The Last One (1)
The clear sky shifted abruptly, dark clouds churning as a thunderbolt tore through the heavens and struck the crowd. Lin Qianshuang yanked back her hand, staring aghast at the scorched crack beneath her feet. The still-gathering stormclouds coiled ominously overhead, their electric glare marking her as a dimensional anomaly—a blight the universe seemed determined to purge.
So the Heavenly Dao’s throwing a tantrum over this? She nearly laughed. All I did was tweak fate’s strings—let the guilty face their due while shielding an innocent fool from calamity. The cosmic ledger’s balanced, isn’t it? She crunched defiantly into another apple, juice dripping down her wrist. Did I really deserve divine wrath just for putting that insufferable scumbag in his place?
Lin bit viciously into the fruit’s core, muttering through the crunch, “Can’t even handle a minor course correction. Pathetic.” Above, the clouds pulsed like an angry wound. That idiot Liang Jingxuan’s still your precious Favoured One – immortal to all but meddlers like me. Not like I’ve challenged your authority. So impatient to erase a loose thread?
A pillar of violet-gold light engulfed the near-corpse lashed to the sacrificial pillar. Within the brilliance, a sinuous horned dragon spiraled upward, emerald serpentine eyes burning Lin’s likeness into their gaze before vanishing into roiling stormwalls.
The crowd gaped as Liang Jingxuan dissolved into the ether. Xiao Lanle’s defended against light with the Plain Inquiry Sword—arcane forces hurled her backward into the panicked masses. A senior brother lunged, barely catching his junior sister before she crumpled to the stones.
Lin Qianshuang stared at the roiling clouds of tribulation thickening overhead and cursed inwardly, the half-bitten apple slipping from her mouth to thud on the ground. Old man Heavenly Dao, I was joking! This joke’s gone too far!
It was the second time she’d seen such a monstrous storm since her ascension to the demon infant stage. Last time, Xuan Luowan had sacrificed a tail and a century of cultivation to shield her. Though not a full tribulation, the looming tempest pulsed with lethal intent.
Her chest tightened at the memory. Fishing the Cold Cicada Zither from her storage jade slip, she slipped toward an empty clearing. Staying would endanger the clueless onlookers—better to face this alone.
A hand yanked her sleeve. The Plain Inquiry Sword materialized before her, its blade barring escape.
Xiao Lanle noticed Lin Qianshuang’s grim expression, a faint sense of foreboding stirring within her. “Senior Sister, where are you going?” she asked.
Lin Qianshuang pointed at the clouds of tribulation roiling overhead and pushed aside Xiao Lanle’s sword. “It’s dangerous here. These clouds are targeting me. Junior Sister Xiao, you should keep your distance.”
Staring at the ominous mass of stormclouds trailing her senior sister, Xiao Lanle froze. “Have you reached the late stage of cultivation…? Are you about to break through? But I’ve never heard of a Golden Core cultivator triggering such a tribulation.”
Lin Qianshuang rummaged frantically through her storage jade slip, but no defensive artifacts surfaced. Defeated, she pulled out a stack of blank yellow talismans and scrawled hundreds of mid-grade lightning-warding charms with magic energy, plastering them haphazardly across her body.
Desperate measures for desperate times. Better these than nothing.
Xiao Lanle watched as Lin Qianshuang transformed into a shambling, talisman-covered oddity—like some yellow-furred forest spirit. The tension and gloom weighing on her heart abruptly dissolved. She faltered, then burst into laughter.
Lin Qianshuang was baffled by Xiao Lanle’s sudden laughter but pressed on urgently, “Junior Sister, this distance is safest—don’t come closer. If the thunderclouds strike you and harm Xiao Wan’s soul within the Cold Cicada Zither, all our efforts will be wasted.”
After painstakingly stabilizing the fragile spirit, she refused to risk its dissipation. With solemn care, Lin handed the zither to Xiao Lanle, locking gazes with her. “This zither is my most cherished possession. If I fall, deliver it to the Tianshu City Lord. Ensure she seals it within the Treasure Pavilion.”
Xiao Lanle caught the Cold Cicada Zither and—with Lin Qianshuang staring in surprise—tossed it to a nearby disciple. Then she grabbed Lin’s wrist and pulled her onto the hovering Plain Inquiry Sword, soaring to a nearby hillside. From her storage jade slip, she summoned a lightning-warding artifact gifted by the Lingxiao Sword Sect’s leader during the Jinshui Lake competition, forming a barrier around them.
No sooner had they landed than a thundercloud surged from the horizon. It erupted into a mushroom-shaped burst of light, crashing down onto the barrier above Lin Qianshuang’s head.
A single thundercloud crashed down, its force shaking the Royal Thunder Magic Treasure in Xiao Lanle’s grip until hairline fractures spread across its surface.
Lin Qianshuang saw the danger spiraling out of control. Xiao Lanle couldn’t escape the storm’s radius, so she pivoted, yanking her junior sister into her arms. Unleashing a torrent of demonic energy, she shielded Xiao Lanle with her own body—flesh and blood her last defense. Unlike Xiao Wan with her life-sparing tails, one misstep here could doom us all.
Thunderclouds erupted into searing projectiles, hammering the weakening barrier. Lin’s demonic energy faltered, her reserves spent. A lightning strike slammed her back-first into the ground. Blood seeped from her pores as her human guise unraveled: inky hair gave way to tufted beast ears, dark irises shifting back to their natural glacial blue.
Half-collapsed on one arm, Lin stared down through blurred vision at Xiao Lanle, still straining to reinforce the barrier. A twisted magic seal burned across her forehead. Swallowing the iron tang of blood, she hissed, “Go! The clouds are still coalescing—I can hold them. But if you stay, you’ll be the death of me.”
Xiao Lanle’s gaze drifted over Lin’s transformed features—the azure eyes, the flicking ears half-buried in disheveled hair. Curiosity overwhelmed caution; she reached out, fingertips brushing Lin’s bloodied cheek. That tear mole on her left eye only sharpened the unearthly allure of her now-feral face.
“Senior Sister,” she murmured, wonder threading her voice, “what are you? What else have you hidden?”
Xiao Lanle’s hand brushed the sweat from Lin Qianshuang’s forehead, her gaze fixed on the roiling thunder above with a resolve steelier than her natal sword, which now materialized as a blade of light overhead.
“Senior Sister, you think I can’t tell? You pushed me away because you’re at your limit. Even if this kills us, I’m staying.”
“Alive or dead—you don’t get to leave me.”
Before Lin could protest, Xiao Lanle crushed their lips together. The kiss was fierce, desperate, all teeth and shared breath as they fumbled backward. Lin felt the world flip—suddenly she was beneath Xiao Lanle, the younger woman’s body arched protectively over hers.
The Plain Inquiry Sword spun defensively above them, its fragile gleam clashing with the storm. Lin’s vision swam as claws threatened to burst from her fingertips, her beastly traits shredding the last remnants of her human disguise. Gritting her teeth, she thrust a hand upward. Her magic core blazed, churning demonic energy into a shield that pulsed weakly against the barrage.
“Burn your magic core, and you’ll be drained dry within half an hour. Even if you withstand the heavenly lightning, your cultivation will be obliterated.” The voice carried a blade’s edge as a violet silhouette materialized above them. “How amusing, Jieyu Gongzi—your devotion to this City Lord’s partner surpasses even mine.”
Mu Weiyin’s brocade robes streamed behind her as she appeared beneath the thunderclouds. Her obsidian gaze lingered on Xiao Lanle’s arm wrapped around Lin Qianshuang, a faint crease forming between her brows before she sharply averted her eyes. Eighteen radiant sigils erupted from her palms, slamming upward into the storm. The colliding energies dissolved into embers, scattering like dying stars.