"…Grandmaster."
"Who's probably not even ten years old yet…?"
"I mean, we can understand this era's cultivator power levels are rising to historic heights… but this is…"
The government officers stationed beside Marshal Zhang Xianyuan, positioned to manage any unexpected incident, were left speechless. They stood staring up at the sky. A girl whose head barely reached their waists looked back down at them with a mischievous grin. A year or two ago, if anyone had claimed the child standing before them held power equal to those fearsome Grandmasters, not a soul would have believed it.
"Your pills are even more fearsome than the rumors…"
Even at that distance, Grandmaster Lu Qing could sense the shift in qi radiating from Tang Yeye's body. He asked Bai Fanxian, who stood motionless nearby, his tone full of awe.
"It's that child's fate."
"…What do you mean?"
"I mean my pills alone aren't enough to make her reach Grandmaster level this quickly."
Bai Fanxian explained calmly. She crossed her arms, looked up at her small disciple, and sighed.
"The effects of various pills she'd taken since childhood to suppress illness had accumulated enough to easily break through the Martial Master barrier. The power remaining in that small body was abundant from the start. But before, her body hadn't grown and strengthened enough to withstand it."
"When she burned through her qi in such a short span, it triggered the stored pill energy to surge and fill the void. At the same time, my pill acted as a catalyst, making that residual energy discharge completely and stimulating her cultivation level to break through."
Bai Fanxian explained it simply. Since her audience was Grandmaster Lu Qing, the previous generation's Alchemist Association President, he grasped it quickly.
"We could use this method to develop the new generation…"
"Don't even think about it. This method is too dangerous. The torment of having various pills clashing inside the body — you can imagine it, can't you?"
Bai Fanxian knew this best. Moreover, each person's body was different. Throughout all her years, besides herself, only Tang Yeye could use this method to achieve such rapid development. That was why she had said from the start it was "that child's fate."
That meant no one could imitate it.
Except those who shared the same fate.
"Let it happen naturally. Each person has their own path…"
Bai Fanxian concluded. And at the same moment, movement began in the sky again.
"…Grandmaster… is that right?"
Fenex looked at the girl, confused. He pushed magic power through his eyes to reassess Tang Yeye's strength — and frowned.
Because the qi flowing around her body was unstable and fluctuating!
"But besides fully recovering your power, you don't look much stronger?"
The young man's survey was thorough, and he let out a laugh. Not surprising, for someone at Sage level. Even different as their paths were, Grandmasters simply did not register.
"…Is that so?"
Tang Yeye's face still held a smile. The instant she finished speaking, her figure vanished from Fenex's sight, and his eyes went wide.
BANG!
The two pistols roared from behind. The young man, who had been watching the Dragon Queen drift ahead with bored eyes, never dreamed the child could weave between buildings like that.
And before he realized it, bullets loaded with biting cold yin qi had already struck the fire bird formed from his magic.
Fenex coughed. Cold seeped through the breach and spread fast. He tried to turn and see how the kid had moved. But in that same instant Tang Yeye vanished again.
BANG!
This time the shot came from a different direction. Fenex, now prepared, blasted hot fire-element magic outward in defense. He gritted his teeth slightly — he couldn't deny that each bullet hit harder than the last.
"…There!"
With his magic-enhanced eyes he caught a faint shadow darting between rooftops at the edge of his vision. The fire bird beat its wings and expanded to several meters wide, sending hundreds of flame-wreathed feather blasts raking through, and the rooftop erupted in a string of small explosions!
"Get this under control, now!"
Marshal Zhang Xianyuan, seeing things deteriorate, turned and ordered his trusted subordinates. They had dispersed forces long ago.
"Evacuation proceeding smoothly!"
"Confirmed no citizens remaining in buildings!"
Multiple reports rang out together. The elderly Marshal relaxed considerably.
"Prepare attack. We'll support with long-range weapons."
Zhang Xianyuan ultimately could not watch destruction unfold before him and do nothing. The damage was already severe, and Fenex's attacks were growing more frantic.
"Come out, little brat!"
Just as Zhang Xianyuan had predicted, Fenex was growing increasingly furious at being attacked from every direction without catching Tang Yeye once. He felt like a fool being run ragged by a tiny kid.
The Dragon Queen flapped her wings and climbed higher to observe the situation. With her eyes she could easily track Tang Yeye's movements. This fighting style, leveraging range and exploiting every advantage, drew her quiet admiration.
"Stay still, little brat!"
The young man's patience was gone. He chased Tang Yeye's smoke-like movements in every direction. But no matter what, he could not catch her, and the damage kept spreading.
"Fire!"
As the order ended, a volley of long-range attacks came in. Government forces were attempting to control the situation. Fenex cursed loudly. The fire bird lightly fanned its wings and absorbed every bullet without the young man taking so much as a scratch.
Not only that. A cruel smile crossed his face. The absorbed bullets were flung back out in all directions, each one wrapped in brilliant red flames that made their destructive power no different from a small explosive.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The surrounding buildings came apart like a warzone. Some forces that could not retreat in time were caught in the counterattack, and they pulled back quickly. The destruction was incomparable to anything before.
"Damn it!"
Marshal Zhang Xianyuan cursed on the rooftop. Modern weapons, it seemed, were no more useful against an existence of this level than they were against cultivators.
"Besides the prototype that girl has, nothing else works."
Chunfeng assessed the situation and concluded coolly. The elderly Marshal nodded.
"Mm… can we mass produce them?"
"Very difficult. Each bullet requires materials and magic cores from Sage-level demonic beasts to achieve that kind of penetrating power."
"You know how rare materials of that level are — we've only had two such beasts so far."
"I see…"
"That girl's new toys… you made them pretty well."
Bai Fanxian floated up beside them without making a sound, and more than one person flinched at her sudden appearance. Grandmaster Lu Qing drifted behind her. She praised the scientists and inventors who had built all three weapons in such a short time.
"That person is…"
Zhang Xianyuan glanced at the elderly man behind Bai Fanxian. The face looked familiar. He had not expected to meet him here.
"Leave that for later… that girl's about to end this."
But Bai Fanxian interrupted first, turning back to look at the great fire bird amid the ruins not far away.
.
.
.
"This is bad…"
Tang Yeye finally showed herself, stepping out from behind the building wreckage with a furrowed brow. She surveyed the town, ruined beyond recognition, with considerable dissatisfaction.
"Finally came out?"
Fenex grinned wide, still floating above, looking down with contempt.
"Interesting movement. But without places to hide like this, what will you do?"
He fired a fireball down and Tang Yeye had to jump back out of the way.
"Not calling that red dragon?"
The young man pointed at the Dragon Queen, still circling calmly above. Part of his reason for holding back was the wariness in his gut. That dragon radiated a faint, inexplicable danger he could not afford to ignore.
"Otherwise you'll be in trouble…"
Fenex pointed down. A flame stream shot and punched a hole in the ground. He flicked his fingers lazily, herding the dodging Tang Yeye from one spot to another without so much as retaliating, like a cat toying with a mouse.
WHOOSH.
Tang Yeye blurred into shadow. Mist born from the yin qi she circulated through her body spread outward in all directions, swallowing her completely. In a battlefield this open, it was her only cover.
"What other tricks do you have! Without that red dragon you can only run around on the ground!"
Fenex's brow twitched watching the girl refuse to give up. He wrapped himself in roaring flames until he resembled a meteor blazing through the sky, then dove straight down into the mist below with devastating force. The explosions kicked up winds that shredded what was left of the mist, leaving the air clear again.
But —
"…On the ground?"
"Did you misunderstand something?"
The hair on Fenex's neck stood on end. He snapped his gaze upward toward the voice — and what he saw made his eyes go wide.
Tang Yeye — who had been darting between buildings moments ago — was standing in the open sky. The girl reached back and drew the blue-white sniper rifle, swinging the barrel around to aim downward in one swift motion. In a matter of seconds, she was ready to fire.
"That kid took the sniper too?"
Zhang Xianyuan asked in surprise.
"Yes… we built it light — barely any weight to speak of. It also breaks down into parts for easy carrying."
Chunfeng seemed quite proud of this work. His eyes were fixed on Tang Yeye, watching the trails of qi curling off her back slowly take on a shape he could only describe as wings.
"That kid really likes this sort of thing…"
Bai Fanxian sighed and pointed upward — it was not just his imagination. The girl floating in midair had a pair of blue wings formed from qi pouring off her back, and the longer she held them, the wider they spread, until they were nearly rivaling the fire bird's own.
They were beautiful blue wings of pure energy that drew every eye.
"…What the hell is that?"
No one could answer that. At the same time, a wide smile crept to the corner of the little one's lips.
"…Target confirmed."
"Requesting to fire in three…"
Tang Yeye's small voice floated down, unhurried. Fenex below spat a curse and called back with contempt.
"Ha! You think I'll stupidly stand here waiting for your attack…?"
"…Detonate explosives."
BOOM!
Before Fenex could finish speaking, thunderous explosions rang out from all directions. Every building near him and every patch of ground around him blazed with brilliant white light. His face went pale. He snapped the fire bird's wings shut around himself like a shield and squeezed his eyes closed.
He saw that the light came from talismans covered in strange script, planted at points all around him, placed without his ever noticing.
Or rather…
Had all that movement been for this?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The scene ahead went beyond destruction. Multiple explosive talismans had been used together to seal off every escape route. He had walked straight into the child's trap.
"…Two."
Fenex had barely survived by pouring every last drop of power into his defense. When he sensed freezing cold gathering above, his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He squeezed out what remained and spoke in a rush.
"Wait! Calm down first! Let's talk…"
"What's there to talk about?… Oh, but you should remember this, even if you've seen it now…"
"…Grandmasters can fly~"
After finishing, the little one winked once, playfully. But her mouth kept counting, ignoring Fenex's panicked shouts.
"Wait…!"
"…One."
As Tang Yeye's voice ended, the blue wings on her back flapped. Cold waves scattered across the sky, and where they caught the sunlight they shattered into rainbow droplets. The power from those wings poured into the barrel all at once, and the rifle trembled — as if it might shatter at any moment.
This was her final attack.
All her qi was about to be released with a single pull of the trigger.
"…"
BANG!
The beam of white light, carrying every last drop of her qi, tore down through the sky like a cannon shot. Even those watching from a distance felt the shockwave roll through the air. Every person who witnessed it felt goosebumps rise on their skin. Even Zhang Xianyuan himself would openly admit afterward that he would not have dared take that attack head-on.
More than anything, it was an image that Tang Yeye had no idea would come back to haunt her for years to come.
Because they all gave her the same title —
"…Blue-Winged Goddess."