Chapter 961: Spectators

The fish's Tail flicked again.

Moonlight turned the entire frozen street into a bleak white; Qingque stood on the fish's back and looked down, seeing a long street encased in ice, seeing the roof tiles of the buildings on both sides frozen into ice sculptures, and seeing the huge ice pit in the distance—that was the place where she had just hard‑blocked Zhao Che Wanchuan.

Then she saw Jing Liu.

Jing Liu was standing at the alley exit, looking up at Qingque riding on the fish's back.

Her frost‑white long hair was lifted slightly upward by the cold, and her wine‑red pupils looked especially vivid in the bleak moonlight.

She held her sword horizontally before her, the tip slanting toward the sky, and frost blossoms spread from her wrist up to her elbow.

In the next second her figure vanished on the spot.

Qingque hadn't yet had time to command the fish where to dodge, when an ice‑blue sword arc already slashed upward from below.

It was Jing Liu's first sword swung in the air after leaping, with a huge arc, slanting upward from below; the sword arc spanned dozens of meters, sealing off all the space Qingque could dodge left or right.

The after‑wave of the sword arc swept across the street's ice layer, shaving off a surface layer, and Ice Shards burst into the sky.

"Wua!"

Qingque pressed the fish's Tail down, and the whole fish, with her almost clinging to the upper edge of the sword arc, flipped over.

Her back brushed the cold of the sword arc, the tips of her ash‑white hair frozen into ice rods, and the hardened strands clanged together with a crisp "ding‑ding‑ding" sound.

The fish completed a half‑turn in the air, then steadied its flight posture; its Tail flicked two graceful wave lines in the air, and it began to accelerate upward.

Qingque lowered her body to lie on the fish's back, her left leg, wrapped in mist‑gray over‑knee long socks, clamped tightly around the fish, while her bare right foot hooked under the fish's belly.

The scar on her arm, freshly cut by frost, flushed faintly in the cold wind; a gray‑green flower branch protruding from her collarbone swayed violently in the rapidly rising airflow, its half‑withered bud trembling on the branch.

After Jing Liu's first sword missed, it did not hit the ground.

Her body rotated in the air in a way no ordinary person could achieve, turning half a circle; her toe landed on a piece of shattered ice she had frozen in midair, a palm‑sized fragment that became a springboard beneath her foot. She launched again, this time thrusting straight upward, her whole form and the sword becoming a vertical white line.

Sai Fei Er crouched on the roof, her neck tilted back so far it almost pressed the back of her head against her spine, her silver‑blue strands falling backward, her eyes wide and bright.

The cat Tail spun wildly behind her.

Huo Huo crouched nearby, her matcha‑green folded ears tipped to both sides, her turquoise pupils looking especially watery in the moonlight; she kept a "weak, helpless, pitiful" expression while tightly locking the two high‑speed chasing light points in the sky with the corner of her eyes.

"Qing girl, your fish is so cool—!!!"

Sai Fei Er inhaled deeply, using all her lung capacity to shout toward the sky, her voice piercing the night sky of the entire sealed zone.

"Jing Liu, your aim's off! You can't even hit that huge ice lump! Need a pair of glasses!!!"

"Fly higher!!! Fly to a place she can't reach!!! Then dive!!! Use Bubbles to smash her head!!!"

Jing Liu's second sword traced three parallel sword lights in the air, the three lights intertwining and spiraling as they chased toward Qingque's Tail.

Qingque glanced back on the fish's back, seeing the three entwined sword lights drawing nearer, trembling in fright, "What the heck!"

She quickly patted the fish's back; the Tail accelerated its swing, the frequency so fast the naked eye could only see a blurry cyan afterimage.

The fish turned sharply to the side, the three sword lights swept under her and flew toward an abandoned tavern below; when the sword lights struck the tavern's roof, the whole building exploded from the top down, the roof tiles frozen into ice lumps and blasted away by the impact.

Frost spread outward from inside the building, filling every crevice of the structure with white ice crystals.

"—Right!!! That's it!!! Dodge then Counterattack!!!"

Sai Fei Er's voice came again from another direction.

She, in the brief moment, had already moved to another roof, and the Command Flag she was cradling Huo Huo with was knocked askew.

"Qing girl, counter quickly!!! Throw all your Bubbles out!!! Wrap her into a Bubbles ball and kick it away!!!"

As soon as the words ended, an Ice Sword split from the sword cluster and shot toward Sai Fei Er's direction.

Sai Fei Er let out an "Oh my gosh" cry, clutching Huo Huo as she flashed from behind a chimney onto the roof of another building; as she landed she also adjusted her hold, moving Huo Huo from under her arm to perched on her shoulder.

"Jing Liu, why are you even hitting the onlookers! I'm your fan! I'm your career fan! I just want to see you show real skill!"

After steadying herself on the new roof, Sai Fei Er kept shouting, her volume undiminished by the recent attack, even more exhilarated, "Qing girl, don't be timid! Show that Bubbles‑on‑the‑face move again! Smear it on her face! Let her know what Bubbles‑on‑the‑face technique is!"

Huo Huo struggled to keep balance on Sai Fei Er's shoulder, using the Command Flag to cover most of her face, only two green eyes swiveling outside: "Sister Sai Fei Er, I think shouting like this is dangerous."

Sai Fei Er looked down at her, her jade-colored eyes flashing with a matter‑of‑fact light: "Danger is what makes it interesting!"

Huo Huo's timid little face showed an extremely complex subtle expression.

But her eyes, with a calm perspective starkly different from her voice, tracked every detail in the sky.

She saw Qingque on the fish's back turn and fling a string of Bubbles to intercept Jing Liu's pursuit; the Bubbles formed faster than before, swelling from her palm to a basin size in under half a second.

Also, the gray‑green flower branches on Qingque were slowly changing during the battle; the half‑withered gray‑purple buds at the tips now opened a slight slit, letting golden specks of light shine through, subtly echoing the rotating rhythm of the golden five‑petal flower on her chest.

Huan Long gave Qingque a very high score in his mind.

Being able to endure Jing Liu's onslaught for so long, this combat talent, if given enough time to develop, will be very interesting in the future.

She moved Qingque's name up several spots on her mental "potential stock worth watching" list, then, using Huo Huo's voice, let out a perfectly timed exclamation: "Ya—! They're fighting again—!"

Xing's phone, having been frozen into an ice block, forced her to crouch behind the corner of the alley wall, watching the aerial chase with the naked eye.

Her golden eyes widened enormously, swiveling left and right rapidly as the two light points streaked across the sky; her head turned from left to right and back, the frequency increasing.

"This child."

Xing lowered her voice, her tone filled with a world‑weary depth, "Terrifying indeed."