Chapter 95: A Mere Evil Spirit, Yet It Dares to Act Fierce! (Patreon)

Wise stood rooted to the spot.

Little Guang's back was right there ahead of him, her white hair billowing wildly in midair, the crimson horn on her forehead giving off an eerie glow.

That silhouette — he felt like he'd seen it somewhere before. In Wise's mind, a long-buried memory suddenly cracked open, without warning.

That night, the white figure that had flickered past atop Yunkui Summit.

He finally understood why, despite never having met her, he'd always felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Back then he hadn't gotten a clear look at her face — he only remembered that snow-white hair.

Now, that white figure from that night kept overlapping, again and again, with the Little Guang before him.

The build, the presence, and that reassuring familiarity.

He couldn't be a hundred percent certain, but Wise already had his answer.

As for why Little Guang, looking like this, had appeared that night — Wise had no mind to dwell on it right now.

Because the battle in front of him had already begun.

Avarus sensed a threat unlike any it had ever faced before.

Its massive body reared back slightly, the dark-red patterns on its horn all igniting at once, the carapace of its abdomen heaving violently as it frantically gathered energy.

A roar exploded outward. The sound waves, wrapped in black-red Miasma, turned into a solidified wave that surged toward Little Guang.

This was one of the unique abilities within its Ether Domain — warping the surrounding space into a fusion of environment and Miasma corrosion.

The black-red wave blotted out the sky, more than enough to tear apart any creature that dared draw near.

Little Guang didn't move.

She simply stood there, the Azure Empyrean Sword in her hand angled down toward the ground.

The pale blue glow of her Creation Talisman wrapped around the blade, blending seamlessly with the silver-white current radiating off its edge.

The terrifying sword-intent surrounding her hadn't even been deliberately released, and already the air around her had begun to warp.

The black-red wave of Miasma slammed into that invisible layer of sword-intent.

There was no sound.

Just like before, the moment the black-red Miasma touched the silver-white sword-intent, it was forcibly shattered at a dimensional level — not even a trace left behind.

Little Guang raised her head, her dark-red eyes locking coldly onto Avarus.

Then she moved.

Not a charge. Not a leap.

She simply gave the sword in her hand a light swing.

Silver-white sword-intent drifted off the blade, turning into a sky full of silver-white sword rain.

Every drop of that "rain" was an invisible blade.

The sword rain fell.

The crystal-tier Miasmic Shield on Avarus's body — the one that had once withstood hundreds of Ether longswords and taken the full brunt of Wise's Dimensional Detachment — was, in this moment, no sturdier than a sheet of paper.

The instant the silver-white sword rain touched the Miasmic Shield, it met not the slightest resistance.

It simply erased the defense outright, pierced through the carapace, and opened countless gashes deep enough to show bone across Avarus's flesh.

"Roarrr—!!!" Avarus let out a shrill, agonized scream.

Countless fine wounds sprang up across its body in an instant, dark-red energy spraying wildly from every one of them.

It wanted to retaliate, wanted to raise a foreleg and crush this tiny human before it.

But its movements were far too slow.

In front of Little Guang, its speed might as well have been frozen solid.

Another wave of sword rain fell.

A chunk of carapace was sheared clean off Avarus's right foreleg, exposing the dark-red muscle tissue beneath.

Then another. A deep crack split open across its horn.

Little Guang hadn't even swung her sword in earnest, not even once, this whole time.

She simply let the terrifying sword-intent bleeding off the Azure Empyrean Sword around her turn into a sky full of sword rain, striking the King-class Ethereal that only moments ago had been so insufferably arrogant.

The tables had turned in the span of a single breath.

In an inner world Wise couldn't see, two Little Guangs were in the middle of an "argument."

"He saw it... he saw all of it..." the ordinary Little Guang paced frantically in circles inside the inner world, her face flushed red as a ripe tomato. "What do I do, what do I do — is the way I look right now scary? Is Wise going to be scared off?"

The white-haired Little Guang stood at the far end of the inner world, arms crossed, a cold smirk tugging at her lips. "Hmph. Is now really the time to be thinking about that? He was almost killed by that overgrown bug just now — shouldn't you be more worried about his injuries?"

"Of course I'm worried!"

The ordinary Little Guang puffed out her cheeks. "But... but this is the first time I've ever turned into this in front of him..."

"If you're worried, then focus on the fight."

The white-haired Little Guang cut her off, her tone softening slightly. "He's not the type to get scared off by appearances. You should trust him."

"I... I know that."

The ordinary Little Guang turned her head away stubbornly. "I'm just... worried, that's all, in a normal way. It's not like I'm scared he won't like how I look right now."

"Sure, sure, sure." The white-haired Little Guang humored her the way one placates a child. "A normal kind of worry."

They bickered back and forth, but the moves their hands made were strikingly in sync.

Both of them kept their focus locked tight on Avarus. After all, it was their actual target this time.

More importantly, it had actually hurt Wise.

That was something neither version of Little Guang could forgive.

Both Little Guangs were furious, determined to unleash their rage on this overgrown bug.

"Nuisance," the white-haired Little Guang muttered under her breath.

She stepped forward.

With every step she took, the carapace-covered ground of the plaza cracked outward in all directions.

The pale blue glow around her grew brighter, the silver-white current growing sharper and more ferocious.

Avarus was trembling.

This top-tier King-class Ethereal, which had ruled the core zone for three years and wiped out a three-hundred-strong investigation team, was actually trembling right now.

Its prized Miasmic Shield, the thing it took such pride in, might as well not exist in front of Little Guang.

This was one of the most terrifying things about the Azure Empyrean Sword — it disregarded an opponent's defenses entirely, striking straight at both soul and flesh.

It wanted to flee, wanted to retreat into its shell.

But Little Guang gave it no such chance.

Another wave of sword rain fell.

Avarus's left foreleg was sheared clean off, its massive body losing balance and crashing heavily to the ground.

It struggled to get up, but the silver-white sword rain had already blanketed every inch of its body.

Every second, more of its carapace was stripped away, more of its flesh was sliced open.

It was a one-sided beatdown.

Wise stood at a distance, watching it all unfold.

He had never seen Little Guang like this.

The Little Guang he knew had gentle, crescent-shaped eyes, and when she smiled it was like a breeze carrying the scent of osmanthus.

But the one standing before him now was a sword drawn from its sheath.

A sword that had unleashed its killing intent to the absolute limit, all to protect him.

He could sense that Little Guang's combat strength had risen to Void Hunter tier.

And because of the Azure Empyrean Sword's unique nature, her Void Hunter tier wasn't an ordinary one, either.

In terms of raw lethality, she had already surpassed most veteran Void Hunters.

The Azure Empyrean Sword carried more than a single Authority within it, and the price demanded each time it was used was correspondingly heavy.

What it bought in exchange was terrifying strength — more than enough to reverse the outcome of almost any battle.

Even a top-tier King-class Ethereal like Avarus stood no chance of fighting back against Little Guang now.

Avarus no longer looked like anything at all.

Its once-massive body was now riddled with wounds, its carapace almost entirely stripped away, exposing the twitching dark-red muscle underneath.

Its horn was broken, its limbs broken, the crack in its abdomen torn wide open, exposing the core within — which had already stopped beating.

It was still alive.

But only barely, clinging to its last breath.

The white-haired Little Guang stopped walking.

She stood before Avarus, looking down at the once-untouchable colossus.

In her dark-red eyes there was no pity, no hesitation — only absolute indifference.

She tilted her head slightly, her peripheral vision sweeping over Wise in the distance; only after confirming he was safe did she slowly raise the Azure Empyrean Sword in her hand.

The blade was long and slender, gleaming with a cold, silver-white light.

The pale blue glow of the Creation Talisman blended perfectly with the silver-white current along the blade, and in this moment it erupted into a brilliance never seen before.

Avarus felt the descent of death.

Its clouded compound eyes stared in terror at the white figure before it.

It wanted to beg for mercy, wanted to make a sound, but its vocal organs had already been destroyed by the sword-intent, and all it could manage was a gurgling, bubbling noise.

The white-haired Little Guang paid its struggling no mind.

She simply looked at it, a trace of disdain in her eyes.

Then she spoke.

Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly across the entire plaza, reaching Wise's ears, and reaching what remained of Avarus's consciousness as well.

It was a declaration brimming with commanding force and pressure, a perfect reflection of her state of mind in that moment.

"A wretched little abomination like you dares to run rampant!"

The words fell.

The silver-white sword was raised high, then swung down.

No flashy technique, no wasted motion.

Just a simple, plain horizontal slash.

But that single strike carried power enough to tear open the sky itself.

As Little Guang moved, a massive sky-splitting slash burst forth from the blade's edge.

The strike blazed with blinding brightness, swallowing the entire plaza in an instant.

Silver-white light shot skyward, tearing a massive rift straight through the gray-black Hollow sky above.

Through the rift shone pure daylight, the kind none of them had seen in a long while.

The strike landed on Avarus.

There was no resistance.

Not even a moment's worth.

The instant the strike touched Avarus's massive body, it was split clean in two, straight down the middle.

The cut was smooth as a mirror.

Not just the flesh.

Its core, its very soul, and every last trace of Ether energy and Miasma remaining within it — all of it was utterly erased under that single blow.

Avarus was dead.

It died cleanly. It died completely.

Not even a scrap remained.

The silver-white light gradually faded.

Calm returned to the plaza once more.

Avarus's Ether Domain had already collapsed completely under that single strike.

With the Miasma's corrosion gone and the Ether's oppressive weight lifted, the air grew fresh and clear once more.

Little Guang stood rooted where she was.

Her silhouette was still slight and slender, her white hair drifting gently in the breeze.

The crimson horn remained on her forehead, giving off a faint glow.

The light of the Azure Empyrean Sword in her hand had already dimmed; the silver-white current along the blade had stopped flowing, and it had turned back into an ordinary longsword.

She didn't turn around.

Wise didn't say anything either.

Between them lay barely a dozen meters, yet it felt like an entire world.

Wise gazed at her back.

Her words still echoed in his ears.

"A wretched little abomination like you dares to run rampant."

That really didn't sound like something the usual Little Guang would ever say.

Wise took a deep breath.

He started walking, toward Little Guang.

His footsteps echoed across the empty plaza.

One step. Two steps. Three.

Little Guang's body trembled slightly.

Her drooping ears twitched, as if listening to the footsteps behind her.

Then her shoulders began to shake, ever so slightly.

The cold, forbidding aura around her was rapidly dissolving.

The crimson horn on her forehead began slowly shrinking, until at last it vanished entirely.

Her snow-white hair, too, began darkening back to deep brown from the roots, little by little returning to its original color.

By the time she turned around, Wise was already standing right in front of her.

The unsettling indifference was gone from Little Guang's eyes.

In its place was familiar warmth, along with a clear trace of fluster and shyness.

Her face flushed red as a ripe tomato; her hands, not knowing where to go, ended up clutching tightly at the hem of her clothes.

"Wise... I..." She opened her mouth, her voice soft and sweet as always, though noticeably stammering. "Um... did you... did you see all of it?"

Wise looked at her.

The war god who had just split the heavens with a single stroke, and the flustered, bashful girl standing before him now — were they really the same person?

But he knew they were.

Whether it was the gentle Little Guang or the cold one, both were people he wanted to protect.

And yet, just now, it was she who had protected him.

Wise reached out and gently ruffled her hair.

His touch was light, as if soothing a startled cat.

"I saw."

Wise smiled, his tone as gentle as if he were commenting on the nice weather. "Little Guang, you were amazing. Really cool, too."

Little Guang froze.

Her eyes widened slightly, her drooping ears perking up with excitement.

"R-really?"

"Yeah. Really cool."

Wise nodded earnestly. "Especially that last strike. And that line you said."

Little Guang's face flushed even redder.

She lowered her head, staring at the tips of her toes, her voice as faint as a mosquito's whine. "I... I don't even know why I said something like that... that was her... not me..."

"I know."

Wise withdrew his hand. "But whether it's her or you, you're both Little Guang."

Little Guang's body stiffened for a moment.

Then she slowly raised her head.

In her ruby-red eyes, a glimmer of tears shimmered.

"Wise..."

She started to say something, but her body suddenly went limp, and she pitched forward.

Wise reacted in an instant, catching her.

The Azure Empyrean Sword slipped from her hand, but before it could hit the ground, the Azure Empyrean Sword Casket that Yixuan had made automatically drew it back in.

Little Guang closed her eyes, her breathing settling into a slow, steady rhythm.

She had fallen asleep.

The Azure Empyrean Sword's backlash, combined with the exhaustion of the Enlightened Mind, was enough to drain her completely, even with the Creation Talisman's protection.

Wise held her in his arms and slowly sat down on the ground.

He looked down at the girl in his arms.

Her long dark-brown hair spilled across the crook of his arm, a few strands sticking to her cheek.

Her lashes were long, casting a small shadow beneath her eyes.

Wise let out a quiet sigh.

He looked up at the rift torn open above the plaza by that strike.

Daylight spilled down through the rift, warm sunlight falling over the two of them.