Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The assassins struck with lethal intent, their first move aimed at silencing us forever.

As I drew my sword to meet them, the leader shouted in a low voice, “By order of the Sect Master, we are to execute the demonic-bloodline remnant! If Chief Yun dares to interfere, she shall be charged with the same crime!”

Yin Zhixiao had finally stopped pretending.

The courtyard descended into a chaotic blur of flashing blades. Despite his injuries, Dong Linyuan forced himself up, snatched a long saber from an attacker with a backhand strike, and parried a sneak attack aimed at my flank.

As the blade grazed his shoulder blade, a sharp pang of sympathetic pain shot through my own chest.

I gritted my teeth and shattered the enemy’s weapon, my eyes turning red with fury.

“Who gave you permission to block for me?”

Dong Linyuan’s breathing was ragged, yet he didn’t forget to tease me. “If you die, I go to the grave with you. I’m just saving myself.”

I slashed the throat of the last assassin, and silence finally returned to the courtyard.

Corpses littered the ground.

Not a single one was left alive.

When Yin Zhixiao did something, he always preferred to pull the grass out by its roots.

Dong Linyuan leaned against the wall, his face deathly pale. I went to support him, but he suddenly pulled a Lifebound Sword Soul from his robes and pressed it into my palm.

“Take it.”

I frowned. “What is this?”

“My Lifebound Sword Soul,” he said calmly. “The next time the Life-Devouring Seal recoils, if you can’t endure it, crush this. It will take half the blow for you.”

To a sword cultivator, a Lifebound Sword Soul was no different from their own life.

I stared at the speck of silver-white light in his palm, motionless for a long time.

Seeing that I wouldn’t take it, Dong Linyuan actually took my hand and curled my fingers around it one by one.

“Don’t worry,” his voice was low. “I don’t plan on making you responsible for me just yet.”

My throat tightened. For the first time, a crack appeared in the hatred I had harbored for five years.

“Why?” I asked.

“Why what?”

“Why save me? Why give me your sword soul? Why do you still refuse to say a single word in your own defense?”

Dong Linyuan looked at me for a long time.

The night sky reflected in his eyes like a deeply suppressed fire.

“Because you’re too stubborn,” he said. “If I can’t explain it clearly, you’ll remember it for a lifetime. But if I keep you alive first, there will come a day when you can uncover the truth yourself.”

My fingers tightened abruptly, the sword soul digging painfully into my palm.

“Yun Xingye,” he called my name softly again. “I didn’t kill your brother. This is the last time I will ever say it.”

In the courtyard, the scent of medicinal herbs mingled with the stench of blood, making my chest feel strangely heavy.

I reached out to tie his bandages, my movements much gentler than before.

“Shut up and recover.”

Dong Linyuan suddenly leaned in close, whispering into my ear with a smile, “Your heart is softening.”

I looked up, our noses nearly touching.

In that moment, neither of us backed away.

Until the alarm bell at the back of the mountain suddenly rang out.

Someone had broken into the Scripture Pavilion.