The Yuheng's Crisis in Another World
The night wind whistled past Chu Yuan's ears as the ancient trees on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest flew past beneath his feet.
With a body empowered by level-thirty Primordial Divine Power, he could easily cross more than ten zhang each time his toes touched a sturdy treetop or a jagged rock.
Occasionally, Hundred-Year Soul Beasts disturbed by the celestial phenomenon tried to rush from their territories in a frenzy. But when Chu Yuan's figure swept over their heads, the faintest trace of the supreme presence emanating from the Crown of Heavenly Principles and Irminsul escaped, and the ferocious Soul Beasts cowered in the bushes, their limbs trembling.
The closer he came to the rocky ridge in the northeast, the stronger the burnt smell and the presence of violent Electro in the air became.
"Boom-crack!"
A blinding burst of purple lightning suddenly exploded beneath the night sky ahead, followed by the piercing death cries of several wolf-type Soul Beasts.
Chu Yuan flashed forward and landed soundlessly atop a weathered boulder more than ten meters high, looking down.
The center of the rocky ridge had been reduced to a scorched black crater.
The strange rocks that had once stood there were scored with countless sword cuts, smooth as mirrors. Scattered around the crater were more than a dozen simple, ancient-looking blue-gray stone bricks and fragments of white marble railings bearing Liyue cloud patterns, clearly not from the Douluo Continent.
At the very center of the crater, a slender yet upright figure in purple knelt on one knee. In her right hand, she gripped the Lion's Roar, a longsword flickering with faint lightning, its tip driven deep into the scorched earth as she struggled to support her swaying body.
It was Keqing, the Yuheng, one of the Liyue Qixing.
But the Yuheng was in a truly dreadful state.
After being battered by turbulent currents in the space between worlds and suffering the violent impact of a fall from high above, her purple-and-black formal dress, usually immaculate, splendid and elegant, was torn in several places.
The delicate purple bow and sheer fabric at her chest had been slashed apart by sharp air currents, exposing a broad expanse of delicate shoulders fairer than frost and snow, along with her finely sculpted, deeply defined collarbones. As she breathed in quick, painful gasps, the full, rounded curves of her chest rose and fell violently, their breathtaking whiteness half-revealed through the torn fabric.
The dark purple pantyhose covering her long, straight, near-perfect legs had been ripped open in several places by sharp stones. Through the tangled threads, glimpses of delicate, faintly pink skin could be seen.
A thin line of bright red blood slid down her fair, delicate chin and dripped onto her dust-covered black high-heeled ankle boots.
More than ten meters away, seven or eight enormous Hundred-Year Gale Demon Wolves, dark green from head to tail, were closing in around Keqing in a semicircle. Behind the pack, a thousand-year Thunder-Patterned Terrorclaw Bear over four meters long, with a single horn on its forehead, stared greedily at the young woman in the crater, foul-smelling saliva dripping from its jaws.
Under the rejection of the Douluo Star plane's laws, the pure Electro that had once overflowed violently from Keqing's body made her look to the native Soul Beasts like some kind of humanoid heavenly treasure giving off an unparalleled, exotic fragrance.
"Damn it... What kind of hellhole is this..."
Keqing gritted her teeth, her eyes as clear as amethysts filled with unwillingness and an icy chill.
Only half a shichen ago, the sky above Liyue Harbor had collapsed without warning. She had been helping evacuate the people beneath the Jade Chamber when a sudden spatial vortex swept her away along with a section of stone platform.
When she regained her senses after the dizzying fall, she found herself in this unfamiliar wilderness.
Even more alarming, the rules of this world seemed to harbor extreme malice toward her!
She could not sense even the faintest trace of the familiar Ley Lines of the seven elements in the air. Instead, it was filled with a strange power that was viscous, overbearing and intensely invasive.
Whenever she tried to draw on the power of the Vision at her waist, that strange power would surge wildly back through her meridians. Not only did it suppress her Electro within her body, keeping it from circulating freely, it was also steadily squeezing the core of her Vision!
"Hum-crack!"
The surface of the Electro Vision hanging from Keqing's skirt at her waist was already covered in a web of dull cracks. Every flicker sent a stabbing pain shooting through her mind, making her slender waist weaken in waves and even causing the fair hand gripping her sword to twitch uncontrollably.
"Roar!!"
The thousand-year Thunder-Patterned Terrorclaw Bear at the back finally lost patience and let out a deafening bellow.
The seven or eight Hundred-Year Gale Demon Wolves in front pushed off the ground as one, becoming streaks of foul wind as they lunged at Keqing in the center of the crater!
"You beasts, don't even think about it!"
Keqing's eyes sharpened. Even with her meridians threatening to burst, the pride and resolve of the Yuheng would never allow her to sit and wait for death.
She bit down hard on the tip of her tongue, using the sharp pain to rouse herself. With a sudden flick of her wrist, she struggled to form a purple Lightning Stiletto.
"Star Dou Restoration!"
Keqing became a purple afterimage of lightning, darting back and forth through the wolf pack in an instant. Her swordlight wove through the air, cutting the three closest Hundred-Year Gale Demon Wolves in half on the spot!
But the instant she landed after using that combat skill-
"Pfft!"
The backlash from the laws between worlds erupted!
The Vision at her waist suddenly let out a plaintive whine. Instead of spreading outward, the violent purple lightning surged back through Keqing's slender waist and every limb and bone in her body.
Keqing felt a piercing numbness and agony shoot through her entire body. She spat out a mouthful of blood, and her legs gave way, sending her crashing onto the cold rocks. The Lion's Roar flew from her hand and lodged at an angle three paces away.
"Mm... My body... I can't move..."
Tiny purple arcs crackled across her legs, clad in torn black stockings, and her snow-white shoulders. Each flicker made her body tremble violently. An unusual flush, caused by the elemental backflow and intense heat, spread across her fair, beautiful face, and even her once cool, commanding gasps took on an involuntary, pitiful moan and quiver.
By then, the thousand-year Thunder-Patterned Terrorclaw Bear had crushed the rocks beneath its heavy steps and charged to within three zhang of her. It raised a massive paw trailing a foul wind and brought it down toward the defenseless Keqing's head!
The shadow of despair instantly filled Keqing's vision.
Am I, Keqing... really going to die for no reason in the jaws of a beast in this otherworldly wilderness today?
Her purple eyes widened in defiance, her fingertips clawing futilely at the rubble beneath her.
"Still."
A young man's warm, calm voice suddenly rang out beneath the deathly silent night sky, seemingly carrying the supreme decree of heaven and earth.
The next moment, Keqing's pupils contracted.
The menacing thousand-year Thunder-Patterned Terrorclaw Bear and the surviving Gale Demon Wolves around it had eerily stopped in midair, like insects trapped in amber, less than half a chi above her head!
A slender figure dressed in white with gold patterns appeared soundlessly before her, as though he had crossed the barrier of space itself.
The young man stood with his hands behind his back, his ink-black hair stirring in the night wind. Casually, he flicked a finger.
"Hum!"
A strand of dazzling, pale-gold Primordial Divine Power spread outward in invisible ripples.
The thousand-year Thunder-Patterned Terrorclaw Bear, whose thick hide and tough flesh were enough to give an ordinary level-thirty Soul Elder a headache, could not even manage half a scream before its enormous body exploded in midair into a cloud of blood. A deep purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring slowly rose above its remains, while the remaining Gale Demon Wolves were scared out of their wits and fled madly into the depths of the forest with their tails between their legs.
Only after doing all this did Chu Yuan slowly turn around and look down at the purple-haired young woman lying weakly on the rubble.
Her clothes were half undone and her black stockings torn, yet her purple eyes remained fixed stubbornly on him, wary and unyielding. At the sight of her tragic beauty, a trace of amused interest flickered in Chu Yuan's eyes.
He slowly crouched before Keqing and naturally reached out with his slender fingers, tilting up her delicate, fair chin, which was marked with a little blood.
"Don't move around, Miss Keqing."
The warmth of his fingertips made Keqing's entire body stiffen. Never having been so close to a member of the opposite sex, she felt her ears turn scarlet and instinctively tried to turn her head away. But the Electro running rampant inside her left her without even the strength to raise a hand. She could only bite her lip and demand in a low voice, embarrassed, indignant and suspicious:
"Y-you... Who are you?! How do you know my name?"
Chu Yuan did not answer immediately. His gaze swept over the snowy-white view at Keqing's chest, rising and falling with her rapid breaths, before settling on the Electro Vision beside her slender waist, on the verge of shattering completely. His lips curved slightly.
"Who I am isn't important. What matters is that right now, I'm the only one who can save your life."