Qian Renxue fell from midair and slammed into the sea of Blue Silver Grass in the valley, sending up a wave of blue blades.
She struggled twice, trying to prop herself up, but ultimately failed to rise.
She could no longer sustain her Martial Soul Avatar. Golden light receded like a tide-her six wings first dwindled to two pairs, then one, before vanishing entirely, leaving only a few wisps of luminous dust to scatter in the morning breeze.
She lay on her back amid the grass, her long, brilliant golden hair strewn across the blue blades like a strand of sunlight floating in a blue ocean.
Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth, trickling down her jaw and seeping between the blades. Her pale purple eyes stared blankly at the sky, hollow and bewildered.
You drifted down as lightly as a falling leaf.
The blue-gold wings slowly folded behind you and dissolved into specks of starlight that sank into your back.
The Myriad Forms Dragon Scale Armor receded from your body like an ebbing tide, revealing the black fitted clothes beneath, soaked in sweat and blood.
The Blue Silver Dragon-Devouring Spear, too, shattered inch by inch in your palm, dissolving into luminous dust in the morning breeze.
Step by step, you approached the bedraggled figure in the sea of grass. The soles of your boots crushed the blades with faint, brittle cracks.
Qian Renxue did not move.
She continued gazing up at the sky, as though trying to find the reason for her defeat in that expanse of grayish white.
"Your Highness," you said evenly, your voice quiet yet exceptionally clear in the deathly still valley, "I gave you three chances-"
Qian Renxue's eyelashes trembled slightly, but she gave no reply.
"The first time, I chose this valley as