Zu An’s expression darkened. It’ll be over if she opens the seal.
He instinctively activated the position swap to pull her away from the seal, but his body suddenly turned icy cold the moment he activated the skill. He was still stuck to the spot, and he was unable to move at all!
Firework laughed. “Big brother Zu, we've been together for some time now. I've seen all your skills. Do you think I’d fall for your tricks? Your position swap is an incredible skill, but it has a weakness. Your divine sense has to reach its target first, but that’s as good as offering it up for me to grab.”
Zu An’s heart plunged. This woman is too strong, not to mention she's been with me all this time and has seen many of my skills. I don’t stand a chance against her. If only I'd seen through her ploy earlier...
Firework continued, “You do have many interesting skills that someone of your cultivation shouldn’t have. Let me see what else you have, lest I get caught off guard later on.”
She extended her divine sense into Zu An’s mind. He felt a surge of cold infiltrating his thoughts. His Hundredwarble’s ability reflexively counterattacked.
Firework harrumphed. “A paltry trick!”
Hundredwarble shattered, and Zu An felt a sharp pain in his mind. Blood seeped from his mouth and nostrils.
“Why put yourself through this suffering? Since you don’t stand a chance against me, you should just sit back and relax. It hurts me to see you in pain,” Firework said as she wiped off the blood on his face.
She should have been a distance away, but somehow, her hand reached Zu An’s face. Yet there were no signs of her arm stretching like a rubber arm. This bizarre spatial distortion felt incomprehensible.
Cold sweat trickled down Zu An’s back. Every cell in his body was warning him of danger, but the earlier misstep had sealed his fate. With his divine sense suppressed, he couldn’t activate any of his other abilities. Once Firework learned about his other skills, he wouldn’t stand a chance at all. Not to mention he had many secrets that mustn’t be leaked.
“Oh? You are hiding a secret. Let me see what it is.” Intrigued, Firework’s divine sense dug deeper into Zu An.
All of a sudden, there was a spatial distortion, followed by a brilliant cold flash. Firework’s arm dropped to the ground.
A gorgeous woman dressed in snowy clothes stepped out from the distortion with an air of nonchalance. It was Tingxue.
Her intervention created an opening for Zu An to retract his divine sense. He exclaimed in delight, “Miss Tingxue!”
Tingxue directed a nod at him before coldly turning to Firework. “You expelled me into the void. We should settle the score.”
FIrework chuckled. Her body glowed, and her arm regenerated instantly. “As expected from Nebula’s envoy. Your prowess is formidable.”
Zu An was startled. Despite knowing Tingxue was related to the Deity of Nebula, he hadn’t expected her to be a Nebula envoy. Unlike other universal deities, the Deity of Nebula was known to not have any envoys.
He turned his attention back to the crisis at hand. Worried that Tingxue wasn’t aware of the latest developments, since she had been missing for a long time, he warned, “Be careful. She’s the sealed demon spider. Firework, Yani, Diodora, and all the other people in Dreamland are her clones.”
Tingxue remained unfazed.
Firework clicked her tongue. “It’s true that all who join Nebula lose their emotions. How boring.”
“I might not have my emotions, but I intend to exact vengeance for this grudge. I considered you a friend, and I don’t like being deceived,” Tingxue coldly spat.
“I am grateful that you thought of me as a friend and risked your life to save me,” Firework replied with a grin. “That’s why I chose to banish you instead of hurting you. I knew you would be fine. Look, didn’t you return safe and sound?”
Zu An remarked, “I bet you banished her because you witnessed her ability to tear open the void and were intimidated by her strength.”
Tingxue hadn’t drawn her sword on the frigate. While her strength was amazing nonetheless, it wasn't enough to threaten the demon spider. It was only after arriving at the forbidden land that Tingxue had drawn her blade against the Soul Siphoning Beetles.
The demon spider had likely felt threatened by that, and thus sent Tingxue away.
If the demon spider is intimidated by Tingxue, we might stand a chance against her if we join forces.
Firework noticed Zu An’s excitement and sneered, “Do you honestly think you stand a chance against me? Indeed, Tingxue was stronger than I expected, so I had to banish her lest she get in the way of my plan. But I regained most of my powers after you deciphered the Eight Barren Netherworld Formation. You won’t be a match for me even if you join hands.”
Zu An was speechless. Thinking about how he had risked his life to protect her earlier, he felt so ashamed that he wanted to find a hole to hide himself in.
Tingxue didn’t waste her breath talking and instead slashed with her sword.
It was an attack strong enough to slice a world apart, but Firework stopped it between her slender fingers. “Didn’t I say you aren’t a match for me? I’ll spare you on account of our past ties...”
Tingxue flicked her wrist and rotated her blade. Even Firework had no choice but to release her fingers. Tingxue thrust her blade forth once more like a merciless machine.
Firework harrumphed. She raised her hand and lightly tapped with her fingertip. Each time she moved, she never failed to block the incoming sword.
Meanwhile, her other hand moved the key into the keyhole. Once she lifted the final seal, she would regain her full strength, thus completely assuring her victory. She wasn't worried about Zu An, as she had wrapped the key with her divine sense. He couldn’t hope to stop her.
But the key suddenly dropped to the ground right as it was about to enter the keyhole.
Taken aback, Firework immediately turned around to look at Zu An, only to see a copper coin rotating on his palm. It was the Treasure Sinking Coin!
The key could be considered a treasure. Once it was out of Firework’s hand, it could be influenced by the Treasure Sinking Coin.
Zu An rushed to the seal and grabbed the key. His presence suddenly flared, emanating an aura that intimidated even Firework.
Firework sensed that Zu An was charging up for some kind of terrifying move. She didn’t think he was strong enough to threaten her, but considering all the strange moves he had, she didn’t dare let her guard down either. She flicked Tingxue aside and heightened her vigilance.
The next second, Zu An grabbed Tingxue’s hand and said, “Let’s go!”
The two of them vanished into thin air.
This was the move he had learned from the True Demon Emissary—Bravado. It involved convincing the enemy that one was going to put one’s life on the line, but the goal was to create an opening to escape.
——
T/N: Tingxue means ‘Listening to Snow’ in Chinese.
I could have translated it into English, as per the norm for the Myriad Worlds, but I kept it as it is because both her name and Yan Xuehen’s contain ‘Xue (Snow)’, and there appears to be a link between the two characters (not a spoiler).