She thought Du Yulin, driven into a corner, was trying to appeal to the bond they had shared all those years ago.
She wanted to use those old memories, those grudges and favors long faded by time, to win a shred of her pity in exchange for a chance to live.
At the thought, she could not help but burst into laughter.
Her laughter was filled with mockery and desolation. "Forget what happened back then! Even ten years ago... I would still have had no choice but to kill you for one reason! I've hidden that reason for ten years, thought about it for ten years, dwelled on it for ten years!"
Hearing this, Du Yulin slowly let out a deep sigh.
The sigh was soft, so soft it was nearly inaudible, yet it seemed to contain endless regret.
What she regretted was not what had happened all those years ago, nor was it this life-and-death battle tonight.
She merely regretted that after... ten years of bitter cultivation, ten years of enduring loneliness and hardship, she was still ultimately a little too weak.
Though she had long sensed it, though her instincts told her this journey would be dangerous and that they would very likely both end up severely wounded—
She had still come, without hesitation.
Yet she still had not given up.
She had not only killed the master of Nine Rain Tower; she also intended to kill this steward who had vanished for ten years. She had her own reasons, reasons that had sustained her through every day and night of the past decade.
Likewise, she had her own reasons.
She looked around. Moonlight flowed like water, spilling across the ruined courtyard.
Beyond the courtyard walls lay Sunset City's ten-mile long street, and farther away were rolling rooftops