In Front of the City God Temple

Nights were always so long...

Bai Yujun stood guard before the City God Temple, helping the girls hiding inside. More and more rescued girls gathered there. Their weeping drew wave after wave of hooligans and scoundrels. The white figure's blade technique grew ever more adept, until corpses piled over a meter high at the entrance and no one dared approach the City God Temple again.

Call her a vile beast or an animal if they wanted. They could say whatever they pleased—she would not retreat half a step today.

She was protecting more than those pitiful girls. Bai Yujun was also resolutely protecting herself, another woman like them. This obsession could not be abandoned.

Fish Belly White appeared on the horizon, and the fiends who had raged through the night paused for the moment, worn out by fatigue.

Bai Yujun sat quietly on the stone steps before the temple. Her right hand gripped the scabbard planted against the ground, while her thumb flicked the Hengdao up and down again and again. The scrape of blade against sheath kept anyone from daring to draw near.

Senior Sister Wei walked over and sat beside her on the steps. Perhaps she was speaking to Bai Yujun, or perhaps merely talking to herself.

"Back then, I was still very young. My entire family died in the chaos after the city fell. Master found me and took me up the mountain. At the time, I hated them too—I hated those disorderly soldiers. Later, I killed every last one of them. But the tragedies never stopped. One upheaval after another, one fallen city after another... there was no end to the killing..."

"Slowly, I came to understand that these tragedies would keep happening, and there was nothing we could do..."

"..."

Bai Yujun remained silent. Senior Sister Wei was someone with a story. Perhaps everyone had a story; they simply did not wish to tell it.

Senior Sister Wei looked at the countless corpses before the City God Temple.

"Killing this many people is no small matter. Though these bastards deserved to die, you are still a demon and they are humans. Punishment will certainly be unavoidable. I'll speak for you, but as for the rest, that depends on the sect's mood."

"Was I meddling too much?"

Bai Yujun laughed at herself. She had helped humans, only to be punished by humans in the end.

"No. I regret that I wasn't like you."

Shaking her head, Senior Sister Wei rose and casually brushed the dust from her Daoist robe. She turned back to look at the women sobbing and whimpering, sorrow written across her face.

"I didn't like you before, because you were a snake. But now... you're my friend."

Senior Sister Wei smiled, then turned and left.

Bai Yujun watched Senior Sister Wei's figure disappear around the corner, then looked back. The girls still wore terrified, helpless expressions. Their families were gone. Even if they survived, few would be willing to take them in again. Perhaps before long, some pedantic, useless fool would step forward and have them drowned in pig cages.

Unable to protect women, yet venting their anger on women instead—the world was often this absurdly ironic.

Morning.

The marauding bandit soldiers who had entered the city began systematically looting the grain stores and silver vaults. When they heard that a young girl at the City God Temple had killed more than a hundred people, they shouted and rushed toward the temple. Several hundred bandit soldiers and refugees brandished weapons, farm tools, and wooden clubs, their manner fierce and threatening.

The entrance of the small City God Temple was surrounded so tightly that not even water could pass through.

That lump of clay inside the temple could do nothing. All it knew was to keep saying, "Follow the Heavenly Dao. Do not interfere."

Bai Yujun stood at the entrance, her face cold and indifferent. Behind her, the girls wept even harder. They knew all too well what would happen once the white-clad Heroine could no longer hold those evil men back.

One girl in tattered clothes took a dagger from her robes and viciously slit her own throat. She would rather die than suffer humiliation again.

Bai Yujun glanced back. The vivid red of the blood was blinding.

Outside, the hooligans and scoundrels spewed obscenities too foul to bear hearing. That scarlet blood seemed to mock the savagery of this world. Perhaps the corpses had cowed the bandit soldiers for now, but once their patience ran dry, they would charge forward and fight desperately. City God could not even protect his own temple and den; now the girls and the City God himself had to rely on a snake. What an irony.

The two sides stood with swords drawn and bows bent. Bai Yujun did not retreat a single step!

She drew her blade.

Chunyang Art: Heavenly Dao Sword Momentum, No Self, No Sword.

She swung the blade with all her strength, sweeping it across the open ground before her.

Swish!

Blade qi carved out a semicircle. The corpses struck by it turned into scattered limbs that flew everywhere. It was called swordsmanship, yet she wielded a blade; with one move, she showed these bandit soldiers what true martial arts were.

Her body leaned forward, both hands gripping the blade as she maintained her slashing stance. A night of slaughter had allowed Bai Yujun to grasp the essence of blade techniques.

The bandit soldiers retreated several steps in terror.

"She's alone! If we all rush her, we can bury her to death! Charge!"

The one who had stirred them up charged ahead as soon as he finished shouting. The other bandit soldiers watched him rush forward as though he were a fool. When he realized no one was joining him and that he alone had charged before the woman in white, an idea suddenly came to him.

With a thud, he dropped to both knees before Bai Yujun.

"Heroine... spare my life..."

Bai Yujun smiled, then suddenly reached out with her Left Hand, seized the bandit soldier's head, and slammed it viciously down against the ground.

Crack! A perfectly good head burst like a smashed watermelon, striking the floor tile head-on. The human head was utterly defeated.

Silence fell over the scene once more. The bandit soldiers stared at Bai Yujun, standing motionless before the temple gate, as though she were a monster. Many people could crush a man's head by pressing it down, but without exception, those people were muscular Strong Men with arms thicker than legs. Since when could a little girl do it too?

Bai Yujun turned to look into the distance. Someone with exceptionally vigorous Qi and Blood was approaching from that direction. In her infrared thermal image, his Qi and Blood was several times stronger than an ordinary person's.

"Fighting for my life before I've even eaten breakfast—being a snake isn't easy."

The most suitable weapon for dealing with this sort of Strong Man was that heavy ruler-blade. Unfortunately, she had only brought the sharpest Hengdao when she came out to kill people last night. She had never feared competing with others in strength; ever since she had eaten and digested that crocodile heart, her power had increased tremendously.

That Strong Man was actually riding a horse. In these hungry times, when people even ate rats, anyone capable of feeding a horse clearly possessed formidable ability.

He rode up before the City God Temple. After listening to the underlings' account, the Strong Man became deeply interested in Bai Yujun. He waved his hand to signal his men to retreat, then stepped forward alone.

"Chen Quan of the Tiger Might Gang's Righteous Army. May I ask this young lady's name?"

Bai Yujun gave Chen Quan of that so-called Tiger Might Gang a cold look. Judging by its name, it was nothing more than a ragtag gang. In times of disaster, instead of helping with relief efforts, they only took advantage of the chaos to rise up. Truly, heroes emerged from Chaotic Times.

"Chunyang Palace. Bai Yujun."

Chen Quan was startled and staggered back three steps. The three words "Chunyang Palace" alone were enough to make him look up in awe. Anyone in this world with even halfway sharp ears knew of Chunyang Palace's great name. Forget a member of some idle gang like him—even the Devil Race, which wreaked havoc across the world, did not dare make trouble in front of Chunyang Palace.

But... why wasn't this girl wearing Daoist robes or carrying a token?

Could she be impersonating Chunyang Palace to scare us off?

"Oh? Then please forgive my disrespect. I wonder if you have a Chunyang Token for us to admire. If not, don't blame me for cleaning up a fraud on Chunyang Palace's behalf."

Bai Yujun curled her lip.

"No. And even if I did, I wouldn't show it to you."

"What a sharp-tongued little girl. You impersonate Chunyang Palace to frighten us, yet you still dare spout such wild words. Since that is the case, don't blame me, Chen, for being discourteous. As it happens, I'm short a wife to rule my mountain stronghold. Heh heh, are you interested?"

Chen Quan's answer was a fierce wave of blade qi!

"Northern Darkness Sword Qi! Tai Chi Sword... blade technique!"

When negotiation could no longer succeed, violence became the best option. Bai Yujun struck first, using venom without the slightest hesitation.