“I don’t know who that woman is. I don’t need to know. I don’t need to hear her drivel. If she shows a flicker of disrespect or malice—kick her away like trash.”
“That’s a must-have for any [Hero King]—” Ye Weibai looked at Aerin. “—the [Arrogant Heart].”
Aerin froze, eyes wide like startled deer in frost. Something felt off. But Master Bai’s calm made it feel like sunrise after fog, and she swallowed her words.
“Questions?”
“...No.” She shook her head, cheeks pale as paper in rain. It felt strange, but if Master Bai said so, how could it be wrong?
“Good.” Ye Weibai nodded, satisfied, like a craftsman testing a blade’s edge. “Next, watch me closely.”
Crack, crack, crack—!
While he spoke, the silver-haired woman staggered up. She looked wrecked—blood at her lips, dust like ash smeared across her body.
“It hurts.”
“It hurts, hurts...” Dust and grit pattered off her like sleet from a gutter. Ten fingers twitched like hooked spiders. She tilted her head at Ye Weibai, blood shining at her smile, sweetness laced with iron. Her voice was gentle, like silk wrapped around a knife. “It’s been so long since it hurt like this. You’re really—”
Woom—!
Wind surged like a river bursting its banks. Her figure flashed like lightning through night rain.
“—really something!”
Cackling, the woman compressed midair, body flattening like a silver viper. She cut through the Void, a dart of moonlit venom.
“Master Bai—!” Silver radiance flooded both sides of Ye Weibai. Aerin cried out, voice breaking like brittle glass.
“Watch closely.” With his back to the silver-haired woman, Ye Weibai’s tone stayed light as drifting clouds over a calm lake.
“One rule of the [Arrogant Heart]—if you can turn your back, don’t face them.” His voice was cool, like shade beneath pines. “Like this.”
Fingers snapped.
Snap—
The woman shot to Ye Weibai’s back, face twisted with killing intent. Her right hand lifted, silver cold like winter steel—then a vast force fell like a mountain storm, slamming her spine from above.
“Wha—?!”
Her face tightened. She writhed like a fish slipping the hook, trying to vanish. Too late.
An invisible weight pinned her to the floor like a meteor pinning a butterfly.
Her head hit first. Then limbs. Then the trunk.
Her whole body ground into the floor like grain beneath a millstone.
Boom—!
The earth split, stone chips leaping like startled birds.
Splurt—!
Her face scraped raw across the rough floor. Power rampaged through her viscera like a flood through a canyon. Blood sprayed, bright as poppies in snow.
Dust rose behind Ye Weibai like smoke after thunder. The woman lay less than a handspan behind him, face twisted, struggling like a drowned moth. He didn’t look back. He just lowered his right hand, slow as falling leaves.
“Aerin.”
“Ah—y-yes!” Shock hollowed her out like a bell. She jolted and answered at last.
“Do you know why I snapped my fingers?”
“Because...” Aerin’s eyes went blank as a fogged mirror. “It’s a casting gesture?”
“Idiot.”
Whack—!
The ruler cracked her forehead like a clap of dry wood.
“Truly—an idiot.” Ye Weibai faced her almost-crying eyes and said, “It’s for presence.”
“I just wanted to snap my fingers. It feels casual, like wind through sleeves. It also pushes your aura higher.” Ye Weibai’s voice was mild, river-smooth. “Casting gestures? I’ve never needed those.”
No... no casting gestures?!
Aerin’s mouth fell open like a door in the wind. “B-but...”
“But nothing.” Ye Weibai’s tone sharpened like ice. “Just remember. Now, burn in the next principle.”
“—Always give your opponent time to stockpile rage and charge their ultimate.”
Bzzzzzz—!
A thousand bees seemed to erupt, the air turning to a trembling hive.
“—Draw the blade, aaah!”
She couldn’t take it anymore. This fragile-looking black-haired boy had flattened her again and again, easier than swatting a mosquito. His indifference was a winter sky: clear, cold, merciless.
Steel sang like a mountain spring. Her silver voice rose with the blade.
Silver light climbed behind Ye Weibai like a cold moon rising over black water.
It glowed like moonlight, yet spilled an ominous chill, like an abyss-beast yawning wide beneath a cliff.
It swallowed Ye Weibai whole in an instant.
Aerin screamed. Her pupils shrank like frost-bitten seeds.
But the woman, silver short blade in hand, leaping like a hunting cat—her smile lasted less than half a heartbeat.
“Let them unleash one thousand percent of their power.”
From within the cocoon of silver light, the black-haired boy spoke. Calm. Level. Like a well that never ripples.
“Only then can you let them taste true—despair.”
Boom—!
The silver light howled like a wounded thing. Like snow under noon sun, it flashed into steam, a drifting veil of silver mist.
“What—what are you?!” At last, fear surfaced on the silver-haired woman’s face like oil on water.
Even Lord [Scarlet Bloom] didn’t dare touch the silver radiance spewed by the [Silver Moon Blade]. Yet this boy let it drown him like a wave—and stood spotless. No, he erased it. Like fire eating paper.
Even the [Silver Moon Blade] itself was afraid.
She stared at the trembling broken knife in her hand. Long ago, she’d stolen this artifact from an ancient ruin. It was said to belong to the 9,000th [Hero King]—one of the top ten in history. Its silver glow lacked any holy sheen of a [Hero King], yet devoured nearly all. Paired with her brutal resilience, it helped her slay uncounted foes. Even a [Saint] once lost half a body to its bite.
Now it shrieked in terror, like a cornered wolf.
The [Hero King]’s blade was keening with fear.
Hey, hey, that’s too strong!
Wh-what kind of joke is this?!
What kind of monster crawled out of nowhere?!
Terror finally won. She screamed and ran, streaking away like a comet.
“Master Bai!”
Seeing him untouched, Aerin’s near-tears broke into sunlight.
“Idiot.” Ye Weibai flicked her forehead again. “What’s there to get excited about? That attack couldn’t even scratch my barrier film.”
“Calm down. Keep watching.” Silver mist curled like morning fog as Ye Weibai turned. He looked at the fleeing figure—a flicker, a streak—and spoke softly. “You must grant your enemy—[Hope].”
As he spoke, the silver-haired woman was already vanishing into the sky, a gull swallowed by blue.
“Ha!”
“Ha ha!”
“Ha... ha... I lived. I lived again!”
The cobalt sky wheeled. Roofs blurred beneath her feet like a river of shingles. She flew hard. The wind scraped her dusty face like sand. Terror etched her features, alongside the sharp relief of survival. And... twisted hate.
“Letting me go is your biggest mistake! You don’t know my ability. You’ll regret it! Next time! Next time, I’ll make you feel true—pain—”
Her smile froze, brittle as rime. A boy’s soft voice brushed her ear like a night breeze.
“You must also grant your enemy—[Despair].”
Woom—!
A blade tore the air. The sky rang like a bell.
Squelch—
Blood fountained, a red spray dancing on blue.
Before a thousand stunned eyes, a colossal, translucent longsword fell from the heavens. It drove straight through the silver-haired woman’s back, burst from her belly, and dragged a storm of blood down with it, slamming her into the imperial square below.
Boom—!
Dust rose far away like a mushroom cloud. Screams cracked open the air, and the capital’s alarm keened, thin and sharp as a needle.
On the stage.
Lowering his right hand, Ye Weibai looked at the girl, who had gone slack with shock, like a puppet with snipped strings. “Aerin, do you know why I raised my hand?”
“T-to... to a-aim?”
Whack—!
The familiar kiss of ruler on forehead. And the girl’s yelp, like a cat stepped on.
“Stupid! Foolish! Impossibly dense!”
Ye Weibai frowned and shook his head. His voice cut like sleet. “Aim at what? Why aim? It’s barely a thousand meters. We aren’t shooting across a continental plate. How could I miss?”
N-not across a... continental plate?!
Aerin clutched her forehead, eyes swimming like rain ponds, speechless.
“It was for—presence. When you lift your hand, your sleeve rides the wind.” Ye Weibai sighed, helpless, like a teacher watching a goose try to swim. “Aerin. You’re impossibly dumb.”
She’d lost count of how many times he’d called her stupid today. Lost count of the whacks. Her head felt like it had swollen to one and a half.
Master Bai... so strict.
But she truly didn’t know... she’d never heard any of this.
She lowered her head, aggrieved, like a drooping willow. “I didn’t mean to...”
A warm palm touched her hair, gentle as spring rain. Master Bai’s hand.
“But it’s fine.” His voice softened without warning, like dusk melting heat from stone. “I like a dumb disciple.”
“Best if you’re blank as white paper.”
“Then I can teach you the purest core of the [Hero King]—through and through.”
The [Demon King] smiled as he said it, lips curved like a crescent blade.
...
...
In a lake of red, the silver-haired woman lay pinned by the silver greatsword. Eyes closed. Body twitching like a netted fish.
—Clack.
Metal kissed stone with a dull, cold sound. It crawled into the bones.
Just like the red-haired woman’s voice—husky and cold, rough as a file, skin-prickling.
“Do you need me to help you up?”
She kicked the silver-haired woman’s belly with one sharp motion, like a boar’s tusk.
“Gah!”
Blood burst anew, a dark rose on gray stone. The silver-haired woman’s eyes snapped open. Reflected in her pupils: a pair of red metal war boots. Their owner stood over her, body drowned in heavy blood-red armor. From beneath the cold red helm, two eyes burned like banked embers, staring down.
“Master, I... I lost.” In the blood, she tried to lift her head. Her silver slit pupils trembled like reeds. “Strong—he’s too strong.”
The red-haired woman’s gaze climbed to the translucent sword. The giant blade pinned the silver-haired woman to the stone like an iron nail through parchment.
“But he didn’t kill you.”
“Yeah—he didn’t kill me?!” Something clicked. Terror on the silver-haired woman’s face froze, then cracked, then twisted into glee and hate. Her right hand scraped the rough floor, nails squealing like chalk. She chuckled low, a snake tasting its fangs. Damp. Dark. “Next time—he dies.”
Anyone could see it. The greatsword’s power was being ground down, not dispersed, but greedily drawn into her body like oil into cloth.
It wasn’t simple absorption. Her body had been [Blessed] by something that wasn’t human wind or human fire.
After the [Blessing], she no longer belonged to the human ledger. She carried two traits: [Undying] and [Immunity].
[Undying] meant she was hard to kill, like rot clinging to wood. Even run through and bleeding rivers, where a normal person would die from pain or blood loss, she lived. She could even speak, teeth pink with blood.
[Immunity] meant this... She could massively reduce damage from anything that had hurt her before. Like growing antibodies after a fever. The same virus, the same move—the same predator—wouldn’t bite twice.
Its range was almost boundless, like dusk swallowing a field. Even a [Saint]-rank powerhouse, if they failed to kill her the first time and let her escape, would learn later they couldn’t hurt her again.
“What a ‘useful’ [Blessing]...”
At “useful,” the smile cut beneath the red-haired woman’s helm was pure mockery. Cold as frost on iron.
