Chapter 3-2

“Who are you?”

“…….”

“Why did you attack me?”

When Bai Shixuan asked again while looking at the masked man who refused to answer, the masked man raised his sword. Then, without saying a word, he thrust it toward Bai Shixuan.

“Ugh!”

Bai Shixuan tried somehow to dodge, but without internal energy, there was no way he could avoid the masked man’s attack. The sword pierced his left shoulder, and tremendous pain surged through him. It hurt enough that anyone might have screamed, yet Bai Shixuan only let out a short groan before clutching his left shoulder and glaring at the man.

‘The Young Lady told me not to kill him, but…….’

The masked man was the guard who had been following Mei, Lan, Ju, and Zhu. Xuelan had ordered him not to kill Bai Shixuan, but if this boy remained alive, the Young Lady would never abandon her softhearted nature. That would never be beneficial to them. And so the guard had disobeyed Xuelan’s order and came to kill Bai Shixuan.

“Are you connected to those four women?”

At Bai Shixuan’s sudden question, the masked man looked at him. The four women Bai Shixuan referred to were obviously Mei, Lan, Ju, and Zhu. Yet the masked man continued looking at Bai Shixuan without showing the slightest reaction. Still, there was something about the boy that intrigued him. Despite suffering pain difficult for a child his age to endure, he did not scream and continued moving however he could in order to survive. Even now, he was speaking to him while slowly inching backward.

‘I can’t let him escape.’

The moment the masked man moved, Bai Shixuan quickly picked up a stone. Without any weapon of his own, he had no choice but to throw rocks and try to obstruct the man’s vision. Bai Shixuan picked up the stone, quickly fixed on his target just as he did when hunting rabbits, and threw it.

-Tak!

But the stone Bai Shixuan threw was blocked far too easily by the masked man. Without slowing his charge at all, the masked man rushed straight toward Bai Shixuan, who hurriedly rolled to the right.

“Ugh!”

Bai Shixuan rolled quickly, but to the masked man, his movements were far too slow. The masked man swung his sword toward Bai Shixuan as he rolled, and the blade struck Bai Shixuan squarely across the back.

‘It hurts. Why do I have to suffer like this?’

What had he done wrong? Bai Shixuan simply could not understand why he was being attacked like this. He could not understand why he had to suffer this pain and die. Was it truly such a terrible crime merely to want to see the woman he loved and remain by her side?

“Kill me.”

He wanted to live. He even wanted to beg for his life. But from the masked man’s cold eyes, he realized the man had no intention whatsoever of sparing him. So much blood had flowed from his back, shoulder, and thigh that it was becoming difficult even to remain conscious. He was so dizzy that he felt he might faint at any moment.

“Fine.”

He was sorry to Xuelan, but this was the end. He had truly wanted to spend the rest of his life peacefully with her. Had following her been a mistake? Would it have been better to remain at the Flower Fragrance Pavilion?

“Didn’t I tell you not to come?”

Unlike the voice he had heard until now, an all-too-familiar voice emerged from beneath the masked man’s covering. Bai Shixuan looked up in shock as the masked man removed his mask. The face revealed beneath it was one Bai Shixuan knew far too well.

“Uncle?”

“Didn’t I tell you not to follow her? I told you that you would die.”

It was Jiang Taimu. Although he had clearly departed after Bai Shixuan, he had caught up with Mei, Lan, Ju, and Zhu as they escorted Xuelan, then returned to Bai Shixuan. And now, he intended to kill Bai Shixuan himself.

“I’m sorry. It’s all for the Young Lady.”

“Ah, you mean Xuelan? Then that’s a relief. If she’s being called Young Lady, I suppose she’ll have a noble status now. If you tell her you killed me, she won’t eat or sleep, and she might even take her own life, so don’t tell her.”

“…I won’t.”

At first, Bai Shixuan had looked bewildered because he could not understand the situation, but after Jiang Taimu spoke, he nodded and answered. No matter how much Jiang Taimu cared for Bai Shixuan, he intended to kill him. Bai Shixuan must also have seen the determination in Jiang Taimu’s eyes. Or perhaps, upon realizing that the attacker was Jiang Taimu, the sense of betrayal had completely extinguished what little flame of resistance remained within him.

He did not want to kill him. But he had no choice. To Jiang Taimu, Xuelan was more important than Bai Shixuan. As long as Bai Shixuan remained alive, Xuelan would always remain a tenderhearted woman. Jiang Taimu did not want that. In the end, Jiang Taimu made up his mind and brought his sword down toward Bai Shixuan.

-Clang!

The sword descending toward Bai Shixuan’s head was suddenly knocked aside. Jiang Taimu recoiled in shock, and as white robes fluttered, a woman appeared before Bai Shixuan’s eyes.

“Who are you?”

“Leave this place. Bloodshed is not permitted here.”

The woman’s cold voice pierced Bai Shixuan’s ears. After staring blankly at her back for a moment, Bai Shixuan collapsed.

“Hup!”

Jiang Taimu saw Bai Shixuan falling behind the woman. But Bai Shixuan’s body was slowly lowered to the ground by some unseen force. The woman had probably used qi to support him as he fell. But if that were all, Jiang Taimu would not have been surprised. What astonished him was that the woman had caught Bai Shixuan without moving at all. Neither her hands, nor her eyes, nor anything else had moved. She had simply supported Bai Shixuan with qi through sheer intent alone.

‘Is she a master?’

The woman looked to be only in her mid-thirties. Yet what was this incomprehensible pressure? He could not sense internal energy from her, nor could he sense killing intent, and yet the man felt fear toward her.

‘Me? Afraid?’

He shook his head and looked at the woman again, but the fear did not disappear. Instead, it steadily grew until cold sweat ran down his back.

“Miss, please step aside. I must kill this boy.”

“I told you to leave. No one may commit murder here. Surely you know that.”

Jiang Taimu’s body flinched at the woman’s words. Killing was absolutely forbidden in the Qilian Mountains. It was an unwritten rule of the Murim. When the woman invoked that rule in an attempt to make Jiang Taimu withdraw, he had no choice but to sigh.

‘What are my chances of killing that woman?’

It was not simply because of the unwritten rule. It was because he had no chance of defeating her. Jiang Taimu felt that his odds of victory against the woman were not even ten percent. If so, there was no reason to attack recklessly.

‘He’s already lost a great deal of blood. He’ll die soon anyway.’

Thinking that, Jiang Taimu looked at Bai Shixuan lying on the ground, only for his eyes to widen again. At some point, the bleeding from Bai Shixuan’s body had stopped. She had staunched the bleeding. But when? Had she done it while using qi to support Bai Shixuan as he fell?

‘Just how powerful is this woman?!’

Since he had never seen her move, that had to be the case.

“Are you not leaving? Do you want me to make you leave myself?”

The instant the woman’s beautiful yet cold voice rang out, a sudden wind wrapped around Jiang Taimu’s body. The wind swept past rapidly, cutting across various parts of his body.

“Ghk!”

“Next time, I’ll cut off your limbs.”

“I-I’ll go. So stop…….”

When the woman raised her hand once more, Jiang Taimu hurriedly spoke. The moment he finished, his body disappeared. The woman stared coldly at the place where he had vanished, then carefully lifted the unconscious Bai Shixuan into her arms. After gazing silently at his face for a moment, she began walking away. Soon, her figure vanished as well, and only quiet stillness settled once more over the gorge of the Qilian Mountains.