"You mean, you used such extreme measures to exorcise evil?"
He Shutong turned slightly, and under her gaze, City Lord Liu felt as if his whole body was about to freeze. He couldn't help but stop floating in the air and land gracefully. A sense of shame arose in his heart, and he dared not look down at her.
"That's natural. You Su risked his life to protect this evil spirit, so I had no choice but to subdue him first."
City Lord Liu remained calm, his hands behind his back, exuding an aura of righteous indignation. He couldn't discern the woman's Mystic Qi around her.
This is undoubtedly bad news for a cultivator. The flow of Mystic Qi within a cultivator's body naturally influences the operation of Mystic Qi around them, and sometimes one can even judge a person's strength from the state of Mystic Qi around them. This also indicates that although this woman's realm is not low, her cultivation is unstable and on the verge of chaos and collapse.
Thinking of this, City Lord Liu straightened his hunched back a little; he naturally had his own trump cards.
"You Su wasn't protecting this evil spirit; he was only protecting his junior sister."
He Shutong lightly raised her right hand and grasped at the air. The elegant sword without a scabbard flew out of the dust-filled City Lord's Mansion on its own, delivering the hilt to He Shutong's hand. He Shutong gently grasped it, and her entire demeanor changed drastically.
"I want to kill the evil spirit, not his junior sister."
"I will deal with the evil spirits myself. You Su is at fault, but your fault is greater."
City Lord Liu raised his white eyebrows slightly and asked, "As the lord of a city, what wrong have I done in eliminating evil for the people?"
"Your biggest mistake... was hurting him like this!"
As soon as he finished speaking, He Shutong's sword technique resembled a lotus, and a dazzling display of Sword Qi bloomed as he flew towards City Lord Liu.
Upon hearing his Mistress's voice, You Su's eyes widened slightly, and he found an unusual hint of anger in it.
This seemed utterly incomprehensible to You Su, as all of his Mistress's previous words had been like a perpetually calm, icy lake. You Su didn't understand the reason, only assuming that his Mistress, like his junior sister, had had her temperament affected by evil spirits.
Looking back at the scene, City Lord Liu was dumbfounded. The woman's swordplay was not overwhelming, but the threat she posed to him was no less. He felt that he could not directly block her sword due to its aura.
But this swordsmanship, as graceful as a lotus emerging from water, felt strangely familiar to him, as if he had faced it before...
He remembered! In the great battle of the Divine Mountain Evil Purge nearly a hundred years ago, countless Evil Cultivator died under this Lotus Sword! It even forced many ancient evil sects to surface and join forces to plot against her, all in order to kill this promising righteous cultivator as soon as possible.
And You Su's Mistress was none other than the stunningly talented Lotus Sword Venerable!
Upon realizing this, City Lord Liu felt a chill run down his spine. If it truly was Void Glimpse Venerable, he had absolutely no chance of defeating him!
He considered running away, but the lotus sword flower seemed to have locked onto him; wherever his mind wanted to go, the sword flower would follow.
While he was using all his internal Mystic Qi to deal with the sword, he was also cursing You Su's master in his heart, unable to understand how a female cultivator in the Condensing Water Realm could find a powerful expert in the Void Glimpse Realm to guard the Sword Sect for her.
How many Void Realm cultivators are there in the world? He was confident he could even handle cultivators at the Feather Transformation Realm, yet a Void Glimpse Venerable appeared in this remote Chuyun City.
As he cursed, the sword flower arrived. City Lord Liu was no longer as calm and composed as when he had tortured You Su. His black armor, formed from Mystic Qi, was as brittle as paper and was easily shattered by the sword's force. His outer robe tore instantly, and the black blood that splattered out seemed to scatter into flowers in the air.
Even so, the sword's momentum remained undiminished, and City Lord Liu's figure was forced to be pushed back continuously until he crashed into two or three thick old trees before finally coming to a stop.
He got up and, through the ashes and mist, glared resentfully at the silent He Shutong. At the same time, he reached into his pocket and fumbled for something, slowly taking out an exquisite horn—his biggest trump card. Without hesitation, he prepared to blow it.
Even though He Shutong didn't know the function of the horn, she would never be so arrogant as to let the city lord use it so easily. She reacted extremely quickly and had already rushed over with her sword!
The journey of a hundred meters was over in an instant, but what stopped City Lord Liu from blowing his horn was not He Shutong's sword, but a person who suddenly appeared in front of him.
An invisible wall of Mystic Qi formed behind this person, blocking the aggressive He Shutong. City Lord Liu stared blankly at this person, so shocked that he lost all movement and thought for a moment, as if he had lost his soul.
He remembered the man's face; it was the face of the benefactor who had saved him from the people of the sacred mountain, the one he should have killed long ago!
City Lord Liu would never forget this disfigured face, even in his death. It was rotten and festering, with scars spreading across its entire face like vortexes, making it seem like a face no human could possibly possess.
So even though this person was smiling gently at him, he still felt a chilling terror.
"Long time no see, Xiaoliu."
These words were like a sinister claw, tightening around City Lord Liu's pounding heart.
An unprecedented chill ran through him. City Lord Liu felt that his ruthless act of repaying kindness with enmity back then was a joke, and that his century-long planning and ambition were nothing but empty talk.
He never had the chance to become the master of the new world that his benefactor spoke of; everything he did was to pave the way for the person in front of him!
"Master... Master." City Lord Liu's apple bobbed. The two words were both strange and familiar. Even though his mind was in turmoil and he was on the verge of collapse, he still said them subconsciously.
"We can catch up later."
Just then, the barrier behind him was also pierced by the sharp sword light, and the sword energy poured out like water.
The disfigured man brought his two fingers together, using them as a sword, and precisely pressed them against the tip of He Shutong's sword amidst the chaotic sword light. For a moment, it was as if time stood still, the world was silent, and only the fingers and sword remained locked in a stalemate.
A moment later, the sword and the finger separated, and a powerful burst of energy erupted from the point where the two had just made contact, blasting away the mist within a hundred-meter radius.
He Shutong frowned; she recognized this person too!
The Evil Cultivator almost killed her back then and made True Lord Yujing the scapegoat was him!
Her emotions surged more intensely, and she could feel the overwhelming hatred within her. She drew her sword and prepared to strike again.
"Junior Sister!"
A scream suddenly rang out, causing He Shutong to stop in her tracks. She turned around and saw a strange dark red vortex appear where You Su was, with eight tentacles blotting out the sky and dancing wildly behind it!
Ji Lingruo had already reverted to her original form, and at this moment, half of her body had been submerged in the vortex, seemingly being swallowed up completely.
You Su was running towards her with all his might, determined to win back his junior sister.
He Shutong originally wanted Wangshu Fairy to stop You Su, but found that Wangshu Fairy was frozen in place, staring blankly at the two points of light above the vortex as if she had been frozen in place.
No longer wanting to fight, He Shutong touched the ground with both feet and almost burst out with her fastest speed to grab You Su.
At the critical moment, You Su grabbed Ji Lingruo's hands, who was trapped in the vortex, He Shutong tugged at You Su's clothes.
But the power of that vortex was incredibly strange. No matter how hard He Shutong tried, he couldn't stop Ji Lingruo getting trapped inside. At this moment, only her hand, which was tightly clasped with You Su's, remained outside.
He Shutong had already made up her mind that she could not let You Su get involved in this situation again. She was about to step forward to separate the two of them when You Su turned around resolutely and swung his sword, cutting off the robe that He Shutong was using to hold onto You Su.
In an instant, the suction force of the vortex increased sharply, and You Su was sucked into the vortex along with Ji Lingruo.
Enraged, He Shutong raised his sword and swung it at the vortex. With a single strike, only the building behind him exploded, and the vortex vanished in an instant, leaving no trace.
He Shutong stood there, feeling a suffocating sense of loss.
She knew that the other person was desperate to save her junior sister, but the fact that You Su personally cut off the sleeve that was tethering her still caused her a hidden pain in her heart.