After breakfast, Ling'er Long still had her daily drills. She slipped out as soon as they ate, an arrow through the pale morning mist, leaving Nana Toki alone in the quiet house.

Restlessness swelled in her chest like a tight drum. With nothing to do, Nana paced the rooms, then stepped outside.

She circled Mida Village, palms skimming the formation markers to feel their hum, like fingertips on harp strings. Everything ran as usual. Relief cooled her nerves, and she sprinted for the back mountain to find Ling'er Long.

Fear pricked like thorns; last time’s abduction still shadowed her. Nana moved fast, breath quick, as if outrunning a bad omen. She didn’t want some nameless fool to snatch Ling'er again.

On the climb, she stole moments between steps to slap warning Talismans onto tree trunks. Yellow slips clung like autumn leaves, set to flare if someone crept close.

“You came?” Ling'er Long paused mid-strike at a wooden post, sweat beading like dew on porcelain. Her gaze held a worry-crease. “Your wound only just healed.”

“I’m fine. Just checking on you. Nothing big.” Nana wiped a sheen of sweat from her brow and perched on a boulder under dappled shade, eyes on the pounding blows. “I’d rather not have to rescue you twice because I slacked off.”

Near noon, the shade thinned like old silk. Nana watched Ling'er Long train alone, unblinking, as cicadas rasped in the trees like a hot saw.

Her gaze drifted like a leaf in a slow eddy. She looked at Ling'er, and yet looked past her, as if the sun haze painted over the world.

“...”

“Are you really going to the Marl Kingdom?” Ling'er Long stopped and took the towel hanging from a branch, wiping away shining threads of sweat. Her voice came soft, but it carried.

“Hm—?” The question slid past Nana’s ears. Her face went blank, a soft, silly daze in the heat.

“...” Ling'er Long’s lips pressed thin.

“I asked if you plan to seek a marriage alliance with my father in the Marl Kingdom!” Maybe it was the training; her breath ran fast, and a flush rose like a rising flame.

“Of course that’s the plan.” Otherwise, what about my hidden quest? Nana propped her chin in both hands, thoughts floating like clouds, then Ling'er’s voice tugged her down to earth. “Didn’t you say you were going to marry me, back then?”

“Eh?” Ling'er Long clutched both ends of the towel at her neck. Her expression went strange, ripples spreading across a still pond. Did she say that? She couldn’t remember.

“Ah… forget it. Forget what I said.” Awareness pricked like a needle; Nana winced at her own slip. “Too hot. I was joking. Don’t mind me.”

“Ha…” Ling'er Long exhaled.

Nana rubbed her temples, sore and tight, as if a storm gathered behind her eyes. So strange… she’d just seen the shadow of Nesting Phoenix.

Was the heat playing tricks on her?

“...” Ling'er Long watched Nana clamber off the boulder, face drawn. She opened her mouth to ask, then let it close. The words dried up like a streambed.

This woman called Bingtang was getting stranger by the day.

“Let’s head back.” Ling'er Long wetted a clean towel, wrung it till water fell in silver lines, and hung it around Nana’s neck. She glanced up at the blazing sun. “It’s getting harsh. Don’t get heatstroke.”

“Is that you… caring about me?” Nana pinched both ends of the towel and tilted her head up at Ling'er.

“K-kind of. You’re my bodyguard in name, at least. If something happens, I’ll be in trouble when I face Yuhuan.” Ling'er scratched her cheek, eyes dodging. Even she felt how hot her face had gotten when she said it.

“Let’s go.” Nana sifted through the layers of meaning when the Spirit Energy beneath the back mountain stirred, a tremor through roots and stone. A yellow Talisman lifted into the air and caught fire, ash spiraling like gray snow.

Someone was coming.

Watching the talisman crumble into cinders, Nana led Ling'er Long toward the ripple of Spirit Energy, steps light and wary.

She wasn’t being reckless. She knew she was still in a weakened state. But she had to see who had come. This was a third-stage plane now; you couldn’t coast on a playful mood anymore.

Ling'er’s abduction had been a lesson written in blood. Time to take things seriously.

And even if they couldn’t win, Nana was sure she could grab Ling'er and bolt.

They circled the foot of the back mountain and found no tracks, no broken twigs, nothing but the heavy summer air. Doubt sank its teeth in; maybe her talisman had misfired?

“Bingtang! Look there!” Ling'er’s eye caught the glint first. She pointed at a tree near the base of the slope. “Could that be the one?”

“Should be.” The shape lay far off, blurred by heat shimmer. Nana couldn’t make out the face, only the armor—someone sprawled, metal like a dull fish scale in the sun.

A stray soldier, maybe, who fled and ended up here by accident.

That thought barely formed when a blood-red ice sword bloomed in Nana’s hand, cold singing like a winter gust. She took point and guided Ling'er closer.

Since the battle of Dragonbreak City, her power had shifted. Maybe she’d reaped too many lives. The ice she summoned was no longer pure, clear blue. It carried a blood-tinged gleam, killing intent frozen into each shard.

The power felt stronger, sharper, like a blade honed on bone. Any side effects or lingering costs? Still unknown.

Nana tightened her grip and eased up to the fallen soldier. She prodded him. No reaction. He was out cold, breath thin as thread.

That was odd. Mida Village sat in a remote border bend near the Marl Kingdom. Armies didn’t usually drift here. His wounds screamed of battle and a desperate run. Was this the start of another plotline?

As Nana frowned, Ling'er moved in a smooth crouch and flipped the man over.

“Kurus?!” The dragon princess’s voice cracked like a snapped bowstring.

This was their kingdom’s strategist.

How could he be here, battered to this state?

The name shook something loose in Nana. She remembered the man beside Ling'er when she’d stormed the Marl Kingdom to kidnap her.

Now he was here on the Hedon Kingdom’s border. Had something shifted in the Marl Kingdom?

“Let’s get him back to the village.” The more Nana thought, the tighter the pattern formed. The Ghost Deity’s Four Heavenly Kings had meddled in Gix’s kidnapping of Ling'er. It wasn’t a stretch to guess the power-drunk Marl Kingdom was facing a similar blade at its throat.

The villains in this plane really didn’t let you rest.

System: “Host, you’ve never let this System rest either!”

I did it for world peace. You garbage System wouldn’t understand.

“...”

Nana didn’t want Ling'er touching another man if she could help it. She set a temporary barrier around the unconscious Kurus, a clear dome humming like bees.

While it held, she took Ling'er back to Mida Village and gathered some villagers. Together they hauled Kurus to a house and laid him down.

This concerned the Marl Kingdom, so Nana didn’t wait. She dug into her hidden space and pulled out a bottle of who-knew-what. It wouldn’t kill him; that was enough. She tipped it between his lips.

In less than two days, the half-dead man clawed his way back from the Gate of the Dead. The color returned like dawn washing stone.

Even Kurus looked stunned when he woke. No one knew his wounds better than he did. One bottle from this stranger, and the flesh knit like spring growth. What kind of miraculous divine elixir was that?

Overwhelmed, the Marl Kingdom’s strategist bowed again and again, as if worshiping a god.

Nana had to call Ling'er Long over to make him stop.

“Kurus, you’re alright?” Ling'er’s worry warmed the room like a brazier. She hastened to his side. “How are your injuries?”

“Your Highness, I’m fine. All thanks to this young lady’s divine pill. She fished this lowly life right out of the abyss. I feel vigorous now!”

He started to bow again on the bed, but Nana caught him by the sleeve before he could bend.

“Enough, enough. Don’t keep saluting me. Use that breath to tell me what happened in the Marl Kingdom.”

Her tone lifted with a princess’s bearing, cool and steady as a drawn blade.

“This…” Kurus blinked, thrown off by Nana’s directness. Words jammed like grain in a millstone.

“Just say it,” Ling'er said quickly, catching his seeking glance. “I’m worried about what’s happened while I’ve been gone.”

The Marl Kingdom had always been a nest of tangled forces. Ling'er had kept them down by sheer strength. She’d been away three months. Those pressed under her palm were bound to move.

As soon as Nana saw Kurus’s face sink like a sunset, she knew the news was bad.

“Your Highness,” Kurus said, voice low as thunder behind mountains, “the Second Princess has colluded with the Ghost Deity’s subordinates and raised a rebellion inside the Marl Kingdom!”