Death

Qiao Sifu happened to glance back. He had only meant to see whether there were pursuers, but his wish was granted.

A shaft of moonlight shone through a gap in the leaves, falling upon the swordsman's slender sword.

A cold gleam flashed.

"Run!" he shouted instinctively, grabbing Qiao Jiaxin's hand and fleeing for his life.

But the swordsman's blade was swifter than his reaction. A cold snort and the sound of steel slicing through the air came at once. In the blink of an eye, the swordsman crossed six paces and swooped down like a goshawk, his sword tip aimed straight at Qiao Sifu's throat.

But he was still one step too late. Qiao Sifu twisted aside, avoiding the blade with his neck and offering up his left shoulder. Blood burst forth—the seemingly light and graceful strike carried tremendous force, crippling one of his arms on the spot.

But the swordsman had already closed to within three paces of them. The slender sword slithered upward like a roaming snake, once again seeking his throat.

Qiao Sifu's momentum had run its course. He could no longer muster the strength to dodge.

Knowing this was a matter of life and death, Qiao Jiaxin threw herself into the swordsman's arms with all her strength, trying to knock his sword off course.

The swordsman had never expected such courage from the girl. She truly knocked him half a step aside, and his blade lost its aim.

Qiao Sifu dodged the strike, his body tilting backward—

He fell straight onto a jutting old root branch. A thumb-thick, dried branch pierced in through his back and emerged from his chest. Yet it did not pierce his clothing, instead propping up a little tent at his chest, which was quickly soaked through with blood.

"Bad luck." The swordsman snorted coldly, apparently displeased by his miss. But it did not matter—he had already clamped one hand around Qiao Jiaxin's arm.

The girl tried to resist in the darkness, but her means were not worth mentioning compared to this swordsman. With a flick of his sleeve, the swordsman turned his blade and thrust it straight at Qiao Jiaxin's throat.

At that moment, he heard a voice. "Leave her alive."

The voice was stern and clipped, slightly distorted amid the rustling leaves, but not enough to keep him from hearing it clearly.

The swordsman glanced sideways and was startled to find someone standing behind a short tree two paces away.

"Big Brother?" He frowned, somewhat surprised.

The high-cheekboned, narrow-eyed swordsman stood not far away, as though set against the moonlight. He seemed faintly luminous, lending him a touch of immortal air. His voice sounded a little unfamiliar, but the swordsman gave it no further thought—after all, that was the person he had known best for over a decade.

Besides, he did indeed look familiar.

The high-cheekboned, narrow-eyed swordsman said something, but it was unclear.

So, while restraining Qiao Jiaxin with one hand, he took a step toward him. His big brother stood motionless beneath the tree, seeming somewhat unable to move. Perhaps he was injured.

That one step gave him a clear look.

He spotted the problem—his big brother seemed somewhat transparent. As though he were...

That female ghost from before.

Alarm surged in his heart, and he instinctively withdrew and swung his sword back into defense. That bit of vigilance saved him once—he saw the person hiding in the low brush beside him.

A youth in white gripped a branch as thick as an arm, poised to stab. The angle was vicious, and he was close enough that, had the swordsman taken another step forward, he would have nearly fallen into the trap.

But the movement was simply too slow—so slow it seemed motionless.

The swordsman sneered. "The glow of a firefly dares to rival the moon."

He retreated another step and thrust his sword out.

Then, all at once, he realized that something seemed wrong with this youth too...

Why was he also misty and hazy, like a phantom?

His retreating foot landed solidly. The instant his sole touched the ground, a soul-rending pain suddenly came from **!

Something—perhaps a branch still covered in twigs—had stabbed into him.

If he had been cut on the leg, arm, or back,

He could have endured the pain and struck back. But being wounded in such a place, and so grievously at that—the psychological blow that followed was immense.

Complex emotions and agonizing pain shattered the swordsman's will in an instant. Like the most terrified ordinary man, he flung Qiao Jiaxin away, trying to step forward and shake off the thing while wildly slashing behind himself with his slender sword. He did not even dare turn around to see where his attacker was.

Because it hurt too much.

But Li Yunxin had already risen behind him, clamped both arms around that thick branch, then shoved it forward with all his strength and charged two steps ahead.

The movement threw the swordsman off balance, and he pitched headfirst to the ground. His soul-rending scream was cut off after only half a sound—the five-foot branch had gone in two feet, and the swordsman's life was utterly extinguished.

Li Yunxin released the branch and dusted off his hands. The two phantoms in the distance slowly dispersed in the wind, while two sheets of paper fluttered down and swiftly turned to flying ash.

"Quick, go. Someone may be coming." Li Yunxin extended a hand to Qiao Jiaxin, who sat stunned on the ground.

Miss Qiao stared wide-eyed at the corpse, then at Li Yunxin, feeling as though two balls of fire had appeared on her face.

"You, you, you... how did you... you..."

She had so many questions to ask. How had he gotten here? How had he made those two phantoms? How had he killed that man? How had he stabbed him in that place...

Unfortunately, the wave after wave of "surprises" this youth had brought her were simply too many. She did not know how to begin asking.

But she was not weak or indecisive by nature. She turned to look at Qiao Sifu lying on the ground, gritted her teeth, grabbed Li Yunxin's hand, and used his strength to stand.

"Good. Stay close to me. No matter how scared you are, don't scream. We can run out of here." Li Yunxin crouched low after speaking and slipped into the dense forest.

Qiao Jiaxin pressed her lips tightly together and followed close behind.

The youth did not speak loudly, but his voice made her feel at ease.

Especially after having gone through such a brush with death, she felt even more at ease.

Li Yunxin knew that more people would come after them, perhaps the particularly troublesome one.

He had long known the sensation of being "painted." It was quite strange, something he had never experienced in his previous life.

A "sixth sense," an extraordinarily powerful "sixth sense"—that was probably what it was. Like suddenly hearing a faint voice call your name in a quiet room, then feeling some kind of summons in your heart—something had happened somewhere, and you had to find it.

If the distance were great, perhaps the feeling would fade before he found that place. But at a distance like tonight's, Li Yunxin knew that the "big brother" would soon arrive at the scene where his brother had been impaled through the crotch, then begin tracking them in a towering rage.

The two ran wildly through darkness and night wind, branches and leaves rustling in their ears. It felt as though endless darkness lay ahead and farther beyond; once they plunged headlong into it, they could vanish without a trace and never need come out again.

This feeling...

"Something's wrong." Li Yunxin stopped.

Qiao Jiaxin could not stop in time and crashed into Li Yunxin's back. The youth reached out to steady her, feeling the girl's body soft and damp. She had sweated a great deal, and her body trembled slightly—whether from exhaustion or fearful tension, he could not tell. She panted heavily, hot breaths spilling against his chest.

"...What's wrong?" Qiao Jiaxin asked, her voice trembling.

Li Yunxin paused slightly, realizing something.

He was not a genuine youth, but this girl was a genuine girl. He could think and speak with the mindset of a weathered adult, but this girl...

She was only in her teens.

In her world, she ought to have been chasing idols and studying.

She truly was afraid. Yet even while afraid, she had tried her best to flee after him without making a sound. She was neither childish nor saintly. And after he had said, with an adult's mindset, "Something's wrong," she had restrained her fear like an adult and asked, "What's wrong?" She did not act coy or cause trouble.

That was truly rare.

So he sighed softly, gripped her arm firmly, and only let go after she had steadied herself. Then he asked in a low voice, "Are you scared?"

"...Huh?" The girl panted, one hand resting against a nearby trunk—as though holding on to something would make her feel safer.

"I know you're scared." Li Yunxin untied the water skin at his waist and handed it to her. "Have some water. There are things you may not understand—fear mostly comes from the unknown, so it's normal that you're afraid. The people hunting us tonight bear us no grudge; they're merely doing someone else's bidding. That person bears us no grudge either, but simply happened to want someone dead, found people to do it, and happened to find us. So, in a nutshell, we're just unlucky."

The girl took the water skin and drank a mouthful. Then she held it with both hands, slowly calming her breathing as she listened to Li Yunxin speak with effort and attention.

Just hearing him speak made her feel steady and calm. She did not know why.

She had once wanted to roam the martial world, face wind and rain, and become a red-clad swordswoman. But after what she had experienced tonight, she suddenly felt that doing nothing, thinking of nothing, simply listening to someone else's arrangements and being protected, was actually very reassuring.

"I know this is hard, but I need you to do one thing. You have to understand that we cannot save the others right now. Perhaps your father, um... and my master are hiding somewhere too. Thinking of them makes us anxious, but there's nothing we can do."

"We cannot panic. Only by staying calm can we contend with the people hunting us. There are six of them in total. I killed one just now; perhaps the others killed one too. At most, five remain. And one of them should be coming after us now. That means only four are hunting the others."

"So if we stay alive and hold this person back, we'll buy time for your father and the others, and ease their pressure—you're not only running for your life now, you're saving people too. Right?"

Qiao Jiaxin tried hard to widen her eyes and nodded.

"Good girl. Let's go."

Qiao Jiaxin took a deep breath and plunged into the dense forest again. After taking two or three steps, she turned back to look at Li Yunxin.

But she discovered that the youth was gone.

Her heart, which had only just calmed down, fell into turmoil again. She hurriedly turned around and stepped back, wanting to see whether she had gone too fast and the youth had failed to catch up.

But after taking two steps, she suddenly saw a faint clear gleam flying toward her.

The thin gleam, like lightning, appeared in her vision for only a second before she felt the whole world turn dark. She did not even have time to think about anything—because she still did not know what had happened.

The swordsman withdrew his slender sword, and Qiao Jiaxin crumpled softly to the ground. Between her brows was a tiny red mark, like a red bean.

"Seeking death," he said softly, then turned to Li Yunxin. "You do have some tricks. Tell me, what lofty master are you?"