Chapter Forty-Two: Beauty, the Source of Calamity
Hearing the system’s notification, Qin Chuan felt on the verge of collapse.
“Damn it, a demon clan member from a higher plane—this is insane!”
“And she’s level thirty-six!”
“If her level were a bit lower, maybe I could have just dealt with her on the spot!”
Utterly frustrated, Qin Chuan couldn’t help but let his thoughts stray in a less than honorable direction.
He didn’t dare linger beneath the water any longer; with Zi Hanyu’s level so high, her strength could probably obliterate anything in her path.
“Blink!”
With a single blink, Qin Chuan escaped the water and landed among the tall grass, causing the blades to sway wildly.
“Pervert! Come out here!” Zi Hanyu shouted, striking the thicket with a palm. A torrent of energy swept across, engulfing the area.
“Flow Strike!”
Without hesitation, Qin Chuan activated his skill, darting thirty meters to the side.
Boom!
An explosion erupted, leaving the grass where Qin Chuan had hidden utterly destroyed.
“Damn, that power is terrifying! Good thing I’m quick on my feet—I’m not playing this game with you!”
Muttering to himself, Qin Chuan kept running without looking back.
After the blast, Zi Hanyu saw movement in the distant grass, her anger nearly boiling over.
“I’m still a maiden, and I just got peeped at by some scoundrel? I’ll kill you for this!”
She cursed loudly, hurriedly dressed, and chased after him.
Qin Chuan darted through the underbrush, constantly changing locations until he finally settled in a hidden spot.
Though he was now outside the core area of Wind Spirit Valley, no mystical creatures dared linger nearby.
At that moment, Shang Xuan Yue happened to be searching the outskirts and passed right by.
Ding! Level thirty-six Ghost Moon detected, Ghost Clan.
Ding! Grade-four exceptional variant White Bone Sword detected, rare quality, level thirty-five.
“What’s going on today? Why am I running into such terrifying opponents?”
Qin Chuan was a bit exasperated. Ever since he’d encountered the Black Scale Beast, the ones he’d met in just a day were each more monstrous than the last.
Whoosh!
Zi Hanyu suddenly leapt from the grass and spotted a figure ten meters ahead.
“Shang Xuan Yue? It’s you? You pervert, prepare to die!”
She immediately assumed it was Shang Xuan Yue who had spied on her bathing.
After all, who else but him could run so fast?
“Zi Hanyu, I didn’t expect it to be you!”
Shang Xuan Yue was just as shocked. He believed Zi Hanyu had ransacked Wind Spirit Valley and slain his mount.
What’s more, she had just started cursing him as a pervert for no reason, which he found intolerable.
The enmity between the Purple Spirit Sect and Black Wind Cliff had run deep for years. As two of the most outstanding of their generation, they were hardly strangers.
Thus, a fierce battle was inevitable.
“Talk about perfect timing—Shang Xuan Yue couldn’t have arrived at a better moment,” Qin Chuan thought gleefully, never expecting someone would step in to take the blame for him.
He was even more surprised that Zi Hanyu would also take the fall for the theft at Wind Spirit Valley.
“If these two are evenly matched, will they both end up wounded?”
“If they’re both badly hurt, could I swoop in and take advantage?”
“That girl has a great figure, fair skin, and breathtaking beauty. Would it be too cruel if I did something to her?”
“Hmm, maybe that pale-faced guy—he’s not exactly likable.”
...
“What the hell am I thinking?”
“Turns out being a bandit is really addictive. Ha!”
Having just escaped danger, Qin Chuan’s mind was already scheming as he saw an opportunity present itself.
One had to admit, Qin Chuan was brazen to the extreme. Instead of fleeing, he focused entirely on how to profit from the situation.
While he was lost in thought, the two had already begun their battle.
Despite Zi Hanyu’s fierce demeanor, it didn’t take long before she started losing ground.
“Seriously? Two against one? Have some shame!” Qin Chuan muttered, unable to bear watching as Shang Xuan Yue, wielding the White Bone Sword, steadily overpowered Zi Hanyu.
“My lord, didn’t that demon fox call you a pervert? Why not capture her and make her warm your bed every night?” the White Bone Sword suggested slyly.
“Not a bad idea, Bone. Let’s see how the Purple Spirit Sect holds their head high after that,” Shang Xuan Yue replied, clearly pleased.
Already on the defensive, Zi Hanyu flushed furiously at these crude remarks, unable to hold back her own insults.
“Like master, like sword. One’s a lecher, the other’s a perverted blade!”
Hearing this, Shang Xuan Yue simply laughed. “Once I catch you, I’ll strip you bare—let’s see if you can still talk then!”
The White Bone Sword chimed in with a creepy tone, “Scream all you want—no one’s going to hear you out here!”
Their back-and-forth nearly drove Zi Hanyu mad with anger, slowing her movements even further.
“Ha! Got you now!”
Seizing the chance, Shang Xuan Yue slashed across Zi Hanyu’s back.
“Agh!”
She stumbled and fell, clearly badly injured.
As long as Shang Xuan Yue pressed the attack, it was likely over for her.
“Brutal, even against a woman?” Qin Chuan thought, silently scorning Shang Xuan Yue.
“Should I help Zi Hanyu?”
He couldn’t help his soft spot—he couldn’t bear to see a beautiful woman bullied. But given the current situation, stepping in might cost him his own life as well.
“Damn it, beautiful women bring disaster! I’ll just consider this paying back for having seen her naked!”
With a grit of his teeth, Qin Chuan launched a surprise attack at Shang Xuan Yue from behind.
“Flow Strike!”
Whoosh!
Though Qin Chuan’s strike seemed fierce, when it landed on Shang Xuan Yue’s back, it was like hitting a wall of air—no damage at all.
It was just like attacking a super boss in a game—if your attack power’s too low, every hit is a miss.
Of course, Qin Chuan didn’t expect to inflict much damage; he just wanted to distract Shang Xuan Yue.
“Lady, that’s the best I can do for you. The rest is up to fate!” he thought, his Cold Iron Sword bouncing back, and in a daze, he blinked away to safety.
“What was that just now? Did something attack me?” Shang Xuan Yue looked around, bewildered, but found nothing.
“My lord, I didn’t sense anything unusual,” the sword said.
“Really? Maybe I was imagining things.”
However, Zi Hanyu’s expression grew odd. She’d clearly seen a black sword strike at Shang Xuan Yue, but it vanished in a blink.
Qin Chuan’s seemingly futile attack had bought a precious moment’s delay.
Sometimes, a second is all it takes for the tides to turn.
Just as Shang Xuan Yue was about to take Zi Hanyu away, a folding fan flew in from the distance.
It looked ordinary, but contained immense power.
At the sight of the fan, Shang Xuan Yue’s heart leapt in alarm. “No! It’s Bai Yuan!”
In an instant, the fan struck him.
Boom!
He took the blow head-on, was sent flying, then scrambled to his feet and ran for his life.
“Bai Yuan! Kill Shang Xuan Yue for me! That bastard nearly killed me just because I didn’t have Cang Yue with me! Cough, cough!”
Zi Hanyu was overjoyed to see Bai Yuan, but furious as well.
“What? He dared to harm my lady? I’ll finish him off!” Bai Yuan, seeing Zi Hanyu wounded, was enraged. He tossed Cang Yue to her and set off in pursuit of Shang Xuan Yue.
In the end, Shang Xuan Yue escaped back to Black Wind Cliff by the skin of his teeth, spending more than half a year bedridden before he recovered.
Had either side been able to calmly talk things through, they would have noticed many clues.
But with grudges so deep, there was no chance of sitting down to share a meal and talk peacefully.
Thus, war broke out again between the Purple Spirit Sect and Black Wind Cliff, sweeping across the entire Deer Chasing Plains and the territories of both factions.
As for Qin Chuan, the instigator of it all, he remained clueless about the events that followed, lingering near Wind Spirit Valley.
“Little brother, why haven’t you come to find me yet?”
Qin Chuan had been in hiding for three days, just waiting for Sleepy Bug. By all rights, the bug should have arrived by now.