Nana Toki said something that caught Fat Jin like a fish hooked on unexpected bait.

He’d figured she came to settle a score and snag that gold coin back, a storm rolling in behind old grievances. Turns out, the clouds were drifting another way.

“Ma’am, what are you even going to do in the Marl Kingdom…?”

He remembered telling her Marl was in open revolt, a wildfire chewing through dry brush. Even if these few looked tough, how could they stand against a nation that worshiped steel like gods?

“You’re full of hot air, fat man. Do the job and quit buzzing.” Nana Toki was all frost and impatience, poking him in the belly with an ice sword like a cold thorn.

“The one driving the cart has to be that kid from last time. If you find someone else, I’ll smash your little stall like a clay pot.”

“Hey, hey, calm down, ma’am.” Fat Jin puffed like a kettle, then deflated.

It wasn’t that he refused. He just couldn’t. Last time’s coachman, Aji, had quit the road like a hare bolting for the fields. Said cart work was too dangerous. Said the soil at home was softer than a blade against his neck.

An older hand had taken Aji’s place, weathered as old bark.

Nana Toki listened and let out a thin sigh, a reed bending in the wind.

Looked like last time had been too much. The shadow they cast had burned a brand onto Aji’s mind.

System: “……” Maybe reflect for once, Host.

“What do we do now?”

Ling’er Long spoke softly beside her, voice like a stream testing stones. “We can go on foot. The border’s not far. Cut through, and we’ll reach it in five days.”

“Absolutely not, Princess!” Kurus flared like a startled hawk.

He’d fled from Marl when the Second Princess seized power. His words were iron filings pulled by a harsh magnet. “Since her coup, the border’s a wall of spears. Even freight carts get torn open and checked. On foot, we’d be fireflies flying into a furnace.”

“That’s not a given.”

An idea flashed in Nana Toki’s eyes, a blade glinting under moonlight.

“If the road’s blocked, we take the water.”

“The water?” Ling’er Long and Kurus blinked, their thoughts like oars missing water. “The pier’s far. A round trip would take longer than walking.”

“Who said we’re getting on a boat? We’ll use the water itself. Hard to explain in a breath. I’ll show you.”

She turned like a gust, and told Fat Jin to get her a carriage anyway, heading toward Marl like a wind skimming wheat.

Only difference: she wanted to get off halfway.

Her map showed a massive lake tucked in the Kor Mountains where Hedon and Marl shook hands reluctantly. Remote. Hazardous. Thinly guarded like a gate with old hinges. Nana Toki planned to slip through there like mist.

Even if the Four Heavenly Kings had guessed and packed the banks with steel, she didn’t care. She’d cut straight through. Wild shorelines and lonely water were perfect places to sink trouble like stones.

She’d already carved down tens of thousands in this world, a scythe cutting grass that never ended. The System had probably docked her tens of thousands of karma points, gnawing at her like cold rats.

Fine. Smash the jar and let the shards sing. Unrivaled mode on, and never off.

She owed more than ten billion karma points. What were a few extra as ash in the wind?

She didn’t care. Not a drop.

Come on, you brats. Meet my eyes like wolves under moonlight.

System: “……”

Host, at this rate, are you even planning to return to your own world?

Return my ass.

I’m not going back. I’ll lock horns with you and your dimwit master. Let’s see whose candle burns longer in this night.

Nana Toki bragged like thunder rolling over a dry plain.

“……”

Plan settled, they hit the road, wheels rattling like bones in a drum.

The whole route to the Kor Mountains lay inside Hedon, a calm valley beneath a blue sky. Nana Toki didn’t worry, didn’t glance back.

They reached their mark, paid the fare like tossing coins into a temple bowl, then angled toward the far side of the range.

“Tell me—your country’s a nest of vipers now, with the Four Heavenly Kings grabbing power. No one stood up?”

On the climb, Nana Toki kept the talk flowing like spring water, tapping Ling’er Long and Kurus for Marl’s truths.

“There were some rebels,” Kurus sighed, a wind through hollow reeds. “Too few. The First Princess’s faction got flattened before they even drew swords. Lord Yu Ang fought to cover my retreat from the capital’s storm, and I don’t know if he’s still standing.”

“Relax. That man’s life force clings like moss to rock.”

Nana Toki had seen the script, the river beneath the bridge. No need to worry about Yu Ang, that walking cheat.

The guy had cannon-fodder labels stuck on him early, then pulled out a protagonist’s plug-in later. Ordinary folks couldn’t match that rising tide.

If the original author hadn’t killed Yu Ang with plot daggers, he would’ve pinned the main hero face-down into the dirt without breaking a sweat.

“Rock Candy, you know Lord Yu Ang well.” Kurus sounded awed, like dusk in a temple hall. “Do warriors feel a bond, soul to soul?”

“I’m not a warrior, damn it. I’m a mage.” Nana Toki rolled her eyes like a cold moon over ink-black water. “Close combat’s a hobby. My job is pure magic.”

If Kurus hadn’t reminded her, she’d almost forgotten she was a mage who opened Unrivaled like a river flooding its banks.

“?”

Kurus went quiet again, thoughts like startled deer hiding in brush.

By now, this woman called Rock Candy had piled up too many impossibilities, like stones stacked higher than a shrine.

A Hedon princess engaged to Marl’s First Princess. A mage who went toe-to-toe in close quarters with their Martial Sect’s top disciple, trading blows like twin storms.

Was there any law left under heaven?

History had no one who cultivated both paths. None.

And she, infected by guisui, still strutted like a tiger on a ridge.

They finally reached the lake on the far side, an endless mirror glinting like an eye of the mountain.

Kurus turned to ask how this “water route” worked.

Nana Toki stepped past him and put one foot into the lake, heel slicing the surface like a blade.

“Ic—”

Kurus didn’t finish.

From her foot, the water spread into frost like winter racing over a field. The surface turned to ice, a widening disc crisp as glass.

In breath after breath, the boundless lake froze into a crimson rink, a field of blood-colored winter under a white sky.

“Move.”

Nana Toki walked first, the frozen lake ringing underfoot like a quiet bell.

Ling’er Long followed, light as a drifting petal. Kurus trailed last, numb as a man walking through snow.

This Rock Candy was a walking cheat code, a storm that carried its own lightning.

Her close combat was a blade. Her magic was a glacier. Nothing felt small.

For a heartbeat, Kurus even felt lucky their First Princess would marry this woman, binding their fates like red strings.

They left the unguarded lake and crossed into Marl, intent on the capital like falcons aiming for a peak.

But from the forest near the rink, battle rolled out like thunder over hills.

Booms cracked the air, echoes chasing themselves among trunks. Nana Toki relaxed the ice with a wave of her hand, thaw creeping like dawn, and asked, “Do we check it out?”

It was Marl’s civil strife, storm against storm. They were few, a dandelion in wind. If one side matched them, it could steady their stance.

“Let’s see.” Ling’er Long stared at the rising dust, jaw set like stone.

If they found the usurpers, she’d sweep them out like dead leaves.

“……”

The First Princess had spoken. Nana Toki didn’t argue. She melted most of the rink, water returning like a tide, then slipped into the trees with Ling’er Long and Kurus.

Bang.

Boom.

Magic flared and blades flashed, white fire rippling through boughs. Thick trunks snapped like chopsticks. Dense grass burned down to black lace.

The forest looked scourged, a battlefield of smoke and splinters.

Yu Ang fought two at once, stance coiled like a panther. He measured the youth before him, eyes sharp as spears. “So you’re Hedon’s famed Hero. The name holds weight. I wonder what tricks the Second Princess used to buy your loyalty.”

“Yu Ang! How many times must I say it?” Jade Ring Long stood behind Lorin with her staff, frustration burning like nettles. “I didn’t rebel! The one who stirred revolt in the capital wasn’t me!”

She’d learned this mess in the northern forest days ago, while adventuring with Lorin beneath cold pines. Now she’d rushed back to sift truth from smoke, only to meet a bull-headed roadblock.

Yu Ang wasn’t hearing it. His anger was a wildfire that refused rain. “I trust what my eyes saw. Save your poison, witch. I’ll seize you alive and drag you to the capital. Then it ends.”

Words fell like stones. Jade Ring Long inhaled, but in that heartbeat, Yu Ang vanished like a shadow swallowed by sun.

The next second—

Clang.

Fist met blade, a spark like lightning biting iron.

Lorin blocked, sword singing like a hawk’s cry. “Your opponent is me!”

He gripped his long sword, edge keen as frost. “Come on! See what Hedon’s Hero can do!”

Thud.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang—

Their blows hammered each other like blacksmiths at twin anvils, every strike a storm beating on rock.

Pressure roared. Trees shivered as if in a gale. Stones and soil around their feet split open, fissures crawling like dry riverbeds.