That silver flame did not transform into a flood that incinerated everything.
The moment Mo Yin raised her hand, it suddenly subdivided, exploding into dozens of silver fire-lines as solid as physical matter.
They were no longer violent. Instead, they carried a scalp-numbing precision, bypassing the sturdy breastplates and helmets to flash through the gaps in the charging knights’ visors, the joints of their neck guards, their armpits, and every other weak point!
The shouting of the knights at the very front stopped abruptly.
There were no screams, no struggling.
They simply froze in place. Their sturdy armor rapidly turned glowing red from the inside, and wisps of scorched, foul-smelling gray smoke rose from the gaps in their joints. Then, they collapsed in heaps, silently.
This eerie and efficient slaughter caused the knights in the rear to halt their steps abruptly.
They had never seen such a restrained yet lethal application of dragon flame. It completely subverted their understanding of the power of the dragon-kin.
“Frost-bound Cage! Quick! Use the Frost-bound Cage!”
The terrified roar of the knight captain finally woke the stunned crowd.
Several large metal nets shimmering with freezing runes were launched from different directions, interlacing in mid-air.
Crossbow bolts coated in dragon-breath grass powder formed a rain of dark green death, blanketing Mo Yin from above.
This was the absolute killing array of the Dragon Slayer Knight Order, specifically designed to deal with powerful dragon-kin.
However, facing this inescapable net, Mo Yin made a move that was inconceivable to everyone.
She closed her eyes.
The biting chill rushing toward her did not stagnate the dragon flame within her body; instead, it opened another gate inside her.
During those five days and nights in the cellar, the torture of actively guiding the cold to temper her dragon flame had already made her familiar with this power to her very bones.
Pain had long since become a part of her strength.
She suddenly opened her mouth and took a deep breath.
The frost-bound chill, capable of freezing all things, was actually gathered by her entirely and turned to her own use!
“Crack, crack, crack—”
A thin layer of ice rapidly condensed on the surface of her body. Instead of harming her, it became her sturdiest armor, deflecting all the crossbow bolts coated in dragon-breath grass.
“This… how is this possible?!”
The knight captain’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. He simply could not understand what was happening before him. His tactics and his experience completely collapsed at this moment.
Answering him were Mo Yin’s eyes, which suddenly snapped open.
She moved.
Her figure wove through the gaps in the rain of arrows and ice nets at high speed. Every step was taken on the edge of life and death, and every dodge carried the shadow of that man’s cold teaching.
The silver flame in her hand was unpredictable, sometimes turning into a flexible long whip to swat away incoming bolts, and sometimes condensing into a sharp short blade to slice openings in the tough ice nets.
She alone was frontally dismantling the combined combat tactics that an entire elite knight order took pride in!
“Boom—!”
The final line of defense was blasted open by a thick stream of silver flame. Several elite knights were sent flying by the violent energy, falling into a chaotic mess of men and horses.
Mo Yin was covered in blood, her clothes in tatters. The frost condensed on her body made her look like a demon god walking out of the snow.
She stepped over the bones of her enemies; there were no more obstacles ahead.
That tent, adorned with the royal flag and appearing incomparably magnificent even in the wind and snow, was within reach.
The Emperor…
The flames of revenge rose to their peak in her chest.
However, at the very moment she gathered all her strength to deliver the fatal blow—
The curtain of the Emperor’s tent remained motionless.
Instead, the curtain of an inconspicuous command tent on the flank was suddenly flipped open by a hand.
Aila rushed out quickly. On that face, which was always cold and rational, was a tension and determination Mo Yin had never seen before.
She spread her arms, blocking a man with all her might.
That man was clad in the silver-white uniform armor unique to the Dragon Slayer Knight Order. The face under the hood was as cold as ice, and his eyes pierced through the wind and snow, stabbing straight at Mo Yin.
“Luo Lin!” Mo Yin heard Aila shout.
Master?
Why was he wearing that armor?
Why was he with that woman?
And that undisguised, desperate, and absolute killing intent… why was it directed at her?
In Mo Yin’s eyes, Aila’s posture of desperate protection looked more like an embrace asserting sovereignty, shielding her “Master” tightly behind her and blocking Mo Yin from approaching, as if protecting him from the threat of a “monster” like her.
This sudden turn of events caused all of Mo Yin’s movements to freeze in place.
However, in a life-and-death battle, this thousandth of a second of distraction was fatal.
“Seize her!”
The knights, having regained their senses, surged forward frantically from all directions like a tide.
Heavy halberds carried the sound of the wind, smashing ruthlessly into her back.
“Pfft—”
A mouthful of blood sprayed out. Mo Yin could no longer support herself, and her entire body fell forward.
Countless hands pinned her down ruthlessly, crudely pressing her face into the freezing, biting slush of snow and mud.
Her vision blurred instantly. Cold muddy water poured into her mouth and nose, bringing a wave of suffocating pain.
The soldiers’ suppression was not yet complete; Mo Yin still had room to resist.
As long as she erupted with dragon flame again, she could break the knight order’s encirclement once more.
But a knight captain, who had just been repelled by her and was scrambling up from the snow in a pathetic state, looked at that silver-white figure as if seeing a savior. As if receiving a grand pardon, he hissed at the top of his lungs:
“Major! It is wonderful that you are unharmed! This remnant has already been trapped by the tactics you designed!”
Major.
…Major?
Those words did not strike like thunder; instead, they silently and precisely pierced her eardrums and nailed themselves into the depths of her soul.
Every sound became incomparably clear. The howling of the wind and snow, the crackling of the fires, the panting of the soldiers, and… the crisp sound of her own heart shattering inch by inch.
“Major”…
The word rolled silently under her tongue, carrying the metallic tang of rust and blood.
In an instant, the profile of the man in the Snowbound Hut calmly handing her hot soup collided and overlapped with the code name of the demon who had slaughtered her entire clan.
He taught her how to precisely control dragon flame to bypass the gaps in armor—just as she had done moments ago.
He taught her how to use the cold to temper herself and turn it to her own use—just as she had done moments ago.
Everything he taught her was the most efficient tactic used by the Dragon Slayer Knight Order to slaughter dragon-kin.
What he had taught her was the method to kill herself.
So… it was him.
It had always been him.
Ha… Haha…
How ridiculous, Mo Yin.
Lying in the mud, she wanted to laugh, but her throat could only produce a hoarse, leaking gasp.
You took the knife sharpened by your enemy’s own hands to assassinate your enemy.
You took the demon who exterminated your clan as the only light in the snow.
The irony of fate transformed into the most vicious curse at this moment.
But none of this could compare to the pain of her heart being ripped out of her chest by an invisible hand while she was still alive.
The Dragon Slayer Knight Order truly lived up to its years of experience fighting dragon-kin; even after suffering heavy casualties, their suppression of Mo Yin had become completely established in this short time.
Mo Yin could feel the dragon flame within her body had been completely extinguished. Current her was no different from an ordinary young girl.
In her blurred vision, she struggled. The only thing she could see clearly was a pair of familiar black military boots belonging to the “Major.”
Those boots…
The floodgates of memory swung open, not because of hatred, but because of a warmth she had cherished in her heart.
She remembered that snowy night in the warm mine tunnel, where she had knelt on one knee and carefully removed those boots.
She remembered the coldness of his soles, how she had placed those feet into warm snow-water, and how she had clumsily dried them with the cleanest corner of her own clothes.
She even remembered that she had once held his cold feet tightly in her arms, using her own burning belly to warm him…
That was the first time she had ever developed such a clumsy and sincere heart for another person.
And now.
The same boots stopped in the same position.
Yet she was pinned ruthlessly in the freezing mud, like a beast waiting to be slaughtered.
The warmth she once held in her arms was now standing high above, judging her stupidity and sorrow.
It turned out that what she had once piously worshipped was not a deity, but a butcher’s blade.
What she had exhausted herself to warm were the iron hooves that had crushed her home.
“Pfft—”
This time, it was not because of a heavy blow to her back, but because a mouthful of blood congested in her chest—mixed with completely crushed trust and love—could no longer be suppressed and was vomited out.
That tiny bit of finally ignited warmth belonging to a “human” was stepped on and extinguished by these boots she had once personally removed, leaving not even ashes behind.
Pressed firmly into the mud, Mo Yin used the last shred of strength in her body to painfully lift her head.
Her silver hair was soaked with snowy mud, and her face was stained with filth and blood, but those silver eyes stared through the countless shifting legs, through the sky full of wind, snow, and despair, fixedly at that familiar yet strange figure.
She wanted to find even the slightest trace belonging to “Master” on that cold face.
However, there was nothing there.
Only an abyss.
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