“So, Host, that’s what you mean…?” The words hung like frost in the air.

“Back to Chronos City. Right now, this instant!” Nana Shi’s voice bit like steel, nothing like her lazy drawl.

Mention Nesting Phoenix’s safety, and my host turns restless, like a caged sparrow beating its wings.

“But then the Northland sigil news and the Ice Emperor’s trail… what now?” The threads slipped like rain-wet strings through fingers.

“None of my damn business! Whoever wants it, go handle it.” She tossed the words like stones into dark water.

She wouldn’t keep babysitting the Ice Emperor’s wrecked legacy, shoving away that broken cart like it reeked.

System: “…”

All our trips to Northland, the deal with Thousandwise, the hunt for the Ice Emperor—built on Nesting Phoenix staying safe, like a lamp sheltered from storm.

With Chronos City in doubt, Nana Shi wouldn’t leave her exposed, like a child in open thunder.

In short, the System carried the word like a runner through snow: Nana Shi would race back overnight.

Tifana heard it in Estis City while calming Northland folk, her voice a warm shawl in the wind.

She listened, then let it go, acceptance settling like soft snow on eaves.

“After all, Miss Nesting Phoenix has always been special to City Lord Shi.” Tifana sighed toward the Northland snow, breath white as milk.

“Eh?” The System froze, surprise pricking like sleet; she hadn’t said Nana rushed back for Nesting Phoenix.

She’d only said Chronos City had an incident, the City Lord felt uneasy, like a lantern shadow flicker.

“Haha, General Ning, no need to tense up.” Rumors had long ridden winter wind: City Lord Shi took Moragus’s throne for her.

“With Chronos City’s safety unclear, her nerves are human,” stretched like taut bowstrings in storm.

“What about you in Northland? Sigil holders are grabbing power, wolves testing a frost-bitten fence.”

“You needn’t fret, General Ning.” Tifana smiled, calm as snow on stone. “We rose with the Ice Emperor’s grace, but we aren’t lambs.”

“…”

Fair enough. Northland’s people gripped these wastes for millennia, pine roots in permafrost long before any Ice Emperor.

Thinking that soothed the System, worry thinning like dawn mist.

“Then… take care, all of you.” The farewell fell like a feather.

After a brief goodbye, the System slipped out of Estis City, a swift shadow over snow, heading to meet Nana Shi outside the walls.

Per Nana’s plan, they’d use the System’s random teleport, the fixed gate on cooldown, capped at ten kilometers like a shuttered waypoint.

Northland’s terrain has teeth; walking out would take half a month, mountains gnawing the horizon.

So random teleport was the clean cut, a knife through tangled reeds.

It would pull Nana clear of Northland; where she’d land was luck, a tossed leaf in wind.

Meanwhile—on the continent, outside Chronos City, inside an isolated pocket-space like a bubble sealed in ice.

“Lord Yan, last chance. Where did you hide that thing from Chronos City?” His words slid like a blade under silk.

His voice was smooth, magnetic, velvet over steel; a spring-bright smile bloomed on a face, while his white suit wore scarlet flowers.

“That mad woman will feel Northland’s disturbance and rush back, storm-scent on the air. I won’t let your stubbornness wreck the plan again.”

“So—three seconds.” The ultimatum fell like a gavel on stone.

The man in white raised three slender fingers, smiling like a priest at a wedding. “In three seconds, hand it over or I blow this place.”

“You included, Lord Yan… and the Nesting Phoenix you hid where I can’t sniff her out, a wolf on empty snow.”

“I’ll torch it all,” like lighting dry brush at dusk.

“Trollop, you dare!” Her roar bristled like a cat with its tail stepped on, claws out in moonlight.

Slumped against the wrecked pocket-space wall, Yan Xiao snarled, fur standing like struck fur; her blurred gaze snapped into hawk focus.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Backed to a cliff, death is death; he chose a clean blade over mud.

“…”

“If you want that thing, you know Law power holders can’t wield it,” oil and water refusing to mix.

“You’ve got Law power. It’s useless to you, yet you crave it… someone’s behind you,” a shadow riding your heels.

Trollop said nothing. Yan Xiao read the silence like lacquer sealing names. Only Nana Shi and a few ministers knew this space.

So there is a traitor in the city, rot under bright paint.

Yan Xiao’s face darkened; the answer settled like soot in a brazier.

“Judging by your face, you’ve guessed most of it. Your answer?” His tone drifted like smoke.

“Hand it over and save your lives—yours and Nesting Phoenix’s—or I blow this place and dig through ash,” picking bones after a fire.

“Heh… even if I give it up, you won’t spare me or Nesting Phoenix,” a smile hiding a dagger.

“So, Lord Yan, we’re breaking the table?” His eyes narrowed like knives catching light.

Whoosh—

A tearing sound split the air, an arrow already loosed; Trollop reacted, but retreat came too late.

“Pierce him! Piercing Duke!” Thousandwise’s cry cracked like thunder over stone.

Her shout rode two black, razor chains, midnight serpents with steel scales racing in from behind.

Rumble—! Rumble—!

The pocket-space boomed, great hammers biting earth; a streak of fire-red flashed as Thousandwise landed between Trollop and Yan Xiao, Piercing Duke in hand.

“Who are you?” His voice snapped like brittle glass, shards bright and cold.

Trollop had never seen Thousandwise—was this a new hand on the board, a stone thrown into a still pond?

Thousandwise didn’t answer. She drove Piercing Duke down; the iron-plate whip punched floor, then burst up, iron ivy webbing the air.

In an instant, the space became a web padlocked by chains, a net that breathed and tightened.

“Tsk.” The sound clicked like a pebble on slate.

Trollop watched links closing like moon-cool rings. This sudden woman wrecked his plan in seconds, silk hiding steel.

A card that mad woman left for him, a hidden blade under silk.

He wasn’t built for brawls; this narrow ground chewed him, a chessboard that boxed his king.

Run! The thought flared like a spark in dry straw.

The idea struck in a heartbeat, lightning across a bare ridge.

Good for him—Thousandwise didn’t chase to the death; she let Piercing Duke coil back, a hunter loosening the bowstring, after he bolted through the door.

“You—” The word trembled like a cut string in wind.

“You’re Thousandwise, City Lord of Estis City in Northland, aren’t you?” Her gaze steadied like a plumb line in a builder’s hand.

Watching the girl settle to calm and walk over, Yan Xiao spoke first, a hand closing a book before it’s read.

Her face had gone pale from the drain; yet as Chronos City’s highest hand, she stood and asked plain, winter sun above snow.

“Why would a Northland City Lord show up in my Chronos City out of nowhere?” The words struck like flint.

“Don’t tell me… the sigils again?” Old scars itched in rain.

“It’s the deal between City Lord Shi and Northland,” her reply a stamped seal on paper.

Thousandwise answered with respect; to prove it, she drew the yellow Talisman, ink drying on gold, date penned by Nana’s hand.

It was indeed the Imperial Mandate; recognition gleamed like a blade edge as Yan Xiao saw the script.

However… The word hung like a pendulum between them.

“A deal between Nana and Northland?” The notion rippled like wind over wheat.

“That’s new intel,” a fresh track in snow.

Leaning on a wrecked chair, Yan Xiao exhaled and asked, tired but steady, ash drifting from a brazier.

“Isn’t your Ice Emperor unmatched? What needs our Sovereign’s help?” Her tone cut like cold rain on a slate roof.

“…”

“Ah… I see.” Understanding settled like falling dusk over courtyards.

Watching her face, Yan Xiao grasped the root like reading knots in old wood.

“So the Ice Emperor himself faltered, and you came to the continent seeking Nana’s aid?” A glacier cracked under spring.

“Looks like this continent… the sky’s about to change,” storm clouds rolling over old banners.