"Get lost!"
A spatial rift tore open directly in front of Medusa.
And from within that rift came a voice—not loud, but seething with barely contained fury.
Before the words had even faded, a colossal figure emerged. A hundred-metre-tall titan of azure energy, its face shrouded in chaos, its grip wrapped around a halberd forged from living lightning.
The halberd descended.
The blood-haired old man's eyes widened. Ice gathered frantically before him—a shield, thick and layered.
CRASH—!
Lightning met frost.
The explosion was deafening. Ice shards and electric arcs sprayed in all directions. The old man, caught completely off guard, was sent hurtling backward like a discarded ragdoll.
Xiao Jietian stood within the titan's core, one arm cradling Medusa—now returned to human form.
Her face was pale. Blood stained the corner of her lips.
"When you encounter a powerful enemy," Xiao Jietian said quietly, "why didn't you call for help?"
He wiped the blood from her mouth with his thumb, his expression pained.
A sixth-grade healing pill appeared between his fingers. He fed it to her gently.
The colour slowly returned to her cheeks.
"Hmph." Medusa turned her face away, stubbornness flickering in her eyes. "Even if I couldn't beat him, I still had ways to escape."
"Oh, really?" Xiao Jietian's tone was dry. "Then why didn't you use them?"
She opened her mouth. Closed it.
A faint flush crept across her cheeks.
"…I hadn't gotten around to it yet."
Xiao Jietian shook his head, a helpless smile tugging at his lips.
"Yes, yes. You're the strongest." He pinched her cheek—gently, briefly. "Now stay here, recover, and refine that pill. The rest…"
His gaze lifted toward the old man, who was just now stabilizing himself in the distance.
"…is my show."
"Who asked you to care?" Medusa glared at him.
But she didn't pull away from his touch. And she stood obediently behind him, beginning to circulate her Dou Qi.
Xiao Jietian studied the old man.
Blood-red hair. Seven-Star Dou Zong. Aged. Ice-attributed Dou Qi, tinged with poison.
Earth Demon Old Ghost. Demon Flame Valley.
Only one person in the entire Black-Corner Region matched that description.
Earth Demon Old Ghost did not attack again.
He was no fool. He had sensed Xiao Jietian's cultivation—Three-Star Dou Zong. Beneath his own.
But that lightning titan… that aura…
What kind of technique is this?
His initial shock faded, replaced by something else.
Greed.
"A mere Three-Star Dou Zong," he rasped, "and you think you can play the hero?"
His cracked lips stretched into a thin smile.
"Be careful, boy. You might lose your life."
"Funny." Xiao Jietian's voice was utterly calm. "I was just thinking the same thing."
Earth Demon Old Ghost raised his hand. Black Dou Qi gathered into a massive palm.
But before he could strike—
Xiao Jietian did something unexpected.
He didn't attack.
Instead, he tilted his head slightly and called out toward the empty void beside him.
"Xian'er. Someone's trying to bully your husband."
A pause.
"Come kill him for me."
Medusa's forehead creased with black lines.
Earth Demon Old Ghost's hand froze mid-air.
"…Calling for help, boy? Do you have no shame?"
"Shame?" Xiao Jietian's tone was light, almost conversational. "What's that?"
The old man sneered. "Calling your daddy won't save you—"
"Is that so?"
A clear, melodious voice drifted through the air.
And the space in front of Earth Demon Old Ghost shattered.
His black palm—disintegrated. The air around him—fractured. He stumbled backward, eyes wide with disbelief.
A figure materialized before Xiao Jietian.
Slender. Ethereal. Dressed in white-purple robes.
Little Fairy Doctor.
She wasn't even looking at the old man. Her gaze was fixed on Xiao Jietian, soft and reproachful.
"You only call me when there's trouble?"
"I call you because I miss you," Xiao Jietian said smoothly. "The trouble is just a bonus."
Little Fairy Doctor's lips curved. She turned to face Earth Demon Old Ghost.
Her aura pressed down on him like a mountain.
Dou Zun.
The old man's face went white.
"You… you're a Dou Zun?!"
"Earth Demon Old Ghost." Xiao Jietian's voice carried a mocking edge. "Let me teach you a valuable lesson today."
He smiled.
"When you're out in the world… it's all about group fights."
Earth Demon Old Ghost's mind raced.
Dou Zun. Three-Star Dou Zong behind me. Another aura—
He felt it now.
Behind him, another figure had materialized. An Eight-Star Dou Zong. Silent. Waiting.
Three Dou Zongs and a Dou Zun.
His heart sank.
He had emerged from seclusion for a paltry profit, thinking he could crush some upstart force with ease. Now he was surrounded, cornered, outmatched on every level.
This configuration could sweep the entire Black-Corner Region.
He swallowed. His voice was hoarse.
"This… this old man will take his leave now. I will send compensation. Name your price."
He edged backward.
His body wouldn't move.
"Leave?" Xiao Jietian's tone was almost pleasant. "If you leave now, won't people say we don't know how to treat our guests?"
The figure behind him moved.
A palm strike—silent, devastating.
Earth Demon Old Ghost raised his arms just in time. The force still sent him flying directly toward—
Little Fairy Doctor.
His hand, hidden behind his back, was already condensing black Dou Qi.
A sneak attack. If I can just wound her, create an opening—
Her lips curved.
Spatial Shredding.
Space folded around him.
"Blood-Chilling Extreme Freeze Heaven!"
Black Dou Qi erupted from his palms, expanding into a massive cloud of freezing mist dozens of metres wide. The temperature plummeted. The very air crystallized.
His figure vanished within the cloud.
Little Fairy Doctor's slender hand clenched.
Space fractured.
Within that black cloud, spatial cracks blossomed like flowers of annihilation. The sound of shattering echoed—space breaking, ice breaking, bones breaking.
And beneath it all, a man's screams.
The black cloud dissipated.
Earth Demon Old Ghost hung in the air.
Both his arms were gone.
He had severed them himself—a desperate gambit. He had hoped the blood mist would conceal his escape, allow him to hide within the folds of space.
But the space around him was locked. Controlled. Impenetrable.
His eyes met Xiao Jietian's.
There was no fear there now. Only despair. And regret.
I should never have come.