Chapter 49

Beneath a sky of blooming flowers, a girl in red drifted into the arena atop a lazy, floating cloud.
Her arrival set the crowd murmuring in excitement.
Two days ago, at the prelims, most people only saw her as so-and-so’s sidekick,
“Isn’t she Peak Master Su’s precious little disciple from Xiaoyao Peak? Bet she’s been pampered since birth. Just look at that delicate little face!”
“Isn’t she the beloved junior under the White Tiger? Hey, look, the white tiger’s still hanging out up there in the sky.”
“Ah, that’s Miao Hong’er the culinary prodigy’s junior, right? I wonder if she’s even half as impressive as her senior sister used to be.”
But today, the way they talked about her had completely changed.
“See her? That’s the one who caused the flowers in the snow to bloom.”
“She’s here! Xiaoyao Peak’s Xiao Xue!”
“Blossoms hesitate, their radiance captivating, no wonder even the heavens must envy this beauty.” A jealous senior brother tried to show off his poetry, hoping to catch Mu Xue’s eye.
“Cute and fierce at the same time! Xiao Xue, you’ve got this! Your number-one fangirl is right here!” Even a few little sisters waved both arms, cheering.
Since “Zhang Er Ya” sounded way too much like a market vendor, everyone had gradually switched to calling her “Xiao Xue.”
After her ten-win streak in the prelims, every opponent had been busy digging for her secrets. Even her ‘Snowbloom in Winter’ state during Xiumu Butterfly’s questioning had made its way into sect legend, turning ‘Snowbloom in Winter’ into a title she alone possessed.
Ding Lanlan was already waiting at the arena, waving as soon as Mu Xue hopped off her cloud.
Mu Xue joined her, taking her hand, only to realize it was a little slippery with nervous sweat.
“Are you nervous?” Mu Xue asked softly.
“A bit,” Ding Lanlan admitted, eyes fixed on the stage.
Up above, a handful of elders hovered mid-air, weaving the spatial arrays: on the outside it looked like a modest platform, but inside it opened up into a vast arena where everyone could fight without limit.
“Xiao Xue, you know, I’ve been training since I was three,” Ding Lanlan murmured. “My whole family spoiled me back then, kept saying I was a prodigy, the bright hope for the clan.”
“I probably let that get to my head,” she continued with a wry smile. “I wanted so badly to prove I was really special that when my sisters ran out to play, I’d shut myself in to meditate. While everyone else fell asleep, I was burning the midnight oil over stacks of books.”
“Well, Lanlan, you are pretty amazing,” Mu Xue replied gently.
Ding Lanlan laughed, giving her a little nudge. “Then I actually joined the sect and found out, wow, the world’s full of geniuses. I’m not as talented as Xiao Changge, nor can I match Zhuo Yu for hard work. So yeah, I get nervous, afraid I’ll let everyone down.”
She squeezed Mu Xue’s hand. “But now I get it. I’ve spent my whole life, over a decade, on this path. However it turns out, this tournament is my test. Doesn’t matter who I’m up against, if I give it my all, there’s nothing to be afraid of, right?”
Her palm was damp, but Ding Lanlan’s gaze was clear and fierce with resolve.
Mu Xue gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, mimicking the way Lanlan always did, her silent promise of support.
Mu Xue’s first match was against a senior brother from Tiezhu Peak, tall, dark-skinned, built like a brick wall.
He lumbered into the ring, eyeing Mu Xue, still in her teens, slender as a willow branch. He couldn’t help but laugh.
“A little girl like you? You wouldn’t survive one of my punches. Why bother? How about you step down now and save us both the trouble? I’ll even buy you some fruit as an apology, deal?”
Mu Xue just grinned back, falling into her ready stance in perfect silence.
The big guy sighed and shook his head. “Stubborn, aren’t you… Well, don’t blame me for what happens next, ”
For all his simple looks, he wasn’t dumb. Mid-sentence, a pale gold sheen spread across his skin, his fist whistling through the air like a steel hurricane straight at Mu Xue’s face.
What caught him off guard: the “delicate” junior sister didn’t cast a single spell. She actually met his fist with fists of her own, using a plain, utterly common set of punches. Nothing rare; not just cultivators, even street fighters back in the mortal world probably knew this style.

It was the most ordinary style of boxing, yet when Mu Xue moved, every strike, lock, and hold, those simple motions, flowed with the elegance of wind swirling fresh snow, and the effortless grace of drifting clouds. Her moves didn’t even look that fast, but her delicate, pale hands shifted and flickered with dizzying agility, impossible to track, striking as quick as lightning.
The senior brother from Tiezhu Peak barely exchanged two or three moves with her before that spirit-clad little hand slipped behind his shoulder, swift as a raptor, transforming from fingers to claws to seize the weakest joint in his shoulder, fierce, precise, merciless.
A dull thud echoed through the air, like steel slamming against steel.
They both staggered back a few steps. The burly senior brother felt a flash of fiery pain in his shoulder joint, if he hadn’t spent years refining an indestructible body, that clever, bone-twisting grip would’ve left his arm completely dislocated. He finally realized the little junior sister meant business, and his expression turned grave.
Xiao Mu was still rubbing her reddened fingers, shaking her head with disappointment. “Guess plain old boxing still isn’t enough to break through the Indestructible Body.”
A glowing red tattoo flared on the back of her fair hand. The Tiezhu Peak senior brother suddenly remembered some half-heard rumor from a few days ago, but before he could react, a red cord shot out like a living snake, its blur too fast for the eye, and wrapped him up tight, binding him head to toe in the blink of an eye. Even as he struggled, a brigade of tiny puppet constructs burrowed up from the ground, hoisting him trussed up like a rice dumpling and carrying him straight to the edge of the arena.
He burst out in a shower of dazzling golden light, pouring all his cultivation into struggling free, but the red cord only tightened, refusing to budge. He gaped and hollered, “Wait, wait, wait, what is this rope made out of, why can’t I break free? Ref! Referee! This is obviously against the rules!”
The crowd, all clearly waiting for this exact moment, broke into raucous laughter.
“Oh come on, Cheng the Giant, slacking off again, huh? Didn’t even bother to get the scoop before the fight? That’s a Xiaoyao Peak girl you’re up against!”
Xiaoyao Peak may sound laid-back, but their reputation’s anything but soft. Throughout history, their girls are infamous for loving a good brawl. Blades, fists, every single one’s a handful. Their senior sister Miao Hong’er still holds the sect’s all-time record for raw, unarmed combat.
Mu Xue lived up to the hype, racking up back-to-back wins. The legend of ‘Snowbloom in Winter’ kept getting brighter, with her audience swelling from a handful to a lively crowd, all eager to watch her next bout.
Mu Xue stepped off the stage, weaving through the crowd to catch her breath outside.
Just then she spotted Yuanzi, pale-faced and sprinting anxiously through the garden.
Mu Xue stepped into her path. “What’s going on?”
Xia Tong stamped her foot in panic. “Let me go! Senior Sister Ding’s seriously hurt, I have to tell Peak Master Ding right now!”
Mu Xue broke into a run, heading straight for Ding Lanlan’s arena. She arrived just in time to see Ding Lanlan, body scorched and blackened by fire and smoke, being carried away on a stretcher.
Xia Tong hurried after her, tears streaking her cheeks, frantically using the healing art she’d practiced for years to ease her pain a little.
Injuries were expected at a tournament, but for someone to be hurt this badly, especially among fellow disciples, was a rare and awful sight. The only relief: there was no threat to her life.
Ding Lanlan reached out when she saw Mu Xue, her face exhausted and aggrieved, forcing a smile. “Said so many rousing lines, but in the end, still lost. Xiao Xue, you’re our last hope now, don’t let us down, okay?”
Mu Xue squeezed her hand, lifting her gaze upward. There, on the edge of the high platform, stood a young man, not much older than Mu Xue, sharp-featured yet shadowed by a sickly pallor and dark circles under his eyes, brooding and cold.
He looked down at Mu Xue, from his smoky, scorched battlefield perch, while she stared up at him, meeting his gaze head-on.
“‘Snowbloom in Winter’, huh?” he sneered, his voice dismissive, lips twisting into a crooked, cold smile.
Since joining the sect, Mu Xue felt like everyone here put on their best face, so much so that even the jerks wrapped themselves in a cloak of friendliness. For years, she’d never even gotten an excuse to cut loose.
She wasn’t expecting to finally find someone who radiated open hostility like a beacon.
Today, it seemed, she could finally let herself have a little fun, and flex some muscle, too.
Mu Xue rubbed her ridiculously clean hands together, letting out a low, eager hum.