I feel like a storm cloud under my ribs… is that thing’s aura staining me?

Tangxue frowned, her fists clenching like frost on a blade, itching to rip the seal open and drag the beast up for a beating.

Yo… you there, old fossil? Where’s the seal—point me to it like a star in fog.

Hold on a second! Hualuo Jingqing’s voice rushed in like wind through tight pines.

Fine…

How do you lose your own seal, your own root knot buried in your soil?

She was about to hang up when Hualuo Jingqing’s call snapped back like a struck string.

Found it! Tangxue, that glowing point at your lower right, like a lone firefly!

On it!

Tangxue didn’t think twice. She gripped her ice blade and dove, a white falcon dropping from cloud.

She fell like a thousand mountains, and the ice blade flashed like lightning, cleaving a cliff.

The range, kilometers wide, split like a cracked glacier and bared the wavering seal below.

Hey, hey… any harder and that seal would’ve popped like an eggshell, right?!

Not that bad…? Tangxue’s voice wavered like reeds in wind, though she felt the seal shudder.

Anyway, we just need to shore up the seal, like bracing a river dam, right?

Careful! It’s ramming the seal like a black tide!

Too late.

The serpent-shaped unknown surged up and slammed its vast body into the seal, a hammer on a glass web.

Already loose, the seal took hit after hit, and its last strands snapped like brittle ice.

Damn it! I didn’t want to break the riverbank like this!

Jabbed a few times, Tangxue bristled like a cat in frost, then planted her hand on the shattered ground.

If the old seal’s broken, she’ll forge a new one, hammering winter into place.

Wait, this aura…? Hualuo Jingqing felt the air go wintry, like breath fogging under a pale moon.

Don’t tell me you’re about to drag winter down!

Huh?

Too late. Tangxue’s magic surged, and the earth icebound like dawn glaze on a lake.

Her Icebound wasn’t the old craft. Since her miracle awakened, her cold matched the high sky’s frozen crown.

This ice was indestructible, like the firmament’s own frost, unbreaking under storm or flame.

It’s over… Hualuo Jingqing’s heart turned cold, like shade under ancient boughs. The Elf Clan might have to move its capital.

ROAR!!!

The black thing below let out a final bellow, and rammed Qingsheng Tangxue’s ice wall like a comet.

It had no flesh. It couldn’t pierce her ice. The blow didn’t even stir a flake.

Phew, that should do it, right? Tangxue wiped her sweat, a small smile soft as moon on snow.

Maybe for you, it’s over. Hualuo Jingqing smiled wryly, staring at miles of ice like a frozen sea.

What am I supposed to do with all this white silence?

Then I’ll leave the rest to you, Senior Hualuo Jingqing. I… want to rest a little.

Qingsheng Tangxue forced a smile, then almost blacked out like a candle in wind.

Yeah… you’re at your limit too. Leave the rest to me, Hualuo Jingqing sighed, the sound like a bent branch.

She swept her gaze over the Elf Clan’s wreckage, a mountain’s weight pressing like slate on her skull.

She wouldn’t sleep for days, like a sentry in winter rain.

Flora Eina tended the newly awakened Daiya. Both looked spent, like flowers after hail.

The Beastkin had heavy casualties, and many elves got caught in the blast like leaves in a gale.

Two extinction-level disasters struck in one day, and both clans were drained to ash.

No one could be mobilized soon; rebuilding the capital and follow-up fell on her shoulders alone.

Hualuo Jingqing reached out to the World Tree, roots to roots.

Thankfully, it wasn’t frozen by Tangxue, and it answered like sap rising at spring.

With its power, rebuilding a city was easy, like weaving a nest with green threads.

But…

Hualuo Jingqing looked at the icebound earth and shivered, as if winter had fingers.

The ice layer shouldn’t spread, right? If it spreads, this world ends early, like dusk at noon.

Without the World Tree’s ward, the outer frost would double its spread, a tide of white eating land.

By her count, three days would be enough to freeze the whole world like a sealed jar.

Forget it… if the World Tree freezes, nowhere will matter. We rebuild here, under its crown.

Hualuo Jingqing sighed and let it go, then set the Forest Capital’s rebuilding in motion like dawn light.

With the help of countless vines and leaves, she rebuilt the city in an hour, green surging like a tide.

She even mended the zones torn by the disaster drawn by two gods’ clash, stitching earth like cloth.

The World Tree’s offshoots can become pocket worlds of their own; fixing scars was a flick of a leaf.

But she was tired, bones aching like roots in frost.

At night, Hualuo Jingqing lay atop the giant tree, back on leaves, moonlight like spilled milk.

After a day’s labor she felt wrung out, like a bow left strung too long.

Rebuild the city. Soothe her kin. Teach Flora Eina. Handle ties with the Beastkin—waves on waves.

There was luck in the ruin. Their alliance with the Beastkin didn’t break; they bound it tighter, like rope wet and knotted.

Daiya, priestess of the Beastkin, seemed to have figured things out like a mist lifting.

She no longer tangled over the God of Heart Realm; she poured herself into her people like rain into fields.

It was only one afternoon, but Hualuo Jingqing could feel Daiya’s change, clear as a new breeze.

Good evening, Senior Hualuo Jingqing.

Qingsheng Tangxue sat beside her, smiling like a lantern under leaves.

Mm? Awake, you little brat…

Yeah. I woke this afternoon and watched you work till dusk, like an ant on a log.

Why aren’t you calling me old fossil anymore?

That’s too rude. And… Tangxue lowered her head, gloom like a cloud, then turned back with a spring-bright smile. I want to leave a good impression on you.

You… Hualuo Jingqing froze at that smile, like a deer in moonlight. You’re leaving?

Pretty much. I’ve got big fires to put out. That cult wants to destroy the world.

How could I just watch the river break its banks… Tangxue’s eyes flashed with hate, then smoothed like a lake.

By the way, Senior Hualuo Jingqing, the ice layer I left won’t spread.

Don’t worry. It isn’t absolute zero, just a cold as deep as a winter well.

Next I’ll hunt the Flower of the Other Shore, until they vanish like smoke over snow.

Then I’ll find a way to fix the frost outside the world, the white rind on the sky.

I’ll do it. I’ll save this world. Please believe me, like you’d trust dawn to come.

Why tell me this… Tangxue, you don’t owe me anything. Hualuo Jingqing’s voice tasted bitter, like tea gone cold.

In truth, she didn’t want Tangxue to harden into this winter. In time, she’d seen her as a child of her boughs.

Ahaha, does my attitude make you uneasy, Senior? Sorry, I let my real feelings slip, like a petal in wind.

It’s fine… Hualuo Jingqing feigned ease, her heart a thicket of briars.

She’d long noticed Tangxue treated others like she’d wronged everyone, walking as if in snow.

I’m leaving tomorrow, Senior Hualuo Jingqing.

So soon?! Can’t you stay a few days, keep us company like fire by the hearth?

That’s… hard. In a few days, who knows if the world won’t crack like thin ice.

Before the world ends, I still have something I must do. At least tell my mom, right?