Mogan Peak…

Moganshan Mountain, Deqing County's icy little paradise. A place that pretends it's heaven but has all the commitment issues of a divorced god.

Bamboo stretched skyward, dusted in snow like someone snorted powdered sugar and sneezed across the forest. Wooden bridges linked to those "floating" lodges, romantic until you realize one strong thrust and the whole structure would fold like cheap origami.

A tiny shrine crouched at the corner, holy only because nobody bothered to steal it.

Evergreens flexed under the snow like models posing for nature's OnlyFans.

Bamboo bent under frost like overworked dancers trying to hold a pose on a pole made of regret.

Stone paths glistened with thin ice, the kind that asked, "Would you like to die today?"

Old pine trunks rose through the mist, dark, rugged, shaped like they've witnessed crimes. Bushes shimmered with hoarfrost.

Granite ribs poked through white fog.

And icicles everywhere like nature sharpened its prison shanks for dramatic effect.

The entire mountain was breathtaking, beautiful…

…and then the sky decided to implode.

A blazing crack ripped across the heavens.

Frozen particles burst outward like a divine tantrum.

Pressure slammed downward, a red dot shone in the darkness ahead,

like an ancient eye opening for the first time in millennia, bright, cold, and hungry.

And right in the middle of this nightmare...

"Don't block me... you'll get hurt!"

Ning Xue.

Golden hair whipping like a goddess in a storm, breath rushed, expression flustered, yet aura fierce enough to make the clouds hesitate.

She'd been fighting for a solid hour.

She was tired.

Her patience was thin.

And then... He appeared.

Wang Xiao materialized in front of her mid-battle like someone casually walking onto a movie set.

Ning Xue's eyes widened, not dramatically, just that tiny heroic fluster that beautiful swordswomen do when reality stops making sense.

"You...! Get behind me!"

She grabbed his wrist with one hand, shoved him behind her like a misbehaving civilian, and kept parrying incoming blasts with the other hand.

Behind her:

"That isn't very romantic."

Wang Xiao floated in the sky, hands casually in pockets. He looked at the apocalyptic battlefield the way people judge bad interior design.

"Do you mind?" Ning Xue sighed,.still without looking back, still blocking the attacks. "There's... uh... there's a thing in front of us trying to kill me. And now planes are crashing for no reason, and... just...ugh... don't stand there!"

She blocked another blow, sparks dancing across her fingertips.

"And why are you next to me?! I told you to stay clear!"

Wang Xiao nodded thoughtfully.

"Oh, absolutely. I love hiding behind my women."

"…"

Ning Xue swallowed hard, cheeks tinted pink, half from exertion, half from sheer embarrassment.

"I didn't mean... I'm not... This isn't—!"

She fumbled for words as another shockwave burst outward.

Wang Xiao watched the red dot pulsing in the distance, a star of pure fury, releasing beams of energy straight at them. The entire sky above Mogan Peak twisted around Fiona like some deranged celestial array.

Behind her, reality itself was being sucked inward.

People.

Animals.

Birds.

Clouds.

Trees.

The roofs of houses.

Everything spiraled into her like she had become a bloody turbine.

And then ... she spat all of it back out as condensed blasts of annihilation.

A tenth of the town behind her was simply gone. People and animals were pulled up screaming and liquefied mid-air, shredded into a red fog.

Ning Xue stood her ground, hair dancing violently in the gravitational mess, her fingertips glowing faint gold.

Every beam that touched her dissolved instantly into glittering golden dust, like she turned apocalypse into treasure.

The gold particles drifted down across the mountain like a surreal snowfall.

Wang Xiao raised a brow.

"Mm. So you can convert matter and energy now...Not bad."

Ning Xue was too focused to reply. Her breathing was controlled, steady… but her shoulders tightened when the next wave hit.

"Why are you even fighting that thing?" Wang Xiao asked, pointing lazily at the enraged red dot, which was, in fact, Fiona.

Fiona spotted him.

Her already burning eyes widened, then blazed brighter, turning blood-red.

Because from her point of view…

He had stepped in front of Ning Xue.

It looked like Ning Xue was using their father as a shield.

Absolutely unforgivable.

The eye around Fiona swelled to monstrous size like a demonic star, and the pull behind her intensified so violently that an entire town was devoured in seconds.

Buildings tore apart.

Streets vanished.

A whole city block folded like paper and disappeared into her vortex.

Then the center lit up.

A blinding, swelling, world-killing beam.

If that thing fired, china would vanish.

Wang Xiao let out a thoughtful hum.

"…That doesn't look good."

He stepped closer behind Ning Xue, close enough that his breath brushed her nape. And then, utterly shameless, he rested both hands on her shoulders and nudged her half a step forward.

"As my personal shield, I trust you."

"Y-You... !" Ning Xue's voice cracked as she felt his hands. "This is not... I can't... this isn't the... ! Focus!"

She was too busy saving the country to yell properly. Her face flushed, both from pressure and from the man pressed behind her.

Wang Xiao leaned a little more.

"Relax. I'll let you tank the first hit."

"You're not helping!" she whispered fiercely, teeth clenched.

"Spiritually, I am."

"No, you're not!"

"Emotionally?"

"Ngh... absolutely not!"

Another shockwave hit the mountain, shaking the stones beneath their feet.

Ning Xue gritted her teeth as the light in front intensified to catastrophic levels.

Why…

Why did this terrible man show up just to make her day worse?

If she survived, she was going to…well, she couldn't actually do anything to him.

Which made her even more frustrated.

BAAAANG!

The dark night sky tore open like the world was being executed.

The beam erupted from Fiona's demonic eyes, a colossal ray of blazing red, soaked in the blood of everything she had just devoured.

It howled forward, swallowing the sky, tearing clouds apart like they were paper.

Ning Xue's pupils contracted.

She could smell the end.

A cold metallic scent, death rushing straight at her.

There was no way she could tank this.

Not even with everything she had.

Her breath steadied.

"…Tch."

She sighed softly, resigned, controlled, and extended her arms. Golden light burst from her palms, layer upon layer of shimmering walls forming around her, sucking the air thin. The pressure cratered as she pulled every surrounding particle into her defense.

Maybe... Just maybe...

CRACK!!

The first layer shattered instantly.

Then the second.

And the third.

"—!"

Before she could react, her entire body jerked sideways.

Someone had shoved her, hard.

Her widened eyes snapped to the only person who would do something so recklessly stupid.

"You...?!"

Wang Xiao stepped in front of her.

No hesitation.

No buildup.

No posture.

Just walked into a world-ending beam like he was bored with life.

She didn't even have time to curse him properly.

In her stunned gaze, he lifted his hand... and sliced downward.

A tiny, casual motion.

A gesture that made no sense at all against something that could erase half a country.

"This… this man…!" Ning Xue could barely breathe.

And then... BOOOOOM!!!

The beam crashed into him.

The world detonated.

A shockwave ruptured the sky, the entire peak of Mogan Mountain vanished in a blaze of red and gold.

The force slammed into her like a truck, sending both of them hurtling across the night.

"Wait... !!"

Ning Xue barely managed to grab him as the explosion swallowed them. Her frail arms wrapped around him mid-flight, instinctive, panicked, like she was trying to cushion him from crashing.

CRASH!!!

They smashed into the earth like an asteroid strike.

Tens of miles away...

Half of Yixing City woke up screaming as the shockwave rolled across the outskirts, cars flipped, windows blew out, dogs fled.

And somewhere near the massive Grand Buddha statue, a crater opened, large enough to fit a small lake.

In the center of the smoldering rubble, dust and sparks raining around them—

A woman groaned in pain, arms around Wang Xiao's torso as he lay against her like she'd caught a falling god.

She looked down at him.

"Y-You… stupid… horrible… idiot… man…" she whispered, voice cracking with fury and relief. "Why… did you… push me?"

Wang Xiao opened one eye, completely unbothered.

"Teamwork."

"THAT... Is not... teamwork... !!"

She wasn't yelling, but she was very, very close.

Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.

He slipped out of her grasp like nothing happened and looked at her,

half her clothes torn to ribbons, skin bruised, eyes bright with pain she refused to cry over. Bones cracked, breath uneven, the girl was basically held together by stubbornness and spite at this point.

And then she saw it.

The beam, the world-ending blast meant to vaporize them, wasn't just gone.

It had been split clean down the middle.

The two halves shot into the sky and curved away, carving a glowing path across the night before slamming into the earth hundreds of miles away, flattening an entire mountain range near Chaohu Lake, wiping out forests like someone deleted them with a giant eraser.

Ning Xue's whole body trembled.

He… really cut that thing?

She tried to stand, only to collapse with a hiss.

"Ugh… my... my back… I think it's broken…"

"It should be," Wang Xiao said calmly. "I'm quite heavy."

She glared at him through pain, a silent 'shut up' in her eyes.

"Give me your hand… just help me up…"

He didn't move.

Just stared.

That alone made her feel weird, small, fragile, like all her defenses had evaporated. She was exhausted, strength gone, unable to heal herself. One more hit and she'd probably shatter.

And just as she braced for him to do something awful...

He did something worse.

______

Minutes later, on the empty streets of Yixing City…

A woman could be heard muttering curses under her breath as a man carried her on his back like a princess who regretted being born.