Setting Out

Hey, hey, I lost—

Not only had I lost, I was about to die too.

I was too resolute to kill anyone, yet too weak to avenge that slap. I really was pathetic.

I'm sorry, Master.

I'm sorry, Mother.

I—

"Live..."

Suddenly, a voice rang out from somewhere within the Heart Lake, sending faint ripples across its surface.

It was a woman's voice.

Li Sushang heard it and fell silent.

"...For me."

Was that... Mother?

"You have to live, Sushang. You have to live well... Promise me."

Ah, but Mother, Sushang was about to die. Even if she wanted to live...

"Promise me!"

The next moment, the previously spotless Heart Lake suddenly transformed into a mirror.

The third realm of Tai Xu Heart Essence—the Mirror Realm.

Li Sushang abruptly opened her eyes.

"Live..."

Li Sushang murmured softly, and then her gaze suddenly hardened. The True Qi that her body had been unable to absorb or circulate because of the Qi-Suppressing Powder suddenly poured in from the outside, flowing through every limb and bone.

Almost by instinct, Li Sushang lightly stepped and spun on the ground, instantly converting her backward momentum into forward force. Sword technique? Instant Dust came to her naturally, and Li Sushang charged at Old Eagle with a speed beyond even her own imagination.

The Ancient Sword Xuanyuan was not short. If she attacked Old Eagle directly, Li Sushang would certainly be the one to die first.

So from the very beginning, Li Sushang's target had not been Old Eagle, but the Ancient Sword Xuanyuan in his hand.

The instant they crossed paths, Li Sushang reached for the Ancient Sword Xuanyuan and caught its blade. Then she flicked it with her finger.

With a sharp clang of finger against sword, the Ancient Sword Xuanyuan flew from Old Eagle's grasp and shot into the air.

Old Eagle was enraged. The hand that had held the sword turned into a palm and struck Li Sushang viciously, before he landed and dashed toward Xuanyuan.

Li Sushang was sent flying by the blow and coughed up blood, but it did not hinder her movements in the slightest.

She sprang up from the ground, circulated her True Qi, and lunged toward Xuanyuan as well.

Li Sushang, inheritor of the Tai Xu Sword Qi, and Old Eagle, leader of the Golden Sands Gang bandits, came to the same realization at that moment.

The Ancient Sword Xuanyuan—whoever gained it lived, and whoever lost it died.

Li Sushang and Old Eagle drew closer and closer to the Ancient Sword Xuanyuan.

Nothing remained in Li Sushang's eyes but that ancient sword.

You'll help me, won't you?

After all, you're my sword...

Holding onto that hope, the light in Li Sushang's eyes grew brighter and brighter. Then...

She watched a hand grip the hilt.

Li Sushang froze and looked toward the hand's owner.

That familiar, cruel, savage smile appeared on Old Eagle's face once more.

Despair surged through Li Sushang's heart.

The feeling of gaining hope only to lose it again was not pleasant. Even a Mirror Realm Sword Heart could not ignore it. To struggle, only to face death again afterward—no one would be willing to accept that.

...Yes, she was unwilling to accept it.

...Live.

Yes, she had to live.

Sushang, live!

She had to kill him, and then live!

Staring fixedly at Old Eagle, the Tai Xu Sword Qi immediately began to circulate. Li Sushang extended her right hand, shaped it into a sword, and swung at Old Eagle with all her strength.

As long as she could kill him first, the unheld Ancient Sword Xuanyuan would not be able to kill her directly. That would give her another sliver of hope.

Li Sushang did not know whether that sliver of hope could truly bring her survival, but she had already given it everything she had.

Life and death would be decided in an instant!

But in the next moment, Li Sushang's eyes widened.

So he really was an idiot.

But the Tai Xu Sword Qi... really was outrageous.

Kaino watched the two fight as he finished his second bowl of noodles. Then he set down the bowl and clapped his hands.

Their fight had not been much to look at, but its twists and turns made for a surprisingly good meal.

...Maybe not that good. Several times, Kaino had paused midway through eating, ready to intervene, only for Li Sushang to resolve the danger on her own.

When Li Sushang broke through on the spot, circulated the Tai Xu Sword Qi, rushed toward the Xuanyuan Sword, and knocked it away, even Kaino thought she was about to win.

Though he had planned to show up at the critical moment, Kaino would not deliberately trip Li Sushang up. If he did that, even if he managed to return home in the end, he would be too ashamed to face his family.

After all, Li Sushang had treated him fairly well, and the two of them even had the friendship of having been imprisoned together—helping at the critical moment was still helping, even if he was not putting his whole heart into it. But deliberately tripping her up? If anyone found out, he would be too embarrassed to call himself a Kaslana.

Yet in the end, Old Eagle had gotten hold of that sword.

Sigh, blades and swords truly had no mercy.

Thinking that, Kaino extended his right hand toward the two of them. A golden-red pistol then appeared in his hand.

Then Kaino pulled the trigger.

A flash of crimson light streaked through the air, striking Old Eagle's sword-holding arm directly before hitting the ground.

Before blood could flow from Old Eagle's severed arm and hand, they had already been charred black. Before the pain could reach him, Li Sushang's hand blade struck his face viciously.

Then Old Eagle, Li Sushang, and Xuanyuan fell to the ground together.

Old Eagle was now barely breathing. Heavenly Fire's attack on his arm was not fatal, especially since Kaino had restricted its power. But Li Sushang's strike, infused with True Qi, had truly been a fatal blow.

Li Sushang was not doing much better either. The Xuanyuan Sword truly was an incomparably sharp treasure sword. Even a slight slash from its momentum had torn a huge gash across her body. It would not kill her immediately, but in this era, no ordinary person could treat such a wound.

Li Sushang lay weakly on the ground, baring her teeth in pain. Then she suddenly burst out laughing.

She had remembered that she actually had an ally.

"So, if it weren't for me, you'd probably have died here today. Aren't you going to consider giving me something in return later?"

Kaino jumped down from the roof and casually sent out a Wind Blade, finishing off Old Eagle, whose eyes had begun to lose focus but who was still glaring at him unwillingly.

"Hehe... You helped me?"

Li Sushang slowly turned her head toward Kaino and grinned.

"You're still talking? Doesn't it hurt?"

Kaino sighed, walked over to Li Sushang, and crouched beside her. Then he reached out and placed a hand on her head.

"Huh? Raiken? What are you doing?"

Li Sushang shuddered and looked at Kaino nervously.

"I told you to stop talking. Also, I remember telling you my name is Kaino."

The Herrscher of Death's Life Force flowed from Kaino's hand, and the wounds on Li Sushang's body began healing at a completely unscientific speed.

This time, Li Sushang obediently kept quiet. Rather than asking question after question about her wounds' bizarre healing speed, she closed her mouth and silently studied Kaino.

An indescribable emotion wrapped around Li Sushang's heart, and her thoughts gradually drifted into the distance.

"I made several bowls of noodles just now. Do you want some..."

Kaino stopped halfway through his sentence. Seeing Li Sushang staring blankly at him, he immediately turned his head away, his face reddening as he coughed softly.

"Um, well... do you have a spare set of clothes?"

Hearing Kaino's voice, Li Sushang snapped out of her daze and instinctively looked down at herself.

"Eek?!"

Setting Out

Inside the Golden Sands Gang's kitchen, Li Sushang was wolfing down the noodles on the table with a rosy complexion. She had also changed into a new set of clothes identical to her old ones.

Kaino had created them.

"There are more in the pot. You don't have to eat so fast." Sitting across from Li Sushang, Kaino glanced at the three empty noodle bowls beside her and silently swallowed.

Other than Kaslanas, this was the first woman he had seen who could eat so much.

Though other than Kaslanas, he had not seen many women eat in the first place.

"Mmph, mmph, mmmph!"

A string of strange noises came from Li Sushang's mouth. She hurriedly put down her bowl and thumped her chest several times.

"Phew! No more, no more. I'm full."

Her face was still somewhat red, and Li Sushang's eyes darted everywhere except at Kaino.

"Ahem, well, your cooking isn't very good. It's far worse than my master's."

"If possible, I'd rather you compare it to your own cooking. And you said it tastes bad..."

At that, Kaino raised an eyebrow and pointed at the bowls beside Li Sushang.

"Didn't you still eat that much?"

"I can't cook, and I was hungry for almost an entire day."

Li Sushang scratched her cheek with a finger and gave an embarrassed smile.

"But speaking of which, what was that technique you used to treat me? It was like an immortal art—ah, if it's a sect secret, then forget I asked."

"It isn't exactly a secret. It's just a long explanation." Kaino thought for a moment and pointed at the door. "If you want to know, I'll explain it later. But shouldn't we leave now?"

"I don't know whether the Golden Sands Gang has a shift rotation for their night watch. But if they do, and the people taking over find those corpses when they arrive, things might get troublesome."

"Oh, right, okay."

Li Sushang nodded. Then she suddenly looked at Kaino and spoke with some hesitation.

"Um, thank you."

"Hm?"

"I mean, you helped me earlier. Otherwise, I'd have died already." Li Sushang shook her head. "But hey, let me tell you something. Don't ever do that again."

"In Shenzhou, when two people are dueling, outsiders absolutely cannot interfere. Otherwise, people will call you a wicked heretic who doesn't follow the code of the martial world, and they'll gang up on you."

Kaino felt somewhat helpless. He had wanted to reason with her properly, but just as the words reached his lips, he changed his mind.

So Kaino raised an eyebrow and spoke with a faintly mischievous smile.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

Li Sushang froze.

"I mean, do you think I'm a wicked heretic? Or someone who doesn't follow the code of the martial world?"

"Uh..."

Li Sushang clearly had not expected Kaino to ask that. For a moment, she stood there in a daze.