Third Young Master

"Run?"

"Run?"

Xu Yuan stopped in his tracks, frozen in place. Astonishment filled his eyes as he glanced back at the enormous Buddha head, its eyes gradually dimming in the darkness.

Some details he had overlooked earlier surfaced in his mind, and Xu Yuan seemed to suddenly understand a few things.

Reality wasn't an anime or a movie. If an enemy could sneak up and kill you, they wouldn't strike a pose and wait for you to notice them.

Yet this giant Buddha had silently come up beside him without attacking. It had waited until he retreated to the edge of the Buddha hall before choosing to fight the woman in black.

Outside the temple, the rain continued to patter down. The air inside seemed cold enough to freeze.

Third Young Master.

Xu Yuan lowered his head and looked at his exceedingly frail body. Then he let out a long breath.

The giant Buddha's form of address, the state of this body, and what had just happened gave him a vague guess about the world he had crossed into.

It was so similar.

What had just happened was almost exactly like one part of the story in Cangyuan, a 2.5D pixel-art game he had once played.

The giant Buddha, the ruined temple, the young master in brocade robes, and the woman in black, cold as ice.

But the 2.5D pixel-art world he remembered had transformed into a first-person live-action perspective. The sheer difference between the two had made it impossible for Xu Yuan, fresh from crossing over, to connect them at first.

But now, the giant Buddha's words—Third Young Master—had suddenly jolted him into understanding.

He had become the third young master of the Prime Minister's Household.

The most miserable Third Young Master in Cangyuan, who had been killed in twenty-five different ways across twenty-five different worldlines.

But once he realized this, Xu Yuan's taut heart eased a little, and he looked ahead.

Time seemed to slow in that instant. Rainwater dripping from the eaves splashed in the darkness, scattering into bright silver streaks.

His eyes, now adjusted to the dark, could just make out the graceful figure approaching him.

The woman's footsteps were light, yet clearly audible.

Darkness spread quickly through the Buddha hall as the cold wind howled through the rainy night.

At last, Xu Yuan met the black-clad woman's eyes, clear and faintly glowing in the darkness.

"You are..."

A calm, gentle male voice, as smooth as water, rang out in the darkness.

Just from his voice, one could imagine a refined young gentleman, as elegant as jade.

This Third Young Master's body seemed to have a pretty good face.

With all those random thoughts running through his mind, Xu Yuan continued:

"...Ran Qingmo?"

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, a cold glint silently flashed through the woman's clear eyes.

But after seeing that bone-chilling coldness in her gaze, Xu Yuan instead relaxed completely.

He had guessed right. This was the world of that game.

The situation before him matched up with the plot he knew. Xu Yuan immediately recalled that this Big Ice Block's goal was to capture him, not kill him.

His captor still needed him to "persuade" his boss father, who was about to start a war.

No matter how he might die in the future, at least for now, Xu Yuan's life was no longer under immediate threat. The pressure on him eased considerably.

After a few seconds of staring at each other,

The cold glint in the black-clad woman's eyes gradually faded. She turned around and said in a flat tone:

"Follow me."

Xu Yuan realized that she was planning to move on and flee.

The corpses outside and the "Spirit Buddha" in the temple were all underlings of this body's father. Although the woman's sword had left no survivors, this hideout was clearly no longer safe to stay in.

But though she was leaving, Xu Yuan absolutely couldn't just follow her away.

Cangyuan had many different endings depending on the choices the player made. In several routes, his original self—the little villain—died on the way after being kidnapped by this Big Ice Block.

Those deaths were only briefly mentioned, but he had indeed died.

So Xu Yuan remained where he was, staring at her back in the darkness. He kept his voice as clear and calm as he could:

"Mr. Ran, do you know what you're doing?"

In Cangyuan, the protagonist addressed Ran Qingmo with the respectful title "Mr. Ran."

"..."

Xu Yuan's sudden words seemed to catch the black-clad woman off guard.

She stopped. Her clear, knife-sharp gaze swept toward him, raising goosebumps all over Xu Yuan's body.

She said nothing, only standing quietly in the darkness and looking at him.

It didn't feel good to be stared at by this Big Ice Block. Xu Yuan searched his memory of the game's story again and again, confirming that at this point in the plot, she couldn't possibly kill him.

She repeated:

"Follow me."

Xu Yuan kept his composure, speaking each word distinctly:

"You won't kill me."

Ran Qingmo casually flicked her hand, and a thick, long wooden staff flew up from the ground into her grasp.

Holding the staff, she stood still and quietly watched Xu Yuan.

"..." Xu Yuan.

He took a deep breath and followed the woman.

Xu Yuan maintained an air of nonchalance and spoke slowly:

"Mr. Ran, there's no point in taking me."

Ran Qingmo still didn't answer. With a sword in one hand and the wooden staff in the other, she silently walked toward the temple entrance.

Xu Yuan struggled to keep his voice steady:

"Someone like my father won't change his decision just because I live or die."

At last, Ran Qingmo spoke softly. Her voice was still as cool and calm as ever:

"What are you trying to say?"

Outside the temple, the rain continued to fall. It struck the eaves and dripped down in strings of beads, rippling across the puddles.

Hearing that the woman had finally spoken, Xu Yuan immediately replied:

"I'm telling you why you took me."

Then he smiled slightly:

"Mr. Ran, you took me because you want to save the forty thousand disciples of the Sword Sect."

Buzz—

Before he could finish, it was as if time in the temple had frozen.

A murderous chill surged abruptly. A gale burst outward from the woman, its force whipping Xu Yuan's sleeves!

An immense, invisible pressure radiated bit by bit from her silhouette, hidden in the darkness. Just standing there, she made Xu Yuan feel as though he were about to fall to his knees.

The pressure forced Xu Yuan back two steps. His hand clenched tight inside his wide sleeve, and he grabbed a nearby pillar to keep himself upright.

In the darkness, the woman's icy killing intent made every hair on his body stand on end.

The sudden turn of events caught Xu Yuan completely off guard. He couldn't understand why Ran Qingmo had reacted so strongly to what he had said.

In a flash,

He raced through the game's plot in his mind and suddenly realized he might have said the wrong thing.

For him, the "player," the Prime Minister's plan to destroy the Tianyuan Sword Sect was common knowledge.

But to the people of this world, the matter should still be in the planning stages, a secret among secrets. Only his sham father and a few of his most trusted subordinates might know about it.

At this point in time,

The Sword Sect Master was still the revered State Preceptor of the Great Yan Dynasty, and had been close friends with his Prime Minister father for decades.

If the Prime Minister planned to destroy the Sword Sect, even the Sword Sect Master himself might not believe it if someone told him.

Though this original body was the Prime Minister's third legitimate son, there was no way a hedonistic wastrel who excelled at drinking, whoring, gambling, and debauchery would know such a secret at this point.

Cold sweat streamed down his face.

He was screwed.

Ran Qingmo had now turned fully around. A blue glow shone in her eyes as she walked toward Xu Yuan, drawing the sword in her hand:

"How do you know?"