After what felt like an entire hour of silent hell, the ice around Su Xiaobai finally began to fracture.
Crack… Crack…
BOOM—!
The ice erupted.
Crimson Infernal flas surged from Su Xiaobai's dantian like a pissed-off dragon vomiting dignity, the frost shattered, crystalline shards scattered into the molten rock, and Su Xiaobai was spat out like a divine hairball onto scorching volcanic stone.
He landed face-first in lava-glowing rubble, groaning.
"Fucking finally…"
"Pipi?"
A cheerful squeal echoed.
His eyes snapped open.
"Vile beast, stay the fuck back—!"
He flinched as sothing warm and wet slapped against his thigh.
It wasn't magma.
It was a Qilin cub, nose twitching, eyes full of joy, tail wagging like it just found its favorite chew toy.
The thing wasn't tiny anymore.
From a distance, it looked palm-sized.
Up close?
One ter long, glowing like a divine furnace with dark erald fur, and ten tis more excited than it should've been.
Su Xiaobai looked ready to cry.
"I don't have the energy to babysit you right now, you glorified fire ferret…"
Then, inspiration hit.
He smirked.
"Lingxue, I got you a pet."
With a flick of his wrist, he unlocked the ring-world.
A beam of red-gold light spilled forth, and from it erged, Huo Lingxue.
Not in beast form.
But in all her curvaceous, red-haired glory.
Her two tails flicked behind her, one icy white and misting cold, the other blazing red and crackling heat.
Long crimson hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall of fla, and her breasts bounced with majestic weight that made even the Qilin cub take a reverent step back.
"Piii?" (Translation: Mommy?!)
It squealed in awe, as if witnessing the reincarnation of the Heavenly Goddess herself.
She landed gracefully beside him, completely unaffected by the heat, her bare feet resting casually on magma-scorched rock.
She looked around once, eyes calm.
Then down at him.
"…Su Xiaobai, what is this place?" Her eyes darted around, curious. The heat, if anything, felt like a blessing, divine, and perfect for strengthening her fire core.
Su Xiaobai blinked. "You're not even going to ask if I'm okay? What a traitorous pet."
Huo Lingxue's face flushed slightly. What's with this 'pet' nonsense?
Though… she was technically his pet.
She tilted her head and sighed.
"If you had died, I'd have sensed it—and probably died too. Stop being dramatic."
"…My ribs are cooked."
"Your thing's still twitching." She turned to the Qilin cub.
"What is this thing?"
The cub squealed again, wagging its tail and trying to climb her leg.
Her frosty tail flicked, the cub froze mid-leap, stunned by a wave of cold.
"Mine now."
She crouched down, patting it once on the head with gentle indifference.
"Good beast. Quiet."
The cub whimpered obediently.
Su Xiaobai collapsed again, half-dead.
"Of course it listens to you…" Su Xiaobai muttered, brow twitching. "It's your kind, after all. Sa-sa, just different beast."
Huo Lingxue's eye twitched.
Lynx.
Qilin.
Not even in the sa damn zoological scroll.
She was about to bite back, verbally or literally, but stopped herself. The man behind her was many things: battle freak, fla junkie, part-ti cultivator, full-ti tyrant.
If tomorrow he woke up and decided she was a phoenix… then she'd probably have to grow imaginary feathers, cluck like a chicken, and soar through the clouds just to entertain his spiritual delusions.
She exhaled... Again.
Defeat accepted.
Her power, still stuck at the peak of Soul Fusion Realm, wasn't enough to subdue the Qilin cub if it went feral.
But for now?
It was behaving.
And she was too.
Su Xiaobai tried to summon more of his companions but stopped.
Not here.
This place wasn't survivable for most. Only Zhao i and Lulu could maybe manage.
But Zhao i was still floating inside her flaming ball like so brooding egg, doing god-knows-what.
And Lulu… well…
She was still at the stage where she wasn't much help to him.
"Not helpful."
He groaned again.
The magma bubbled.
Huo Lingxue stood above him, radiant, while the Qilin cub sat obediently by her side like a puppy that had accidentally imprinted on a demoness.
Su Xiaobai stared at the smoky sky, sighed, then groaned as he forced himself to move. The crater was still hell, a stew of molten stone and half-lted corpses, but now, stacked across its depths, frozen like offerings, were hunters encased in ice.
He navigated between them, each step slow, deliberate, eyes weary with exhaustion.
Huo Lingxue followed, feets echoing faintly on the blackened stone. Her crimson hair flowed like molten wine, her two elental tails, one frosty, one fiery, swaying behind with elegant disapproval.
She took in the battlefield, and for a rare mont, her expression faltered.
"…What just happened here?" she whispered, watching his back. Her eyes softened, confused. "So that's why… he didn't harass today?"
He was too tired. That was all. A battle of this scale, even for him, had left him wrung out like a used scroll. She trailed behind as he approached two weakened slabs of twisted life.
Vaelzaar and Sykarra. Still alive... Barely.
Abominations in body, but their faces annoyingly beautiful. Su Xiaobai had no idea why half these demonic bitches had the bone structures of celestial consorts, but he wasn't fooled. He didn't need them. Didn't want them.
His palm ignited. Flas roared to life.
The two demons scread as fire licked through their icy prisons.
"...Ahhh—! P-Please—wait—!"
Their voices broke like snapped zither strings, shrill and pathetic.
Twisted limbs writhed as the fire devoured them.
"Save us…"
"We'll warm your bed…"
"Both of us… anything you want…"
Su Xiaobai didn't even blink.
"Tsk... Then die for ."
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He didn't look back. Hunters had begun crawling out of their ruptured abdons. If he didn't finish this fast, it'd beco a breeding pit again.
Flas howled. Screams echoed, until all that remained was silence and two dark cores, each the size of a clenched fist, wreathed in black fla, throbbing with a hateful glow.
Clink. Clink.
Su Xiaobai crouched and picked one up, eyebrow twitching. "Different from those Marshals…"
The core flickered like it had a grudge. He didn't care, he pocketed both.
Behind him, Huo Lingxue sniffed the air, nose wrinkling. "Ugh. Disgusting sll. What were those? Ghouls?"
"Worse," Su Xiaobai replied, wiping sweat from his brow. "Hope you never et one again."
His gaze shifted to the Qilin cub still wagging its tail nearby, fur a deep forest green with golden streaks along its spine. "Ask this little idiot—can it do sothing about the spatial lock? I'm not cooking down here for eternity."
Huo Lingxue blanked, she stared at the Qilin.
"..."
Then blinked again.
"…You can't understand it?" he asked, incredulous.
Her face twitched. "We… we're different species. I told you already."
Su Xiaobai squinted at the Qilin. His eye twitched. The little bastard tilted its head and blinked, adorably, at Huo Lingxue's chest, then at him. He narrowed his gaze.
"…It understands us, doesn't it?"
"Pi?" The Qilin sensed danger. Tried to bolt, too late.
Su Xiaobai grabbed its tiny horns and straddled it like a madman on a divine bull.
"Yaaah!"
"Su Xiaobai!" Huo Lingxue covered her mouth, wide-eyed in disbelief as she watched him ride the cub in circles.
The Qilin squealed in protest, "Pipi!" its limbs flailing. Monts later it collapsed dramatically, tail twitching as if its tiny soul had left its body.
Su Xiaobai exhaled. "Good. Now show us the way out."
He sat bare-ass naked on top, his burned robes long gone, half-charred and violated. His grin remained.
"Pipipi!"
The Qilin squealed again, confused, traumatized, and still utterly useless.
It was innocent, too young to know, too stupid to help.
"Then take to your mother!" Su Xiaobai groaned, getting serious. "Tell her to get her flaming ass out here!"
The Qilin squeaked again and looked at the massive sealed stone wall in the distance. It pawed the ground.
Su Xiaobai's eyebrow rose. "Huh. So, there's a gate?"
He tried calling for help summoned 'Lin Yan'er', one of the five Lin Quintuplets. The only one with a 'Crimson Warden star destiny' and strong enough to handle the heat.
She popped out of the ring, already sweating. "B-Brother Su, it's hot—!"
He didn't care, she had one job.
Use her telepathic link to communicate with 'Rui'er', her sweet-voiced sister still inside the ring-world. Rui'er could speak to beasts, but couldn't co out without frying alive. So Yan'er had to act as a bridge.
Minutes passed in that weird three-way ntal relay.
Eventually, he got the answer.
"…So during a specific ti, the lava rushes back, the gate opens... The cub runs in, then it closes."
It was a babysitting cycle. A security chanism. Like an immortal dog door sealed in molten hell.
"…Intelligent system."
"C-Can… can I go back… it's… it's burning my legs—!" Yan'er whined, hopping from foot to foot like she was dancing on coals.
Which, to be fair, she was.
"Go." Su Xiaobai clicked his tongue and flicked his sleeve, sending her back into the ring like an annoying fla-grilled dumpling.
Now they just had to wait.
And maybe, just maybe, pray the mother didn't co down pissed.
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