[So cool! Yanqing is seriously cool!]
[Oh no, he actually broke through.]
[Hoolay said: If he had even a third of your resemblance, I'd have lost my mind.]
[He's giving Hoolay full-on PTSD.]
[Still gotta be Jingliu.]
[Grandmaster is still the grandmaster.]
[My god, Illuminating Myriad Rivers!]
[Yanqing really does have talent.]
[Broke through the bottleneck—Yanqing's strength is about to surge. As expected of a genius youth.]
[After watching Yanqing get humbled for so long, he's finally grown up. I'm tearing up with relief.]
[Hoolay: It's all coming back, everything's coming back.]
[Hahaha, Hoolay's in deep trouble now.]
[Yanqing: Battle record verifiable.]
Hoolay's body jolts. The ice on his right arm shatters instantly.
He raises his great blade, preparing a fatal strike on Yanqing.
At this critical moment.
Feixiao arrives just in time. With a light flick, she sends Hoolay's weapon flying.
Then, as if all hope has been lost, Hoolay drops to his knees and remains motionless.
Yanqing wipes the sweat from his forehead. A chill runs down his back.
Only those who have experienced it know just how perilous that moment truly was.
"Y-You scared me to death! I thought you were about to get taken out by Hoolay." March 7th rushes to Yanqing's side. "Good thing that General showed up."
"Little brother Yanqing, you did great!" Yunli looks at the ice already covering Hoolay's body, a surge of reluctance rising in her heart. "That final sword that took Hoolay down—how come I've never seen you use it before?"
Yanqing teases, "Want to learn? I can teach you. But you'll have to wait until I've recovered from these injuries…"
"Though I'm a bit unwilling, if you're willing to teach me, I can grudgingly admit your skill is just a tiny bit higher than mine…"
[Is Hoolay seriously this weak? It just ends like this? Isn't this like swatting a mosquito with a cannon?]
[So three of the Seven Arbiter-Generals showed up, and not one of them even had to lift a finger—Hoolay got beaten down?]
[Hoolay is actually trash!]
[Yunli, Yanqing, March 7th—any one of them could beat Hoolay. What the hell was the Shackling Prison even doing? How did they let him escape?]
[Shackling Prison—yeah, it was sudden back then, plus they had Jiaoqiu as a hostage, and there were tons of borisin. Now the entire Skysplitter only has Hoolay left, so it makes sense.]
[Yanqing is strong and had an epiphany, but solving Hoolay this easily? I still don't buy it.]
— —
"You three actually held out until now. This hunt has finally come to a perfect end. The Cloud Knights are handling cleanup and evacuation." Feixiao slowly approaches the trio from behind. "Lieutenant Yanqing, can your body still hold up?"
Yanqing clutches his chest. "I'm fine… not a scratch! Even if ten more Hoolays showed up…"
Feixiao quickly stops him. "Don't push yourself too hard, young one. You look pretty badly hurt. Once the Alchemy Commission's healers arrive, let them treat you properly.
I never thought that the first time in my life I'd be late to a battlefield would be today. Or perhaps I should say your young swords were just too fast.
I thought the best outcome would be you three managing to stall this ferocious beast and protect yourselves. But… you actually defeated Hoolay together. The younger generation is truly formidable.
Come on—before anything else happens, it's time to re-imprison Hoolay."
Feixiao leads Yanqing to the barely-breathing Hoolay.
Hoolay looks at Yanqing's figure. "What an impressive sword… so similar to when that woman defeated me back then.
After more than seven hundred years, I thought I'd found a way to counter it. But in the end… my claws have dulled. You win, kid."
Feixiao: "No more struggling, Hoolay. Back in the Shackling Prison, you'll have plenty of time to be tormented by regret."
"I did lose, but that's not unexpected. But you still showed yourself, Feixiao."
With that, Hoolay reveals a smug, scheming expression.
"I've waited so long for this hunting game to finally reach its end… I told you—I prepared a path for you…" He drags his heavily wounded body to his feet. "A dead-end path…"
The next moment, he plunges his sharp claws into his own heart. Blood gushes out instantly.
"I will die—and the entire Xianzhou Luofu will die with me!"
Hoolay rips out his own heart.
"The 'Crimson Moon' in my chest will bathe this place in bloodlight! I will drive every foxian into madness through fear… thirsting for slaughter… endlessly!"
Hoolay's heart floats into the sky like a blood-red sun.
Crimson light instantly engulfs the entire Luofu.
Every foxian who witnesses the Crimson Moon freezes in place, their genetic bloodline surging.
"What will you do now… Feixiao…" Hoolay gazes at the blood-sun overhead as his body turns to ash and scatters into the air.
Yunli summons Old Mettle just to steady herself. "What the hell is that thing?!"
"That's the borisin Warhead's 'heart'—a product of the Lifespan Plague legacy." Feixiao says calmly, then hands her weapon to Yanqing.
A powerful gale coalesces around her body. She looks up as a massive, radiant spirit emerges from behind her.
Feixiao summons her heart-beast Feihuang.
"General, I don't understand…?"
"We can't let this influence spread. I will do everything I can to swallow this 'Crimson Moon.' If anything goes wrong… Lieutenant Yanqing, you will carry out the Cloud Knights' military regulations. Understood?"
"General?"
Feihuang swallows the 'Crimson Moon' in one gulp, and Feixiao crashes heavily back onto the Skysplitter from the air.
Yanqing and the other two rush to the crash site. Feixiao is unharmed—except her eyes are completely blood-red.
Whoosh——
Feixiao charges at the trio like a ferocious beast, muttering through her teeth, "Borisin… die!"
"Wh-What?! We don't have ears on our heads!" Yunli startles.
"I will never let you… leave the Skysplitter!"
Yunli: "Is she treating all of us as enemies now?"
Yanqing: "That bastard Hoolay—he risked his life just to drag the General down with him! Snap out of it, General!"
But Feixiao's power far exceeds their imagination. With a single move, she sends all three flying.
"We can't let her leave!"
March 7th: "But we can't beat her at all like this, can we?"
Yunli steps forward to block Feixiao while March 7th fires ice arrows to slow her…
Yanqing draws Feixiao's glaive. "She said, 'The rest is up to you.' She believes we can do it!"
Yanqing thrusts the blade toward Feixiao.
— —
The camera shifts.
Feixiao awakens in an unknown space.
"This is… the Skysplitter? Or somewhere else?"
Muffled voices reach Feixiao's ears:
"Lieutenant Yanqing, you will carry out the Cloud Knights' military regulations. Understood?"
"We can't let her leave this place!"
"Snap out of it, General!"
Feixiao listens. Suddenly, Hoolay's figure appears behind her. "You always leave the hardest battles for yourself. Just like now—you never knew what retreat meant. Strange, isn't it? As your enemy, I understand you better than your comrades."
Feixiao frowns. "Hoolay…?"
"This rage… how nostalgic. I know it never sought victory—only the hunt itself. Right, Feixiao?"
"You shouldn't exist. I saw you die with my own eyes…"
"Think of me as a hallucination." Hoolay laughs. "Before every hunt, I prepared for the possibility of failure. But this time is different—this time… failure is the destination I race toward.
After learning your story from Jiaoqiu's mouth, I discovered he had been hiding a secret… one whose meaning even the healer himself never realized.
Fate is truly ironic. I've waited so long for today, yet never expected it in this form. But I accept it.
As for now—let us dig open the iron heart of the Reignbow Arbiter-General and see what hides in her darkest corner."
With that, Hoolay vanishes.
Feixiao continues forward alone. Soon, she sees a projection: herself appearing on some battlefield.
"The familiar scent of death… like vultures…"
Hoolay's voice pours directly into Feixiao's mind. "These familiar scenes—the Xianzhou people must have shown them to you countless times. But this is only what they want you to see.
They made you fight to save the weak. But did they ever tell you that, once you strip away all the tender disguises, this is simply how the universe is meant to be?
When the Xianzhou was weak, they disguised themselves as victims to win your sympathy. When the Xianzhou grew strong, they crowned you avenger and demanded you uphold justice.
I found it… this is your 'doubt.'"
Without hesitation, Feixiao slashes the shadow of doubt in two. "Your so-called survival of the fittest is just sophistry. You can't shake me, Hoolay."
She presses on. Ahead, illusions of countless Cloud Knights surround her.
Even Huaiyan and Jing Yuan are among them.
Huaiyan says furiously, "Your actions are no different from those abominations."
Jing Yuan agrees, "In the end, she carries abomination blood… Given time, she will surely become an enemy of the Alliance. Cloud Knights—form ranks!"
Hoolay seizes the opening. "You threw yourself wholeheartedly into your new masters' army, believing you had gained freedom, respect, and recognition.
But you're wrong—they know full well a wolf is always a wolf. Now your greatest fear is about to come true: becoming the Xianzhou's enemy. This place… is your 'fear.'"
Feixiao continues cutting them down. "You want to plant fear in my heart… but these are nothing… but illusions."
[Why does this scene feel familiar?]
[Back in Belobog, the Preservation glance appeared in projections like this, but this feels more like hallucinations.]
[Yeah—projections are real events; hallucinations are fabricated.]
— —
But the next moment.
Feixiao freezes. Countless borisin kneel and worship her, deliberately clearing a path.
Her own illusion seems to revel in the cheers.
"You've returned… Lady Feixiao! The Warhead has returned! Long live the Warhead! Lady Feixiao will grant us a future!"
"It's time to return to the den, Feixiao. No matter how deep your hatred for the borisin runs, no matter how much enmity lies between us—I will show you a path you never imagined. Because you made the choice—you swallowed the 'Crimson Moon.' You are qualified to become the borisin Warhead."
"You… what?"
"Those Duran descendants who came to rescue me—they wholeheartedly believed that once I regained freedom, the tide would turn, everything would change, and all borisin hunting packs would rise again! But that was nothing but a beautiful dream manipulated by schemers.
They'd rather pin their hopes of survival on some vague savior than muster even a shred of courage or strength for a desperate last stand. Such borisin deserve total extinction!
And I—a prisoner locked away for seven hundred years, a war criminal who couldn't even beg for an honorable death—once returned to the pack, would become nothing but a puppet for others to manipulate. I will never accept such a fate!
For a true strong one, 'foxian' or 'borisin' is just a name. A true strong one decides their own path.
I will carve a brand-new road for myself and hand the power to decide the pack's fate to you—former borisin war slave, future master of the foxians."
Feixiao shows no mercy. Even facing her own illusion, she shatters it instantly.
"Your healer, Jiaoqiu—he served you so loyally, even dying to cure your Moon Rage. I told him the cure was in my hands." Hoolay's phantom reappears.
"Just nod once, and you'll awaken immediately from this mad nightmare brought by the 'Crimson Moon.' Your body will be renewed. From then on—no more madness to torment you. Doubt will be nothing more than dust brushed casually from your heart. Fear will vanish entirely."
"This is the 'path' you prepared for me… to become another you?"
"Exactly. After all, you and I are so alike. We are both monsters born for war and destined to die in war."
Feixiao gives a cold laugh. "I don't need to say more. I refuse."
[Daga, kōtō waru!]
[Daga, kōtō waru!]
[Daga, kōtō waru!]
[…]
"I told you—foxian or borisin is just a name. You can be whoever you want. You can do whatever you want.
Accept it all, and the borisin will submit to you. Destroy them until nothing remains, or enlighten them into Xianzhou vassals… whatever you please.
Your name will be carved into the Xianzhou's annals—or its list of archenemies. The choice is yours."
"You don't understand, Hoolay. You don't understand at all what I want." Feixiao recalls her days as a war slave.
It was on that day she first saw the shooting star and made a wish.
However.
That shooting star was actually an arrow from Lan.
When Feixiao returned to that place, the earth bore only a bottomless chasm.
Hoolay spouts arrogantly, "The demon bow's radiance… calamity star falls, all things perish."
Feixiao does not refute him. "In the years that followed, my Cloud Knight comrades and I chased that light's trajectory countless times, only to watch it fall again and again.
Gradually, I understood—it was never a wish-bearing meteor. Every beam of light meant a world beyond saving and countless lives extinguished.
I prayed to the god of Skybow: Please, never let me witness another 'meteor' fall.
But… the gods have never responded."