The wind howled, stabbing right through to your bones with its icy chill, and carried with it an ancient, lazy vibe—just kept blowing, never taking a break.
Between the wild sky and earth, snowflakes fluttered everywhere. The world was freezing, the night thick and heavy, and someone was sprawled in the snow, not moving an inch. This person had a head of platinum-blonde hair draped down their back, wearing thin clothes but not shivering at all—instead, their skin was rosy and glowing, like all this snow was just a cheap CGI background.
That person? None other than Jill Young.
"Huh?" Jill Young hadn't been knocked out for long. Her eyelids twitched, then she suddenly opened her eyes. On high alert, she flipped over and looked around, realizing she was in the wild. The sky was packed with clouds—no starlight, no moonlight. The night was pitch-black, couldn't even see your own hand. Big, fluffy snowflakes landed on her, and the temperature was about minus twenty degrees Celsius. But even Antarctica couldn't freeze her to death; this little bit of cold? Not worth worrying about.
Jill Young activated her second-level super-vision. A ghostly light flashed in her eyes. Scanning around, she spotted some vague, massive shadows in the distance—probably a line of mountains. Other than that, nada. "With this pitch-dark night, no lights anywhere, and this crisp, smog-free air—either I've landed deep in the mountains, or I've hopped into another world. Heck, maybe both."
Nothing in the air around her made her nervous. Jill Young shook her head, shut off the ghostly glow in her eyes, and flopped right back down onto the snow.
"Ugh, I'm dead tired, seriously, don't wanna move at all. And so sleepy—just wanna nap. Wait, why am I this wiped out?" This kind of exhaustion felt familiar, like that first day in the Pacific world when Teacher Yang got summoned—she'd felt just as wrecked.
"Blockhead, you think we crossed over or what... Blockhead?" Suddenly Jill Young felt something was off. "Blockhead, where are you? Dummy Jack?" She realized something was wrong, jumped up to look around, and after a while just plopped back down, dazed, suddenly yelling, "Wait, huh?! Where did Jack Young go?!"
"Hold up, don't freak out, me! Chill out, me! Let's think—what just happened?" Jill Young closed her eyes, trying to remember. It's like that foggy feeling when you first wake up; after a bit, things start to clear up. As she got her bearings, she began to recall what had happened earlier in the time-space chaos.
Time rewound to some point you couldn't even measure.
Inside the wormhole, the palm of Xiao Jingzhe’s mech had the twins peeking out through a time-space pod at the outside world. The wormhole space was in its final meltdown now—void bursting with countless flashes, shadows, and wild turbulence. Measurable and unmeasurable, understandable and totally bonkers stuff—matter, energy, concepts—all mashed together into a howling storm. Like the meanest hurricane ever: nothing survives in its wake. Everything gets wiped out, and the odds of just being exiled to the void? Basically zero.
Jill Young had no clue why she was still conscious; she just stared into the heart of the storm. Out there, her Fist King seemed to lift its hand and wave, like it was saying farewell. After blasting out all its psychic power to beat the Final Creation, the mech felt different—right now, it really looked like it was sending them off, a little reluctant and kinda clingy.
It didn’t seem like just a hunk of metal anymore—it had turned into something weirdly alive.
Suddenly, Jill Young glanced to the side, and Teacher Yang looked over at the same time. Both were stuffed into one time-space pod, and in that split second, their eyes met and they swapped every thought without saying a word.
They nodded at each other, then both twins shouted: “Let’s do this!”
If they didn’t back down from the Final Creation, why quit now without giving it a shot? Not being able to do something and not even trying—totally different things!
The two stood shoulder to shoulder. Jack Young’s left hand grabbed Jill Young’s right. Their side profiles flashed out, stamped into the void. Then the two images got even closer, golden light bursting out, painting a golden field in the swirling chaos. With a stroke of genius, they just knew what to do—at the same time, they shouted and reached toward the Fist King.
Boom! In a sound you couldn’t even describe, their time-space pod shot off like a rocket. Strength and psychic energy draining fast, but they were still hanging in there. The wild chaos broke apart, and in a flash, they landed right in front of the Fist King.
Their side-profile images suddenly grew huge, like two wings blotting out the sky. Each profile shot out a copy, and the two combined into one complete image, stamped right onto Fist King’s chest. Boom! Blinding golden light pierced everything, carrying Fist King straight across the space-time barrier, flying back to the Pacific world and dodging the doom of getting wiped out in the collapse.
"See ya, Fist King! See ya, Pacific World!" Both of them waved toward where Fist King vanished, grinning. This trip to the Pacific was a jackpot, but who knows if they’ll ever be back. Life’s like a drifting duckweed, floating wherever—no telling east from west. You don’t get to choose where you go, just gotta have no regrets.
"Alright, time to head home," Jill Young was just about to steer the time-space pod toward the big ferry, when her face suddenly changed—ripples were spreading across the surface of the pod, like it was getting hit by some nonstop attack.
"Huh?" Before she could react, an unimaginably huge force slammed into the pod—like a deep-sea whirlpool grabbing a tiny boat. In a blink, their pod was sucked into the depths of space-time.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What’s going on?!" Before she could figure it out, the two side-profile images shrank and stamped themselves onto the pod, acting like a force field to protect their "little boat." But the price? Massive drain on stamina and energy—Dragon Elephant Level Eight, Prajna Level Six, whatever, it was all gone in a flash.
Crack! Some weird force hit, and their time-space pod suddenly split open. Like cell division, one big sphere became two little ones. "Hey! Get back here!" Jill Young reached for Teacher Yang, and Teacher Yang reached back, but that tiny gap was suddenly an endless chasm. In the end, the pod split into two and drifted apart.
(This chapter isn’t over yet~.~ Click next page for more fun!)
A golden spark of lightning stretched from Jill Young’s right hand to Teacher Yang’s left. In the chaotic void, that little streak of light was all that kept their minds connected.
"Take care of yourself! I’ll come find you—!" That was the last message, and then—buzz!—a golden flash exploded, and Jill Young blacked out.
And when she opened her eyes again, all she saw was this snowy, frozen world under the dark night sky.
"Ah—?!" Remembering everything, Jill Young clutched her head and freaked out: "Oh come on, seriously?! I actually—I actually—!"
Smack! Lying on the ground, Jill Young was so frustrated she wanted to roll around. Teacher Yang—he was sleepwalking, for crying out loud! Who knows what time or world he’s ended up in? Is he safe? What if he landed in the middle of some god-demon battlefield? No, wait—that’d be fine. What if he ended up in Sister Dongfang’s backyard on Blackwood Cliff?! Sure, she’d always been the one off adventuring alone, never worried about what Teacher Yang was up to, or if he was safe, but now—now she suddenly cared a lot, dammit!
Wait, right, better ask the side-profile image—maybe it knows something. Isn’t this how it always goes in stories? Maybe it’s like a summoned beast and got yanked into some summoning space.
But after checking in with the side-profile, Jill Young just started rolling around—nothing! She could still sense Teacher Yang, but it was all fuzzy, barely there, totally impossible to pinpoint his location. He was definitely in another world! That’s farther than a million mountains and rivers—conceptually, it’s pretty much "separated by life and death," dammit!
"Ah..." Jill Young lay there with her mouth wide open, letting snowflakes fall in. Cold, but kinda refreshing. "I feel so wiped out... so sleepy... my soul is tired... I actually lost myself... What now..."
Her drained stamina and energy hadn’t recovered yet; Jill Young was exhausted. She popped a low-grade meat pill into her mouth, clapped her hands, and said, "You know what, I’m just gonna sleep!" After all, what happened already happened. She checked in with the side-profile again—seemed like nothing was wrong with Teacher Yang’s side. So, first things first: rest up and get ready for whatever this new world throws at her.
All around was dead silent—no people, no animals, just the sound of falling snow. In a way, this freezing world was actually a pretty safe place to nap. Not like she’d freeze anyway. Jill Young rolled over, pillowed her arm, and drifted off to sleep.