Mu Daoying listened as she grew more and more outrageous. Seeing her posture so frivolous and absurd, he could not help but close his eyes and turn his face away, refusing to look at her.
Liu Qiao’e paid it no mind and was just about to tuck the peony into her sleeve.
Suddenly!
A sound of something slicing through the air came from behind her!
She turned her head and saw Shen Chengyin with a cold expression, thrusting her sword toward her in a rush!
At the same time, a flash of snow-bright sword light streaked past in front of her.
Shen Chengyin and Zhao Yange had somehow broken through the encirclement and leaped onto the rooftop. One in front and one behind, they had her surrounded, stabbing toward her chest and back.
Mu Daoying, who had originally resolved not to waste words with her, had no choice but to open his eyes at this moment. His expression changed slightly.
He feared that the two of them would suffer her wrath and could not help but show a hint of anxiety. “Yongzhang, A-Yin!”
But how could such an assault be taken seriously by Liu Qiao’e, who already held the Mountains and Rivers Sword in hand?
A cold laugh rose in her heart. “Courting death!”
Sword qi erupted from the Mountains and Rivers Sword in her palm, striking toward the two from all directions at once!
The sword qi from the Mountains and Rivers Sword spread like blooming snowflakes. Wherever it passed, the tiled eaves and grasses condensed into frigid ice crystals. Shen Chengyin and Zhao Yange had no choice but to hastily redirect their attacks to counter the bone-piercing cold sword qi.
Just then, their vision blurred as Cheng Xun’s figure flashed past and blocked their path just in time.
“Second Brother, get out of the way!” Liu Qiao’e snapped abruptly.
Cheng Xun had always obeyed her unconditionally. Without asking anything, he stepped aside.
Liu Qiao’e flung out the Blood Rakshasa. With a flash of blood light, it shot forth like two red silk ribbons streaking across the sky!
Worried that something would happen to the two, Mu Daoying forcibly gathered his true qi and staggered forward, only to run out of strength and tumble to the ground.
Zhao Yange and Shen Chengyin had just flipped onto the rooftop when Liu Qiao’e struck. They dealt with it in haste.
The two of them were prodigies of the Eastern Florescence Realm, yet before those red ribbons, they were like novice cultivators who had just entered the path.
The blood light extended and contracted freely. With a sudden surge, it formed a curtain of blood that encircled the two from the sides.
This blood curtain was smooth and incredibly tough. Weapons struck it without leaving a mark. With a single wrap, bind, pull, and tug, the two were bundled into cocoons and dragged back to Liu Qiao’e’s side.
Liu Qiao’e leaped into the air, grabbing one in each hand and pinching their necks.
Mu Daoying cried out in shock, pain, and rage. He finally spoke. “What exactly do you want to do?!”
Liu Qiao’e said nothing, only slowly tightening her grip. Shen Chengyin and Zhao Yange immediately showed signs of suffocation and agony.
Just as she was about to crush their throat bones—
“I agree to your terms.” A young man’s calm voice suddenly rang out.
Mu Daoying spoke abruptly. His voice was not loud or hurried, yet it carried a strange calmness that steadied the heart.
Liu Qiao’e’s hand paused slightly as she looked at him oddly.
Mu Daoying closed his eyes slightly, his face showing deep exhaustion and weariness, as if he could bear no more.
In a low, humble, and earnest voice, he said, “Whatever your demands, I agree to them all.”
“Please, old mother…” His fingers in his sleeve clenched tight then loosened, forming a few pale and feeble words. “Let these two go.”
Tears welled up in Zhao Yange and Shen Chengyin’s eyes at the same time.
Liu Qiao’e’s gaze flickered as she remained silent, seemingly weighing if the deal was worthwhile.
After a moment, she eased the strength in her fingertips but did not release them.
She still held the two high in the air.
“You think I’ll ask you for something?”
Liu Qiao’e smiled faintly.
“Have you serve me?”
“Mu Daoying, aren’t you a gentleman?”
“I am not.” Mu Daoying said flatly. “I have selfish feelings for you, so I am no gentleman. If I were, I would never have fallen in love with you.”
Liu Qiao’e’s breath hitched.
She sneered coldly again. “Daoist Mu is truly racking his brains to save these two friends of his.”
Mu Daoying looked at her and said nothing to correct her.
Liu Qiao’e continued, “You are a gentleman who treats all things equally with firm love, embracing the great way… Today…”
“But let me ask you this: between your two friends, only one can live. Who do you choose?”
Mu Daoying’s pupils contracted sharply!
She hated his moonlit grace that shone upon all things.
Liu Qiao’e thought that back in Fogveil City, she had made it clear enough: from then on, bridges to bridges and roads to roads, no further entanglements. Yet he had come to provoke her again.
Today, at this moment, in this place, he stirred up the deepest hidden pain in her heart!
Did she not know about the secret connections between him, Shen Chengyin, and Zhao Yange back in Fogveil City?
They had schemed against her behind her back. She had not yet settled that score with them, and now they had thrown themselves in her path again!
The thought of how the three of them had discussed her in secret.
Her once timid, cautious, and self-satisfied love had become their topic of conversation.
And then turned into a weapon they plotted to use against her, to drug him.
The thought of her affections being laid bare before others… made her grit her teeth in hatred, her cheeks flushing with furious red.
Mu Daoying could not make the choice.
Zhao Yange and Shen Chengyin were his lifelong friends, brothers since childhood.
True brothers were like limbs: lose any one, and one could not function, could not live.
Let alone placing human lives on a scale to weigh at will?
He pressed his lips tight and stared at her. “If you hate me, you may chop off my arms and sever my legs.”
“Why implicate the innocent?”
“I will implicate the innocent!” Liu Qiao’e cut him off loudly.
“Daoist Mu doesn’t want to choose?”
“If you won’t choose, how about I choose for you?”
Her fingertip toyed lightly along Zhao Yange’s fair neck.
Zhao Yange felt as if an ice-cold little snake was slowly caressing him. He could not help but shudder. He opened his mouth, wanting to speak again.
But Liu Qiao’e suddenly clamped his throat! His breathing faltered at once, his face turning red.
“Choose your fellow sect friend?”
Her other hand stroked toward Shen Chengyin’s throat, lifting her another half-inch higher. “Or your confidante?”
“Stop!” Mu Daoying finally reached his limit.
Shen Chengyin trembled all over. “He doesn’t need to choose!”
Her voice trembled too, but her tone was firm. “I’ll choose for him.”
With that, spiritual qi surged and gathered rapidly in her dantian. Liu Qiao’e immediately realized what Shen Chengyin intended.
She wanted to self-detonate her dantian.
Of course, Liu Qiao’e would not let her have her way and waste her life in vain.
With a cold sneer, she tapped several points on Shen Chengyin’s meridian gates, sealing her major meridians throughout her body, then heavily tossed her onto the tiles.
At that moment, Mu Daoying suddenly moved. His foot stomped, his body merging with the long wind as he flew forward.
Liu Qiao’e thought he had come to snatch Shen Chengyin and hurriedly dashed forward a few steps, dragging Zhao Yange with her.
However, Mu Daoying ignored Shen Chengyin on the tiles.
His target was—
Her?! Liu Qiao’e froze for a moment, her pupils dilating slightly.
Caught off guard, he closed in on her! He suddenly seized her wrist and, taking advantage of that fleeting opening, flung Zhao Yange from her grasp!
Her expression changed drastically. She had never expected that the constant hunter of sparrows would be pecked in the eye by a house sparrow.
She reached out to grab.
He smoothly redirected her right arm, pulling her into his embrace.
She was stunned for a moment, greatly startled. What was he doing? Had he gone mad?
But in an instant, she sensed something wrong. The spiritual qi of heaven and earth was rapidly gathering toward Mu Daoying’s body!
Above their heads, the overwhelming dark clouds parted in moments!
His face was cold as frost. His hands gripped her arms tightly, hugging her close, not allowing her to struggle free. The wind tousled his black hair. The man closed his eyes slightly, a flash of resolve crossing his refined brows.
This resolve seemed like the determination to go to the Yellow Springs with her.
As if, if he could not stop her wanton killing of innocents today, then they would die together.
The two of them into the abyss!
This madman! If he wanted to die, he could die alone—she had no intention of dying with him!
But it was too fast! After Sword Forging, he had turned his innate Sword Bone body into a sword as well.
Sword Bone was heaven’s gift. Other cultivators might strain themselves to no avail, like ants shaking a tree, unable to threaten a high-rank cultivator’s life foundation.
But Mu Daoying’s ultimate move—using his Sword Bone to channel heaven and earth spiritual qi, shattering the sword and destroying his body, perishing together—could cross two full realms of cultivation to slay Liu Qiao’e.
Mu Daoying had clearly resolved to die together earlier. From the moment his fingertips touched her wrist bone, the spiritual qi had already begun gathering in his body.
Accompanied by a thunderous roar!
The mountains and rivers shook!
Soaring spiritual qi burst from his body, condensing into a colossal sword phantom piercing heaven and earth! It slashed heavily down toward the two from above!
In this dire moment, another figure leaped in without hesitation!
—
The instant the giant sword phantom activated, Mu Daoying’s mind shook. His eyelashes trembled, and he ultimately opened his eyes.
What the scenery was like after death, whether one returned to nothingness forever or truly entered the Yellow Springs underworld—no one could say.
If it was eternal oblivion without awareness, Mu Daoying could not help but open his eyes, wanting one last look at her.
This was clearly a mistaken decision.
Because as their gazes met, he clearly saw the faint trace of fear that emerged in her eyes.
In that instant, he froze, feeling a trace of reluctance.
And this brief daze brought him utter disaster.
Liu Qiao’e seized this momentary lapse. The Mountains and Rivers Sword twisted like a dragon, flashing past and piercing his dantian! It also severed the constantly gathering spiritual qi within.
The spiritual qi, with nowhere to go, still erupted. But Cheng Xun’s desperate charge forward summoned spiritual qi into a protective barrier in front of her, blocking the vast majority of the explosion’s aftermath for her!
“Second Brother!” Liu Qiao’e’s face paled in panic. Trembling, she caught Cheng Xun’s gravely wounded body!
Cheng Xun had his eyes closed, wounded severely and unconscious. His body was limp all over, as if his sinews and bones were all broken.
He was her male pet, her family, her brother.
She cradled his body, feeling regret and hatred. Hatred for her own lingering sentiments.
She did not even glance at Mu Daoying, who was also heavily wounded by the explosion.
Mu Daoying’s condition was only marginally better than Cheng Xun’s. His right arm hung limp, his left leg broken with white bone protruding from the flesh.
Blood mixed with fragments of organs constantly coughed from the corner of his mouth. Only because he was the master of the sword formation did he avoid some of the damage.