Without the “escape treasure” of teleportation magic, Luo Shangyu and Qin Yu had no choice but to prepare for a final stand.
The heavy rain continued to fall, and the two decided it was not the right time to move forward.
“How could Lu Zhen have the ability to summon such heavy rain?” Qin Yu asked, unable to hide her curiosity.
“This rain…” Luo Shangyu sniffed the air and said, “It wasn’t entirely summoned by him. It was going to rain eventually. Lu Zhen simply took advantage of the situation and accelerated the process. Even without him, the rain would have fallen; it was only a matter of time.”
Since they could not advance, they had to rest where they were.
Qin Yu and Luo Shangyu reached a consensus to get some sleep before the decisive battle.
Luo Shangyu extinguished the fire to prevent smoke from exposing their position.
“Luo Shangyu, I’m a bit cold…” Qin Yu said, shivering.
Luo Shangyu touched the back of Qin Yu’s neck.
Indeed, her temperature was lower than normal.
Qin Yu was freezing.
“It might be because your magic seal was just released, so your body is still weak,” Luo Shangyu guessed as she pulled Qin Yu into her arms.
“Let’s huddle for warmth. Otherwise, I feel like you’ll get hypothermia.”
“Okay!”
Qin Yu was wrapped tightly by Luo Shangyu, her cheek pressed against the other girl’s slender collarbone.
Luo Shangyu’s legs intertwined with Qin Yu’s, holding them close to maintain lower body heat.
“Do you feel warmer?” Luo Shangyu asked.
Her breath brushed against the top of Qin Yu’s head, causing the girl’s white hair to flutter slightly.
“I feel much better, thank you!”
Qin Yu felt Luo Shangyu’s heat as something intense and almost aggressive, driving the chill from her body.
***
“Master Lu, are we really not going to pursue Luo Shangyu and the other girl? Are we just going to sit here and eat dinner?” asked Zhang Jiang, who was following Lu Zhen.
“No rush.” Lu Zhen picked up a spoon and stirred the hot soup in the pot over the fire.
“I have already severely wounded Luo Shangyu. Even if she isn’t dead, she’s crippled. No matter how talented Qin Yu is, she is still young. She is certainly no match for me.”
Zhang Jiang nodded.
He was merely Lu Zhen’s apprentice, and he had to follow his master’s arrangements.
“Once we finish our dinner and fill our stomachs, it will be time for their deaths!”
***
Luo Shangyu suddenly jolted awake from her sleep, sensing the aura of mana.
She felt it carefully; someone was scanning the area with magic.
In their current situation, it could only be Lu Zhen.
“Wake up! They’re here!” Luo Shangyu shook Qin Yu awake.
“Mmm…” Qin Yu opened her bleary eyes and asked, “Where are they?”
“They are still far away, but they’ve already discovered us!” Luo Shangyu also released her mana to track Lu Zhen’s movements.
She sensed that Lu Zhen and Zhang Jiang were approaching leisurely, looking completely confident in their victory.
As both sides continued to sense each other’s mana, Luo Shangyu considered her strategy.
“Should we fight up in the branches?” Qin Yu suggested.
“It’s better here,” Luo Shangyu said.
“The tree hollow is our cover. Having cover gives us a higher margin for error.”
The distance between the two parties rapidly closed to one hundred meters.
Luo Shangyu leaned out of the hollow, preparing to strike first.
At that moment, Lu Zhen suddenly stopped.
He waved his staff, and an attack surged toward the large tree.
The tree was sliced in half by Lu Zhen’s sharp Great Wind Blade.
The tree hollow where Qin Yu and Luo Shangyu were hiding suddenly lost its ceiling, and rain instantly drenched them.
Taking advantage of their momentary shock, Lu Zhen and Zhang Jiang flashed to a distance of only ten meters from them.
Luo Shangyu finally snapped out of it.
She raised her staff, and a sword of holy light extended from it.
Lu Zhen merely smiled with contempt.
His staff traced a magnificent arc in the air before he tapped the tip against the ground.
“WU SI SHU TONG ZHANG GAO QIU, KONG SHAN NING YUN TUI BU LIU!”
The familiar incantation stunned Qin Yu, but what shocked her even more was that after Lu Zhen cast the spell, time actually slowed down.
The rain seemed to hang in the air, falling with excruciating slowness.
‘The materialization of “clouds gathering in the empty mountains and refusing to flow”? What kind of magic is this?’ Qin Yu was terrified.
This scene exceeded all her expectations.
“This is Domain Magic. It can materialize emotions, thereby—” Luo Shangyu shouted an explanation to Qin Yu, but then her voice abruptly stopped.
“Luo Shangyu!” Qin Yu tried to call out, but she found that her own movements were so slow they were almost indistinguishable from being paused.
Time had stopped!
Domain Magic was truly terrifying!
Inside the time-stop domain, only Lu Zhen could move freely.
He calmly drew the sword from his waist and thrust it toward Luo Shangyu’s chest.
In that moment of crisis, Luo Shangyu forced every bit of mana in her body to surge out, guiding it to condense into a sphere between her and Lu Zhen before detonating it.
The intense light from the explosion made it nearly impossible for Qin Yu to keep her eyes open.
This blast shattered the domain, and time returned to normal.
However, Luo Shangyu was blown back several steps before she managed to steady herself.
The mana that had been nearly overflowing within her was instantly drained.
“Hmph, a mantis trying to stop a carriage!” Lu Zhen snorted with disdain.
He blurred, appearing in front of the weakened Luo Shangyu, and pressed his blade against her neck.
In the emergency, Qin Yu could not recall a single spell.
Her mind was filled only with the Domain Magic that had just appeared.
‘It can materialize emotions, thereby…’
The unfinished sentence from Luo Shangyu exploded in Qin Yu’s mind.
Under extreme stress, Qin Yu realized the second half: ‘It can materialize emotions, thereby… thereby triggering a domain and manifesting Domain Magic!’
Qin Yu imitated Lu Zhen’s previous actions.
She tapped the tip of her staff on the ground and shouted, “WU SI SHU TONG ZHANG GAO QIU, KONG SHAN NING YUN TUI BU LIU!”
As a former high school student in the real world, Qin Yu was all too familiar with the meaning of those verses.
The sound of a konghou so beautiful it could stop the moving clouds seemed to echo in her mind.
Instantly, a sensation of relief washed through Qin Yu’s brain—a feeling of resonance with her surroundings.
Qin Yu could feel that within this resonance range, she was the master of the field!
This was a domain!
Qin Yu looked at Lu Zhen again.
He had become motionless almost the instant she finished the incantation, much faster than the spell had taken effect on her and Luo Shangyu earlier!
‘Is my domain magic stronger than Lu Zhen’s?’
Qin Yu didn’t have time to think about it.
She knocked the frozen Lu Zhen to the ground with a single strike and picked up the sword he had dropped.
She thrust the sword into Lu Zhen’s chest and pulled it out.
Under the time stop, Lu Zhen’s wound did not bleed.
Having killed Lu Zhen, Qin Yu felt a sharp pain in her brain; the consumption of Domain Magic was too high.
She had no choice but to deactivate the domain.
Time began to flow again.
Blood sprayed from the hole in Lu Zhen’s chest, right toward Zhang Jiang.
Drenched in his teacher’s blood, Zhang Jiang was consumed by terror.
His legs gave way, and he knelt before Qin Yu.
“Please… please spare me…”
Qin Yu had nothing to say to this man who had intended to take her life.
She threw Lu Zhen’s sword in front of him and pointed her staff at his head.
“End your own life!”
Zhang Jiang did not want to die, but under the point of Qin Yu’s staff, he had no other choice.
Hoping for a “dignified death,” Zhang Jiang tremblingly raised Lu Zhen’s sword and ended his own life.