Guo Kai heard those words and shrank back half a step despite himself.
The flicker of awkwardness he had felt at seeing an old acquaintance vanished, replaced by the tension of a man facing a formidable enemy.
He knew this woman's ways all too well.
"Men and women shouldn't be so familiar. Since when were we buddies?"
The retort burst from Guo Kai almost on instinct.
In the curtained pavilion, it sounded especially abrupt.
Guan Ying did not get angry at his refusal.
"Oh? Men and women shouldn't be familiar?"
Before she finished speaking, a breeze suddenly stirred inside the pavilion.
Guo Kai never saw how she rose. His vision blurred, and she was already in front of him.
Smack!
A crisp snap rang out.
Guan Ying seized the front of Guo Kai's robe.
A soft, precise force that concealed immense skill passed through her fingertips and into his skin.
Under her grip, Guo Kai felt as though his backbone had been pulled out. His fierce Martial Force was driven back into his dantian, leaving him unable to muster a scrap of strength.
"Fine."
Holding his robe, Guan Ying made to drag him out of the pavilion like a limp burlap sack.
"If we're not buddies, then you're a dragon crossing the river to challenge my turf."
"Come on. Let's settle this outside, one on one."
"Don't worry, I never bully anyone. I'll suppress my cultivation to your level and spar with you using only early Third Realm Martial Force, so no one can say I—"
"Don't!"
Guan Ying had not even finished before Guo Kai panicked.
He knew what Guan Ying was capable of.
The treasured daughter of the Two-Lakes Martial Alliance's leader had grown up amid mountains of blades and seas of blood, honed by countless experts sparring