"Then why can’t you stand the sight of me?" Edgar’s eyes narrowed like knife-edges catching cold moonlight.

"Not liking you is not liking you. Does that need a reason?" Her tone fell like frost over still water.

"..."

"If you insist, I don’t like Vampires. Does that reason work?" The word landed like a stone in a quiet pond.

"...Everyone has their own reasons." Edgar smiled, helpless, like a man under thin rain.

Suddenly, Edgar stopped. He turned to Xuewei with a springtime smile. "Time’s up."

"Thanks for keeping me company, Miss Xuewei. So… let me give you a surprise." His voice curled like smoke around a lantern.

Edgar’s form warped, then went translucent, like heat-haze over a desert road.

"Familiar, isn’t it? This ripple in space?" His grin spread like a crack in glass. Her sour look fed his hunger.

"Vampire…!" Xuewei snapped back from a heartbeat of daze. Her silver teeth ground like grit. Her face flushed like a storm-lit dawn.

Blue veins lifted beneath her skin like river lines on a map. Rage climbed like fire up dry pine.

"Hahaha! It’s useless!" Edgar’s laughter clattered like chains. "I primed high-tier teleportation long ago."

"Who do you think set those roadside troubles?" His smile twisted like a mask. "Even the capital’s mess was my design."

"If you don’t run home now, prepare to collect your parents’ bodies." His words stung like ice. Then he faded like mist.

High-tier water magic—Heaven-Brimming Water Mirror. The name hung like a cold mirror in the air.

Weakness washed over Xuewei like tide pulling back from shore.

'Again. I hurt the people beside me again.' The thought was a knife in wet paper.

'Why can’t I do anything? Why do they keep getting hurt?' Her heart sank like a stone in deep lake.

Bang. Xuewei drove a frustrated fist into the earth. The blow rang like thunder.

Land for miles shuddered like a waking beast beneath the mountain hide.

"No. I don’t have time to brood." Her breath steadied like snow settling.

"Royal Sister, are you there?" Her voice flew like a dove to the crystal. "Please watch over my parents."

"They’re being hunted." Her words trembled like bowstrings. "I’ll explain when I’m back."

"I have to reach Starfate City now." Resolve burned like a lamp in wind. "It’s big trouble, tied to that Vampire."

"Leave this to me. I won’t let him leave alive." Her promise struck like iron on anvil.

She stowed the crystal, drew a deep breath, then shot toward Starfate City like an arrow through cloud.

A lethal divine sense locked onto her like a hawk’s gaze. A chain of water coiled like a serpent around her limbs.

"Sorry. If you aim for Starfate City, I can’t let you pass." The voice slid from space like a blade from silk.

The blue-haired woman drifted out of a seam in air, robe pale as mist. Below her waist, a deep-blue fish tail fanned like midnight kelp.

"You… you’re that—! No. You’re not her." Xuewei’s shock cracked like thin ice. "Mermaid, why block me?"

She forced calm back into her chest like a lid over boiling water. The aura before her pressed down like storm-surge.

"There’s no need to say much." The woman’s tone was flat as still seas. "I’m just a hired fist."

"Call me one of the three Priests of the Flower of the Other Shore—Priest Kuilan." Her title rang like a temple bell.

"My job is to keep you here." Her gaze weighed like blue stone. "This is only a divine-sense avatar with one-third strength."

"But it’s more than enough to deal with you." Her certainty settled like snow on black pines.

"'Flower of the Other Shore'… Priest Kuilan." The name bled like ink. Xuewei’s stance rooted like bamboo in wind.

Alive-dead or living, that cult meant death to the continent, like blight in ripe fields. Better to strike first than be caged.

"I don’t know your tie to that blue-haired she-devil." Her words hissed like steam. "Even with one-third, you think you can stop me?"

Iceflame Spear—Chill the Heavens. The name flared like a comet. Xuewei moved without a blink.

She unleashed her absolute kill, no hesitation, like a falcon stooping through cloud.

"Apologies. I’m attuned to space and water." The woman watched like a god over ants. "A True God’s one-third makes you messy, not hard."

A flicker of black light crossed like eclipse. The storm of iceflame vanished like stars at dawn.

"Frankly, my Domain Authority is the Sea of Divine Sense." Her words rippled like tides under moons.

"With one mind, I can sway a nation’s spirit." The claim spread like wind through wheat. "I shape avatars of thought that touch reality."

"What you see holds one-third of my spirit’s strength." Her smile was a thin blade. "My true body’s mana hasn’t waned at all."

"That spatial control you felt was incidental." The line fell like ash. "A free trick on the side."

"Now do you understand, Miss Xuewei?" Her voice cooled like rain on hot stone.

Ranged attacks failed, so Xuewei let them go like arrows spent. She was born for close combat.

She preferred a straight spear charge over flowery spells, like storm over lantern tricks.

Iceflame’s enchantment made the spear unstoppable, like a glacier grinding stone. Even warping space peeled away near the point.

Magic had no effect, so she thrust without doubt, the spear lunging like a white dragon.

"Why? Why block me?" Her cry tore like cloth in wind. "You’re a mermaid!"

"Don’t you know what that Vampire plans? He wants to—" Her words faltered like a candle in gusts.

"I know." The woman’s answer was calm as dusk. "That Vampire is a piece on my board."

"You don’t need to worry." Her gaze slid like water over jade. "Be a quiet spectator."

"You…" Xuewei’s shock flared then hardened like iron in quench. "So it’s all your design!"

"You devil." Her voice burned like pepper. "I won’t let you steal him from me again."

Her silver teeth bit deep; blood beaded like red plum blossoms. It ran down her hands onto the Iceflame Spear like wine.

Her aura shook, then surged like a storm-tide. Power climbed like fire up oiled rope.

"Is this how you raise your strength?" Disappointment dulled Kuilan’s tone like dust on glass. "I brought nearly thirty percent for you."

"It seems you don’t reach even a tenth of me." Her verdict fell like a judge’s hammer.

"Whether I do or not, live through my spear first." Xuewei’s words cut like sleet.

In half a breath, a shard of cold light arrived first, like the tip of winter spearing the world.