Adam's divine aura pulsed, holding the survivors within his protection.
His eyes swept the battlefield and caught Xiao Ling's expression.
The hatred radiating from her was so sharp it cut through even the suffocating despair Law had left behind.
Adam (firm, commanding): "Xiao Ling. We can handle Law. You....—"
Before he could finish, the air cracked like a thunderclap.
A flash of light, the roar of storm, and suddenly Li Wei was gone from where he stood—only to reappear directly in front of Xiao Ling, his eyes lit with a cold, merciless glare.
Li Wei (snapping): "You won't run from me this time."
Before Xiao Ling could raise her blade, his palm struck her chest with the weight of a thunderstorm.
The ground split open. Dust, blood, and shattered stone erupted as Xiao Ling's body was driven into the earth like a comet.
The impact tore through layers of rubble, smashing through steel and concrete until the world gave way.
The survivors could only watch as both brother and sister vanished.
The two siblings tumbled into the blackened ruin of an abandoned subway station, its walls long since collapsed, its tracks flooded with stagnant water.
Flickering emergency lights sputtered weakly, casting the underground in an eerie red glow.
Xiao Ling rose slowly from the crater, coughing blood, her blade trembling but still clutched in her hand.
Her cold eyes locked on Li Wei, who stood above her, sparks of electricity crawling across his body, thunder rumbling faintly in the stale underground air.
Xiao Ling (spitting blood, smirking coldly):
"You always did like running from the light… hiding underground like a rat."
Li Wei (snarling, voice crackling with thunder): "And you always clung to weak ideals. That ends here, sister. No knights. No Frontier. No Adam to shield you. Just you and me."
The red glow of the broken subway lights reflected in Xiao Ling's eyes, mixing with her hatred until she looked like a predator poised to kill.
Xiao Ling (raising her blade):
"Fine. Then let's end this… brother."
The subway shook with the tension between them, sparks of lightning crawling across Li Wei's skin while Xiao Ling's blade dripped with rage and sorrow.
Xiao Ling (snapping, voice trembling with fury): "Why the hell did you kill everyone in Xianzhou?!"
Li Wei tilted his head back, laughter breaking out, sharp and bitter.
Li Wei (mocking, cruel): "Ta-ha-ha! You'd never understand—"
Before he could finish, Xiao Ling's scream cut through the air, raw and shattering.
Xiao Ling (yelling): "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SUCCEED OUR CLAN! BUT YOU TARNISHED IT!"
Li Wei blinked, momentarily caught off guard.
Li Wei (frowning): "Huh?"
Xiao Ling's voice cracked as the fury twisted into grief, her sword hand shaking as her tears mixed with blood.
Xiao Ling (screaming through tears):
"After you killed and murdered everyone in our world… he—"
Her breath hitched, and in that instant, her father's face flashed in her mind—the weight of his loneliness, his despair, his shame.
Xiao Ling (crying out, voice breaking): "HE COMMITTED SEPPUKU!"
The echo of her words shook the empty subway. Li Wei's smile faltered, but Xiao Ling's voice only grew louder, harsher, cutting through like the edge of her blade.
Xiao Ling (sobbing with rage): "Even worse… He did it by himself! He was all alone! Because of you, no one was there to put him out of his misery!"
Her tears streamed as her knuckles whitened against her weapon, her words laced with unbearable pain.
Xiao Ling (screaming, consumed): "He bled out and died a painful death… IT'S YOUR FAULT! Father died the most agonizing death possible… all because his son committed the worst sin!"
Her voice reverberated in the hollow tunnels, filled with hatred, sorrow, and finality. The red flickering lights caught in her tears, making her look both broken and furious, a warrior driven by grief.
The flickering subway lights buzzed overhead, the tension so thick it could suffocate. Xiao Ling's chest heaved with fury, her words about their father still echoing in the tunnels.
Li Wei's hand tightened around his hilt. He slowly drew his sword, lightning crawling along the steel, his face shadowed by a sneer.
Li Wei (snarling, voice dripping venom): "Why the hell should I care? The old man died. So what? You want me to cry? You expect me to give a damn?"
He raised the blade, eyes blazing with arrogance.
Li Wei (cold, spitting the words): "Well, I don't. In fact, I don't care about anyone who doesn't appreciate me"
In an instant, the sound of steel split the air. Li Wei cut her down in a single brutal slash—his blade tearing through the space where Xiao Ling stood.
Her body seemed to crumple in a spray of blood.
But then—her form flickered. An afterimage.
Li Wei's eyes widened a fraction before pain exploded across his throat. A deep gash tore across his neck, hot blood spilling down as he staggered forward, nearly collapsing.
Behind him, Xiao Ling stood, her sword still humming with killing intent, her eyes burning with crimson hatred.
Xiao Ling (cold, sharp as her blade):
"You're too slow."
Her voice was low, venomous, her tone cutting deeper than her steel. She leaned in, whispering like a viper ready to strike again.
Xiao Ling (with utter disgust): "Scum."
The tunnel trembled as her killing intent poured out, suffocating the air around them. Li Wei clutched his bleeding neck, shock giving way to a twisted grin despite the blood.
Li Wei's grin widened, blood still dripping down his neck, staining his chest. He raised his sword, thunder crawling over his skin like veins of pure storm.
Li Wei (taunting, voice crackling with thunder): "Come on then, little sister—let's settle this right here, right now.
Xiao Ling didn't answer. Her eyes burned cold, her breath misting the air.
The ground beneath her froze in an instant, her boots cracking the icy tiles as she surged forward.
The clash was blinding.
Her frost-coated blade met Li Wei's lightning sword, the impact sending out a shockwave that shattered subway pillars and blew glass apart.
Xiao Ling spun low, her sword cutting an arc across his legs. Blood burst out as she nicked deep, but Li Wei countered by grabbing her wrist mid-spin, slamming her head into the tiled wall so hard the tiles exploded into dust and blood.
Her skull cracked the concrete—but in a flash, her other hand grabbed his hair, dragging his face down into her rising knee.
His nose shattered in a spray of blood.
Li Wei roared with laughter even as his teeth flew out.
Lightning crackled over his body, and he headbutted her with thunderous force. Her forehead split open, blood running into her eyes.
They staggered back, panting, only to lunge again.
Li Wei swung his sword, lightning turning it into a guillotine of storms. Xiao Ling ducked beneath, her blade stabbing upward, skewering his shoulder and bursting out the other side with a spray of blood.
He roared, ripping the sword out of his flesh with bare hands, then hammer-fisted her collarbone, the bone snapping like dry wood. She didn't scream.
Frost exploded from her wound, shards stabbing into Li Wei's chest and face, slicing through skin. His cheek was half-frozen, blood and ice mixing.
He answered with a thunderclap punch to her ribs, electricity frying her flesh black as she coughed blood onto his chest.
They locked eyes in the chaos—blood running, teeth gritted, neither willing to yield.
Xiao Ling hissed through her cracked lips.
Xiao Ling: "I'll end this, brother."
She kicked off the frozen floor, her entire body glowing icy blue.
She moved like a phantom, every slash leaving trails of frost, cutting chunks of flesh from Li Wei's arms and legs.
Li Wei howled with manic glee, answering by letting himself be cut just to swing back harder. Thunder rolled across his fists, and he pummeled her body with rapid-fire blows, every strike crunching bone, tearing skin, jolting her organs.
Blood mist filled the subway. The walls cracked. Corpses of frozen rats shattered as frost spread across the tunnels. Pipes burst from lightning.
Xiao Ling's breathing was ragged, her ribs shattered, blood dripping from her chin.
Li Wei's grin was wild, most of his face shredded and half-frozen, one eye completely sealed shut with frost and blood. Both staggered but neither would stop.
Li Wei: "I'll tear you apart, sister!"
Xiao Ling: "Not before I cut you into pieces, scum."
Xiao Ling swung her sword in a blinding arc—Li Wei ducked low, his lightning blade carving through her left arm at the elbow. Blood and ice burst into the air as her severed limb spun away.
She didn't scream. Her frozen eyes only narrowed in fury.
In retaliation, Xiao Ling pivoted on her heel and slashed across his torso—her frost blade severed his right arm at the shoulder, lightning bursting like fireworks from the stump.
Li Wei howled, but his laughter drowned the pain.
They pressed on, mutilated, each attack costing them flesh and blood.
Li Wei kicked her knee, snapping it sideways, bone jutting out.
She lunged forward despite the break, her blade piercing his stomach, dragging upward until his entrails spilled steaming onto the icy ground.
He countered by biting down on her neck like a beast, ripping out a chunk of flesh and spitting it in her face.
She headbutted him, her cracked skull splitting his lip wide open.
Blood slicked the ground. Their limbs barely worked, but hatred carried them forward.
With a final scream, Li Wei gathered the last of his storm, thunder surging through his sword like a god's spear.
Xiao Ling roared, her blade encased in absolute frost, glowing with killing intent.
They charged one last time—
Li Wei's blade pierced her side, burning through her lung. Her frost sword sliced clean through his neck, severing his head in one brutal arc.
Li Wei's body staggered, blood spraying in a crimson fountain. His head hit the ground, eyes still glowing faint with stormlight, a twisted grin frozen on his lips.
Xiao Ling dropped to her knees, coughing blood, clutching the wound in her side. She looked at her brother's corpse—expression unreadable, a mix of hatred, grief, and bitter triumph.
Xiao Ling (whispering through tears and blood): "Goodbye… brother."
She collapsed onto the frozen ground, blood pooling beneath her, as thunder faded from the air.
Li Wei's head lay at his feet, eyes still alight with stormlight—but then, with a twitch and a wet, sickening reknitting of flesh, the neck stitched itself back together. Blood and ice and lightning crawled like living seams. He pushed himself upright, standing over his own severed head as if it were nothing more than a rag.
He grinned that same terrible grin at her.
Li Wei: "Look at you, already dead. Well, in any case, I'm going to go kill your friends."
He took one step, reached the mouth of the tunnel, and the rotten world above waited—until the temperature dropped.
The air grew thin and sharp, a chill that bit to the bone. Frost crawled along the cracked tiles. A white breath began to fog the tunnel in front of him.
Li Wei stopped, He turned, Xiao Ling was standing up.
At first she was a broken shape, ribs broken, face bloodied—then snowflakes gathered in her hair, then the frost uncoiled from the air around her like a living thing.
Blue-white energy wrapped her like armor; the lights in the tunnel dimmed beneath the cold she carried.
Her hair lifted from her shoulders in an invisible updraft, and every exhalation painted the air with steam.
Li Wei (snarling): "I don't know how you survived—but I'll make sure to turn your body into ash."
He flexed his remaining arm; thunder crackled along his veins.
Xiao Ling's eyes were icicles. Her blade was a shard of winter itself.
Xiao Ling: "As clouds that cover the heavens, will the knights protect the Xianzhou."
For a heartbeat—then both of them withdrew inward, voices dropping to the small, iron-hard places where only warriors speak.
Inside their heads the truth was the same and simple: they'd burned nearly everything. Their reserves were gone; there were no second chances. If either of them wanted to finish this, it had to be now—one final, all-consuming strike to end the other.
They both felt the same small, brutal relief at that clarity. No hesitation, only the cold mathematics of a duel with no tomorrow.
They tightened their grips, the storm and the frost coiling like ropes around their hearts.
Ceiling lights shattered one by one as frost and thunder clashed in the air, two divine forces ready to erase everything between them.
Xiao Ling's breath came out as mist, her body outlined in jagged shards of ice-blue light.
Her eyes glowed like twin frozen moons. The sword in her hand pulsed with the soul of the Frost Dragon — ancient, divine, merciless.
Xiao Ling (roaring): "Frost Art — Seventh Form! FROST HEART DRAGON GOD STRIKE!!"
A colossal dragon of pure frost erupted behind her, its roar shaking the very ground. The icy creature spiraled around her, wings made of crystal, its core burning with blue light.
Across from her, Li Wei's body sparked with furious voltage. The storm gathered behind him, thunder cracking so loud it drowned the world. His eyes were burning white, veins glowing with lightning as the ground beneath his feet fractured from the sheer pressure.
Li Wei (yelling): "Storm Art — Fifth Form! THUNDER DESTRUCTION ALMIGHTY PUSH!!"
Lightning spears erupted from his body in all directions, forming a raging tempest that tore through concrete, metal, and bone.
And then—
They moved.
Two attacks collided.
The subway exploded.
The air itself screamed as frost and thunder devoured each other, meeting at the center where brother and sister struck with all they had left.
For a moment, there was no sound.
Only white.
Then came the implosion.
A blinding flash— A shockwave that tore through the earth, sending a pillar of frozen thunder through the city above.
When the light faded…
There was nothing left, the tunnel was gone, the walls, the tracks vaporized.
In the center of a vast crater of glassed earth, two figures knelt opposite each other.
Li Wei's chest was pierced through by a blade of ice.
Xiao Ling's heart was split open by a bolt of lightning that still flickered faintly.
They both smiled weakly through blood and pain, looking at one another not as enemies—but as siblings who once played beneath the same sky of Xianzhou.
Xiao Ling (softly): "Brother… I'll… finally ended you…"
Li Wei (faintly laughing): "Tch… still stubborn as always… huh…"
A faint rumble of thunder answered her last breath. A snowflake drifted across his dying smile.