"Y-you can't speak?"
After Huo Yuhao spoke, he saw the purple-haired little girl shake her head. Then she raised both hands and began tracing in the air.
Seeing her do this, Huo Yuhao instantly understood that she wanted to write.
So he held out his right hand in front of her.
Sure enough, the girl took Huo Yuhao's right hand in her left and began to write.
After so many years at the Knight Temple, Huo Yuhao had long since learned to read the writing of the Holy Demon Continent.
So he recognized what Cai'er had written at a glance.
"Your name is Cai'er?"
After the girl had written four characters, Huo Yuhao looked at her and asked.
When the girl nodded, Huo Yuhao introduced himself too:
"My name is Huo Yuhao. I'm a knight. Judging by your movements, you're an assassin, right?"
Hearing Huo Yuhao's words, the girl was about to nod when her expression suddenly changed. She hurriedly turned around, shielding Huo Yuhao.
At that moment, a man in white robes appeared out of thin air several meters behind Cai'er. He wore a mask, but his world-weary eyes still betrayed his age.
Huo Yuhao's spiritual power had detected the man's arrival long ago, but he pretended to know nothing and did nothing to stand out.
The white-robed elder took a close look at Huo Yuhao and said coolly:
"Boy, you talk too much. For the sake of your being a knight, I won't knock you out. You can leave!"
Cai'er visibly breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to look at Huo Yuhao, a hint of urgency in her purple eyes, as if saying, Go, quickly.
Huo Yuhao stood and bowed to the white-robed elder.
"Greetings, senior."
"Mm, you can leave now."
Huo Yuhao did not leave immediately. He hesitated for a moment, then spoke:
"Senior, may I say one more thing before I go?"
The white-robed elder was somewhat surprised. He had not expected the boy to remain so calm in the face of an Eighth Tier expert, much less want to say something more.
"Oh? What is it? Since you saved Cai'er, I'll give you three breaths."
Huo Yuhao took a deep breath. He had already thought it through.
From the first moment he saw Cai'er, he had seen certain things in her.
Things he knew all too well.
In his previous life, during his childhood on the Douluo Continent, his mother had died young, his father had abandoned him, and he had suffered every kind of bullying in the Duke's Mansion.
He knew better than anyone what it felt like to be filled with hatred and wrapped in coldness.
"Senior, Cai'er... she hasn't been living well."
The white-robed elder's gaze did not change, but Huo Yuhao noticed Cai'er's body tense up.
"I've noticed that there's nothing in her but hatred and coldness. Her eyes tell me that she hasn't been properly loved since she was little.
"She doesn't like the path she's on now, and she's being forced to walk it.
"Senior, I know you might think a child like me shouldn't say these things, but I can see that Cai'er lacks familial love and warmth, and her relationship with her elders is growing worse and worse.
"It's not too late to make things right. If this goes on, once she grows up, no matter how strong she becomes, the hole in her heart won't be mended."
At those words, Cai'er froze. She stared blankly at Huo Yuhao, her purple pupils trembling violently.
Meanwhile, the white-robed elder's aura grew heavy.
"You boy who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, how dare you point fingers at our Assassin Temple? Do you think you're qualified?"
"Of course I'm not. It's only a suggestion," Huo Yuhao said in a low voice, his expression unchanged, showing no further reaction.
"A suggestion? What makes you qualified to offer one?"
The white-robed elder's voice was suppressed with anger. "Do you know that Cai'er bears humanity's hopes and will be a main force against the Demon Clan in the future? Under such pressure, do you think you're qualified to say these things?"
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao raised his head and looked into the white-robed elder's eyes. He said firmly:
"She bears humanity's hopes? Then Cai'er needs to take it easier. Leave humanity's hopes and the burden of fighting the Demon Clan to me. I'll end this dark age with my own hands."
Although Huo Yuhao was absolutely confident that he could end humanity's dark age, others who heard him would only think he was making shameless boasts.
Sure enough, both Cai'er and the white-robed elder were stunned by his words.
The white-robed elder's gaze changed. He stared at Huo Yuhao for a few breaths, as though looking at something that had no idea what death was.
"Boy, you're certainly confident."
His tone grew colder. "Humility is one of a knight's ten principles. I'm afraid you haven't learned that one."
"Humility is for people, not the Demon Clan."
Huo Yuhao shook his head and continued, "Senior, I mean no offense to the Assassin Temple. I just think Cai'er shouldn't be left with nothing but hatred."
The white-robed elder fell silent for a breath. He turned to glance at Cai'er, who had her head lowered, her thoughts unknown.
Then he looked back at Huo Yuhao.
"Boy, since you're so confident, let me test your worth myself."
The instant his words fell, the white-robed elder vanished.
Huo Yuhao had kept his spiritual power active all along, so he caught the elder's trajectory the moment he moved.
An Eighth Tier assassin was incredibly fast, but in Huo Yuhao's spiritual perception, the elder's path was as clear as a line drawn on paper.
He vanished from the front and circled behind Huo Yuhao, raising his right hand and chopping at the back of his neck.
His objective was clear: he wanted to knock Huo Yuhao out in one blow, without giving him time to react.
Huo Yuhao did not turn around.
He stepped half a pace forward with his right foot, dropped into a crouch, and raised his right arm behind him to block.
The white-robed elder's hand chop struck Huo Yuhao's arm, but most of its force was deflected.
At the same time, Huo Yuhao thrust his left hand backward, aiming the heel of his palm straight for the elder's ribs.
"Hm?"
The white-robed elder gave a soft exclamation and turned sideways to evade Huo Yuhao's counterattack.
"Interesting."
He withdrew his right hand, lowered his body slightly, and assumed a close-combat stance.
This time, he did not use an assassin's speed or movement techniques. He relied solely on a Fifth Tier assassin's close-combat skills, exchanging punches and palm strikes with Huo Yuhao.
He wanted to see just how much this young knight with such a big mouth was worth.
Huo Yuhao did not use ice magic, relying mainly on his spiritual power.
When he had fought the Demon Clan earlier, he had used up more than half his internal spiritual power. It certainly had not recovered in such a short time.
Besides, since the white-robed elder was not using assassin skills, he did not intend to use them either.
His spiritual power operated at full force. Under Spiritual Detection, every one of the elder's movements was magnified and dissected in his perception.
Before the elder had even thrown his right fist, Huo Yuhao had already slipped half a step to the left.
The moment the elder raised his left palm, Huo Yuhao's right hand was already positioned in the path of the strike.
As soon as the elder moved his feet, Huo Yuhao had already retreated beyond his attack range.
He was like a fallen leaf blown by the wind, drifting unpredictably around the elder, evading every attack by just enough and blocking every move at precisely the right moment.
He did not counterattack often, but every time he did, he struck precisely into the gaps in the elder's moves.
When the elder withdrew a fist, Huo Yuhao's own fist arrived. When the elder shifted his footing, Huo Yuhao's foot was already blocking the position.
Facing a fight like this, the white-robed elder's expression finally changed.
He had clearly intended to teach Huo Yuhao a lesson, but had not expected to be taught one himself instead.