The Crimson Laurel and the Cold Truth

“Your Highness~” Qiu Yue’s voice, though outwardly sweet, sent a shiver down one’s spine.

A singular, icy blue possessiveness burned within her, driving every one of her actions.

She extended an arm formed of congealed blood, its cold, viscous fingertips tracing a delicate, chilling path across Ji Xue’s cheek.

“Your Highness, as a royal princess, the world’s treasures are yours for the taking. Why covet what is mine? Anything else you desire, I can procure for you.”

For some inexplicable reason, Qiu Yue suddenly proposed a trade, her tone laced with a barely perceptible plea.

Qiu Yue’s power was despair-inducing; Ji Xue’s newly acquired strength seemed utterly fragile before her.

Cruel and bloodthirsty, cold and merciless.

In the past, Ji Xue would have been utterly terrified.

Her teeth would chatter, and she would disgracefully abandon all dignity, compromising to evade excruciating pain.

She was delicate, noble, and untouchable by harm.

Until—she met Lin Mo.

Until she found the one she loved.

“He… he is not an object!” Ji Xue’s silver teeth ground together, each word forced out, laced with defiance and fury.

Even with her crimson eyes unable to see Qiu Yue’s expression, twisted away by the other woman’s forceful grip, she conveyed her unwavering resolve to the madwoman through her voice.

“He is not yours! He is mine!”

‘Snap—’

A horrifying crunch echoed once more across the desolate ruins.

Agony, like steel needles, pierced her nerves.

Ji Xue’s cheeks turned ghastly pale from the torment and suffocation, veins bulging at her temples and forehead, and her breathing grew incredibly labored.

“Yours?” Qiu Yue cackled, “How could you possibly think—”

“No, I should be asking you why you believe he could ever be yours!? Can’t you see how terrified he is of you? Can’t you see how much he loathes you? Even if everyone else in the world perished, he would never choose to be with you! He would rather wander, rather be utterly alone, than stay near a delusional fool like you with your sick obsession!”

“You’re nothing but a madwoman consumed by your own fantasies!”

The power in the blood-red arm intensified abruptly!

“Snap!” A clearer, more horrific crack erupted from Ji Xue’s neck.

Her consciousness began to blur, and the resistance of her ethereal blue flames visibly weakened.

Excruciating pain gnawed at her will, as darkness steadily consumed the edges of her vision.

“If you hadn’t bewitched him, why would he be like this?! A dignified royal princess, stealing my property and now trying to deny it?! I tell you, without you—”

“Even then… there would be Liu Ruyan…” Ji Xue’s throat rasped out a hoarse, desperate cry, “Without… Liu Ruyan… there would still be… someone else. Just… never you…”

‘Twist it! Snap the neck of this wicked, seductive woman!’

‘Make her stop this madness!’

‘Forget the family!’

‘Forget the schemes!’

‘Forget becoming empress!’

‘She must die!’

‘She must die!’

‘She must!’

‘Die!’

Spiritual energy surged in Qiu Yue’s hand as she gathered all her strength, intending to crush the head still attached to that defiant mouth.

She unleashed her power with a sudden surge!

But in the very next instant!

A black dagger suddenly shot forth! Qiu Yue was instantly alarmed!

‘How could that dagger, wreathed in tendrils of black mist—’

As Qiu Yue stepped past Ji Xue, Liu Ruyan, whose vibrant beauty had faded to a withered, skeletal form, now stumbled to her feet.

With her emaciated fingers, she mustered every ounce of her strength and spiritual energy, grasping the dagger and hurling it towards Qiu Yue.

At that moment, Ji Xue also spoke, a cold sneer twisting her lips: “If… he truly cared for you… would he have fled?”

Deep within her hollow pupils, those words struck the twisted, insane abyss of silence like a colossal meteorite, unleashing a tidal wave of turmoil.

“I… I will make you die!”

“No, I will make you die!”

Ethereal blue cold flames erupted violently from the depths of her meridians!

A bone-chilling cold swept through her body, finally and silently rendering the invading scarlet threads dormant and ethereal.

The previous exchange had, in fact, merely been a ploy to buy time, allowing her to burn away the threads that had permeated her body!

The cost, however, was immense: blood streamed from her seven orifices, and the whites of her eyes were now stained crimson with gore.

Splat!

Ji Xue’s blood-stained hand abruptly seized the dagger as it tore through the air—

Viscous, tar-like black mist coiled up the blade, fiercely corroding her arm.

An agonizing pain, as if ten thousand souls were devouring her heart, exploded within her, like countless poisoned ice shards piercing her very soul!

“Urgh—!” A suppressed roar tore from her throat, yet her eyes held an exquisite beauty.

The ethereal blue flames in her palm surged once more!

Extreme cold, infused with the tyrannical might of destructive spiritual energy, erupted and violently spread from her arm as its epicenter—whoosh, crack!

The blood-red web suspended in mid-air instantly froze solid!

The threads that had previously emerged from Qiu Yue now became an absolute cage, trapping her.

Yet, several threads fiercely broke free, piercing through Ji Xue’s wrist with incredible speed, tearing her tendons!

Ji Xue’s face instantly drained of color in shock.

She tried to freeze her hand, but her mastery over the transformation of spiritual energy was far from perfect.

She lacked the ability to materialize spiritual energy and bind the dagger to her hand.

She was cold, yet she was fire.

There was no time to freeze it!

Ultimately, the dagger, returned by Liu Ruyan’s last vestiges of spiritual energy, still clattered to the ground.

Her final winning trump card was lost.

‘I’m sorry!’

A single stream of bloody tears slowly traced its path from Ji Xue’s eye.

She… couldn’t help the one she loved.

She… was still—as weak as ever.

Then, in that very instant!

A continuous, sky-shattering hum resonated throughout heaven and earth.

Above the words “Rankings” at the very top of the Myriad Forms Score Stele—“Day Four.”

The three-day competition had concluded.

At this moment, Qiu Yue dominated the scoreboards, surpassing all others to claim the title of “Champion.”

Meanwhile, “Lin Wan’er’s” score remained at the very bottom, a persistent “0”!

She had won.

A grotesque laugh, like dry wood snapping, rumbled from the depths of her throat, as waves of blood surged from Qiu Yue’s fractured right arm.

Tossing Ji Xue aside like refuse, she turned her gaze to the score stele and slowly approached it.

It was done.

In the end, she had trampled over a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood to claim this crimson-stained laurel!

Lin Mo was finally hers again.

He belonged to her once more.

She would re-educate him, make him fall in love with her again, desire her again—more intensely than ever before, loving her more deeply than he ever had!

Upon the scorched earth, she spread her arms wide, a sinister smile blossoming amidst the bloody mist.

She waited.

Waiting for the beam of light to summon her back.

She closed her eyes, resting and savoring her victory.

A quarter of an hour passed, yet there was no movement.

Nothing changed.

Only scorching flames suddenly swept away the preceding cold, as the charred earth cracked open, and molten lava slowly flowed beneath the surface.

Pillars of molten rock erupted from the cracks, scattering brilliantly like fireworks in the air.

Specks of “silver frost” drifted through the air, eerie and silent.

Instinctively, she watched two translucent “ice petals” spiral down into her palm—

Snow…?

The moment they touched.

The intensely cold objects erupted with a terrifying heat, capable of annihilating spiritual energy!

Qiu Yue’s palm was met with a sizzling sound and searing pain, as if branded by a hot iron!

A flash of crimson!

She retreated several meters in haste!

The newly congealed blood-red palm on her severed wrist was actually corroded through by the “ice petals,” leaving a small, charred hole!

The residual crimson liquid hissed, steaming into a thick, putrid, sweet-smelling smoke.

She sensed something was amiss!

She whirled around, only to realize that Ji Xue and Liu Ruyan had vanished without a trace.

She understood instantly.

The one she loved most had arrived.

The astonishment slowly faded from her face as she deliberately spread her arms wide, ready to embrace her beloved: “You’re here~”

Lin Mo’s entrance was anything but grand; he simply emerged from a thicket of bushes.

He wore no expression, neither indignation nor fear.

Any trace of love for her had vanished from his face without a trace.

“Mo…?” Her saccharine, venomous voice trembled perceptibly, uncontrollably, for the first time—a sound like a dream, or perhaps disbelief laced with questioning.

Qiu Yue’s heart ached intensely.

Lin Mo’s love for her had truly vanished.

Lin Mo regarded her as a stranger, a complete unknown, and spoke dispassionately: “Are you ready? Or should I wait a little longer for you?”

“You… won’t strike immediately?” Qiu Yue clung to a final shred of hope, wishing to discern a flicker of fear or uncontrollable rage in his ink-dark eyes.

But… there was nothing.

“I’ll wait for you a little while, because I refuse to give you any more excuses, Qiu Yue.” Lin Mo stated calmly, “I want to make it absolutely clear how much I detest you.”