"I said it—none of your business. I don't have time to idle under this dead sky."

Linyue Yao blurred like a swallow, slipping past the Vampire who stood rooted like a statue.

Edgar held his tongue, then asked, voice cold as iron, "You think you can get away?"

A red streak chased the fleeing woman and wolf; blood-colored spikes sprouted like thorns, sealing the last exit of this stone-shadow realm.

"Sure enough, unless I deal with you, I can't save her." Linyue Yao sighed like wind through pines. "In that case... hey, you planning to just watch?"

"Who are you talking to?" A splinter of unease pricked Edgar’s chest.

"To me, obviously!" The empty air carried a voice Edgar knew. "Yo... Wild Game bro, we meet again."

"Wild game...?!"

"Uh—aren't you a bat?" Yanfengle popped in beside her like a springing cat.

"Vampires aren’t bat spirits, strictly speaking. At least this one lacks wings."

"..."

"Ah—haha—my bad then?"

"Little brat, you keep pestering me. Today I'll hack off your limbs," Edgar snarled, voice sawing at bone.

"Come at me if you dare! Bleh— Sister, save me!"

"Please, stop being all skill and all escape." Linyue Yao snagged Yanfengle, then clenched her right fist, flames coiling, and slammed it at the blood-red shadow.

She had underestimated him. Without going all out, she couldn't even stall the Vampire for a breath; her fire guttered in the wind.

"Tch. Big White!"

A low growl rose beneath her, and a wall of wind lifted like a cresting wave to brace her front.

With Big White's aid, the gale held and turned the strike, like bamboo bending and springing back.

"Oh? It's Mr. Edgar. Didn't expect you to personally block the intruder. Much obliged," someone said, voice oily as lamp smoke.

"You were too slow. If I hadn't acted, she'd have slipped away," Edgar said, flat as cold ash.

"Then rest easy. Now she's inside this barrier, a net of sigils, escape's impossible. Our High Priest guarantees it."

"So you intend to let the little mouse run amok in the city?"

"Well... didn't you already stop her? Haha. That mouse is surrounded by cats now."

"Mouse, huh? With just you lot? Don't tell me you think numbers can beat us," Yanfengle said, scorn curling like smoke.

"Have to say, this little one is wilder than we were," the Ghoststone Elder smiled, thin as paper.

"I see. He reeks of a god's aura. No wonder he mouths off."

"A god? Just a coward pointing from the shadows. If it had real power, would the world be like this?"

"What are they saying? Why can't my ears catch it?" Yanfengle frowned and turned to Linyue Yao, confusion buzzing like bees.

"Maybe your ears exploded," Linyue Yao said, deadpan, tossing the words like pebbles.

"Huh?!" He grabbed his ears, panicked. "Phew... still here. Sis, you scared me!"

"I have a name. Linyue Yao. And I was just talking," she shot him a sideways look, cool as moonlight.

"..."

"Sister Yao, maybe we plan this? I'll pick three—"

"No picking! They're already charging!"

"Aah, why like this! No honor at all!"

Compared to the inexperienced Yanfengle, Linyue Yao was a seasoned force; she had roamed the continent alone, blade and storm her constant companions.

Even against numbers, she moved like water around stone. Yanfengle, though, got singled out; their hatred clung like burrs. Without his survival knack, he'd be sobbing.

Still, the three barely held the pressure—so long as Edgar didn't join in.

"Not bad. Stronger than I thought, to stalemate so many Elders of the Flower of the Other Shore. So you held back against me, little cub..."

"Then, die now!"

Edgar cupped power in both hands. A Bloodsoul Bolt, stronger than ever, screamed toward Linyue Yao like a crimson comet.

He knew who to end first—the woman. The brat likely had someone above guarding him; killing him wouldn’t be easy. So Edgar went ruthless at Linyue Yao.

"This time, no one can save you!"

The sky dimmed; Edgar’s aura swelled like a rising flood. Blood-red eyes burned against sallow clouds.

His right hand curled into a claw, fingertips dripping phantom blood. Pale skin flushed red; danger poured from him, inside to out.

It was stronger than what Qingsheng Tangxue faced back then.

Edgar entered Bloodrage, third state. Speed and strength hit a creature's limits. In one breath, that blood claw slashed for Linyue Yao again.

A cold prickle crept up her spine: one grab and my body will be torn apart.

Linyue Yao sucked a sharp breath, then forced the claw aside with her greatsword. The Bloodsoul Bolt met her head-on, already screaming in.

For the first time, someone blasted Linyue Yao off her feet.

She shattered a stone wall, then fell near the central plaza, dust blooming like ash.

"Cough, cough." The last backlash hadn’t faded; now another heavy hit. The Vampire’s blood gnawed at her like acid. She was in trouble.

From the high dais, Fan Chen looked down, voice dripping contempt. "How wretched... Linyue Yao. The name that rang across the continent, reduced to this."

"Hurt her again and you won’t see tomorrow!"

"Shut up! You’re livestock in a cage. You think you qualify to speak?!"

Fan Chen, seething, raised his hand toward the cage. He hesitated, then hurled crackling lightning at the isolated Linyue Yao instead.

Normally, that would be nothing to her. Now, even a casual strike from Fan Chen weighed heavy like chains.

If looks could kill, Fan Chen would be dead several times over.

Tangxue wanted to smash this wretched cage and grind his head against her foster mother’s floor, fury boiling like storm-tide.

The last one who bullied her foster mother in front of her had already been sent on.

Tangxue clutched a diamond-shaped crystal, eyes spitting fire at Fan Chen.

Unnoticed, her mermaid form had shifted back to human; bare feet swayed in the pool like pale petals.

Crack— the ice wall shattered. A black arrow flashed from the cage at Fan Chen, veined with black-red light like coagulated dusk.

A single-use quasi Divine Artifact: the Godslaying Arrow.

Outside the cage, Fan Chen felt death for the first time. Panicking, he triggered the City Lord’s Edict and dragged Starfate City’s vast energy to block that god-killer’s shot.

Surviving by a hair, he felt no fear—only a feverish thrill. His aim was met.

"You finally... opened that damned dog cage yourself."

Fan Chen lunged, face twisted. His lightning-purple spear pierced the pool and Tangxue’s right shoulder, thunder snarling.

The shattered pool gushed; water mixed with blue-gold blood drenched him. He didn’t care. Revenge thrilled him, body and soul; her pain-twisted face excited him.

"If you hadn’t opened that damned ice wall yourself, how could my thunder-spear touch you?!"

"Taste the wrath of thunder!"

"..."

Tangxue looked at his rigid grin and managed a faint, mocking smile, cool as frost.

"Got stunned, did you? I’m lightning-immune."

"Pah!" Inside, Fan Chen spat blood. "Die!!!"

The force blasted Tangxue from the spear-tip to the cage’s edge. She coughed; somewhere, the diamond crystal had slipped into the broken pool.

Fan Chen noticed the thing in the water. Interest lit his eyes; he lifted the crystal with a tug of magic.

Tangxue saw him take it; her pupils tightened to pinpoints. "Give it back!"

"Oh... so that's what you use to contact your mother," Fan Chen said, ever-sour face bending into a crooked smile.