"Boom! Boom, boom, boom!"
Above the night market's snack street, a fierce, secret battle was underway.
A purple domain enveloped the vicinity. Several synthetic gems rested at the four corners, sealing down and suppressing the rooftop so that no matter how loud the commotion, not a sound could escape.
With another explosive boom, like a missile crashing down, rubble flew in all directions. The "Old Toad," head crashing bald-forehead-first into the ground, was swatted back like a feather.
"Cough! Hack, cough!"
Coughing as if he might hack up his lungs, Feng Xingyuan took a good long moment to spit out the pebbles lodged in his throat.
Before the Gem Witch, this notoriously vicious outlaw was a battered wreck: his flip-flops were nowhere to be found, and the dingy undershirt he had worn for who knew how long hung in shredded tatters.
"We're both Rank Five—how could you possibly be this strong?!"
"Unless you're... a Destined?!"
He growled in disbelief, eyes wide as he stared at the masked witch not far away, the rainbow-like multicolored glow radiating from her painfully dazzling.
He had assumed that since both were Rank 5, even if the Gem Witch enjoyed a fearsome reputation, the victor would remain uncertain.
...Yet the final result was near-total, one-sided suppression.
As an Extraordinary originating from the Blood Worship Cult, both the pathway he walked and the secret arts he commanded were high-grade. There was no reason for this to happen against an Extraordinary of the same rank.
Unless—
She was one of the legendary Destined!
"You're a Trickster? And your Fate Principle happens to be of the Niche attribute?"
The twelve Fate Principles corresponded to different Destiny Sequences.
Given the witch's fickle, mercurial abilities and overbearing combat style, the well-traveled Feng Xingyuan vaguely guessed her Destiny pathway.
"What nonsense... What are you babbling about?"
Facing Feng Xingyuan's speculation, the Gem Witch neither confirmed nor denied it, her expression hidden behind her mask completely unreadable.
Yet this only convinced Feng Xingyuan that his guess was right.
Trickster sounded utterly mundane.
Yet if one traveled deep down this pathway, it led to what people knew all too well... a true Magician, or even a Wizard!
The kind common in fairy tales, epics, and myths: on the small scale, poisoning an apple and asking the magic mirror whether they were fairer than the village belle; on the grand scale, entering dreams, conversing with the underworld, commanding thunder and lightning, bargaining with Death, and communing with the starry void—an omnipotent wizard!
Even though she was still far from that level, a Gem Witch mastering just a few Tricks was already enough to effortlessly grind a notorious Rank 5 Extraordinary like Feng Xingyuan under her heel!
No wonder the Gem Witch could act as a vigilante and bounty hunter throughout Tinghai City, punishing evil and causing endless headaches for so many infamous high-ranking Extraordinaries, yet continue to roam free and unfettered.
A Rank 5 Destined! Of course she had the right to run rampant!
Most crucially, Destiny Sequences were either lost to history or incomplete...
Even as a Blood-Robed Elder of the Blood Worship Cult, the pathway he walked was merely the Blood Frog sequence, which capped out at Rank 6 and did not belong to the ranks of Destiny.
In true value, it was six of one and half a dozen of the other compared to the government's standardized sequences, or perhaps even a cut below!
To find a Destiny Sequence that aligned with one's own Fate Principle proved in itself...
Behind her, there might stand an unknown behemoth!
"Gem Witch... Gem Witch! The answer was written right on the surface—I should have known!"
Feng Xingyuan was filled with regret.
Had he known she was a Destined, he would have devoted himself entirely to fleeing from the very beginning.
The toad who loved eating geniuses had ended up broken at the hands of a "genius."
Was this too some kind of destiny?
"Old Toad, knowing too much... can cost you your life, you know," the Gem Witch offered as a kind reminder, her gaze on Feng Xingyuan growing increasingly grave.
Admittedly, he had guessed correctly.
Even the moniker "Gem Witch"...
was because she, as a Trickster, hailed from the school of Gem Tricks, which originated from an ancient form of Gem Magic in the Eastern Federation.
Extraordinaries of this school believed that gemstones held pure, natural occult power untouched by human hands.
Later, this nature-based belief spawned a variety of secret arts centered around gemstones, possessing all kinds of incredible effects.
These secret arts were often immensely powerful; their only drawback was... the cost was too high.
Expensive!
—Yet very, very few people knew that the Gem Witch was a Destined.
Because most of those who did were already dead.
"Heh, I'm certainly no match for you!"
Arching his back and hunching his shoulders, Feng Xingyuan suddenly lowered himself slowly to the ground, looking as if he had given up resisting.
"But if I drag you down with me... you won't walk away unscathed either!"
Immediately after, he drew a slow, deep breath. His belly bulged high, and his cheeks inflated like two balloons, swelling visibly to the naked eye.
His belly expanded and contracted, and finally that breath gathered at Feng Xingyuan's throat, squirming and rippling beneath his skin like a living creature.
"Ribbit... Ribbit..."
Faint croaks echoed from deep within his chest.
Crouched on the ground, Feng Xingyuan transformed into a rounded ball with faintly bulging veins, coiled and ready to strike.
At the same time, the massive fleshy tumor on his back quietly ruptured. A thick, dark-green mist billowed out like a living thing, corroding the surrounding purple domain.
In the blink of an eye, the withered, scrawny old man had turned into an inhuman, coiled toad, radiating a destructive, suffocating pressure that spread in silence.
Through the swirling green poisonous mist, his slit-like eyes held nothing but the most primal, cold predatory hunger.
"Goo... croak..."
A few muffled reverberations, deep as war drums, issued from his chest.
Then—
Like a punctured balloon, the moment the squirming bulge at his throat collapsed, the masonry beneath him shattered on impact.
With a thunderous boom!
Fully charged, the old toad launched forward like a falling meteor or an incoming missile, barreling straight toward the witch.
"Croooak!!"
Yet in the very next instant!
This midair missile banked sharply, hurtling in the opposite direction at lightning speed.
—What era was this? Even missiles could change trajectory, let alone a man!
Fight to the death against a Destined? He had just secured the protection of the Zijing Group, and he still had a wonderful life ahead of him to enjoy!
No one would have guessed that this had been his escape route all along!
"You're not going anywhere."
Yet at that very moment,
the Gem Witch quietly produced a gemstone.
A red crystal gleamed under the moonlight with natural luster. Though its clarity was slightly cloudy, it was breathtakingly beautiful—and far larger than any synthetic "glass marble."
To completely slay a Rank 5 Extraordinary while guaranteeing they couldn't escape, half-baked synthetic gems simply wouldn't do.
Only a genuine gemstone...
"Such a loss, such a huge loss, huge loss!"
Muttering incessantly, the Gem Witch seemed to feel profound heartache.
*I hope this old toad's head is worth enough to break even.*
Full of grievance, the Gem Witch clicked the genuine ruby into the central buckle of her belt.
Hum!
The belt vibrated, followed by an imposing, solemn proclamation:
"Rejoice!"
The belt actually shouted:
"Magician! Our Lord has arrived!"
In the next instant, a crimson domain bloomed outward from the masked witch, instantly overtaking the previous purple domain.
Furthermore, under the moon's witness...
The young witch underwent a dramatic costume change right before his eyes.
The black dress on her body automatically transformed into a bright scarlet gown, its cut and style completely shifting.
Noble and elegant, yet steeped in dense killing intent and the oppressive heat of blazing flames, she looked as if a crimson queen had descended beneath the moonlight!
—In an instant, her demeanor changed so completely that anyone watching would have thought she had a split personality.
"What... what is this?!"
Feng Xingyuan, just on the verge of breaking free, suddenly felt as though he had plunged into a quagmire. The gravity around him multiplied tenfold or more, pinning him so he couldn't tear away.
Looking back at the transformed masked witch, his eyes caught the belt wrapped around her slender waist, and his eyes nearly split open in shock.
An undeniable piece of Extraordinary equipment.
Or perhaps something even more mysterious...
Even with Feng Xingyuan's experience, he couldn't fathom what it was...
Yet he caught a faint, familiar glimmer of sensation, minuscule yet unmistakable—just like...
The supreme treasure he had once caught a fleeting glimpse of within the Blood Worship Cult, enshrined and revered by the cult's highest echelon...
A forbidden tome?
Could the Gem Witch's belt be connected to a forbidden tome?!
"Who on earth are you?!"
Breathing heavily, Feng Xingyuan felt as though he had brushed against some colossal, untold secret.
"Just a passing superhero."
"And the Tinghai citizens' most trusted friendly neighbor."
So said the masked witch.
Her heart hardened to steel from the sheer financial agony, her face blank of all expression, the witch looked at Feng Xingyuan as if staring at a dead toad:
"Now, count up your sins."
"Sin number one! Inflicting massive property loss on me, thereby violating the property rights of a citizen of the Federation."
As the words fell,
flowing flames erupted fiercely from all directions of the crimson domain, as if a toad had fallen into a crucible.
Feng Xingyuan looked around in terror, completely encircled by fire.
"Gem Trick, Third Trick—"
"Ruby: Ignition Art!"
The masked young witch lightly tapped the belt at her waist and delivered her cold proclamation:
"Burn, heretic!"
"..."
Before long,
the flames subsided, and the domain vanished.
The dust settled, leaving no trace of the toad—only a few motes of ash drifting away with the wind beneath the moon.
The Old Toad's final, resentful thought before death was:
He shouldn't have agreed to the Zijing Group's request, nor should he have tracked that kid...
If not for him, wouldn't the one discovered and apprehended by the Gem Witch have been the other wanted criminal right beneath their feet—Bai Zhou?
Rounding up, hadn't he become a selfless martyr taking the bullet for Bai Zhou?
In the end, that brat Bai Zhou, completely unaware of his outrageous luck, had emerged as the biggest winner?!
—How absurd, how utterly laughable!
Tap...
Her small high heels clicked lightly against the floor as the grief-stricken witch returned to the edge of the rooftop.
"What was that old toad babbling about at the end?"
"What did he mean by 'dying in his place' and 'unable to rest in peace'... Who is 'he'?"
Unable to figure it out, she shook her head, bent down, and picked up the small paper tasting bowl from the ground.
Using a toothpick, she popped the very last takoyaki into her mouth.
The filling burst forth with a delightfully springy bite, easing her melancholy and eliciting a faint expression of bliss.
A fierce battle had concluded just like that, with no third party ever knowing.
And after all of that, the final takoyaki in the bowl was...
—still warm!
...
Utterly oblivious to what had transpired, the innocent little black cat Bai Zhou—who had inadvertently pitted the tiger against the wolf—was still paranoidly jumping at shadows.
After circling around outside for ages, Bai Zhou finally returned to rendezvous with Crow, adopting an attitude of "take things as they come."
"Welcome back."
Crow appeared at the edge of the rooftop, turning to look at Bai Zhou, and casually asked, "A qualified hunter never returns empty-handed. Did you reap any harvest this time?"
After a moment's hesitation, Bai Zhou pulled out the sealed parchment scroll.
"I looted this from Anguissola. I don't know what's inside yet."
...After Crow performed a ritual examination to confirm there was no curse on the parchment scroll,
Bai Zhou, his mind finally settling, let out a long breath and gingerly unrolled the scroll.
When the scroll was unfurled to its end, clatter—
Something fell out from the scroll...
A paintbrush?
"What is this?"
At the same time, the contents of the parchment scroll entered the eyes of Bai Zhou and Crow simultaneously:
"[Painter] Pathway"!
The words appearing before their eyes left both Bai Zhou and Crow exchanging stunned glances, collectively holding their breath.
And accompanying the title—or rather, written directly above it—were three lines of prose that read like a prologue.
Every word resembled an ancient "painting," executed in different colors and techniques, both dazzlingly vibrant and steeped in the rustic weight of history:
[Behind every name is imprisoned a great soul; let the lost greatness be reborn beneath your brushstrokes.]
[Yet take heed: do not lose yourself within the painting!]
[Otherwise, you shall become yet another lost self-portrait beneath your own brush...]
Chapter 95