The fiery red sun dipped bit by bit behind the rolling mountains.
The bright moon gradually rose; as if in the blink of an eye, the sky was already filled with stars.
The early spring nights in Jiangnan were not biting cold. A figure, aided by the moonlight, hurried towards Dongting Stream.
Su Bei left without telling anyone; not even Saintess Key Smoke was aware.
Of course, just as Su Bei departed, Key Smoke, who was in a warm chamber overlooking the water flipping through a romance novel, gently set the book down.
By evening, the warm breeze was mildly intoxicating.
Key Smoke lay in a rocking chair—a contraption Elder Su of the Sword Sect had invented decades ago.
She was barefoot, her toenails dabbed with light-green polish. Slender, fair legs peeked from beneath the lake-green hem of her dress. Her hands were crossed over her lower abdon. Her jade-like fingers, adorned with flower-patterned rings, radiated a profound luster in the lamplight.
Her slender fingers rubbed her temples, and those exceedingly beautiful eyes looked up at the clouds and moon, as she murmured softly, "Could it be that he is her ’destined one’?"
...
With a bitter smile, Key Smoke bit her lower lip, her eyes reflecting the flickering candlelight.
For so reason, perhaps from reading novels for too long, her eyes felt sore, and her head was slightly heavy.
It seed she rembered a night a thousand years ago, in the vast Sect Main Hall, looking at her master—three parts imposing, seven parts affectionate.
That day, she wore a brand-new dress. Upon seeing her master, she felt slightly awkward yet respectfully perford a formal bow.
Key Smoke’s master was not a woman of high cultivation, but from her, Key Smoke felt a warmth she had not received from others.
"Look at you. Like this, how will anyone accept you in the future?"
"Will you even be able to marry?"
... Key Smoke, utterly unconcerned, wrinkled her delicate nose and retorted, "Why should I need soone to accept !"
"I don’t want to marry anyway!"
The smile on her master’s face seed sowhat forced; Key Smoke’s appearance apparently evoked mories of her own past.
Key Smoke gently shook her head, dismissing those tangled thoughts.
Then she stood, placed the romance novel on a low table, and looked towards the rosewood desk where a plaque was kept.
Her jade hand gently wiped the dust from it as she murmured to herself, "Master, I have so regrets..."
The waterside chamber was empty except for Key Smoke.
She furrowed her beautiful brows slightly due to an inexplicable headache, staring out at the shimring lake.
After a long while, she looked again in the direction Su Bei had left, as if speaking to herself, or perhaps questioning herself, "I can’t possibly compete with her for a man, can I?"
A soft chuckle suddenly escaped her lips.
A touch of bitterness crossed her brow.
She was the Saintess of the world.
"To have no one to confide in is true bitterness."
...
Gazing at the sky full of stars, Su Bei sniffed lightly. Then his brows furrowed deeply, and he abruptly stopped in his tracks.
After days of battle, he was all too familiar with this scent.
Blood.
Besides that, he could sense a trace of Evil Qi!
Su Bei’s eyes instantly sharpened, and he hurriedly stopped.
His body had not yet recovered; he could only maintain movent by relying on the faint Spiritual Energy in his Dantian.
If I encounter sothing inescapable, I...
Complicated thoughts raced through Su Bei’s mind. Although he wasn’t sure of Dongting Stream’s exact location, he had been sprinting in this direction for nearly four hours. Surely, I must be close by now.
However, just as Su Bei was rapidly making decisions, a loud BOOM resounded.
SCREECH!
The next mont, his eyes seed to reflect an ice-blue Phoenix.
The Milky Way above seed to pour into the mirror-like lake, its stars commingling with those in the night sky.
Between the translucent sky and water, there she was—an almost ethereal, pale-blue, crystal-like figure of a woman.
Behind that graceful woman, terrifying streams of Evil Qi, mixed with crimson flas, converged in a vast expanse. In the next instant, they turned ice-blue, and the fiercely burning flas froze, ceasing their dance.
As if frozen solid, the phenonon continued to spread upward, as though adorning the white-robed, blood-stained woman with a complete mantle of Ice Feathers.
Then, with a thunderous shatter, it burst into endless ice dust, scattering in all directions.
Su Bei stared blankly at the silhouette. Her ice-blue hair swayed with the night breeze, weaving through the sky full of ice dust, breathtakingly beautiful.
Then the woman turned, her eyes closed, and began to fall toward him.
Su Bei saw her face clearly—it was a mory etched into his very bones, unforgettable.
Beneath Unrepentant Cliff that night, it was this sa exquisite face that had appeared, shielding him.
"Nan Ji..." Su Bei uttered softly.
It seed she heard Su Bei’s faint murmur.
The woman’s eyelashes fluttered.
She turned, looking back.
Clothes danced, hair danced, ice dust danced.
A trace of deep affection appeared in her eyes, etching itself into Su Bei’s mind.
Half of her face was covered in fresh blood; the other half was a deathly pallor.
Her eyes were streaked with blood, and even more alarmingly, fine strands of black qi writhed beneath her snow-white skin.
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