Chapter 115: The Curtain Falls, and a Surprise

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“Bang!”

With a tremendous crash, Liuluo’s body, clad in close-fitting leather armor, slammed into a tree and bounced off again. The impact split the tree in two, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Between the collision and the fall, her health, which had already been reduced to sixty-five percent, dropped to a mere twenty-three percent.

The force behind that blow was terrifying. She could clearly sense that her constitution was at least ten points lower than that of her pursuer.

And the pursuer had still been able to catch up with her with ease. That meant his agility could not be lacking either. Agility was her primary attribute, after all, and she possessed a full eighteen points in it.

As for strength, that unfathomably powerful slash kept flashing through Liuluo’s mind, leaving her unable to summon even the slightest courage.

“What kind of monster have we provoked? Is this really a newcomer who only entered the Budding Space recently?”

The despair on Liuluo’s face deepened. She struggled to her feet and demanded in a shrill, desperate screech:

“Why didn’t you go after him? I only came here to reclaim my universal points!”

Chen Qiang endured the pain caused by the impact, which he too had suffered, maintaining his cold expression as he slowly advanced.

“Shing!”

He drew his long blade. Its shadow fell across Liuluo’s terrified, beautiful face, and the light in her eyes steadily faded.

Liuluo struggled to speak once more, trying to stall for time.

“They were the ones with bad intentions toward your companion. I really only wanted to collect a sum of universal points.”

“Oh.”

Chen Qi answered with a single word, followed by a merciless vertical slash. Liuluo, fully alert and prepared, barely managed to evade it. The blade split a crack several dozen centimeters long in the ground.

Turning her head slightly, a ruthless glint flashed through Liuluo’s eyes. Her body sprang forward in an instant, the dagger in her hand thrusting straight toward Chen Qi’s heart.

A trace of surprise crossed Chen Qi’s face. He did not even use his blade, instead striking directly at Liuluo with his left hand.

The imagined scene of the dagger piercing his palm never occurred. The instant Chen Qi struck her, Liuluo’s body transformed into a mass of shadow that collapsed at the slightest touch.

“Clang!”

Chen Qi spun and swept his blade around with his right hand, striking something solid. As blood-red energy burst from the weapon, Liuluo was sent crashing to the ground once more.

Within Chen Qi’s energy vision, none of Liuluo’s tricks could deceive him. On top of that, he had long been prepared for her to hide within his shadow again. Taken together, these advantages left her unable even to approach him.

He gave Liuluo no time to lie on the ground and catch her breath. Chen Qi raised his long blade high, but his blood energy moved before the strike itself, numbing the vomiting woman’s delicate body and leaving her no possibility of evasion.

“You... You aren’t human! I...”

A bleak deathly pallor rose across Liuluo’s wild-featured face. She bit through her own lips, filling her mouth with blood, and left behind the final words she would ever speak in this world.

There was no hesitation, and no unexpected turn of events. The blood-red blade descended in an instant, tracing a beautiful, tragic half-circle through the air.

[You have killed the Contracted One: Liuluo.]

Looking at Liuluo’s decapitated corpse, her eyes still wide open in death, Chen Qi flicked the abundant blood from his blade several times before slowly returning it to its sheath.

Thanks to the blade’s triangular cross-section and its special red-metal composition, no blood remained on it when he sheathed it. Instead, it had only grown even redder, faintly radiating a murderous gleam.

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“It would be perfect if I had a cigarette right now.”

Having just witnessed another formidable enemy fall, Chen Qi’s thoughts wandered, and he stopped where he stood.

There was no other reason. He simply felt that turning back immediately would fail to display his distinctive style and imposing aura.

After remaining there for nearly ten more breaths, Chen Qi looked down at the remains and finally spoke:

“I’ve done bad things myself, but I would never mock someone standing fifty paces away when I’m only a hundred paces from the same thing. What’s done is done. There is only one reason a person dies: they weren’t strong enough.”

Realizing that he had said too much and that it did not fit his usual style, Chen Qi felt slightly embarrassed and hurriedly turned around.

Let the cool mountain breeze conceal the story that had unfolded among these peaks.

He did not attempt to pursue the ax-wielding man in another direction. Instead, Chen Qi raced back to Yun Tianxin.

The decision was easy to make. Though the burly man with the axe had been somewhat cowardly, he was certainly no fool. After running for several minutes, there was no chance Chen Qi would be able to find him again.

That was also why he had lingered beside Liuluo’s corpse, taking the time to cultivate his imposing image.

Following the familiar aura, Chen Qi soon spotted Yun Tianxin sitting atop a large boulder.

At some point, cloud-white chains had once again wound around her hands. She swung her long legs back and forth, gazing straight at Chen Qi with bright eyes. A mischievous, half-smiling expression played across her brows, tinged with a hint of teasing.

Chen Qi came over and finally voiced the question he had kept buried for a long time:

“Sister Yun, how can you remove these Spirit-Sealing Chains yourself? And how can you put them back on?”

Yun Tianxin’s smile grew wider. She forcibly restrained the trembling of her shoulders and replied in her usual gentle tone:

“That’s right, Junior Brother. When did I ever tell you that I couldn’t remove the Spirit-Sealing Chains?”

Seeing that Chen Qi was still staring blankly, Yun Tianxin continued, as though trying to bring a hopeless student to his senses:

“They cannot be undone while I’m in an irrational state. But when my mind is clear, do you really think I would let my own treasure lock me up?”

Chen Qi came back to himself and cautiously probed:

“Then why did you ask me to remove the chains for you before?”

At last, Yun Tianxin could no longer suppress her amusement. Her laughter, clear as silver bells, rang through the tranquil mountain forest, adding a touch of liveliness to the surrounding peaks.

Only after laughing for a while did she reply in a faint, languid voice:

“I only wanted to see whether Junior Brother was truly a gentleman. If you dared to behave like a beast, I would have cut you to pieces...”

The final words carried a faint chill, yet could not conceal the playful note beneath them.

Chen Qi carefully thought back. It seemed that he really had never done anything excessive while Yun Tianxin was bound. Anything that might have gone a little too far had been done with her tacit permission—though, of course, that did not count when she had lost her reason.

His heart settled completely. Taking the opportunity to claim credit for himself, he said:

“See, Senior Sister? Your junior brother is still quite the gentleman, isn’t he?”

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At this point, Chen Qi’s speech slowed. It took him a long while to gather the courage to ask tentatively:

“I wonder whether a gentleman like me might make a suitable partner?”

Yun Tianxin gave a derisive laugh and pierced through him without mercy:

“Junior Brother, you may not be a beast, but you are still a long way from being a gentleman.”

Seeing that Chen Qi remained unconvinced and was still gazing at her expectantly, Yun Tianxin twisted the knife further:

“Several times, just after I regained consciousness, I saw your wicked hands. How do you explain that?”

Chen Qi scratched his head awkwardly, yet continued staring intently at Yun Tianxin, as though waiting for her to avoid the subject.

Perhaps unable to bear his gaze any longer, Yun Tianxin finally gave a soft snort. In a voice as faint as a mosquito’s, she said:

“That will depend on how you perform when the time comes... What are you doing?”

Before Yun Tianxin could finish speaking, she saw Chen Qi approach with an excited expression. His dry lips once again moved toward her smooth, jade-like, slender neck. He looked ready to transform into a frenzied planting machine.

In the next moment, Yun Tianxin tried to struggle with all her strength, only to see Chen Qi breathing more and more heavily, his expression growing increasingly excited. Even his reason was beginning to slip, and he looked as though he was about to lose all restraint.

Then, as if she had thought of something amusing, Yun Tianxin suddenly stopped resisting. A sly glimmer appeared once more at the corner of her eyes, and she reminded him in a gentle yet perfectly clear voice:

“Tell me, do you think my mother will slap you into minced meat when she sees me return like this?”

Chen Qi’s lips had just touched her snowy skin. At those words, he suddenly froze, his lips pressing tightly together as hesitation and caution spread across his face.

Yun Tianxin continued whispering softly into his ear:

“Even if Mother doesn’t strike you, the elders will certainly point and gossip when they see us. For the sake of my reputation, why don’t you guess what will happen to you, Outer Disciple?”

With each final word, Yun Tianxin’s tone rose sharply. She was clearly looking forward to seeing Chen Qi suffer a setback.

For some reason, she took great pleasure in watching him dare to imagine everything while lacking the courage to act. It loosened, little by little, the knot that had taken root deep within her heart.

To her surprise, the defeat she expected never appeared on Chen Qi’s face. Instead, this audacious junior brother leaned close to her ear as she had done to him and mockingly whispered:

“Senior Sister, you don’t really think every intimate encounter leaves a mark, do you? Surely not.”

The instant Chen Qi finished speaking, Yun Tianxin sensed that something was wrong. Just as she was about to remove the chains again, restore her strength, and escape, she felt a faint warmth spread across her neck once more.

In the next second, the young man lost himself in her softness, occasionally brushing the tip of his tongue across her skin as though carefully polishing a work of art.

The girl’s entire body went limp. Even after removing the chains that bound her hands, she forgot to struggle. Each time his tongue descended, her body trembled, and the natural vivacity between her brows gradually melted into springlike desire.

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