With Dispatch and Vigor

Bingying did not stop. She continued running for her life. Every step left a deep hole in the snow, and she dared not look back, terrified that she would see that nightmare-like figure.

Fate was always at its cruelest when people were most vulnerable. At that very moment, her foot slipped, and she fell to the ground.

Time seemed to stretch out. She could only watch helplessly as her body lost its balance and she pitched forward. The instant she hit the ground, she heard the dull crack of bone striking frozen earth, while the piercing cold tore through her thin clothes.

Of course, given her species’ natural traits, she did not actually feel the cold.

“No… please…”

Bingying staggered to her feet. Her instinct to survive drove her onward, toward the village. Its outline appeared and disappeared amid the driving snow. It was her only hope—but it might also become an even larger graveyard.

She did not want to die…

But could she really run into the village? There were even more villagers there. Her parents were there too…

If she had been able to calm down, Bingying might have thought of this. But at that moment, her mind held only one thought: run. Terror had completely swallowed her.

She was only a thirteen-year-old girl. No one could expect her to do any better.

The howling wind behind her was joined by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.

Bingying’s azure face instantly turned deathly pale. She knew all too well what that meant.

A flash of blue light appeared in her hand. She thrust it backward, and a wall of ice condensed behind her.

For someone her age to cast such a spell was already remarkable.

Just as the Guide had said, her talent was truly extraordinary. But in the face of such an overwhelming disparity in power, talent seemed so pale and insignificant.

In the next second, however, Bingying heard the fragile ice wall shatter behind her.

Before that unreasonable monster, every shred of hope was destroyed with effortless ease.

A tremendous force struck her from behind. Bingying felt her body suddenly become weightless, then she was sent flying forward. She slammed heavily into the ground and skidded across the snow, leaving behind a long trail.

The monster had already leapt high into the air. It landed in front of Bingying, and she saw its deformed feet.

As if lifting a chick, the monster grabbed Bingying and hoisted her into the air. Then it opened a bloody maw nearly a meter wide and prepared to swallow her whole.

Rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth filled the monster’s mouth. Foul-smelling slime dripped onto her face, carrying with it the stench of death.

There was no hope…

Was she really going to die?

Bingying did not even know what she was thinking anymore. She closed her eyes, and memories of the past seemed to flicker before her one by one, before everything finally sank into darkness.

It was over. Even the Guide was dead. Nothing could stop this monster. Soon, everyone in the village would be eaten.

How utterly hopeless…

Bingying squeezed her eyes shut.

Bingying squeezed her eyes shut, but after a moment, the pain she expected never came.

Her body suddenly became light again, and she fell to the ground.

She nervously opened her eyes. The monster had vanished without a trace. Only the disordered snow showed that anything had happened at all.

What had happened? Had that monster really disappeared?

Bingying looked around in confusion, but she could not find any trace of it.

Staggering, Bingying made her way back to the village.

“Bingying! You’re back!” Her parents hurried toward her.

“What happened?”

“What about the other villagers? And the Guide? Didn’t they go to destroy the monster? Why are you the only one who came back?” the villagers asked anxiously.

A wave of sorrow rose in Bingying’s heart. She buried herself in her parents’ arms and burst into tears. Faced with the villagers’ questions, she could only shake her head helplessly.

“Look! What’s that?”

At that moment, someone suddenly cried out in alarm. Everyone instinctively raised their heads toward the sky—

A vast sheet of flames blazed across the heavens, blotting out the sky. Its dense, fiery radiance even eclipsed the light of the star.

“My heavens… is that a divine miracle?”

Bingying lifted her head from her parents’ embrace and stared blankly at the gradually dissipating explosion of fire. For a long time, she could not say a word.

…

Wrapped in Aina’s magic, Xia Lun sped through space.

Before long, they burst out of the spatial turbulence and arrived at an unknown planet.

The planet before them was covered in ice and snow, presenting a pristine white landscape that was both sacred and beautiful.

From outer space, the planet appeared perfectly peaceful. But with a careful sweep of his consciousness, one could discover that terrifying disturbances had erupted across many parts of it.

The monsters that had split off from the body of the Chaos Demon God had already begun their invasion.

Aina slowly closed her eyes, then extended both hands and spread all ten fingers, as though sensing something.

Her crimson staff floated before her, radiating a dim, dark-red glow.

Suddenly, Aina’s eyes snapped open.

“Found them.”

Space rippled like the surface of a pond struck by a stone, and monsters of every shape and form began appearing out of thin air.

They were densely packed, arranged neatly in the void as though they were products displayed on a shop counter. Most of the monsters were between two and ten meters tall. Many still had ice crystals clinging to the corners of their mouths, while some remained frozen in the act of pouncing on their prey.

Aina had directly used the power of space to seize them from the planet before them.

It was a spectacular sight.

The creatures were far from docile. Though bound in the air by Aina, they continued to struggle and emit terrifying roars.

Then Aina’s fair little hand suddenly clenched into a fist.

The monsters were instantly compressed together, as though swallowed by a black hole.

Amid the ear-piercing sounds of flesh and bone being crushed, the deformed creatures—already little more than masses of flesh and bone—were compressed by an invisible giant hand into an even smaller lump of ground meat.

For some reason, Xia Lun thought of sausages.

The mass of flesh had been compressed to the extreme, yet it still seemed alive. It writhed slowly, as though it might split apart again at any moment.

“Disgusting.”

Aina gripped the crimson staff in her hand. Vast amounts of magic gathered around her, sending visible ripples through the vacuum.

“Hellfire Furnace.”

Flames ignited in the airless void.

Using magic as fuel, without any other factors interfering, the reaction burned more fiercely than it would have on the surface of any planet.

Xia Lun narrowed his eyes instinctively. The dazzling firelight was so bright that he could barely keep them open.

He had to raise a hand to shield himself from the radiance. Through the gaps between his fingers, he saw the mass of flesh twist violently within the flames, releasing a silent howl.

The firelight faded.

Not even a trace of ash remained from the enormous mass of flesh.

“Done.”

Aina seized Xia Lun’s hand again and said briskly, “Come on. We’re going to the next place.”