Standing By and Watching Flowers Crumble

The whip came too suddenly—treacherous and vicious, its timing impeccable. It struck just as Golden Swallow leaped onto her horse to retreat, clearly aiming to kill her in a single blow. Lu Yan and Jason had already ridden away; it was impossible for them to turn back and save her. Golden Swallow raised her bare face to the sky, her cold, clear eyes wide open. She stood there blankly, as though she had accepted her fate and was waiting to die.

"NO!!" Jason, who had turned around from horseback, let out a grief-stricken cry and tried to rein in his horse. But Lu Yan had already seized his reins with one hand and dragged his horse onward at a gallop. It was not that Lu Yan was cold-blooded. He could simply tell that the girl in purple would not die so easily.

The legendary "hero saving the beauty" did not happen.

At the very instant before the azure whip-shadow struck Golden Swallow in the face, she flipped off her horse and rolled to the ground.

Smack!!

The azure whip struck the horse squarely. With a "puff," the entire horse exploded. Blood, shattered limbs, and organs—red and white—splattered everywhere, like fireworks blooming from life itself.

Golden Swallow lived up to her name, light as a swallow. Before she even landed after flipping from the horse, she slapped the ground with one palm. Her slender body spun sideways and flew away. Not a single drop of blood or flesh touched her.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Golden Swallow flicked her hand, firing three points of starlight straight at her ambusher. The attacker was no ordinary man either. Facing Golden Swallow's counterattack, he swept his azure whip, knocking all three points of starlight away. Then he performed a somersault and landed steadily on the ground.