"Little girl."
He stuck out his tongue and licked the purpled scar at the corner of his mouth.
"How does it feel? Being scoured by Endless Ages—doesn't it feel wonderful?"
"Does that tight flesh of yours feel loose now? Has your spear intent started to dull as well?"
Zhao Zhaoxue did not answer.
She merely raised her head and glanced at him.
There was no anger in that look, no panic—only a calm, almost indifferent scrutiny, as though she were inspecting a tool with a minor flaw.
"Endless Ages."
She spoke lightly, with a faintly contemplative slowness.
"Not a bad move. You condensed the power of time into mist to erode your opponent's vitality, the foundation of their sacred aura, even their origin."
"Compared to those crude sacrificial methods from before, this move finally has a little of the standard worthy of catching an elder's eye."
The corner of Walker's mouth twitched.
"You still have the mood to critique my move?"
Zhao Zhaoxue did not respond.
She slowly raised her left hand, spread her five fingers, and laid them over her right arm, which was shrouded in murky mist.
A thin layer of golden-red radiance lit up on all five of her fingers at once.
The light was not bright, but it was exceptionally pure, like a wisp of dawn compressed to its utmost limit.
Her five fingers slowly brushed down her right arm, from shoulder to fingertips.
Her movements were neither hurried nor slow, as though she were dusting ash from her sleeve.
Yet wherever her fingers passed, the grayish-white murky mist clinging to her skin peeled away layer by layer, stripped off, and completely wiped clean.
Her skin regained its original lustrous sheen. The grayish-white blotches retreated in utter collapse the instant they touched the golden-red radiance, like