So Beautiful!

There was no time to mourn Maid Xiao Feng's death. Next to appear was-

The head of the Ancient Immortal Ning Lineage-Ning Qingfeng!

A cultivator at the great perfection of the Mahayana stage!

The bearer of the phoenix nirvana immortal body.

Leader of the Kun Province Alchemy Alliance.

Deputy leader of the Kun Province Talisman Alliance.

Honorary leader of the Nine Provinces Zhuyou Medical Alliance.

Honorary head of the Jade Balance Kun Cultivation Academy.

The Wutong Origin Lord of Xun Province's Demon Court.

Deputy leader of the Nine Provinces Kun Cultivator Alliance.

One of the representatives of the Immortal Relic Province Development Zone.

One of the candidates for leader of the Dao Alliance.

By comparison, Li Yang was an ant through and through.

Without the slightest hesitation.

He decisively dropped to his knees:

"Forgive me, Senior!"

His will was a sword that would never bend, no matter how often it was battered.

But when facing someone who was not an enemy, he naturally knew how to adapt.

He was not actually a madman. Killing her mortalized body was one thing.

But this true body before him could slap even the Mystic Heaven Sword Sect's ancestor into oblivion. How could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like him dare act outrageously?

His apparent fearlessness throughout this journey had merely rested on the fact that experts at Golden Core and above could not enter Yongning Commandery. He had the backing to act boldly.

But that did not mean Li Yang would recklessly draw his sword against an evil fiend he could not defeat.

In truth, he had always acted cautiously.

Otherwise, after years of dealing with sinister, scheming evil fiends, he would have been killed hundreds of times over.

"You knelt so readily?"

Her radiance was so piercing that he could not open his eyes. Li Yang did not even dare raise his head, keeping it pressed firmly into the mud.

"That isn't like you." Her voice was lovely, like a hundred birds singing homage to the phoenix, sweet and soothing. "You should be pointing your sword at me and demanding to know whether I'm an evil fiend. That would be more like you."

Her words were mild, but Li Yang heard the emotion beneath them.

He immediately offered up the Phoenix Sword with both hands, still not daring to raise his head.

"Your sword helped me slay evil fiends, Senior. This junior is endlessly grateful. Please take it back."

The Phoenix Sword seemed reluctant to part with him. It had already taken on Li Yang's aura, radiating a savage killing intent that did not belong to a woman.

Still, it fell into the woman's hand and transformed into a totem on her delicate, jade-like palm.

"Stop kneeling. Get up."

Her voice still betrayed neither joy nor anger.

Li Yang did not dare remain on his knees and immediately scrambled up.

But he kept his back slightly bent and his gaze lowered, showing none of the spirited confidence he had displayed while slaying demons and defending the Dao.

How could he dare?

The Yongning Commandery incident had been an Extermination Plan devised by the Mystic Heaven Sword Sect and the Sword Alliance against the Seven Emotions Demon Venerable and the Six Desires Demon Venerable.

Not only had they disrupted her perfectly ordinary mortal transfiguration trial, he had also cut down her mortalized body, "Xiao Feng."

No matter how he looked at it, he was in the wrong.

With so little justification on his side.

And with them pushing him forward to bear her fury, he did not dare show the slightest temper.

"Weren't you quite arrogant these past two days? I'm not used to seeing you like this. Go back to how you were."

Li Yang gave two dry coughs.

"This junior is merely a humble Sword Cultivator who takes slaying demons and defending the Dao as his duty. I only know to keep my head down and press onward, protecting those I ought to protect. I have never entertained the word 'arrogance.' If I inadvertently offended you, Senior, please show mercy and let this junior go as though passing wind."

"Heh-offended me?" The woman scoffed. "Even after confirming that she was my mortalized body, you still dared cut me down with one stroke.

"Now you've sheathed every last edge and ask me to show you mercy.

"But when you killed my mortalized body, did you ever consider mercy?"

Li Yang breathed a sigh of relief.

Ning Qingfeng's anger meant she was venting her emotions. She probably would not kill him.

He did not dare argue. If she wanted to scold him, let her. It was better than losing his life.

Seeing Li Yang remain silent, Ning Qingfeng laughed in exasperation.

"Stop pretending to be innocent. You may have killed more people with your own hands than I have." Her voice rose. "I want you to speak! Stop playing mute!"

What could Li Yang say?

"I'm sorry. I acted rashly and offended you."

"I don't want to hear that!" Ning Qingfeng frowned, displeasure on her face. "Why did you kill my mortalized body? Do you know what a tremendous price I pay for each mortal transfiguration? You cut her down so easily, and my attempt to experience the mortal world ended before it had barely begun.

"You clearly had better options. Why must you always act so extremely?

"Besides, that was only a wisp of the Six Desires Demon Venerable's divided soul. You killed me over a mere wisp. Do mortal lives mean nothing to you?

"Or do you have something against me? Did you dislike my mortalized body, and so cut her down?

"You had better answer truthfully! Otherwise, I mastered the Harmless Soul-Searching Secret Art back when I was at Nascent Soul."

It was clear.

This woman had to get to the bottom of it, or she would not let him off easily.

"When someone important to me is taken hostage, I choose to strike without hesitation every time.

"Once it was a senior brother, and later it was a Sword Cultivator friend. This wasn't my first experience.

"But if I surrender my advantage because of that, I put myself in danger too.

"So obeying the enemy cannot guarantee that I'll save someone important. It only makes the situation worse.

"That is what experience has taught me.

"If you have a better method, Senior, I have nothing to say.

"Because, for me alone, rather than let someone important suffer before dying, I would rather give them a swift end. At least I can avenge them.

"That is all.

"It has nothing to do with who the hostage is, or with your identity."

That was Li Yang's answer.

"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you for such insolence?"

As Ning Qingfeng spoke, a mere trace of killing intent leaked out, turning heaven and earth pale and filling the void with countless densely packed cracks.

"I actually liked Xiao Feng very much. If she weren't your mortalized body, I would have treated her as my little sister.

"I believe that the true body of such a kind girl wouldn't really take her anger out on me.

"Of course, if I guessed wrong and you kill me, consider it one life for another."

Li Yang smiled without reservation.

"Don't try to saddle me with a lofty reputation!"

So she said.

But she had cultivated for five thousand years, seen countless people of every stripe, and possessed depths as unfathomable as an abyss.

She could naturally distinguish truth from falsehood in Li Yang's words.

Li Yang's smile was open, and as he met her gaze, his eyes were just as candid.

"You're certain I won't kill you." Ning Qingfeng's tone was no longer forceful. "I've already examined the memories of that girl from my Ning Lineage. From beginning to end, you never cared whose mortalized body she was.

"After all, you dared cut me down even knowing Xiao Feng was me. Whether you knew no longer mattered.

"You're a little freak. A sword madman.

"But if you manage to rise, you'll become a major figure in the Sword Alliance. That will be frightening."

Li Yang had no interest in these words.

"Senior, with your cultivation, if you wanted to kill me, a single thought could destroy me ten thousand times over.

"But if you don't want to kill me, with all your experience, there's no need to discuss the Dao with a junior like me. I'm not qualified.

"If you see potential in this junior and wish to invest, you could give me a Second-Rank Nine-Pattern Spirit Sword. If I have the chance in the future, I'll certainly repay you!"

Ning Qingfeng smiled beautifully:

"I thought you would keep your head lowered and never dare look at me.

"Can't keep up the act anymore?

"This is the real you. Decisive, direct, never dragging your feet through mud and water.

"Even on your knees, that proud will would sooner snap than bend.

"Well?

"Am I so beautiful that you feel all the myriad sights of heaven and earth pale beside me?"

That remark shattered the mood.

But Li Yang could sense it.

She was not treating him as a junior at all.

A senior would maintain some reserve before a junior, and certainly would not ask one, "Am I beautiful?"

There was only one possibility-

She regarded him as a possession, like a pet, and held absolute control over him!

But credit where credit was due.

Ning Qingfeng's beauty defied description.

Her form was graceful as a startled swan, supple as a roaming dragon. Her phoenix eyes held majesty without anger; her vermilion lips seemed poised to speak, then stilled. Her cloudlike coiffure rose high, her slender brows curved delicately. Crimson lips shone without, white teeth gleamed within. Her bright eyes glanced alluringly, dimples gracing her cheeks. She wore shimmering silk robes and earrings of radiant jade. Her patterned shoes were fit for distant wanderings, her light hem trailing like gauzy mist.

Without powder or rouge, her complexion was like dawn's rosy clouds reflected on snow; even before one drew near, her subtle fragrance evoked orchids and musk in an empty valley.

She stood tall and slender as jade, needing no ornament, with an air that rose above all living beings;

Her cloudlike robes drifted without the wind's aid, lending her the bearing of one who gazed down upon the universe.

Majestic without anger, radiant without a smile.

Li Yang had seen many women of peerless beauty, but not one could compare to her.

There was no helping it.

Ning Qingfeng's cultivation was simply too high. Physical beauty had its limits, but one's bearing rose along with one's cultivation.

"Your grace is peerless, Senior. This junior would not dare offer a presumptuous opinion."

"I permit you to be presumptuous," Ning Qingfeng said.

"Then what else can I say-so beautiful!" Li Yang gave her a thumbs-up.