The Shu Emperor and the Death's Mercy Sword

Bidding farewell to Scholar Hua.

Ji Shu used his divine wind-summoning ability. A fresh breeze descended from the heavens, spiraling around the two of them and sweeping them into the sky in an instant. The speed was so great that even Hua Qiangu, who had experienced many similar events, could not help crying out.

Her star-bright eyes looked down upon the land below. Hualian Village, which had once seemed so vast, now looked as tiny as a grain of rice, practically negligible amid the endless mountains and rivers.

Yet Hualian Village was where she had lived for more than ten years.

Now that she had leapt free of the cage, she finally beheld the true Great World.

Hua Qiangu felt as free and exhilarated as a fish leaping through a boundless sea.

Unable to hold it in, she let out a great shout.

Ji Shu lowered his head slightly to look at her.

She smiled and raised her face to him, laughter in her eyes and brows. "Brother Ji, thank you."

She felt that the luckiest thing in her life had been meeting Ji Shu.

If not for Ji Shu—

She did not dare imagine what hardships she would have suffered after her father died of consumption.

No one knew better than she did how much the villagers of Hualian Village had ostracized and feared her.

Before she met Ji Shu, she had not even had a single friend. Whenever she was bored, she could only talk to herself.

Then Ji Shu arrived and completely changed everything.

Ji Shu was like a beam of light illuminating her dark, cramped world. Toward him, she was filled with gratitude, admiration, and a faint, hazy affection—an adoration she could not quite name.

A maiden's feelings were always poetry.

Hua Qiangu's early maturity was