After Meeting Beneath the Willow at Dusk

The woman in red hurriedly swallowed a pill and sat down cross-legged where she was. A greenish aura rose from her face, while wisps of sword light curled around her body. If anyone with ill intentions and insufficient strength came near, the light could flare on its own and wound them.

Meng Qi sat in his chair and looked her over. Her main wound lay beneath her chest, apparently inflicted by an unusual weapon like a Water Dividing Thorn: narrow and deep, it had nearly pierced through her back. Sword Qi held back the blood, so little had escaped.

"Ever since word of the Nine Heavens Ruins spread, the Divine Capital's grand array has been kept half-activated. Any sign of someone drawing on the power of heaven and earth would be noticed at once by the Six Doors and the Council of State..." Images flashed through Meng Qi's mind, piecing together the chain of events.

She had been watched and followed, then ambushed in the dead of night. They had both suppressed their Inner Sceneries, trading blows with swords and strange weapons as their figures darted back and forth. In the end, Sun Yuexiu had lost a move, been stabbed in the chest, and had her protective astral energy shattered. She had barely escaped with her life...

"Word is that Bai Ning, who holds half a map to the entrance of the Nine Heavens Ruins, keeps to herself, while experts from the imperial court and the Six Doors watch her in secret and keep one another in check. Why would she get into a fight to the death with someone?" Meng Qi suddenly gave a self-mocking smile. He had already decided to stay out of it, so what was the point of guessing?

He had heard of Sun Yuexiu. She