Fate

Three days later.

Snow drifted across the Northern Kingdom; Jinling was in late autumn.

Fallen leaves carpeted Wutong Avenue, where many men and women stopped to take photos, sealing this beautiful moment forever in their pictures.

But who knew whether the person you loved from the bottom of your heart at this moment would become a stranger in the future—someone hysterical, using the most vicious words to slice you, or me, to death?

Beneath the falling autumn leaves, a man and woman who drew frequent glances from passersby strolled through the romantic season.

"He's so handsome!"

"She's so beautiful!"

"How can there be such a perfectly matched couple in this world? Oh my God~"

A golden boy and jade girl, a handsome man and beautiful woman.

Perhaps they were an AI couple built from countless beautiful phrases, brought into reality.

To ordinary people, they might have merely been a beautiful couple, but in the Martial Arts World, their union was capable of changing Jinling's entire balance of power!

Xiang Yun, Third Young Master of Ancient Dragon Pool.

Yang Chan, Second Miss of the Yang Family.

For decades, the forces behind them had been Jinling City's two largest martial arts factions, bitter enemies locked in conflict that had claimed countless dead and wounded.

A melodramatic plot straight out of a television drama had unfolded amid the complaints of countless onlookers.

The children of two sworn enemy factions had fucking fallen in love—desperately, recklessly, without regard for anything else.

In the end, after Yang Chan became pregnant, the feud between the two families showed signs of thawing.

There was no helping it. Xiang Yun and Yang Chan were both the darlings of their respective families.

Some rejoiced, while others worried.

Some hoped the two families would bury the hatchet.

Others hoped they would continue fighting to the death.

For that reason, this child absolutely could not be allowed to be born!

Undercurrents surged. Even as Yang Chan and Xiang Yun took a walk here, no one knew how many bodyguards had been planted around them, watching every blade of grass and every tree with extreme vigilance.

On a bench beneath a large tree, Yuan Tianzong looked no different from any young man idling by the roadside, his face hidden beneath the brim of his hat.

He quietly watched Yang Chan, a smile on his face.

More precisely, he was watching her swollen belly.

"I've searched for years. You are the only person whose fate matches mine."

"You mustn't harm the baby."

Muttering to himself, Yuan Tianzong rose and left. After a little over an hour, he arrived at the foot of Qixia Mountain.

The heavens cooperated. A fine drizzle fell, and the pervasive moisture became mountain mist, filling every corner of the hills.

Couples walked through it beneath umbrellas.

Many had even dressed in Hanfu, using their phones to capture the beauty of the moment.

"Who knows if Yun Shen is immortal? The mountains run deep, the mist thick, turning into Ling Xiao."

Yuan Tianzong walked along the pebble path in the mountains beneath the hazy drizzle.

At the same time, strands of killing intent moved through the mist-shrouded mountain.

"With the timing and terrain on our side, this is the perfect chance for an assassination!"

"Word from the Xiang Family says Xiang Yun and Yang Chan are on their way home!"

"According to reliable intelligence, three experts are accompanying them. Everyone, follow Plan A..."

The leader suddenly froze. His head slowly turned to the left as he looked at the hand that had somehow landed on his shoulder.

Following that hand with his gaze, he saw a young face.

The man's sharply sculpted features were paired with eyes that seemed to possess some strange magic, instantly capturing all of his attention.

"Why are you blocking my way?"

Blocking your way?

What the hell?

The leader struck without hesitation, his fleshy palm blasting toward the other man's abdomen at point-blank range. As far as he was concerned, anyone appearing here at this moment could only be an expert assigned to protect Xiang Yun and Yang Chan!

His palm wind boomed like cannon fire, swift as lightning!

He was Tan Qian, an Eighth Realm expert known as Thunder Palm, a gold-medal assassin from China's Flowing Sand organization. His martial strength was first-rate!

The next second, Tan Qian's expression changed drastically!

His Thunder-Forging Hand, tempered through countless trials, struck the other man's abdomen like an ant trying to shake a tree—completely useless!

Most outrageous of all, the force in his palm seemed to vanish without a trace. Even the formidable strength he had cultivated for over thirty years had disappeared.

Before this man, he seemed to have become an ordinary person!

No, he was worse than an ordinary person!

"Senior, I..."

Tan Qian's words came to an abrupt stop. He crumpled to the ground in the hazy drizzle, without even a chance to say goodbye to the world.

Before long, someone discovered the assassins' bodies.

"Master, we found the assassins' target, but they're all dead!"

Inside Qixia Mountain, at Xiang Family Manor.

When Old Master Xiang heard his subordinate's report, he sprang to his feet. The assassins had infiltrated Qixia Mountain without a sound—it was unbelievable.

There was an insider!

Amid his shock and fury, Old Master Xiang asked, "They're all dead. Who killed them?"

"We don't know."

"Notify Xiang Yun and Yang Chan to return immediately. It isn't safe even to take a walk outside our own gate!"

Upon receiving the news, Xiang Yun immediately led Yang Chan back toward the manor.

Several successive whooshes cut through the air.

Xiang Yun's expression eased slightly as he looked at the three men approaching them.

"Second Uncle, Uncle Wang, Uncle Yang."

"Xiang Yun, Yang Chan, the three of us old men will escort you."

Xiang Yun and Yang Chan nodded and followed them.

"Second Uncle, what happened?"

"Tan Qian and Hundred Faces from Flowing Sand are dead."

The moment Xiang Yun heard those two names, his heart tightened.

Those two were the twin aces of the top assassin organization. He had never imagined they would both be deployed just to kill his son. It was truly... Wait.

"They're dead? Both of them? Did you kill them?"

"No. We don't know who did. That's the real problem!"

Tan Qian and Hundred Faces were first-rate experts in China. Countless experts had died at their hands.

Yet now, they had died right outside his family's gate, and his own family did not even know who had killed them?!

Yang Chan spoke. "The enemy of our enemy is our friend. That person should be here to help us, right? Maybe they're an old friend of one of the family elders who came without an invitation."

"We can't be sure."

"Stop!"

The three old men suddenly halted and looked toward a small pavilion beside the stone path.

There, a young man stood holding an umbrella.

This place had long been sealed off by the Xiang Family. No one was allowed inside.

Yet under such circumstances, an unfamiliar young man was standing here...

"Young man, are you lost?"

Yuan Tianzong shook his head. "No. I came here specifically to wait for Miss Yang."

The moment he said this, killing intent immediately surfaced from the three elders.

"How arrogant! Not even Tan Qian and Hundred Faces were as arrogant as you. You actually waited openly by the roadside. Do you take us three old men for nonexistent?"

Second Uncle said, "You two fall back. Let me first test this young man's skills!"

Anyone daring to be this arrogant probably had some ability. They could not afford to be careless.

Yuan Tianzong said, "There's no need to fight. I merely wish to ask Miss Yang to come with me. I'll naturally let her return after a few days."

"What a joke! You think you can just borrow a living person because you say so?"

"Do me a favor."

"What standing do you have to ask for a favor?"

"My name is Yuan Tianzong." Yuan Tianzong lifted the brim of his hat, his smile radiant.

"Even if you were the Jade Emperor, it would be impossible! Yuan Tianzong? Heh, who is Yuan Tianzong? Is he famous... Yuan Tianzong?"

The three elders shuddered from head to toe, their pupils violently contracting.

Before their eyes, the young man beneath the pavilion gradually overlapped with the person from the Heavenly Family whom they had accidentally glimpsed in their youth.

"Yuan Tianzong... Yuan Tianzong..."

"You're Heavenly Outsider Yuan Tianzong!"

Three words.

Just those three words.

They robbed the three first-rate experts before him of all strength, of all courage to make a move.

He had burst onto the scene, suppressing martial arts masters from every side with one hand, before vanishing without a trace.

He was like a meteor streaking across the sky—brilliant beyond measure, glorious for but an instant.

Thus, people called him the Heavenly Outsider, for he did not seem to belong to this world.