"Senior Brother, calm down!!"
Li Xuanxiao rode his sword on the wind, following the aura of his senior brother, Xue Yun, all the way out of Shu Mountain.
"I've already lost my father. I can't lose her too. That saying was right—only after losing something does one learn to cherish it.
"My father was like that, and so was she. I won't let myself live with regrets again."
Li Xuanxiao said, "Senior Brother, have you forgotten the original intention you had when you first began cultivating the Dao?"
"You're right. I love her!!"
Li Xuanxiao: ...
It seemed his senior brother could no longer hear a word he said.
Xue Yun's cultivation far surpassed Li Xuanxiao's. Even when Li Xuanxiao accelerated with all his strength, he could not catch up.
Before long, he had been shaken off.
Li Xuanxiao stopped amid a dense forest and sighed helplessly.
His senior brother's voice drifted over from afar. "If I lose her, what good is gaining the whole world!!"
Li Xuanxiao: (⊙o⊙)...
Good heavens, what a love-struck Senior Brother~
Li Xuanxiao gave up on pursuing his senior brother and was about to return to report the matter to the sect.
Just then, the sounds of battle suddenly rose from below.
Lowering his head, Li Xuanxiao saw a fierce battle erupt not far away.
A figure was struck from the air and fell straight toward him.
Li Xuanxiao instinctively reached out and caught her.
She wore a black robe, had a pair of smooth, fair legs, and a face beautiful enough to shake the soul.
This was trouble.
Li Xuanxiao was caught in a dilemma.
This plot... why did it feel so clichéd, such an old, worn-out routine?
He did not know the woman's identity, nor whether she was righteous or evil.
Should he save her or not? Saving her would likely bring unnecessary trouble.
Yet not saving her would go against the principles of a Shushan Disciple.
At that moment, Li Xuanxiao noticed that the woman's injuries seemed to have been caused by an attack from someone who cultivated an Evil Cultivation Method.
Li Xuanxiao narrowed his eyes slightly.
After a brief hesitation, he made his decision.
"..."
Zhao Lu slowly opened her eyes, looking around in confusion.
She discovered that she was inside a cave.
She looked down at herself. Her clothes had been removed, and her wounds had been treated.
"You're awake."
A clear, bright voice sounded.
A man?
Zhao Lu's expression shifted slightly, and a flicker of panic crossed her face.
At that instant, countless Storybook Novels she had once secretly read behind her imperial father's back inexplicably surfaced in her mind.
The male and female leads always met by chance like this.
And judging by his voice, the other party was undoubtedly a young man.
Zhao Lu turned her head. "You..."
She froze at once, because what stood behind her was not a person.
It was... a Paper Figure?
That was right. It truly was a Paper Figure.
Zhao Lu blinked. "You... who are you?"
"Men and women should not touch intimately, so I had no choice but to resort to this measure."
"Then where are you?" Zhao Lu looked around.
Other than the Paper Figure, she could find no trace of anyone else in the cave.
At that very moment, using an earth escape technique, Li Xuanxiao hid underground outside the cave and spoke through the Paper Figure:
"It is inconvenient for me to show myself. Rest here in peace. I have already given you a Detoxification Pill. Do you know who the Evil Cultivators who attacked you were?"
Zhao Lu pondered for a moment. "I don't know who they were. I was walking along the road when they suddenly attacked me."
A sudden attack?
Li Xuanxiao recalled that when he had bandaged her wounds earlier, her clothing, inside and out, had been unlike that of ordinary people.
She was most likely the daughter of royal nobility.
"Were there three of them in total?"
"Yes!" Zhao Lu nodded.
Li Xuanxiao added, "Take a look. Were these the three?"
Zhao Lu looked in the direction indicated by the Paper Figure's finger. Only then did she notice the three corpses in the cave.
"It was them!"
Zhao Lu was somewhat astonished. She considered her cultivation to be among the best of the younger generation.
Otherwise, she would never have thought to sneak out of the palace and roam the martial world. Yet the moment she stepped outside, she had been attacked and beaten so badly that she could not fight back at all.
And now, all three of them had been killed by this man. That showed just how formidable he was.
After receiving a certain answer and confirming that no fish had slipped through the net, Li Xuanxiao said:
"That is good. Since the villains have been eliminated, Miss, rest and recover in peace. I shall take my leave."
"Wait!" Zhao Lu hurriedly said. "Young Hero, you saved me. I cannot repay such great kindness. If you will not show yourself, then so be it, but why are you unwilling to even leave behind your name or sect? How will I repay you in the future?"
"There is no need. Slay Demons and Exterminate Devils is simply my duty. Miss, there is no need to take it to heart."
Having said that, Li Xuanxiao did not wait for her to speak again before escaping into the distance.
The Paper Figure ignited on its own before Zhao Lu. It quickly turned to ashes and scattered on the wind, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
Watching this scene, Zhao Lu knew that he had already left.
"This..."
Zhao Lu looked at the white gauze wrapped around her body. The bandaging was exquisitely done, practically flawless.
It was clear from this that he was an exceptionally meticulous person.
When Zhao Lu looked lower, her pretty face could not help reddening, carrying a hint of bashful ambiguity.
She discovered that the gauze was wrapped around her chest, the insides of her thighs, and several private areas...
The cloth seemed to have been soaked in a specially prepared medicine, capable of stopping bleeding and expelling poison.
Suddenly, Zhao Lu remembered something.
She hurriedly removed the purple crystal hanging before her chest.
An Image Stone.
This purple crystal was so exquisite that even a cultivator would never mistake it for something as crude as an Image Stone.
Fortunately, the Image Stone had not been damaged during the battle. Zhao Lu activated it.
Very soon, an exceptionally handsome face appeared within the Image Stone.
His features were refined and well-proportioned, fitting together in perfect harmony.
He wore a daoist robe as white as snow, its sleeves fluttering in the wind.
The daoist robe was impeccably tailored to his tall, slender frame, making him seem straight as a pine, elegant and otherworldly.
Delicate cloud patterns and immortal cranes were embroidered upon the daoist robe, as though those auspicious creatures had been given life and were dancing around him.
His entire person carried an upright and unyielding Righteous Spirit.
"It was him... who saved me..."
Zhao Lu blinked.
Watching him slowly remove her clothes, she blushed once more.
At first, he truly had intended to let the Paper Figure bandage her wounds. But clearly, the Paper Figure could not be controlled as easily as one's own arm.
Zhao Lu was not the sort of woman who would seek death merely because someone had seen her body, and circumstances had demanded flexibility.
Without him, she would likely have died long ago.
Judging by his attire, he should have been a Shushan Disciple.
But... he saved me, so why was he unwilling to leave even his name behind?
Slaying demons and exterminating devils, bearing justice in his heart, doing good deeds without leaving his name behind... possessing extraordinary strength, and such a disposition besides.
It was truly difficult not to develop a favorable impression of him.
This was Zhao Lu's first time leaving the imperial palace.
Afterward, she understood one thing.
In one's lifetime, one truly must not meet someone too stunning at the very beginning.
The Shushan Sect Leader had died.
But Shu Mountain would not fall into chaos because of it. Under the sect leader were four great disciples.
The one with the greatest prestige and ability was Daoist Master Lingxu, the Second Disciple.
Over the years, while the sect leader had remained in seclusion, Lingxu had managed all matters large and small within the sect, arranging everything in perfect order.
Now that the sect leader was dead, Lingxu succeeded him, and no one objected.
Li Xuanxiao returned to Shu Mountain and reported every detail of his senior brother's matter to his master, Daoist Master Lingxu.
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