Taking a Loss

Xie Xie felt that after meeting that white-haired, red-eyed woman, his life had completely derailed.

Not onto some track of passionate adventure, but into a horror movie projector called "Xie Xie's Live Survival Report." By day, he was Class Five's puppet; by night, he endured the haunted nights of the third-floor dormitory. In between came Yun Ying's cold jokes about the "Survivors' Mutual Aid Society" and Gu Yue's "comfort": "Once she has her sights on you, you can't escape." He had tried pretending to sleep, wedging a chair against the door, and lining up the buns Tang Wulin gave him on the windowsill as offerings—all useless. Whether Shadow came or not had nothing to do with the calendar. It depended on her mood.

At noon on the third day, Xie Xie cornered Tang Wulin and Yun Ying in a corner of the cafeteria, his face as pale as a frostbitten radish.

"Boss, Yun Ying," he said in an extremely low voice, his fingers trembling against the table's edge, "I'm not surviving this week."

Tang Wulin was gnawing on a chicken leg. He looked up, and the corners of his greasy mouth twitched. "Who? Is Director Long picking on you again?"

"Ten thousand times worse than Director Long." Xie Xie swallowed, his eyes darting around as though Shadow might crawl out of the vinegar bottle the next second. "That... Shadow. She came again last night. She sat in my plastic chair, tapped the corner of my desk with a dagger, and told me about how Yun Ying's stab under her ribs last year took nine days to heal."

The chopsticks in Yun Ying's hand snapped with a crack. She narrowed her eyes, instinctively tensing her shoulders and back. "She actually dared to crouch on the third-floor windowsill and climb into the boys' dorm?"

"She did." Xie Xie nearly burst into tears. "She even knocked over my thermos. She said the scent of mint mixed with panic in my room smelled better than the alley. Yun Ying, listen carefully—she knows the group name you changed, she knows Gu Yue spoke loudly to me at the stairwell, and she knows I sit in the middle of the last row! That's not a person, that's a ghost!"

Tang Wulin set down his chicken leg and wiped his hands, his expression unusually serious. "Xie Xie, this Shadow you mentioned... what level is she at?"

Xie Xie gulped. "She said she fought Yun Ying to a draw and spent nine days recovering. But now she hangs around my windowsill like she's strolling through her own backyard. If she summons those twin daggers, I bet she could snap them like toothpicks."

The air fell silent for three seconds.

Yun Ying slowly set down the broken chopsticks, her tone as cold as her gun barrel. "A draw? Bullshit. I chased that thief down and beat her the whole way last year. Some white-haired lunatic stole my kill midway through. That shot of mine really did go wide—I wasn't forced off by her. But... she does have some skill."

Tang Wulin rubbed his brow. "So we can't solve this through normal means."

"Solve my ass!" Xie Xie grabbed Tang Wulin's sleeve. "Boss, I'm begging you, if the two of you can't handle her, let's find a teacher! Teacher Wu! Once he unleashes that freezing aura, crazy or not, she'll turn into an ice sculpture!"

Yun Ying raised a brow. "You think Teacher Wu can beat her?"

Xie Xie clutched at that hope like a lifeline. "Teacher Wu is a teacher! A Soul Emperor! The Heavenfrost Sword! No matter how insane she is, can she be crazier than a Soul Emperor? Besides, she dares harass students, but would she dare harass a teacher? Once Teacher Wu turns on the pressure, she'll have to crawl out on her knees!"

Tang Wulin and Yun Ying exchanged a glance. Yun Ying snorted. "Fine, we'll go with you. But let me make this clear first—if she really clashes with Teacher Wu and blows up the office, don't blame me."

"It won't blow up, it won't," Xie Xie said hurriedly. "Teacher Wu's office is the sturdiest, East Sea Academy special-grade level..."

Before he could finish, Tang Wulin was already on his feet. "Let's go. He might still be there during lunch break."

The three of them slipped from the cafeteria to the teachers' offices in the academic building. Xie Xie huddled behind Tang Wulin like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, suspecting that Shadow's white hair was flickering in the reflection of every window they passed.

Wu Changkong's office door stood half-open. The air conditioning inside was cranked up high, and Wu Changkong was reading a report on the new students' physical fitness. The lines of his profile were harder than the holly outside the window.

Xie Xie took a deep breath and charged through the door, his voice trembling with tears. "Teacher Wu! Save me!"

Wu Changkong looked up, his brows slightly furrowed. "Xie Xie? Making noise during lunch break. Conduct points deducted."

"Don't deduct them, don't!" Xie Xie lunged toward the desk. Tang Wulin and Yun Ying followed him inside and stood to either side. Xie Xie gestured with shaking fingers. "Someone... someone is stalking me! A pervert! A lunatic! White hair, red eyes! She climbed through my dorm window the day before yesterday and sat in my chair with a knife! I can't sleep, I tripped twice during practical class, and even my hands shake when I summon my twin daggers—"

The corner of Wu Changkong's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

"White hair, red eyes, rose-red highlights, carrying red feather blades." Yun Ying added fuel to the fire beside him, her tone as calm as though she were reciting a menu. "She calls herself Shadow and says she fought me to a draw."

Wu Changkong's gaze paused as he looked at Yun Ying. "You fought her?"

Yun Ying nodded. "During an assignment last year, we fought over a thief's kill. It was a draw. She took a grazing shot from me, and she cut my sleeve with one slash. But that was a street fight. I don't know her exact strength."

Wu Changkong was silent for a moment. "Xie Xie," he said in a cold, even voice, "are you certain her purpose is to 'pester' you rather than merely monitor or warn you?"

"Pester me!" Xie Xie nearly dropped to his knees. "She sat on my bed and called me little brother, saying how nice I was. She talked about who I wanted to marry someday and touched the red mark on my forehead from when I hit the wall! Teacher Wu, if that isn't pestering, I'll write my name backward!"

Tang Wulin coughed lightly. "Teacher Wu, Xie Xie really hasn't been himself these past few days."

Wu Changkong tapped his fingers against the desk. A thin layer of frost formed on the wall of his cup.

"...Fine." He closed the report and rose to his feet, cold air already curling around him. "I'll meet her. If she is merely issuing a warning, I will drive her away. If she has truly crossed the line, I will deal with it."

Xie Xie looked as though he had been granted amnesty. Tang Wulin and Yun Ying exchanged another glance—Yun Ying's lips twitched almost invisibly, halfway between a smile and not.

Just as Wu Changkong pushed open the office door, a gust carrying mint and rust rushed in from the front.

The window latch clicked.

The aluminum window swung inward thirty degrees. Before the wind could fully pour inside, a white figure had already flipped lightly through, her thick-soled shoes landing without a sound. Shadow looked like a cat when she crouched on the windowsill, and like snow slanted by the wind when she slipped inside. Her long white hair fell over her shoulders, its rose-red tips glaringly bright in the afternoon sunlight. Several translucent, hollow, rose-red diamond blades floated beside her, turning lazily.

She tilted her head, her red eyes curving. "Little brother, did you come complain to Teacher Wu?"

Xie Xie shrieked and ducked behind Tang Wulin. "H-How did she know?!"

Wu Changkong's face remained expressionless. His right hand hovered over his sword hilt as freezing air erupted, dropping the office temperature by three degrees. "You are Shadow?"

"That's me." Shadow carried one of the feather blades with its tip hanging toward the floor, as casually as though she had entered someone else's study carrying a bunch of scallions. "Teacher Wu, you look so imposing. Your Heavenfrost Sword aura is freezing my eyelashes." She lifted a hand to brush aside her bangs, her red eyes moist like an amused cat's. "I came to play with little brother. He cried and begged, so useless. But Teacher Wu, are you going to chase me away?"

The corner of Wu Changkong's mouth twitched again. He had seen arrogant people before, but never someone who climbed through a student's dorm window, got caught on the spot, and still said, "I came to play with little brother."

"This is the academy's office area, not a private residence. Xie Xie is my student. If you have no official business, leave."

"Official business?" Shadow burst out laughing, spinning a feather blade around her fingertip. "Does little brother treating me to soy milk count as official business? His potted plant sprouted, so does me coming to fertilize it count?" She stepped forward, her thick-soled shoe grinding over the floor tiles as the Glazed Blades hovering in the air accelerated. "Teacher Wu, your clothes are pretty cute."

Wu Changkong looked down—he had found his uniform too tight during lunch break, so he had thrown on a loose set of loungewear. Pale blue, with a row of goose-yellow ducklings printed across the chest, the kind with pacifiers in their mouths.

The air froze for half a second.

Xie Xie poked his head out from behind Tang Wulin. Seeing that row of ducklings, he made a strangled clucking sound in his throat.

The tips of Wu Changkong's ears visibly reddened for an instant. Then his cold aura exploded with a boom. The Heavenfrost Sword remained sheathed, but Frost Mist was already surging around him. "Insolence."

"The insolent one is you, Teacher Wu." The amusement in Shadow's red eyes faded into a faint frenzy. She tilted her head, her hair brushing the blade's edge. "Little brother is mine. If you touch him, I'll touch you."

Before her words had faded, her left wrist flipped.

Pinkish-purple mist exploded from her sleeve.

It was not the glow of a soul skill, but real mist, cloying like rotten flowers mixed with mint, instantly flooding the office. Six peach-colored threads swept out of the fog along the floor. At the same time, sharp Glazed Blades spiraled around her body. Their initial speed was not fast, but every turn added another layer of afterimages, their hum making people's teeth ache.

"You're using your ultimate without even warming up?" Yun Ying raised a brow in the doorway, one hand already reaching behind her—but she did not draw her gun. She could tell this was not a fight she could interfere in.

Wu Changkong snorted coldly and drew the Heavenfrost Sword.

A flash of blue-white sword light. His second soul skill, Frost Mist, unleashed absolute freezing air. A blue-white ice barrier descended around him, and the pinkish-purple mist crystallized into ice at its edge. The peach-colored threads lashed against the ice and froze brittle before snapping apart. Wu Changkong stepped forward, his third soul skill, Heavenfrost Slash, sweeping horizontally. The arc of icy sword light cut into the mist and sheared a corner off half the office desk.

"Interesting." Shadow's voice came from deep within the mist. Frenzied Dance Steps accelerated, stretching her body into an afterimage as Plume Storm drove her forward—not bird feathers, but her Glazed Blades transforming into feather-shaped glass shards. They spiraled ahead and forced back the ice barrier. During the Unyielding phase, the final burst of Plume Storm doubled. Peach-red Glazed Blades poured down on Wu Changkong like a storm, every shard whistling through the air.

Wu Changkong pressed his left palm against the flat of his sword. A massive Heavenfrost Sword burst from the ground, its frost barrier forcibly enduring the rain of blades. Ice fragments and glass shards collided in a continuous barrage of cracking sounds. With a backhand motion, he unleashed his fourth soul skill, Frost-Ice Word, forming a giant sword of ice for a heavy slash. Ice shards tore through the pink mist, and the office windows buzzed violently.

Xie Xie clung to the doorframe as Tang Wulin dragged him backward. "Stop watching. If they really start fighting, we'll get caught in it."

Yun Ying leaned against the corridor wall with her arms folded. "Teacher Wu's freezing aura can lock down her control, but she isn't affected by control... interesting."

Inside the office, Shadow grew crazier with every exchange.

She did not defend at all. The Glazed Blades poured out in a suicidal torrent, as if she were burning herself as ammunition. Cracks appeared in Wu Changkong's ice barrier. Heavenfrost Sword light chased her afterimages, and she merely tilted her head and smiled, her red eyes wet and bright. The instant she deflected the blade, one peach-red Glazed Blade slashed upward at an angle—

"Riiip."

The sound of cloth tearing.

Wu Changkong's movement stopped.

From the left chest downward, his pale-blue duckling pajamas had been cut open in a foot-long slash. The goose-yellow ducklings had been split in half, and the pacifier duck had been carved into the shape of a dumbbell. Cotton stuffing drifted from the tear, freezing into little fluffy clumps in the cold air.

The air truly froze.

Wu Changkong lowered his head, looked at the row of brutally bisected ducklings, then looked back up at Shadow.

Shadow froze too. Her red eyes blinked, and the smile at the corner of her lips stiffened halfway. "...Oh. Little ducklings."

The next second.

Wu Changkong's aura suddenly turned violent.

It was not anger, but an eruption of extreme cold born from something absolutely untouchable being violated. Heavenfrost Battle Armor enveloped him—blue-white armor covering his body, frost forming over the wings on his shoulders. The Heavenfrost Sword swelled thirty feet in his hand, and its sword intent froze and cracked the glass on three sides of the office.

"—My. Little. Duckling. Pajamas."

His voice was ten thousand times colder than his morning lectures.

One strike.

No soul skill name, only a pure, brutal downward slash of Heavenfrost Sword intent. Shadow had just snapped out of her daze and tried to retreat when the sword wind slammed head-on into her afterimage. Half her orbiting Glazed Blades exploded apart. She flew like a rag doll struck by an ice hammer, her back smashing through the office's outer wall before she crashed into the trunk of a plane tree by the field. Her long white hair covered half her face, her suit was shredded, and her black shirt revealed the old scar between her ribs and fresh blood.

She coughed up blood, but her red eyes still curved as though even being beaten was amusing. "Teacher Wu... little ducklings... so cute..."

Then she braced herself against the tree trunk. Her body swayed and dissolved into pinkish-purple aftermist, slipping away along the base of the wall so quickly that even Yun Ying did not stop her—or rather, Yun Ying chose not to.

All that remained beside the field was a trail of blood and a lock of hair caught on the plane tree.

Inside the office, Wu Changkong stood before the hole in the wall as the Heavenfrost Battle Armor slowly receded, revealing the torn duckling pajamas beneath. He lowered his head and tugged at the two halves of the pacifier duck, the corner of his mouth twitching even harder than when Xie Xie had been crying earlier.

Xie Xie peeked through the crack in the door, his pale face paired with wide, round eyes. "T-Teacher Wu, she ran away."

"I saw." Wu Changkong's voice was frighteningly flat.

Tang Wulin silently pulled Xie Xie farther back. Yun Ying walked over, glanced at the broken wall and the pajamas, and finally could not stop the corner of her mouth from lifting half a millimeter. "Teacher Wu, I know those pajamas. They're twenty-nine ninety-nine in the East Sea Supermarket discount section. I'll buy you another pair tomorrow."

Wu Changkong ignored her. He looked at Xie Xie, his expression as complicated as though he were staring at a piece of sticky candy stuck to his hand.

"Xie Xie."

"Here!"

"From today onward, stay in the office after evening self-study. If she comes again and I am not here, even jumping out the window and running would be better than staying."

At last, Xie Xie's tears fell. "Okay, okay, okay! Thank you, Teacher Wu!"