After agreeing on the plan, the girls drifted out of the library like swallows slipping from the eaves.

The to-do list piled up like fallen leaves; first came arms expansion, because Forest Fortress sat like a mossy stump. Its withered-wood wardens were too low-tier to hold a line.

After the zombie siege, its resources lay like a drained well, so they had to scatter like seeds and gather what they could.

Once she set foot in the Rainbow Sanctuary, Yue Liuyi found no jade leaves or diamond sands; those glittering tales were mirages dissolving like heat haze.

But the mana here hung thick as morning mist, and magic stones lay like river pebbles; pick one up, unrefined, and it could be a staff’s beating heart.

Now Yue followed LittleSnow through the dense jungle like a fish sliding through reeds; with them walked Ji Wan, Breeze, and Zaocun, four shadows under green boughs.

Their goal was simple as a compass: gather resources, then call on the nearby fortresses like neighbors over a hedge.

Forest Fortress sat close to the Azure Fortress and the Golden Fortress; adventurers perched on the first like crows on a wall, and the second housed Fourth Princess Shao Rong like a fox in a henhouse.

On the surface she hunted Qinhui like a hound on a scent, but beneath the fog something else stalked.

So Dixue brought Ji Wan and Breeze like two spare blades; whether to clasp hands or clash steel, they had room to move.

Worry rippled through Yue first, a tremor like water in a bowl. “Princess Ji Wan… we might face your sister next. Are you okay?”

“No problem! I actually want to ask her something,” Ji Wan said, her voice like a small drum.

“Ask… what?”

“Why she keeps bullying Sister Qinhui,” she puffed, her orange hair bristling like a fox tail.

They walked on, the forest lush as ink on silk, until a cat-sharp scream snapped the quiet like a taut string.

“Sister Yue! I found a chest!” Zaocun bolted ahead like a startled lynx.

“A chest? Zaocun, don’t run! There could be monsters!” Yue’s warning cracked like a twig.

“Wah!”

Snap—the rope whipped like a viper. Zaocun flipped and hung upside down like a caught rabbit; her black skirt fell, flashing white panties like snow.

Yue’s cheeks warmed like peach blossoms, heat climbing as quick as spring.

“Zaocun…” she started, her voice as soft as a leaf.

“Help! Somebody help!” Zaocun kicked, paws flailing like wind-tossed leaves.

“Don’t move… I’m coming,” Yue said, heart fluttering like a caged bird.

As a fellow World Tree Maiden, Breeze showed her edge like a hidden blade. She lifted her hand, and the trees bowed like obedient servants.

The branch bent down like a willow over water, setting the catgirl onto the grass as lightly as a feather falling.

Yue dashed in and untied the rope like teasing apart a knot of vines.

“Saved!” Zaocun patted her chest, breath fluttering like a sparrow’s.

“Once more, discipline,” Dixue said, voice clear as a bell. “No running. Or no dried fish for dinner.”

“S-sorry, Sister Dixue. I get it,” Zaocun mumbled, ears drooping like wilted petals.

“Why would a chest sit here for no reason? It screams ‘trap’ like a red mushroom in moss,” Dixue added, eyes narrow as blades.

“Uu… you’re right… that does sound fishy,” Zaocun said, head tipping like a confused kitten.

Still, the itch of curiosity crawled like an ant. “But if there’s a box in front of you and you don’t open it… it feels like missing out on a fortune,” Zaocun whispered.

“Mm… it does,” Yue nodded, that human itch bright as new fire.

“Treasure is ours to claim, but Little Yue is ours to guard,” Dixue said, calm as snow on pine. “We scout for other traps, then open.”

She said it, then strode forward like a spear point; danger and she met eye to eye.

“L-LittleSnow… no trap check?” Yue asked, voice fluttering like a moth.

“Risky work belongs to the big sister,” Dixue sang, lifting the lid like raising a curtain.

Zaocun and Yue leaned in like chicks peering from a nest; Breeze and Ji Wan tiptoed like cranes at a pond’s edge.

“Whoa! We found a girl!” Zaocun chirped, eyes round as moons.

“Why is there a girl in a chest?” Yue blinked, surprise blooming like dawn.

“Congrats… sisters… you just pulled a six-star operator…” Breeze murmured, deadpan as a calm lake.

“Breeze, stop sneaking my phone!” Dixue snapped, her glare like lightning.

“Busted…” Breeze whispered, shoulders drooping like rain-drenched leaves.

Inside the chest lay a sleeping girl like a winter bud. Her face wasn’t stunning, but it was clean as clear sky.

She was small, yet her arms and thighs looked toned like braided rope, the kind that survives storms.

Her gear and charms marked her an adventurer like road dust on boots.

One strange thing: she hugged a pink-and-white striped pair of panties like a talisman clutched to a heart.

“Eh? She’s wearing panties, so why hug another pair?” Zaocun wondered, curiosity twitching like whiskers.

“Don’t lift someone’s skirt, Zaocun! That’s rude,” Yue blurted, blush deepening like sunset.

“Really? Back home, girls lifting each other’s skirts is normal,” Zaocun blinked, tail curling like a question mark.

“Catfolk are terrifying…” Yue whispered, a shiver like wind through bamboo.

“Hm! Finding a girl is a great haul,” Dixue grinned, mischief sharp as a crescent.

“Wait… these panties feel familiar,” Dixue frowned, memory stirring like silt in a stream.

She stilled Zaocun’s paw and thought. “I bought those for Ailuna,” she said, certainty bright as a stamp.

“Ailuna!?” Yue’s eyes widened like stars. The pattern was exactly what Ailuna wore.

“What’s going on… do you know this girl?” Ji Wan asked, hesitation hanging like fog.

“We don’t,” Dixue said. “Let’s wake her and ask,” her tone level as a plumb line.

“Mm. One, two, three!”

They lifted the girl out like carrying a fragile jar and laid her on a blanket soft as moss.

Only then did Yue see the white stocking on her left leg, sliced and ragged like torn silk, stained with the brown of dried blood.

Yet no wound marked the skin beneath; her leg was smooth as polished jade.

“Looks like Ailuna’s panties healed her,” Dixue murmured, brow furrowing like storm clouds. “But why are Ailuna’s panties here?”

Even Dixue’s sharp mind wandered like a lost firefly; she couldn’t see the Gray Fortress nightmare or Gong Linxun’s hand behind it.

“Dixue… I can wake her,” Breeze said, voice like dew.

“You sure?” Dixue asked, gaze steady as a blade.

“Leave it to Breeze,” she smiled, kneeling like a sprout.

The World Tree Maiden brushed the girl’s cheek like a leaf skimming water, and life stirred like sap rising.

“Waking…?” the girl breathed, lashes fluttering like moth wings.

“Good,” Dixue exhaled, relief soft as a sigh of wind.

The girl blinked at them, eyes cloudy as morning fog. “W-where… am I?”

“Hello, I’m Yue Liuyi, an adventurer,” Yue said, warmth falling like spring rain. “We found you asleep. Is there anything we can do?”

“H-hello! I’m Bernice, an adventurer heading to the Gray Fortress,” she said, voice shaky as a reed. “W-wait, Gray Fortress!?”

“Gray Fortress? What happened?” Yue asked, worry pooling like shadow.

“Did you see a blond man named Gong Linxun?” Bernice asked, gaze searching like a lighthouse beam.

“Gong Linxun!?” Dixue’s eyes sharpened like a drawn knife.

“H-here’s what happened…” Bernice said, words stumbling like stones.

By the end of her tale, the girls saw the Gray Fortress in blood-tinted light, a citadel gnawed like bone by monsters.

“Gray Fortress was attacked? Fifty adventurers, and most died?” Yue drew a cold breath, frost forming like lace across glass.

Her fear blew through her like winter wind; pity for the fallen, yes, but also a chill for herself.

If she’d gone as Dongfang Chen, she might have ended as another name on cold stone, a candle blown out in a tunnel.

“Y-yeah… I don’t know how many escaped,” Bernice said, trembling like a willow. “But many… are gone.”

Dixue’s focus narrowed like an arrowhead; she cared less for body counts than for one cockroach in the dark.

“Gong Linxun, that pervert, is still alive?” her voice rang like steel.

“Y-yes… I passed out from pain later, but Mr. Gong should still be alive,” Bernice whispered, guilt clinging like mist.

“Heh. Time to forge a major case from iron,” Dixue smiled, moon-cold. “Make him the top wanted at the Rangers Lodge.”

“He stole Ailuna’s panties, so I’ll throw him into the most homoerotic prison,” she purred, wicked as a fox. “Let him become someone’s ‘hot weapon.’”

Her head dipped, shadows pooling like ink; the thought was a thorned vine coiling.

“Wow! LittleSnow, you can’t do that!” Yue cried, her protest clear as a bell. “Fabricating cases isn’t what justice does.”

“Hmph! He’s a serial thief,” Dixue snapped, fire in her eyes like meteors. “Maybe he stole Little Yue’s panties, too!”

“How can I tolerate that? Just imagining a boy holding Little Yue’s panties… uu! Infuriating!”

Anger flared around her like silver lightning, magic gathering like a storm ringed around the moon, a force that could plane a mountain.

“Uu…” Yue shrank, fear and shame coiling like snakes. From another angle, her panties had been in a boy’s hand all along.

Worse, not just held—used, the word burning like a coal in her mind.

“I—I’m sorry!” Bernice blurted, then dropped to her knees with a thud like a stone. “Please let me bear Mr. Gong’s sins!”

“Huh? You…” Dixue blinked, surprise like a skipped heartbeat.

“I know Mr. Gong is a pervert and a useless lecher,” Bernice said, voice small as a candle flame. “But he did save me. A life for a life.”

“That’s not worth it,” Dixue sighed, hard and kind as a barred door. “I won’t trade another girl to a creep.”

“LittleSnow… let’s not dwell on this,” Yue said, offering a bridge like a hand. “If we meet Gong Linxun again, let Dawn Goose handle it.”

“Fine. We’ll do that,” Dixue said, her fury cooling like iron in snow. She still stared into the trees like a hawk scanning hills. “But the Gray Fortress fell…”

“Looks like we have to move faster,” she added, urgency beating like drums.

“Our enemy’s moving too?” Yue asked, the question rumbling like thunder behind distant mountains.

Mm... the Red Giant Evil God is likely weaving a sinister plot. We need to hurry before the net tightens.

Unknown to the girls, under a sky not far away, a duel of black and white—ink against snow—had already begun.