Wei Qing still couldn't understand it.
He couldn't figure out her motive.
But it didn't really matter—either way, he wasn't losing anything.
In the earlier exchange, he'd already gotten a rough read on her limits.
If the Marshal wasn't hiding a second form or some invincible trump card… then she probably wasn't his match.
And even if she was hiding something, Wei Qing still didn't believe she could beat him. He hadn't even used Abundance or Finality yet.
At worst, it was a seven–three split.
He had the seven.
With that thought, Wei Qing's gaze swept across the frozen battlefield once more, finally settling on the distant, graceful figure.
In this perfectly motionless gray-and-white tableau, only two beings still carried color—only two remained conscious.
They faced each other like opposing kings on a chessboard, staring across congealed time.
"Wei Qing," Hua said, cool and even, as if stating a simple fact. "In these three hundred years, you've improved a great deal."
"You flatter me, Marshal," Wei Qing replied calmly. "But if I didn't have enough strength, I wouldn't dare come back to the Luofu for a little… family visit."
He emphasized the last two words, eyes flicking toward the frozen silhouettes of old acquaintances around them.
Hua's lips seemed to lift the slightest bit—so briefly it could've been imagined.
"Back then," she said, "I once considered whether you—so favored by The Hunt—might one day take up my mission."
That was… an interesting way to put it.
Even Wei Qing paused.
Take up her mission?
He'd never imagined the Marshal of the Xianzhou Alliance—one of the apex walkers of the Hunt's Path—had ever entertained such a thought.
"Marshal, you jest," Wei Qing said, suppressing the ripple in his mind, keeping his voice flat. "I'm an Emanator of Destruction. How could I possibly replace you as the spearpoint of The Hunt?"
"The ownership of a Path is not immutable," Hua said, her gaze seeming to pierce through the stillness itself and settle on him. "Lan's favor toward you is far beyond what you think. Otherwise, why would you have obtained the Hunt's blessing so easily… and why, even after your defection, has that power never left you?"
Wei Qing fell silent.
It was true. He carried multiple Paths, yet The Hunt answered him as naturally as a limb—no weakening, no recoil, no rejection, despite everything he'd become.
Destruction—he was born into that camp.
Abundance—Yaoshi's generosity, indiscriminate and unconcerned.
Finality—he could only sneer; the scriptwriter and the so-called Aeon of the End could go crawl somewhere else.
But The Hunt?
Lan's Path was narrow, and Lan's gaze was not.
Yet that "generosity" was supposed to be for the Xianzhou Alliance.
So what was Wei Qing, then?
Why was he granted such an exception?
He'd noticed it long ago—he'd just never said it out loud.
Now Hua had dragged it into the light.
"Lan seeks to eradicate abominations and wipe out the calamity of Abundance," Hua continued, her voice crisp in the frozen world. "Who performs that execution—whether a Xianzhou general or an Emanator of Destruction—is not what matters most."
"What matters is whether the road is correct… and whether the will is unwavering."
"So?" Wei Qing raised a brow. "You came to recruit me on Lan's behalf?"
"…Yes." Hua gave a small nod. "You can interpret it that way."
Her gaze dropped to the Stellaron in his hand.
"I came to confirm certain things," she said, tone unruffled. "And to give you a choice."
"A choice?" Wei Qing sounded almost amused.
"Put down the Stellaron," Hua said, slow and clear, "and come with me to the Xuling."
"Or attempt to leave with it—and from this moment on, you will officially become the Xianzhou Alliance's number one wanted target."
Wei Qing was mildly surprised. She'd gone to the trouble of stopping time… just to speak to him privately.
But he didn't answer immediately.
Because her time stop had ended—only he could still feel it lingering on the edge of reality.
And he couldn't help noticing something else:
Her time stop lasted twelve seconds.
His had grown from five to five-point-four over decades—a change so small it might as well still be five.
Compared to hers, it was nothing.
So she really was an old monster who'd lived who-knew-how-long.
The World activated again—Wei Qing paid the "fee" to tack on another five seconds.
"Marshal," he asked, "what do you think I'll choose?"
"I don't know," Hua answered cleanly. "That is precisely why I must witness it myself."
Her eyes moved again to the Stellaron's ominous pulse.
"I know your heart is not truly Destruction," Hua said. "That is why I've always believed there was still room between you and the Luofu."
Wei Qing didn't respond directly.
He asked instead, "You seem very interested in my purpose."
"I am interested in any factor that might affect the Xianzhou's survival—indeed, the balance of the universe," Hua said, voice still calm, yet carrying a weight that pressed down like a mountain. "Especially you, Wei Qing."
Seconds bled away in the stopped world.
Wei Qing suddenly asked, "When I first stepped onto the Xianzhou, the first time we met—did you already know what I was?"
A faint ripple passed through Hua's eyes.
"Yes," she said. "From our very first meeting, I knew the Destruction source buried within you."
Wei Qing's pupils tightened.
Even with his current composure, a chill crawled up his spine.
Three hundred years ago, when he arrived on the Luofu, he'd posed as an orphan with dead parents.
He'd believed the disguise was flawless.
Yet he'd been seen through from the beginning.
After he killed Shuhu, he met the Marshal again. He'd once assumed that was when she noticed something—after three centuries of him walking deeper into Destruction.
But no.
He'd been exposed from the start.
"Then why did you allow me to remain on the Luofu for three hundred years?" Wei Qing's voice carried a tension he didn't fully conceal. "Why did you even let me sit in the general's seat?"
If she'd wanted him gone back then, the Wei Qing of that era wouldn't have had the slightest ability to resist.
"Because it was Lan's will," Hua said, gaze drifting into the void as if communing with something far above. "Lan saw a possibility."
"In you, Destruction and The Hunt were not mutually opposed."
"And I… believed the Hunt's choice."
Wei Qing had nothing to say for a moment.
He looked down at the Stellaron in his hand, its warmth and danger both painfully real.
So the Marshal had known his nature from the very beginning—yet still permitted him to stay, to rise, to become the Luofu's general?
By that accounting, Wei Qing even owed her a debt—mercy he hadn't earned.
The final second of the time stop was about to run out.
Wei Qing lifted his head and looked at Hua. The last trace of turbulence in his gaze smoothed into still water.
"…Sigh."
He didn't answer her offer.
But silence, at times, was already an answer.
Time resumed.
In the instant the world began moving again, Wei Qing's figure drifted backward like a wraith, widening the gap between him and Hua.
To everyone else, it looked like the Marshal had appeared and confronted him briefly.
But the battlefield's atmosphere grew heavier than ever.
Hua watched him. The faint, almost imperceptible expectation in her eyes faded, settling into something deep and quiet.
"So," she said, voice not loud, yet carrying across the ruins, "you've made your choice."
Wei Qing didn't answer. He only tightened his grip on the Stellaron.
Behind him, the enormous divine silhouette roared—Destruction and the Hunt interweaving in a grotesque, impossible fusion that made the air itself tremble.
"Then…" Hua raised her hand. That ancient longbow appeared once more.
She drew and nocked.
No grand spectacle—only a single, condensed streak of silver that crossed space in an instant, appearing directly before Wei Qing's brow.
This arrow was at least ten times faster than the last.
The authority of The Hunt within it was pure and tyrannical—an absolute "hit," sealing off every evasive possibility.
Wei Qing's pupils constricted. Destruction surged instinctively, forming a heavy, dark-gold barrier in front of him.
Hiss—!
Silver met gold.
The arrowhead pushed in, inch by inch—slow, but unstoppable, as if it would never stop until it reached its destination.
Wei Qing could feel it: Hunt-power designed specifically to pierce defenses.
"No wonder you're the Marshal," he murmured, battle intent rising.
He stopped merely blocking.
He extended his left hand. Destruction compressed to an extreme, becoming a thin black line—then he tapped the arrow precisely at its core.
Crack!
The silver arrow snapped and scattered into light.
But Hua's offense never paused.
As the first arrow broke, she had already loosed the second, the third… the ninth.
Nine streaks of silver—nine hunting comets—came from different angles, sealing every retreat, each carrying power enough to shoot down a star.
Wei Qing moved.
His Shenjun shadow solidified with a violent surge. Dark gold became a true body, and molten-red veins spread across it like lava—Destruction fully ignited.
At the same time, the Shenjun's saber reshaped into a gigantic bow.
It was the bow-form of the Hunt—but filled with the core of Destruction.
"Marshal," Wei Qing's voice rang like thunder over the ruins, "take this as my answer to your 'verification.'"
He drew.
The Shenjun drew with him.
Annihilating energy gathered into a single arrow so black it seemed to swallow light.
He didn't aim at any of the incoming nine arrows.
He aimed directly at Hua.
The instant the black arrow loosed, it traveled in a way that defied the very concept of speed.
Where it passed, Hua's nine silver arrows dissolved—without even the right to make a ripple.
Its target never changed.
Hua.
For the first time, genuine surprise flashed in Hua's otherwise calm eyes.
She could feel it—this strike, like her own, had locked onto the essence of her existence. It could not be dodged.
And the erasing power inside it was enough to threaten her for real.
Hua stopped holding back.
Her presence erupted fully—vast, towering, the might of the Xianzhou Marshal at the absolute apex of the Hunt's Path.
A long blade of pure light manifested in her hand.
"Break."
She stepped forward and cut.
The black arrow was severed.
But Hua's face paled slightly, and the wrist holding her blade trembled—just barely.
She had neutralized it.
And in doing so, she finally felt, without illusion, how strong Wei Qing truly was now.
If the Luofu fought him with only its present strength… they might genuinely be unable to take him down.
But at least—
She still had one ally who hadn't moved yet.
…
At the moment Wei Qing and Hua clashed at full force—while the shockwaves still hadn't settled and everyone's attention was dragged to that world-shaking exchange—
An absolute, extreme silence arrived without warning.
It was as if the universe had been dropped into a sea of mute stillness, so quiet that even thought itself began to stiffen.
Wei Qing's instincts screamed.
He snapped his head toward a stretch of shadowed rubble that had been empty just a moment ago.
Now, someone stood there.
No face could be seen—only a figure standing amid broken walls as though she'd been there from the beginning.
She wore a candy-colored dress, yet the fabric seemed to drink in every bit of light around it.
Strange as it was, though her face was obscured… her eyes were perfectly clear.
Calm.
Hollow.
Reflecting everything before them.
Polka Kakamond.
Genius Society's Fourth Seat.
The Silent Lord.
She had finally arrived.
Not on the carefully prepared stage Wei Qing and Ruan Mei had laid out—
But in the very center of chaos, the most unpredictable battlefield, stepping onto the scene in her own peculiar way.
Her gaze passed over Hua's formation and landed precisely on Wei Qing.
"First time meeting you, Lord Qingzhou."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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