Baosha Temple's Discipline Hall Chief, Master Wangchen

Qian Residence.

In the bronze mirror was reflected a rather bedraggled face.

"Damn..."

Qian Shaoyou touched his face. It was already swollen high.

His elder brother's look, as though he wished he could kill him, along with that warning, had circled through his mind all night.

Yet the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

He, Qian Shaoyou, the dignified second young master of the Qian Family—when had he ever suffered such humiliation in Liangzhou Prefecture?

Wasn't she just a woman?

Though she was some Langjiang from the Demon Suppression Office... and had even beheaded some beast...

But when all was said and done, wasn't she still a woman?!

And then there was his dear elder brother, Qian Boyong!

It would have been one thing if he had refused to help his own brother, but he had even turned around and lectured him? Going on about the Demon Suppression Office, about a Langjiang...

Telling me not to set my sights on her?

I'll set my sights on her anyway!

The more he thought about it, the more fiercely the wicked fire in his heart burned.

That fleeting affection from their first glance had long since been twisted by humiliation and resentment into something else entirely.

In vexation, he slammed a fist onto the table, making the teacups clatter.

No. If he kept bottling up this anger, sooner or later it would make him sick.

He straightened his somewhat disheveled clothes, pushed open the door, and headed straight out of the residence.

After crossing several streets and alleys, he deliberately avoided the taverns and pleasure houses where his usual pack of dissolute friends gathered. He headed west, his pace growing faster and faster.

At last, in a secluded corner of the western district, he stopped before an utterly inconspicuous