The Fallen Fire's Heart-Wrapping Torment Ends at Last · Love's Words Melt Emotion, Revealing the Truth

[Energy attribute analysis: Fallen, chaotic, carries a fragment of the "Rage" Authority.]

[Energy source tracing: Highly correlated with an unknown higher existence—"Fallen Angel."]

I knew that Dio Mao definitely had a backup plan! The Judgment Sword was just an appetizer!

[Core warning: This energy has become deeply entangled with the target's core consciousness (a collection of negative emotions), forming a symbiotic state. Forcibly erasing the energy will cause the target's consciousness to collapse! Repeat: this enemy cannot be eliminated through brute force!]

As Long Jinyu manipulated the Carefree Dragon Aura to carry Little Ma Xiaotao and narrowly dodge a pillar of black fire, he cried out inwardly:

You don't have to tell me that! I wasn't trying to kill her! The problem is that she won't leave us alone! What, should I just stand here and wait to die without fighting back? I have to get the situation under control before I can figure something out!

[Recommended course of action: Cease all energy-based confrontations. Engage in non-energy-based contact and guide the target through pure emotional resonance.]

Speak human!

[System translation: Stop fighting and go hug her. Win her over with love.]

Long Jinyu: *???*

He nearly stumbled and fell out of the sky.

The lousy system had played dead for so long, and the moment it came back online, it pulled this on him?

Hug her?!

Long Jinyu looked at the "Darkened Tao" in the distance, her body wreathed in Fallen Fire powerful enough to incinerate souls, her gaze wild and full of malice. He found the whole thing utterly absurd.

Forget hugging her—I can barely get close to her right now! That ghostly fire won't even freeze under my Ultimate Ice! You want me to win her over with my bare hands?

[System confidence: Trust System Treasure. This is absolutely correct! Emotional energy is one of the most wondrous forces in the universe!]

Long Jinyu: ...Have you been sneaking peeks at some weird giant-of-light cartoons lately?

Love conquers all? This plot is way too clichéd!

[Preliminary tactical recommendation: verbal stimulation. Host, begin your performance. Start by "flirting" with her.]

Long Jinyu was utterly speechless. But as the Eternal Dragon Frost was once again forcibly melted by the Fallen Fire, and the Ten Thousand Ravine Dragon Wall teetered on the verge of collapse, it seemed that besides trusting this suddenly resurrected, utterly unreliable system for once, he had no better option.

"Tsk!"

He clicked his tongue, a trace of grim determination flashing across his face.

After dodging another wave of flames, he took a deep breath and used Soul Power to carry his voice clearly through the space. He forced his tone into something with the lofty bearing of a literary man... and all the tenderness of a love confession.

"Peach trees, how lovely! Blossoms bright and gay—"

He spoke the same line he had used to praise her before, but now it carried an entirely different meaning.

The "Darkened Tao's" attack faltered slightly, a hint of confusion flashing in her pitch-black eyes.

Long Jinyu pressed his advantage. Carrying Little Ma Xiaotao in his arms, he weaved through the gaps in the flames with exquisite footwork while continuing his performance, displaying the full depth of his literary-arts turtle's learning:

"When I first saw you, I thought those words suited you, praising your beauty, bright as fire. Only now do I realize how shallow I was."

His gaze seemed to pierce the layers of darkness and reach the soul trapped deep within:

"You are not merely a bright and lovely blossom. You are all the romance that stepped out of the Book of Songs, an Unyielding Soul Spirit sung of in the Songs of Chu. Your passion can burn away all the filth in this world, and it can also warm the most resilient heart I have ever seen..."

In his arms, Little Ma Xiaotao blushed furiously. She secretly glanced up at Long Jinyu's handsome profile, then looked at the dark version of "herself" in the distance. A giant question mark popped into her mind: Big Sis... is she actually into girls?! She likes someone like this...?

The "Darkened Tao" was completely dumbfounded.

The flames around her wavered with her tumultuous emotions.

What was wrong with this guy? He'd been fighting her, then all of a sudden he'd stopped and started reciting poetry to her from afar?

And saying these... these hair-raising things? He liked her? He liked a monster like her? What a joke!

"Nonsense!"

She shrieked, but her attacks had clearly lost their former rhythm.

"I'm a monster! A monster that burns everything to ash! How could I possibly..."

"Who says you're a monster!"

Long Jinyu cut her off at once, his voice firm as iron.

"If you are a monster, then I'd gladly let your monstrous flames burn me to ashes. That would be better than living alone in a world without you!"

Even he couldn't bear hearing himself say it. It was... way too embarrassing!

"He's right!"

Little Ma Xiaotao gathered her courage and shouted.

"You're not a monster! Big Sis said we're kind, and that we want to protect people!"

"Shut up! What do you know!"

The "Darkened Tao's" emotions surged violently. The Fallen Fire on her body flickered, and the pure darkness seemed to grow paler, faintly revealing the original silhouette of Ma Xiaotao beneath.

She watched Long Jinyu hold "her past self" in his arms while speaking what were almost confessions to "her present self." Confusion, anger, and a stirring she couldn't even understand herself twisted together inside her.

Long Jinyu seized the moment. He dispelled every defense around himself and slowly flew toward her, his gaze sincere and gentle:

"Look, I haven't used any power at all. If I were lying to you, what would coming this close to you be but suicide? Ma Xiaotao, I trust you more than I trust myself."

Ugh! No, no... If I keep this up, I'll be throwing up the rice noodles I had for breakfast...

The "Darkened Tao" stared at him as he drew closer and closer. All the various energy "domains" that had made her soul sting and recoil were gone. Only the person before her remained, with eyes full of complicated emotions—but utterly free of deception.

The life force emanating from him was so warm, utterly at odds with the icy corruption surrounding her.

The Fallen Fire on the "Darkened Tao" receded like the tide, rapidly drawing in and fading away.

At last, when Long Jinyu stopped in front of her, all the darkness around her had vanished. She had become Ma Xiaotao again, clad in vivid red. Her eyes were no longer wild, but confused and fragile, as though she had just struggled free from a long, painful nightmare and was utterly exhausted.

She looked at Long Jinyu, so close she could reach out and touch him. Emotions surged through her clear, restored eyes—

The daze of surviving a disaster, the unease of having all her vulnerabilities seen through, and a dependence like that of a drowning person who had seized a piece of driftwood.

Suddenly, as if using up the last of her courage and strength, she reached out and clung tightly to him!

Long Jinyu's body stiffened. His mind went completely blank at the sudden embrace.

But what came next shocked him even more.

Ma Xiaotao lifted her head in his arms, and then a soft touch, carrying a hint of coolness, landed squarely on his lips!

Long Jinyu: "!!!"

Wait! What just happened?! Lips... my lips?!

My first kiss! It's just... gone, here in the Spiritual Sea?!

The upbringing he'd received on Blue Star made his first instinct one of shock and a desire to push her away, but his arms felt as if they'd been filled with lead, unable to move.

He could clearly feel her body trembling slightly, and the emotions packed into that kiss were overwhelmingly complicated—

There was the desperate need for confirmation, the longing for reassurance, and something more like a clumsy ritual to bid farewell to a nightmare.

Wait! Calm down! This is the Spiritual Sea! It isn't real... at least, not entirely...

What is this supposed to be? A reward for clearing the stage? Or... a side effect of her purification?

His rigid body slowly relaxed. He hesitated, but in the end, he closed his eyes and gave a faint, tentative response, clumsy as he was.