Han Yu emerged from the shadow of an old tree. Gu Shenwei didn't have much of an impression of her; her face merely seemed familiar.
It was hard to say how old this woman was. Her voice and gestures spoke of experience and maturity, yet her appearance could have belonged to anyone between twenty and thirty. The moonlight concealed some of her features, and her plain face concealed the rest.
She extended her right arm and examined the long sword in her hand with the casual air of an ordinary woman admiring her nails. Slowly raising her head, she gazed at the tip of the blade in a trance and sighed softly. "If I lose, please use this sword to cut off my head."
Shangguan Hong gripped a flexible sword less than two feet long. Its blade wavered from side to side like a snake fleeing through the grass, showing that his inner energy had yet to settle. He felt he ought to say something, even if it was the sort of mad nonsense Moonlight Hall disciples spouted. "If I die... If I die..."
But he didn't want to die. He still had a deep-seated hatred to avenge, and countless beautiful pleasures he had barely sampled. Though some of them were forever beyond his reach now. "The Master of the Masses personally taught me martial arts!" he shouted, as though those words were a protective charm. "She had a deeper purpose. She didn't want us to kill each other. Han Yu, you must have misunderstood, or... or... Call the Master of the Masses out! Unless I hear her order with my own ears, I won't fight."
Shangguan Hong couldn't help being afraid. Moonlight Hall disciples were half-mad. When he practiced swordsmanship, he might risk his life, but those women didn't