Xue Ye Blocks the Road

Qian Renxue was the inheritor of Spirit Hall's Angel lineage.

She possessed the purest, holiest Power of Light in the world—the nemesis of all Evil Soul Power.

Only she had a chance of purifying the Evil Soul Power that had invaded his younger sister.

Other than her, Lin Jin could think of no one who could save his sister from the Evil Soul Power's corruption.

Hope rekindled within Lin Jin, but with it came even greater pressure.

After all, who was Qian Renxue?

Would she agree to meet an unknown country boy like him?

Would she be willing to save his younger sister?

Moreover, Qian Renxue was currently posing as Xue Qinghe. If he stepped forward and exposed this disguise, known only to Spirit Hall's upper ranks—

What would become of him?

Lin Jin did not know.

But he had no choice.

Seeing the aura of his younger sister in his arms growing weaker and weaker, Lin Jin's gaze instantly became incomparably resolute.

He tore off a relatively clean strip of cloth from his clothes and tightly bound his younger sister to his back.

Then, he gave his parents one last look and recalled their final words.

"Jin'er, protect your younger sister!"

With Lin Xue's life hanging by a thread, Lin Jin could only kneel where they had fallen and kowtow three times.

"Dad, Mom... I'll definitely save her!"

"And I'll definitely... make everyone who hurt us pay the price!"

"Rest in peace! As long as I live, I will protect Xiao Xue for the rest of her life."

After saying that, he rose to his feet, spread his legs, and ran toward Heaven Dou City in his memories without looking back, his younger sister on his back.

The night deepened, and snow began to drift down at some unknown moment.

A six-year-old child carried his dying younger sister on his back, clutching his sole hope as he walked resolutely down the small road.

The closer he drew to Heaven Dou City in the north, the fiercer the wind and snow became.

Goose-feather snowflakes, swept along by the biting wind, lashed against Lin Jin's face.

It was freezing to the bone!

He had run from dusk until deep into the night, and his strength had long since been exhausted.

The awakening of Demon Armor seemed to have drained every bit of his potential. At this moment, he was holding on solely through unyielding will.

But the increasingly faint breathing from his back told Lin Jin that he could not stop.

He absolutely could not stop!

The towering outline of Heaven Dou City finally came into view, but its tightly shut gates were like an impassable gulf, keeping him outside.

The city gates had long been closed for the night. Unless there was urgent military intelligence or a special writ, they would never be opened for a child like him.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Seeing a dark figure approaching in the distance, the City Guard immediately called out.

"Don't you know no one is allowed into the city after midnight?"

When Lin Jin reached the City Guards and they saw that he was a child, they immediately lowered their spears.

"Big brothers, please open the gate. I need to enter the city to find treatment for my younger sister, who has suddenly fallen gravely ill," Lin Jin pleaded humbly.

By the light of the torches on the city wall, the City Guards saw Lin Jin clearly: a ragged child covered in bloodstains, with a little girl barely clinging to life tied to his back.

The two City Guards could not help but be moved.

They exchanged a glance, saw nothing unusual in the distance, then nodded and opened a narrow passage in the gate, just wide enough for one person to pass through.

"Kid, go in and find a doctor yourself. We still have to stand watch."

"Thank you, big brothers! Thank you!" Lin Jin repeatedly lowered his head.

Lin Jin stepped through the opening, and the gates slowly closed behind him, shutting out the wind and snow.

"Hold on, Xiao Xue. We're in the city now. We'll find a doctor soon." He murmured softly, unsure whether he was comforting his younger sister or encouraging himself.

Yet Heaven Dou City was so vast—where was the Crown Prince's Mansion?

A country child who had never entered the capital before was like a headless fly in these unfamiliar streets late at night.

Lin Jin could only head toward the city center, toward the tallest buildings.

But as he trudged through the snow, Lin Jin's steps grew slower and slower.

Just as anxiety consumed him and his small will was about to be devoured by despair, the soft, steady sound of carriage wheels passed along the broad street ahead.

Lin Jin abruptly looked up.

A lavishly crafted carriage rolled slowly past, drawn by four magnificent White Horses and surrounded by a team of guards dressed in casual clothes, their gazes sharp and their auras steady.

The carriage bore an animal crest resembling a Big Goose. If Lin Jin remembered correctly, the martial soul of the Heaven Dou Royal Family was the Big Goose.

A carriage bearing the Big Goose crest belonged either to the Royal Family or to an Imperial Prince, and with four horses drawing it, there was a high chance it belonged to a Prince or the Crown Prince.

A mad thought instantly seized Lin Jin's mind.

Could this be Crown Prince Xue Qinghe's carriage?!

There was no time to hesitate!

A glint of resolve flashed through his eyes as he used the last of his strength to rush into the path of the carriage and fall to his knees.

"Whoa!!!"

The coachman clearly had not expected someone to suddenly block the road and hurriedly pulled tight on the reins.

"Protect His Highness!" The captain of the guards' gaze sharpened as he instantly drew his sword. The other guards immediately spread out, surrounding the carriage and locking onto Lin Jin, who knelt in the snow, with murderous intent.

"Who dares disturb the carriage?!" the captain demanded coldly, the pressure of soul power in his voice making Lin Jin's eardrums buzz.

Enduring the oppressive force of the guards' soul power, Lin Jin rasped hoarsely:

"This commoner, Lin Jin, begs to see His Highness the Crown Prince with his younger sister! My younger sister has been afflicted by a strange poison and is on the brink of death! I beg Your Highness to show mercy and save her! Lin Jin is willing to devote this broken body to Your Highness for the rest of his life, and die at Your Highness's command!"

Lin Jin's voice echoed firmly along the empty Long Street.

The captain of the guards frowned deeply, just about to order this reckless little beggar dragged away.

"Wait."

A clear, gentle voice, as though it could soothe away all agitation, came from within the carriage.

It was not loud, yet it clearly drowned out the howling wind and snow and reached everyone's ears.

A hand with distinct knuckles, fair skin, and long fingers gently lifted one corner of the silk curtain at the side of the carriage.

A handsome, refined face was revealed, its brows carrying a faint trace of weariness, yet also an air of nobility and detachment.

It was Qian Renxue, disguised as Xue Qinghe.

Her gaze first fell upon the child kneeling in the snow, who looked as though he had been pulled from a mire of blood and mud.

The despair, resilience, and resolve in the child's eyes—so mismatched with his age—moved her slightly.

Then her gaze settled on the little girl in his arms, wrapped in tattered cloth, whose Aura was so weak it had nearly vanished.

She scarcely needed to deliberately sense it. Her Spiritual Sense, tempered by Angel Divine Power, clearly caught two entirely different Auras.

One came from within the little girl: Evil Soul Power that was cold and sinister, filled with decay and corruption—the Aura Angel Power despised most.

The other was a pure dark Aura of the Will of Slaughter, something she had never felt before!

Though this Aura was faint, its fundamental level was so high that even the Angel Martial Soul within her stirred with an almost imperceptible tremor.

A child bearing such a strange and powerful Dark Martial Soul, and a Girl on the verge of death from the erosion of powerful Evil Soul Power.

This piqued Qian Renxue's curiosity.

But what intrigued her most was how this little boy before her knew that she would save someone afflicted by Evil Soul Power.