The Fengshen Litter departed the land of Yizhou, heading toward Qiongzhou.
The two great figures aboard the flying chariot were chatting idly.
“Flying chariots really are quite convenient.”
“Senior rarely rides in one?”
“Since I entered the Sword Pavilion, I haven’t ridden in one.”
Ji Hongye slipped her small hand into the wide pocket of her robe, took out a gourd and a wine cup, and opened the gourd.
A rich wave of wine fragrance immediately wafted out, lingering at Yu Yi’s nose.
“People of the Sword Pavilion always travel by sword flight. That requires constant focus of spirit; one can’t chat leisurely like this.”
As she spoke, the wine cup filled to the brim.
Ji Hongye tilted her head back and drained it in one go.
Then she pushed the cup toward Yu Yi and asked, “Little Sister Yu, would you like to try it? This is flower wine I brewed myself.”
“Trying it would be fine, but…”
Yu Yi glanced at the single cup in front of her and hesitated slightly.
If she drank from it, wouldn’t that mean an indirect kiss with this loli Sword Emperor?
“But what?”
Ji Hongye asked, puzzled.
The white-haired loli seemed completely oblivious and hadn’t thought in that direction at all.
Yu Yi couldn’t help but think to herself that Ji Hongye was an ancient being who genuinely lacked any of those strange modern notions.
In that case, after her body had turned into that of a loli, didn’t it mean she had become a being as pure and blank as untouched paper?
Yu Yi didn’t entertain any weird ideas.
She simply felt that if it were certain disciples of hers, she would need to consider whether they had ulterior motives—but with this Sword Emperor, there was no need to worry.
“Nothing.”
Yu Yi shook her head lightly.
“Then I’ll trouble Senior to pour.”
After the cup was filled, Yu Yi brought it to her lips.
The moment it touched them, Ji Hongye spoke slowly beside her:
“Mingyan often tells me that one should prepare two cups—one for oneself and one for a friend. Otherwise, when the time comes to drink together, you can only share a single cup, and that would touch the other person’s lip marks.”
Yu Yi trembled slightly at the words.
Wine sloshed from the cup, ran down her snow-white neck, and slipped into the proud swell of her chest.
Wait… could this white-haired loli have deliberately not prepared a second cup… just for this moment?
Could it be that she wasn’t actually clueless, and wasn’t as pure as a sheet of paper after all??
“I never prepare a second cup,” Ji Hongye said calmly, though a faint sorrow threaded through her voice, “because the only friend left in this world is you, Little Sister Yu. If it’s you, what does sharing a single cup matter? Do you mind, Little Sister Yu?”
Yu Yi paused for half a second, then answered with perfect composure: “I don’t mind.”
It seemed she had misunderstood Ji Hongye.
The real reason behind it was quietly heartbreaking.
Still… having wet, sticky wine inside her chest really was uncomfortable…
A short while later.
The Fengshen Litter arrived at Fengjiu County in Qiongzhou and descended before a stretch of mountain forest.
“Little Sister Yu, there seems to be an ominous aura in this forest. It shouldn’t be the doing of your third disciple, right?”
Ji Hongye asked.
“Qingluan would never allow such a beautiful mountain forest to be tainted by filthy qi. It appears someone else has set their sights on her.”
Yu Yi replied calmly.
Just then, several cultivators—origin unknown—came running down from the mountain.
All of them were injured and looked utterly disheveled.
When they saw Yu Yi and Ji Hongye, they spoke in a mix of panic and reason:
“You two ladies! You absolutely must not go up the mountain right now!!”
Back at the county entrance, the old man selling melons had seen four or five groups enter the area.
Three factions had gone up to besiege Ye Qingluan, while the remainder were these people—the ones who had come here for quiet cultivation.
“What happened on the mountain?”
Yu Yi asked.
“We were preparing to meditate in this forest when we heard fighting. We went to see if we could help. The senior brothers at the front were suddenly swallowed by a gust of yin wind—their fate unknown!”
“Then we saw two Martial-King-level demonic cultivators battling each other, so we fled down the mountain in terror! In short, it’s extremely dangerous up there right now! The clash between those two could sweep down here at any moment! We need to evacuate the townspeople quickly!”
Yu Yi glanced at them.
The aura each one gave off was very weak—only at the level of Martial Masters.
Yet despite their low cultivation, they displayed the proper demeanor of the orthodox faction.
“Don’t worry. The fight will end soon, and no innocent people will be harmed,” Yu Yi said with a faint smile.
The young men were instantly captivated by her elegant, enchanting smile, wondering where such a fatally charming big sister had come from.
By the time they recovered, Yu Yi and Ji Hongye were already walking up the mountain.
Out of kindness, they still shouted after the two figures:
“Ladies! It’s really dangerous up there! That’s a battle between two Martial Kings—not something ordinary people like us can interfere in!”
“S-Senior Brother, what do we do? They’re completely ignoring our warning!”
“There’s nothing we can do. We already warned them. If they’re this confident, they must be powerful experts, right?”
“Experts? That kid doesn’t look like an expert at all. How strong could they possibly be?”
***
“Hahaha, hahahaha! Ye Qingluan, weren’t you so arrogant just now? Why are you playing turtle now?”
The black-robed man laughed wildly on the ground.
Around him drifted a great number of fully formed Yin Wind Ghost Messengers, relentlessly assaulting Ye Qingluan in the air.
At this moment Ye Qingluan had shifted from offense to defense.
Layers of branches wrapped tightly around her petite body, suspending her in the air like a cocoon.
She had originally held the absolute advantage, but then a group of well-meaning orthodox cultivators arrived.
Before they could even understand the situation, they were devoured by the Yin Wind Ghost Messengers.
With that, the ghost messengers finally reached full power.
Combined with the black-robed man’s own Martial King cultivation, they quickly turned the tables and began pressing Ye Qingluan hard.
Just as the black-robed man and the surrounding demonic cultivators prepared to shatter her defenses and capture her, they suddenly heard footsteps approaching from the side.
They turned and saw a tall, curvaceous black-haired beauty of noble bearing walking beside an adorable yet strangely ancient-looking white-haired loli.
One black, one white—both peerlessly beautiful.
Standing together, they were like a scene straight out of legend.
“Tsk tsk, more nourishment delivered right to my door. Looks like Heaven itself is helping me today!”
The black-robed man licked his lips.
Then he noticed the black-haired beauty bend slightly at the waist—her impressive chest swaying—and lean close to whisper something in the white-haired loli’s ear.
The white-haired loli nodded, glanced around, and picked up a broken branch from the ground.
“Hm? What are they trying to do?”
The black-robed man watched, utterly baffled.
Next, the white-haired loli pinched the slender branch between two fingers and flicked it toward him.
That thin little twig seemed to slice the air in two.
It struck the black-robed man.
A powerful surge of qi erupted from the branch—like the sword qi unleashed by a flying sword—and swept straight through him.
His black robe tore apart and flew away.
He stood frozen in place.
In the next instant, his body shattered like porcelain, crumbling into dust that scattered on the wind.