“Who is that tall girl with the fan?”

“The Heavenly Butterfly who was said to have reversed yang into yin.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“He used to be a guy but now he’s a girl somehow.”

“Doesn’t that go against the heavens? Shouldn’t they have been struck by lightning or something?”

“Why would the heavens care if some guy wanted to become a girl?”

“Because it directly goes against the heaven’s choice for them at birth! If the heavens decided you were to be a boy that’s it! You don’t get to change that. That’s like saying the all-mighty, all-encompassing, all-powerful heavens were wrong!”

“Well, she clearly has. So shut up and just enjoy the fight.”

“I don’t care what kind of angel that thing is, they won’t stand a chance against Xiao Hong!”

“She’s one of the top ten beauties at the sect! Not to mention from the famous Hong Family known for their impressive ice martial arts!”

“At the 9th stage of the Qi Consolidation Realm already when it hasn’t even been a year since she’s joined the sect! She’s a prodigy among prodigies!”

“Not to mention she’s way cuter than that giant freak. She’s a girl through and through.”

  Wan Qing scoffed as she heard the chatter of the crowd. She flicked her hair back as she looked at this natural beautiful prodigy. Wan smacked her hand-sized fan against the palm of her hand as she decided to take this a bit more seriously than she planned to. Her fan dispersed into several eye-catching butterflies that soon reformed into the shape of a giant fan. This fight was no longer just to make it to the next round but something more personal.

  Now that Hu Tao was gone, someone had to step up as the strongest angel. Unlike Hu Tao, she wanted to be seen as dependable, reliable, and someone to inspire trust and hope within people. A big sister that everyone could rely on. Graceful, beautiful, and kind to her friends.

  A small number of butterflies flew from out of Wan’s robes. As the elder watching over the match gave them the signal to start, hundreds of butterflies flew out of Wan’s robes. They flew all over the stage and just hovered. No one knew if they were dangerous or not but Wan didn’t give them the chance to think about it with the help of Haoran.

“Flame Spell!” Haoran tossed a harming talisman toward the enemy team.

“Don’t lose too quickly.” Wan gently smile as she waved her fan toward the slip of paper burning into purple ash and transforming in a stream of flames.

  At the same time, the other team wasn’t stationary while this was happening. They unleashed their own combined attack when the elder started the match. An instant blizzard fiercely rushed toward the opposite side of the ring, eager to meet the devastating burning wind coming toward it. The two dual but opposite elements fought each other, eager to prove their superiority over the other.

  Their clash forced the elder watching over the match to provide a qi barrier to protect those watching from being injured by the impact of extreme temperatures. Haoran and Wang hid behind Wan Qing without shame. Xiao Hong’s teammates hid behind a barrier formed by a formation.

  Wan Qing was impressed to see that she had this much power. Guess she wasn’t called a prodigy for no reason. Several of her butterflies were frozen to death because of that icy wind and crashed to the ground. This wasn’t a problem necessarily, they bred fast with the right ingredients. She just had to order them to fly higher this time.

  A sea of butterflies escaped from Wan’s body and just like before surrounded the arena. However, this time flying far higher than before. Their clash of elements canceled each other out as they locked eyes. It seems like they were thinking the same thing because they both took off toward each other at the same time.

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“What about the plan!?” Haoran yelled. “Weren’t we supposed to fight from a distance!?”

“Since the plan’s gone to crap, come help me make these trapping arrays. Her spirit beast will protect us in the meantime.” Wang told him.

“Not like I can get in between the middle of that...” Haoran wanted to protest but really couldn’t.

  Xiao Hong glided on the air as ice formed underneath her feet and increased her speed. Two pairs of butterfly wings made of qi sprouted from Wan Qing’s back, allowing her to fly straight to Xiao Hong. It didn’t take long for the two to collide into one another. Xiao Hong formed an ice blade to slice right through Wan Qing and Wan Qing closed up her fan while twisting to strike Xiao Hong with it. An ear-shaking clash reverted throughout the surroundings. Neither girl lost to the other in terms of strength.

  The two broke off from their clash before dashing toward each other once more. Consecutive clashes one after the other, showing off both the gracefulness of the girls and their undeniable talent in combat. In terms of combat ability, it looked like they were completely equal just like their cultivation stages! It wasn’t until Xiao Hong chose to step things up by using a portion of her Ice Giant bloodline to take the advantage in the fight. Xiao Hong’s pure white hair gained a tinge of blue at the tips as an aura of icy mist began to release from her body.

“Not bad.” Wan Qing complimented. “Looks like your finally ready to take this fight seriously?” She smiled.

“Lookout.” Xiao Hong warned.

  As soon as she gave the warning, a beam of frost qi fired from her palm. Wan Qing’s eyes widened in shock as she quickly flew up into the air. If it wasn’t for the warning, Wan Qing would’ve been frozen solid! Xiao Hong didn’t give her a second to rest though. Immediately after firing that attack, she formed dangerous icicles and threw them toward the airborne Wan.

  Wan Qing raced through the air to avoid the seemingly endless number of icicles coming after her. During her dodging, it was when a curious thought entered her head. Was it possible that Hong wasn’t able to use multiple techniques at once? If during this icicle attack, she couldn’t use that ice gliding technique or the beam attack from before?

‘There’s only one way to find out.’ Wan Qing grinned as she opened up her fan and began to twirl in a spiral while dodging the ice attacks.

  A visible horizontal mini-cyclone formed around her. Deflecting the icicles or outright tearing them to pieces before they could reach her. As more and more wind was generated from her spinning, eventually there was no reason to avoid the ice spears anymore. Wan slowly turned with her fan fully opened and then swung it in Hong’s direction.

  Hong stopped shooting icicles at the sight of this and fired that ice beam from before. The beam quickly got to work at freezing the tornado and it was at that point, Wan Qing smiled. As the tornado fell to the ground and broke into pieces, Wan Qing suddenly appeared behind Xiao Hong. Her fan was now hand-sized as it came crashing down on Xiao Hong’s skull.

Clang!

  Wan Qing’s fan stopped mere centimeters from the ice girl’s head. In that same instance, a fearsome storm of ice and snow exploded from her body. Instantly freezing Wan Qing without giving her a chance to resist. The entire stage was clouded white. It was nearly impossible for anyone to see what happened because of the blizzard raging.

“You were strong...” Xiao Hong complimented as Wan Qing’s ice statue fell to the ground.

  Her expression trapped in a gloating demeanor. A timeless beauty that was unaware of the fate that befell her. Xiao Hong focused her attention on the two remaining fighters and the spirit beast seemingly uncaring about what happened to its master. Now that she closely looked, neither did the two spellmasters... Something isn’t right...

  Xiao Hong turned to look at the frozen girl but she was still there frozen. Nothing happened to her teammates. She should be able to win this with their help now. But what was this nagging feeling, poking at her head?

  It happened without warning or feeling. Xiao Hong didn’t suddenly feel an intense spike of pain. She didn’t hear someone say a one-liner before being sneak attacked. There wasn’t a smell, sound, feeling, or anything. Everything just suddenly went black and then she knew no more.

  Everyone in the audience saw what happened but still couldn’t understand why Xiao Hong fell. In their eyes, they saw it very clearly how Wan Qing never moved after firing her hurricane attack but Xiao Hong for some reason froze everything around her. Xiao Hong looked like she was looking at something on the ground but no one knew what was going on inside her head. Then, Wan Qing appeared over Xiao Hong’s head and struck her down with her giant fan.

“Alright, let’s win this now.” Wan Qing smiled as she appeared in front of Haoran and Wang.

“You don’t need to tell me twice...” Haoran was still in disbelief.

  He provided Wan with all the harming spells she needed to wrap this up. It only took a single Lightning Spell empowered by Wan’s wind to take out the other two. The elder called the match in Wan’s team favor and Wan soon returned back to her angels, victorious. Only some of the angels truly understood how she won in the first place.

“Shhh.” Wan Qing pressed her finger to her lips at Ying. “Let’s keep it a secret until I win, okay sweetie?” Ying nodded with some reluctance but she understood why it was necessary.

“Good work.” Jing complimented.

“Thank you.” Wan smiled, her heart feeling as proud and joyous as ever.