The ground kept shaking. Feng Na clutched her battered body and couldn’t help but laugh wildly:
“You lost, Tsukiyuki Rio. Regret is too late. The moment you insisted on competing with me for Brother Sijin, your death was already sealed. Now, we’ll go to hell together. If I can’t have him, neither will you! Hahahahaha!”
Then there would be earth-shattering shaking, and boiling, bubbling magma would completely swallow them both. The geological fault zone was an area prone to natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. In most people’s eyes, it was a breeding ground for misfortune and disaster.
But for Feng Na, this was a place of happiness, the place where the phoenix would be reborn from ashes.
“Weren’t you so proud? Didn’t you treat me like a clown? You smug woman, you’re scared now, aren’t you? Shivering, face pale?” Feng Na brandished her twin blades, swinging them toward Tsukiyuki Rio as if inviting her to a dance, venting her resentment.
The woman who slapped Sister Xiaohe with money must pay for her actions. Tsukiyuki Rio once again blocked the attack with her tachi. The black soil beneath her wooden clogs had already begun to churn violently; a radius of several dozen kilometers would be incinerated by the surging magma.
“You’re truly a madwoman…” Tsukiyuki Rio slashed Feng Na’s pretty face with her sword, leaving a large, deep gash on her cheek.
“Let me tell you, Tsukiyuki Rio. The moment I lured you to Mount Asama, I had no intention of surviving.”
Even at the final moment, Feng Na still didn’t reveal that her memories would transfer to Feng Xiaona.
She understood the principle that villains die from talking too much. Suddenly, a massive fissure appeared in the earth. In the pitch-black night, the magma glowed crimson. The raging karmic fire was eager to consume, and thick smoke was obscured by fiery clouds.
Finally, the magma erupted completely. Scorching gases billowed out, attempting to burn everything. Countless giant fissures cracked open, and the mountain was completely set ablaze.
Feng Na thought this was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen in her life.
“I told you, I won.”
She saw that Tsukiyuki Rio was pale and looked terrible, but didn’t show any sign of fear. Just like herself, even facing imminent death, she could maintain absolute calm. Feng Na felt a slight regret that she hadn’t made Tsukiyuki Rio afraid.
It no longer mattered.
Her exquisitely sculpted body would be reduced to ashes in the karmic fire. No matter how beautiful a person is, after death, they are merely rotting flesh and bones. Being able to destroy such a beautiful object was enough for this lifetime.
Tsukiyuki Rio began to run. The wooden clogs on her feet made crisp sounds. The magma behind her chased at an even faster speed.
“Who is the clown now? Who is the prey? So what if you can manipulate the Law Enforcement Department of the Time Management Bureau? So what if you collude with that lackey from the Hououin Family? Anyone who opposes me, Feng Xiaona, has only one outcome. Ridiculous woman, weren’t you very proud? Tell me, why are you running away? Everyone dies. Why, at this critical moment, don’t you dare face death and choose to run? What about your dignity and face? Your elegance is nothing but a counterfeit.”
Tsukiyuki Rio didn’t have time to look back. Wearing a black kimono and wooden clogs, she wasn’t slow, but unfortunately, the magma, like a tidal wave, completely swallowed her.
She was finally dead.
Feng Na also opened her arms, facing death with composure as she looked at the moonlight.
“Magma, swallow me as well. My hands are stained with Brother Sijin’s blood; I have no right to live as a human anymore.”
Her tattered red qipao and her legs, cut all over by the tachi, made Feng Na look utterly disheveled. Even if she really survived, she could never face Brother Sijin with this body again. Feng Na’s love of beauty wasn’t narcissism; she wanted to maintain her most perfect state before the person she liked most.
“Goodbye, my past.”
The magma completely covered her.
This time, she could finally close her eyes.
Just as she thought this, nothing happened. Her senses still felt very hot, but there was none of the imagined burning pain. Her body wasn’t ignited by the magma. She opened her eyes and found herself within the crimson magma. She could breathe freely and even walk around casually.
The so-called magma was fake. From the very start, there had never been any magma. Tsukiyuki Rio, who had just been swallowed by the magma, was now looking at Feng Na with a disdainful expression, a mischievously amused smile curling her cherry-blossom pink lips.
“You…”
Feng Na looked at everything before her in disbelief, her trembling finger pointing at Tsukiyuki Rio in her plain black kimono.
“This is a holographic projection. That magma just now was something I specially prepared for you.” Tsukiyuki Rio walked slowly and deliberately up to Feng Na. “Was it fun?”
The nightmare she thought had finally ended was still continuing.
Tsukiyuki Rio was perfectly alive and well.
“Why did you run away just now?”
“Icarus yearned for freedom, but he flew too high, and the wax on his wings melted under the sun. Did it feel good to plummet from the sky?”
Feng Na ground her silver teeth and glared angrily at Tsukiyuki Rio. To make Feng Na slide from the highest point of emotion down to the lowest was Tsukiyuki Rio’s malicious aim.
“I clearly prepared the volcano induction device…”
“Have you forgotten something? You’re not the only one who has access to future gadgets. You chose hibernation,” Tsukiyuki Rio paused, “But I personally experienced World War III.”
The twin blades slashed toward Tsukiyuki Rio’s neck, like a dying, desperate gamble.
“Your swordsmanship has become disorderly.”
Tsukiyuki Rio dodged to the side, then pierced Feng Na’s arm with her tachi. Blood gushed out.
It was the same again.
Tsukiyuki Rio deliberately avoided fatal wounds. If a plaything died too easily, one couldn’t inflict long, painful torment. Next, she would destroy her spirit by slow degrees, like cutting flesh with a dull knife, making this woman who didn’t know the meaning of fear fully understand the consequences of opposing her.
Before eight o’clock, she would throw Feng Na’s battered body into the hospital, have the world’s top doctors heal her, then torture her, heal her again, and torture her again.
There are so many ways to play in the world. Every civilization deserves respect; the rulers of feudal dynasties were always able to invent unique and ingenious tortures.
“How honored you are, Feng Na. This body of yours can taste the most pleasure in the world. The sin of stealing my Gao-kun shall be repaid with eternal suffering.”
One of Feng Na’s blades had been knocked away. Her fierce eyes, like those of a vicious wolf, were about to close; her consciousness was on the verge of collapse.
“I won’t let you succeed, Tsukiyuki Rio. I will be reborn from the ashes. My love with Brother Sijin is only the prologue.”
With that, she swung the other blade toward her own neck; she was going to commit suicide.
—Bang!
A bullet hit Feng Na’s body.
It was the abdomen.
Behind her was a sniper who had been lying in ambush for a long time.
The bullet had been fired from the gun of the Mumbai maid, Emilia. This rifle had very little power, and the bullets inside were not primarily designed to kill; they were tranquilizer darts.
The shot struck Feng Na, and she collapsed unconscious.
