Yan Hao’s speed was insignificant before the man.
In an instant, the man lunged to his side.
The Black Blade shimmered white under the faint moonlight.
Aiming for Yan Hao’s head, the man unleashed a powerful slash, the sound of the Black Blade cutting through the air echoing in the night.
The man looked at his missed strike and the wild grass sliced in half, feeling slightly surprised.
He quickly relocated Yan Hao and charged again, answering Yan Hao’s previous question in a calm, standard Other World tongue.
“I’m sending you to die.”
***
In a small house on the outskirts of Liuyang City, Hunan, a short-haired girl sat cross-legged in a room on the second floor.
Her short hair was like black silk, tucked neatly behind her ears with the ends slightly curled, shimmering under the warm yellow glow of the dim light.
Her eyes were lightly closed, her eyelashes casting butterfly-wing shadows beneath them.
On her wrists, she wore two strings of bracelets woven from blue crystals, similar yet different to the one Yan Hao owned.
The room was simply furnished with a bed, a desk, and a chair.
The desk was covered in various snacks.
Overall, the room was clean and tidy.
The only things that seemed out of place were a pinyin chart of initials and finals pasted on the wall and a massive Hatsune Miku life-size doll sitting on the floor in the corner.
Yan Hao had taken that pinyin chart from his own firewood room, where it had been hanging for four or five years, just so Zero could learn Mandarin “properly.”
Because it had been in the firewood room, some parts had turned a waxy yellow.
As for the Hatsune Miku, Yan Hao had bought it on impulse and, unable to explain it to his family, simply gave it to Zero as a gift, even setting a “birthday” for her.
In the quiet room, the phone on the nightstand rang.
It was the sound of “Gan Lu,” the default notification tone for a QQ special contact.
The ringtone interrupted the girl’s cultivation.
She had not heard that sound for a long time.
The message was simple: Help!
***
On the other side of the fields, Yan Hao was still fleeing for his life using the Space Path.
Unlike most enemies he had encountered before, this man was also proficient in the Space Path.
He could negate Yan Hao’s Dao, making it difficult for Yan Hao to use teleportation exchanges.
Furthermore, after multiple teleports, Yan Hao was reaching his limit, his head beginning to spin.
The man also seemed to be losing his patience.
He spat out curses from the Other World while relentlessly hacking at Yan Hao with his blade.
Although Yan Hao’s Other World language was clumsy, curses are often the easiest part of a language to learn.
After another teleportation escape, Yan Hao gave as good as he got, firing back with curses from that side and even throwing in some local insults from his own world.
Yan Hao sensed the remaining marks in the vicinity.
There were only two left, and even if he managed to place a few more, he lacked the strength to transfer himself…
He looked at the man before him, then at the Red Bracelet on his left wrist.
Taking a deep breath, he used his right hand to loosen the bracelet, slightly increasing the gaps between the strange red stones.
Immediately, he felt his blood surge.
He lightly closed his left eye and then slowly opened it; his left pupil emitted an eerie red glow in the dark.
This grotesque appearance caused the man with the Black Blade to stop about ten meters away.
The man warily sized up the boy, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
However, Yan Hao hadn’t opened the bracelet because he was about to reveal his “true power” like some anime protagonist.
While loosening the bracelet did have an effect similar to breaking a seal and could enhance his physical attributes, opening it fully—or even halfway—would cause him to lose consciousness and go berserk.
Yan Hao was no Ichigo Kurosaki or Naruto Uzumaki; a berserk Yan Hao could be subdued by a few local police officers.
In his mother’s words, he just looked “possessed” and had zero actual combat ability.
The only powerful effect was that it kept his body in a state of high excitement so he wouldn’t tire, and his self-healing ability was greatly enhanced.
Yan Hao stared intently at the strange man from the Other World who was trying to kill him for no reason.
He took a deep breath, looking as if he were waiting for an opening.
The next moment, he turned around and sprinted away.
‘You should be coming soon…’ he muttered under his breath, his voice trembling like stalks of rice in the autumn wind.
Seeing this, the Black Blade man slowly raised his weapon.
Flames ignited along the blade’s length.
At the same time, he focused his Dao intent to prevent Yan Hao from teleporting again.
He caught up to Yan Hao and delivered a side slash.
Yan Hao felt a wave of heat behind him and immediately performed a side roll, eating dirt in the field as he narrowly avoided the strike.
He scrambled up miserably and forced a smile, his voice shaking as he spoke in his broken Other World tongue.
“Brother, you’re finished.”
Yan Hao used the last of his strength to sprint toward Zero’s direction, swaying as he ran.
It was likely less than 200 meters away; he could already clearly sense Zero’s Spiritual Power.
The Black Blade man also felt the Spiritual Power in the distance.
He hadn’t expected to be stalled for so long by a piece of trash, nor did he expect his presence to be discovered by someone else.
Rage surged within him.
The flames on the Black Blade grew more dazzling in the night as he caught up to Yan Hao once more, swinging his blade with fury.
Yan Hao felt his legs tremble.
Light and heat radiated from behind him again.
Illuminated by the fire at his back, he saw Zero rushing toward him.
The flames behind him were catching up, looking like a red snake flicking its tongue.
At the critical moment, he felt a sudden chill from his right as a white light flashed past.
Whoosh—
Amidst the crisp sound of ice slicing through the air, a cold mist rushed toward him.
An ice shard, nearly ten feet long, grazed past Yan Hao’s face.
The resulting wind made his cheek go numb as it slammed directly into the flames of the Black Blade.
With a sizzle, white mist billowed up, and ice fragments mixed with sparks scattered across the ground.
Zero arrived almost simultaneously with the ice shard.
She teleported to the end of the shard and clapped her palms together.
Two ice blades condensed out of thin air, their edges rimed with frost, and firmly blocked the Black Blade.
Taking the opportunity, she kicked Yan Hao away, sending him rolling through the mud and haystacks of the field.
The sharp clang of ice hitting the Black Blade echoed through the fields.
Zero’s ice blades hissed and steamed under the heat of the flames, and fine cracks appeared on the edges.
After saving Yan Hao, Zero had finished her warm-up.
The temperature around her plummeted, and the moisture in the air rapidly condensed into tiny ice crystals that swirled around her.
Although the ice blades in her hands had cracked during the collision, new ice crystals quickly condensed to repair the damage.
Her hands moved in a blur, her ice blades dancing like butterflies as she continuously slashed at the man.
Every strike carried a piercing chill.
The Black Blade and ice blades collided with a crisp sound, like jade striking stone.
Gradually, a thin layer of frost began to form on the Black Blade, and the man’s movements became sluggish.
The man’s face showed signs of strain, and large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, only to freeze into ice crystals the moment they touched the cold air.
Suddenly, a ruthless glint flashed in the man’s eyes.
He changed targets and swung the Black Blade toward the nearby Yan Hao.
The flames on the blade flared up again, carrying a scorching wave of heat toward him.
Yan Hao’s expression changed drastically; he wanted to dodge, but his previous exhaustion made his movements slow.
The flaming slash surged toward Yan Hao, but Zero had no intention of helping him.
A flash of disdain crossed her eyes.
She violently threw the ice blade in her right hand, which flew like a streak of silver light toward the man’s chest.
Following this, she flicked her fingers repeatedly, and countless small ice darts formed in the air, flying toward the man like a sky full of cold stars.
Zero herself followed closely behind the ice blade, her figure flickering as she instantly closed the distance.
New ice blades formed in her hands, and she slashed out in a continuous, flowing motion.
The Black Blade man hadn’t expected Zero to be so decisive, completely ignoring Yan Hao’s safety to attack him with everything she had.
He hurriedly swung the Black Blade to block the ice blades and darts, but he couldn’t keep up.
Zero’s ice blades seemed to have a life of their own, leaving a trail of wounds on his body.
Two large gashes on his chest bled profusely, staining his clothes red.
Nearby, although Yan Hao had used his Spiritual Power to defend against the residual force of the strike, his clothes were still burned full of holes.
His exposed skin was covered in grass and mud, and the stinging pain made him grimace.
“So cruel, not even helping a bit,” Yan Hao grumbled in a low voice, his words filled with dissatisfaction toward Zero.