“I can’t take it anymore!” In a shadow-soaked corner, Vinoena Qianya clutched her head like warding off knives. “I have to save her… I don’t want to…”

Yuqiu caught her hand, cool as rain on hot stone. “Breathe. You chose this—use the chance, let Qingyu Mengyin take out that Vampire. You even made me stop you if you lost it, Xiaoya. You’re the queen now. Don’t let feelings flood your judgment.”

“But… I… can’t.” Qianya tried a smile uglier than tears, a cracked mask under a frost-heavy crown. “I’m sorry… Maybe I’m not a good queen.”

Yuqiu’s face shifted like thunderheads. “Steady, Xiaoya! You absolutely can’t go out. Or all we built blows away like ash!”

Qianya only smiled at her, the resolve on her face clear as dawn over ice.

In the past, she obeyed her mother’s last words and walked a thousand winters of remorse and solitude. It was living inside a coffin of time. Every night, when she closed her eyes, she saw her mother’s dying face. Not one night was peaceful.

If she had to live through that again… no, she would break.

“If my hesitation lets that child die before me, I think I’d kill myself. So… Auntie, please don’t—”

“Weren’t you the one who told me to stop you no matter what?!”

Anger flared. Yuqiu grabbed Qianya’s collar and shook her like a sapling in wind. The generous curves she never admitted she envied swayed in her face, but she had no mood for jokes.

“If you plan to die, warn me first! You swore you’d make me hold you back. Now you look like you’re marching to death to save someone?!”

“Xiaoya… can you think about the people who care about you?” A hot tear cut down Yuqiu’s cheek like summer rain. Her voice trembled. “I promised your mother I’d keep you safe, no matter what. So please, stop being reckless. Okay?”

Suddenly, Yuqiu’s slim body jolted. She hid her expression and fell silent for a breath. “Looks like… we’ve been found.”

Qianya’s face hardened. Her gaze swept the gloom like a blade.

A moment later, Yuqiu spoke again. “We’re being watched. Qing Feng Yuelian already noticed us. But… she isn’t hostile. Just a light warning.”

“…What did she say?”

Qing Feng Yuelian knew both Yuqiu and Qianya. A century ago, they’d moved in the same circles—until she joined the Flower of the Other Shore.

Back then, the Blood Clan and the demons weren’t involved. The Blood Clan looked down on it; the demons were still in chaos. So Qing Feng Yuelian hadn’t left them with a truly bad taste.

“She…” Yuqiu’s face went odd. “She told us not to meddle. To stay out of her family’s business.”

“???”

“Now you really don’t need to go out.” Yuqiu rolled her eyes, a ripple on a weary pond. “Even if a Demon King shows up today, he can’t threaten that little brat.”

“Ah???” Qianya’s confusion ballooned, until Yuqiu leaned in and whispered at her ear. Qianya exhaled, a long frost melting. “Seems… everyone outside’s been played.”

“Yeah…” Yuqiu glanced at the brawl outside with a shade of pity, like rain on a stray dog.

If Fan Chen knew the tie between Qing Feng Yuelian and Qingsheng Tangxue, he’d probably cough blood on the spot.

…

Ever since the melee erupted at the central square, the crowd had scattered like leaves before wind. The Flower of the Other Shore had gone to fight, and no one bothered to keep onlookers. Of course, a few fearless idiots still lingered.

Up in the sky, the Snow Wolf held off several powerhouses and didn’t fall. Yanfengle, by contrast, got booted around like a ball. But his life wasn’t in danger. They were venting, not killing. No one here wanted to die. Though man and wolf were both on the back foot, they actually tied up a whole pack.

Truth was… any sharp eye could see they weren’t aiming to kill.

Orders from above were simple: stall the intruders. They’d even emphasized—don’t kill them.

The only ones here who truly wanted them dead were Fan Chen and that Vampire.

And those two were being held by Linyue Yao.

Linyue Yao’s strength might not reach Vampire Edgar’s. When she fought him before, she took wounds at every step. Add Fan Chen now, and it was salt in snow. Even enraged, she fell behind.

Stacking berserk again and again was razor-dangerous for her. She was already in a bad way.

“That woman’s a cockroach that won’t die! How is she tougher than me, a Vampire?!” Edgar spat, voice like gravel.

“She’s stalling… She poured all her berserk into defense.”

Linyue Yao pressed her left shoulder, blood seeping between pale fingers. Her face was a still lake, cold and flat.

Just then, the cage around Qingsheng Tangxue melted without a sound. A killing chill swept the field. Fan Chen and Edgar felt a predator’s eyes on their throats. Their hearts missed a beat.

“Enough… The wounds you carved into Mom Linyue Yao today—I’ll repay them tenfold!” The girl’s voice rang through the air, anger like flame licking at the mind. It spread like fever. Even Linyue Yao felt a surge to tear the two apart.

In the next breath, everyone shivered. An ice blade scythed for Fan Chen’s right shoulder. The speed was so vicious even Edgar lagged.

“This strike is for Mom Linyue Yao…!”

Mid-swing, Tangxue’s body trembled. Weakness flooded her like winter water. She bit down and spent the last ember of strength.

A blood-red slash opened on Fan Chen. He swallowed the pain and snatched the crystal clipped to the right side of Tangxue’s skirt.

Tangxue tried to shield it by instinct, but strength had left her.

Crystal secured, Fan Chen struck the little girl with a palm. Powerless, Tangxue couldn’t resist. One hit almost knocked her out.

“Tangxue!!”

Linyue Yao lunged, but Edgar denied her. They crashed, and she was thrown back by brute force.

“At last… finally, I’ve got it.” Fan Chen’s breath burned like dry wind. “Heh… heh-hahaha…! My years-long wish is about to come true! Dad, Mom, Brother, Grandpa… and all my lost friends. I can finally avenge you…”

His wound didn’t slow him. His spirit blazed too bright.

He grabbed the fallen Tangxue, hoisted the tiny body like a doll, and crushed the crystal with ease.

That crystal was for communication. Without the user’s magic, the only way to trigger it was to crush it.

In the seconds before it connected, Fan Chen had already chosen the vilest words and the cruelest face. He wanted that demon to taste the loss of family. He wanted her to live worse than death.

Seconds later, the crystal woke.

A lazy, heaven-clear voice drifted from ahead. “Hey…”

“Sea-dwelling demon! Listen up—”

“Yeah, I’m listening, I’m listening. Don’t yell. It’s bad for you. I can hear you from a few hundred meters away…”

“…?”

Fan Chen went still, like a statue in rain.

“What did she just say?”

“She said… she’s a few hundred meters away…” Edgar’s face went the color of wet clay, like he’d swallowed filth.

“Yep~ I’ve been… watching from this square the whole time~ Watching you… bully my daughter. Watching you talk to me through that crystal~” On a balcony near the central square, a blue-haired girl in a white dress sat on the rail, smiling down. Her perfect, lean legs swung like metronomes. Only that smile… was terrifying.

“Always… the whole time~”

She had been here, all along.

“Aren’t you dying to meet me, City Lord Fan Chen of Starfate City? I, the ‘demon’ you keep cursing, am right in front of you…”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“Die for me!!!”

Fan Chen’s reaction was lightning. He burned his life like oil. He poured the vast magic meant for Starfate City’s defenses into his body. Then he cast a blow that could erase a capital in one breath. Lightning flooded the heavens. A five-clawed violet dragon, miles long, coiled from the storm and dove for the blue-haired girl with his rage.

“Useless. Anyone who’s touched divine magic would never try ordinary power against a god-tier foe. It’s ignorant, and laughable…”

Qingyu Mengyin flicked her wrist. The purple-gold dragon unraveled into sparks under Fan Chen’s breaking gaze.

From start to finish, Qingyu Mengyin never got serious. She stayed languid, lazy as soft rain.

“I said… ah, I haven’t said it yet. Then I’ll say it now. Today, you—and you—will pay for what you did.” Qingyu Mengyin pointed at a few faces, fingers like chill rain.

“It’s been a long time since it rained here…”

She tilted her chin to the sky and smiled, light as dew. With a thought, ink-dark clouds knitted overhead. Thunder rolled at the edges of the world. A once-in-a-century tempest gathered on the rim.

Fan Chen stared at the roiling sky. His face drained of blood. “Damn it! I can’t let that rain fall on the city!”

He poured what remained of his strength into Starfate City’s barrier. It rose, several times stronger than the one he used against Edgar.

“Useless. I told you—no one stops me today.” Qingyu Mengyin glanced at Fan Chen, who strained like a trapped clown in a downpour.

Within the storm, a sky-swallowing whale of water took shape. Its bulk dwarfed the entire city. It descended, slow as doom, and with the water of despair, it punched through the city’s final ward.