As her thoughts raced, Gu Pin'er finally relied on her refined cultivation to forcibly break through the surrounding interference and block Li Xun with his sword strike flying toward her.
With a light clang, her hand struck nothing but air; the Azure Jade sword was knocked high into the sky, but Li Xun had vanished!
The strike had taken too much out of her. She'd used the wrong force again, and now, even if she wanted to pull back, she had no strength left.
Her chest tightened with a dull ache. She'd taken internal damage.
Almost in that same instant, she felt a chill at the back of her head. A single cold finger had touched the back of her skull.
A sharp, needle-like burst of true breath pierced into her. In an instant, it tore through her feeble defenses and locked down her main acupoints. But it didn't stop there. More than a dozen follow-up strikes rained down like a violent storm. By the time the final finger pulled away, Gu Piner didn't even have the strength left to blink. Her hand slackened, letting Consort Qin fall to the ground, and she herself collapsed right after, limp and powerless.
She shouldn't have been this weak to begin with. The cultivation techniques of the Heavenly Vigorous Sect are especially effective at warding off evil and dispelling poison, so the effects on her should have been minimal.
But Li Xun had first unsettled her with his words, then disrupted her with the formations, and finally struck with cunning from behind. Attacked from all three fronts, even someone as capable as Gu Piner couldn't withstand it.
Her back landed against something warm. Li Xun's chest. He caught her as she fell, and let out what sounded like a soft sigh. "If only… you hadn't come tonight. Wouldn't that have been better?"
Gu Pin'er's heart clenched. All the fear, fury, grief, helplessness, regret, everything she'd been holding in, rushed up at once. The tears she'd been holding back finally spilled over.
And just then, from far off in the palace, a long, thunderous howl split the sky. It roared straight up into the heavens, shaking the lingering clouds apart with a surge of majestic true breath. The entire imperial city trembled under its force.
Senior Brother… A spark of joy bloomed in Gu Pin'er's chest. She did her best to roll her eyes sideways to show a defiant look to Li Xun: You're finished, Senior Brother has seen me!
Li Xun merely gave a cold smile. Then, he withdrew his Azure Jade, seized both Gu Piner and Consort Qin, and shot off toward Lanshe Courtyard, hundreds of steps away.
Behind them, from several li away, came a thunderous screech as something tore through the air.
He Mulan's face was as dark as storm clouds. He never expected that after only half an hour apart from Gu Piner, something would go wrong.
While still in the hidden tunnel, he'd felt the stirrings of her Primordial Sword Art. But before he could even reach the secret exit, her aura had vanished entirely. He called out using the sect's secret technique. Again and again, but got no response.
There could be only one explanation: Gu Pin'er no longer had control over her own body. She was completely at someone else's mercy!
At that moment, a name flashed through He Mulan's mind—that man, the one who had stayed hidden for so long.
If he let his imagination run wild in the worst way, anything could really happen.
Panicked, he had let out a furious roar, using it as a warning blast. And sure enough, the moment his howl had echoed through the skies, he had sensed someone retreating at high speed from the scene several miles away.
No need to overthink it. He had let out another furious shout, mounted his sword, and shot forward. In just a blink, he'd crossed the distance, arriving just in time to spot a bulky figure slipping into a courtyard nearby.
That had to be the man who took Gu Pin'er!
Right then, three of his junior brothers arrived, their faces grim. The four of them exchanged a single glance. No words needed. They drew their swords and charged straight in. Even if this wasn't just a courtyard, even if it was the imperial palace's main hall, they'd still fight their way through for their junior sister.
"This is the Lanshe Courtyard!" He Mulan shouted as he descended on his sword. His face turned even paler. "When we asked around earlier about that female National Preceptor, they said she's been staying here the past few nights. Don't tell me… this place is his hiding spot?"
If that was true, then there was no more room for doubt.
He bit his lip and let out a piercing whistle that was the sect's unique danger signal, alerting his three junior disciples behind him to prepare for anything.
As the whistle echoed through the air, the four of them swept low to the ground and darted into the main hall from separate directions. A few eunuchs on duty were already frozen in terror by the glint of flying swords. After letting out a single panicked cry, they scattered in all directions.
It wasn't until he entered the room that He Mulan finally withdrew his sword light. But the aftermath of his high-speed flight had already torn the hall apart. Furniture scattered, everything in disarray. His junior disciples hadn't fared much better; the sharp sounds of shattering objects rang out in succession. The once-elegant and refined little hall was now a scene of utter ruin.
He Mulan pursed his lips, silent. He swept his gaze across the room. No sign of anyone. With his hand resting on his sword hilt, he moved toward the inner chamber. From what he sensed, his three junior brothers were doing the same, converging on the rear rooms from different angles.
"Cowardly rat! Come out!"
It was Dong Ming, the most hot-headed of them, who shouted. His voice, infused with vast, righteous qi, surged into the inner chambers like a sudden windstorm, lifting the curtains and overturning teacups.
He Mulan frowned. In the moment the curtain lifted, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure. It was only a fleeting glance, too quick to make out any meaningful detail, but what chilled him was that, in all this chaos, that figure seemed completely unhurried… almost leisurely.
"Be careful—" he started instinctively, but before he could finish, a soft, detached sigh floated to his ears.
"What a fine posture and bearing. What a pity… wasted on Heavenly Vigorous Sect."
The voice struck He Mulan like a thunderclap. Before he could even react, his three junior brothers, driven by fury, roared and charged in. He Mulan's heart tightened. There was no time to think. With a flick of his sword, he followed half a beat behind.
But the instant he crossed the threshold, it was like stepping into a raging blizzard on a frozen wasteland.
The killing intent was like ice pellets piercing the flesh. The howling spiritual force was a storm of wind and snow. Though the moment lasted only half a breath, it felt to He Mulan like a drawn-out, brutal battle against a supreme cultivator; three days and three nights of struggle, every ounce of his strength crushed out of him by an overwhelming, mountain-like pressure.
In the blink of an eye, the blizzard passed. He Mulan's eyes flew wide, his grip loosened, and his sword clattered to the floor. Then his knees buckled, and he collapsed, kneeling hard on the ground.
From start to finish, he never even saw his enemy. He didn't even know where or how he had been struck!
What level of cultivation does this person have? How....profound!
From the corner of his eye, he saw his three junior brothers. They were in even worse shape; sprawled flat on the floor, twitching, their limbs jerking as if in death throes.
He Mulan's eyes turned red. With a low growl, he reached for his sword, but before his fingers touched the hilt, a boot stepped into view, blocking his vision. A hand picked up the sword and drew it back.
He forced his head up. And though all he saw was a man's back, it was enough. He froze, then let out a howl full of pain and disbelief.
"Li Xun!!"
Li Xun's body tensed ever so slightly, but he kept walking, stopping only at the bedside before slowly turning around. There was no smug triumph on his face, no shame at being recognized. Just reverent solemnity.
He tilted his body slightly and gave a respectful salute to the Daoist woman, who was half-leaning as she gazed at the woman on the bed.
"Thank you for your aid, Master Aunt. This disciple is eternally grateful."
To He Mulan, it was like watching a gripping drama unfold before his eyes; it was an unbelievable, spine-chilling twist.
He could never have imagined that the cultivator who had crushed the four of them in an instant was none other than the person they had dismissed as a "fraud with no cultivation"—that Daoist woman.
The woman showed no reaction to Li Xun's gratitude. She just gave a soft, dismissive snort. And for the first time since He Mulan entered, she looked up. "At least you had the sense not to make this mess any worse," she said, "and even brought me a beauty. What now? Trying to use her to make up for your sins?"
Li Xun smiled awkwardly. "Master Aunt is wise. This disciple truly had no other choice. I absolutely meant no disrespect."
"Forget it," Yin Wanderer said lightly, perhaps she really was in a good mood today. Surprisingly, she let him off easily. But then she added with a hint of meaning: "Not sure why I'm feeling a bit soft today. I'll leave the rest to you. Maybe that'll put me more at ease?"
Li Xun stiffened slightly. He looked around at the fallen cultivators. Sure enough, none were dead. He drew a deep breath. When he looked back, Yin Wanderer had leaned over, teasing the unconscious Gu Pin'er, completely disengaged. It was as if saying, this has nothing more to do with me.
One word flashed in Li Xun's mind: A token of loyalty.
No doubt about it, this was exactly that. It's the must-have token when bandits join the mountain gang. Proof of your loyalty and how far you're willing to fall.
Li Xun had orchestrated this situation, allowing Yin Wanderer to strike the final blow. Partly, it was because he lacked the power. But deep down, it was also because he didn't want to get blood on his own hands. An almost pathetic sense of moral cleanliness.
But now, that fleeting bit of moral "purity" had been exposed, torn out and cast into the light by her without mercy.
He swallowed hard. No, this wasn't the time to play the hypocrite. The world didn't work that way. He'd made his choice. It was time to live with it.
Unconsciously, he weighed the sword in his hand. It wasn't his Azure Jade, but He Mulan's personal blade. Fine in quality and heavy in the hand.
Li Xun took a long breath, then stepped forward. He didn't dare face He Mulan first. Instead, he picked someone else at random.
By chance, it was Senior Brother Liu, the one who had insulted him the most in the past.
This man was already awake, but severely wounded. He was too weak to speak. As he saw Li Xun approaching, his expression became deeply conflicted.
Anger. Disdain. A hint of forced defiance. But beneath it all—fear. A fear so deeply buried even he may not have known it was there.
"So....you're nothing special after all!"
Perhaps Li Xun should thank this man. It was him who gave Li Xun the courage to swing his sword.
With a cold flash of light, the blade sliced clean through Senior Brother Liu's throat. Blood sprayed across the floor.
And then the next.
And the next.
Three swings. Three corpses.
Suddenly, Li Xun realized something. killing… wasn't so hard after all.
The glint of blood reflected in his eyes, and he felt like even if ten people stood before him right now, he could cut each of them down, one slash at a time!
He took a quiet breath to steady himself and turned to face He Mulan.