The air smelled like scorched ozone and the particular crispness of heartbreak frozen mid-shatter.
Luo Feng stared at his hands—one wreathed in Phoenix Fire VE, the other crackling with Frostbite VE—and came to the obvious conclusion:
"This is absolutely going to kill me."
[System Alert: Experimental Fusion Detected]
[Warning: Combining Void Energies May Cause:
Spontaneous Combustion
Existential Dissonance
Harem Members Switching Bodies]
[Proceed? Y/N]
The Death Queen leaned against a melted pillar. "Darling, if you die, I'm keeping your skeleton."
Li Qing said nothing. Her glacial glare said everything: "Idiot."
The Nine-Tails Goddess licked her lips. "Do it. I want to watch."
Activation Sequence:
Fire VE unspooled like a solar flare, painting the ruins in wildfire gold.
Frost VE answered in jagged cerulean, fractals blooming across his skin.
The energies collided at his sternum—
—and screamed.
The explosion came in three waves:
Heat that flash-vaporized an entire courtyard.
Cold that froze the steam into razor-shard sculptures.
The Unstable Eclipse Core—a swirling abyss of contradiction made manifest, hungering for more.
Li Qing moved first.
Her body intercepted the backlash, frost veins flaring as she contained the blast radius in a cocoon of absolute zero.
The impact shattered her armor.
Revealed the scar over her heart—the one shaped like Luo Feng's teeth from Chapter 19.
Aftermath:
The crater steamed with half-frozen flames.
Luo Feng gasped, his Eclipse Core still sputtering like a dying star.
Li Qing stood over him, barefoot in the ashes, her breath coming in smoke-tinged puffs.
"You," she said, "are the worst disciple I've ever had."
Her hand touched his chest—
—and the Eclipse Core stabilized, cycling Fire to Frost and back again in perfect, lethal harmony.
[System Notification: ECLIPSE FORM (PRIMITIVE) UNLOCKED!]
[Current Stability: 3.7%]
[Compatibility Boost Detected: "Li Qing's Unspoken Devotion" +25% Control]
The Death Queen fake-swooned. "How romantic. Should I poison someone to celebrate?"
The Nine-Tails Goddess stole a lingering glance at their joined hands before vanishing in a swirl of embers.
Luo Feng's fingers curled around Li Qing's.
"So," he wheezed, "does this mean we're dating?"
Li Qing froze his pants to the ground and walked away.
[New Mission Available: "APOLOGIZE WITH TEA (OR DIE TRYING)"]
The plush demons started taking bets.
END OF CHAPTER 54