"Qu Shanhai, you are an elder of the Nanxi Qu Family, yet you have the audacity to break your word, even stooping so low as to do such a thing." Mu Nan and Huayue, along with a few others, cursed aloud while rushing towards Mu Hanyan, hoping to shield her from harm. However, the disparity in their abilities was clear, and they couldn’t match the speed of their adversary.
Mu Hanyan’s expression turned grim. She was not so naive as to believe that Qu Shanhai and his cohort would idly watch her retrieve the Dragon Blood Stone, but she also hadn’t expected him to be so shameless, not even bothering to invent a pretext or utter any superfluous words before attempting to snatch it directly. Oh, he did have a reason—but not for her; it was merely a self-comforting excuse, akin to burying one’s head in the sand.
Perhaps the most shameless people in the world are those who no longer realize their own shamelessness.
Mu Hanyan had no time to scorn Qu Shanhai’s lack of character; her longsword flickered as she brandished it, releasing a flurry of icy sparks and illusions, reminiscent of frost dancing with snowflakes.
"You dare strike at me? You’re courting death!" Qu Shanhai sneered with disdain. With the combat power of the Seventh Rank, the realm of the Sixth Rank, and an Illusion Sword Skill comparable to the Eighth Rank’s Frost Snow Sword Shadow, he certainly had no reservations. This update is available on novel{f}ire.net
Amidst his mocking laughter, Qu Shanhai had already made a palm strike aimed at Mu Hanyan, intending to kill her in one blow to eliminate any future threats. He couldn’t understand how Mu Hanyan had managed to break open the cocoon and obtain the Dragon Blood Stone, therefore he dared not underestimate her in the slightest.
"Be careful, young master! Brother Han Yan, run!" Zirong and Mu Nan saw the murderous intent in Qu Shanhai’s actions. Their faces turned pale as they shouted loudly.
Their hearts leaped to their throats. For Zirong and Huayue, Mu Hanyan had long since changed in their hearts; their feelings for her were no longer simply those of guards to their sovereign.
For Mu Nan, whether Mu Hanyan was a playboy or a good-for-nothing, she was still his kin. However, having truly gotten to know Mu Hanyan, he had come to realize that she was neither as wasteful nor as negligible as he had thought. He had even begun to regard his elder sibling with some respect.
Mu Hanyan also wanted to flee, but how easy could it be to escape from Qu Shanhai, a Threshold Sword Master?
The palm, infused with powerful Qi by Qu Shanhai, easily shattered his Frost Snow Sword Shadow and stamped towards her chest.
"Snap!" Just when everyone thought Mu Hanyan was undoubtedly doomed, a crisp slapping sound rang out. The person struck was Qu Shanhai, and Mu Hanyan stood unharmed at her original spot.
An elegant and fluid figure had suddenly appeared beside Mu Hanyan. The slap came from him, though not from his hand, but from the sheath of the sword he wielded.
His arrival was so sudden it was as if he had always been standing there. If not for the similarly elegant and elongated shadow cast by the sunlight, one might have thought it an illusion seen by the crowd.
Qu Shanhai stood dazed on the spot, a vivid mark of the sword sheath on his face, the pattern on the sheath even visible. He stared blankly at the man before him.
Mu Hanyan was equally taken aback, turning her head to look at the man.
Dressed in black, with a cloak that lightly fluttered in the wind, the man’s tall figure appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old. His face was startlingly beautiful, with just one glance causing a momentary blankness in the mind, even a pause in breathing. His long eyebrows stretched into his temples, his eyes and brow as if they were painted, a tall nose above thin, tight lips—the man seemed like a perfect painting, with everything around him merely serving as a backdrop. In this scene of Heaven and Earth, everything seemed to come to a stop.
On the man’s flawless face, however, was an expression of icy coldness, and his gaze was as chilling as a millennia-old icy pool.