"Meow..."
Huddled beneath the Dragon Queen's wings, Kuro trembled as it watched Grandmaster Lu Qing's transformed figure from a distance. The cat could plainly feel the Ancient Demon power radiating from those gleaming black wings and serpent tail. Without the Dragon Queen's presence to shelter it, its instincts would have long since driven it to flee.
"Interesting."
Dragon Queen narrowed her eyes at the power that threatened her. But before she could step forward, her own lady moved first.
"How do you feel?"
Bai Fanxian asked, quietly circulating qi through her own body as she did. She was not entirely confident that the man standing before her was still the same Grandmaster Lu Qing.
She had not ruled out the possibility that he had already been possessed by the Ancient Demon.
"...This is truly unbelievable."
Grandmaster Lu Qing raised both hands and touched the power that had changed within him, disbelief written across his face. He lightly clenched his fists and felt Bathin's power stir at once, responding to his thoughts almost before he had finished forming them.
"What do you mean?"
Bai Fanxian tilted her head, puzzled.
"This power level is even greater than what I had when in the Myriad Demon World..."
Just one sentence explained everything.
"And there's these wings and tail too... I don't know what to say."
Lu Qing scratched his head awkwardly — and, as if on cue, both his wings and tail shifted in response. They swayed gently, almost in rhythm, especially the serpentine head at the tail's tip, which drifted back and forth through the air as though it had a will of its own. Those crimson eyes flashed at intervals, their glow unsettling.
"This is Bathin's characteristic, maybe?"
Wu Jia circled him slowly, taking in the changes from every angle. It was his best guess at an explanation. If the Seventy-Two Ancient Demons were truly unique existences, it would not be strange for those who inherited their power to also receive distinctive traits beyond the power itself.
"It's possible. Have you ever seen Night Shadow in such forms?"
Bai Fanxian agreed.
"Hmm... not at all. Fenex was the closest, but I think that great fire bird was shaped more from his own magic than from any inherited power."
Grandmaster Lu Qing gave his opinion, and it was a fair one — if that man could wield "Fenex's" power at the level Lu Qing now possessed, the chance Tang Yeye could defeat him would be exactly zero.
"Let's test your power..."
Realizing they could not extract any more useful information this way, Bai Fanxian pulled everyone back to the matter at hand. What mattered most right now was whether Bathin's power was sufficient to open a dimensional portal to the Myriad Demon World.
"Sure."
Grandmaster Lu Qing did not refuse — he was more than willing. He wanted to know the answer just as much as anyone.
*Vwoom...*
A deep rumbling sound filled the air the instant he drew his hand through it. A sharp, clean cut appeared wherever his fingers passed, with no dimensional shuddering, no distortion from the severed space. Even Bai Fanxian, who was no stranger to tearing open dimensional rifts herself, widened her eyes.
She could not do this.
The Ancient Demon's special ability was real. Among all the powers unique to the Seventy-Two Demons, this one made Bathin's mastery over dimensions unmistakable.
It would not be wrong to say that, in this moment, Grandmaster Lu Qing had become the foremost dimensional expert in the world.
At that moment, Bai Fanxian understood just how valuable he was. Whatever happened, she absolutely could not allow him to end up on the opposite side.
"...It... succeeded."
Grandmaster Lu Qing spoke, his voice trembling. Before him stood a dimensional portal, beautiful and stable all at once. It looked like an ordinary rectangular doorway, except that what lay beyond was pitch-black dimensional space-time, lit by flickers of strange light.
"..."
Bai Fanxian herself had not expected it to be this easy.
She moved toward the door, slowly and with caution. But the moment she drew near, the rift cracked — and collapsed, without her having touched it at all.
"..."
All eyes snapped to Grandmaster Lu Qing at once. His face had gone ashen. He gasped for breath, sweat breaking out across his body and soaking through his clothes. The black wings — formed from magical energy — began dissolving piece by piece, taking the silent serpent with them.
"What happened?"
Wu Jia reached him first, pressing two fingers to his pulse — it pounded wildly, in short desperate bursts. Then everything settled at once, Grandmaster Lu Qing's legs giving way as he sank to the floor, the exhaustion on his face that of someone who had run without rest through an entire day and night.
The wings, the tail, and the faint shadow that had hovered over his form vanished with them.
Without the power to sustain it, the dimensional rift mended itself. Within moments, the air where the doorway had stood was empty, as though nothing had ever been there.
"...Sorry... s-seems... my power ran out."
He could not even manage a full sentence. Wu Jia quickly produced several pills and pressed them into his mouth, and only then did the color begin to return to his face.
"About five minutes?"
Having watched quietly, Bai Fanxian had been counting from the moment Grandmaster Lu Qing swallowed the pill until just now. Roughly five to six minutes, though the timing was far from exact.
"Wh-what does that mean?"
Lu Qing still did not understand. He accepted the water Hui'er had hurried to fetch and drained it gratefully, gulping it down in loud mouthfuls.
"It seems the pills don't have permanent effects..." Bai Fanxian sighed. The same had been true when she tested it on Chunfeng. The intense effects held only for an initial stretch of time before wearing off and placing an enormous strain on the body. Even he had been unconscious for days afterward.
"So that's it..."
Seeing his dejected expression, Bai Fanxian could not help smiling. She tossed another pill to him and said—
"But five minutes is enough, isn't it?"
"...!"
Grandmaster Lu Qing went still, the realization hitting him all at once.
Right — he had wasted so much time simply being stunned by the power within his own body. If next time he opened the dimensional portal without hesitation, there would be time to spare. He looked at the pill in his hand and closed his fist around it, eyes bright.
"Then I'll create—"
"Not today."
Before he could finish, Bai Fanxian cut him off. She glanced up at the dark sky and continued—
"Get some rest first. Anyway before traveling we should prepare a bit, right?"
Hearing her reasoning, he gave a stiff nod. Without quite realizing it, he had come to defer to Bai Fanxian far more than before. If she said tomorrow, then tomorrow he would be ready.
.
.
.
Waves broke against the shore in steady rhythm, like a piece of music written by the world itself. Bai Fanxian stood alone at the water's edge, letting her thoughts drift. They drifted all the way back — to the first moment she had opened her eyes in this era — and a faint smile touched the corner of her lips.
Meeting little Hui'er in that alley, with her stubborn fighting spirit.
How she had been drawn into the Tang Clan's orbit, until in less than a year they were bound inseparably.
How she had somehow stumbled into dealings with the country's military.
And the Alchemist Association seminar, where she had caused no small amount of trouble.
Every one of them had become precious memories for her. They helped soothe the longing in her heart for times long past.
Come to think of it, there were people she missed, people who had long since vanished.
That woman who had always followed her around, insisting on calling her "Elder Sister."
She wondered how she was doing now.
"What are you thinking about?"
Behind her, a figure appeared without a sound — the elderly butler. He had known from the start that his lady would not sleep the night before departure. When he felt the shift in her mood, he could not help himself; he had to come and check on her.
"Huang Zihuan... I entrust this place to you."
That single sentence was enough to make him panic. He quickly asked—
"My lady won't let me go along...?"
"There are too many important things here already."
Bai Fanxian turned to him with a faint smile, and Huang Zihuan calmed somewhat. Even so, his butler's dignity would not allow him to simply accept the idea of staying behind while his master went ahead.
"I can't let anything happen to this place. You understand, don't you?"
"..."
"I understand. I promise to protect this place and await your return."
"I won't be gone long. By the time you realize it, I'll be back already."
Bai Fanxian laughed softly. But worry had not left Huang Zihuan's face, and she let out a quiet sigh. In truth, somewhere deep down, she did not entirely want to go either.
But she had to.
If this place mattered to her in the present, then the Goddess Alchemy Palace, long since vanished, was the most important place from her past.
Both the people and those memories were irreplaceable.
"..."
"...You must come back."
Bai Fanxian went still at that.
It was not only she who had grown attached to this place and the people in it, in such a short time.
"Ah... I promise."