Feng Yue was a storm.
Not just of fire anymore.
One wing was a raging inferno of brilliant, white-hot phoenix flame.
The other was a blizzard of pure, crystalline ice, so cold it warped the air around it.
Fire and ice.
Order and chaos.
She was a living paradox.
And she was beautiful.
**
Bai Suzhen, the serpent goddess the size of a mountain, actually recoiled.
A flicker of something that wasn't serene confidence crossed her ancient face.
Surprise.
"This is not possible," the snake hissed, her voice a low rumble of disbelief. "The phoenix soul is pure Yang. It cannot command the ice of Yin."
Feng Yue just smiled. A cold, sharp, and utterly terrifying smile.
"I've been hanging out with a walking paradox," she said, her voice a low growl. "You pick things up."
She lunged.
Not with fire. With ice.
A wave of absolute zero washed across the courtyard, freezing the very air, encasing the massive serpent's head in a thick layer of rime.
Then, she followed with a blast of pure, white-hot flame.
The sudden, extreme temperature change caused the ice to explode outwards.
BOOM.
It was a textbook thermal shock attack.
And it was brilliant.
**
Li Wei stared, his jaw on the floor.
Whoa, Yin Mode's voice whispered in his head. She's so cool.
Her tactical application of thermodynamic principles is... impressive, Yang Mode admitted, a rare note of respect in his cold tone.
The battle began.
A three-way dance of divine destruction.
Bai Suzhen roared, shattering the ice, her jade scales shimmering with raw power.
Feng Yue met her head-on, a whirlwind of fire and frost.
And Li Wei... Li Wei did what he did best.
He created chaos.
"Hey, snake lady!" he yelled, waving his arms. "Your plan to overthrow the Jade Emperor has a fundamental flaw in its logistical framework!"
It was Yang Mode, shouting tactical critiques from the sidelines.
Bai Suzhen's massive head snapped toward him, distracted for a split second.
It was all Feng Yue needed. She unleashed a torrent of fire that seared a line across the serpent's flank.
The snake hissed in pain and fury.
"Now!" a voice yelled from the cages. It was Long Bo. "Her underbelly! The scales are softer there!"
Bai Suzhen swiped at Feng Yue with her tail, a move as fast as a landslide.
"She always leads with a tail swipe after taking a body blow!" Xiao Qian shrieked from her own cage.
Li Wei's mind raced.
He saw the pattern. He saw the opening.
He switched.
"Feng Yue!" Yin Mode's voice yelled, pure, chaotic instinct taking over. "Do the spinny thing! The one you did by accident that time you tripped over the cat!"
Feng Yue, somehow understanding his idiot-logic, spun.
She dropped low, her ice wing creating a slick patch on the ground, her fire wing a wall of flame.
The serpent's tail hit the ice, slid, and went right into the fire.
It was beautiful.
It was ridiculous.
It was working.
**
They were a team.
A weird, dysfunctional, but surprisingly effective team.
Yang Mode would analyze.
Yin Mode would create chaos.
The friends in the cages would provide intel.
And Feng Yue... Feng Yue was the glorious, terrifying weapon that brought it all together.
But Bai Suzhen was ancient.
She was powerful.
And she was learning.
She stopped reacting to Li Wei's taunts.
She started predicting Feng Yue's movements.
She was adapting.
"You are children," she hissed, her voice dripping with the condescension of a thousand years. "Playing at war."
She moved, faster than they could track.
She ignored Feng Yue's attack.
And she struck.
Her massive head slammed into Feng Yue, not with force, but with a wave of pure, venomous qi.
It wasn't a physical blow.
It was a soul attack.
Feng Yue screamed, a raw, agonized sound.
The fire and ice around her sputtered and died.
She collapsed to the ground, her body convulsing, a thin trickle of golden blood dripping from her lips.
**
The world stopped.
Li Wei saw the golden blood.
He saw her fall.
He saw the triumphant, cruel smile on the serpent's face.
And something inside him, something deep and ancient and fundamentally broken, finally, completely, snapped.
The war in his head was over.
The screaming panic of Yin Mode.
The cold logic of Yang Mode.
They didn't just agree.
They merged.
They became one.
A single, unified consciousness fueled by a pure, white-hot, and utterly boundless rage.
She hurt her, the new voice in his head whispered. A voice that was both Yin and Yang, and neither. She hurt what is MINE.
He looked up.
The golden light in his eyes was no longer just a flicker.
It was an inferno.
The air around him began to glitch.
The floating mountains of Penglai flickered in and out of existence.
The frozen waterfalls began to flow... upwards.
Reality itself was becoming unstable, unable to process the sheer, paradoxical nature of his unified soul.
He was whole.
And he was a god of pure, beautiful, terrifying chaos.
**
He spoke.
And his voice was a chorus. Two voices, Yin and Yang, speaking in perfect, chilling unison.
"You made a miscalculation."
Bai Suzhen stared at him, a flicker of genuine fear in her ancient eyes for the first time.
The unified Li Wei smiled.
It was not a nice smile.
He began to speak again, not in words, but in... poetry.
Nonsensical, mathematical poetry.
"The hypotenuse of a broken heart," he recited, his chorus-voice echoing with impossible power, "is the shortest path to a Tuesday."
Bai Suzhen's massive serpent head tilted.
Her pupils dilated.
He could see her ancient, brilliant mind trying to process the statement.
Trying to find the logic.
Trying to calculate the meaning.
"The derivative of a lonely soul," Li Wei continued, taking a step forward as reality warped around his feet, "approaches infinity as love goes to one."
The serpent goddess shook her head, a low groan rumbling in her chest.
The concepts were breaking her brain.
They were logical and illogical at the same time.
A perfect paradox.
Just like him.
He delivered the final line, his voice soft, but carrying the weight of a dying star.
"What," he asked, his eyes burning with the light of a thousand broken equations, "is the square root of love... divided by Tuesday?"
**
It was the stupidest, most profound, and most powerful question ever asked.
And it broke her.
Bai Suzhen, the Serpent Goddess, the Collector of Souls, the Mastermind of Centuries...
Screamed.
It was a sound of pure, cognitive agony.
The sound of a perfect, logical mind being force-fed a paradox it could not solve.
Her massive, divine form began to glow.
It convulsed.
It shrank.
The mountain-sized serpent collapsed in on itself, imploding in a flash of jade-green light.
When the light faded, she was human again.
The elegant, beautiful literature professor.
She was on her hands and knees, clutching her head, her perfect hair in disarray.
She was trembling, her eyes wide with the horror of a concept she could not grasp.
"What... what does that even MEAN?!" she shrieked at the uncaring, purple sky.
📣 [SYSTEM NOTICE: AUTHOR SUPPORT INTERFACE]
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