You, Who Are You?

The two of them began fighting in the courtyard in the blink of an eye.

They traded blows at lightning speed, unleashing one deadly move after another within a few feet.

As Chu Qing watched, he hoped the Heavenly Dance Guard would patrol this area and chase away the two people who had come to fight in someone else's courtyard.

But he had chosen this spot precisely because it was secluded. The Heavenly Dance Guard patrolled the entire city, but they couldn't keep an eye on every corner.

Neither of them used any moves with especially destructive power, so even after fighting for quite some time, no one noticed anything amiss.

From this fight, Chu Qing also got a glimpse of Wen Rou's skill.

Her martial arts still fell within the Taiyi Sect's tradition, and she wielded its three Ultimate Skills with ease.

But the forceful, domineering techniques that Chu Fan wielded became either elusive and unpredictable or exquisitely nimble in her hands. Though they were the very same techniques, they produced entirely different effects.

Besides that, she also had a refined finger technique that she wove between those three Ultimate Skills, often catching her opponent off guard.

As a result, even now, she and the Third Boss of the Shashen Gang remained evenly matched.

But this was mainly because Wen Rou had never given Mei Qianluo a chance to put distance between them.

The first four characters of "Flying Cloud Sparrow Fan" referred to his mastery of the iron fan.

The last four referred to his concealed-weapon technique.

But in their current situation, Mei Qianluo had no way to use his concealed weapons. They were too close... he had no room to strike.

And his iron fan was far too conspicuous, so tonight he had switched to a folding fan, which was much less powerful.

Still, one of them was an elder of the martial world, while the other was a junior. For them to have fought this long without a clear victor already counted as a crushing defeat for Mei Qianluo.

If they had been fighting in front of others, Mei Qianluo would have been too ashamed to keep going against Wen Rou.

But tonight was different. This was a fight to the death. Seniority meant nothing; it wasn't about winning or losing, only life and death!

Mei Qianluo suddenly looked up and flicked his folding fan. With a clatter, it flew from his hand.

Wen Rou swept one hand outward, and the fan circled around her once.

At last, it returned to Mei Qianluo.

Mei Qianluo seemed about to reach out and take it, and Wen Rou had already prepared her next move.

But then, with a sharp crack, Mei Qianluo thrust out two fingers. The fan shattered, and in the same instant, his fingers shot toward Wen Rou's shoulder.

Wen Rou remained calm in the face of danger. She smoothly changed her move and sent out a punch, intercepting his two fingers.

There came a sharp crack.

The sound of bones breaking rang out from Mei Qianluo's two fingers.

Yet Wen Rou showed no joy. Something's wrong... Those two fingers weren't meant to kill. Why did he strike with them now?

A moment later, her expression changed. She let out a muffled groan and staggered backward.

Then she looked at her fist and saw a slender silver needle embedded in it.

The needle was coated in poison, and a patch of her fair hand had already turned black.

Wen Rou's expression barely changed. She only furrowed her brows slightly and placed two fingers of her left hand against the Quchi acupoint on her right arm.

Her Internal Energy surged. With a whoosh, the silver needle flew out of her palm.

"You call yourself an elder of the martial world, yet you resort to such despicable tricks..."

Wen Rou's expression remained calm as she spoke.

She seemed untroubled by her predicament.

Mei Qianluo flushed at her words, unable to stop himself from feeling ashamed.

"Our plan is of the utmost importance. We can't afford the slightest mistake.

"You're so young, yet already so skilled. Give it another ten years, and I'm afraid I wouldn't even be worthy to carry your shoes...

"Unfortunately, you don't have ten years to wait.

"It was wrong of me to bully someone younger than myself today. And using a poisoned needle to take your life is even less something I can let others find out about.

"Otherwise, the name Mei Qianluo would become a laughingstock.

"Luckily, once you're dead, no one will ever know about any of this."

With that, he stepped forward, Internal Energy gathering in his palm as he prepared to smash Wen Rou's skull.

But just as he raised his hand high, he noticed Wen Rou looking past him.

Her calm eyes held a faint trace of confusion.

"Hm? Trying to trick me at a time like this?"

The moment he saw that clear, slightly foolish look in her eyes, Mei Qianluo remembered how Wen Rou had tricked him into revealing his name earlier.

There was no way he would fall for it again.

He was about to bring his palm down when his heart suddenly tightened.

Something behind him really did seem wrong.

He turned around sharply and saw that the tightly shut door had somehow opened.

A young man in coarse clothes had stepped out of the room.

He seemed not to have noticed Mei Qianluo or Wen Rou.

He walked over to the assassin Wen Rou had killed with a single palm strike.

Then he picked up the man's knife from the ground.

"You are..."

Mei Qianluo hesitated, unable to decide what to do.

But before he could finish speaking, the young man shifted his stance and closed the distance in an instant.

The blade came at him with unstoppable force, its angle bizarre and uncanny.

The strike was vicious and ruthless, nothing like any ordinary sword technique. For a moment, Mei Qianluo couldn't even figure out how to dodge.

In the end, he threw himself into a roll, escaping the strike in the most wretched manner imaginable.

But when he got back to his feet, he saw blood streaming down his left arm. Half of it lay on the ground.

Mei Qianluo's face turned ashen. Stumbling backward again and again, he stared at Chu Qing in disbelief.

"Who are you?"

Chu Qing felt more comfortable than ever.

Sure enough, a knife is still the easiest way to hack off a limb.

He ignored Mei Qianluo and looked at Wen Rou instead.

"How are you?"

Mei Qianluo's silver needle had been too well concealed. Thinking back, it must have been hidden in his sleeve. When he struck, he must have flicked his wrist to draw it out and pinched it between two fingers. As Wen Rou struck his fingers, he used his Internal Energy to propel the needle, dealing the greatest damage at the shortest distance.

Even Chu Qing, who had watched the fight from beginning to end, hadn't noticed.

By the time he realized what had happened, Wen Rou had already been struck by the needle.

"...I won't die."

Wen Rou looked at Chu Qing with a strange expression.

"Who are you?"

Now that was something!

Chu Qing was a little surprised. This girl doesn't recognize me?

Couldn't she smell me?

Had I been bathing so diligently these past two days that my scent had faded, making it impossible for her to tell?

But that doesn't make sense...

I'd bathed before going to the Chu Family that day, too.

Why could she recognize me then, but not now?

Chu Qing thought it over carefully and suddenly realized that perhaps the scent she spoke of wasn't body odor.

Could it be... the scent of Internal Energy?

After all, over the past few days, the only thing that had changed was that he had transformed the Void Scripture into the Purple Cloud Void Scripture. Nothing else had changed at all.

But if that really was the case, it was even more astonishing than an unusually keen sense of smell.

Was she born with this strange ability, or had she cultivated some unusual martial art?

At this thought, Chu Qing rubbed his nose and smiled.

"I'm not telling you."

"???"

A question mark appeared in Wen Rou's eyes. Then she looked toward Mei Qianluo and said to Chu Qing:

"He ran away."

Chu Qing smiled as he watched Mei Qianluo climb over the wall.

"Mm. Good thing he ran."

Wen Rou: "?"