Specks of charred red ash still floated slowly above the ruined hall of Sword Peak. Heated by the high temperature, the air rippled, carrying waves of a burnt, carbonized wood scent from behind.
The dark ink chains that had bound Du Yi dissipated into the air layer by layer the moment Du Qi casually withdrew his spiritual energy.
The moment his restraint was lifted, Du Yi's tense muscles suddenly went slack. His clothes, already soaked in cold sweat, clung to his skin, cold and sticky.
He did not dare to look back even once, much less linger for a second. As if pursued by an evil ghost, he bolted out of the devastated hall without a backward glance, vanishing into the distance.
Only when his figure had completely disappeared into the depths of the mountain forest, leaving no trace behind, did Su Li, who had been bottling up her rage the entire time, finally lose her patience. Pressing down the frustration in her chest, she bit her lip and spoke up.
“Are you really just going to let him go like that?”
Her tone was thick with resentment. Her long-accumulated anger had nowhere to go, leaving her feeling utterly stifled and aggrieved.
“Did you really just let him walk away?”
The irritation in her heart had not dissipated at all!
Just moments ago, Du Yi had infuriated her so much that she had lashed out, destroying more than half of Sword Peak's hall. In the end, she would be the one paying for the damages; those old fogies in the sect would definitely not let her use sect funds for the repairs.
Yet, in the end, the main culprit got off scot-free, leaving so easily?
Her grudge was unavenged, her anger unvented, and she even had to pay for the repairs! It was an absolute double loss.
The more Su Li thought about it, the angrier she became. Her fair, delicate fingers clenched into tight fists. She threw several punches at the empty air, repeatedly basic-attacking the void.
Since Du Yi had already fled—and it was Du Qi who had let him go—she could only vent her helpless rage on the air, as if striking the empty space could somehow deliver a beating to the long-gone Du Yi.
Just as she was using this mental victory method to shadow-box Du Yi, Du Qi, who had been walking slowly ahead of her, suddenly stopped without warning.
Su Li was completely immersed in tallying her mental victory, her thoughts drifting, and her feet failed to stop in time.
Her momentum carried her straight forward. Her firm, slender elbow landed squarely and solidly—a full, heavy blow right against the left side of Du Qi's lower back.
“Thud—”
The heavy, dull sound of the impact echoed softly through the empty, ruined hall.
The point of impact was exceptionally precise, landing right on his most vulnerable kidney.
Du Qi instantly doubled over, his spine bending into a sharp arch. A piercing, dull ache exploded inside him, turning his vision black for a moment as he broke into a violent fit of coughing.
“Cough, cough... cough, damn it!”
The pain rasped his voice, his brow furrowing deeply as half of his body went numb. Barely stabilizing his staggering stance, he turned to look at the girl beside him, caught between tears and laughter.
“Even if you think that guy shares my blood and looks too much like me, you don't have to take your frustration out on me, do you? I'm completely innocent here.”
Su Li froze right on the spot.
Her elbow was still held out in the striking position, her body stiff and motionless. A flush rushed up her face at a visible rate, spreading all the way to the tips of her ears, burning hot.
“I—I... I didn't do it on purpose! Who—who told you to stop so suddenly! You didn't even say anything beforehand!”
She hurriedly pulled her hand back, her fingertips trembling slightly. Her gaze dived around, not daring to look directly at Du Qi's pained expression.
For that strike, she truly hadn't used a single shred of spiritual energy; it was pure physical strength.
However, she had tempered her physical body and cultivated with fire for years. Her bone and muscle strength had long surpassed ordinary cultivators, not to mention her underlying beastkin physiology. Her physical power was formidable.
Such a reckless physical collision was practically a dimensional strike when landed on Du Qi.
Du Qi's heart was a chaotic mess of emotions, filled with utter helplessness.
He was, after all, a Nascent Soul cultivator who specialized in scholarly energy and Confucian Dao, possessing a relatively weak physical body. Taking a hit like this had nearly sent him to the afterlife.
Sigh.
He let out a long, silent sigh in his heart.
He truly had no idea who was supposed to be the one receiving protection here.
All along the way, he had been beaten the most, injured the most frequently, and subjected to physical critical strikes by his own charge at every turn. It was truly putting the cart before the horse—beyond ridiculous.
Rather than being a Dao Protector, he felt this role was more like babysitting this Little Ancestor, who caused trouble for him every few days.
Helplessness almost overflowed from between his brows.
With great difficulty, he raised his right hand to tightly clutch the left side of his waist, which had been devastated by the elbow strike. His right leg was already bad, and with the uneven distribution of weight across his body, his limp became glaringly obvious.
With his right hand clutching his right hip and his left hand pressing against his left kidney, he looked like he was trying to put his hands on his hips. Combined with his hunched posture, his stance was incredibly comical and pathetic.
What was originally just a one-sided leg injury had been turned by this sudden elbow strike into a perfectly symmetrical, full-body ache.
This posture was no longer just comical; it even carried an indescribable, bizarre sense of absurdity. It was just too damn glorious.
It was truly a stroke of absolute bad luck.
Su Li hung her head, so quiet she did not dare to say another word, even softening her breathing.
Her mind had been full of doubts, and she had a stomach full of questions she wanted to ask him—why did he let Du Yi go so easily?
They could have easily detained him, brought him back to the sect, and thrown him into the Soul Hall for day-and-night interrogation and torture. There was no way they couldn't pry his mouth open. Why let the tiger return to the mountain for nothing?
In Su Li's eyes, Du Yi's threat of self-detonating his soul was pure, self-deluding nonsense.
Did he really think the Beast Taming Sect's Soul Hall was just for show? That they were useless?
The Soul Hall imprisoned and interrogated the most defiant, cunning, and tight-lipped evil souls and rogue cultivators in the world.
Even fiends with wills as unyielding as bedrock were interrogated until not a single secret remained.
Did he really think entering the Soul Hall meant resting in a jade bottle that nourished the soul? The torture inside the soul banners was only the beginning; the refining power within would make a person regret being born every single second.
Su Li was certain that Du Qi could not possibly be ignorant of these fundamental rules.
In her mind, Du Qi's knowledge was absolute; he had far, far more in his head than she did.
Even if Du Qi solemnly told her one day that one plus one equaled three, her first reaction would not be to argue, but to doubt herself, wondering if her own previous understanding was too shallow and flawed.
Of course, she would absolutely never admit that she wasn't very good at academics! Not even a little bit! (♯｀∧´)
But that black elbow strike just now had completely shattered Su Li's courage to ask Du Qi anything. Originally, it was only her burning curiosity that had been begging her to speak up.
Otherwise, she would never have spoken to Du Qi at a juncture like this. Why did everyone think there was something going on between her and this guy? He was clearly bad to the bone!
First he sealed her cultivation, then he caused misunderstandings in front of all her elders, and later he went back on his word and made her cry from anger.
Even if he had helped her many times, he shouldn't have patted her head just as she was deciding whether or not to forgive him!
Du Qi was really bad!
What made her even more furious was that Du Yi actually dared to keep calling her “Sister-in-law”! Who was his sister-in-law?! That bastard was practically begging for death!
Su Li's emotions were highly complex. She looked at Du Qi, her gaze involuntarily drifting back to his limping right leg.
Looking at his back as he struggled to support himself, the agitation in Su Li's heart instantly cooled by half, replaced by a heavy weight of complexity and bitterness.
It was Du Qi's unique injury-transfer talent, inherited from the Lin bloodline.
Back in the jolting carriage, he had personally and slowly explained it to her. The fundamental reason why the Lin clan had been completely annihilated was that this talent was simply too heaven-defying.
Being able to bear injuries for others, block disasters for others, and transfer fatal illnesses and curses made it the ultimate life-prolonging technique in the world.
An ordinary man gets into trouble because of his treasure. Precisely because of this, the once-flourishing Lin clan was surrounded and completely slaughtered by a coalition of various forces, and the survivors scattered in flight.
The Lin descendants who were fortunate enough to survive became the most precious “living life-prolonging pills” in the world. They were frantically hunted by slave-capturing groups and chased down by major hidden noble families and top sects everywhere.
Over the decades, the Lin bloodline had almost completely vanished from the world, and no one dared to expose their identity anymore.
If the news that Du Qi possessed the injury-transfer talent were to leak, every old monster and ruler in the world whose lifespan was nearing its end and who craved a prolonged life would fight for him regardless of the cost.
The bounty on his head would multiply several times over in a single night.
It was precisely because they saw through this that the South-Central Du Clan deliberately concealed the truth, only fabricating a charge of “stealing a family treasure and fleeing” to the outside world, while insisting on capturing him alive.
The Du family did not dare to expose the secret of the talent. Once it spread, even the reputation of a top South-Central family would not be able to suppress the greedy ambitions of all parties. After all, could reputation prolong one's life?
Su Li remembered clearly in her heart that Du Qi had used this self-sacrificing talent for her at least twice. Once during the fight with Zixiao, once for her tail, and the calamity seed from before was probably because of him too...
From childhood to adulthood, Su Li had never experienced such a heavy, unconditional favor.
When her parents were alive, anyone who dared to show even a hint of affection or closeness to her would be quietly buried by her smiling father, and those who dared to make a scene in front of her would become midnight snacks for her father's spirit beasts that very night.
Later, after her parents passed away and she took charge of the Beast Taming Sect, she held a high position and possessed a cold temperament. Furthermore, because she consumed calamity seeds daily, her mood was volatile, and she was decisive in killing; anyone who caused the slightest offense would be turned into bird food.
She had never handled this kind of matter or relationship before, and no one had ever taught her how to.
She could only try her best to firmly preserve the thin sheet of window paper between them.
Ahhhhhhh!!! she screamed frantically in her mind.
What on earth should she do!
If she had known it would be this troublesome, she should have just turned him into bird food back then!
On the other side, Du Qi clutched his unbearably aching waist, turning his head slightly to quietly watch the side profile of the girl beside him.
Seeing her cheeks turn red, then pale, then burning hot, her expression fluctuating wildly with her thoughts written all over her face, he felt slightly suspicious.
Since when did this girl have such high moral standards?
Just accidentally hitting him once could make her feel so guilty that she changed colors like a chameleon?
Helplessly rubbing his throbbing temples, he slowly recalled their conversation just now, finally remembering her question.
Oh, she was struggling with why he had let Du Yi go so easily.
Seeing how guilty she looked and how excellent her attitude toward admitting her mistake was, he would show some mercy and patiently explain it to this little idiot.
Du Qi opened his mouth slightly, about to explain.
Before he could even speak, Su Li's pupils shrank. As if predicting he was about to say something strange, she suddenly raised her hand and pressed her soft palm firmly against his lips.
Her panicked, urgent voice suddenly rang out:
“You're not allowed to say it! I know I'm very beautiful and have a great figure! But you can't think that way! Do you hear me!”
Du Qi was slightly stunned, his eyes blinking twice.
In the next instant.
“Ah—!!”
Su Li yanked her hand back as if shocked by electricity. Looking at the neat, clear ring of light teeth marks on her palm, she was instantly embarrassed and angry.
“I'm going to kill you! Are you a dog?! Biting people like that!”
Du Qi chuckled softly, his tone lazy and teasing. “If you don't want to hear why I let Du Yi go that badly, then suit yourself. Chop me up... burn me, whatever you want.”
The moment those words came out, Su Li froze completely.
She stood there blankly, her brain completely short-circuiting.
...He was just about to explain why he let Du Yi go?
So her flattering herself, wild thoughts, frantic mouth-covering, and being bitten in public were purely her own social death?
Huh?
Huh?!
An immense wave of shame instantly swept over her. Su Li was completely bewildered, her cheeks flushing so red they looked ready to drip blood. She was at a total loss, wishing she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Seeing her dazed and blank expression, Du Qi thought she had finally calmed down and was willing to listen, so he slowly began to explain clearly.
Letting him go was not out of soft-heartedness, but because it was cost-effective. Detaining him, interrogating him, and throwing him into the Soul Hall now would be entirely redundant. Leaving him to roam outside turned him into the most obedient, proactive, and precise living package of compressed intelligence.
Without them having to spend effort investigating or setting up deep schemes, he would proactively gather information on the Du family's secrets, the Central Continent's situation, and the noble families' calculations.
And if he lied... could a mere half-baked Confucian cultivator deceive a Confucian cultivator of the Demi-Sage realm? It was nothing but a pipe dream.
However, he didn't mention that during their confrontation just now, he had also seen something all too familiar in the depths of Du Yi's eyes.
It was pain that penetrated deep into the bone, resentment suppressed for many years, a desperate madness, and an obstinate craving for freedom.
It was so much like that late night years ago.
His mother had passed away suddenly, and he hadn't even been able to see her one last time, completely trapped to death in the cold, oppressive cage of the Du family. In the end, he had risked severe injury to scale the high back wall overnight, desperately and madly escaping.
Yet, quite clearly, Su Li was completely unable to take in any rational analysis at the moment. Whether he spoke or not didn't matter.
Her mind was entirely occupied by her embarrassing blunder just now. She didn't take a single word of Du Qi's explanation to heart. Throughout the whole thing, it went in one ear and out the other, her brain completely shutting down in resignation.
Du Qi quickly and keenly noticed her distraction. Helplessly, he raised his hand and waved it gently in front of her blank, unfocused eyes.
The girl's eyes remained vacant, her gaze completely lacking focus, her entire being in a state of daydreaming.
Du Qi leaned forward slightly, his body suddenly drawing close. Su Li's dilated pupils instantly contracted sharply as she snapped back to reality.
In her line of sight, Du Qi's face—with its touch of lazy gentleness and a hint of playfulness—suddenly zoomed in, vivid and close at hand.
His warm breath brushed gently across her brow, bringing a cozy warmth. A mild, stable, clean, and light scent of woody paper pulp drifted into her nose.
The entire atmosphere instantly fell silent, leaving only the sound of their breathing in close proximity. Du Qi quietly gazed into her panicked, distracted eyes, his voice softly landing by her ear.
“So.”
“Was it something he said, or something he did...”
“...that made you this angry?”
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