The night passed without a ripple; morning rose in a blink like a coin of gold lifted by dawn.

Warmth first, then movement—my chest felt heavy, like a cat curled in winter sun.

I opened my eyes; sure enough, Lingxiao and Lingsaki slept in my arms like twin snowflakes.

Even Lixue lay close, her radiant cheek pressed to my shoulder like a petal glistening with dew.

They breathed soft and even; waking them would feel like breaking a still lake at sunrise.

I looked at the newborn sun climbing the window like a slow ember and let myself drift back.

...

...

Meanwhile, wind back a few days, like pages turned by a cold breeze.

At the world’s edge, in the void-high sky, a colossal gate stood like a mountain carved from ages.

The Worldgate should’ve been shut, yet a hair-thin seam lay open, subtle as mist over water.

From that slit, alien power seeped in like chill rain, a scent of calamity threading this air.

“The seal on the Worldgate really got opened.”

When FrostyLily Dream told me, my gut tightened like storm-rope; now the omen felt carved in stone.

I wished her words were a joke, but reality was iron, not cloud.

I reinforced that seal countless times; time alone can’t loosen it, not in hundreds of millions of years.

So the cause is clear—someone keeps gnawing at the Primordial Source woven into the seal like roots.

To open the Worldgate, you must erase that Primordial Source outright; there’s no other road through the fog.

But breaking that Source takes strength equal or above mine; in this world, no one climbs that peak.

So it’s that one…

“Sis, I can feel the space humming wrong, like warped glass—does it tie to that ill-omen energy leaking in?”

FrostyLily Dream dropped her usual lightness; her gaze fixed on the ancient gate like frost on stone.

“It’s tied, for sure. And this is trouble, deep as thunder.”

I sighed like wind through pines and moved to mend the seal, thread by thread.

“The Primordial Source inside got forcibly rewritten—parts even replaced. And this auric scent…I know it.”

Worse than I’d guessed; I’d been careless, like leaving a lantern in dry grass.

I didn’t think that one had let go; across uncountable years, she still clung to this sky.

“How?!” FrostyLily Dream’s shock hit like a dropped bell. “You sealed the Worldgate yourself.

“A hairline crack was already wild—yet changing the Source inside, even replacing parts? That’s impossible.”

“For her, it’s possible. I let my guard sleep.”

And with Shattered Light not at my side, repair wouldn’t be a straight river; it’d be rapids.

“Hm?”

A faint trace brushed my senses, like smoke across moonlight; I caught it.

I gathered a sword from intent and flung several arcs of Origin Sword Qi toward the gate like meteors.

“Didn’t expect you to slip in. Stop hiding in reeds—show yourself.”

“My, still the same after all these years, Xinuo.”

A seductive voice flowed out; my Origin Sword Qi vanished like foam on tide.

A girl’s figure coalesced before the Worldgate, slow as ink spreading through water.

She looked like me—skin warm ivory—yet hair and eyes were midnight-black, deep as a well at night.

She wore black gauze; calamity clung to her like winter storm, cold and bright.

Her outline was half-transparent, a projection only; with the gate not fully open, her true body can’t cross.

“How many years did you burn just to send a shadow back, my old friend, Xiyue?”

“Time stretched so long I forgot,” she breathed, arms wide to the dense law-elements like rain after drought.

“It’s comfortable here. I said I’d return in force—Xinuo, you remember?”

“Sorry, I forgot. Or I wouldn’t have slipped and let you in.”

“Forgetful? That’s so you… hahahaha!”

Her laughter broke like glass; power surged from her, and day flipped to night like a curtain dropped.

A strange purple moon hung high, cold as bruise-light; oppression pressed on my chest like stone.

“Sis…”

FrostyLily Dream looked at me, worry a pale flame in her eyes.

“Oh? So Xinuo keeps a little sister.” Xiyue’s smile cut like a blade. “Origin Realm, but weak.”

“What did you say?!”

“Steady,” I told FrostyLily Dream, a hand against the wind. “To Xiyue, you’re weak. And it’s just her projection.”

I met Xiyue’s gaze, clean as a drawn line. “What do you want? Why not stay in your Inner World?”

“What? Take back this world, of course.”

Bold as thunder, she didn’t blink.

“Take back? It was never yours.”

“And it isn’t yours.”

“We fought. I won; you lost.”

“I was a touch short then. Now, things have changed.”

“Have they? So what?”

I frowned, a ridge of cloud. Her angle felt off, like a wheel with a missing spoke.

“Xinuo, you still don’t get me?”

“No.”

“…Fine.”

She dropped the veil. “You think this world’s growth is normal? It makes me furious, like fire under ice.”

“So you dislike my way.”

At last, her tune showed its bones.

“Very much. To chase your ‘peaceful golden age,’ you smothered natural growth and built that Mizumi Clan.”

“This world doesn’t advance; it decays, like fields left under endless drizzle.”

“Look—dead air everywhere, no vitality; every faction lives under Mizumi’s long shadow.”

“Don’t you find your policy excessive and childish?”

Her righteous tone grated like grit in gears; my patience thinned like snow in sun.

“Who are you to nitpick? With your ‘war drives progress,’ this world would burn to ash.”

“Since I raised the Mizumi Clan and curbed the factions, wars fell like leaves.”

“Most common folk live steady as stone; what’s wrong with that?”

“Exactly!” FrostyLily Dream’s voice flared. “Back in the war years, the weak couldn’t even eat, let alone survive.”

“Lives died like sparks, day after day; the world was a smoky hell, people without hope.”

“If Sis hadn’t acted, fewer beings would remain now—like a forest cut to stumps.”

“You don’t understand development,” Xiyue replied, calm as night water.

“The Inner World is smaller and poorer, in land and resource, like a basin against a sea.”

“Yet under my push, it’s surpassed this world in everything but innate terrain and stock.”

“Our apex fighters are a mountain you can’t match; our edge is sharp, not dull.”

“We’ve hit our ceiling; to grow further, we must expand outward, like rivers seeking the sea.”

“So we set eyes on this world.”

“So the Inner World has maxed out; to advance, you expand, and target this sky.”

“Sharp, Xinuo. You read my heart like script.”

“Since you can’t be bothered to govern, hand me the reins, so we don’t waste such fine soil.”

What nonsense. Did she really think she could roll in like thunder and claim the rain?

“I refuse.”

I drew a blade from Origin Sword Qi; its edge sang like dawn on steel.

I swung the World Sword at Xiyue, full force, a lightning arc across night.

She’d expected it; a black longsword rose to meet mine, dark as a crow’s wing.

Clang!

The sword force tore the purple moon and split the night like silk ripped under hand.

A projection is still a shadow; it can’t drink deep. One strike drained all the energy holding her shape.

She began to fade, like fog under sun, voice lingering like a chill draft.

“Killing a projection won’t help. My true body will come, and soon.”

“So—Xinuo, enjoy your dwindling ‘peace.’”

Her shadow scattered; the sky returned to pale, the moon a memory.

“Sis, what do we do now?”

Worry filled FrostyLily Dream like rain filling a cistern; the air felt tight as a drum.

“We stay and repair the Worldgate’s seal with everything we have.”

“We can’t let Xiyue’s goal land. Or this world falls back into chaos like a broken dam.”

Right now, mending the seal is the priority, iron and clear; everything else can wait like leaves in shade.

...