Chapter 117
Chapter 117
The moon was bright, and everything in the room should have been clearly visible. Qiao Ying’s eyesight was perfectly adequate. Yet despite standing not far from the person on the bed, she seemed to be looking through a layer of gauze. Everything remained hazy and indistinct.
Puzzled, Qiao Ying rubbed her eyes, but it did no good.
“Shen Qingyu, I can’t see clearly.”
The young man’s hand covered her eyes, plunging her sight into total darkness. With nothing visible, the clear voice beside her ear made her heart itch even more.
“A restriction has been placed here. Anyone who comes close cannot see the face of the person lying there.”
Qiao Ying should have feared this unknown darkness, but with him beside her, she felt remarkably relaxed. Even if some strange spirit or Yaoguai suddenly leaped out, his presence alone was enough to reassure her.
She asked, “Then what should we do?”
Shen Qingyu chuckled and lightly tapped the corner of her eye. “It’s fixed now. Look again.”
The instant he lowered his hand, Qiao Ying’s vision became perfectly clear.
She looked again at the person on the bed and stepped closer. First she saw a woman’s clothing. Just as she raised her gaze and was about to make out the woman’s face, a violent crash came from the roof. Tiles and bricks tumbled down, and dust filled the air.
Shen Qingyu raised a hand before Qiao Ying to shield her from the broken stone and dust. Then, before the room collapsed, he swept her into his arms and flew upward, landing securely on the neighboring roof, safely away from the ruins.
The sounds of battle spread through the night. Sparks burst where weapons met, glittering like dangerous stars.
Qiao Ying rested both hands on Shen Qingyu’s arm and poked her head out from behind it. Her glossy black eyes watched the fighting figures nearby.
They moved so quickly that it took her a long time to barely recognize one of them.
“It’s Xue Heting!”
The young swordsman wielding the Qingshuang Sword was indeed Xue Heting, whom they had not seen in a long while. His movements appeared somewhat sluggish, likely because his old wounds had yet to heal.
Several green Bixiu Demon Insects circled the other figure, only to be swept away completely by the wind from his sword. He also held a sword. It did not look as precious as Qingshuang, yet in his hands, the ordinary weapon did not lose to that famed blade.
“It’s Chunsheng. He knows swordsmanship, and the Bixiu Demon Insects won’t stop circling him. Shen Qingyu, he’s a Yaoguai!”
When sword energy crisscrossed the battlefield, some of it inevitably spilled outward. When immortals fought, lesser mortals suffered.
A blade of sword energy tore through the air toward Qiao Ying’s face as she poked her head out to watch. The young man lightly flicked one index finger. The invisible force instantly changed direction and shattered a large tree nearby.
Qiao Ying exclaimed, “Wow. So powerful.”
Shen Qingyu’s lips curved. He touched her hands and found them a little cold, so he tucked both inside the front of his robe and warmed them with his body until Qiao Ying felt warm again.
She glanced at the battle and said, “Shen Qingyu, Xue Heting gave us plenty of money. Without him, you wouldn’t even have had money for my betrothal gifts.”
Shen Qingyu considered this. It was indeed true.
His fingertips twined around a lock of her black hair as he asked lazily, “If I help him, will that make me even more powerful?”
Qiao Ying nodded with great solemnity. “It will!”
Shen Qingyu smiled faintly and caught a green leaf carried by the night wind. Then he flicked it from his fingertips.
The leaf cut through the air with a sound so faint it was almost uncanny, yet carried a poisoned, piercing chill. Like a streak of frost, it flew straight toward Chunsheng’s face.
Caught off guard, Chunsheng could only raise his sword in a desperate block. When metal struck green leaf, there was no crisp clang. Instead came a tearing sound as the weapon was sliced clean through.
The unremarkable leaf had transformed into something sharper than a blade. It slipped through a gap in Chunsheng’s bracer, cut without resistance through flesh and sinew, and lodged deep between his bones.
Agony tore through Chunsheng’s arm. He watched helplessly as it bent outward at a grotesque angle. Most of the flesh ripped open, and blood mixed with fragments of bone gushed onto the ground with wet, sticky splashes.
He raised his head and stared at the figure standing on the roof not far away.
The young man wore blue robes, his white hair like snow. Beneath the white silk blindfold, his lips curved gently as if he were greeting the man below in friendly acknowledgment.
Chunsheng bit his lip. Seeing Xue Heting charge again, he hurled the medicine vial in his hand. A cloud of green smoke erupted, carrying a deadly poison.
Xue Heting hurriedly retreated and swept the poison aside with the wind from his sword. By the time he looked again, Chunsheng had vanished. Naturally, the woman hidden in the room had disappeared as well.
“Young Master Xue!”
Qiao Ying hurried over, followed at an unhurried pace by Shen Qingyu.
Xue Heting was somewhat surprised. But then he remembered the brutal way Chunsheng’s arm had been torn apart and felt that perhaps he should not be surprised after all.
He had met many people and destroyed many Yaoguai, but only one person he knew employed such cruel methods: Shen Qingyu.
Xue Heting said, “Miss Qiao, Young Master Shen, thank you both for helping just now.”
He said “both” because he knew Shen Qingyu was indifferent by nature and would never meddle in someone else’s affairs. If Shen Qingyu had acted, Qiao Ying must have said something.
All the Bixiu Demon Insects were dead, and the turbid aura had vanished. Even if Xue Heting wanted to pursue, he could no longer catch the figure who had escaped into the night.
He sighed softly.
Qiao Ying said, “Ming Caihua told me you came to Yunling City to track Zhao Fanhua, but you were injured while destroying a Yaoguai along the way. Your wounds haven’t healed, and now you’re hunting another Evil Yaoguai?”
Xue Heting’s face was pale, and he was clearly exhausted. He nodded. “I followed my master’s trail from Fangcun City to Yunling City. Soon after entering the city, I sensed a turbid aura that resembled Yaoguai energy but was somehow different. That led me here. That man’s aura seems human yet not human, Yaoguai yet not Yaoguai, and he moves in secret. I suspected something was deeply wrong with him. After fighting him, I became even more certain.”
Qiao Ying admired him sincerely. “Young Master Xue, you’re still destroying Yaoguai despite your injuries. You’re truly…”
Shen Qingyu supplied, “Stupid.”
Qiao Ying choked. She covered Shen Qingyu’s mouth and smiled at Xue Heting. “Truly chivalrous, courageous, and devoted to justice.”
The fact that Xue Heting had once made public the story of Qingshuang and Bai Xue from forty years ago proved that he was honorable and upright. A person like him naturally deserved admiration.
Xue Heting possessed a good temper and did not mind Shen Qingyu’s mockery. Instead, he looked at Qiao Ying and asked, “Miss Qiao, did you see Ming Caihua in Yunling City?”
Qiao Ying told him everything about meeting Ming Caihua in the City Lord’s Manor. She did not omit Ming Caihua’s interest in the Saintess or the Saintess’s sudden disappearance.