Chapter 16: The Saint’s Advent

Full of joy, Mianbao returned to the Lange Village she had longed for day and night, but unexpectedly, what awaited her was a scene like a Shura’s hell.

“What…”

“Happened…”

“Caw, caw, caw—” The sky, covered by vast clouds, cast down only a few faint rays of sunlight.
Beneath the sunlight was the desolate death knell of the bird of demise.

The once joyous, harmonious, and peaceful Lange Village was now a village of the dead, with not a trace of life to be spoken of.

Hu Qingyu took a step forward.
“Miss Mianbao… what… what happened here?”

Mianbao shook her head vigorously, muttering in a voice that trembled unconsciously, “I don’t know… I don’t know…”

“Dad!” Mianbao’s body, trembling from immense fear, managed to stand up from the ground with all her might.
She started running towards the depths of the village.

“Miss Mianbao!” Hu Qingyu called out anxiously and ran after her.
When Hu Qingyu caught up and found Mianbao, she had once again knelt down in a house, her empty, unfocused eyes staring straight at a dead couple on the floor.

‘Those must be Mianbao’s parents.’

“The fatal wound is a sword wound…” Hu Qingyu stroked his chin in thought.
‘It shouldn’t be a magical beast invasion… could it be bandits raiding the village?’

As he was deep in thought, Hu Qingyu’s eyes were drawn to the standing Mianbao.

“I remember—”

“What?” Hu Qingyu frowned, feeling an unnatural chill around him.

“These people, I killed them.”

A sound like a muffled thunderclap suddenly came from the sky.
Many of the girls in the Kunta Song and Dance Troupe, who were resting and waiting for Mianbao, looked up at the sky for a moment.

“Eh? Is it going to be a thunderstorm?” Xixi hung her entire petite body on the window frame, leaning half her body out to look at the sky like the other girls.

Although there were more clouds, they weren’t the dark, oppressive kind that signaled a thunderstorm.
In professional weather terms, today’s weather was cloudy.

“【Light Chaser】has reached the airspace above the target. Mission received, execution beginning.”

Before Xixi could pull her head back in, the cumulus clouds in the sky were pierced from above by a giant “egg.”

Xixi’s eyes widened.
The “egg,” bathed in a circle of sunlight, descended like a heavenly god.

“What… is that?”

The last carriage of the magi-mobile suddenly exploded at this moment, and a pure black figure shot into the sky.
Wendi’s eyes, which had always seemed half-asleep, were now wide open in utter shock.

“As expected! 【The Holy Moon Princess】 is not dead! ‘Lan’ernaduo’ is still operational!”

“【The Saint】 has descended once again!”

“Miss Mianbao, what… did you say?” Hu Qingyu smiled stiffly.
Hu Qingyu felt he must have misheard.
How could someone like Mianbao kill people?

“I said,” Mianbao covered half of her pale, pretty face with her open hand, clear tears constantly streaming from her slightly reddened eyes, “I killed all these people!”

“I killed them… yes… because they deserved to die…” Mianbao’s sobs gradually stopped, and her tone became gloomy.

“Talking about monsters, about devils…”

“This bunch of ants, they simply don’t understand…”

“Hey, Hu Qingyu, do you know? Just because I was different from them, they said I brought them bad luck, so they killed my parents and tied me to a cross for judgment?”

“But I really am a demon… they couldn’t kill me. Instead, it was I who, with a knife, sliced their flesh bit by bit… listening to their terrified screams before me—”

“Mianbao!” Hu Qingyu felt that Mianbao’s mental state was becoming more and more abnormal.
He rushed forward, wanting to grab Mianbao’s hand.

Mianbao raised her hand, and a blade of ice unfolded in her hand with her movement, forcing Hu Qingyu to retreat a few steps.

“Don’t touch me!” Mianbao roared, her snow-white face lifted up.
Her eyes, originally the azure blue of the ocean, were now replaced by golden pupils like a thousand stars.

“Tsk!” Hu Qingyu felt that the situation had far exceeded his expectations.
He gritted his teeth and drew “Frost Quench,” its blade pointed directly at the Mianbao before him.

“Human, you wish to fight me?” The ice blade in Mianbao’s hand was held level.
On her body, blue lines of what looked like either armor or clothing constantly flickered.

The current Mianbao looked very calm, so calm that her entire aura had undergone a world-shaking change.
The familiar, foolishly cute girl was gone, replaced by a cold queen.

It was as if she had become a different person.

“No.” Mianbao’s blade lowered slightly, a playful look appearing on her tear-stained face.
“You are not human.”

“You’re the one who’s not human!” Hu Qingyu seemed to dislike being told he wasn’t human.
He swung his longsword to the side, slicing through the air before him, and retorted at the Mianbao who was not Mianbao at all.

“I know.” The blue lines on Mianbao’s body flickered more and more weakly, and the ice blade in her hand also slowly faded.
“It’s ‘Yixiubeita’—”

All the strange phenomena on Mianbao’s body completely disappeared after she said this sentence.
The golden stars in her eyes shattered in an instant, returning to the azure sea that Hu Qingyu was familiar with.
Mianbao collapsed weakly.

Hu Qingyu spun his longsword, holding it in a reverse grip, and freed a hand to catch the falling Mianbao.
As soon as Mianbao fell into Hu Qingyu’s arms, she hugged him tightly, her small hands clutching his clothes, and began to wail in his embrace.

“I killed people, what should I do!”

Hu Qingyu adjusted his mindset and hugged Mianbao back.
“Don’t be afraid, you killed bad people. They bullied you and killed your parents. You don’t need to have any pity for them.”

“You are not a monster, you are human. If you are a monster, then I, as a fellow monster, will accompany you.”

Hu Qingyu comforted the crying Mianbao in his arms, while at the same time pondering the words of the “other Mianbao” whose behavior and tone had been so strange.

‘Yixiubeita… what is that?’

And the sudden roar and intense tremor of the ground outside the house also stirred the hearts of Hu Qingyu and Mianbao.

The “egg,” white with purple patterns, landed and bathed in the light of day beneath the pierced clouds.

Kunta, having evacuated the girls, walked over to Wendi.
The two stood side by side, watching the “egg” that had been motionless since it landed.

“Wendi, do you think, with our current strength, we can still defeat 【The Saint】?”

Wendi shook her head helplessly.
“We can barely handle a spiritual-form 【Saint】. If it’s a dragon-form 【Saint】, the most we can do is protect ourselves.”

“Their arrival this time is just like before.”

“Are they here to invade?”