Hasa Ge!

Leina suppressed the churning in her stomach and shook out her wrists. Golden light rose around her once more.

"Hey, Qiangwei," she said, glancing sideways at her partner, who was still red-faced and gritting her teeth. "Can you still fight?"

"Of course!" Qiangwei forced the words through clenched teeth. She spun the dagger in her hand, and a wormhole silently opened beside her. "I'm going to beat him until he's on his knees begging for mercy!"

"Good." Leina grinned, though the earlier disdain was gone from her eyes. "Then—it's time to get serious."

Before the words had left her mouth, she brought her palms together. A scorching beam of light burst from them, like the sun's breath, and shot straight toward Su Bai!

This time, it wasn't a probing fireball. It was a high-energy ray packed with stellar energy.

The air warped and steamed in its wake, and the ground charred and cracked.

Su Bai didn't try to block it.

He shifted half a step to the left. The beam skimmed past his right shoulder and instantly vaporized a short, abandoned wall behind him.

And the instant he moved—

Qiangwei struck.

She didn't attack directly. Instead, she opened wormholes with both hands.

Six, eight, ten—

Twelve wormholes opened in the air all at once. Each was only the size of a fist, yet they were precisely positioned at every possible angle Su Bai might use to dodge.

Then, a silver throwing knife shot from each wormhole at the same time.

Every angle was sealed off.

This was a genuine killing move.

There were no blind spots, no way out.

Leina's beam was only a feint. The real killing move was Qiangwei's carefully planned spatial blockade.

Some distance away, Angel Yan wore a strange expression.

"Is she... a space-time gene carrier or a throwing-knife gene carrier?"

Azhui shook her head, looking just as perplexed.

"I'm not sure. Maybe... she has another trick?"

This time, Su Bai didn't dodge.

He turned his right hand, and a long silver blade appeared out of thin air in his palm.

Its blade was long and slender, its surface as smooth as a mirror. Deep blue light flowed across it like the depths of the sea, as though stars and tides were breathing within.

This was the form taken by Kill You Three Thousand.

Su Bai gripped the blade with both hands and swung at the empty air in front of him—

"Hasa Ge!"

At his low shout, a translucent barrier of wind suddenly spread around him, like an invisible wall.

The knives rushing toward him struck the wind wall and seemed to hit an invisible grinder. Without making a sound, they crumbled into countless silver specks and drifted away.

Qiangwei's eyes widened. She was about to form more wormholes with both hands.

In the distance, Leina spread her arms as well. Dazzling golden energy gathered in her palms, ready to cover Qiangwei.

But just then, Su Bai raised his head.

He swung the deep-blue blade in reverse. The motion looked almost effortless—

Whoosh—!!!

A blue-green tornado formed where the blade had passed, roaring toward Qiangwei and Leina!

The wind howled and sand and stones flew. Even the rubble on the ground was swept into the air.

Their expressions changed at the same time. They had no choice but to break off their attack and hurriedly dodge in opposite directions.

As they scrambled to evade, the long blade in Su Bai's hand changed shape—

It became a long, emerald-green sword, its blade etched with swirling patterns of wind.

Behind him, a huge formation made of pure wind elemental energy appeared out of thin air. It slowly rotated as streams of light flowed from within it into the sword.

Su Bai slowly raised the sword to his side, brought the first two fingers of his left hand together, and gently ran them from the hilt to the tip.

The sword hummed, and its blue-green light blazed brighter.

He lifted his eyes to the figures ahead. His voice was calm, yet strangely ethereal.

"Wind's Extreme—"

"Falling Star Kill."

The sword trembled violently.

A tiny, thumb-sized beam of deep green light shot out in an instant—

Space trembled wherever the beam passed, leaving behind a nearly black, twisted trail. It moved so fast that even its afterimage was hard to catch.

Everyone present stared wide-eyed at the attack.

Angel Yan's expression turned serious.

"Even I might have trouble taking that attack head-on."

Azhui nodded gravely.

"Yeah. Even my indestructible body might get forced out."

Leina and Qiangwei's pupils shrank. The destructive energy within that beam made their instincts scream in alarm.

If it hit, they'd be gravely wounded at best!

The livestream chat was full of gasps, too:

[Chūnibyō Is Not a Disease: Hmph. At least the fight looks halfway decent.]

[Try Touching Me: Wow... Th-that's amazing...]

[Seeking Sponsorship: Holy crap, are they about to demolish the whole neighborhood?!]

[Seeking Sponsorship: The property values around here are probably going to crash after this.]

[Silly White Sweet: Mm... Should we really be worrying about property values right now...?]

Just as Leina and Qiangwei closed their eyes, bracing themselves for the deadly attack—

A figure plunged down from the sky. He held a three-pronged spear horizontally in front of him, trying to block the streak of green light.

Unfortunately, he had overestimated himself.

The sword light sliced through the three-pronged spear as easily as rotten wood, then mercilessly pierced his lower left abdomen.

"Urgh—!"

Blood sprayed from Xuan Tianji's mouth. He managed to stay upright only by leaning on the broken half of his weapon.

He had originally been watching from the shadows.

After all, he wasn't particularly loyal to Leina. The one he truly served was General Pan Zhen.

As he saw it, no matter how the situation unfolded, Super Seminary couldn't possibly stand by while the Lieyang Main God came to harm on Earth. That would directly provoke a conflict between civilizations.

So he had planned to watch and wait for Super Seminary to step in and take on this unfamiliar warrior.

But even now, with a killing blow unleashed, Super Seminary still hadn't made a move.

Something was wrong...

Damn it! Could this whole thing have been Super Seminary's plan from the beginning?!

Were they trying to use this "blade" to kill the Lieyang Main God, provoking Lieyang and igniting a war?

—Using someone else to do the killing!

As the attack drew closer and closer to Leina, Xuan Tianji finally gritted his teeth and leaped out of hiding.

He wasn't loyal to Leina.

But Lieyang still needed the Light of the Sun.

The Main God absolutely couldn't die here.

After keeping their eyes closed for a long time, they still hadn't felt the pain they expected.

Leina and Qiangwei opened their eyes in confusion—

Before them stood a figure with a horrifying hole through his abdomen. A pool of blood had already spread beneath his feet, and blood streaked the corners of his mouth. He was barely staying upright, supported by the broken half of his weapon.

Some of the fear in Qiangwei's heart faded, only to be replaced by even deeper confusion.

Who was this person? Why had he saved them?

Was he a teacher from Super Seminary? Or an ally her father had called in?

But... the way things looked, he didn't seem to be a match for that guy, either...

Unlike Qiangwei, Leina's expression grew impossibly complicated as soon as she recognized the person who had blocked the attack. Her eyes filled with confusion.

"Xuan Tianji?!"

"How could it be you? Aren't you..."

She had wanted to ask: Aren't you always ignoring me as the Main God and serving only Pan Zhen?

But she swallowed the words before they left her mouth.

Hearing Leina's voice, Xuan Tianji didn't turn around.

—Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't have the strength to spare.

He forced himself to stand, his voice hoarse but clear.

"Don't misunderstand... I just don't want Lieyang to be manipulated and turned into someone else's weapon."

Now Qiangwei understood who the person before them was.

So he was from Leina's planet...

Still... why did his attitude toward Leina, the Main God, seem so complicated?