Darkness of the Night: Saving Zhu Zhuqing

Following the direction shown by the star chart, Chu Yuan led Keqing and Mona through several quiet alleys to a district of abandoned estates by the outer city wall.

Years ago, several nobles of the Balak Kingdom had kept villas in this area. As the southern commercial district rose to prominence, it had gradually fallen into neglect, leaving only secluded estates with mottled courtyard walls.

After nightfall, even the city guards on their rounds rarely set foot here.

"It's the outer wall of that abandoned old estate up ahead."

Mona lowered the brim of her hat and whispered, "The trajectory of that girl in black's Fate Star is flickering violently in the alley east of the estate. Of the five hostile star tracks surrounding her, one has a particularly powerful presence. By this world's standards of power, I'm afraid it has already surpassed the level of a fortieth-rank Soul Ancestor."

Chu Yuan paused, his gaze piercing the layers of darkness toward a narrow alley between crumbling walls dozens of yards away.

A slender figure in black staggered and fell to one knee on the cold flagstones.

Compared with her cool, striking appearance and neat attire that afternoon, the girl had now truly been driven into a desperate plight.

Her close-fitting black leather combat outfit had been torn open by blades in several places. A wound on her left shoulder was deep enough to expose the bone, and crimson blood seeped steadily from it, staining a broad patch of her clothes dark red.

Ten paces in front of her, five elite assassins with black cloths covering their faces stood in a fan, completely sealing off her escape from the alley.

"Second Miss, stop struggling in vain."

The Soul Ancestor assassin leading them gave a sinister laugh.

"The eldest prince gave the order. Since you insisted on running away to find that good-for-nothing Dai Mubai, you might as well leave your life here!"

At the mention of Dai Mubai's name, deep disappointment and a bone-chilling cold flashed through Zhu Zhuqing's once lifeless, icy catlike eyes as she knelt on one knee.

She had escaped, and she had indeed found Dai Mubai at noon today.

But what had she seen?

A coward who, faced with the brutal struggle for his family's survival, had sunk completely into the arms of pleasure, taking twin girls to a hotel with one on each arm! A pampered wastrel who, after being driven back in a single move, could do nothing but bluster, having lost even the courage to face a strong opponent!

When this group of Star Luo Imperial Family death warriors had ambushed her at the inn in the west of the city, she might have been able to force Dai Mubai to help shoulder some of the burden if she had fled toward the Rose Hotel in the south or the pleasure district.

But the pride and coldness in Zhu Zhuqing's bones made her prefer to flee alone to these desolate northwestern estates and die fighting in a pool of blood rather than wag her tail and beg that man, who disgusted her, for mercy!

"You want to take my life and claim credit from Zhu Zhuyun and Dai Weisi... then you'll have to leave a few of your own lives in exchange!"

Zhu Zhuqing bit down hard on her bloodless lower lip. The two yellow Hundred-Year Soul Rings at her feet glimmered faintly once more.

She forcibly drew on the last trace of her twenty-seventh-rank Soul Power, the muscles in her long, full legs tensing as she prepared to unleash her first Soul Skill, Hell Stab, before she died. Even if they perished together, she would tear a piece of flesh from the Soul Ancestor before her!

"Stubborn fool! Since Second Miss is in such a hurry to be on her way, I'll see you off-third Soul Skill, Rending Shadow Hook!"

A fierce light blazed in the Soul Ancestor assassin's eyes. He became a twisted black shadow and lunged straight for Zhu Zhuqing's pale throat!

A forty-fourth-rank Soul Ancestor's full-strength attack was swift beyond measure.

Grievously wounded and exhausted, Zhu Zhuqing's pupils widened. Her depleted Soul Power could no longer even support a dodge, and she could only watch as the deadly iron hook rapidly grew larger in her vision.

Am I going to die...?

Perhaps that's for the best. At least I won't have to face my family's suffocating fate anymore, or harbor any more ridiculous fantasies about that man.

Zhu Zhuqing closed her eyes in despair.

Just as the darkly gleaming iron hook came within three inches of her throat, a dazzling bolt of violet-gold divine lightning tore through the thick night above the estate!

Chu Yuan walked out at an unhurried pace and gently pointed his right index finger toward the middle of the alley.

The violet-gold thousand-year First Soul Ring at his feet quietly bloomed with a brilliant divine radiance!

First divine-authority Soul Skill: Heavenly Principles Thunder Judgment!

A violet-gold pillar of lightning as thick as a bucket slammed down on the Soul Ancestor assassin's head!

For an instant, the entire gloomy alley was as bright as day.

A breath later, the lightning faded.

"Thud..."

The once menacing forty-fourth-rank agility-type Soul Ancestor had become a charred corpse, black from head to toe. He fell stiffly in front of Zhu Zhuqing and shattered into pieces of charcoal that scattered across the ground!

The other four Three-Ring Soul Elder assassins, who had been following him and preparing to close in and finish her off, froze in their tracks like roosters caught by the throat!

"Wh-who's there?!"

"One strike... He killed Commander Black Hook at the forty-fourth rank in just one strike?! Retreat! He's a high-level Soul King, or even a Soul Emperor!!"

The four Soul Elder death warriors were frightened out of their wits. They no longer dared pay Zhu Zhuqing any attention and turned, desperately driving their Soul Power as they tried to leap over the estate walls on either side and flee for their lives.

"You disturbed my lord, and now you think you can leave?"

A girl's voice rang out at the mouth of the alley.

Keqing lightly raised her slender, pale hand. A Lightning Stiletto flashing with violet electricity shot into the air above the alley, and her graceful figure became a violet afterimage, blinking between the four assassins as they leaped into the air!

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

Four flashes of sword light appeared like sudden thunderbolts.

From Chu Yuan raising his hand to bring down Heavenly Principles Thunder Judgment and wipe out the Soul Ancestor commander, to Keqing killing the four Soul Elder death warriors in an instant, barely two breaths had passed!

Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes in a daze and looked at the Soul Ancestor's remains before her, still giving off a burnt stench and the lingering might of Electro. Slowly, she raised her head and looked at the three figures walking toward her from beyond the estate's stone archway.

"It's... it's you?"

Zhu Zhuqing's cool eyes trembled slightly as she recognized the person before her as the mysterious young man from the Rose Hotel lobby at noon.

She had never imagined that the Soul Ancestor-led squad of death warriors who had pursued her all the way from the Star Luo Empire to Suotuo City would be completely wiped out before this young man, unable to withstand even a single encounter!

And that Soul Ring that had lit up around the young man just now...

Towering waves surged in Zhu Zhuqing's heart.

If her eyes had not deceived her, that had clearly been only his first Soul Ring. Yet its strange, intertwined violet-gold color was a hundred times more terrifying than the black ten-thousand-year Soul Rings of her family's elders!

Chu Yuan walked slowly over to Zhu Zhuqing, studying the Hell Spirit Cat girl kneeling in a pool of blood.

It had to be said that even gravely injured, Zhu Zhuqing still had an astonishingly voluptuous figure.

Her slender waist and rounded hips formed an exaggerated curve beneath her tight black leather outfit. Her body trembled slightly from blood loss, giving her a sense of untamed wildness and lonely coldness, as though she were on the verge of breaking.

"You knew you were injured, yet instead of seeking help from your fiancé, you came alone to this deserted, abandoned estate to wait for death. What's the matter? Have you seen what that sick cat is made of and given up even the thought of asking him for help?"

Chu Yuan's words were like a sharp scalpel, cutting open the deepest scars and humiliation in Zhu Zhuqing's heart.

She braced both hands against the cold ground, trying to force herself upright and preserve the last of her dignity. But the severe injuries to her left shoulder and meridians made her vision go dark, and after rising barely half an inch, she fell heavily back to the ground.

"Cough, cough... Thank you for saving my life, sir."

Zhu Zhuqing wiped the blood from the corner of her lips and raised her cool, stubborn eyes to look Chu Yuan straight in the face.

"My life or death has nothing to do with that coward Dai Mubai. If you want the Star Luo Imperial Family's bounty, sir, then do it. If you have no such intention, I, Zhu Zhuqing, will risk my life to repay you someday!"

Seeing her remain defiant despite her injuries, Mona could not help muttering softly from the side:

"This girl certainly has a fierce temper... But the assassins just now cracked the bones in her left shoulder, and there's stagnant blood throughout her body. If she doesn't get treatment immediately, never mind repaying you someday—it's hard to say whether she'll even make it through tonight."

Chu Yuan looked at the girl, whose gaze was as stubborn as a lone wolf's, and fell into thought.

To establish the Divine Court of Heavenly Principles and rule over both worlds, he would naturally need, besides the beauties of Teyvat, some local subordinates who were strong-willed and absolutely loyal to manage worldly affairs and wield his hidden blade.

This Hell Spirit Cat before him, abandoned by her family and utterly disillusioned with Dai Mubai, was undoubtedly an excellent blade for the dark of night.

"Claim a bounty? A trifling bit of gold and silver—is it worthy of my attention?"

Chu Yuan gave a soft, derisive chuckle and stepped forward. Under Zhu Zhuqing's astonished gaze, he crouched down in front of her and extended his left hand.

"Hum."

The translucent image of a tender green branch, warm and lustrous as though carved from jade, quietly bloomed above Chu Yuan's left palm.

The sharp stench of blood and burning that had filled the air was swept away in an instant by the refreshing fragrance of plants and trees.

"Don't move."

Chu Yuan spoke calmly and gently pressed his left palm, wrapped in emerald divine light of life, above the wound deep enough to expose her bone.

"Ngh...!"

Zhu Zhuqing instinctively tensed, wanting to draw back and avoid him.

But the next moment, as that trace of divine power from Irminsul's life essence flowed into her through Chu Yuan's palm, Zhu Zhuqing froze!

What kind of incredible power was this?!

Her broken shoulder bones healed in the blink of an eye. The torn, ragged flesh regrew and closed at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming as smooth and delicate as frost and snow once more!

Irminsul's life essence washed through her damaged meridians, driving her depleted, overtaxed twenty-seventh-rank Soul Power straight through the barrier to the twenty-eighth rank!

"Ahh..."

Wrapped in the warmth of that vitality, she could not help letting out a soft moan.

She stared blankly down at the unblemished skin beneath the torn black cloth at her left shoulder. Feeling the surging twenty-eighth-rank Soul Power circulating within her, her mind went completely blank.

In the Star Luo Imperial Family, she had seen healing-type Soul Saints above the seventieth rank save people before. But even healing-type experts at the level of Soul Saints or Soul Douluo could never restore broken bones, erase every wound, and casually help someone advance a rank in Soul Power in a few breaths, using nothing but a trace of their presence without releasing a Soul Skill!

This was no method a mortal Soul Master could possess. It was a miracle!

Before this man, both the family deathtrap she had struggled so desperately to escape and the talent and influence Dai Weisi and Zhu Zhuyun took such pride in were as laughably insignificant as dust.

"I've healed your injuries."

Chu Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, the night breeze stirring the hem of his white robe with its golden patterns.

"However, when these five death warriors fail to return tonight, word will soon reach the Star Luo Empire. With your current strength, even if you escape tonight, you won't escape the next group sent to kill you."

Zhu Zhuqing's long eyelashes trembled gently.

She understood better than anyone that Dai Mubai could barely protect himself and had long since fallen into depravity. And even if Shrek Academy really had some ability, it could never clash head-on with the entire Star Luo Imperial Family for an outsider like her.

Only the young man before her, who seemed like a god descended to the mortal world in his every movement, had the power to truly rewrite her fate!

"You said just now that if you survived today, you would do everything in your power to repay me for saving your life someday."

Chu Yuan looked down at her, a trace of irresistible scrutiny from one accustomed to command in his indifferent gaze.

"As it happens, I need an attendant to take charge of intelligence in the dark of night. Zhu Zhuqing, I'll give you a choice: will you continue clinging to your ridiculous family betrothal and seek death, or sever your past and offer me your loyalty?"

When his words fell, silence filled the alley.

Keqing and Mona stood behind Chu Yuan, quietly watching the black-clad girl kneeling on the ground.

Zhu Zhuqing raised her cold, breathtakingly beautiful face and stared blankly at the young man who had extended his hand to her like a god. The cold looks she had endured in the Star Luo Zhu Family flashed through her mind, followed by her sister Zhu Zhuyun's killing intent and Dai Mubai's sickening face in front of the Rose Hotel. At last, her thoughts settled on the violet-gold divine lightning that had torn through the night sky and slain her powerful enemies, and the emerald vitality as warm as spring.

Deep in her long-frozen catlike eyes, a blazing flame kindled for the first time—a flame of truly living for herself.