"Impressive, Ye Jingshuang!"

The man in black glanced at Ye Jingshuang as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and shook his head slightly.

"You were already grievously wounded when you fought your way out of the siege tonight.

"Fleeing through the night has drained you further.

"And yet, after taking a palm strike from me, you’re still on your feet.

"The ’Twin Jewels of the Ye Family’... you truly live up to the name."

His gaze then shifted to Jiang Ran.

"And who are you?

"Aren’t you a lucky man..."

Jiang Ran was momentarily speechless. Just as he was about to speak, Ye Jingshuang stepped in front of him.

"He’s just a passerby. This has nothing to do with him.

"Someone of your great skill surely wouldn’t stoop to involving an innocent bystander."

As she spoke, she kept one hand hidden behind her back, frantically gesturing for Jiang Ran to flee.

But the man in black just chuckled, his tone deceptively soft.

"Anyone who stumbles upon us tonight has found their doom. There’s no such thing as ’innocent’ here.

"If he must blame someone, he can only blame his own bad luck.

"For meeting someone he shouldn’t have, and learning something he shouldn’t know."

Before Ye Jingshuang could react with anger, his tone shifted, his eyes glinting with amusement.

"However... people say the Ye family is built on a foundation of chivalry. I, for one, don’t believe it.

"Little girl of the Ye family, I’ll give you a choice.

"Kill this boy with your sword, and I’ll let you walk away alive tonight. What do you say?"

Hearing this, Jiang Ran’s brow furrowed slightly as he glanced at the man in black.

Ye Jingshuang’s expression turned grim.

"What did you say?"

"You said he’s just an insignificant passerby who stumbled upon us tonight.

"If he has no connection to you, then killing him should be no great loss.

"And if you two *are* lovers, well, I’d be very interested to see if you’d cut down the man you love to save your own skin."

The man in black spoke with relish, his eyes full of wicked amusement.

Ye Jingshuang fell silent for a long moment. Suddenly, she took a deep breath and looked back at Jiang Ran.

"Tonight... I’m truly sorry. To save my own life... I must ask you to die!"

The moment the words left her lips, her longsword hummed to life. A flash of cold light shot straight for Jiang Ran’s throat.

Her blade was incredibly fast; in the blink of an eye, its tip was at Jiang Ran’s throat.

Jiang Ran stood frozen, seemingly stunned into inaction by the sudden attack.

But just as the blade was about to pierce his throat, it suddenly pivoted!

With the pivot, the light from her sword flared, and its Sword Qi billowed like endless, overlapping waves in a sea of clouds.

It surged, vast and powerful, straight toward the man in black.

Although Ye Jingshuang was a member of the Ye family, she had been sent to the Liuyun Sword Sect as a child to train in Swordsmanship.

This strike was a move from the Liuyun Cloud Swordsmanship: "Flowing Wind, Turning Cloud."

The crux of the technique was in that very "turn"!

It was a move designed to counter an enemy attacking from behind during a siege. As such, the pivot was fast, sudden, ruthless, and vicious!

She launched herself into the air, closing the distance in an instant.

Her sudden words and attack had completely caught the man in black by surprise.

He had been toying with her, a cat playing with a mouse. He never expected someone from the esteemed Ye family, a follower of the Righteous Path of the Martial World, to actually do as he said.

He hadn’t expected Ye Jingshuang to actually feint an attack.

For an instant, his guard dropped, revealing an opening.

Thus, Ye Jingshuang’s "Flowing Wind, Turning Cloud" caught him completely off guard.

By the time he recovered, the sword was a mere three inches from his face.

With no time for anything else, he slapped his palms together in a sudden motion—a classic empty-handed blade catch—and clamped down hard on Ye Jingshuang’s sword.

But Ye Jingshuang was fighting for her life. She unleashed her full power, and endless streams of Sword Qi erupted, swirling around her.

In that instant, sand and stones were kicked up around them.

Even the man in black could not hold his ground against such power.

Ye Jingshuang pressed her attack from the air, and the man in black, his palms pressed together, was forced back, his feet carving deep furrows in the earth under the pressure of her Sword Qi.

After being pushed back a full seven or eight feet, he finally stomped his foot and came to a hard stop.

The ground boomed as if struck by a sudden clap of thunder.

Using the force of the stop, the man in black twisted his hands, deflecting the momentum of her sword.

His palms, which had seemed ordinary just a moment ago, now glowed with a sickening Cyan-Black hue.

The man in black’s hands suddenly clenched, and Ye Jingshuang’s sword—clearly a valuable, master-crafted weapon—buckled in his grip as if it were made of paper.

But he wasn’t finished. With a series of fluid motions and the sound of CRUNCHING metal, he began to wrap the longsword around his hands.

The hardened steel twisted around his fingers like a soft ribbon!

Ye Jingshuang, horrified, blurted out:

"The Black Death Infinite Hand!

"You’re Zhang Dongxuan, the former grand chieftain of the Celestial King Stronghold! You’re still alive?!"

"As long as members of the Ye family still draw breath, how could I possibly allow myself to die?"

The man in black let out a wild laugh. With a twist and a sharp tug of his hands...

...Ye Jingshuang’s sword could hold no more and shattered inch by inch.

Her Inner Strength and Sword Qi had been channeled into the blade. With the sword broken, her power had nothing to anchor it, and it exploded with a muffled BANG.

A powerful gale of Sword Qi erupted in all directions, sending shards of the broken blade flying through the air.

Ye Jingshuang coughed up a mouthful of blood and was sent flying back toward Jiang Ran. She felt a hand on her back steadying her. Looking up, she saw that it was Jiang Ran who had caught her.

"Sir..."

Ye Jingshuang looked at Jiang Ran. "Why haven’t you left yet?"

Jiang Ran ignored her, reaching out to check her pulse.

"Your internal injuries are serious, but it’s nothing to worry about... I have some medicine for that."

As he spoke, he crouched down, pulled a small vial from his pack, and shook out a pill, preparing to give it to her.

"Trying to take medicine to heal your wounds? Am I invisible to you?"

Zhang Dongxuan’s chilling voice cut through the air.

He hadn’t escaped their last exchange unscathed either.

His Black mask was gone, revealing a fresh, inch-long gash on his face from which blood flowed freely.

"...Zhang Dongxuan!"

Ye Jingshuang glared at him.

"Years ago, when the Court’s soldiers crushed the Celestial King Stronghold, you were the one fish that slipped through the net.

"The Court issued a warrant for your capture, offering a thousand silver taels for your head. Hiding and barely scraping by all these years is one thing...

"But now you’re cavorting with ghouls and goblins, committing these heinous acts!

"Aren’t you afraid your location will be exposed? That someone will take your head and trade it for that bounty?"

"A thousand silver taels?"

Hearing this, Jiang Ran’s eyes suddenly lit up. "He’s a wanted man?"

’Although Ye Jingshuang found Jiang Ran’s tone a bit odd—he said, ’He’s a wanted man,’ but to her, it sounded more like, ’He’s a walking jackpot.’’

Still, she replied, "You don’t know his full story... If you did, you’d think a thousand silver taels is far too low a price."

"What happens next is no longer the concern of a woman who is about to die.

"I’ll send you to meet the ancestors of your Ye family right now!!"

Zhang Dongxuan snorted. He turned his palm downward, and the Cyan-Black color spread across his entire hand.

As he gathered his power, the very air seemed to churn.

In a flash, he struck with the fury of a thunderclap!

The force of the palm strike was like a mountain crashing down.

Ye Jingshuang instinctively tried to rise and meet the attack, but the moment she moved, she grunted in pain, unable to budge.

Just then, a hand landed on her shoulder, gently pressing her down.

She looked up to see Jiang Ran had risen to his feet and was standing in front of her. He slowly assumed a stance and thrust out his own palm.

"Sir, you..."

Ye Jingshuang stared at Jiang Ran, her face a mask of astonishment.

Before she could say more, Zhang Dongxuan burst into laughter.

"YOU’RE COURTING DEATH!!!"

The word had barely left his lips when their palms collided with a BOOM.

Zhang Dongxuan was still laughing wildly, but a moment later, he was spraying a torrent of blood from his mouth.

Before he could even process what had happened, a series of sickening POPS echoed up his arm as his meridians and pressure points shattered, erupting in a fine mist of blood.

An immense force surged through him, sending him flying backward.

He flew through the air, spitting blood. When his feet finally touched the ground, he stumbled back again and again, all the way to the temple entrance before he managed to stop. He tried to steady himself, but his knees gave out, and he collapsed to the ground with a THUD.

Even then, the laughing smirk was still frozen on his face...

Jiang Ran looked down at his own hand and muttered to himself,

"You really are... a pearl the size of a grain of rice."

...

...

PS: I’m finally back!!!

New author, new book, hope for your support!!!!

Right, today is the first day, so I’m posting three Chapters. After this, during the new book period, it should be two Chapters a day~~~