"I... can't beat her," Dawn Sugar Snow said, voice flat as winter light.

"The two of us can win," Qianya smiled, calm as a crescent moon.

"...Fine. Since you've publicly challenged that jerk, Qianya, I'll do my best to back you," she said, steady as a stone in a river.

"Thanks, Tangxue!" Qianya chirped, bright as a bell.

With a public challenge, Heng Zi had no right to refuse; if she did, she'd lose years of clout and turf, and drown in shame like a stone in a lake.

After the challenge, Heng Zi immediately summoned her younger sister, eager to shred that bastard on the spot like a storm tearing paper.

I don't know where your confidence comes from... daring to mess with me, her mind hissed like wind through thorns.

Heng Zi leaned on her long bench with a quiet sigh, then tossed the tissue into the nearby hearth, fire licking like foxfire.

"So slow, Heng Lan," she muttered, voice cold as pond ice.

By afternoon, nearly every student drifted to the combat grounds like a tide. The famed Heng Zi sisters of Heavenly Deity Academy would face the mysterious girl duo, a once-in-a-century clash blooming like thunderheads.

They could only watch from the stands, distant as stars. If Heng Zi and Dawn Sugar Snow traded blows, the arena would quake like an old mountain; watching up close was moths to flame.

"Didn't think you'd actually show. You don't think Dawn Sugar Snow can keep you alive against me, do you? Heh..." Heng Zi sneered, blade on stone.

"You talk too much, junior Heng Zi. I don't think you can beat us," Qianya said, standing on the empty wasteland, smoothing her clothes like stilling ripples. Dawn Sugar Snow stood silent at her side, a frost-shadow guarding against a sudden strike; stepping here meant the duel had begun like dawn cresting a ridge.

Heng Zi planted her hands on her hips, face calm as stone, eyes heavy with scorn like storm-dark clouds.

"We meet again, you two... Heh. With my sister here, no savior will shield you," came the taunt, smoke curling from smug lips.

"Mm, sure," Qianya murmured, thoughtful as rain on eaves.

"How about you back out now? You're not exactly crucial... If you mess up your sister's performance and she uses you as an excuse to deny the result, that'll be a headache," she said, leaves-soft and thorn-sharp.

"...Heng Lan, calm down," came the cool command, a hand on still water.

"Yes, Sis." Heng Lan, ready to charge like a kicked hornet, stilled at her sister's voice, then glared at Qianya from afar like a wolf in brush.

Qianya ignored Heng Lan's murderous stare like a stone ignores rain. "The moment we stepped up, the duel began. You won't strike? Then I'll move first," she said, crisp as snapping ice.

Qianya's gaze tightened, and she surged forward against her usual calm like a river breaking a dam. Ice-blue sparks flickered on her body, and in the next heartbeat she vanished from the field like mist.

All three, even Dawn Sugar Snow, were startled like birds from reeds. The weakest among them burst with power like a winter stream in flood—still shy of Dawn Sugar Snow and Heng Zi, but far beyond Heng Lan, like peak to foothill.

"Heng Lan! Get over here!" Heng Zi's shout cracked like thunder.

Heng Zi reacted in a flash, yanking her dazed sister to her side like a hawk snatching a chick. She dropped to one knee, palm to earth, layering elemental shields like panes of colored glass. A blood-red ice spike slammed the barrier a heartbeat later, and the air shivered like a drumskin.

"You...!" Heng Zi ground her teeth, eyes tracking Qianya's swift blur like a falcon on a swallow. She didn't know what trick let the girl rival her, and she refused to believe someone could remake themselves in days like spring from frost.

Did Dawn Sugar Snow lend her power by some special method? If so, I can't use my Authority to convert calamity... damn it! The thought flashed like lightning over dark water.

"Heng Lan, fall back," she said, steady as a stone gate.

"Sis...?!" The shock fluttered like a sparrow.

"I'll handle both of them myself," she said, iron bright as a drawn blade.

"Did I... hold you back?" Heng Lan sank to her knees, eyes pleading like rain-clouded glass.

"I don't want you hurt..." Heng Zi looked at her sister, expression tangled like roots.

"Against Dawn Sugar Snow, I have to be serious," she said, breath cooling like a night wind.

"I understand." Heng Lan nodded lightly, acceptance settling like dust; she had come mostly to make up the numbers.

Heng Lan's figure slipped through the ward like a leaf through water. Then Heng Zi dismissed the barrier, the air clearing like lifted fog.

"Whatever you are, come," she called, stance braced like a cliff.

Multicolored elements flickered over Heng Zi. A patchwork war-armor sheathed her: a wicked dragon's horn, a wind-tiger's claws, a black bear's hide. She looked like a fierce oni striding from storm and stone.

Rumor said she'd forged it from elemental lives she'd conquered, fused into one carapace. It shrugged off elemental harm like rain off rock; only raw impact could break her, hammer to anvil.

Dawn Sugar Snow rushed Heng Zi, snow meeting stone after years of knowing each other's storms. Heng Zi swung a jagged rock-blade; it met Dawn's ice-knife with a ringing crack. Both weapons fissured, and with a shrill whine the space between them buckled like a collapsing cave.

Dawn Sugar Snow closed her eyes, and a breath of cold stitched the torn space like frost weaving spider silk. The arena's temperature plunged; the gray-yellow ground glazed with thick rime like a frozen river.

Armor of an oni creaking, Heng Zi stood on the ice and jeered. "That trick won't work on me. Aren't you afraid you'll hurt your little friend?" Her words fell like sleet.

"Or has she already fled the field?" she asked, smile thin as a knife.

"She's been here all along..." Dawn Sugar Snow said, expression tangled as reeds. "Behind you."

?!

Crimson Oath—Red King's Inscribed Spear.

Heng Zi turned, her right hand warping into prismatic color like oil on water. She seized the red spear lunging for her, grip iron as a vice. Dawn Sugar Snow struck at her flank, but countless prismatic shields bloomed around Heng Zi like faceted crystals, catching the blow like mirrors catching light.

Facing both attacks, Heng Zi didn't waver, even pressing back like a tide against two rivers.

"You think this level can defeat me? Don't be naive!" Her roar rolled like thunder across a plain.

Oni power erupted. Iridescent divine magic shattered their offense like a hammer through glass. Dawn Sugar Snow flashed to Qianya's side in an instant, shielding her like a wing of ice.

"Sorry, Qianya... if we keep this up, you'll burn out first," she said, worry settling like dusk.

"You think I'll lose?" Qianya blinked at her, playful as moonlight on water.

Reluctant but honest, Dawn Sugar Snow nodded, a small motion like a snowflake falling.

"Hah... I don't think I'll lose," Qianya said, eyes closing with a light smile like dawn behind clouds, then rose from Dawn Sugar Snow's arms like a willow straightening.

"This isn't only your dream," she said, words soft as mist.

"I am also a master here," her voice rang like a temple bell.

"Yueyu... watch closely. I'll win for you to see, even if it's just me alone!" Her vow burned like a lantern in rain.

"You... already know?" Dawn Sugar Snow stared at Qianya's fading silhouette in disbelief, vanishing before her eyes like a ripple swallowed by a lake.

This wasn't Rain Moon Willow's dream alone. Since they paid tuition at Heavenly Deity Academy, they were part of the dream like threads in one tapestry. But Qianya was different; she still had a body like a root in soil. That sky-blue lake was likely Rain Moon Willow's spiritual source—draw near and you're a raindrop to the sea; merge, and you dissolve like salt in water.

"Yueyu, when I woke, I made a dangerous choice," she said, voice low as midnight surf.

"I dove into that sky-blue lake without hesitation. I almost forgot who I was, but I surfaced as myself, because I was sure that vast memory couldn't swallow me," her words steady as an oar through water.

"I'll prove it to you. Even a mayfly that shakes a tree has its reason to exist!" Her defiance rose like a spark on the wind.