"Lungmen? I'm not going."
Xia Yu shot a glance at the black snake in her palm. "What's so good about Lungmen? The conflicts might be lighter than in Ursus, but it's still no paradise. Besides, it sits right on the border between Yan and Ursus."
"Look at these flames on me. If they erupt in Lungmen and turn back to consume Ursus, you're finished, aren't you? From what I know, Yan's internal situation is much better than yours."
"The Frenzied Flame chases suffering, devours suffering, and burns suffering. No matter how you look at it, your Ursus is the brightest lighthouse attracting it on this Terra."
"Ursus isn't that terrible," Kashchey muttered after a two-second silence. "You only saw the snowfields. You didn't look at the cities. Our nation is still making great strides forward."
"Striding forward over the bones of the Infected?" Xia Yu laughed mockingly. "Not that bad? No, Ursus is wretched. You think I'm seeing only one leaf and missing the forest, but do you know? In my eyes, Ursus deserves to die."
"Do you lack the technology? Does mining truly require a never-ending stream of human lives to be filled in? No. You simply don't want to pay enough. You only want to build industry and amass wealth by using the lives of cheap, endless Infected to fill your resource zones."
"Which country in the world doesn't do the same?" Kashchey replied without anger, speaking plainly. "They just aren't as blatant about it as we are."
"Oh, so because they're rotten, you follow suit—and even strive to be worse," Xia Yu scoffed. "You seem quite proud of it?"
"This is the price that must be paid for the nation to advance."
"Then, because of that price, suffering and persecution gave birth to the Frenzied Flame. When it burns this land to the ground, I can say the same to you: this, too, is a necessary price."
Xia Yu treated his reasoning with utter contempt.
"That's enough. Stop flying upward," Kashchey said, changing the subject. "The Starpod is right above. You're going to crash into it."
"Six thousand meters of sky..." Xia Yu stopped her upward trajectory, leveling out to head east. "How cramped."
"Hasn't it always been this way?" Kashchey asked tentatively.
"Your vision is just like this cramped sky of Terra," Xia Yu sneered. "So barren and narrow."
"A dragon... so, at some point in the past, your kind could soar freely through the heavens?" Kashchey suddenly realized. "Before the Starpod existed?"
If that were true, this person's history would have to be traced back to before the birth of civilization!
"To be accurate, I am not a dragon," Xia Yu said flatly, not answering him directly. "I am a proper human."
"But the power you showed when destroying the warships..." Kashchey's brow furrowed.
"His name is Placidusax, the Dragon Lord," Xia Yu said softly. "Once, to seal the Frenzied Flame, I stepped onto the crumbling Farum Azula. Using the power of time and space, I successfully sealed it, but the price was facing the slumbering Dragon Lord."
"After that war of rebellion, he was heavily wounded. The five-headed Dragon Lord had only two heads left, his tail was severed, and his body was covered in scars. Placidusax had been nursing his wounds there, waiting for his god to return."
"But in the end, he only got me. After a great battle, he died, and I lived. It's that simple. And the one you saw comes from a memory," Xia Yu said meaningfully. "The memory of my battle with him."
Kashchey fell silent.
A Dragon Lord so powerful he could easily annihilate an entire fleet was actually a defeated foe of the person before him?
But it made sense. If she weren't such a powerful knight, how could she have sealed an evil god like the Frenzied Flame—something capable of detonating an entire nation?
"You are so strong, yet why is your name nowhere in history?" Kashchey had to leave enough intelligence for the other Black Snakes before he died. "There should at least be some legends or history passed down, right?"
"You already know enough." Xia Yu stopped flying and looked toward the ground. A grim, martial city stood there.
The border stronghold of Yan—Yumen.
"It's about time, Kashchey."
"A pity." Kashchey was quite calm about his own death. "I still have many questions for you."
"I gave you enough chances," Xia Yu sneered. "If I weren't thinking that I might have to deal with other Black Snakes in the future, do you think I would have answered so much?"
"So, you will return to Ursus, won't you?" Kashchey asked.
"My friend will go back in my stead," Xia Yu gave a mysterious smile. "She will help Talulah and the others establish a new order for Ursus."
"Then, I have one last question," Kashchey said solemnly. "Not as Kashchey, but as the undying Black Snake."
"Ask."
"Will that Ursus... be strong and prosperous enough?"
"That depends on Talulah and her people. They are the Ursus citizens; it is their country," Xia Yu replied. "We can provide support, but we can't do everything for them."
"You won't even bother humoring me," Kashchey said hollowly. "Not even to lie to me?"
"I never give promises lightly," Xia Yu shook her head. "If I'm not sure, I'm not sure."
"Enough. Your time is up." Xia Yu released the restrictions on the Frenzied Flame, watching it gradually entwine around Kashchey's mist-like body, beginning to burn wildly upon him.
"Ugh... Ah... This is..." Kashchey watched the flames surround him, burning him from a soulful level. Feeling a pain like a thousand cuts, he screamed: "Can't you... just give me... a quick... AH!"
Almost at the same time, within Ursus, a beautiful and mysterious female teacher clutched her head. Ignoring her worried students, she leaned against a desk and screamed in agony. Many others had the same reaction—officials, nobles, merchants, officers...
"This is the price," Xia Yu watched the twisting black mist and the roaring Frenzied Flame. "The 'price' you love to talk about so much."
"What? Shouldn't you feel proud? After all, this price is paid for your beloved Ursus! If not for your sacrifice, Ursus would already be burning under the Frenzied Flame."
"Why scream?" She gripped the burning black mist, bringing it before her face, her lips curling into a mocking smile. "Is this painful? Every Infected you persecuted all these years went through the same thing."
Kashchey could no longer squeeze out a single word.
"The suffering they endured—you should have a good taste of it too."
Kashchey's screams continued.
Xia Yu watched quietly as he was burned and torn apart by the Frenzied Flame, bit by bit, until the last wisp of black mist turned into sparks and vanished into the world.
Kashchey was dead, and he died miserably.
Xia Yu withdrew her hand.
Time for business.
Inside Yumen City.
The screams from high above had already alarmed the entire city. Xia Yu hadn't bothered to hide a single bit of it.
"Grandmaster?" The warriors looked toward the figure at the center of the crowd.
"The whole city is on high alert." Chongyue's face was solemn as he looked at the sky.
The screams were incessant, sounding as if someone were undergoing a session of torture.
More concerning was that catastrophic aura of destruction. These warriors couldn't see it, but he could feel the flames thrashing wildly in the sky.
Which Feranmut had come knocking on their door now?
Chongyue found no clues, but he knew the thing in the sky was nothing friendly.
"Wait, Grandmaster, what is that?"
The surrounding warriors cried out in shock. High in the sky, a streak of pale blue light, like a meteor with a long trail, was hurtling toward Yumen.
Chongyue's eyes narrowed. He could not let that thing land in the city!
He rose immediately, gathering his strength before soaring into the sky like a thunderbolt, crashing directly into that streak of light!
BOOM!
A visible shockwave accompanied by a thunderous roar echoed through the entire city!
Chongyue saw the meteor's true form: a knight wearing strange armor. Although he couldn't recognize who it was, it didn't stop him from using a clever redirection of force to hurl the knight far away from Yumen.
He prepared to deal with a counterattack. After all, a person of this caliber would surely put up a massive fight.
But to his surprise, the person didn't seem to want to resist at all, simply using the momentum to fly toward the outskirts of the city.
Xia Yu's face was beaming.
She had originally intended to just 'borrow' a bit of the big brother's aura and run. She didn't expect Chongyue to be so cooperative, so of course she left immediately.
Seeing her move, Chongyue immediately prepared to give chase.
Though he couldn't figure out her purpose, since she was doing this, he naturally couldn't let her succeed.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
"Thanks, buddy," Xia Yu reloaded the Itzal. Full output!
"I'll buy you a drink next time!"
Then, she streaked across the sky like a falling star, flying toward the interior of Yan.
Chongyue instinctively wanted to intercept her, but the speed of the Itzal was no joke. This thing could fly not just within the atmosphere, but was built for space combat. Within seconds, she had completely disappeared from Yumen's borders.
Only then did Chongyue realize he had made a mistake.
That person headed into the Yan interior—there must be a plot!
He landed back in Yumen.
"Send word to every province," he said to General Zuo Xuanliao, who was hurrying over. "A powerhouse of unknown identity has headed into the interior."
"Have every city tighten their defenses!"
"What do you mean a powerhouse has headed into the interior?" Zuo Xuanliao was stunned. "Are you saying you couldn't stop them?"
A 'powerhouse'? A powerhouse in the eyes of a Yan Grandmaster?! He couldn't stop them even after a direct exchange? Just how strong could they be...
"It was a woman," Chongyue corrected. "Wearing a suit of Western medieval heavy armor. I didn't see her face. She had a pair of thrusters with obvious technological features on her back, and she carried an aura of destruction that could burn everything..."
"I indeed could not stop her. This person is not to be trifled with. Remember to tell the cities to act within their capabilities."
"This is truly..." Zuo Xuanliao paced back and forth in anxiety. "Any other features?"
"None," Chongyue frowned. "We only exchanged one move. Then she used those strange thrusters to soar into the sky. I simply couldn't catch up."
Even a Yan Grandmaster could only watch helplessly in the face of specialized interstellar equipment like the Itzal.
Stop her? There was no stopping her!
That thing flew at several Machs in a heartbeat. What was he supposed to use to stop her?
And he truly couldn't figure out what the person's goal was.
Attacking Yumen? Then why run?
Going inland to cause trouble? Then why expose her location at Yumen?
And what he understood least was why she only exchanged one move with him before running. She didn't look like a hollow opponent; if they truly fought, it was hard to say who would win...
Chongyue was utterly perplexed.
But Xia Yu's goal was actually very simple.
She just wanted to graze the 'Big Brother's' aura to win a stepping stone for her next move.
Her time was running out, so she had to seize every second.
After entering Yan, Xia Yu found a city to land quietly in. She stowed her armor, changed into a set of Ursus clothing Alina had made for her, and found a bookstore.
"Boss, do you sell maps here?" Xia Yu walked in and approached the owner. "I'm from Ursus. I want to buy a map to plan a route and see the great mountains and rivers of Yan!"
"Hey, you've come to the right place, guest," the boss said enthusiastically. "Maps? Of course I have them."
He walked to a row of shelves and pulled out a book. "But if you really want to visit famous sights, I'd recommend a travelogue instead. A proper map only gives you names. To figure out what's worth seeing, you have to look at travelogues."
"Oh, I see. Can I take a look first?" Xia Yu asked with feigned curiosity. "I haven't been in Yan long, I'm completely in the dark."
"Sure, sure. Take your time, guest," the owner handed the book to Xia Yu. "You're from Ursus?"
"Well, winter is coming," Xia Yu replied while flipping through. "Winter in Ursus is just too cold, so I wanted to find a country that isn't quite as freezing to travel around."
"Then you should look at the chapters on the south," the owner said excitedly. "Winter in Yan... well, the north is actually quite cold too."
"Oh, it's about the same," Xia Yu finished the table of contents in a few seconds. "It's not here..."
"Hmm? Are you looking for a specific attraction?" The boss saw the disappointment on her face.
"Oh, right. A place called Mount Hui-ch'i," Xia Yu said naturally. "I once saw a travelogue in Ursus that said someone met an immortal there. Now that I'm in Yan, I can't help but be curious. I just don't have the exact address."
"Heh, you've found the right person," the boss chuckled. "In this city, not many people would know about Mount Hui-ch'i. It's a long way from here, after all."
"But I just happen to have heard of it."
Saying this, he looked at Xia Yu with a smile.
Xia Yu pulled out several large bills. "Then I'll have to trouble you."