[Douluo] The Legend of the Dragon King: Cold Night

The winter night was long. The tolling of bells and drums urged her on, but she would not look back, plunging ever deeper into the night and toward her death.

Stars shifted and the heavens turned. Ten thousand years passed in the eyes of the supreme gods in no more than a blink.

Unmatched karmic flames scorched the sky. Frost hung in the air, yet even gazing to the ends of the heavens could not pierce the absurd mockery fate had laid over everything.

The brilliant roar of Mingdu's explosion still rang in her ears. Yin Zhuo opened her eyes, and the gray eyes before her belonged to someone from ten thousand years in the future.

After many twists and turns, she returned home, only to find that everywhere she looked, the grand vision of the Sun Moon Empire had become reality.

The head instructor of the junior division at Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had been having a hard time lately.

The little girl the school had foisted on him, named Yin Zhuo, kept shouting that she was going to tear down the murals and statues of Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao around the academy.

She skipped class, arrived late, got into fights, talked back to teachers... and plenty more.

She had even led Xu Yucheng, the junior division's top genius, astray. They slipped out of Mingdu without permission, leaving only two notes on his desk asking for ten months off.

But the school year only lasts ten months!!! (Flips table)

God said, let there be light.

Then God snuffed that light out himself.

Through the continent's endless long night, she said the cold in her heart was worse than the cold in the air. The awkward boy only knew to take her hand and say that even if his body became dry bones, his soul went dark and his spirit scattered, his heart would never grow cold toward her.

Wu Siduo said wistfully that if she were a man, she would have made the first move and kidnapped Yin Zhuo long ago.

Luo Guixing smiled and silently gave Wu Siduo a thumbs-up behind her back.

Zheng Yiran draped herself over the girl's arm like she had no bones and laughed loudly, egging them on.

Yang Nianxia sheepishly rubbed the hair Yin Zhuo had just burned down to a buzz cut, his eyes darting around as he watched the commotion.

"...Fine."

Xu Yucheng raised the sickle in his hand and activated his domain without another word. "Same as always. One-on-one."

They promised to walk out of this bitter night together.

The arrogant gods abandoned this world, treating human lives as pawns on a board, fleeting chips swept away with a casual wave.

Turning the tide when all seemed lost was another chapter in the destiny written for the God's Child.

If this world and this place would not accept her, then she would let karmic flames burn the sky, unleash ten thousand blooming lotuses, and sever the red threads that bound them to different paths.

Xu Yucheng had never planned to bring a little girl back to the academy.

She had spotted his uniform and insisted on following him.

The head instructor and the girl stared at each other for a long time. Then, for some reason, he decided to keep her and sent her back with Xu Yucheng.

The girl told one lie after another, yet her clear, limpid eyes were so full of sincerity that he could only patiently listen to her innocent explanations, again and again.

She said that if Xu Yucheng won a hundred matches in a row against her, he would have to grant her one wish.

...Why was the loser the one who got to make a wish?!

Later, Xu Yucheng finally won his hundredth match in a row, at the lake beneath the Sea God's Fate banner, where the words "Sea God" had been crossed out.

Xu Yucheng asked her what she wished for.

The veiled girl giggled and said she suddenly thought Xu Yucheng had a point, so she had decided to let the winner make a wish instead.

He lifted the thin veil from her face and said he would walk with her through this endless, eternal winter night, staking his whole life on it.

Theme: Who is worth pursuing without looking back, even if it means abandoning yourself and taking a different path?