Su Yao's ordeal, Xue Qinghe's new mission [second update]

Ning Chengyi moved like a sinuous dragon, bringing two fingers of his right hand together into a sword gesture as Soul Power coiled around them. His feet whipped up a fierce wind, aiming to strike high and low at once.

But Su Yao reacted even faster. Forgetting what she had said earlier, she unleashed a surge of Soul Power.

She averted the crisis, but before she could recover, Ning Chengyi thrust his right hand upward from below with a sudden burst of force.

A perfectly timed One Finger Sets the World!

Yet a mound of softness absorbed most of the attack.

Even so, the Soul Power in Ning Chengyi's finger strike invaded her Shanzhong acupoint, making Su Yao's expression change. She let out a breathy moan of pain. "Ahh..." Her face instantly flushed crimson, and a barely perceptible shudder ran through her body.

Su Yao was mortified that she had made such an embarrassing sound.

After all, she had never even been in a relationship.

Everything she knew came from other people's accounts or books.

Yet today, a simple sparring match had made her slip up again and again.

Bang!

Ning Chengyi did not stop because she was distracted. Instead, he launched an even fiercer attack.

"You little brat! I'll teach you a lesson!"

As she spoke, Su Yao quietly raised her cultivation to the Soul Ancestor level.

Thud!

A dull impact rang out, and surprise appeared on Ning Chengyi's face. She had caught his roundhouse kick.

"That'll teach you to act up!"

She moved to fling Ning Chengyi away, but he used the momentum to seize her legs instead, delivering a vicious knife-hand strike to the Weizhong acupoint in the hollow behind her knee.

Caught off guard, Su Yao buckled, nearly dropping to her knees.

But she hauled herself upright with the force of someone uprooting a willow, releasing Ning Chengyi's body in the process and steadying her footing.

"You little devil!" Su Yao threw a punch at him, but Ning Chengyi reacted swiftly, springing up with a kick of both feet to counter it.

"Teacher, those moves won't work on me." Ning Chengyi smiled. Just one more hit, and he would complete today's task.

"Is that so?" She suddenly unleashed her Soul Ancestor strength, moving too fast for Ning Chengyi to react. A brutal kick sent him flying.

"Cough, cough... So you're cheating?!" Fury burned in Ning Chengyi's eyes, all his earlier composure gone. His eyes were bloodshot as he briefly flexed his limbs, then exploded Soul Power beneath his feet and launched himself forward.

Su Yao smiled disdainfully. Want to compete in speed?

Then I'll just be faster!

Bang!

He slammed into the ground again, but Ning Chengyi seemed unable to feel pain. He sprang back up like a madman.

"Committee members, you're here?" Ning Chengyi suddenly shouted as he raced within reach of Su Yao.

Su Yao instinctively glanced toward the entrance. Smiling at the success of his trick, Ning Chengyi clapped both hands viciously toward her temples.

If this strike landed, Su Yao would lose.

But the moment Su Yao sensed danger, her hands instinctively thrust outward to either side, instantly neutralizing the attack.

"It's over." Before Su Yao could celebrate, Ning Chengyi's big head came crashing toward her like a cannonball. In her haste, she could only put out a hand to hold it back.

The next second, unprecedented pain shot through Su Yao's chest, along with... a tingling numbness!

Ning Chengyi had bitten down hard on it.

"Ahh..." Su Yao let out a strange cry unlike any she had made before. Ning Chengyi ignored it and bit down harder.

"Bastard!"

Su Yao held nothing back. Her Soul Emperor cultivation erupted, and her protective Soul Power blasted Ning Chengyi away.

Had his keen senses not alerted him to Su Yao's impending outburst, allowing him to release his bite beforehand, he might have lost several teeth.

"I won! Stop!" Watching Su Yao charge toward him, Ning Chengyi felt a belated surge of fear. At that moment, death seemed to loom over him.

What exactly did I just do?

"Won? Do I need a reason to beat you?" Su Yao became a raging dragon, hurtling forward like a terrifying ferocious beast. She seized Ning Chengyi and immediately sealed his Soul Power.

A second later, Ning Chengyi's wretched screams rang out.

They continued for several minutes before finally stopping.

"Hmph! I'll let you off for today."

Su Yao tossed Ning Chengyi aside and left, her face flushed with embarrassment and anger.

"Keep your mouth shut about this. If anyone finds out, I'll kill you."

Su Yao delivered the vicious threat just as she reached the door.

Ning Chengyi looked utterly bewildered. A sore loser?

Still, he nodded. "Crazy woman. All I did was bite you. Nobody said biting wasn't allowed in a fight!"

Muttering to himself, he sat cross-legged and began cultivating.

"Ow! What a strange feeling. It hurts, but I'm also a little... eager?"

Soaking in warm water, Su Yao studied the teeth marks with a hazy gaze. She gently dabbed them with medicinal liquid, sending pain and tingling sensations through her body.

"I really do wonder what that bastard used to do."

Meanwhile.

Ning Chengyi received another invitation from Xue Qinghe.

Snake Lance Douluo, She Long, brought him into the Nightglow Tower without alerting anyone.

Xue Qinghe had arrived early and was waiting there.

"I need to ask you a favor."

Ning Chengyi looked calmly at him and held out a hand. Xue Qinghe stared in surprise, not understanding.

"Payment!"

"What? Those cultivation resources aren't enough?"

"That's a separate matter."

Ning Chengyi shook his head and spoke coldly, leaving no room for bargaining.

"When you reach rank twenty, I'll help you hunt a Soul Beast you need. How's that?"

"Let me hear the mission first."

Rather than rushing to agree, he gave another cool reply.

Now that he could squeeze resources out of Xue Qinghe, he had to get as much as possible. How else could he grow stronger?

What a cautious fellow, Xue Qinghe cursed inwardly. "A band of Evil Soul Masters abducted the Sword Venerable's beloved, so I'd like you to intervene."

"What do you mean?" Ning Chengyi was puzzled. The Sword Venerable had already died at his hands. How was there still something involving him?

"Well... I'm sorry. The Sword Venerable's death match with you was actually my doing. I wanted to see how talented you were."

Xue Qinghe admitted it frankly. Ning Chengyi scoffed, not remotely surprised.

No matter how much attention he had drawn, he should never have faced a Soul Elder like the Sword Venerable.

He had considered the possibility before, but hearing Xue Qinghe admit it today was another matter.

"At least you're honest. I'll take the job. Go on."

Deep down, Ning Chengyi still respected the Sword Venerable. At the very least, the man had used no underhanded tricks, and he had helped Ning Chengyi recognize and remedy his own shortcomings.

Xue Qinghe had not expected Ning Chengyi to agree so readily.

A trace of astonishment entered his eyes. "You don't hate me? Or the Sword Venerable?"

Ning Chengyi rolled his eyes at him as though looking at an idiot and said nothing.

From his gaze, Xue Qinghe could tell that he thought him an idiot.

"We promised the Sword Venerable that, win or lose, we'd ransom a woman for him. She was his beloved. For certain reasons, she had ended up in the Great Soul Arena in Suotuo City."

At that, Ning Chengyi understood.

The Sword Venerable had been a devoted lover who wanted to earn money in the arena. Betting on death matches was the quickest way to make money, and he had wanted to earn enough to ransom her. But Xue Qinghe's arrangements had led to his death at Ning Chengyi's hands.

"Now I need you to go to Suotuo City and ransom her before those Evil Soul Masters get to her."

"Then why didn't you save the Sword Venerable when he was dying?"

That single question nearly shattered Xue Qinghe's composure.