink, the black surge swallowed it, like night devouring dawn.