After a brief moment of daze, Edma finally felt the countless fine threads permeating her body.
They shimmered with a faint, bright purple glow, tinting her meridians and blood vessels a pale lavender.
One by one, those threads extended from her body’s surface, converging toward Irina’s hand, their ends connecting to the black fingerless gloves edged in white that she wore.
During the earlier scan, these threads had already broken through Edma’s defenses, gradually infiltrating her body.
What surprised Edma the most was that she hadn’t felt a thing.
Wait—now she remembered.
Edma suddenly understood why Irina had been provoking her all along.
When a person is angry, their perception weakens.
Irina smiled softly, watching Edma stand there dumbfounded.
Then, under Edma’s shocked gaze, she pulled out a jet-black pistol and pressed it against the top of Edma’s head.
The gun looked no different from a normal firearm, but Edma dared not underestimate it—after all, real guns weren’t allowed in this place, so Irina’s weapon had to be some kind of magical artifact.
Yet no matter how Edma tried, she couldn’t detect any threat radiating from it.
“You don’t really think this thing can hurt me, do you?”
Edma sneered, activating the brutal, scorching crimson-gold magic within her.
It surged through her limbs and bones, gradually swallowing up those strange purple threads.
Feeling her body slowly return to her control, Edma exhaled in relief.
But the next moment, Irina smiled and pulled the trigger.
“Bang— ”Â
Even after being a monster for so long, having a gun pointed at you from this close still feels unsettling.
“Damn you!”
What’s more, the person in front of her had just pulled the trigger, causing Edma to instinctively shut her eyes tight as her body trembled.
But after a moment, what fell onto her head seemed to be nothing but light, fluttering pieces of paper.
Edma opened her eyes and saw it was confetti.
This was a toy gun.
Once again toyed with, Edma’s hands immediately transformed back into dragon claws, tightly clenched.
Her slit pupils narrowed to finer than a needle’s tip, and the white reverse scales on her neck trembled violently.
With no other thought in her mind, there was only one urge left: to tear this person apart!
Edma’s claws passed through Irina’s waist as if through water, meeting no resistance.
No blood spattered, and Irina didn’t cry out in pain.
Instead, she truly dispersed like ripples on water, fading away into thin air.
When Edma blinked again, she found herself about twenty meters away from where Irina had been, wildly swiping her claws at empty air like a fool for a long while.
The sensation was like the last time Motes had reversed time using her ability—deeply uncomfortable, as if her punch had struck only air.
Fortunately, the invisible threads she had just broken hadn’t reformed, or else she really would have lost her temper.
“Lin Xiaonuo, you’re a lot weaker than I thought,” Irina said lightly, twirling the toy gun between her fingers.
“Damn you!”
Edma roared angrily, no longer caring about keeping her composure.
She stomped the ground with her heel, cracking the earth again.
Her figure shot forward fiercely through Irina’s location.
This time, she unleashed nearly all her power, launching a full-scale assault with no holding back.
Even she struggled to control her momentum, skidding far across the sand before finally stopping.
But once again, she struck nothing but air—as if Irina was just a projected phantom.
Edma could clearly sense her presence—her magic, her heartbeat, her breathing, even her body temperature.
Yet at the moment her claws pierced Irina’s chest, she passed straight through, touching nothing.
Continuing this impotent rage would only exhaust her further.
But Edma only paused briefly before locking onto Irina’s new position once more.
She would still vent her fury, but no longer in such a reckless way—this time, with a method far more effective and destructive.
Behind her, the phantom of a colossal dragon reappeared.
With a swift turn, she lashed its whip-like tail across the entire area where Irina stood.
Given Edma’s massive size, this strike should be impossible to avoid—
And Ye Wanqing was also caught within the attack’s range.
Finally, facing the powerful wind pressure driven by the dragon’s tail, Irina moved.
She was struck heavily, then flew backward like a kite cut loose from its string.
Ye Wanqing hovered midair, held up by a Fire Core, narrowly dodging the attack.
She was dumbfounded.
Like a skipping stone, Irina tumbled repeatedly, bouncing off the ground several times before finally coming to a stop, lying motionless on the earth.
The sight was so ridiculous that Edma stood stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter.
“Hmph, all bluff. I thought you had some skill.”
Irina lay on the ground, quietly gazing up at the dark sky.
After taking a deep breath, she pushed herself up, brushing the dust off her clothes.
Though she was covered in dirt, the strike that could have sliced a building in half hadn’t seemed to injure her body.
Oh, wait—there was some injury.
She was bleeding from her nose. Â
Irina lightly wiped away the spots of red trickling from her delicate nostrils.
She had accidentally kissed the ground a few times just now, and her fragile nose wasn’t handling it well.
‘Sigh, the poor mobility issue is still tough to fix.  But what can I do without flight? There’s no ceiling here—can’t swing around like Spider-Man with webs.’
Watching the huge dragon phantom in the distance, Irina inwardly admired Edma’s power.
The concept of a dragon—simple and brute—made her ability remarkably effective.
Upon reaching B-rank, all of Edma’s dragon-related awakened powers were unified into one skill—this was the so-called Unified Ability of B-rank.
One aspect of Edma’s Unified Ability was Dragon Transformation.
The idea was simple: to possess a dragon’s physique, charisma, and… well, she had basically become a little dragon humanoid.
These are all fuzzy concepts; in plain terms, she could use magic to amplify her strength, bodily resilience, and sexual vitality.
Moreover, she could condense her magic into a dragon—that’s the origin of the giant dragon phantom behind her.
It didn’t sound all that terrifying, but as long as enough magic was infused…
Discussing ability strength without considering magic investment was pointless.
Even the weakest skill could become godlike with sufficient power backing it up.
Especially for Edma, whose ability multiplier was terrifyingly high.
At full power, she could easily surpass human imagination’s limits, achieving effects comparable to anime protagonists unleashing twenty times the King Kai Fist.
It was a similar type of Stand… er, ability to Lando’s.
But knowing this, Irina showed no hint of panic.
She had already understood all this during her scan and factored it into her calculations.
Yes, if she fought Edma head-on, she’d be reduced to ashes.