Volume 6, Chapter 49 – Why Is This Little One Reacting So Strangely?

“Master, I strongly advise you not to make any rash moves.”

Renoval curled his lips into a smug, thoroughly satisfied smile.

In his plan, Bai Xingwu was one of the best possible tools for keeping Bai Lianyue constrained. The original arrangement was for Polarvitan to take control of Xing Wu once Master had been contained within the barrier and use her as leverage.

What he hadn’t anticipated was stumbling across the little one directly, before the operation had even begun. Xing Wu had apparently tried to follow Master to Clavino — but her newborn body was far too fragile, and she had collapsed just outside the city walls. And so he’d simply picked her up right there.

You search high and low and find nothing; then it falls right into your lap without any effort at all.

“Heh heh~”

A pleased little chuckle drifted from the green-haired man’s lips.

And the moment that chuckle sounded, killing intent swept through the black barrier like something solid given form. The ice-blue curse power around Bai Lianyue churned wildly, nearly condensing into a physical mass. The jade-and-silver-white gradient of her long hair stirred without any wind. Her dark crimson eyes were webbed with bloodshot lines — the mark of absolute fury. The image of Xing Wu’s throat in his grip cut into her like the sharpest of blades, shattering every last shred of her restraint.

“Renoval! You little— are you looking to die?!”

Her voice wasn’t loud, but the aura that radiated outward with it sent the barrier walls ringing with a low hum. The black thorns erupted to their absolute limit in an instant, sending the black-robed figures and Xi Xuan flying once more — the razor barbs nearly tore clean through their bodies. The White Horizon Sword in her hand blazed with piercing cold light; ice-blue curse power flowed along the blade, carving icy trails through the air. The terrifying pressure plunged the city districts of Clavino below into a brief, stunned silence — even the shrieks of the Vassals of Sea’s Corrupted Beasts faded by a few degrees.

The Malevolence Lady’s one and only thought in this moment was to charge through, tear the barrier apart, and run her renegade disciple through with a single sword strike.

On his end, Renoval clearly felt the killing intent rolling off Bai Lianyue. His whole body trembled instinctively — and yet the smile on his face only grew smugger. He reminded her at an unhurried pace:

“Master, don’t make any moves~ Otherwise I can’t guarantee Xing Wu’s neck will be safe~”

At those words,

Bai Lianyue’s eyes narrowed. Her body was locked in place as though by invisible chains.

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“Rest assured — as long as you behave and stay inside the barrier, I promise I won’t harm a single hair on Xing Wu’s head.”

The hand Renoval had around Xing Wu’s throat eased ever so slightly, as though offering Bai Lianyue a morsel of “hope.”

But right then, Bai Lianyue suddenly froze.

The raging curse power around her ground to a halt in an instant. Her dark crimson eyes filled with sheer, disbelieving bewilderment — the killing intent itself dimmed by a few degrees. She just stood there, blinking in a daze.

It was a bit of an odd moment to notice, but Renoval felt it — that particular brand of adorable absentmindedness unique to his Master? It had, inexplicably, just surfaced right now.

???

Hm?

What’s going on with you, Master? he thought.

Following the Malevolence Lady’s gaze, he also glanced sideways at the Xing Wu in his grip —

— and completely froze as well.

“Hah??”

There was Xing Wu, tiny throat in his grip, her small body showing not a single sign of panicked struggle. Instead, she had reached into the pocket of her pink onesie and produced a miniature baby bottle — still holding a small amount of milky white liquid inside. She clutched it in her pudgy little hands, brought it to her lips, and began drinking from it with contented little glug glug sounds, entirely in her own world. Her tiny face was the picture of satisfaction, as though the killing intent surrounding her, the pressure of the barrier, the hand around her throat — none of it had anything to do with her at all.

More bizarrely still, even as she sipped from the bottle, she was peering up at Renoval with those big purple eyes, studying him with pure curiosity and not a shred of fear — more of a “what are you doing?” sort of puzzlement, as though she were looking at a strange toy.

“What…… what is this situation?”

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Renoval was a little dumbfounded. He had imagined Xing Wu crying, struggling — all of which would have served as useful leverage against Bai Lianyue. What he had absolutely not imagined was that this child, cherished above all else by his Master, held by the throat and utterly at his mercy, would be……. drinking from her baby bottle?!

The hand around her throat loosened a little more on its own. Xing Wu seized the opportunity to drink even more enthusiastically, her little head swaying slightly back and forth, seemingly savoring this rare opportunity for a “mid-battle snack.” The sheer oblivious sweetness of it was completely at odds with the tense battlefield around them — an absurdity so extreme it looped back around to surreal.

Well.

Somehow the entire tense atmosphere had just……. deflated.

Renoval’s brow twitched as he complained internally.

What can I say — truly the child of my Master.

Just as shamelessly unbothered as Master is. Absolutely ridiculous…….

However — right as Renoval was busy complaining — Bai Lianyue, hovering at the center of the barrier, appeared to have concluded her observations of the barrier’s structure. In the next instant, the elf girl snapped her hand upward. The White Horizon Sword, cloaked in ice-blue curse power, transformed into a blazing streak of light and was hurled at one of the Dawn Dominion Pillars outside the barrier.

“Hey?! Master!! Don’t do anything crazy!?!”

Renoval’s expression shifted sharply as he caught on. He hadn’t expected Bai Lianyue to suddenly attack a Dawn Dominion Pillar — not after he’d just issued his warning.

The White Horizon Sword moved with breathtaking speed, like a meteor cutting across the sky, carrying world-rending energy as it slammed into one of the pitch-black Dawn Dominion Pillars with devastating force.

“BOOM——!!!”

The thunderous explosion was deafening. The point of impact caved inward instantly, the dark crimson energy nodes flickering wildly before going dark. The entire massive pillar shuddered violently, its surface erupting in web-like fractures as wild surges of energy poured from the cracks and spread outward in all directions.

Simultaneously, Bai Lianyue’s gaze locked onto the black-robed figure inside the barrier closest to that pillar — the one resonating with its energy nodes. It was Moande. The same one whose skull she had blown apart earlier, only for him to regenerate.

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Bai Lianyue drove her curse power forward in one savage surge. The black thorns descended upon Moande like a torrent of striking vipers, coiling around him in an instant.

Before the ensnared Moande could react, the residual ice-blue curse power flooded through the thorns and poured into his body — detonating his internal energy nodes in a single instant.

“BANG——!!!”

Moande’s body was blown to pieces once again.

With the Dawn Dominion Pillar damaged and its corresponding energy node destroyed, the energy loop shattered. A gap appeared in the dark crimson patterns that had densely lined the black barrier wall — a crack barely half a meter wide — and beyond it: clear open sky.

“She actually tore an opening?!” Renoval’s eyes went wide, his dark green eyes flooded with disbelief.

He had labored over this barrier, wringing every last bit of ingenuity out of himself. It was a barrier dating from the Shenluo Empire era — one that should have been absolutely impenetrable. And yet Bai Lianyue had found its weak point in one strike. A weak point he himself hadn’t even noticed.

Master was always so scattered and scatterbrained in everyday life — so why was she this sharp when it actually mattered?!

But what came next shook Renoval even more.

The instant the gap appeared, Bai Lianyue’s figure dissolved into an ice-blue afterimage and slipped through the crack. She glanced back once at Xing Wu — still cradled in Renoval’s arms, still diligently working on her bottle — and a trace of helpless exasperation crossed those dark crimson eyes. Then, without the slightest hesitation, she turned away, blazed into a streak of ice-blue light, and vanished into the distance, hurtling in the direction of Wishaven.

??!!

Hah?

“Master!!?? You just……. just left like that??”

Renoval murmured to himself, his voice saturated with absolute, stupefied disbelief.

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She didn’t come after him. She didn’t even rescue Xing Wu.

She just left?

Am I…

Did I somehow capture the wrong person?

He blinked, and then turned to stare fixedly at the infant still in his grasp, as though searching her face for some clue.

Xing Wu, apparently sensing his stare, finally stopped with the bottle. She tilted her head up and looked at him with those big purple eyes — a look of unmistakable disdain — then smacked her little lips twice as if on instinct.

Looking at Xing Wu’s utterly guileless, blankly contemptuous little face, the stupefaction, fury, and frustration in Renoval’s heart twisted together and nearly erupted. He couldn’t work out why this child wasn’t afraid of him in the slightest. He couldn’t work out why Bai Lianyue would abandon her. All of it had defied his expectations entirely, punching gaping holes in his meticulously crafted plan.

Right in the middle of Renoval’s stunned silence, Xing Wu moved.

She suddenly raised one pudgy little fist, summoned every ounce of strength in her tiny body, and drove it squarely into Renoval’s cheek.

“Hm??”

“SMACK——!!”

—— “BOOM——!!!!” ——

Author Note

(P.S. New Year’s will bring a rare multi-chapter update.)