“Ha ha, struggle all you like—like a cat toying with a mouse. The more you thrash, the happier I get.”

“Damn it!!”

At the man in shades’ taunting voice, sudden vertigo coiled through Yue Liuyi’s head like smoke.

Her vision wheeled; the world tilted like a spinning lantern. The gas she’d breathed carried some strange additive.

Panic pricked—Is this a trap!?

Her chest tightened; she ran the angles. If the man in black vented this fog to lure her here, she’d walked straight into the net.

His silhouette split into multiples, like shards in a cracked mirror. She knew the toxin had her, and he still had cards up his sleeve.

Her heart kicked—No way she gets snared like a bird in a trap here.

“Little Angel, I’ll cover you. Run!”

“Little Rose!”

“Don’t worry about me… run.”

Hesitation tugged; should she bolt or stand? Her heart jolted with a new possibility.

What if this wasn’t a set trap at all, but just a painted tiger—a bluff?

She didn’t buy that she’d just happen to hit a planted snare. The mist might be meant for a World Tree Maiden, but her crashing the scene had to be off-script.

Details flickered in like fireflies.

By place and timing, Winterwood District wasn’t a good field to bag a World Tree Maiden—like hunting in a crowded market.

The Council had the area ringed; even a ripple would draw eyes.

The fat man’s shock and fear looked raw, not a costume.

And “the fat one was a pawn” was the man in black’s paper-thin claim.

She had reason to doubt. He might be spooking her, like a fox scattering hens, trying to shoo her off so he could plant the toxin and slip away.

Yet caution pulsed; it was still a guess. The haze might be mere dizziness—or it could drop her cold like a falling curtain the next heartbeat.

Good thing she didn’t fear a wager; she had a trump up her sleeve.

“Die!”

She stepped in and threw a punch, like a hawk stooping.

To onlookers, the blue-haired girl’s punch looked soft and slow, like a doll’s swing after hope breaks.

But the man’s smile vanished. A flicker of shock flashed—and Yue Liuyi caught it like a hunter catching a twitch.

So it was just a bluff…

A World Tree Maiden wasn’t supposed to have any power. She punched not just to read him, but to—

—throw a blow loaded with a man’s strength, iron behind velvet.

Her body shifted, a girl folding into a boy like water into a new mold.

The fist surged, slicing meters of air like a comet.

Hot fire-feathers leaped crimson through the toxic smoke.

Whump!

Just one punch—

The man in shades, so cocky moments ago, shot backward like a kite with its string cut.

His body slammed the wall; blood sprayed like a burst of petals.

“You…”

Behind his shades, his pupils blew wide. He stared, stunned. In his mind, World Tree Maidens were naïve little lolis, easy marks—how did this one slice through his scheme like a blade through silk?

And she even turned into a boy. Was she not a World Tree Maiden at all? Or had his ability misfired?

But time gave him no room. Her blow wasn’t fatal, but his anti-toxin nose plug shattered like a shell under a heel.

Raw poison fog flooded his airways, unfiltered, like black water.

“Hahahaha!!!!!!!!”

Breathing death, the man in shades knew he was done. In his final beat, he only wanted to laugh. He’d schemed his whole life, everyone a piece, yet he died tangled in his own web.

“What the hell do you people want!”

“Hahahahahahaha!!! Ha…”

No answer. He kept laughing, laughing… until the fog cut him off.

“So this guy was bluffing all along?”

Yue Liuyi strode up to him, anger coiling as he clenched his fist.

She hadn’t expected him to be merely elite-grade—among Murder Fiends, that was standard fare.

Not even close to Nightmare Rust, much less Wan Han.

“Uh… this guy’s probably worth ten million. But Little Rose would never pick him as a partner. Too scheming—he’d grab the payout and bolt.”

Little Rose trailed behind Yue Liuyi—boy-form—and gazed thoughtfully at the corpse, like a finch peering at fallen fruit.

“Huh? Little Rose, you’re not surprised I turned into a boy?”

“Not at all! Little Rose can transform too, just not into a boy… Oh! Right! Angel-sis, can you teach me how to turn into a boy? I wanna learn!”

“I’m a boy to begin with, okay >_<?”

Yue Liuyi—boy-form—shook his head, and he and Little Rose slipped deeper into the warehouse like two shadows.