"This… is this really okay?"
The girl's voice trembled with nerves.
"It's normal to be nervous on your first try,"
the boy answered with a calm, coaxing tone.
Before she could respond, something soft was shoved into her mouth.
"—mmph?!"
Snow Kui had stuffed a steamed bun between Yingda's lips.
He then picked up another white bun from the offering table and took a large bite.
Sweet. Pork filling. Not bad.
If these were ancestral offerings, he would never dare touch them.
But the name engraved on this offering table was not an ancestor's.
It was Morax.
That damned old dragon.
Snow Kui chewed leisurely.
"He won't come down to eat these anyway. Leaving food to go cold is a waste."
Not far away, two immortals—one elderly, one young—froze mid-step as they witnessed the scene.
The young one clenched his fists.
"Master! Those two—those two are eating the Archon's offerings!"
The elder placed a hand on his disciple's shoulder and whispered sharply:
"Do not act rashly. Look carefully at who they are."
The young immortal squinted.
He recognized the red-haired girl first.
"That's… Yingda? One of the Four Yakshas?"
"And the white-haired one," the elder continued, voice low,
"is the little yaksha who passed the Emperor's personal trial. Snow Kui."
The young immortal's face paled.
Rumors whispered among the immortals resurfaced:
That the Emperor himself once created a life.
That life… was Snow Kui.
If a child eats his own father's offerings…
is it theft?
The elder sighed in silence, resigned.
"Even if the boy gets his backside beaten…
the one doing the beating cannot be us."
Yet the air shifted abruptly.
A beam of gold light cut through the night.
An imposing figure descended like a blade into the earth—
cloak edged in black and gold, long hair tied back, eyes closed beneath a black-gold yaksha mask.
Emnu.
One of the Four Yakshas.
Snow Kui froze mid-bite.
Yingda's hands trembled holding the bun.
Snow Kui blinked.
"Oh. Emnu. Do you want some too?"
Yingda nearly choked.
"S-Snow Kui… run."
Emnu's aura exploded—rock elements roared like a storm.
"You two—"
his voice was low and trembling with fury,
"how dare you… eat offerings meant for the Emperor."
Yingda whispered frantically:
"He admires the Emperor more than anyone. Don't provoke him. He literally patterned his entire image after the Emperor—"
"Enough."
Emnu's voice cut through her words like a blade.
Yellow-gold sigils erupted beneath his feet, stone pillars thrusting upward.
"Disrespect toward the Emperor—
even if the Heavenly Principles forgive it—
I will not."
Snow Kui grabbed Yingda's hand the moment Emnu lunged.
"You COME AT ME because of food?!" Snow Kui yelped while running.
"What do we do—what do we do!" Yingda was nearly dragged off her feet.
Snow Kui hissed back:
"You expect me to fight him NOW? Over offerings?!"
"If you don't try, we're both dead!"
Behind them, Emnu's cold voice echoed:
"——You spoke the unspoken."
The ground split.
A field of stone spears rose.
Emnu's yaksha mask shone with fierce brilliance.
Snow Kui's expression stiffened.
So this is what they meant…
'Yaksha masks manifest naturally, like breathing.'
Not skill.
Not technique.
Pure, overwhelming instinct.
He tightened his grip on Yingda's wrist.
"Well—since he's serious…"
Snow Kui inhaled.
Frost burst beneath his feet—
and the world blurred into streaks of blue light.
"—THEN SO AM I!"
Advance Chapters available on P@treon
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