Saving Xinxia

Mo Fan stood in what remained of the control room — barely half of it was left — and gazed through the scorched wreckage at the plaza below. The wide space lay fully exposed before him.

Several One-Eyed Demon Wolves were wandering the plaza, unable to find anything worth hunting. When the massive boom rolled across the air, every one of them froze, all eyes drawn to the ragged, smoking hole that had appeared in the side of the mall.

One of the smaller wolves glanced at the six half-dead Black-Beast Demons sprawled in the wreckage below, then turned to its companion with an expression of pure horror.

Its companion looked up at the human figure standing at the edge of the enormous charred crater — and every muscle in its body gave an involuntary shudder. One exchanged glance was all it took. Both One-Eyed Demon Wolves immediately broke into a run and fled the plaza like their lives depended on it.

One could only imagine what was going through their minds as they fled — some frantic, private wave of relief: *Holy crap, thank god we didn't wander over there, bro.*

Still watching the two retreating wolves, Mo Fan felt the exhilaration blazing through him like a second fire.

*This was Intermediate-Level Fire Element magic!*

*This — THIS — was Intermediate-Level Fire Element magic!!*

*The destructive power — it wasn't even in the same universe as Basic-Level spells!!!*

*Now THIS was real magic. Basic-Level magic arrays were a complete joke by comparison!!*

*Bastard Yu'ang — that Black Church mutt actually thought he could kill me?!*

*...Damn. No. Stop. Xinxia is still in danger.*

Mo Fan snapped back to what mattered most. Without another glance at the half-dead Black-Beast Demons, he broke into a dead sprint toward the Walmart.

Since breaking through to Intermediate-Level Mage, Mo Fan had felt a distinct change in his body. He ran to the railing at the floor's edge and simply leaped from the third floor.

He landed. Both legs held solid.

Not wasting another second, he tore across the mall at full speed.

Under normal circumstances, Mo Fan would have stopped to carefully consider how to handle the two Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats still prowling inside.

But right now—

A single Fire Burst blew the Walmart's rolling iron shutter clean off its track. Who cared how many Ape-Rats were in there?

Mo Fan charged through, gaze sweeping across the rows of shelves, instantly locking onto the freezer section he'd spotted on the security monitors.

He sprinted down the wide goods aisle in barely-contained panic — and that was when both Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats heard the noise and poked their heads out.

The moment they spotted a living human, both let out excited shrieks and launched themselves down the long shopping aisle toward him.

They were fast — massive incisors bared to the air.

"Die!!"

"**Blazing Fist!**"

Beneath his feet, the star chart blazed to life, blazing with Fire Element Magical Energy.

Flames surged across his body, concentrating rapidly around his wrist and his tightly clenched right fist.

**BOOM!! BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!!!!!!**

The Blazing Fist struck. Every shelf on both sides disintegrated to ash in its wake. The two Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats were still mid-lunge when they felt, with profound and final regret, exactly how badly they had miscalculated.

*How had they been so blind as not to recognize an Intermediate-Level Mage?* That enormous fist of roaring flame bearing down on them was nothing their frail bodies could ever withstand.

The blaze swallowed them whole, reducing them to cinders — seemingly in the blink of an eye.

Mo Fan deliberately reined in the Release the moment both Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats were down, pulling back the Blazing Fist's force before it fully spent itself. If he hadn't, the remaining energy would have turned the entire Walmart into a sea of fire — and harming Xinxia would be unforgivable.

"Xinxia! Xinxia!!"

He didn't spare a glance for the ash and debris, legs carrying him in a frantic sprint toward the far end of the store.

The wheelchair came into view first. Then the large freezer door loomed before him. Mo Fan threw himself forward and wrenched it open with both hands.

Inside, Ye Xinxia lay there like a sleeping princess. Her complexion, already fair, had drained to a terrifying, bone-white pallor.

Her peaceful face held not a trace of color.

Her eyes were shut tight, long lashes rimed with frost — as though tears had frozen there before they could fall.

Mo Fan pulled her out, and what his hands met was a coldness like death itself.

"Xinxia!!"

It hit him like a thunderbolt.

"Wake up — please wake up — it's me, it's Mo Fan, I'm here, I came to save you!"

Flames burned across Mo Fan's body. He pulled Ye Xinxia's small frame into a tight embrace, willing the fire to reach this girl that the cold had nearly claimed.

Heat poured into her, steady and relentless, melting away the frost that had tried to take a young woman's life.

Her body began, slowly, to warm.

Her breathing — barely there — began slowly to return.

Heavy eyelids parted. Something blazing pressed tight against her, and Ye Xinxia felt flooding into her a warmth she had never felt before: a warmth so total it reached her bones, carrying with it the most familiar scent she knew.

"...Brother Mo Fan?" The words came out barely above a whisper, threaded with a disbelief she couldn't quite trust.

They say the dying see visions. Ye Xinxia was afraid this was the little match girl's final flame — the most beautiful illusion at life's very edge. But the feeling of being held, held so tightly — that felt real.

Mo Fan heard her voice. Only then did he see that her eyes had opened, and the words that came out of him stopped making any sense.

In this disaster, every life was so fragile. Mo Fan had watched too many girls die in this catastrophe, and the fear that the same might befall Ye Xinxia had been unlike any fear he had felt before. The others could at least run. She couldn't.

He had never doubted he would come. He had known from the start that Ye Xinxia — who couldn't walk — would inevitably be left behind somewhere, waiting helplessly for death.

"Brother Mo Fan...I thought I'd never...never see you again." Ye Xinxia felt her heart dissolve. Her slender arms moved without thought, pulling tight around Mo Fan's neck — as though she never wanted to let go, as though she wanted nothing more than to disappear entirely into the warmth of him.

"How could I ever leave you behind?" Mo Fan said.

Ye Xinxia said nothing more. She only held him tighter.

Everyone else in the world might abandon her. Mo Fan never would. Of this — she had never once had any doubt.

When the disaster struck, when she had been left alone in this frozen underground store, Ye Xinxia had not shed a single tear. But now — now that Mo Fan had truly, actually appeared before her — the tears came without warning, and nothing on earth could stop them.