Five figures stood atop a cliff, looking down over the enemy encampment packed tight like a swarm.
"The Wingweavers' scouts have been cleared out." Jing Yuan sheathed his blood-streaked horse-chopper. "But they don't seem inclined to attack first."
Jingliu's snow-white hair whipped in the wind. "When things are this abnormal, there's a demon in the details."
"To the northeast, the Borisin wolf cavalry is massing," Yingxing said, checking the mechanism of his heavy repeating ballista. "Triple our estimates. And the Centaur shamans are conducting some kind of ritual… I can't tell what they're waiting for."
A slow chill spread through Dan Feng's chest as he watched the eerily still forces of the Abundance. "I have a bad feeling."
"Keep observing," Baiheng began. "If they maintain this posture, even with Abundance blessings—"
The ground shuddered.
An earthquake?
No.
Not that.
On the far horizon, countless Wingweavers surged into the sky, blackening the sun. From another direction, Borisin and Huigu cavalry thundered forward in a united charge, the earth trembling under their hooves.
The Abundance host launched an all-out offensive.
And on the Xianzhou Luofu—
"This place isn't safe either!" Huo Linfei crouched in the shadow of a collapsed pavilion, eyes locked on the wolf-headed monsters rampaging through the streets. "These things just marched onto the ship like they own it—did nobody outside see them?!"
His jaw clenched.
"Was this a feint? Lure the tiger from the mountain?"
In the distance, Hulei, Borisin war-chief, towered over the chaos—an enormous wolf-bodied brute. Each swing of his battle axe toppled buildings. Each step left Cloud Knights sprawled in blood.
"System!" Huo Linfei roared in his mind. "When do I get my body back?!"
[Ding!]
[Host current physical status]
[Extranormal Energy stability: 76%]
[Body function: Fully restored]
[Armor compatibility: 100%]
"…What does that even mean?"
[Translation: Host has long been capable of restoring normal body form and using Qilin Armor.]
[Because Extranormal Energy was locked during Eternal Cycle]
[Using Qilin Armor requires system-assisted activation]
[Addendum: You appeared to greatly enjoy being used as March 7th's hugging pillow, so the system did not provide redundant reminders.]
Huo Linfei nearly choked on his own rage. "You—!"
[What? You're looking for my mother?]
[This system will not provide you an opportunity to snitch. Give up.]
[Friendly reminder: Super Beast Armament remains restricted. Qilin Armor is available at any time.]
[Additionally, your profanity will be auto-censored.]
"...…"
A child's sobbing cut through the destruction.
A Borisin soldier was tearing open a civilian home with clawed hands. Inside, several Xianzhou children huddled, shaking—small, terrified, trapped.
Huo Linfei's eyes went cold.
"Fine," he muttered. "We'll settle accounts later. Right now…"
[Extranormal Energy lock: Released]
He inhaled slowly.
The long-stagnant power inside him answered like a volcano waking up.
"Armament!"
咔嚓!
Bones cracked as his frame stretched. The childlike outline fell away, rebuilt in seconds into a tall, lean adult form.
Flame spilled across his skin—then hardened into red armor plating. The Qilin Armament snapped into place with a heat-haze shimmer, sealing him in a sleek, burning shell.
"…Been a while." He flexed his fingers, savoring the weight of real strength returning.
BOOM—!
The Borisin threatening the children were blasted backward in an instant.
Hulei whipped around, nostrils flaring. "Who?!"
His answer was a pillar of fire.
"Fire-Cloud Art: Heavenfall!"
The force mechanics he'd hammered into his body through endless heavy-blade drills clicked into a different shape—cleaner, deadlier. Huo Linfei dropped like a meteor into the Borisin formation, the impact shockwave flinging dozens of wolf-heads skyward.
He landed on one knee, rose slowly, and his blue visor locked onto Hulei.
"Wolf pup," he said, voice flat with contempt. "You want to advance—go through me first."
Elsewhere—
The Sinwyrm's roar shattered rooftops.
The monster that Bailu had become had swollen to the height of a five-story building, rotted flesh and Ambrosial Arbor branches twisted into one writhing mass. Every tail-swipe obliterated half a street.
"March—back!" Stelle shouted.
Her Flaming Lance erupted with blinding gold; the Preservation-seal against her chest radiated heat like a forge.
She took the Sinwyrm's claw strike head-on, boots carving two trenches into the ground as she held the line.
March 7th dropped to one knee, gasping. Her ice bow was spiderwebbed with cracks. "This thing… it doesn't go down…"
Black Swan's silhouette flickered in the distance, memory-threads binding several ambushing monkeys in mid-air. "I'm tracking the Primitive Doctor's hiding place. Hold out!"
The Sinwyrm suddenly opened its maw. Blue-black energy condensed in its throat—
"Watch out!" March forced an ice shield up with trembling arms.
Stelle ran forward anyway.
She remembered Huo Linfei against the Doomsday Beast. Against impossible engines and impossible odds. She remembered that back—always there, always in front.
"I don't have his strength…" she whispered.
The lance tip met the beam.
At the moment of contact, the Preservation seal melted—liquid light flowing into the lance's shaft like molten gold into a mold.
"But I still have… something I must protect!"
Her eyes sharpened into a focus so intense it hurt.
"HAA—!"
The Flaming Lance exploded with a brilliance it had never shown before—splitting the Sinwyrm's breath down the center. The backlash detonated across the monster's face, staggering it hard.
Stelle rolled, landed, and stared at her weapon in shock.
The lance had turned pure gold. Hammered patterns—like the marks of Qlipoth's strikes—surfaced along the metal.
The will of Preservation… answered me?
The Sinwyrm shrieked, but its wounds were immediately stuffed with fresh Arbor sprouts—
healing, regenerating, replacing.
In the past, Huo Linfei and Hulei were locked in brutal combat.
Borisin claws that could shred steel couldn't even scratch the Qilin armor.
"Annoying insect!" Hulei tore apart a fire wall with one furious sweep. "You should all be nothing but nourishment for us!"
"Feed your damn self!" Huo Linfei spun into a whip-kick—flames detonating across Hulei's ribs.
His mouth kept firing trash talk, but his mind stayed razor-busy.
Hulei wasn't truly pressuring him.
Yet that gnawing sense of dread refused to loosen its grip.
In the present, Stelle fought a war of attrition against the Sinwyrm.
Every Arbor branch she severed was replaced by three more erupting from within Bailu's body.
"Bailu!" March cried, forcing her voice through shaking breath. "Wake up! Please!"
For a fraction of a second, light flickered in the Sinwyrm's murky eye—
then drowned again in chaos.
Hulei seized an opening.
While Huo Linfei was blocking the heavy axe, the war-chief hurled his other weapon like a battering ram, accelerating into a full-force slap—
BOOM—!
Huo Linfei was sent flying into a nearby building, stone exploding outward.
"Cough—cough…" Dust clogged his lungs. The hit didn't hurt much.
But the humiliation was catastrophic.
At the same time, Stelle was struck by the Sinwyrm's tail and blasted through three layered halls. She wiped blood from her lip, drove the lance into the ground, and hauled herself upright.
"Again!"
On two different battlefields—
in two different eras—
two voices overlapped.
"Again!" x2
Huo Linfei crossed his hands, fire gathering in his right palm.
"Fire-Cloud Art—!"
Stelle yanked the golden lance free and lifted it high as Preservation-light wrapped around her like armor.
"Flaming Lance—Charge—!"
Join here to read ahead.
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter20)
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