"Phew..."
The quiet room was coated in frost. Fine ice crystals hung in the air, and only one warm breath rose through the cold.
It was Ying Xue's breath.
Yin Qingqing, meanwhile, was shivering so badly she hardly dared to breathe.
Ying Xue reached out and gently pinched an ice crystal from her younger sister's hair. She said softly:
"Now that I'm here, this ends."
"I promise you."
"He won't live past tomorrow."
The instant her words fell, the ice crystal in her fingers shattered.
Yin Qingqing trembled as she raised her head slightly. A faint sheen of tears filled her clear, streamlike eyes.
The shadow that had always hung over her heart...
Would it finally be driven away?
The next day.
Dawn had barely broken when tension began to spread through the Lin Prefecture Upper Sect.
Many disciples had not even slept the night before.
They had gathered at the mountain gate early, craning their necks in anticipation.
Everyone knew what would happen today.
The Sakura Princess was coming to challenge their sect!
A fierce battle that would shake the entire Zhou Kingdom was bound to erupt within the Upper Sect.
And they would bear witness to it.
As time passed, the mountain gate filled with a dark mass of disciples, their voices rising amid endless discussion.
At last, a group of martial artists with distinguished bearing appeared below the gate. The person leading them happened to be a woman in white.
"Is that her?!"
A disciple immediately cried out, unable to contain himself.
"No, no."
"I heard the Sakura Princess is a great beauty."
"This woman's looks are... far too ordinary..."
"I recognize her... She's Zhang Qian, a true disciple of the Hu Prefecture Upper Sect!"
The disciples crowding the mountain gate were bitterly disappointed.
Quite a