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"Tail, are you sure Miss Bailu came this way?"
Huohuo held up her "white flag," peering hesitantly at the algae-covered ruins scattered across the Scalegorge Waterscape, along with the occasional gigantic Vidyadhara egg, and asked uncertainly.
"This is Vidyadhara territory. They… won't welcome us."
The ghostly wolf-headed spirit flame, glowing a dark green, was vigorously sniffing the air. Hearing the green-furred little fox start to waver, a throbbing vein popped up on his forehead.
With a domineering tone laced with irritation, he snapped, "Quit your yapping! I've been sniffing around like a dog for your job's sake. And now you want to run? Does that really justify all the hard work I put in?!"
"It's not like I begged you to do it…" Huohuo didn't dare meet his gaze, but she still weakly pursed her lips and muttered, "Wasn't it you who said that during the Floating Smoke Incident, you entered Bailu's inner world and became familiar with her soul's scent? That's why we followed it all the way here."
"Hey! You useless little thing—now you're turning it around on me?!"
Tail was thoroughly dissatisfied with her attitude.
The more I endure it, the angrier I get. The more I back off, the more I lose. Fine—if that's how it is, then I'll just do it myself!
The blazing spark of star fire condensed into a streak of light and shot straight into the tail where he normally resided.
Huohuo felt a surge of scorching heat rise from the base of her tail. In the next instant, spirit fire wrapped around her entire body, and her pupils were dyed a dark green.
This was the sensation that only occurred when Tail took control of her body—something that used to happen only in battle.
Startled, she cried out, "Tail, what are you doing?!"
"Shut up!" Tail barked, roaring the poor little matcha cake into silence.
The Huohuo who had been trembling and timid just moments ago suddenly straightened her posture.
"'She'" shook her head, clenched her wrists, and let out a series of crack crack sounds as her joints popped. A wicked grin spread across her face. "Heh-heh. With my temper, I really can't stand this kind of dawdling. Watch me speedrun your mission within an hour!"
With that, "Huohuo" leapt into the air in a single bound, soaring dozens of meters high before charging headlong toward the depths of the Scalegorge Waterscape with a rough, utterly inelegant motion!
…
Within the Scalegorge Waterscape, the only path leading to the site of the former decisive battle against Phantylia was the ancient stone road revealed when Dan Heng, wielding the authority of Imbibitor Lunae, parted the sea.
Even so, these passages were still elevated above the seabed. One glance downward revealed bottomless, azure-blue waters.
And upon this stone road, a pink-haired woman clad in an exoskeleton was huffing and puffing as she ran.
In stark contrast to her exhausted state, a gray-haired woman beside her lounged aboard a starskiff, chewing on skewers of Berrypheasant birds coated in rock sugar as she spoke indistinctly, "Pick up the pace, Silly Moon. Three minutes left till you hit the passing line."
"Huff—easy for you to say!"
March 7th abandoned all pretense of elegance, panting heavily as she shouted, "Huff—why don't you try running in this busted pile of scrap?! I've already perfectly replicated two purple Curios—can't I slack off just a little?!"
"And who told you to do it with a [Super Lollipop]?" Stelle swallowed the last Berrypheasant fruit and waved her hand, putting on a troubled look. "If you don't keep training diligently, you'll be judged as having 'lost potential,' and the lollipop will fail along with it. By then, even if you make a thousand purple Curios, you still won't be able to activate [Unlimited Blade Works]—just stuck inside a Reality Marble as decoration."
She finished speaking with a sigh and said dramatically, "So yeah, all this weight-gaining pain can only be borne by us. Being able to get stronger all on your own—what an incredible blessing."
Seeing her take advantage and still act smug about it, March 7th wanted nothing more than to rip Stelle's Stellaron out and slap her in the face with it.
She protested indignantly, "Do you want this kind of 'blessing' or not?!"
Thus, one running and one riding, they barely made it to the designated endpoint right at the passing line.
After exhausting all her strength, the exoskeleton crashed heavily to the ground. The preset program unlocked automatically, and March 7th slid out, collapsing face-down onto the stone floor.
"Little March!"
"Miss March!"
Yunli and Yanqing, who had already been waiting there, moved in from either side, propping up their good disciple and "hanging" her onto a chair prepared in advance.
March 7th, utterly fatigued, already had spirals spinning in her eyes as she chuckled dully. "Ahaha… is it dark already? Why are there so many little stars…"
Seeing this, Yanqing took out a medicinal gourd and fed her a recovery pill, while Yunli pressed on her chest to help deepen her breathing.
Watching her in such a state, Dan Heng, who stood nearby, felt he should offer a few words of encouragement.
He opened his mouth, searched through his vocabulary to its limits, and finally said, "March… you did well."
"Ah~~ thank you, Dan~ Heng, Teacher."
After resting for a while, March 7th finally regained some clarity, though she remained sprawled in the chair, unwilling to move an inch.
In this rare moment of relaxation, she pointed at the radiant dragon-shaped form at the end of the stone road and said to Dan Heng, "Dan Heng, Teacher, don't you think it'd be super cool if we could go up there and mess around on that dragon?"
"Oh, right!" Stelle clapped her hands, instantly captivated by the idea.
Her imagination ran wild as her eyes sparkled. "Even better—have Dan Heng ride that dragon, and then let Pom-Pom drive the train. We'll host a friendship speed race between the Astral Express and the Luofu Vidyadhara! And then… sell tickets! Sell them hard!"
"Roadside viewing tickets for one thousand Credits, dragon-back seats for ten thousand, luxury dragon-head seats for a hundred thousand, train VIP compartments for one million! Hmm… and finally, dragon-tail hanging tickets. Since the audience has to cling to the tail themselves, we'll discount it a bit—one hundred Credits."
Stelle sized up the colossal dragon in front of them, treating the Vidyadhara dragon vein like a sightseeing vehicle.
When Yanqing first heard March 7th bring up the topic, he'd been interested. After hearing Stelle's ideas, all that remained was a trembling jaw.
"Ah… the Trailblazer Teacher's way of thinking is… as lively as ever."
"Y-yeah. Haha." Yunli echoed awkwardly.
As for Dan Heng, once the former High Elder, he merely felt his eyelid twitch slightly after hearing her words. His expression showed almost no extra reaction.
No reason for it—he'd seen too much over countless battles. With Stelle's peculiar way of thinking, nothing she said could truly surprise him anymore.
He simply said calmly, "Once March has fully recovered, we'll leave. The Vidyadhara are always exclusionary toward outsiders. Especially if they realize I'm here, it'll only cause unnecessary trouble."
March 7th said sympathetically, "Dan Heng, Teacher, you're really pitiful. You finally come back home after being away so long, and your own people still give you trouble. It's really…"
As they chatted idly, a sudden cry rang out from behind them.
"Excuse me—coming through—coming through!"
Everyone turned around at once, only to see a small figure rushing frantically toward the end of the stone road. And that person was someone they all recognized.
It was the Luofu's runaway dragon lady—Bailu.
She skidded to a stop in front of them. After recognizing who they were, she smiled and said, "Oh, it's you guys. Here to play in the Scalegorge Waterscape?"
"Ah, more or less, yeah. Haha." March 7th, still sprawled in the chair, answered first. "What about you, Miss Bailu?"
Hearing that, Bailu let out a mischievous grin. "Me? I'm here to give them a little lesson—and then apologize."
"Huh?" March 7th froze at once.
Teach them a lesson… and then apologize?
Does that mean beating them up and then saying sorry?
While she was still confused, Bailu walked to the very front, facing the boundless sea, and softly declared, "[Word Magic: The Nine Children]!"
"What nine chil—woah!" Before March 7th could finish, a violent tremor shook the ground beneath her. The chair toppled instantly, nearly sending her sprawling onto her backside.
Thankfully, her two teachers caught her in time.
Then she witnessed a scene even more shocking than when Dan Heng once parted the sea.
Centered around them—mere black specks barely visible—the vast ocean suddenly churned like a small bathtub stirred by a giant hand, forming a colossal vortex that swept up every single drop of water!
In an instant, waves surged throughout the Scalegorge Waterscape, and the dragon veins howled.
Aquatic dragons leapt from the sea one after another. If they didn't, they would be dragged into hidden currents by the suddenly sentient waters.
Within the roaring sea, countless strands of seaweed trembled, tens of millions of azure dragons sang in unison, and every splashing droplet of water called out to the sole sovereign of their descent.
The Empress of All Elements—Bailu—had arrived!
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