The Maid’s Resentment and a Fated Reunion

“It seems that the power that is causing this secret realm to expand is coming from these angels.”

Chris hesitated. The angels’ imposing presence was terrifying, and even she had to consider whether she should continue forward.

Destitute as she was now, with her sister relying on her to earn their livelihood, how could she possibly retreat?

While her own strength would undoubtedly allow her to escape, Bai Wanting remained a concern.

The young woman’s power was simply insufficient to confront such an adversary.

With this thought, Chris turned to Bai Wanting and spoke.

“How are you feeling? If you’re uncomfortable, you can wait for me here.”

Bai Wanting shook her head, for while a flicker of apprehension did cross her, how could she falter when fetching medicine for Xiaoqian was of such paramount importance?

“It’s nothing, I’m just a little dizzy.”

Chris gave a slight nod. Just as she prepared to press onward, an angel, unannounced, had silently drifted into the vicinity of the three.

Its vacant eyes swiftly fixed upon the young women.

A tearing sound rent the air, as reddish-brown lightning, accompanied by a deafening crack, hurtled towards them.

‘Could a body so utterly devoid of will truly exude such a formidable aura?’

The thought inevitably arose: how truly formidable would an angel in its prime be? Chris had never personally engaged in combat with an angel, having only heard tales of Aile ascending to the heavens alone, leaving the subsequent chapters of that saga shrouded in mystery.

Escape was no longer an option; the only course of action was to meet the attack head-on.

“Hah!”

Chris plunged her sword into the earth, and a luminous shield swiftly enveloped the trio. The blinding lightning clashed against the radiant barrier, ultimately dissipating into nothingness.

The angel’s form vanished in an instant, prompting Chris to cry out in alarm as she whirled around.

Though Bai Wanting attempted to parry with her sword, her cultivation proved far too weak, and she was instantly thrown aside.

From an unnervingly close proximity, the angel transmuted its arm into a blade, which, accompanied by an unsettling surge of purple lightning, plunged into Chris’s chest.

“Oh, Light!”

Yet, Chris did not recoil. Instead, a brilliant golden radiance erupted around her, and countless golden swords materialized, hovering at her sides. With a fierce resolve, she impaled both the angel and herself, transforming them into a gruesome tableau akin to a pincushion.

The angel gradually dissolved into a swirl of black mist, then vanished.

“Miss Chris! You!”

Bai Wanting gasped, drawing a sharp breath, and was about to rush forward when Eliza intercepted her.

“She’ll be fine.”

“Huh?! She’s, she’s become a pincushion! How could she be alright…?”

Even a true pincushion would have looked less dire.

Then, her eyes widened in astonishment.

“Eh? The wounds, they’re gone!”

The wounds on Chris’s body began to mend, gradually fading from sight. She straightened up, a grumble escaping her lips.

“Ouch! It’s been ages since I’ve felt such pain…”

“This angel truly was terrifying.”

Even for her, a lingering tremor of apprehension remained.

To have only just encountered one angel and already been forced to resort to her ultimate measure was unsettling.

[Eliza was, in fact, a young woman with no talent for cultivation.]

[Yet, despite this, she possessed an extraordinarily rare innate magic.]

[Twin Souls]

[This magic orchestrated complete synergy, affecting everything from their levels and magical power to their very life force.]

[Consequently, neither could perish alone.]

[Similarly, when one utilized magic, the other was rendered incapable of doing so.]

[This was also one of the reasons Mingqian could depart without worry.]

“It’s actually illusion magic, you see,” she explained.

Bai Wanting offered a slight nod. While a nagging suspicion suggested the situation was far more complex than the young woman implied, this was hardly the moment for doubt.

As she cast her gaze around, the sight of numerous angels still aimlessly wandering imbued her eyes with a faint, yet palpable, shade of despair.

‘Could this, then, be fate’s cruel decree, preventing her from saving Xiaoqian?’

How could this be? Her heart burned with anxiety, yet she found herself utterly bereft of any viable solution.

A vague premonition settled upon her: even with Chris’s exceptional strength, these formidable adversaries seemed insurmountable, rendering a swift breakthrough impossible.

Moreover, if these creatures remained undefeated, this secret realm would merely continue its ceaseless expansion.

“Miss Chris, is there any way…” she began, turning to the young woman, only to find her expression had shifted to one of profound seriousness.

Chris detected a faint yet undeniable sense of familiarity emanating from the angel.

‘There could be no mistake; it was that… that wretched woman!’

Furthermore, the recently manifested demonic beasts, the familiar flora, and even these very angels all seemed to converge, revealing a chilling truth to her.

If her memory served, those demonic beasts typically lurked deep within the forest’s heart.

“Miss Chris? What’s wrong?”

Bai Wanting inquired.

“It’s nothing, just a moment of disorientation.”

This place seemed to be a fragment of their world, yet these scattered clues alone were insufficient to confirm her hypothesis.

By all accounts, her strength was still insufficient to truly contend with angels. Yet, even these angels, stripped of their divine souls and with half their wings torn away, already presented such a formidable challenge.

Upon closer inspection, the angels’ vacant expressions varied wildly, yet an undeniable emotion—fear—permeated them all.

Their shattered wings appeared to have been violently ripped from their backs.

An intricate tapestry of emotions was painted across those grotesque faces.

Bai Wanting dared not fix her gaze upon the inexplicable beings; merely sensing their presence sent tremors through her spiritual sea.

Things of such immense power were not to be directly beheld.

This was no Eden; on the contrary, it was hell itself.

“What exactly happened here?”

Just as Chris was contemplating a tactical retreat to devise a more comprehensive strategy, an unexpected anomaly erupted.

The roaming angels, as if on cue, abruptly ceased their movements. Their gazes, unblinking and piercing, locked onto the trio, sending a shiver down Chris’s spine and making her hair stand on end.

“Sister! Protect Miss Bai Wanting!”

“Understood! You be careful!”

In the very next instant, the angels soared high, their guttural roars echoing as they plunged towards Chris.

The corporeal forms yearned for souls; they appeared to be irresistibly drawn to the vibrant life forces of the three women.

‘Hmph! It’s merely resentment! And who among us doesn’t harbor such feelings?’

“Come on, you small fry, let me show you the resentment of a maid abandoned by her master!”

Chris wasted no time, drawing her sword with swift precision.

With her first strike, she repelled the encroaching angels. Her second sword traced a barrier around her, while her third unleashed a scorching light, brilliant as the sun, instantly scattering the dark clouds that loitered overhead. Where her blade swept, angels plummeted like moths drawn to a fatal flame.

With her final, decisive strike, she amassed every ounce of her magical power, summoning countless light swords to surge forth like a Myriad Swords Returning to the Source (TL Note: A powerful martial arts technique where numerous swords are summoned to attack a single target), engulfing the angelic horde.

Silence descended.

Chris wiped a bead of cold sweat from her brow. It had been an age since she had expended her magic with such life-or-death abandon.

“Hmph… that’s all there is to it.”

“Right now, I’m terrifyingly strong!”

Just as Chris was about to withdraw her sword with a flourish, a disquieting aura emanated from the near distance.

What appeared were faces so distorted they were unrecognizable. They bore no wings on their backs, yet the power radiating from their forms far surpassed anything the previous angels could muster.

“Are you serious?!”

“How can there be a second phase?!”

Chris cried out in dismay. She was completely drained of magic; if only she had known, she would have conserved some for an escape!

“Is this even possible?!”

Before Chris could even finish her thought, a surge of lightning hurtled towards her.

“Flying Sword!”

Bai Wanting, with a swift flick of her hand, sent her sword soaring instantly before Chris. The lightning flashed, and the blade shattered with a sharp crack.

Chris seized that fleeting instant, narrowly evading the lightning strike.

“Tha- thanks!”

While this immediate crisis had been averted, it remained clear they could not ultimately overcome their foes.

As Chris gritted her teeth, desperately searching for a solution, another anomaly manifested.

A faint, ethereal silhouette materialized in the sky.

The phantom appeared to be both a girl and a woman, simultaneously.

“What is that?”

Bai Wanting exclaimed, her gaze fixed on the ethereal form.

The phantom’s form solidified into a corporeal being in an instant. Her gaze immediately fell upon Bai Wanting—no, more precisely, upon the finger that had once gently caressed Mingqian.

That familiar countenance left Chris utterly speechless, frozen in stunned silence.

“Found… you.”

“I… finally… found… you.”

“Ah…”

After countless trillions of years, the one she had yearned for, dreamt of, day and night.

Even if it were but the faintest wisp of his aura, she knew, with absolute certainty, she could never be mistaken.

Her sun, her light, the one she had loved first, and would love last.

The golden-haired young woman’s face broke into an impossibly radiant smile, an expression both tender and utterly captivating.

Only him, solely him, it could be no other!

“Teacher, I knew you could never abandon me.”

“A mere few tens of trillions of years of punishment, Aile has always been searching for you.”

“This time, this time I will absolutely never let you go again.”

“No matter who, no matter what, until death… no, not even death will part us again.”

Time itself seemed to halt.

With a single step, all the angels instantly dissolved into black mist and vanished.

Her gaze bore intensely into Bai Wanting’s finger, and for a moment, she yearned to sever it and take it with her, but ultimately, she refrained.

She simply hugged her own body tightly in the void, savoring the teacher’s lingering aura, and remained seated in a daze for a long time.

With a gentle wave of her hand, a pitch-black orb silently slipped into Bai Wanting’s pocket.

It would surely reach that person’s hand.