Jingliu getting territorial over her food? Send it!
For some reason, as he gazed up at that slender figure in the sky—a woman as cold and untouchable as a frost moon—that wildly inappropriate thought popped into Fuli's head.
He hurriedly shook the deeply disrespectful idea away. Sinking his Qi into his dantian, he pushed every ounce of strength into his lungs and screamed at the heavens:
"Master! Save me—mmph!"
"Heh. Still calling her 'Master,' huh?"
Feixiao leaned down, sealing the boy's desperate cry with a scorching, irresistible kiss. Only after a long, lingering moment did she finally pull back, her thumb casually swiping away the glistening silver thread of saliva connecting their lips.
"Didn't she already have her way with you? I'll admit, she trained you to be pretty obedient."
Feixiao lifted her chin, her gaze locking onto the aloof, dustless figure floating in the distance.
There wasn't a shred of fear in her eyes—only a blazing, feverish battlelust. "How'd you do it? Care to teach me?"
Before her words even settled, Feixiao flicked her wrists. Two handguns wreathed in cyan light materialized out of thin air, crossing over Fuli's chest to pin him flat against the soft beach.
With a tap of her toes, she took to the sky. Wild, howling gales wrapped around her as she strode effortlessly through the air, stepping upward like the sky was a staircase.
With every step, the swirling light around her condensed. Piece by piece, an intensely stylized trench coat, form-fitting inner layer, and combat boots materialized over her graceful figure. In the span of a few heartbeats, her aura completely shifted from a languid beachside beauty to the Heaven-Swallowing War Goddess of the Yaoqing.
High above, silhouetted against the bleak moonlight, Jingliu's gaze drifted from Fuli's bruised lips to the steadily approaching Feixiao. When she spoke, her tone was a placid lake, yet rippling with faint, cutting mockery:
"Such a greedy little kitten."
She was, of course, ridiculing Feixiao's blatant display of territorial dominance—kissing her disciple right in front of her to stake a claim.
"That passive-aggressive snark of yours is a flawless copy of General Jing Yuan's. Nobody would ever doubt you two were master and disciple."
Feixiao barked a laugh. Reaching back, she plunged her hand into the void and drew out a magnificent, heavy poleaxe nearly as tall as she was, resting it against her shoulder with casual swagger.
Her lips curled into her signature grin—a feral, unrestrained sneer.
"The Transcendent Flash. A legend who earned thirteen extraordinary military merits. Even back in the Yaoqing, your name is like thunder in our ears. Honestly? I've been itching for an excuse to fight you head-on for a very long time!"
Her smile vanished. Feixiao's expression hardened into cold steel, her voice dropping an octave:
"But to lay hands on your own personal disciple... I suppose even a legend like you couldn't escape the curse of being Mara-struck. After centuries of torment, have you finally fallen completely to depravity?"
"Perhaps."
Jingliu neither confirmed nor denied it. The corner of her mouth ticked upward by a fraction of an inch. "What's the matter? Does your heart ache for the boy you've taken a fancy to?"
Without waiting for Feixiao to answer, she pressed the advantage: "If your heart truly aches for him, then the next time I play with my traitorous disciple... I'll try to be a bit gentler. How about that?"
She leaned heavily on the word play, making the sexual provocation unmistakable.
"Heh!"
Even knowing Jingliu was baiting her, Feixiao felt a nameless fury ignite in her chest.
As her anger flared, the deep curtain of night brought forth by Jingliu's arrival was suddenly torn in half, instantly dyed in the blazing cyan flames of Feixiao's aura.
Done talking, Feixiao wrapped herself in gale-force winds. Gripping her poleaxe, she transformed into a streak of blue lightning, tearing through the atmosphere as she charged the lofty Transcendent Flash!
Jingliu drew her blade and dove to meet her.
The two supreme apex predators of the modern era clashed in midair, a cataclysmic collision of force before they instantly ripped apart. Their speed was utterly incomprehensible. To the naked eye, there were only thousands of cyan and pale-blue afterimages violently weaving and flashing across the sky, painting intricate, lingering star-map trajectories against the canvas of the night!
(Illustration: The Heaven-Shaking Duel)
Down on the beach, Fuli used every ounce of strength he had to yank the crossed gravity-guns off his chest.
Finally free, he looked up at the dazzling, retina-burning light show in the sky and sighed in genuine admiration. "Man, it's a damn tragedy General Feixiao doesn't have a Stigmata tattooed on that gorgeous back of hers."
"By all means!"
A teasing laugh instantly echoed from all directions, ringing crystal clear in his ears. "If you want to ink it on me yourself, I'd be more than happy to let you!"
"Eeeek!"
Fuli jumped out of his skin.
Master, please put some elbow grease into this fight! How does she still have the spare brainpower to eavesdrop on my murmurs while trading blows with you?!
As if hearing her disciple's inner distress, Jingliu's chillingly calm voice descended from the heavens to back him up:
"If it were anyone else looking to share a marital bed with my traitorous disciple, I wouldn't intervene—even if they had to use a little force—so long as they were of appropriate standing and a proper match."
"Then you—"
"I said, so long as they are a proper match," Jingliu cut in, striking directly at the jugular. "The Merlin's Claw... you are simply too old."
"You really have the nerve to say that to me?!"
Feixiao was so pissed she actually started laughing. Her offensive rhythm shifted instantly; the probing strikes of their 'warm-up' were officially over.
The star-map trails illuminating the night sky shattered under a sudden, terrifying surge of Honkai energy. Tens of thousands of divine armaments—swords, spears, halberds, poleaxes, hook-blades, and tridents—condensed from pure, violent energy and rained down from the heavens.
Dense enough to blot out the moon, every single phantom blade radiated a cyan brilliance and a heart-stopping, razor-sharp edge.
The Yaoqing True Art.
Created by Feixiao herself by cannibalizing dozens of different martial techniques, it was now the supreme art taught to the Yaoqing's elite troops. It boasted three realms: Condensation, Phantom Armory, and Aura Field.
Not only could it manifest phantom weapons and heavy armor, but once pushed to the limit, every single wisp of True Qi bleeding from the user's body—in this case, pure Honkai energy—became as lethal as a physical blade.
For a top-tier powerhouse like Feixiao, who had sat at the absolute pinnacle of the Aura Field realm for years and was only a half-step away from breaching the S-Rank Rank Breaker, her manifested phantom weapons hit just as hard as legitimate A-Rank combat gear!
"Why shouldn't I?"
Facing a torrential downpour of swords and halberds where a graze meant injury and a direct hit meant death, Jingliu remained the picture of icy indifference. "I never intended to demand an official title from that traitorous boy. We may cross the line occasionally, but a great man taking three wives and four concubines has been a tradition since ancient times."
Her silhouette blurred. In the span of a microsecond, her singular figure fractured into dozens, then hundreds of indistinguishable afterimages.
Every single afterimage held an immaculate, crystal-clear Tanhua Sword, swatting away the devastating rain of phantom armaments with effortless grace. Beneath her flashing blade, the terrifying energy constructs shattered like cheap glass.
Moon Crosses Heaven's Gate.
A crowd-control sword art invented by Jingliu. Its core mechanic relied on reversing one's flow through the tributaries of time. The technique allowed her to rewind her own physical trajectory, instantly blinking back to any position she had occupied within the last few moments.
Rewind once, and she could unleash an instant slash from her previous position. Rewind twice, and two slashes fell simultaneously.
If pushed to the absolute limit—rewinding multiple times to the exact same temporal point—the practitioner could exist in hundreds of different locations at once, unleashing a tsunami of omnidirectional strikes!
For instance... right now. Feixiao executed a hyper-speed dash, accidentally stepping into a pocket of air where Jingliu had paused a millisecond prior.
In that exact instant—
SHUA SHUA SHUA SHUA SHUA!
An endless tidal wave of pale-blue sword light, looking like a shattered galaxy bleeding into reality, drowned the Merlin's Claw from every conceivable angle.
Feixiao's Yaoqing True Art aura was dozens of feet thick and sturdy enough to tank point-blank anti-tank artillery without a scratch. Yet beneath this apocalyptic barrage of infinite slashes, her defensive field and true-qi armor violently cracked and exploded!
Caught in the kill-zone, Feixiao scowled. With a burst of raw power, she narrowly blasted her way out of the omnidirectional domain of death.
But as she rapidly backpedaled, the stylish trench coat draped over her shoulders was already shredded into ribbons by the residual sword qi.
Jingliu didn't press the advantage.
"Did you see that clearly, traitorous disciple?"
She hovered serenely in the void, but her crimson eyes were locked onto Fuli down below, treating the earth-shattering clash like a casual classroom demonstration. "I invented that move as well. If you wish to learn it, I can teach you another day."
"Seriously?!" Fuli's eyes sparkled.
"You are my only disciple," Jingliu said, her expression softening by a fraction of a degree. "If I don't teach you, who else would I teach?"
"You can teach him after we get married too, Master!" Feixiao's boisterous laughter boomed across the sea.
She violently tore off the ruined shreds of her coat and tossed them into the churning ocean below, leaving only a deep-green combat tank top that tightly hugged the explosive curves of her waist and chest, exposing her beautifully toned arms.
Astoundingly, despite taking the brunt of Jingliu's Instant Thousand Strikes, there wasn't a single scratch on Feixiao's exposed skin. Only the ragged tears in her clothing proved she had even been hit at all.
"Oh?"
Jingliu raised a delicate eyebrow, a flicker of genuine surprise finally breaking through her stoic crimson eyes. "I didn't expect anyone in this modern era to actually master that bodily profound art."
"It took a hell of a lot of effort, let me tell you." Feixiao bared her teeth in a grin that was equal parts pride and battle-scarred grit.
They dispensed with the banter. In a flash of light, the two juggernauts collided once more.
Mountains cracked. The sea reversed its flow. To the naked eye, it looked like the literal end of the world.
Fuli finally realized the horrifying truth: They were getting serious.
Especially when a stray crescent-shaped shockwave of sword qi skimmed an inch over his scalp and cleaved the entire, impossibly vast Lunarescent Sea completely in half, leaving a bottomless trench in its wake.
Nope! I'm out of here!
Without a second thought, he whipped around, ready to sprint as far away from this disaster zone as his legs could carry him.
DING!
[The Matrix of Prescience has issued an Emergency Commission: Record complete, real-time combat data and visual footage of the Transcendent Flash and the Merlin's Claw. Submit the data to the Seat of Divine Foresight upon completion. Reward: 8,000 Martial Points.]
...Then again, Master and Big Sis Triumphant definitely wouldn't accidentally kill me, right?
Besides, as humiliating as it is to admit, I'm pretty sure... I'm the trophy they're fighting over right now.
Fuli's foot, which had already taken a step to flee, hilariously froze mid-air. Staring at the juicy bounty of 8,000 Martial Points, a vicious war waged in his soul.
Ultimately, greed won. He resolutely spun back around, summoned his high-spec recording drone, and pointed the lens squarely at the two apocalyptic deities turning the sky into a blender.
He couldn't help but curse his own weakness. In this world, raw power is the only truth. Without it, you're destined to tragically become the big sisters' plaything.
Though, to be fair... he mused. Being a hot older sister's plaything is still infinitely better than being used as an emotional torture prop by the Herrscher of Domination to trigger Kiana.
While rationalizing his lack of agency, Fuli quietly activated his Abyssal Exalted Heaven authority. He meticulously commanded it to devour the residual pheromones clinging to his clothes—the scent Feixiao claimed had been 'marinated' into him by Jingliu.
Before his recent breakthrough to the Critical-Class, pulling off micro-manipulation like this would have been impossible. Now? It was as easy as breathing.
After finishing his "training sessions" with Jingliu, Fuli always took a thorough shower. What Feixiao had picked up on wasn't an actual scent, but lingering, esoteric biological information.
Fuli had always relied on his aura-concealment traits to mask it, terrified that his acquaintances—especially Mei—might catch on. But standard stealth was useless against the innate, hyper-sensitive instincts of an S-Rank Foxian.
It didn't matter anymore. Any lingering residue that could cause a harem-ending disaster? Just use his void powers to eat it!
From now on, he'd run a daily self-diagnostic. He would guarantee that every morning when he rolled out of bed, he'd smell like a squeaky-clean, totally innocent xiao chu nan—a pure, untouched virgin boy!
(Illustration: Feixiao - "A virgin boy? Don't mind if I do!")
---||---
It wasn't until a massive battalion of Luofu Cloud Knights arrived on the scene that the earth-shattering duel was finally forced to a halt.
As a high-priority criminal of the Alliance, Jingliu obviously couldn't stick around to chat with the local military. Meanwhile, the wildly prideful Feixiao had zero intention of using the local garrison to help her capture her prey.
And so, the two white-haired combatants in their respective altered states mutually sounded the retreat.
Feixiao's silver hair was now tinged with cyan, while Jingliu's silver hair was tinted with pale-blue frost. Who knows, maybe they both subconsciously copied the Celestial Immortal's iconic flowing white-and-red aesthetic.
"General Feixiao!"
"I'm fine."
After waving off the anxious Cloud Knight commanders, Big Sis Triumphant casually retied her messy ponytail. She shot a sideways glance at Fuli, who was still standing awkwardly on the beach, her lips curling into a predatory smirk.
"What's this? You didn't take the chance to slip away? Were you waiting around to buy me some late-night snacks?"
"Getting to witness a world-shaking battle of that caliber with my own two eyes? Even if I died in the crossfire, it would've been worth the price of admission!" Fuli lied smoothly.
"Tell the truth."
"My Cousin A-Hua is here!"
Little Li immediately bolted over and latched onto Fu Hua, who had just arrived, shamelessly hiding behind her skirts to live off her protection.
Since Fu Hua was also stationed on the Luofu, there was no way she would have missed the apocalyptic energy spikes over the Lunarescent Sea. Having partially recovered her strength, she had rushed over as fast as she could.
Only to find her little bro standing in the middle of a torrential downpour of lethal sword qi and terrifying vacuum blades, dodging death by mere millimeters—all while dutifully holding a camera high above his head to film the whole thing.
The expression on the young immortal's face was a perfect replica of that famous internet GIF:
An intense Olympic sprint where all the athletes are running for their lives, and the cameraman lugging a heavy rig is somehow outrunning all of them by half a pace!
"Tch."
Seeing that the Celestial Immortal had personally arrived, whatever aggressive follow-up plans Feixiao had in mind instantly evaporated.
She couldn't exactly be completely unhinged in front of a Marshal-level figure. She offered her greetings, then turned on her heel and departed.
Watching the foxian general's retreating back, A-Hua tilted her head in confusion. "Did you two... have a falling out?"
"General Feixiao was trying to forcibly claim my Greatsword!"
Fu Hua: ( ; 一_一)?
Was that not clear enough?
Fuli scratched his head. Looking at her utterly bewildered expression, he opened his mouth, trying to figure out how to explain the concept of forced swordplay in layman's terms.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed violently in his pocket. He pulled it out.
[Yaoqing Great Demon King: You wouldn't want anyone else finding out about the... special relationship between you and your Master, would you?]
"!!!"
Bro Li's soul nearly left his body. What the hell?! Why is Big Sis Feixiao suddenly speaking with such a heavy Far East doujinshi flavor?!
"Cousin?" Fu Hua asked.
"Ah? Nope, nothing!"
He had to admit, the blackmail was super effective. Fuli absolutely didn't dare confess the truth to A-Hua now, instantly losing his only chance to hide behind a protector of justice.
---||---
The next morning. Starskiff Haven Central. The designated meeting point for the Crychic Squad—
"Morning, everyone!"
Wearing a small backpack, Hyacine came jogging up, practically radiating sunshine and energy as she waved enthusiastically.
Then she blinked, letting out a small gasp. "Woah! Li-bao, your dark circles are horrible! Did you not sleep well last night?"
"It's probably related to that massive battle that broke out over the Lunarescent Sea yesterday," Yunli noted. As one of the few who knew about Fuli and Jingliu's master-disciple relationship, she naturally connected the dots.
"Oh, I read about that online!" Hyacine bobbed her head, eagerly sharing the gossip. "They said the Yaoqing's Merlin's Claw and the Transcendent Flash of the High-Cloud Quintet got into a massive brawl! The shockwaves were so huge that a bunch of dragon species in the Lunarescent Sea got knocked out. A ton of mercenaries and merchant guilds are organizing raid parties right now to go harvest the rare dragon-attribute materials while the coast is clear!"
She turned to the quiet girl standing beside her. "What do you think, Cas-bao?"
"Me?"
Castorice seemed slightly startled at being pulled into the conversation. Her signature quiet demeanor barely shifting, she lowered her voice and offered a more analytical guess. "I believe... Lord Fuli might be stressed about the upcoming repeal of the S-Rank Restriction Treaty."
At its core, the S-Rank Restriction Treaty was a flawed document. Sure, it contained clauses allowing a fighter to temporarily uncap their powers—such as "encountering an awakened Herrscher," "engaging a Judgment-class Honkai Beast," or "the exact microsecond before suffering a lethal blow."
But fundamentally, the treaty only restricted the "good guys" who actually bothered to follow the rules.
True villains and apocalyptic threats weren't going to sign a UN treaty limiting their combat output to the Critical-Class.
It created a completely backwards system where the defenders of order, upon having a metaphorical gun pressed to their foreheads, weren't allowed to instinctively shoot back. Instead, they had to angrily ask, "Why are you doing this?" before getting the galaxy-brain answer of: Because good guys deserve to be held at gunpoint.
But now, thanks to the shadowy maneuvers of World Serpent and the escalating frequency of global Honkai eruptions, the major anti-Honkai organizations, spearheaded by Schicksal, had officially agreed to abolish the treaty. This would untether their top-tier combatants to prepare for the coming storm.
Personally? Fuli felt like the higher-ups were specifically targeting him.
I—an unparalleled genius—finally grind my way up to the Critical-Class, making me practically invincible in my weight class. And right before I get to enjoy bullying the older generation, you guys suddenly uncap the power ceiling?!
On the flip side, it wasn't strictly a bad thing.
Hyperion was legally registered as a mid-sized organization. If the treaty hadn't been scrapped, Fuli would have been forced to sign it and artificially cap his own stats the second he naturally broke through to S-Rank in the future.
"So which one is actually stressing you out, Bro Li?" Yunli asked, looking at him with undisguised curiosity. Hyacine and Castorice chimed in with equally probing stares.
Looking at his three female teammates—each boasting a completely different flavor of aesthetic perfection—Fuli let out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Neither."
The thing keeping him up at night... was Feixiao!
Fuli had spent the entire night curled in a ball, terrified of a night raid. But the raid never came.
Instead, Feixiao had casually texted him, stating that she knew he was leaving on a mission today, and that they would pick up right where they left off the moment he returned.
Facing the stoic general's terrifyingly direct, zero-hesitation assault, Fuli wanted to scream at the heavens: Yes, it's true that beautiful women belong to the strong! But that doesn't mean you can use your strength to force your sword upon me!
It wasn't that Feixiao lacked charm.
Quite the opposite. The General was a walking singularity of top-tier anime tropes—dominant older sister aura, gradient hair, high ponytail, military general, fox ears, thigh straps, insanely reliable, aggressively straightforward, absurdly stacked but wildly tomboyish, terrible drunk, monstrous strength... every single trait was a critical hit.
But shouldn't there be an actual dating process first?!
Who the hell skips all the steps and speedruns straight to the Great Harmony of Life?!
[So... does the Host plan to date General Feixiao?]
Inside his mind-palace, Prometheus delivered a soul-piercing question.
[Hell no!]
He already had a tangled web of romantic disasters and side-chick drama waiting to explode back on the Hyperion! Where the hell would Fuli find the spare time to manage a secret affair with a Foxian General?!
[Well, there you have it.]
The little AI mentally rolled her eyes at him.
You have zero intention of giving her a legitimate chance, and her combat strength eclipses yours. If she doesn't resort to compulsory measures, how exactly is she supposed to achieve her goal?
She isn't going to wait around until she becomes a "Losing Heroine," crying on her knees and sobbing about how she couldn't do anything.
She wants your body or your heart. And if she claims the body first, maybe the heart will eventually follow.