That move ignored the flesh and struck the spirit, like wind cutting through reeds; Vampires heal like weeds after rain, but their minds aren’t sturdy stone.
Besides, Qingyu Mengyin had used a killing move, sharp as a winter blade under moonlight.
“Should we chase?” Dreamsound turned, rain beads sliding like silver fish.
Qing Feng Yuelian shook her head, calm as a still pond. “No. That thing’s still useful to me. Leave it to me.”
“Fine…” Qingyu Mengyin sighed, the sound thin as mist.
Edgar fled Starfate City as blood mist, like a storm cloud breaking its banks; he moved so fast even Qingyu Mengyin couldn’t catch him.
“Good… good thing I planned ahead, or I wouldn’t even know how I died. Cough, cough…”
He clutched an unbroken chest like shielding a cracked jar, coughing blood in scarlet threads; unmarked outside, yet he looked like a candle guttering in wind.
Soul and flesh are a pair of mirrors, facing each other; the body weighs more, because it shapes the soul’s memory and face. Brains can hoard memories like granaries; souls begin blank as fresh snow, learning only through flesh’s whispered lessons.
When the soul is wounded, the body wilts in sympathy; a body without a soul is an empty shell, but when the soul is torn, the body burns its stored fuel like oil to warm it.
Edgar was exactly that—his soul ripped like silk, so his flesh began tearing itself apart, a house cannibalizing its beams.
“There’s still time… if I run fast enough, if I reach that place, I can leave this cursed pit! Cough… Devils—these things aren’t even living! This isn’t… something I can fight!”
For the first time, helplessness pooled in him like black water. A single thought from her almost killed him, without a ripple of warning. It wasn’t the same world as before; even facing Kerlinveil Xuewei, he’d never felt this kind of bone-deep cold. He knew he couldn’t beat that woman, sure, but he could still run.
Monsters like this… even if he broke through, could he beat her? If not, what was the point of clawing after Vinoena Qianya till his nails bled?
His future went foggy, like a path swallowed by night rain.
In the old palace, his parents looked down on him like winter on a withered branch; he was the weakest of their line. He’d been stuck at the ninth rank for decades, and when the road ended, he drowned himself in wine and lantern light until trouble blew up and his father sealed him away.
Unwilling… I refuse to bow! Edgar howled inside like a caged wolf.
“I will live. I’ll make those old men who sneered at me see—Edgar Warren outlasted you all! I’ll revive this race that’s teetering like a dying fire!”
“I need to return to the Duskmoon Empire. There… there I can rise again from cold ashes. Wait for me. One day, I’ll repay all this blood and frost! Blue-haired demon, I’ll remember you!”
He shot one hateful look toward Starfate City, then left, a hand over his chest like pressing down a storm.
“Now that the main mess is handled, shouldn’t we deal with the aftermath?” Qingyu Mengyin glanced around, rain drumming like fingers on a drumhead.
“Do as you like…” Qing Feng Yuelian shook her head, indifferent as drifting snow.
“Wait, Shengsheng’s awake!”
Dreamsound rushed to Qing Feng Yuelian, urgency sharp as sleet; a curtain of water rose around them, parting the rain like a beaded veil.
At that moment, Qing Feng Yuelian was still holding Tangxue.
So when Tangxue opened her eyes, the first face she saw was Qing Feng Yuelian’s—cold as a pale moon.
Tangxue didn’t hide the disgust in her gaze; it cut like frost. “So this was all a show you staged for me?”
“I did it.” Dreamsound was about to speak, but Qing Feng Yuelian admitted it without blinking, voice flat as a knife edge.
“And you knew from the beginning, didn’t you?”
“Know what? Know you lured the person I’m closest to into a killing field?” Tangxue let out a bitter laugh; the sparkle in her eyes dimmed like lamps in rain, and even joking felt far away.
“Why… do this to me… I was trying to accept you…” Her head lowered, her voice heavy, threaded with the wet shine of tears. “I just want the people around me safe… I just want a quiet life with everyone. Why… do you always have to hurt the ones I love!”
Qing Feng Yuelian said nothing; she turned her face aside like closing a window. Dragging Linyue Yao into this had been an accident—she hadn’t known how much that name was a heartbeat to her niece’s child.
She could have stopped Linyue Yao from being hurt so badly. She didn’t.
She only wanted Qingsheng Tangxue to see winter’s teeth—to feel that without power, you can only watch the important be hurt by me. Nothing more.
Even if she had to be the villain, so be it; if it was her, there was still a path back across the ice.
Guilt pricked Dreamsound like cold needles; she stepped in and took Tangxue’s small body into her arms, rubbing her cheek against that soft hair like seeking warmth.
“Let go of me!”
The blast slammed Dreamsound back several meters like a wave tossing driftwood, and Tangxue dropped to the ground.
Her backside nearly split in four from the impact; pain stung like nettles, and tears almost broke free.
‘It hurts… why am I doing this to myself…’
Tangxue scrubbed her eyes with the back of her left hand, voice cold as hoarfrost. “I said it. No matter what, I won’t let you go!”
Tangxue’s death-stare lifted to Qing Feng Yuelian for the first time; her little fangs clicked together, sharp with anger.
Her golden eyes shifted to a pale blue, like ice catching dawn.
The silent Frostwhisper finally answered her call.
Beside Qing Feng Yuelian and Qingyu Mengyin, a white-haired side-ponytail girl in a pink short dress, their height’s equal, appeared like a snowflake manifesting; fury burned on her face.
“I held it down for over ten years, and you ruined it in an instant. Amazing, really. Heh… Handle your own mess! I’m done doing this!”
Frostwhisper ground her teeth, shot them a vicious glare like a knife of ice, and vanished where she stood.
At Tangxue’s side, a slender sword condensed from cold air they knew too well. Aside from the hilt, it wore only two colors: the blue of ice that means strength and eternity, and the white of frost and snow that means solitude.
Above Starfate City, the pounding rain fell silent like a drum gone mute; white snow began to drift, and after the storm, winter walked in on quiet feet.
