The snowflakes had not even touched the ground when Noctar attacked first.
His body vanished from where he stood, and in the next instant, the crimson flash of his sword had already torn through the air toward Xue Yunxue's neck. The strike was so fast that Xue Yunxue could only react on instinct. Her thorn sword rose just in time, blocking the slash with a deafening clang that sent a violent shock through her right arm until it went numb.
But Noctar gave her no room to breathe.
His sword spun with savage precision, slashing down from above, sweeping from the side, stabbing low toward her abdomen, then twisting up toward her chest. Every movement was clean, cruel, and efficient—the swordplay of someone forged on countless battlefields. Xue Yunxue immediately realized that she was far inferior in sword technique. She knew how to fight, but she had never truly studied a sword art this refined and this brutal.
She kept retreating.
Her steps were forced back over snow and cracked earth. Her sword managed to block several attacks, but one slash nearly sliced her cheek open, while another forced her to twist her body violently so her shoulder would not be split apart. When Noctar struck downward with crushing force, Xue Yunxue even had to summon roots from beneath the ground to hold the attack for the briefest instant before she leapt backward.
Noctar smiled coldly.
"With skill like this, you want to kill me?"
Xue Yunxue did not answer. Her breathing was already growing heavier, and her palms ached from repeatedly receiving the impact of his blows. But just as Noctar attacked again, something inside her body reacted.
When the crimson sword swept toward her waist, Xue Yunxue's body moved faster than her thoughts. Her wrist turned the thorn blade at a narrow angle, diverting Noctar's strike, and then she slipped straight into the opening with a movement so natural it felt as though she had practiced it ten thousand times. Her sword stabbed beneath Noctar's arm and tore across the side of his body.
A spray of blood burst into the air.
Noctar immediately retreated, startled.
Even Xue Yunxue froze for a moment.
Big Sister Xue, Priest Lin Tianhai of the East Sea granted Hu Shui the gift of sword genius when she was born, and that talent is still hidden inside this body. Now it belongs to you—defeat that bastard!
Moa's voice rang excitedly in Xue Yunxue's mind.
She had never trained in that technique before. But Hu Shui's body seemed to have been storing a sleeping gift with the sword, and now, under the pressure of life and death, it awakened on its own.
Just follow your instincts, Moa's voice echoed in her mind.
Noctar attacked again, and this time not only with his sword. He slammed his earth power into the ground, and the entire square split open. Pillars of black stone burst out from below like giant fangs, chasing after Xue Yunxue from every direction. She leapt and dodged, but one pillar still struck her thigh and sent her flying.
Before she could even rise—
Noctar's mental attack smashed straight into her consciousness.
The world around Xue Yunxue instantly transformed into a sea of blood. She saw the protective dome collapsing, the refugees being slaughtered, Yun Wu and the others covered in blood. The pain and horror were so vivid that her heart clenched painfully in her chest.
But the glowing root around her wrist pulsed violently.
Moa's energy surged into her mind like warm light, shattering the illusion. Xue Yunxue bit her lip until it bled, forcing herself back to clarity, and at the exact moment Noctar thrust for her heart, she twisted her body aside. The blade only tore through her robe and grazed her chest, while her thorn sword slashed back in retaliation.
BOOM!
Two spiritual energies collided.
Noctar's dark crimson force and Xue Yunxue's green-gold power exploded in the middle of the square, sending snow, wood, and stone flying in every direction. Noctar unleashed his earth element completely. Massive chunks of rock rose from the ground and shot forward like meteors.
Xue Yunxue retaliated with her plant element.
Towering walls of roots erupted from underground, smashing into and binding those boulders. Every time one wall was destroyed, two new roots burst forth to replace it. Thorned vines then surged from beneath Noctar's feet, forcing him to keep cutting them apart with his sword.
Their battle turned into a storm.
Their blades clashed.
Their spiritual energies exploded against one another.
The earth continuously fractured beneath Noctar's earth element, while Xue Yunxue's roots and vines spread wildly, crawling across the square like a living forest in a frenzy. Between those collisions, they also attacked each other with mental force. Noctar pressed her with illusion and fear, while Xue Yunxue countered with a consciousness fused with Moa—strong, clear, and stubborn.
Little by little, Noctar began to lose control.
At the beginning of the battle, he had dominated with superior sword skill. But Xue Yunxue's body was learning far too quickly. Every slash she blocked sharpened her movements. Every strike she dodged made her footwork more precise. She fought like someone remembering rather than learning.
Then, when Noctar once more tried to strike at her mind—
Xue Yunxue reversed the pressure.
Her mental force exploded outward, filled with green-gold radiance like roots piercing into the inner world of her opponent. Noctar jolted, his concentration faltering for less than a second.
And that was enough.
Xue Yunxue slammed her sword into the earth.
The entire square exploded.
Gigantic roots burst upward from the cracked ground, wrapping around Noctar's legs, smashing into his ribs, piercing his shoulder, and ripping into his thigh. He managed to cut down several roots, but one thick vine struck his body from the side with a horrifying cracking sound.
Noctar spat out blood.
His body was blasted backward, crashing through what remained of the podium behind him.
The square fell silent.
Bai Zhou froze.
The three remaining generals went pale.
The rebel soldiers stared in horror.
Noctar slowly rose from the rubble, his entire body drenched in blood. His face was dark with rage, but it was obvious from his eyes that he knew the truth—
if this battle continued, he could die.
He was not foolish enough to ignore that.
With an explosive surge of earth energy, Noctar leapt backward, away from the reach of Xue Yunxue's roots. He wiped the blood from his lips, then looked at her with cold hatred.
"Fine," he said hoarsely. "Then let's see how long you can protect everything."
He raised one hand.
A dark-red signal shot into the sky.
In an instant, the rebel warships hovering above responded. Their hulls opened, engine lights ignited, and from outside Wulong City came the thunder of thousands of marching troops. From the sky, from beyond the gates, from the snowy plains, the rebel army surged in like a black flood.
Noctar withdrew farther and farther toward his fleet.
"Storm the city!" he ordered coldly. "Capture that girl alive!"
Then he fled.
Leaving his thousands of soldiers to swallow Wulong City whole.
Xue Yunxue stood in the middle of the shattered square, breathing heavily, her thorn sword dripping blood. She had wounded Noctar badly enough to nearly defeat him—
but in exchange, the entire rebel army was now flooding into the city.
And the real war…
had only just begun.
The thunder of the rebel army's advance shook all of Wulong City.
From the broken gates, wave after wave of heavily armed soldiers poured in like an endless black tide. Above, rebel warships hovered low over the city, opening their sides and deploying sharpshooters and flying troops who immediately rained energy bullets and spiritual spears down upon the streets below. Houses that were already half-collapsed exploded again, the roads filled with screams, and the freshly fallen snow was stained red once more.
Xue Yunxue stood in the middle of the ruined execution square, still breathing heavily after her fight against Noctar. She had not even lowered her thorn sword when the first volley of energy fire screamed down from the sky toward her.
She stomped her foot.
Thick roots burst from the ground and formed a circular wall, blocking the first rain of attacks. Explosions tore across the living wood, sending splinters and sparks of spiritual force everywhere. But before the wall could fully collapse, four shadows had already broken into the square from the western side.
Yun Wu arrived first.
His body moved like black lightning, a dark shadow cutting through the snowstorm. The Taigu Sword in his hand rose high, then fell with brutal force, cleaving three rebel soldiers in half along with the ground beneath them. Blood and snow flew together.
On the opposite side, Lu Xiao emerged from a reddish-black mist. His half-vampire body glided through the enemy ranks like poisonous smoke. Every time that fog touched someone, their skin immediately rotted, their blood was sucked dry, and their bodies dropped like puppets with severed strings.
Lin Yuan descended near Xue Yunxue, his expression still cold even though the battlefield had become hell itself. With a flick of his hand, dozens of ice spears formed in the air and shot upward, piercing through the chests of several flying soldiers aiming at them from above. Those bodies spun and fell from the sky, smashing into the broken rooftops below.
Xiang Shuai came last, skimming low over the ground like a venomous serpent. His purple spiritual blade flashed too quickly for ordinary eyes to follow. In only a few seconds, five ground troops trying to surround Xue Yunxue had already fallen, their throats opened, their eyes wide with disbelief.
The four of them instantly formed a protective circle around Xue Yunxue.
There was no need for commands.
No need for words.
They all understood one thing—
if Xue Yunxue fell here, then the thousands of people behind that protective dome would be destroyed as well. And at this moment, only a few hundred western soldiers remained to guard that place.
"So, you really did lure out the entire hornet's nest," Xiang Shuai muttered as he sliced away a spear flying toward him.
Xue Yunxue let out a heavy breath, then managed a faint smile despite her pale face.
"It wasn't me who lured them," she replied. "They came on their own."
Lin Yuan clicked his tongue, then froze an approaching squad solid.
"Wonderful. Very entertaining. Let us all die heroically together in the snow."
Yun Wu did not respond at all. His sword moved again, this time cutting off the wings of an eagle beastman diving from above. The body fell with a short scream.
Lu Xiao stood slightly closer to Xue Yunxue than the others, his crimson eyes staring up at the sky filled with ships and enemy troops.
"We can't keep holding like this," he said coldly. "Their ground and aerial assaults are too dense."
And it was true.
No matter how strong the five of them were, the enemy's numbers were simply too overwhelming.
On the ground, wave after wave kept coming without end. The moment one line of soldiers fell, two more stepped forward from behind. Above them, the rebel ships continued to deploy fresh forces, while long-range shooters bombarded the main roads to fracture their focus.
Xue Yunxue had to keep dividing her power.
Part of it went into fighting.
Part of it had to keep the protective dome holding up over the thousands of civilians sheltering behind them.
Every time she summoned roots to block bombardment from the sky, gaps opened on the ground. Every time she swept through land troops with poisonous vines, a rain of gunfire crashed down from above. Her body began to grow heavy. Her breathing shortened. Moa's strength was still flowing through her, but even that could not erase the fatigue piling up in her bones.
Yun Wu took an energy spear through his left shoulder, yet he did not even stop moving.
Lu Xiao had to transform into mist more and more often to avoid fire from above, making his face grow slightly paler.
Lin Yuan began breathing deeper after summoning too much large-scale ice.
Xiang Shuai, who had only just recovered from previous injuries, received another long slash along the side of his waist.
The five of them—
for the first time since the day's battle had begun—
were starting to be overwhelmed.
The sky above Wulong was filled with smoke, snow, and enemy warships.
Then—
a new sound shook the air.
Not an explosion.
Not a scream.
But a deep and prolonged hum, as if the sky itself were splitting apart.
Everyone still fighting looked up.
Beyond the gray cloud cover, pale blue lights appeared, moving fast. At first they were just dots. Then they grew larger, clearer—
until the full shape of the fleet emerged.
Anti-gravity warships.
Large.
Sleek.
With silver cloud emblems carved along their hulls.
The Sky Force of the Cloud Army.
They came piercing through the snowstorm in a tight and deadly formation, hovering high above Wulong like a swarm of giant predators finally descending upon their hunting ground.
On the main deck of the leading ship stood a tall man in a black-and-silver military robe.
Luo Shixin.
His arrival was met with cheers from the remaining civilians and soldiers of Wulong City, and the morale of everyone rose again.
His cloak snapped sharply in the wind, his face was cold as a blade, and his green eyes instantly locked onto the square where Xue Yunxue stood. Behind him were Luo Mei with a long-range energy weapon in hand, and Shaotian already prepared to issue commands to the fleet.
"The target below has been located!" Shaotian shouted.
Luo Shixin raised a hand.
"Attack."
That single word fell flatly.
But it changed the entire war at once.
The energy cannons lining the hulls of the Cloud Army fleet lit up in unison, then fired toward the rebel ships in the air. The sky exploded in blue and red light. One enemy warship was struck directly through its left wing, burst into flames, and spiraled away from the city like a broken meteor.
At the same time, the winged beastmen of the Cloud Army dove from the sky.
Giant eagles, black falcons, war bats, and countless other winged units plunged into the aerial battle in razor-sharp formation. They slammed, ripped, fired, and hurled rebel troops out of the sky. In only minutes, the heavens that had been completely controlled by the enemy turned into an evenly matched battlefield.
Luo Mei leapt down from the ship lightly, landing atop a broken wall and instantly unleashing a barrage of energy shots that pierced through three rebel soldiers at once.
Shaotian descended not far from the eastern side, leading an elite unit to clear a route into the center of the city.
And Luo Shixin—
came down like a spear hurled from the sky on the strength of his vast and majestic wings.
He landed in front of Xue Yunxue with a tremendous crash, one knee bending slightly. His long sword swept sideways immediately, severing the bodies of two rebel commanders trying to rush in from the left.
For a moment, Xue Yunxue could only stare at him.
Snow swirled between them.
Luo Shixin's face was cold, but his eyes—usually as calm as a winter lake—now trembled with something hotter.
Worry.
Anger.
Relief.
All at once.
"Sorry I'm late," he said briefly.
Xue Yunxue wanted to answer, but another detonation shook the air. The battlefield left them no room for conversation.
With the arrival of the Cloud Army fleet, the war changed immediately.
The aerial assaults that had been pressing them down mercilessly were finally restrained. The rebel warships were forced to retreat, their flying forces could no longer freely bombard the city, and the main streets gained a fleeting moment of breath.
But only a fleeting one.
Because the strength on the ground was still not enough.
From the city gates, the rebel troops continued to pour in endlessly. There were too many. Far too many. The Cloud Army soldiers who had descended to the ground were not sufficient to seal every route. In many areas, the remaining city guards were still being driven back. Houses continued burning. And with every passing minute, more enemies entered the heart of Wulong.
Luo Shixin swept his gaze across the battlefield.
He understood the situation instantly.
"We can hold the skies," he said coldly, "but our land forces are still insufficient."
Yun Wu wiped blood from his chin with the back of his hand.
"If they keep pouring in like this, the city will die first before we ever win the air battle."
Lin Yuan looked toward the gate packed with enemy soldiers, then said flatly, "Excellent. So now we are only half-dead."
Xiang Shuai clicked his tongue irritably as he spun his spiritual blade.
"If you're going to complain, do it while killing."
Lu Xiao narrowed his eyes into the distance.
"If no one seals that land route right now, their numbers will drown us."
Xue Yunxue tightened her grip on her thorn sword.
Behind them, the protective dome still stood.
In front of them, the city was still flooded with enemies.
Above them, the Cloud Army fleet fought desperately to hold the sky.
The war had indeed begun to balance—
but victory was still very far away.
And on the snowy plains beyond Wulong's gates, the next wave of rebel forces…
had already started to move.
The battle on the ground had nearly reached the brink of collapse.
Although Luo Shixin's Cloud Army had managed to hold the skies and drive back part of the rebel fleet, the pressure below only became more suffocating. From Wulong's shattered gates, rebel troops kept pouring in like an endless black flood. The stomp of boots, the roar of war machines, and the cries of enemy commanders mixed with continuous explosions until the very earth trembled.
Yun Wu, Lu Xiao, Lin Yuan, Xiang Shuai, Luo Shixin, and Xue Yunxue fought without stopping.
But even with their strength, the number of enemies was too overwhelming.
For every squad of rebels they cut down, two more instantly rushed in from behind. The main roads of the city had already become a sea of steel and blood. In several areas, the city's soldiers were once again being forced backward. Xue Yunxue's vines continued moving beneath the earth, stabbing and strangling enemies one by one, but she also had to keep the protective dome stable for the thousands of refugees behind them.
Her body grew heavier.
Her breathing shortened.
The snow landing on her hair and shoulders melted, then froze again beneath the endless heat and pressure of war.
In the distance, she could hear muffled sobbing from the civilians hiding behind her protection. That despair hung over the city like another kind of fog—thick, cold, and nearly impossible to pierce through. They had all been fighting alone for too long. Even with Luo Shixin's reinforcements having arrived, many still believed that Wulong would ultimately be abandoned.
Then—
from outside the gates, a different sound emerged.
Not the noise of war machines.
Not an explosion.
But a long, low, chilling roar, like a snowstorm turning into the howl of wolves.
The soldiers on the front line turned almost at the same time.
The white mist on the plains outside the city slowly split apart. From behind that curtain of snow appeared a new army in heavy, orderly formation. Black-silver banners fluttered above them, emblazoned with the sharply carved emblem of an ice wolf's head.
The Hei Family Army.
They had come in great numbers—
far greater than anyone had expected.
Their heavy infantry marched in front with layered ice shields and long energy spears. On both flanks, wolf beastmen guarded the formation like fangs ready to tear enemies apart. Behind them, pale armored war vehicles rolled across the snow, carrying cannons and high-pressure ice launchers already trained on the rebel lines outside the gate.
And at the very front—
a tall man rode upon a gigantic ice wolf.
His military robe was a pale icy blue. His black hair was swept by the winter wind. His figure stood straight and sharp like a sword freshly drawn from its sheath. When he lifted one hand, the entire Hei Family Army halted in unison.
Then, with one short, calm, yet commanding motion—
they charged.
The first collision struck like an avalanche crashing down from a mountain.
The Hei Family Army slammed into the rebel ground forces with brutal strength. Their shields smashed the front enemy ranks backward, their energy spears pierced through in layered formation, and the wolf beastmen leapt straight into enemy lines, tearing apart their defenses from within. The ice cannons behind them fired in rapid succession, freezing the ground, legs, wheels, and weapons of the enemy all at once before shattering them in cold explosions that spread like broken glass.
The rebel ground formation that had been pushing into the city began to stagger instantly.
The Hei Family's attack was too sudden.
Too disciplined.
They were not a relief force scrambling in disorder.
They had come like iron jaws prepared long in advance—entering from the precise angle, breaking the point of pressure, then strangling the enemy's logistics lines one by one.
The man at the front line leapt down from the back of his giant ice wolf.
The moment his boots touched the ground, a wave of cold spread rapidly from beneath his feet, freezing the mud and blood around him solid. He drew a long sword layered in ice crystal, then swung it horizontally.
A pale arc of frost shot out.
Five rebel soldiers in front of him froze from chest to face before their bodies shattered into pieces.
Hei Xuan.
Xue Yunxue, standing amid roots and rubble, looked up in that direction—
and her breath caught.
For a moment, every sound around her seemed to recede.
The explosions, the war cries, the pounding footsteps, even the whistling energy weapons all became muffled behind a dense mist. What remained was only that man, standing in the snowstorm with an ice sword in hand, leading the Hei Family Army like a general born to be feared.
That face.
That face was too similar.
Too familiar.
Too impossible to ignore.
His jawline, the sharpness of his eyes, the shape of his nose, the way he stared straight ahead with that almost arrogant calmness—
all of it struck Xue Yunxue's memory like lightning.
Qin Yuze.
The name rose in her mind all at once, nearly making her knees go weak for a second.
In her previous life, Qin Yuze had been her greatest rival.
They had been classmates. Always competing. Always arguing. Always trying to outdo each other in grades, contests, and every other thing that could be won. Qin Yuze was the kind of infuriating man who could make her blood pressure rise simply by opening his mouth. Too intelligent. Too calm. Too fond of answering every challenge with that flat, annoying expression. He was exactly the kind of person who could make Xue Yunxue remember his name all day just because of one mocking glance in the classroom.
And now—
that same face was standing in this world.
Her lips trembled.
They were not merely similar in the ordinary sense.
They were similar down to the bone.
So similar that it felt like something inside her heart had been struck violently from within.
Xue Yunxue stared at him longer than she should have. Her eyes widened slightly, and something in her chest shook hard—not from embarrassment, not from attraction, but from a strange certainty so strong she could not deny it.
Qin Yuze had also reincarnated into this world.
The certainty came all at once.
Too strong to be called a guess.
Too obvious to dismiss as coincidence.
Xue Yunxue was almost sure of it.
It was him.
Or at least, the same soul.
Not far away, Lu Xiao, still standing beside her, also turned to look toward Hei Xuan.
And the moment he saw that man's face clearly, his expression—which had only been tense because of the war—slowly darkened.
He recognized that face too.
Or rather—
he recognized the shadow of someone hidden behind it.
Qin Yuze.
In his previous life, when Lu Xiao had still been Junhao, he had never liked that man.
That man had been Xue Yunxue's greatest obsession.
Back then, Xue Yunxue used to mention Qin Yuze's name often and seemed utterly fixated on him. Lu Xiao had always believed that Xue Yunxue had fallen in love with Qin Yuze. And now that same face—the one that had once held Xue Yunxue's obsessive attention—stood before him again, carrying exactly the same features as in their previous life: handsome, tall, gentle, and captivating.
Lu Xiao instantly felt that his place in Xue Yunxue's heart was under threat.
And now, seeing Xue Yunxue freeze as she stared at Hei Xuan with such obvious shock—
that old misunderstanding rose again like an old poison that had never fully been purged.
If Xue Yunxue ever found out what Lu Xiao was thinking right now, she would probably cough blood in outrage.
Lu Xiao's jaw tightened.
His crimson eyes darkened further.
He knew he should be focused on the battle.
He knew this was not the time.
But seeing that face… seeing Xue Yunxue's reaction… made the left side of his chest tighten with something he hated yet could not suppress.
Jealousy.
Meanwhile, Hei Xuan led his troops in holding the land front perfectly.
His arrival truly overturned the situation.
The rebel troops, who had been advancing without pause, finally began to falter. Their left flank was frozen solid, their center was forced back, and the main route into the city was cut off by the combined assault of the Hei Family Army and Wulong's defenders. In a short time, the enemy wave that had once seemed endless began to collapse into disorder.
Cheers exploded from every corner of the city.
"The Hei Family has arrived!"
"We haven't been abandoned!"
"Drive them out!"
The hope that had nearly gone out burst back into flame.
The city soldiers who had only been desperately holding on began to advance with renewed spirit. Even civilians still capable of standing started helping from the rear—lifting stones, carrying arrows, boiling water, or simply dragging the wounded to safety. Wulong, which had seemed like a corpse waiting to be dissected, regained its pulse.
Seeing the tide turn, Luo Shixin immediately changed formation.
The Cloud Army continued pressing from the skies.
The Hei Family Army sealed the ground.
While Xue Yunxue and the others locked down the center of the city so the enemies who had already broken in could not wreak further havoc.
The battle raged on for nearly another hour.
But once those two jaws of power closed—sky from Luo Shixin, land from Hei Xuan—the rebel army truly lost its footing. Their ships withdrew one by one, their land formations broke apart, and the remaining troops that had managed to enter the city were driven back beyond the gates.
In the end—
they retreated.
Not in orderly formation.
But in total disarray, leaving behind corpses, broken vehicles, and scattered weapons all over the snow.
The civilians who saw the enemy truly driven out could hardly believe their own eyes. Some cried. Some laughed hysterically. Some simply collapsed weakly into the snow, their bodies finally allowing relief to enter after being tense for far too long.
Luo Shixin let out a slow breath.
Blood still clung to his fingertips, and his robe was torn in several places, yet he still walked toward Hei Xuan, who had just finished issuing instructions to the Hei Family troops.
"Thank you," Luo Shixin said sincerely, bowing his head slightly. "If you and the Hei Family Army hadn't come, we would not have been able to hold the ground much longer."
Hei Xuan looked at him calmly.
"Wulong could not be allowed to fall," he replied shortly. "I only did what was necessary."
But Luo Shixin still shook his head.
"I will remember this. Someday, I will repay this favor."
Hei Xuan did not say much. He merely gave a faint nod.
Xue Yunxue stood a few steps away, still looking toward Hei Xuan with an unreadable expression. There was shock there, caution, and something far deeper—something that had come from a previous life.
Lu Xiao, standing beside Luo Shixin, felt his chest tighten once more.
Xue Yunxue and Hei Xuan met each other's gaze directly for the first time.
And Lu Xiao became even more certain.
This was not merely resemblance.
Not mere coincidence.
The man before them…
might truly be Qin Yuze reincarnated.
The winter wind blew past them, stirring the edges of their robes and carrying the scent of blood, snow, and the lingering remains of war that had not yet fully faded.