“You bastard!!”

The Zone Fifteen Guardian’s eyes held a trace of anger.

She remembered everything Zone Fifteen had suffered. She realized that the Guardian of the Seventh District and Azure were cut from the same cloth.

Both were willing to sacrifice everything for their own selfish gain. Yet those very people possessed overwhelming strength.

She was about to explode, but Crimson stopped her.

Crimson looked at Night Frost. This was something Night Frost was better suited to handle.

“How about we make a bet?”

“What kind of bet?”

The Guardian of the Seventh District looked at Night Frost. A trace of unease stirred in her heart.

She didn’t want to make a bet. No matter how she looked at it, the advantage was on their side.

If she joined forces with Azure, they had a very high chance of taking the three of them down.

Yet Azure stepped forward and asked Night Frost for the details.

She seemed inclined to accept the wager. Perhaps she didn’t want to fight here. Or perhaps she wasn’t completely confident.

“It’s simple. Three days from now, we’ll fight outside the Fourth District.”

“The winner gets the right to execute the loser. As for the format, it’ll be a free-for-all. How does that sound?”

“Of course, we’ll decide the outcome ourselves. No one else gets dragged into this.”

“No, no, no! We can’t accept!”

“They’re definitely plotting something! Once we fully unlock our powers, Azure only needs to accept the god’s power.”

“Two beings in the Ultimate Realm will be more than enough to tear through those three Chapter Three opponents!”

“Besides, I’ve already sent my army to various regions. We have plenty of leverage in our hands…”

The Guardian of the Seventh District tried to dissuade them.

But when her gaze swept over Night Frost and Crimson, a trace of wariness rose within her.

She suddenly felt that Azure had a point. Perhaps they really should consider the wager.

Crimson had already touched the Ultimate Realm.

If they pushed her into a corner, her abundant combat experience would make her dangerous. Once she ascended to the Ultimate Realm, she would probably take one of them down with her.

As for Night Frost…

She also had the power to kill them.

They needed to prepare.

It was only a wager. What would accepting it hurt?

For Azure and the Guardian of Zone Fifteen, it was hardly a serious matter.

“We accept your terms. I hope you won’t lose too miserably in three days.”

Azure looked at the three of them with cold indifference.

Three days had given her immense confidence. Enough confidence to disregard Night Frost and the others entirely.

“Then I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Night Frost inclined her head slightly and watched Azure leave.

The Guardian of the Seventh District clicked her tongue and followed behind Azure.

A trace of helplessness filled Crimson’s eyes.

She faced Night Frost and thanked her.

“Thank you for being willing to go crazy with me.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I have my own reasons.”

“Besides, we once faced the same enemy. That makes us comrades-in-arms.”

“Now we’re still facing the same enemy. We’re standing on the same side. Why wouldn’t I help you?”

Night Frost could tell that Crimson was a good person.

She was willing to trust the companions around her and entrust them with everything she had, without holding anything back.

People like that were often the most trustworthy.

“Azure wasn’t like this in the past.”

“She used to have a sharp tongue but a soft heart. She was cold, yet she could still make people feel warm.”

“But now, all I can sense in her eyes is madness.”

“I don’t know when it began, but she became so obsessed with power. She stepped onto a road of no return.”

The three of them walked back while Crimson told them about Azure.

She spoke of how they had met, come to know one another, and eventually worked together.

Then she described how their team had finally disbanded.

“Perhaps this is my failure as a captain.”

What kind of person could become so deranged that she would kill former teammates who had shared the same squad?

They had held no grudges against one another.

In Crimson’s eyes, Azure had simply gone mad. For the sake of power, she had abandoned everything.

Night Frost remembered her previous battle with Azure.

When she had shattered that brownish-yellow Magic Stone, a phantom filled with hatred toward Azure had appeared above it.

That was probably Mane-Yellow’s resentment.

Even though Mane-Yellow was already dead, and the Magic Stone was merely a copy of Mane-Yellow’s original, that hatred still refused to fade.

“I’ll bring her back.”

“And if you can’t?”

The Zone Fifteen Guardian suddenly added that question.

Night Frost looked at her, and a trace of approval flashed through her eyes.

Both of them held a grudge against Azure. Naturally, they didn’t want Crimson to bring Azure back.

Azure had committed so many evil deeds. She ought to repay them with her life.

“Then I’ll leave her to you.”

“I won’t stop you.”

Crimson sighed.

Over the past two days, she had heard about Night Frost and the Zone Fifteen Guardian’s pasts.

She hadn’t expected Azure to have committed so many wrongs.

Night Frost and the Zone Fifteen Guardian now wished for nothing more than to kill Azure.

“Let’s use these three days to prepare properly. We’ll follow the previous plan?”

On the day she found Crimson, Night Frost had proposed this wager to Crimson and the others.

At first, both the Zone Fifteen Guardian and Crimson had opposed it.

But when the Guardian of the Seventh District revealed that she had sent some of her followers to attack other districts, Crimson accepted Night Frost’s proposal.

The Zone Fifteen Guardian intended to seize every district through brute force.

But this was ultimately a battle between Magic Maidens. Dragging civilians into it would be wrong.

This wager eliminated the possibility of involving the people.

Once everything was prepared, they had only one goal left.

Victory.

“I’ll set up the Formation. Guardian of Zone Fifteen, find the neutral Guardians. Crimson, get ready.”

Crimson didn’t need much reminding. She was the captain, after all. She could arrange her own preparations.

Night Frost returned to the shelter.

The shelter was empty at this moment.

Moon Owl and the Guardian of the Third District had taken Qian Qingqing and the others to the Twelfth District.

Before leaving, the owner of Qian Corporation had left Night Frost a grand gift.

It was that enormous Magic Tool.

Night Frost didn’t even dare imagine how powerful it would be when running at full capacity.

Over the next three days, Night Frost would turn it into her trump card.

After making several trips and completely emptying the Qian Corporation owner’s shelter, Night Frost returned to the Qian Corporation building.

By then, she had gathered enough resources.

She took out her father’s notebook.

Over these three days, she would reproduce the most destructive of the three large Formations he had recorded inside.

The Magic Tool would serve as the Formation’s foundation.

“A Magic Tool that consumes tens of thousands of Magic Stones for a single activation…”

“That’s truly extravagant.”

Night Frost was dying of envy.

Qian Corporation really was rich. No wonder it was the largest enterprise in the Fourth District.

She gently placed her palm against the Magic Tool buried deep beneath the ground.

“Let’s get to work.”

……

Azure moved quickly and headed straight for the Order Keeper’s tower.

She knew that three days was far too short. That was precisely why she didn’t want to waste even a trace of time.

“Why come to the tower?”

“If you think we’re not strong enough, we can recruit other Magic Maidens.”

The Guardian of the Seventh District’s suggestion wasn’t wrong.

Recruiting other Guardians would greatly strengthen their side.

Night Frost hadn’t established any rules. That meant outnumbering the enemy was implicitly allowed.

But Azure felt that recruited allies might not sincerely be willing to fight for her.

The Guardian of the Seventh District was a perfect example.

She might be worried about Azure now, but once she obtained a second portion of divine power, she would turn against her.

Then she would use every method available to target Azure.

Although they were walking the same path now, sooner or later, they would become obstacles on each other’s roads.

“I’ll show you another secret, Seven.”

Azure stood before the Order Keeper’s tower.

She entered an extremely long password, then pressed her thumb against the fingerprint lock.

A palm-sized square panel rose from the tower’s originally smooth, seamless wall.

Azure leaned forward and placed her eye before the scanner embedded inside.

“It even has an iris scanner?”

A complicated emotion flashed through the Guardian of the Seventh District’s eyes.

She had discovered that even after becoming president, she still couldn’t control everything in the world.

For example, Azure had just opened a hidden passage beneath the Order Keeper’s tower right in front of her.

She had known nothing about it.

No. The previous two presidents probably hadn’t known, either.

Once the passage had fully opened, Azure jumped straight down.

The Guardian of the Seventh District hesitated for a moment before following.

The two landed lightly on the metal floor at the very bottom.

Azure’s boots stepped firmly onto the metal plating, producing a crisp echo that reverberated through the dim passage.

Her gaze was sharp, as if it could pierce the layers of mist ahead and reach the unknown depths beyond.

“I won’t hide this from you.”

“I worked with the Sixth District to create the ultimate weapon.”

“Although it’s called an ultimate weapon, it’s far inferior to a true Ultimate.”

“At best, it’s the ceiling of Chapter Three.”

“A weapon?”

“That’s right. A weapon.”

“It has some flaws, and it’s far weaker than it was in life. But dealing with those three will still be more than easy.”

As Azure explained, she opened the final heavy metal door.

The door slowly swung open.

A fierce, icy wind swept out, carrying an ancient and profound aura.

A vast underground space appeared before them.

At its center stood a huge hall covered in runes.

Countless precise gears and levers turned silently in the darkness.

They released a deep, powerful rumble, like the heartbeat of the world.

If Illusory Glass were here, she would have found the mechanical hall similar to her Time Temple.

Yet the two were fundamentally different.

Through her senses, the Guardian of the Seventh District discovered that the pool below was packed with Magic Stones.

They were being used to power the mechanical hall.

Of course, that wasn’t what shocked her most.

Azure tapped her fingers against the instrument.

The gear at the very center of the hall began to turn.

The ten smaller gears surrounding the central gear turned with it.

Finally, the roar of the large and small gears gradually faded.

Their rotation came to a stop.

In that quiet instant, both women’s gazes were drawn to the center.

A massive pillar stood there in silence.

No…

It wasn’t an ordinary pillar.

It wasn’t even a pillar at all.

It was a gigantic cultivation chamber.

The chamber was filled with a translucent liquid. Under the faint lights, the liquid shimmered with a ghostly radiance.

Through that translucent fluid, the Guardian of the Seventh District felt her entire worldview shatter.

Her eyes, never truly calm to begin with, filled with shock in an instant—

Lying inside the cultivation chamber was no stray cat or dog.

It was the Calamity Dragon that Crimson and the six Order Keepers had slain back then!!