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Cloud Soul was stunned, not expecting something like that to come out from Meng Fuyao's mouth. After a while, she uttered, ”Then change.”

Meng Fuyao pulled the two over behind the mountain rock as she clasped the guinea pig in her hand. Behind the rock, the trio immediately collapsed onto the ground. Meng Fuyao felt as though every single bone in her body was going to shatter as she grimaced. ”Zhan Beiye... can not last…”

Yun Heng, slightly breathless, asked, ”Why do we need to wait till nightfall?”

”It's just a guess… perhaps a hope… tonight is a full moon…” Zhan Beiye muttered to himself irresolutely. Smiling bitterly, he said, ”Hang in there, let's see if we have this luck.”

The trio seized the moment to heal themselves. Meng Fuyao gave out the Ajuga grass medicine like it was free, ”Eat! Eat! It would be useless when you are dead!”

Cloud Soul sat behind the rock in a trance. ”Hey, continue,” she called them over, estimating that they were done changing the diapers.

This battle lasted for another two hours as the trio took turns to get flung out. There were splatters of blood all over the floor. This round, the spoils of this battle consisted of a piece of Cloud Soul's sleeve, half a nail and three strands of white hair.

Once again, Meng Fuyao raised her hand, ”Yuan Bao needs his milk…”

In the next round, the trio had an addition of 38 scars. The spoils of this battle was a small slit on Cloud Soul's shoulder by Zhan Beiye.

Meng Fuyao raised her hand.

”Yuan Bao needs to pee…”

In the next round, Yun Heng waved his sword which was accidentally stopped by Meng Fuyao, the two coincided. Panting, Meng Fuyao raised her hand.

”Yuan Bao… needs to sleep…”

In the next round, Meng Fuyao mumbled, ”Nightfall… Nightfall…” as she attempted to climb back up to fight. Zhan Beiye pulled her back as he stood back up unsteadily, with his sword supporting, ”Elder… please…”

The brilliant orb of amber sunk lower and lower in the sky until it dipped down into the horizon, painting the sky with magnificent hues of fiery red and crimson purple. With every inch the sun lowered, it was as though Zhan Beiye could see another glimmer of hope. His eyes sparkled with anticipation. On the other hand, for Cloud Soul, frustration grew with time.

Cloud Soul's complexion was no better. For her, whose ability swept through the martial art world, to not be able to kill the three youths, despite using her full power, was thoroughly exasperating.

She looked at the sky impatiently. The initial calm and lazy expression were now replaced with a look of frustration. With a snort, her palms turned into fists, directing her punches at them.

Those fair and slender hands pounded harshly and cruelly into Zhan Beiye's chest.

Zhan Beiye punched out too with all his might. The two collided. Cloud Soul took a step back and vomited a mouthful of blood. On the other hand, Zhan Beiye flew out like a kite with a broken string.

He plummeted into the ground filled with gravel and mud beside Meng Fuyao. Yun Heng beside him had lost conscious, and Meng Fuyao was breathless as she struggled to move closer to Zhan Beiye. Barely audible, she whispered, ”… blurred vision… can't see the sky… is it nightfall already?”

His heart trembled in pain as he gently covered her eyes with his hand and comforted her, ”… almost…”

”Not … here yet…” Meng Fuyao's voice was filled with disappointment. What quickly followed was humorless laughter as she collapsed onto the ground, mumbling, ”Zhan Beiye, in the end, we still couldn't make it through, huh…”

Zhan Beiye carefully wiped off the blood stains at the corner of her mouth. He looked at the agitated Cloud Soul standing by the cliff and smiled.

His smile was gentle and calm, contrasting against his usual loud, cheerful laughter.

”Fuyao, I feel like this is the happiest moment in my entire life — to fight together, to kill together, to risk our lives together… and to die together…”

As the murderous aura overwhelmed them, miles away, flowers were blooming, and laughter was in the air.

…

Back to a few days ago, it was probably when Meng Fuyao had just stepped onto the soil of Heaven Demon nation, bathing under the warm rays of light. The rays of light too shone into the Imperial Study at Wuji Palace.

The Imperial Study was filled with tiles of gold, reflecting a lone figure of a man buried in documents.

The door creaked open softly as a eunuch cautiously brought more documents into the room, leaving it on the desk.

Zhangsun Wuji stared at the mountain of documents he had to look through and leaned back as he frowned unconsciously — in the past, he never felt that dealing with the national affairs was a chore, but these days, he found that to rule a country was a troublesome matter.

The eunuch observed his expression and carefully moved backward. Drawing the blinds, the eunuch let in rays of light, composing what looked like a beautiful poem with rows of words.