Yue Liuyi stared, stunned, as silver light pooled in the girl’s hands like moon frost washing the world—billions of pale butterflies took wing, a dream only dreams could hold.
In a blink, the world bleached silver, a snow-blind void where sight drowned like a pebble in a lake.
A breath later, calm returned like wind after rain—everything was gone, monsters and twisted vines alike wiped clean, the island’s ground swept bare as a tide-washed shore.
Even the yellow fog broke like mist at dawn; the air rang with the scent of first rain, green and cool.
Dixue stood with a silver bow, chin lifted like a cresting wave, confidence glittering; her poise was a goddess stepping onto earth, light draping her like silk.
“LittleSnow, you’re amazing!!!”
Yue Liuyi ran to Dixue, joy bubbling like a spring; only now did she glimpse Dixue’s true strength—monsters that stymied adventurers fell in one stroke. No wonder she’s the Butterfly Snow President. No wonder she’s her LittleSnow. No wonder—
“Um… Little Yue, could you prop me up?”
“Huh?”
Dixue spoke, then tipped like a kite with a cut string; Yue Liuyi lunged and barely caught the silver-haired girl, arms a cradle in a storm.
It wasn’t quite a hug—Dixue stood a bit taller—more a lean like willow to pine; Yue braced her shoulders, and the girls’ eyes met, clear water to clear water.
Yue saw a blush bloom on the silver-haired girl’s cheek like peach petals; her own face burned hot, a shy warmth and skin-scent new as spring.
“I overdid it… Little Yue, can you guard against that creep’s strikes?”
“The creep, the gray-haired guy? Leave it to me.”
“Careful, he’s Master-level too…”
“Huh? Master-level? You mean the guy wearing a green hat?! He doesn’t look it at all!”
Yue looked up at the green-haired man; Wan Han was wreathed in nature’s force like vines in wind, his gray-white hair now green as if a grass cap sat there, glistening.
“Trying to anger me? Fine… have it your way.”
With vines and monsters erased, the man lifted a black blade and hacked for Yue Liuyi; the sudden speed cracked the air like lightning, and even worldly Yue reeled.
“Sinking Moon, Sinking Moon!!!”
Luckily, Yue’s mana still flowed like a full river; she was upper elite-tier—short of him, yes, but a shield she could raise like a mountain.
“Stellar Moon Compass!”
Half-moon shockwaves fanned out like surf, a domain of orbiting stars wheeling like lanterns; Wan Han’s strikes hit that tide and stalled. Since Sikong Qinhui ambushed her, Yue’s grasp of the Stellar Moon Compass had sharpened; now, she could shift the “planets” and ram them like meteors straight into a target.
“Meteor Impact! Dimensional Downstrike!”
She guided ping-pong-sized planet models, one after another slamming into Wan Han’s body; tight explosions flowered around the green-haired man like fireworks in rain, his blade unable to bite forward.
“Little Yue, stop naming moves on the fly! People will call you a copycat!”
“Ah… then it’s Wandering Planet!”
Yue sent a cerulean “planet” to smash right into the green-haired man’s forehead, a blue marble against jade.
“That’s even more obviously copied. Absolutely not!”
Bantering, Yue held him ten meters out with the Compass like a moat of stars; from here, it was a question of how long her mana could flow.
“A collaborator of Thousand Night Snow? You’re strong, but…”
Wan Han moved. He tapped his left foot, and a black halo rippled across the ground like oil on water; the glow felt familiar, an echo Yue had seen before.
“Little Yue, run! Wan Han used a domain skill!”
“Eh?”
Then Yue remembered where—the black ring around him was a hungry hole, a starless well that swallowed every “planet” flying at Wan Han, not a flicker left.
It was the same as the gate that devoured the Sky Voyager—black light with the appetite of a void, a mouth that ate everything.
Yue yanked Dixue and ran sideways like deer through brush; behind them, Wan Han pursued, cleaving the starry field like a scythe through grain.
“Help! Creepy uncle’s about to harass a maiden!!!”
“Nonsense! I’ve got zero interest in little brats like you!”
“Little Yue, run! We can’t fall into his hands! Murder Fiends are perverts, so their boss is the biggest pervert!”
“I am not a pervert!!!”
So the island became a stage for a fierce chase, wind and foam—green-haired man after blue-haired girl dragging a silver-haired girl, a bizarre painting under a harsh sun.
The Stellar Moon Compass slowed Wan Han like mud to a cartwheel, but Yue’s stamina… well, it was a girl’s; after a few hundred meters, she was breathless, legs jelly, heart drumming like a sparrow’s.
“LittleSnow, sorry… I’m out of gas…”
“It’s fine. It’s enough, because…”
“Dixue, you’re such deadweight!!!”
On the razor’s edge, a familiar voice rang like a bell through fog; Xiang Xiaoyan’s figure slid to Dixue’s side, and a black blade drew a line for Wan Han’s neck, its domineering pressure bending air like heat over stone.
!!
Wan Han’s brow tightened; he halted and lifted his blade, steel ringing like thunder as he blocked.
“Dixue, we’re here to back you up!”
Maria swung her mechanical arm, and a massive shockwave blasted for Wan Han, a breaker rolling over reef.
“Lady Dixue, Sister Yue! Are you okay?!”
Zero Wei arrived, shepherding a furball that bobbed like a dandelion puff; a straw unfolded from the round shell and nudged the girl’s lips.
“This is a stamina energy drink!”
Yue blinked—so fast, and everyone was here; Maria and Xiang Xiaoyan pressed Wan Han in tandem, and the tide flipped like a flipped coin.
“Mm, drink up, Little Yue! Next it’s our turn to strike back.”
“Mm…”
“Rangers Lodge… how did you get here so fast! Damn it!”
By now, retreat had lit in the man’s mind like a cold lantern. He had seized the power of life and feared none, but his fusion wasn’t complete; there was no point in a head-on clash. The best move was to snatch the World Tree Maiden and withdraw, then plan anew.
“We’ll meet again!”
His words were suave as starlight, but his actions were cheap as dust: he raised vine walls as tall as city ramparts, then turned tail and fled like a fox.
The World Tree Maiden was within arm’s reach; a tug on the iron chain, and she’d be his.
However—
A crimson blood-line lashed the chain like silk and wire, and with a twist as neat as a river eddy, it snapped the iron.
“My lord, I’ve betrayed you. I’ve joined Lord Dawn Goose.”
!!!!
The Blood Dancer appeared to the side—no, now she was a Blood Shrine Maiden, all sultry grace refined like jade under sun; she wore red miko robes, and her blood-threads grew taut and pure like violin strings.
“From today on, Sanhua is my new collaborator!”
The black-haired girl smiled in triumph; her blade sliced through vines like bamboo and swung for the Murder Fiend.
“In that case…”
The man clenched his palm, and dozens more monsters winged in from the sky like a locust storm; he wasn’t a summoner—these hook-tailed beasts were the hate woven into this land. Hate from civilization’s fall, from foolish self-blame, from despair at ruin, from greed without shore.
Dixue had cleansed many, like sunlight through fog, but as long as this world stayed hopeless, the spawn of hate would be endless like winter rain.
Controlling them was dangerous—fangs turned on friend and foe alike like wolves in famine—but with the tide reversed, Wan Han chose a death gamble; only in chaos could he hope to carry off the World Tree Maiden.
“Mino here to support!”
“Zaocun is here too!”
Wan Han’s proud arithmetic shattered again like glass; reinforcements poured in like a river in flood. From the other side came two girls—a cat-ninja in a short shinobi skirt, and a hammer-wielding striker with storm in her grip.
“Thunder Smuggling Crew, reporting in.”
“I’m here to seek justice for my coworkers!”
“Sisters! My crystal ball says we’re winning this fight!”
“I, Gong Linxun, finally get a turn on stage!!”
Farther off, more figures surged like waves; each unveiled their arts, and multicolored sorcery braided into curtains of fire, a rainbow barrage that outshone the teeming monsters like auroras over night sea.
“Everyone…”
Watching her friends fight, Yue’s chest surged hot like spring wine; with everyone here, fear blew away like clouds on wind.
“Everyone, begin the counterattack. Protect the World Tree Maiden and Little Yue!”
Nestled in Yue’s arms like snow against pine, Dixue still commanded with a leader’s calm, her voice a bell in the storm.
