The jade-colored radiance erupted into a dazzling brilliance, gradually engulfing the Mist Lord's body until it completely consumed him.
Terrifying energy surged outward, sending shockwaves in all directions.
Mu Qing was far from her peak strength at this moment.
Historical records indicate that her most rapid growth period was during her early years on the frontlines after graduation.
The battlefield was undoubtedly brutal.
But for someone like Mu Qing, who possessed the ability to grow stronger by devouring enemies, it was nothing less than a hunting ground.
The quality of nourishment there was far beyond anything she could obtain within the confines of Star City Academy.
Her strength skyrocketed as she continuously hunted.
On the previous timeline, the Mist Lord had kept a close eye on Mu Qing's progress and had more than once lamented how the gap between them seemed to widen at an alarming rate.
And yet, despite all that, in this moment, Mu Qing still overpowered him without suspense.
Against the combined assault of Mu Qing and Feng Qi, the Mist Lord's resistance was futile.
The gray mist rapidly disintegrated. A final, crushing blow landed on his chest, piercing through his torso, which could no longer transform into mist to evade the attack.
A spray of blood mist filled the air.
The Mist Lord stared in disbelief at Mu Qing, who stood before him, his eyes filled with unwillingness.
He had arrived carrying grand ambitions, only to see everything come to an end in such a humiliating manner.
The light in his eyes gradually faded, and at last, with his eyes still open, his life force completely vanished.
Feng Qi opened his eyes at that moment.
His expression was complicated as he looked at the fallen Mist Lord, taking a deep breath.
The feeling was unsettling.
The Mist Lord fit every definition of a villain—cruel, insidious, ruthless.
But Feng Qi had never doubted the sincerity of his feelings toward him.
From the standpoint of humanity's greater good, this was the right decision.
It was a necessary act—removing a major threat to human survival and progress.
But from the perspective of their personal relationship…
It was nothing short of betrayal.
Sensing the shift in Feng Qi's emotions, Mu Qing withdrew her blood-stained right fist. The jade-colored glow on her body flickered, and the blood on her arm slid off automatically.
She caught the Mist Lord's collapsing body before it could fall to the ground.
"Ah Qi, what do you want to do with him?"
Feng Qi opened his mouth to respond, his gaze fixed on the lifeless Mist Lord, but before he could speak, an unexpected change occurred.
From the gaping wound in the Mist Lord's chest, muscle tissue suddenly began to regenerate, attempting to repair his body.
Mu Qing immediately noticed the abnormality. A red gleam flashed in her eyes, and without hesitation, she thrust her hand into the Mist Lord's chest where his heart should have been.
When she pulled her hand back, a small blood-colored gemstone, no larger than a thumbnail, was clutched between her fingers.
"What is this?"
Feng Qi was momentarily stunned by the sight of the gemstone.
Then, a thought flashed through his mind—memories of all the strange occurrences related to the Mist Lord in the previous timeline.
Back then, when he had found the Mist Lord, his life force had been completely drained. Feng Qi had been certain that he was truly dead, with even his core blood nucleus shattered beyond repair.
Believing that the villain's story had reached its final chapter, Feng Qi had been about to leave.
But then, inexplicably, signs of life suddenly emerged from the Mist Lord's body, and his shattered core blood nucleus began to heal.
It was an eerie self-repairing ability—one that had ultimately allowed the Mist Lord to revive.
The second time had been outside Winterfell City, during their encounter with the scavenger known as the "Sword Saint."
At the time, the Mist Lord had only just begun recovering, his strength weaker than even Feng Qi's, forcing him to rely on Feng Qi for protection.
But just when Feng Qi was about to collapse under the pressure, the Mist Lord inexplicably healed from his injuries, ultimately turning the tables and killing the scavenger Sword Saint.
The most striking instance had occurred 1,500 years later during his battle of consciousness against Lin Ran.
Lin Ran had emerged victorious, seemingly erasing the Mist Lord's consciousness.
And yet, the Mist Lord's fragmented consciousness had somehow restored itself.
There were many such cases.
Back in the previous timeline, Feng Qi had even joked with the Mist Lord, saying that he had a "protagonist template," always managing to stage a comeback at the last moment.
The Mist Lord had his own theory on this.
He had once speculated that there was a unique, unnoticed energy within his body—an energy that somehow fluctuated with his willpower, enhancing his body in certain ways.
However, he had never been able to determine what this energy was.
Given all this, there was no doubt that some mysterious force had been protecting the Mist Lord from death.
And yet, in the last timeline, he had died for Feng Qi in Old Day City. That time, he had not come back to life.
Why?
Where was the difference?
Feng Qi's thoughts raced as he recalled the Mist Lord's core essence.
Back then, in order to hold back the various forces pursuing them in Old Day City, the Mist Lord had dispersed his core essence into the blood mist, trapping their enemies and preventing them from escaping.
Feng Qi's gaze locked onto the blood-colored crystal in Mu Qing's hand.
That had to be the Mist Lord's core blood nucleus.
Given the intensity of the battle just now, the blood energy within the nucleus should have been completely drained, and the crystal's color should have turned transparent.
Yet, at this moment, the core blood nucleus was still radiating an intense flow of blood energy.
Moreover, the Mist Lord's body had been regenerating at an alarming rate just moments ago, only stopping after Mu Qing extracted the nucleus.
Feng Qi felt that his theory might be correct.
The secret to the Mist Lord's mysterious resurrections lay within the core blood nucleus.
"Let's crack it open and take a look." Feng Qi spoke decisively.
Mu Qing didn't hesitate. She clenched her fist, gathering her full strength into her palm.
A metallic crunching sound echoed as her overwhelming force clashed against the blood nucleus, but the core resisted. Some unseen power within it was pushing back against her destruction attempt.
As the struggle continued, a red gleam flickered in Mu Qing's eyes.
Her breathing changed. Her emotions surged.
A bestial roar burst from her throat as a massive, indistinct phantom of a savage beast manifested above her head, howling at the sky. A suffocating presence crashed down upon the surroundings.
Crack!
With a crisp shattering sound, the blood nucleus fractured under Mu Qing's brute force, revealing a small, glowing blue orb within.
"Mu Qing-jie, steady your emotions."
Feng Qi's voice rang out just as Mu Qing's power was about to lash toward the blue orb.
Hearing his call, the red light in Mu Qing's eyes rapidly faded as she regained control.
"…Sorry."
"It's fine. Compared to before, your emotional control has improved significantly. You're not far from mastering it completely." Feng Qi smiled reassuringly at her apologetic expression.
Mu Qing gave a small nod, then extended her palm, revealing the softly glowing blue orb.
"Ah Qi, what is this?"
"I'm not sure, but I suspect it might be a Miracle Item."
Hearing this, Mu Qing's eyes widened with curiosity.
She had heard Feng Qi mention Miracle Items before, but this was the first time she had actually seen one with her own eyes.
Feng Qi stared at the blue glow in Mu Qing's palm, deep in thought.
His hypothesis wasn't baseless.
In the previous timeline, during their time together, the Mist Lord had suffered multiple assassination attempts from the Blue-Skinned Assassins.
According to known intelligence, the Blue-Skinned Assassins only targeted individuals who possessed Miracle Items.
The Mist Lord had never realized this, but Feng Qi, having experienced multiple timelines, was well aware of it.
At the time, he had speculated that the Mist Lord must have unknowingly possessed a Miracle Item.
And now, seeing the blue glow before him, everything clicked into place.
The Miracle Item had always been inside the Mist Lord's core blood nucleus.
That was why the Blue-Skinned Assassins had repeatedly targeted him.
Their true goal had never been the Mist Lord himself, but rather the Miracle Item hidden within him—the very blue glow now resting in Mu Qing's palm.
As for the item's ability, Feng Qi had a theory: it was tied to willpower.
It allowed the user to manifest power through sheer force of will.
The Mist Lord's refusal to accept death, combined with this Miracle Item, had granted him the ability to resurrect over and over again.
But this was still just a theory. The exact truth would require further investigation.
Feng Qi took the blue glow from Mu Qing's hands, examining it closely, another question forming in his mind.
If this Miracle Item had been inside the Mist Lord all along, why hadn't the Mist Lord ever noticed it?
The thought puzzled him.
As he carefully studied the blue glow, a realization struck him.
He recalled a past conversation with the Mist Lord, when he had asked about the origins of Miracle Items.
At the time, the Mist Lord had proposed a theory.
He had suggested that Miracle Items might be derived from the core essence of the Pillar Gods.
Only the Pillar Gods possessed power that transcended natural laws.
But even the Mist Lord himself had admitted that this was merely a personal conjecture, without any solid proof.
Now, thinking back, Feng Qi felt that the Mist Lord's theory might actually be correct.
The Mist Lord had once told him about the origins of his people—the Mist Tribe.
Their rise had been linked to an ancient ancestor.
The Mist Tribe's first-generation patriarch had originally been nothing more than a lowly slave, raised in captivity by a powerful Domain Race.
His only purpose in life was to labor in the pitch-black underground spirit mines, endlessly excavating spirit stones to supply his oppressors.
Until one day, the Mist Tribe's forefather unearthed a stone that bore remnants of the Pillar God's blood.
Unable to resist the temptation of divine power, he consumed it in a single gulp. From that moment, he inherited a fragment of the Pillar God's strength.
What followed was a meteoric rise—like something straight out of a protagonist's tale.
He crushed every obstacle in his path, founded the Mist Tribe, and led his people in a triumphant rebellion against the once-dominant race that had enslaved them. At their peak, the Mist Tribe ruled over multiple Domain Fields, with countless other species falling under their dominion.
This meant that the Mist Tribe's bloodline had a latent probability of carrying the Pillar God's power.
However, this power rarely manifested.
The Mist Lord, despite being separated from his forefather by countless generations, may have inherited this divine essence. Over time, that single drop of primordial blood, passed down through the ages, had evolved into the very blue light Feng Qi now held in his hand—a Miracle Item.
If this theory was correct, it explained why the Mist Lord had never realized he possessed a Miracle Item.
Unlike external relics, this one had existed within him since birth, fused with his being as part of his bloodline. It had grown alongside him, making it entirely distinct from the Bloodstone he had obtained later.
When the Mist Lord abandoned his core blood nucleus in the past timeline to help Feng Qi escape Old Day City, he unknowingly severed himself from the very power that had ensured his survival.
That was why he had truly perished.
If he had not discarded his blood nucleus at that time, he might have survived once more—no matter how severe his injuries were.
But this was still just a theory, one that needed to be tested further.
Feng Qi tightened his grip around the blue glow and then turned his gaze toward the Mist Lord's lifeless body.
Taking two steps forward, he reached out and took the corpse from Mu Qing's hands.
…
One day later, deep within a snow-covered forest, thirty-one kilometers outside the Old Day Supply Zone.
Snow fell heavily, bending the branches of nearby trees.
The entire area was blanketed in white, the stars above casting a brilliant shimmer upon the frost-covered landscape.
A clearing had been made in the depths of the forest—snow swept aside, trees felled and cleared away.
At the center of this open space stood a stone monument, engraved with four large characters: Mist Lord.
Below them, a simple inscription:
Brother—Feng Qi.
Before the gravestone, a fire crackled, its flames flickering in the cold wind. Feng Qi absentmindedly broke apart twigs and tossed them into the flames.
Mu Qing and Lü Yue stood a short distance behind him, silently watching.
The branches crackled and popped as they burned.
Before the gravestone, an assortment of fruits and food had been placed in offering.
These were items Feng Qi had purchased from the supply zone, meant for honoring the Mist Lord's spirit.
In a previous timeline, the Mist Lord had once laughed as he explained to Feng Qi that the Mist Tribe had a tradition similar to humans.
They, too, worshiped their deceased ancestors and relatives, offering food to honor the dead.
"The dead are not truly gone. Being forgotten—that is true death."
Frequent remembrance and worship ensured that the spirits of the departed never faded, forever watching over the tribe's future.
In addition to food offerings, the Mist Tribe followed another custom:
Eating the offerings.
This act carried two meanings.
First, consuming the offerings granted the blessings and protection of the departed.
Second, sharing food with the dead was a sign of respect.
This was why, after every Mist Tribe ritual, they would feast upon the offerings, celebrating together.
They firmly believed that their lost loved ones still existed—just in another form, forever by their side.
To treat them differently would be disrespectful.
Feng Qi reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of spirit money. He began tossing them into the fire.
"Old Mist, in this timeline, I failed you as a brother… I'll burn extra money for you, just in case. Not sure if the underworld really exists, but better safe than sorry…"
Muttering softly, he watched as the spirit money turned to ash, the gray flakes rising into the cold night air, blending with the falling snow.
Mu Qing and Lü Yue, standing nearby, observed in solemn silence.
Though they had not experienced the other timeline themselves, they understood just how much the Mist Lord had sacrificed for Feng Qi.
Three hours passed.
Just as Mu Qing and Lü Yue were about to step forward and urge Feng Qi to leave, they suddenly saw him reach for the food placed in front of the Mist Lord's gravestone.
Without hesitation, he took a bite—chewing slowly at first, then grinning as he ate.
Mu Qing: …
Lü Yue: …
Neither of them knew about the Mist Tribe's funeral customs.
From Star City's perspective, eating offerings was an act of extreme disrespect toward the deceased.
And Feng Qi wasn't just eating. He was smiling as he did it.
Lü Yue hesitated before speaking. "…Is this guy really mourning?"
Mu Qing, though also bewildered, quickly defended him.
"Maybe it's a Mist Tribe tradition… In any case, Ah Qi is a good brother. That much is certain."