After late autumn comes the bitter cold of winter.

And in the depths of that winter, the tide was turned back by force.

Jiang Yuanhua's divine spirit, growing ever more unsteady, hung suspended in the sky, his ears filled with the demon's howling. Winter was indeed bitter cold — but that bone-deep wind and snow now surged forward to strike the demon instead.

Shen Yi hadn't gone off alone to hold a horde of demons at bay outside Qingzhou's borders.

He simply stood there, fixed in the sky.

Before that tall, looming figure, whether a demon tried to come in or flee out, whether it stood inside Qingzhou's borders or beyond them, the only thing left to decide was where, exactly, it would die.

The bull demon had long since lost any will to fight, and was now throwing everything she had into fleeing.

Every single time she shot across the open sky, that black-robed figure wreathed in red light would punch her straight back down.

She had needed a treasure artifact just to slip in undetected; now every thought in her head was consumed with how to get out.

Boom!

The bull demon was slammed back down over Qingzhou City once more, a daze the only thing left in her enormous eyes.

Jiang Qiulan lay quietly on the ground, her path infant having retreated back into her qi sea, leaving her with only half her field of vision — and even that half was smeared over with blood, blurred and indistinct.

And yet she kept her eyes open, straining to make out the black-robed figure streaking back through the sky.

A faint smile touched the corner of her mouth.

With him standing right there before her, an endless sense of safety settled over her — like a blade finally sheathed, with nothing left in the world to worry over.

"..."

Shen Yi gave his hand a shake, flicking off the blood.

He figured this should be about enough.

He drove a kick into the bull demon's skull, sending it back, forcing her to meet his eyes.

The red mist…