Yunchang trudged back to camp in a daze, barely aware of his surroundings. By now, he was used to his comrades gathering to feast and drink after every victory, showering him with praise that soared to the heavens. But tonight, none of that interested him. His body sat at the table, raising cup after cup, but his mind was somewhere far off.

"Hey, Yunchang, you okay? That’s your tenth bottle of wine already."

“Yeah, we won today, but you look like you’re in a funk. Something wrong?”

“Wrong? What’s wrong is that our Commander-in-chief is no better than a whor...”

“Shh, don’t even say it. If she hears you, you’re done for.”

Yunchang shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m done with her fake smiles, always playing the good cop while she’s scheming like a fox behind our backs. Any guy who falls for her act is doomed.”

“What’d she even do to you today to get you this fired up?”

“Nothing really, just—ugh, forget it.”

Juan Hong leaned in, waving him closer.

“You can trash-talk her all you want, but you know, as long as you keep trying to impress her, you’re just fooling yourself, buddy.”

Even in his tipsy state, Yunchang’s pride flared at the words. He shot up, roaring, “Me? Trying to impress her? I’d sooner bite my own tongue and drop dead than spend another day wrapped up in her web! As if she has anything worth lowering myself for! Tell me one thing!”

“Oh, nothing at all—except for that tall and curvy figure, that gorgeous face, that sharp mind, that authority...” Hong smirked. “Nothing worth looking at... except for that certain someone who climbed a tree and took a sneak peek at her in the bath, catching such a huge stiffy he made himself and all of his friends fall out of the branches. You know anyone like that?”

The group burst out laughing, taunting Yunchang as he glared.

“Good one, Hong, you nailed it! Just admit it, Yunchang; you’re obsessed. Trying to win her over while talking behind her back? Not exactly a great plan, bro.”

Yunchang clenched his fists, stormed out of the party, and stomped back to his quarters while the others laughed on. He tried to throw himself into bed and sleep it off, but sleep just wouldn’t come easily for him.

"Han Yin ordered Lei Wen to cut down 3000 trees today. Shit is physically impossible. Even with hundreds of people, it would take days. How can one girl do it alone? She’s lost her mind. The Northern Plains are right at the edge of demon territory, a wasteland for over a hundred years. And the demons there are savage, leagues above the pests in the Dead Forest. Han Yin knew the danger and still sent her sister out there. How does she sleep at night? If anything happens to Lei Wen… damn it, this is all my fault!”

Yunchang grabbed his Steel Blade and leaped out the window. He ran, jumped, and even used his newly learned light-foot martial arts skills to reach the border as quickly as possible. Every ounce of training over the past month had led up to this moment.

The moon shone high in a sky full of stars, casting a pale glow over the endless hills and dense forest that stretched across the horizon. The Northern Plains were vast and desolate, shrouded in an eerie silence broken only by the occasional rustling of leaves.

Finally reaching the border, Yunchang was struck by the sheer vastness of the landscape. His growing anxiety was swallowed by the majesty of the land, but it couldn’t shake the worry gnawing at him. Then, almost as if guided by fate, he spotted a clearing in the dense forest ahead. The ground was unnaturally smooth, as if untouched by trees for centuries. Something drew him toward it, as though an unseen force knew exactly where he needed to be.

Moving quickly but silently, Yunchang slipped through the shadows, his senses heightened by the ominous atmosphere. As he neared the clearing, the faint but unmistakable sound of trees falling filled the air.

“Something’s happening…”

Taking cover in the dense foliage of a large oak, Yunchang observed the strange scene. From this distance, he could see the massive stumps left by fallen trees, the cuts clean and precise. The trunks were sliced right to the ground, as if by an impossibly sharp blade, blending the stumps into the earth below. Lei Wen, how could she do all this?

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As he watched, the sound of trees crashing drew closer, heading in his direction with alarming speed.

“What the…?”

With no time to think, Yunchang leapt down into a nearby bush. Moments later, the large oak he’d been hiding in, along with several trees around it, crashed to the ground. Miraculously, both him and the bush remained unscathed.

As Yunchang steadied himself, a familiar figure emerged among the fallen trees—Lei Wen, her white hair streaked with dirt and dust but her expression unbothered. She looked weary but showed no signs of exhaustion, her long-handled metal scythe in hand as she surveyed her day’s work.

"She's the Lethal Tempest for real. Her body may be smaller than Han Yin's, but her strength is incredible. Being able to wield that comically large scythe compares with her body, she can cut through wood and stone like butter”.

Her movements were a blur, fast enough to leave afterimages. Even Yunchang himself struggled to keep track of her until she stopped.

Lei Wen finished her task and sat down, wiping the dirt from her eyes. She accidentally slipped and fell face-first in the mud. She muttered in frustration, brushing herself off..

"Great, my tank-top got all muddy. Oh well, no one's around. I might as well take it off."

Yunchang's face turned bright red. "If she finds out I saw her like this, I'm doomed. I should leave."

Suddenly, a bunch of towering, green-skinned demons with large pointy ears and crooked noses, bursted from the trees. Their monstrous forms, rippling with muscle, each fiber was twitching hard, including their throbbing members. Seeing the sight of Lei Wen, saliva drooled from their monstrous jaws, touching the ground below them, as they were all ready for a feast.

"A girl! So beautiful! Must breed!!"

Lei Wen smiled. "Yikes, even I don’t swing that way."

The demons lunged forward, closing in on Lei Wen from every direction. But before they could reach her, she vanished, leaving behind only the whisper of a breeze. When they turned, Lei Wen was already standing at a distance, her figure slowly fading. It wasn’t until their vision blurred that they realized their heads had already been severed, their bodies collapsing as blood erupted, painting the forest in deep crimson.

With a cold gaze, Lei Wen watched as the demons stumbled about like headless beasts, each blindly groping until they reattached their severed heads. Their frustration grew, eyes filled with a renewed fury.

"Right... silly me," Lei Wen muttered, half amused. "For mid-level demons like these oversized goblins, you have to destroy the brain."

Shifting her stance, she widened her footing, readying herself for a final strike. Before the goblins could close in again, she swept through them in a single, deadly cut. The air itself seemed to stayed still at that moment. When the dust settled, she counted four skulls impaled on the edge of her scythe, with a few more rolling across the forest floor.

Lei Wen sighed, looking down at her blood-soaked yoga-pants.

“Ugh, I’ll never get these clean. Guess I’ll just take everything off—no one else is around anyway. Unless...”

Yunchang’s heart skipped a beat. “Could she have sensed me? No way—I’ve been completely silent. There’s no way she knows I’m here.”

“Come out if you’re here. I won’t hurt you,” she called, her voice echoing through the trees.

Reluctantly, Yunchang emerged from his hiding spot. He kept his eyes averted, hand over his face.

“Oh, so you prefer spying, is that it? Now that I’m here in the open, you’re turning away?”

“It’s not what you think!” he stammered.

“Didn’t you say that last time?”

“I... I was worried about you! There, I said it! If something happened to you, I’d never sleep soundly again.”

Lei Wen chuckled softly. “Is that so?”

“I don’t lie twice in a row.”

“A smooth talker like you? Guess I’ll believe you this once.”

“Fine, but can you please put your top back on? It’s a bit hard to hold a conversation when I can’t even look at you.”

She smiled. “Oh, really? Aren’t men supposed to be into this sort of thing? Or is it because I’m not as, well...”

Yunchang groaned inwardly. “I didn’t mean that! Sure, maybe your things are a bit, uh, modest compared to Han Yin, but, uh... still pretty decent?”

“There’s no need to lie, different people have different preferences after all. Some people like juicy watermelons, while others think that apples like mine suit them best. Hell, from my experience, a lot of people even prefer straight up cutting boards.”

“Cutting WHAT?! Ok, now you’re just being weird.”

She laughed. “Of all people, you’re the last one to call someone else ‘weird.’”

“If you’re not weird, then who is? I’ve never met any girl like you. Standing around topless without a care in the world… and talking about sensitive topics like that so casually. Don’t you have any shame?”

“Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it over time. Besides, I prefer girls more anyway, so it’s not really on my mind.”

“Like I care what you prefer! Are you putting on clothes or not? Otherwise, I’m going to gouge my eyes out right now.”

“Alright, alright. No need to get all riled up,” she said with a grin, finally slipping her clothes back on.

“Finally.”