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.

Ning Xue's entire body pressed against him, and with her clothes shredded, the contact was too much. Her soft breasts were squished against his back, her thighs locked around his waist. Every bump in the road made her want to bury her face in his neck and die from embarrassment.

A lone streetlamp flickered above them.

Firetrucks screamed past toward the crater they left behind.

Ning Xue turned her head, watching them with a complicated look.

"She's… not following us. Thank heavens…" she breathed out, relief spilling into her voice.

"Hm." Wang Xiao didn't even look.

He knew Fiona would stop the moment he stepped in.

They kept moving through the quiet, the moon above like a nosy witness. Distant news helicopters lit the sky, but here, on this lonely road, it was just him carrying the girl he basically drop-kicked out of an explosion.

His steps were strangely steady...

Almost gentle.

Ning Xue finally relaxed, her body melting against him from exhaustion, her head rested on his shoulder, her fingers unclenched. She even breathed softer, like her heartbeat had finally gotten permission to slow down.

"How… did you do that?" she asked suddenly, staring at the stretch of road ahead, lit by one sad streetlight.

Wang Xiao chuckled.

"Didn't you see?"

Ning Xue lowered her eyes.

"I saw… your energy wasn't enough to shield it…"

What she didn't say: He used half her strength... And somehow still split the beam she couldn't stop herself.

He didn't answer.

He just continued carrying her, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, until they entered the quieter parts of the main city.

People had already forgotten about the tiny 'asteroid impact' near the Buddha statue.

Moganshan Mountain blowing itself to hell had stolen the headlines.

Their crash?

Just background noise.

Ning Xue exhaled shakily, her face ending up buried against his shoulder again, partly from exhaustion, partly because she didn't want him to see how red her cheeks were.

"…What's your name?" she whispered quietly.

Wang Xiao smirked, amused by her softness. "Don't you already know it?"

Ning Xue released a small breath against his neck, warm, fragrant, a little embarrassed.

"I want your real name…" Her eyes had that rare seriousness conviction.

For a moment, Wang Xiao was actually confused.

Then it clicked.

She thought he was pretending to have a mortal family.

Because in her mind, he was ancient, as old as Velkhara's kind, maybe older. And Velkhara's race measured their age in hundreds of millions of years.

He suppressed a laugh and answered with a wry smile.

"You can call me… Jiuye."

Ning Xue blinked."…Ninth Master?"

(A/N: Jiuyu = Ninth master)

She looked surprised, almost offended. "Are you some kind of master?"

"I trained Vel for a while," he said casually.

But to Ning Xue, this was too much.

"So she's younger than you?" she asked softly.

"Much younger," Wang Xiao nodded.

He wasn't lying.

Ning Xue's lips pressed tight, pale from winter, still retaining a soft reddish sheen, her breath fogging lightly.

"…Do you know my master?" she asked, voice quieter, almost protective.

"Athene?" Wang Xiao snorted. "That girl's a scared kid inside, she just needs a beating. A good one."

"…"

Ning Xue's face darkened immediately.

Her fingers pressed lightly into his shoulder.

"Don't talk about her like that…" she said in a soft but icy tone. "I don't like it."

She actually purred behind him, displeased, adorable.

Wang Xiao sighed dramatically.

"And it's okay if she talks bad about me?"

Ning Xue stiffened.

"... How did you know!? I didn't even tell you yet!"

Her eyes widened, genuinely stunned. Because Athene did complain about him. A lot.

After Ning Xue returned home soaked and flustered from that water-splash incident, she ran into Athene.

Athene asked what happened.

Ning Xue told her everything.

In return, Athene demanded she stay away from him, without giving a single explanation, which sparked a fight between the two women.

Ning Xue had actually been on her way back to rant to him about Athene's weird behaviour…

But Fiona's entry interrupted everything.

Wang Xiao raised a brow.

Ah.

So this cute, controlled, obedient girl actually ran back to him to rant about another woman.

Snitching to him about someone talking shit about him.

Such a loyal little thing.

Ning Xue didn't even realize her own behavior.

She simply continued talking, voice soft, earnest, almost pouty, recounting the entire story as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"And then... after she scolded me... she didn't even explain who you were. She just said I shouldn't go near you. So I came back to ask you... but then that red haired girl showed up... and... "

She kept going, breathless, flustered, cute, gently complaining into his shoulder like a wife complaining about her neighbor.

Wang Xiao could only smile.

She had no idea how much she was giving away.

His mouth curved faintly. 'She isn't that bad…' A little too honest, less cunning than Aurora, warm-bodied, soft… If he held her while sleeping, she'd probably feel like a personal heater.

Ning Xue, unaware she was being measured as bedding material, continued speaking quietly against his shoulder until he cut in.

"Why did you start fighting that girl?"

Ning Xue paused, gathered her thoughts, then answered with composed clarity.

"She has killed before, the last U.S. president... Caused large-scale instability.

So when I saw her beside the current one, silent, no explanation… I acted first. A precaution... It escalated."

Wang Xiao exhaled, half amused, half exasperated.

"That girl was escorting President Helena. You really shouldn't pick fights with her. She's Prince's people, very taboo." He laughed lightly.

"That doesn't concern me," Ning Xue replied calmly.

"Hm?" Wang Xiao tilted his head as she adjusted her posture on his back, her voice soft but carrying a subtle teasing curve.

"If I told you why… you might be afraid."

"Nothing in this world can scare me," he said.

She smiled, quiet, elegant, slightly knowing.

After a moment, she finally revealed:

"My father is the Eight Prince too."

Wang Xiao forced a wry smile.

"So that's it."

She hummed softly. "Are you frightened now?"

He continued walking, unbothered.

"For what?"

Her breath stuttered a little, invisible but present, his indifference was almost insulting.

He felt the small rise of heat against his back and chuckled.

"I fucked his daughter, not him. Why would I fear him?"

"You...!"

Her voice sharpened, not childish, but controlled irritation layered with dignity.

She tapped his back lightly, a graceful reprimand, not a slap.

Wang Xiao grinned. "Why get upset? Weren't you part of the anti-Prince alliance? I assumed you disliked him."

"I do not hate him," she said softly.

"I simply disagree with the way he handles the world. And the alliance was not my joining. They use my name. I only fight monsters to train myself… and sometimes save people because it costs me little to do so."

She sighed.

"... Yet they insist on calling me their 'Empress'… it is so misleading!"

"You talk a lot when you're comfortable," Wang Xiao murmured.

Her ears warmed, only then did she realize she had been speaking too freely. Still, she didn't yank herself away, she remained composed, resting lightly against him.

After a pause, she added quietly,

"He is the strongest man alive. I do not understand… why he must choose cruelty."

Wang Xiao chuckled. "Are you sure he's the strongest? Maybe I'm stronger."

Ning Xue didn't even entertain the idea.

"No. Even Athene admits she cannot defeat him. There was a time she met him frequently… and returned wounded each time. I was angry for her."

Her fingers tightened slightly on his shoulder, a calm, smooth gesture of remembering bitterness.

Wang Xiao smirked. 'Athene was beaten for refusing to reveal where you were hiding, silly girl."

"So what do you want him to do?" he asked.

"Nothing," she replied. "I am not a savior. I help because it costs me nothing. If it endangers me, I may not, unless it is someone close."

Her voice lowered. "I simply wished he would choose kindness... It costs him nothing either... It's literally free for him!"

Wang Xiao laughed softly. "Being evil is free too."

Her eyes widened, not dramatically, but with a composed realization.

"…That is… disturbingly correct."

"Maybe he just acts for amusement," Wang Xiao mentioned casually. "You save people because it pleases you. He destroys because it pleases him. Power is freedom, to act without constraint. If you do what you want, you call it good. If he does, you call it evil."

Ning Xue's lips tightened. "…Why are you defending him?"

"I'm questioning your logic." He shrugged."He hasn't forced you to be like him, so why force him to be like you?

Powerful beings imposing their values on others… that's the real naïveté. You're not stronger than him. Unless you plan to fight him, why insist he change?"

Ning Xue pressed her lips in a pout. "I do not wish to fight him. I have said this many times." Her voice lowered, "... It is he who intends to kill me."

Wang Xiao raised a brow.

Ning Xue immediately sensed she had said too much, Athene's warning echoed, never tell anyone.

But she exhaled, resigned.

"…It hardly matters. Once he learns what happened between us, you will die. Athene warned me, I cannot be close to anyone. My father kills any man who touches me."

Wang Xiao almost laughed.

'Athene wasn't wrong about that part.'

She continued, her voice steady despite the bleakness:

"My master said… I am meant to grow old. And when the time comes… he will take me back... For his ritual."