Chapter 10: Crystal

Wu Xiaomi remembered the woman’s voice.

Enchanting. Corrupted. Lazy. Flirtatious.

The first time she met her, Wu Xiaomi hadn’t known the woman’s identity.

When she heard the woman mock her, she just thought it was some rude patient.

So she snapped back, “Why don’t you go die and see how it feels to cancel your household registration?”

And now—karma had come knocking.

“If I write your name down, you’ll find out exactly what that feels like,” Wu Xiaomi said with a bitter smile. 

“Truly, you are a devil.”

The woman paused mid-hair.

She seemed genuinely annoyed by Wu Xiaomi’s strange logic.

“Do you have a lump of lead growing in your head or something?”

“Eh? 0v0”

Wu Xiaomi scratched her head. 

“What else would it be?”

“Sign. You don’t have much time left.”

That line again.

And she was right— this woman always showed up at the perfect moment, making refusal impossible.

Wu Xiaomi didn’t know what would happen after signing that little booklet.

But at the very least… if she showed up at such a critical moment, she probably wasn’t going to let her die meaninglessly, right?

A seductive vine curled around, offering a feather quill.

Dipped in the ink from a pitcher plant, Wu Xiaomi picked up the pen and signed her name.

She had barely written her full name before other information began surfacing on the page by itself.

“Ugh—!”

The moment she finished signing, Wu Xiaomi curled up in pain.

Her thigh was burning like it had been branded with a searing-hot iron, as if someone had pressed a red-hot sigil into the flesh of a slave.

She lifted her skirt, but there was no burn wound.

On the contrary—where the silver snake anklet had bitten into her, a vivid sakura-colored rune had blossomed.

It resembled the totem on the woman’s back— a chained symbol glowing faintly.

“Hide it.”

Satisfied, the woman brushed aside a few leaves. 

Vines brought over bandages, wrapping Wu Xiaomi’s soft, pale thigh tightly, concealing the rune and tying a bow at the side.

It looked like a wound dressing, lending her a fragile air. But it also resembled the shackles of a master.

“Transaction complete~” the woman purred, clearly in a good mood. 

“Come back anytime, my one and only… little darling~”

“What did you do to me…”

The woman didn’t answer. 

She simply tapped the stone table with a fingertip.

The world blurred again as gut-wrenching pain tore through her body.

The massive beast loomed above, blocking out the sun.

Its cruel instincts awakened, it was now pondering how best to torment its prey.

Wu Xiaomi held her breath, gripping the jagged spike tightly.

The monster’s spiked club had pierced straight through her, all the way to the other side.

There was no escaping it—unless…

“Snap!”

The silver snake anklet bit clean through the spike. 

Wu Xiaomi used the opportunity to roll away.

The club slammed into where she had just been, crushing the earth into a deep crater.

“Phew—”

She didn’t dare pull out the iron spike. 

People said doing that would lead to rapid blood loss and death.

“Snakey, you’re so strong—can’t you just finish it off for me? Snakey?”

No response.

It was as if that single bite had been the anklet’s final act. 

Its mission complete, it reverted to a simple silver coil, resting quietly around her ankle.

Alright… she’d have to rely on herself again.

“Crystal! Xiaomi, the crystal!” 

Nanalia’s voice cried out urgently from beyond the barrier.

Crystal?

Just behind the monster, a thumb-sized diamond-shaped crystal floated midair.

A tiny aura shield surrounded it, protecting it from external interference.

“It’s a fragment of the Spirit of Abundance’s core! Get close to it—you’ll enhance your resonance with the Spirit. With your talent… you might even temporarily tap into its memory power!”

Gritting her teeth against the pain in her abdomen, Wu Xiaomi rolled once more. Before the monster could slam its next strike down, she darted under its feet.

“Stop her!”

“Stop it!” the monster’s face on its buttocks and the one on its head both screeched, flailing and chasing her with the club raised high.

Beyond the crystal was a waterfall. 

The crystal hovered over a pool beneath it.

The pool was shallow. Wu Xiaomi stepped into the water, stumbling forward as blood trailed behind her in a red streak.

Step by step, the crystal’s glow drew nearer in her field of vision.

It illuminated her face.

But the monster was almost on top of her. 

It was within arm’s reach.

Once the spiked club dropped, she’d end up like the other corpses nearby—flattened like a sheet of paper.

Wu Xiaomi didn’t dare look back. 

She sprinted forward with everything she had, reaching toward the crystal.

Her fingertips touched the barrier.

It was rock-solid—another mini-barrier.

Its hardness sent a chill through Wu Xiaomi’s heart.

She was so close—yet still hadn’t felt the Spirit of Abundance’s resonance.

Was it because she still wasn’t worthy?

She couldn’t open the barrier. 

She didn’t have the strength to try again.

“Bang—!”

The gust of wind from the spiked club was already brushing the back of her head. 

The monster’s weapon was mere inches away.

Wu Xiaomi stared desperately at the crystal before her.

Was this… the end?

Even after getting tricked into signing that registration—what a scam!

“Snap—!”

A sudden heat surged through her thigh, flowing from beneath the bandages all the way to her fingertips.

Her fingers touched the barrier—and it shattered.

The barrier dissolved into shimmering starlight.

Wu Xiaomi’s hand finally slipped through.

The monster’s spiked club had already brushed the strands of hair lifted by her movement. 

But at the final moment—

She clenched her hand and seized the Source Crystal.

……

“Boom—!”

Almost the moment her fingers closed around the crystal, a deafening explosion echoed behind her.

Wu Xiaomi turned her head.

The monster’s spiked club was frozen mid-air, held aloft by a blast of violent water.

And in her other hand—somehow—she was now holding her old dance fan.

The fan unfurled, lifting backward.

Water surged with the gesture, rising into a wall that stood firm between her and the monster.

“Shaman Sequence 78: Siren’s Dance! Nanalia was hopping with joy outside the barrier, pumping her tiny fists: “The Spirit of Abundance acknowledged you! I knew you could do it!”

The crystal awakened a resonance unlike anything she’d ever felt.

Wu Xiaomi found that she no longer needed to consciously control her body—the countless days of training now moved on instinct alone.

Behind her, the pool gathered into a translucent tail—like flowing diamond.

Her waist arched gracefully, her silhouette embodying the sacred ritual dance.

Water coiled with her every motion, streaming from the pond in thin, ribbon-like currents that spiraled around her body.

The monster’s instincts screamed danger.

It swung its club wildly, striking again and again at the water wall.

But how could such supple currents be broken?

Every strike only scattered them, and they reformed—unyielding in their softness—standing tall between the beast and Wu Xiaomi.

That sensation of every ounce of brute strength being diffused into nothing—was maddening.

Especially for such a crude, violent creature.

It was used to crush foes with one blow.

Now, it felt like someone was scraping glass right next to its ear. 

Nauseating enough to make it want to vomit.

Wu Xiaomi closed her eyes.

She danced by instinct, guided by the crystal’s power, swirling lightly across the shallows with her fingertips beckoning more and more water streams.

The legendary Lake Maiden could be no more breathtaking than this.

The sunlit pond shimmered faintly red, tinged with the blood she’d lost.

And the water—kept gathering.

At the peak of her dance, the pool ran dry.

In its place, the waterfall responded.

Her fan flicked forward.

The cascading torrent changed direction, drawn toward her, flowing in harmony with the countless thin streams she had summoned.

And finally—it formed into a massive, pure-water creature.

A great bird, gleaming clear as crystal.

—The Siren, the mythical bird-bodied enchantress.

The monster—no, the beast-faced tribe member, now pathetic by comparison—stared blankly upward.

The Siren gazed down at it.

Her contemptuous eyes looked upon it as if it were an insect.

Wu Xiaomi lowered her fan count.

And the Siren beat her wings, and dove straight for the kill.