"Rascal was right… this 'wrecking ball' method is actually fun." Little Fairy allowed herself the faintest smile.
It was one of the tricks Yun Che had taught her during their travels. Since profound energy here wasn't so different from the spiritual energy of his old world, he guided her into shaping weapons directly from her aura instead of depending on steel. Using his own Quincy techniques as a base, he showed her how to compress and solidify energy until it took form. For her, whose profound energy brimmed with ice, the process was even smoother—every swing, every thrust could become a blade of frost, a spear of hail, or even a rope of frozen force.
She wove one such icy rope now, swung it wide, and hurled it toward the dragon with crushing momentum.
Yun Che had once told her: Conjured weapons will always outgrow steel. They're tied to your soul. They shatter, reform, and evolve as you do. A lesson he had picked up from a game and a novel in his past life, yet here it was, reshaping destiny.
"You… your strength?" The flood dragon's voice trembled, its golden eyes widening. "Impossible! You should only be at the peak of the Sky Profound Realm! Why does your aura… feel like the Seventh Level of the Emperor Profound Realm?!"
What it could not comprehend was the truth—that the instant Yun Che had touched her chest before, her profound veins had been reawakened. They were already prepared for the Emperor Profound Realm long before her so-called breakthrough. That was why her new power flowed as if it had always belonged, seamless and terrifying.
Little Fairy floated in the air, her presence sharp and cold as winter steel. "Why should I explain myself to the likes of you?" she said icily. "Once, I might have trembled before your might. Not anymore."
She would not allow fear or weakness to chain her again. If she was to stand at Yun Che's side, she had to climb higher, reach farther. The memory of tears she shed in front of him pricked at her pride. Shaking her head, she steadied her breath, her eyes hardening like frozen lakes.
"Even if you've grown stronger, do not think you can defeat a flood dragon like me!" it roared, energy surging violently. A sphere of destructive power condensed between its jaws, pulsing with death.
But before the beast could release it, frost swept past its vision—Little Fairy's silhouette flashed, faster than thought. In the next instant, she was already upon its head, her icy aura pressing down like a storm of blades.
Her voice was colder than the frost she wielded, a tone she would never use toward Yun Che, Retsu, or even Cang Yue—but sometimes, Kon wasn't spared.
"The fear and suppression you once forced upon me and my sister… will never happen again."
The memory of Cang Yue's trembling, her own helplessness back then, ignited a storm inside her. That shame and fury surged through her veins, sharpening her aura until it soared to its peak. For the first time, the flood dragon's eyes flickered with a trace of fear.
Without hesitation, Little Fairy drove her ice-forged, haki-coated sword into the creature's skull. The strike slid in as effortlessly as a blade through silk.
If this were a human foe, such a blow would have been fatal—instant death, no resistance. But against the vast body of a flood dragon, the five-foot ice sword was a mere sliver of frost, piercing its colossal form like a needle into flesh.
The dragon's golden eyes widened before narrowing into a sneer."What an immense aura… enough to halt me for a breath. But do you truly believe such a toy can harm the body of a flood dragon? This scratch is beneath notice…"
The words died on its tongue. Its expression twisted."What… is this?!"
A chilling rampage surged from the wound, freezing its veins from within. The dragon thrashed violently, its roars shaking the skies—but only its head and tail moved. The section pierced by Little Fairy's sword was locked in place, seized by a merciless frost.
Crack—!
The sound thundered like a mountain splitting apart. From the wound, a lattice of ice crystals erupted, spreading outward in jagged chains. They raced across its scales at terrifying speed, crawling from the beast's midsection toward both ends.
The dragon's movements grew sluggish. Its voice faltered, strangled by the ice devouring its body. Inch by inch, the crystalline prison consumed it—until even its massive head and tail were swallowed whole.
In moments, the mighty female flood dragon had become nothing more than a colossal sculpture of ice, suspended in the air, silent and unmoving.
This entire process lasted no more than five breaths. In that brief span of time, the colossal flood dragon—stretching tens of meters long—was transformed into a frozen sculpture from head to tail.
For an instant, the enormous ice dragon hung in midair, glittering under the cold light. Then, dragged down by the weight of Little Fairy's embedded sword, it plummeted. The earth shuddered as the frozen behemoth slammed into the leveled, frost-bitten ground. The impact rang like thunder, sending cracks spiderwebbing across its crystalline body.
Little Fairy hovered above, her expression calm and unwavering. The technique she had unleashed was one she once swore never to touch again—her forbidden skill, the Zeroth Aurora. Back then, using it meant sacrificing her profound veins, even her life. But under Yun Che's guidance, she had learned to refine the technique, to recreate a diminished yet stable version. A shadow of the true Zeroth Aurora, but still carrying its dreadful properties.
By channeling her haki into the dragon's skull and infusing it with profound energy, she spread her frost through its body from within. The beast hadn't even realized its nerves were failing until it was too late—its body had already been claimed by the creeping cold.
As the shards of ice settled, Little Fairy let out a slow breath. Relief softened her features; the threat that had hounded both her and Cang Yue was finally gone. Deep within, she could not help but feel a pang of sorrow. The creature was not merely a beast of malice—it was a mother, consumed by vengeance for its slain child. Yet, in its blind rage, it had sought the blood of any human to sate its grief. A lost cause. Perhaps, ending it was a release from endless torment.
Shaking her head, she turned and glided through the air toward Retsu's location.
Far ahead, Retsu had already sensed the dragon's death. A small, knowing smirk curved her lips.
But elsewhere, a thunderous roar split the skies.
The male flood dragon, feeling the complete disappearance of his mate's aura, howled in fury. His cry rumbled across heaven and earth, echoing through the mountain basin. The sheer force of it rattled rocks loose and sent shivers through the air.
From their vantage point atop a boulder, Kon and Cang Yue stiffened, eyes widening as they heard the deafening roar reverberate around them.
"You actually killed my wife! You killed her!" the male flood dragon bellowed, voice shredding the air.
Retsu watched him with a cool, indifferent gaze. "I didn't kill her," she said simply. "I was fighting you."
"WRETCHED HUMAN! I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!" The dragon lunged, fury igniting its bulk. Retsu didn't flinch. She let the beast throw itself at her, then lifted both reaitsu-clad arms and struck—punch after precise punch—each blow landing against the dragon's skull like a metronome. The creature staggered, then erupted backward in a spray of rock and frost, slammed into the jagged peaks of the basin, and skidded across stone.
"I've had my fun. Time to finish this." Retsu's voice was soft, almost amused, as she stepped back a few paces. She raised her reaitsu arms again. From one, slow red bubbles of reaitsu swelled and drifted outward; from the other, calm blue bubbles coalesced and floated in the air, each shimmering with dangerous promise.
Little Fairy hovered into view and froze midair. Her eyes tracked the bubbles. "Whatever Sister Retsu intends… it won't be good." Her spine prickled with memory—Retsu's techniques were legendary for a reason. That was why she and Yun Che used restraint: their true powers could level the battlefield.
The dragon recoiled, nostrils flaring. It sensed the opposing natures in the spheres—one cruel and corrosive, the other strangely pacifying—but neither dared approach. Each bubble pulsed with the kind of energy that split mountains and swallowed suns.
Cang Yue's eyes widened. "Kon—what is Sister Retsu doing?"
Kon swallowed. "Who knows? But those bubbles look wrong. Close your ears and eyes. Now."
Retsu said nothing. She dissipated the reaitsu from her arms and lifted her three tails in a sweeping arc. As they rose, the hollow mask—pale and exquisite—began to manifest, crawling across her face until it fit like bone. The air around her tightened, every hair on the onlookers' arms lifting.
The dragon, bleeding and furious, staggered to its feet. It smelled inevitability in the wind.
Retsu's tails paused, fingers of power stretching toward the two-colored spheres. Time seemed to thin.
All at once, the red and blue bubbles drifted forward, their light twisting together. The energies merged in a violent embrace, swirling until they coalesced into a single, massive sphere—black with streaks of deep violet, pulsing like a malignant star. The air itself warped around it as the orb swelled larger and larger.
Kon's jaw dropped. "Oi… oi… isn't this a little overkill?"
The monstrous sphere hung in the sky like an omen. Then, Retsu closed her fist.
The great sphere compressed. Slowly, inexorably, it shrank in size, the violent energies collapsing inward. By the time it finished, it was no bigger than a child's ball, hovering at the tips of her three raised tails. Yet Little Fairy's senses screamed—the pressure radiating from that tiny orb was enough to erase a city, reducing stone, steel, and soul to nothing.
The male flood dragon's rage faltered. For the first time, its eyes betrayed something other than fury—raw, primal fear.
Retsu reached forward, grasping the condensed sphere with one hand. Steam hissed violently from between her fingers as she squeezed, containing the hell within her palm. With her other hand, she lowered Minazuki, stabbing the blade into the frozen ground with deliberate calm. Then she lifted her steaming fist, pointing it toward the trembling beast.
The world itself seemed to recoil. The ground cracked open beneath her feet as violent gales erupted, carrying arcs of lightning that split the air with deafening snaps.
Above, Little Fairy gasped. "This is… no…" She spread her arms wide, manifesting her Frozen Cloud Barrier to shield herself and the others. The very sky darkened with dread, warning of what was about to come.
The male dragon's massive body shuddered uncontrollably, scales rattling. Its pride as a divine beast clashed with an overwhelming instinct to flee. Its voice cracked as it tried to salvage its life.
"H-Human… wait… we can discuss this…"
"A dragon who slaughters humans out of vengeance dares to speak of discussion?" Retsu's voice cut through the storm, sharp and cold. Her mask glimmered faintly in the dark light as she shifted her fist into an open palm, steady and merciless. "What if you reached a city… or a village?"
Her eyes narrowed. Her voice dropped into a whisper.
"Bijuu-dama."
SHOOO—!
The compressed sphere tore from her palm, streaking forward like a comet of annihilation. The male flood dragon's instincts screamed, but it was too late—its body was swallowed whole by the projectile, shoved violently through the air and beyond the frostbitten domain.
Then came the silence before the storm.
BOOOOM!!!
A hundred kilometers away, the sphere detonated. A colossal dome of searing light erupted outward, blotting out the heavens. Winds howled with such force they stripped mountains bare, and the shockwave hammered the frost domain until it groaned and trembled at its foundations.
The dragon's roar never reached them. It had been swallowed instantly, vaporized without even the dignity of a death cry.
In the wake of the blast, the sky bled with light, and the earth itself seemed to cower.
Little Fairy, Cang Yue, and Kon stared wordlessly, eyes wide, mouths open, unable to form sound. What they had just witnessed from that "small" energy ball was not a technique—it was a calamity.
Retsu, unbothered, lowered her palm and retrieved Minazuki from the fractured ground. Her mask still hid her expression, but her silence was heavier than the explosion's aftershock.
====================
[Ding… Congratulation host for destroying the Fifth Level Emperor Profound Realm Male Flood Dragon. Experience points +.....]
[Ding…Host has leveled up]
[Ding…Host has leveled up]
[Ding…Host has leveled up]
[Ding…Host has leveled up]
[Ding…Host has leveled up]
[Ding…Host has leveled up]
[Host's cultivation is now Seventh Level of Sky Profound Realm.]
==================
Retsu slid her mask aside, the pale fragments of bone dissolving into the air as she gazed at the distant dome of devastation. Slowly, she wrenched Minazuki free from the fractured earth.
"Looks like I overdid it a little," she murmured, her tone casual, though the battlefield still trembled in the wake of her strike.
The tailed beast ball had been more than just potent—it had been catastrophic. She had poured half her blood points into the attack, layering it with haki until its core burned like a star. Originally, it was meant as an experiment, a test of destructive fusion. She hadn't expected it to rival Yun Che's full-powered Getsuga Tenshou.
Turning, she caught Little Fairy's wide-eyed stare. For a moment, silence lingered—fear, awe, and disbelief all frozen in her gaze. Retsu broke it with her usual easy smile and a playful thumbs-up, as though she hadn't just erased a divine beast from existence. Deep inside, she felt a rush of exhilaration—her cultivation had surged, breaking through six levels in the aftermath of that kill.
Far away, Yun Che's duel with Granz stuttered as the ground beneath them quaked. Both combatants turned toward the horizon, where the massive dome-shaped explosion still burned like a second sun.
Yun Che sweatdropped, his expression torn between admiration and exasperation. "That girl… always overkill." A wry grin tugged at his lips. "Well, nothing beats a kill better than an overkill."
The sight stirred a memory—his own reckless test only days before. He had poured his dual Getsuga Tenshou into a single strike, enhanced with spiritual reinforcement and the annihilating might of the Evil God's third realm art, Destroying Sky, Decimating Earth. To avoid erasing half a continent, he had tested it within Zangetsu's inner world. The result had widened even his own eyes: a kilometer-wide trench, a crater spanning a hundred kilometers. Pure devastation. Pure overkill.
Now, sensing the vanishing auras of both flood dragons, Yun Che exhaled slowly. So they really did it… those two girls actually wiped them out.
And if they were resorting to overkill, then he couldn't lag behind.
His muscles ached, bruises throbbed, but he welcomed it—Granz's punches and ceros had hammered his body past its limits, tempering him. With every blow, his physique edged closer to transcendence. Already, he had pushed his body cultivation to the Seventh Level of the Emperor Profound Realm. Yet the higher he climbed, the steeper the path became. His experience gain crawled now, each strike filling barely a tenth of the body's growth.
A grin curved his lips. If that's the cost, then I'll just keep going.
Granz's eyes narrowed as he circled his opponent. Who are these mortals? Ordinary humans cannot wield such power… so just what are they?
Their battle had raged for some time. Yet Yun Che had done little but defend, parrying and evading with deliberate precision. Worse, he often let Granz's strikes land, as though testing his own endurance. With each blow, the boy grinned, excitement flashing in his eyes. The same punches that once nearly crushed him now left him standing tall, unscathed, his body adapting with terrifying speed.
Finally, Yun Che stretched both arms, loosening his shoulders with casual ease. "Since you're about to die, I'll indulge you with an answer," he said, his tone carrying a dangerous edge. "We're Soul Reapers."
Granz froze, confusion flashing across his monstrous features. "Soul… Reapers?"
"Yeah." A smile tugged at Yun Che's lips. Then, in a low, cold voice: "The sworn enemies of hollows."
White bone spread across his face as his hollow mask snapped into place. His aura flared violently, dark and suffocating, as his strength surged. Without hesitation, Yun Che vanished from sight and reappeared with a vicious strike, forcing Granz onto the defensive.
Granz's eyes widened. Every swing from this boy now carried the weight of destruction—far stronger than his "human" form. The air quaked as their blades and claws collided, each impact sharper, heavier, deadlier than before.
"Pesky human!" Granz roared in fury, charging energy into his maw. "Then die!!!"
A massive dark-red cero roared forth, tearing the air as it hurtled toward Yun Che.
But Yun Che didn't retreat. His hollowed voice muttered low, carrying the name of the technique like a death sentence.
"Getsuga… Tenshō."
Black energy erupted along the length of Tensa Zangetsu, exploding outward in a devastating arc. His attack met the incoming cero head-on.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
The clash shook the world. Red and black collided, two titans of energy grinding against one another. The impact tore open the ground, sending trees, stones, and mountainsides flying as violent winds and lightning storms erupted from the collision.
In the distance, both Retsu and Little Fairy felt the shockwave. Their faces sharpened, and without a word they darted forward at full speed, rushing to Yun Che's side.
Granz snarled as he forced more power into his cero, but his eyes flickered with disbelief. The boy's Getsuga was holding—no, pushing back. Yun Che stood within the storm of destruction, his body unmoving, his eyes gleaming beneath the hollow mask.
For the first time, Granz felt it—he was not facing a mortal. He was facing a predator.
"I always wanted to test this." Then, he raised and charged Tensa Zangetsu once more before shot up another Getsuga. The second getsuga fused with the original resulting a bigger and more powerful getsuga was created. Granz was pushed back by his second attack and didn't even prepare as he saw Yun Che charged another strike. He immediately released another Getsuga towards Granz. The merged getsugas immediately pushed him to the distance, destroyed his cero and overwhelmed him on the spot. Making the chance of fighting back seems impossible.
"IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Granz howled, voice warped by pain and rage as Yun Che's Getsuga swallowed him whole. The black arc blotted out the sky, a living darkness that tore the air into a hurricane. Winds screamed, tearing trees from the ground and flattening the frost-scarred plain.
Little Fairy and Retsu slammed into the gale, their bodies steadied by haki. The wind tried to fling them back, but they planted their feet and held. Both stared up with wide eyes—never had they seen a Getsuga so vast, so complete that it seemed to swallow the heavens.
Through the storm, Yun Che felt another presence — a signature sliding along the edge of the blast. Granz had not been hit full-on; he had sidestepped enough to preserve some of himself, but even that was costly. The Getsuga had shredded vital organs; his form was fractured, scales like broken armor, regenerative speed crippled. He staggered beneath the weight of the wound.
Little Fairy's hand rose to rush to Yun Che's side, but a firm grip on her shoulder stopped her. Retsu's fox-form claws held her in place, eyes unreadable beneath the half-shifted mask.
"Sister Retsu," Little Fairy whispered.
"Sister YueChan," Retsu replied softly, voice edged with something like fond impatience, "let the young master finish this. From his stance… he intends to end it."
Little Fairy swallowed, questions burning at her tongue, but she nodded and watched instead. There were things one learned in the middle of a fight—answers would come later.
Granz, chest ragged and voice shredded to a rasp, stared at Yun Che. Blood streaked his muzzle; every inch of him screamed defeat. Then, as if the last thing keeping him from falling apart had snapped, the dragon's eyes flared with a ruinous heat.
"MORTAL!! YOU HAVE ANGERED ME LONG ENOUGH!!!" he roared, the sound tearing through the lingering hush after the Getsuga. The mountain basin itself responded—stones shuddered, the frozen earth split like glass.
Dark ichor began to coagulate along Granz's maw and chest, a savage blackness that pulsed with hungry light. It crawled outward into veins of shadow, spidering across his scales as he drew on something deeper, older than heralded techniques or common might. The air within a hundred paces went cold and metallic; the hairs on everyone's arms stood up.
Yun Che's jaw tightened. The hollow mask hugged his face; the last of the Getsuga's storm still danced in his wake as he breathed in slow and steady. He could feel the strain in his opponent—how much the dragon had burned to conjure whatever final surge was forming.
Around them, the world held its breath. Little Fairy's Frozen Cloud Barrier flared brighter, a crystal dome bracing for impact. Retsu's three tails coiled like a predator ready to strike. Kon and Cang Yue pressed themselves against the broken stone, eyes wide, every instinct warning flight—but no one moved. This was the moment where battles ended or escalated into cataclysm.
Granz reared back, gathering the last of his ruined strength. The black energy in him swelled until it became a living shadow, then cracked into a howl of pure force that bent the very light.
Yun Che's lips curled into a hard, narrow smile beneath the mask. He felt the thrill of the fight—wounds, exhaustion, and the cold clarity of someone who had chosen to go all the way. He raised Tensa Zangetsu once more; the air around the blade shimmered with the afterimage of his previous Getsuga.
"Finish me then," he said, voice low and steady. "Show me what you've got."
Granz answered with a war-cry that shattered the world, and the two forces—one born of abyssal wrath, one forged from hollowed steel—hurled themselves at each other. The collision came like the end of an age.
"Looks like it's about time I ended this." Yun Che's tone was calm, yet carried a finality that sent a shiver through the battlefield. Slowly, he raised two fingers before his chest. Spirit force began to gather, dense and heavy, coiling into his fingertips like a storm waiting to break.
Granz's instincts screamed. Whatever that mortal was preparing, it was fatal. With a snarl, he vanished in a blur of Sonido, reappearing before Yun Che with claws aimed for his throat.
CLANG!
Tensa Zangetsu intercepted the blow, sparks erupting as Yun Che held the dragon at bay. His hollow mask gleamed, his voice cutting through the clash as he began to chant.
"Seeping crest of turbidity…"
A sudden eruption of reiryoku surged outward, pressing down on the entire battlefield. The air thickened until it was hard to breathe, the sheer density of spirit power forcing Granz to recoil.
"Arrogant vessel of lunacy! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker! Disrupt sleep!"
The sky darkened in response. Clouds roiled overhead, swallowing the stars, as if the world itself recoiled from the words. An oppressive weight blanketed the earth, sinister and suffocating, like the descent of a demon king.
"Mortal!!! STOP!" Granz's voice cracked in desperation. He lashed out wildly, but Yun Che's blade held firm. The chant continued, unbroken.
"Crawling queen of iron! Eternally self-destructing doll of mud!"
The pressure grew unbearable. Little Fairy staggered, her knees threatening to give out under the crushing spiritual gravity. She clung to Retsu for support, eyes wide in disbelief. This wasn't just a technique—this was a world-ending curse. Yet she forced herself to watch, desperate to understand the spell warping the heavens around them.
"Unite! Repulse! Fill with soil… and know your own powerlessness!"
The air split. One by one, colossal black boxes materialized, each crowned with a cross-shaped spear. They multiplied endlessly, spreading like a plague as they converged upon Granz.
"No… no… NO! PLEASE!!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!" Granz roared, thrashing in panic. His once-proud form—the apex of his race—now trembled in naked terror.
Yun Che's voice dropped to a low growl, final and merciless.
"Way of Destruction No. 90—Kurohitsugi."
The towering obsidian coffin slammed shut around Granz, its walls etched with writhing shadows. A storm of black spears erupted inward, impaling everything trapped within. The sound was drowned out by the shrieking winds as the box sealed completely, blotting out sight and sound alike.
From the distance, Kon and Cang Yue froze as the monolithic prison rose into the sky. Even from where they stood, the sight was inescapable. A black tomb for a dragon.
Little Fairy's breath hitched as realization struck her. This was the same spell that felled the Menos days ago… but this—this was not the same. This was the perfected form, magnitudes stronger, devastating enough to erase even a dragon.
The battlefield fell silent, save for the hum of the black coffin devouring its prisoner.
"Why is everyone going so overkill on these guys?" Kon muttered, his little plush body trembling despite himself. "First Yue-chan freezes a dragon solid, then Retsu blasts one with a damn doomsday ball, and now Yun Che pulls out a tower of death. Seriously… did those dragons piss them off that much?" Just recalling each move sent a chill racing through his stuffing.
Beside him, Cang Yue remained silent, her lips slightly parted. Her eyes followed the towering black coffin as it stood ominously against the sky. Deep inside, she wondered if she could ever wield power like that—something that could reshape the very battlefield with a single strike. The thought both terrified and inspired her.
The coffin shuddered.
From every direction, black spears pierced through its walls, stabbing relentlessly at the prisoner inside. The sound was muffled, smothered beneath the crushing weight of spiritual energy. Yun Che stood firm, mask gleaming, his presence unreadable.
Then—snap.
The sharp crack of his fingers echoed through the silence. The colossal black box began to fracture and peel apart, shadows unraveling as though the sky itself exhaled. Slowly, the oppressive weight lifted. The clouds dissipated, and with them the suffocating spiritual pressure that had blanketed the world.
As the last fragments of the coffin faded, Granz's form came into view—or what was left of it. His once-mighty body was riddled with holes, shadows writhing through his broken frame. For a moment, his eyes flickered with the last trace of defiance… before they dulled completely. His body disintegrated into ash, scattering into the wind.
The battlefield fell into a heavy silence.
Yun Che lowered his arm, his hollow mask still in place, the black aura of Kurohitsugi fading from his form. He didn't speak, but the message was clear enough: the fight was over.
================
[Ding…Congratulation host for defeating Granz, Fifth Level Tyrant Profound Realm Hollow. Experience points +...]
[Host has leveled up]
[Host has leveled up]
[Host has leveled up]
[Host has leveled up]
[Host has leveled up]
[Ding… Host's current cultivation is at Grand Perfection of Sky Profound Realm.]
================
[Ding… Host cannot proceed in cultivation until the required main mission is completed. However, all experience gained will be stacked and restored once the mission is cleared. Host's companions are also bound by this rule.]
================
The notification echoed in Yun Che's mind, and for once, he froze. His hollow mask flickered as his body stiffened midair, stunned as though lightning had struck him.
"Wait—what? My cultivation's stuck?!" His distorted hollow voice boomed across the battlefield, startling even the quiet winds left in Kurohitsugi's wake. "What mission?! Don't mess with me!"
=================
[Ding… Cultivation Unlock Mission triggered: Complete the main story mission — Travel to the Illusory Demon Realm.]
=================
Yun Che's eye twitched violently. That name… it rang like a bell. His mind instantly recalled the novel's storyline, the arc where Yun Che was supposed to meet his family in the Demon Realm. "My… home realm?" His face darkened. "So you're telling me—I'm locked at Peak Sky Profound until then?!"
================
[Affirmative.]
================
"DAMN IT!!!!" Yun Che roared, stomping the ground like an enraged child throwing a tantrum. The impact cracked the stone beneath his boots, shockwaves scattering the lingering dust. His hollows eyes glared at the sky, but no answer came.
Little Fairy blinked at the outburst, her normally stoic expression slipping into quiet confusion. She had just witnessed him obliterate a Hollow with a forbidden kido spell that shook the heavens, only to see him sulking and stomping like… a brat.
Retsu, on the other hand, couldn't hold back. She let out a soft giggle, her lips curving into an amused smile. The contrast between the terrifying Soul Reaper who had just summoned a towering coffin of death and the boy now whining about his cultivation was too much. "Honestly, Young Master… only you could make overkill look cool one moment, and childish the next."
Yun Che groaned dramatically, clutching his head. "Something screw me over. Seriously, I'm gonna explode before I even reach that realm!"
The tension of battle finally unraveled, and in its place, a strange mix of relief and humor filled the air. After all, the three terrifying enemies had been annihilated… even if their strongest fighter was currently sulking about "mission locks."