Cold Flowing Fire

The forest was burning, Hell was oozing magma, the Sea of Knowledge was boiling, and the Flowing Gold River was running dry... The fortress garden, constructed with Burdette's limitless wealth, had turned into a display of fireworks that was anything but dazzling. Leaning against the railing of the front courtyard garden, Evalin looked down upon the confrontation below. The moment Qinna seized Annan, Evalin's contract with the Funeral Agency had been completely broken—she had promised shelter, not protection. Funeral no longer needed to scrape together six thousand Bei points, but she also bore no further responsibility toward them. It was an immensely profitable transaction: five Sanctuary Sorcerers and sixty-three elite sorcerers had seeds of domination quietly planted within them, while all she had sacrificed was property worth over a hundred million, along with a few newly made friends. In truth, she quite liked them. Banjie was an ageless youth, mature and steady beneath his youthful exterior, and he possessed azure hair just like Evalin's; staying around him gave a feeling of familiar warmth. Lisi was just as pretty as Evalin had been as a child, with white hair as supple as silk and cheeks as tender as a peeled egg, so adorable one couldn't help wanting to nibble on them. Though Harvey had a bizarre personality and dark skin, he carried an aura of destruction like a vortex, as if he would drag everything around him into madness; she had truly wanted to watch his ending up close. And Yaxiu... whenever she thought of him, Evalin couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from curving upward. It was hard to sum him up with just a few labels; all she knew was that being around him was entertaining. If Harvey was a vortex of destruction, then Yaxiu was the exact opposite—she had no idea how the two of them could even get along... If possible, Evalin truly would have loved to keep him. And then, there was Annan. They had been sisters who bared their hearts at night, bosom friends sharing innermost feelings, and even romantic rivals who had fought over jealousy... In Evalin's bland, ordinary life, the adventure she had shared with Annan was one of the few bright spots. "I'm going to lose my friends," Evalin murmured, giving a shrug. She gazed at the standoff in the distance, not a single ripple in her heart. When you govern the wills of tens of millions, you are no longer shaken by the joys and sorrows of a single person. Burdette dominates all; Burdette has nothing. ... Miracle: Severing Self! Yaxiu's phantom flickered and shattered; the miracle Severing Self had successfully activated, yet he still lay limp on the lawn, unable to twitch even a fingertip. Even though he had managed with great difficulty to force out Severing Self through sorcery spirit resonance, his disrupted sorcery power, blocked nerves, and suppressed senses showed not the slightest improvement. It wasn't that the miracle was inadequate; it was Yaxiu who was lacking. It wasn't as if a Sanctuary miracle inherently crushed a Gold Sorcerer; had Yaxiu possessed enough information about this binding miracle, he could have purified it using Severing Self all the same. The essence of the Severing Self miracle was to sever foreign matter that did not belong to one's own body. In most situations, it was extremely practical because foreign matter was usually visible to the naked eye or directly perceptible. This time was different. Qinna's bullets were ferocious and insidious, and Yaxiu had no idea what was suppressing him. Naturally, the Severing Self miracle drew its sword and looked around in utter bewilderment, settling for clipping a bit of Yaxiu's fingernails just to go through the motions. If Severing Self could incorporate other sorcery spirits capable of inspecting body and soul, its purification potency would reach another level... Yaxiu suddenly realized how Severing Self could be improved, but at this moment, the insight was entirely useless. Bang! A Sanctuary barrier rippled around Qinna, blocking a frost bullet. Looking rather surprised at the young butler rising to his feet covered in frost and snow, she said uncertainly, "To break through the suppression of my Soul-Locking Bullets... could it be the miracle 'Frozen Age'?" "As expected of Lady Qinna, recognizing the 'Frozen Age' miracle with a single glance." The young butler nodded as frost and snow sloughed off his body. "However, it's slightly different from the original version. 'Frozen Age' normally consumes soul lifespan to lock the body's time, thereby generating frost sorcery power. But my soul cannot afford any more waste, and as luck would have it, my body happens to be in this state, so I modified it slightly..." "...Now, this miracle should be called 'Melting.'" As the frost and snow melted away inch by inch, Banjie's voice shifted from that of a crisp, boyish youth to a deep, resonant young man's timbre. A tall, handsome, blue-haired butler appeared before everyone, holding the Twin Frostcurse Guns in his hands, aimed straight at his former master. "While melting, I possess the combat strength of a Sanctuary Sorcerer," Banjie said. "Madam, please release the young miss." "Growing up on the outside made you cocky on the inside too?" Qinna chuckled. "Someone who has never even set foot in the Distant Sky Realm doesn't have the faintest idea what a Sanctuary truly is... Still, in all the years I've known you, Banjie, this is the first time I've seen you show such spine. I'll give you a chance, then." "If you can snatch Annan from my hands, I'll let you all go." Bang! Bang! Bang! Frost bloomed across the sky as bullets dragged rivers of ice behind them, sweeping toward the matriarch like a vortex. Qinna held Annan by the scruff of her neck like a kitten. Even carrying another person as she shifted and dodged, she moved with effortless grace, casually dispersing Banjie's attacks. Bullets flew wild and miracles spilled across the clearing. Yaxiu, stranded on the edge of the battlefield, was nearly caught in the fierce clash of a Gold Sorcerer defying a Sanctuary Sorcerer. But then he realized someone was dragging him backward. Even if he couldn't see behind him, who else could it be with those tiny hands and the huffing, puffing sounds of exertion? Yaxiu focused his mind, channeling all his attention into his mouth. Severing Self! Severing Self! Severing Self! After three consecutive activations of Severing Self, Yaxiu finally loosened the restriction on his tongue and throat just a fraction. In a breath as faint as gossamer, he said, "Go, run..." "Mm!" Lisi nodded vigorously. "Lisi will get Daddy away real quick!" "You go..." "I am going! Don't rush me, Daddy!" "Put me down..." Yaxiu whispered. "Then run over to the manor house and get Evalin to shelter you... You haven't appeared in the Weaving Ceremony yet. As long as you aren't around, nobody will come after you..." "Evalin is a bad woman! How could I go to her?!" "Evalin... Annan said... isn't bad at heart. At least, without any conflict of interest, she definitely wouldn't mind looking after you... You're so cute..." Lisi sniffled. "If Lisi is so cute, how could you bear to leave Lisi behind?" "We'll... pretend to be caught by Qinna first... and then come back to get you soon..." "Then Lisi will get caught too!" "What if? I saw members from other families, and Red Hats... What if we're forced apart? I don't want to be sitting in some strange cell, worrying whether you're kicking off the covers tonight..." "I won't..." Lisi dragged Yaxiu with all her might toward deeper cover. "...separate from Daddy!" "When I first met you, you were much smarter than this... and much more decisive." There seemed to be a trace of a smile in Yaxiu's voice. "The very first night we met, you ran over to tell me... you wanted us to be father and daughter in name only." "It's all Daddy's fault!" Lisi wiped snot and tears from her face. "Spending time around you made Lisi dumb!" "Is that so... Well, nothing to be done about that then." Yaxiu gave a soft sigh. "Put me down." "I won't—" "I mean, there's no need to run anymore... We can't get away." A phantom shadow suddenly materialized and scooped up the necromancer. A drifting, mocking laugh rang across the field. "And here I thought I'd return empty-handed! To think Sennheiser would be so considerate as to leave prey behind for us. In that case, Mercury accepts this kindness—" "You dare?!" Although Qinna and Banjie instantly redirected their fire, the shadow was astonishingly fast. Gripping Harvey, it swooped above Yaxiu in the blink of an eye. At that moment, Lisi decisively shielded Yaxiu, her petite back standing resolute as a fortress. Yet Yaxiu wasn't looking at Lisi right now. Instead, his eyes met those of the necromancer dangling from the Mercury sorcerer's grip. For some reason, the cult leader suddenly recalled a scene from the Family Leaderboard. His lips twitched slightly, murmuring in a barely audible voice: "Harvey, save me." Clang! Seven chains suddenly burst from the long-ignored coffin, latching onto the shadow before he could react and dragging him inside! At the same moment, a figure leaped out of the coffin and snatched the necromancer from the shadow's grasp! The shadow was a Sanctuary Sorcerer after all; he broke free of the chains midair, revealing a young man in pitch-black robes who stared at Harvey in shock and bewilderment. Harvey, held in Alice's embrace, had already turned into a cloud of mist. It enveloped the finery-clad girl like a suit of armor until the two merged into one, life and death fused together! Whoosh! A flicker of eerie green flame ignited the mist around Alice, turning him into a blazing torch. Yet the fire did not harm Alice in the slightest; instead, the surrounding lawn rapidly withered and decayed! "Building good relations really does pay off," Alice suddenly turned back to look at Yaxiu, Harvey's voice coming from the mouth. "See, Lisi only saved you." Yaxiu's eyes widened, and Lisi stared in dumbfounded shock. "You... Uncle Harvey..." "As expected of a fanatic capable of inheriting an angel's legacy..." the Mercury youth remarked. "A necromantic miracle created from a mist spirit? How perverse, how sinister—to actually fuse the living and a corpse into one!" No sooner had the words left his mouth than he transformed back into a shadow and lunged forward, clearly intending to capture the necromancer in a single strike! Alice-Harvey offered a stiff smile. "Though this body is cold flowing fire, it still longs for the day it burns away." Boom! As clamorous ghostly flames burst forth from within the body, vast sorcery power burned away all life in the vicinity. The boundary formed by the necromancer centered on the coffin actually blocked the Sanctuary Sorcerer's blow head-on! "Tonight is a good night for dying," Harvey said. "Perhaps it's finally my turn."