Dusk spilled down from the mountain ridge, shrouding the entire True Martial Temple in dark golden afterglow.
Zhang Chu's hand paused in midair.
The force of his clenched fingers did not slacken.
Shangguan Ce's neck remained locked in his grip, his body suspended in midair. His face turned from crimson to purplish blue, and dark glimmers of pain surged through his silver eyes.
But Zhang Chu's gaze had already passed over Shangguan Ce's shoulder and settled on the far end of the Blue Stone Avenue outside the mountain gate.
That figure walked very slowly.
Her plain red robes fluttered gently in the evening breeze, revealing the moon-white underskirt beneath.
Her steps were exceptionally steady. With each footfall, an exceedingly faint ripple spread across the stone paving beneath her feet, as though she were walking on still water.
The evening breeze lifted her hair, then let it fall. Her lovely face shone with a soft luster in the twilight.
Zhang Chu recognized her.
At the Sea Heart Grotto-Heaven, before the core inheritance space. Above the seven enormous stone pillars, she had been the first to sit suspended in the air, utterly indifferent to everything.
Back then, he had just emerged from the Return to Ruins Secret Realm, drenched in blood. She had simply sat there quietly, her eyes half closed, as though watching a play that had nothing to do with her.
Later, when he killed the Northern Frontier Rogue, she remained seated there throughout. Only after he entered the core inheritance space did she quietly disappear.
He had thought she was the successor of some hidden power, visiting the Sea Heart Grotto-Heaven in search of an opportunity.
Yet now she had appeared before the mountain gate of the True Martial Temple, standing in the twilight, and the first words out