Li Mo did not reveal to the elder that Yun Ruoyan was a human furnace. This was too important a secret to reveal to anyone else, even the elder to whom he owed a large debt of gratitude.

The elder sighed, thinking back to the day that he’d found Li Mo in a dark, damp, and cold cave in the middle of a blizzard. Li Mo had been no more than five or six years of age. Alone in the cave, he had survived on a small spiritual beast’s blood for ten whole days. By the time the white-robed elder found him, he was at death’s door.

When the white-robed elder held him in his hands, he kept on crying out, “Father… Mother… Sisters... Don’t leave me! I’ll be obedient, so please don’t leave me alone!” [1]

The white-robed elder didn’t know how the young Li Mo had managed to survive so long under such harsh conditions, but ever since then, the once-lively youth had become as cold and hard as ice.

What the white-robed elder hadn’t expected was there to be a girl who could somehow thaw his heart, and his lined face wrinkled into a smile.

“That’s good.” ...although the girl’s face seems a little strange. “Your parents would surely be happy for you,” he continued.

Li Mo’s lips curled up into a smile.

“Since she’s betrothed to you, I won’t begrudge this matter further. However, I’m not the only one with power in Kongming Academy, so she’d best be careful after leaving the trial,” the elder instructed.

“My gratitude, Elder.”

“Qiuqiu, what’s the matter now?” Yun Ruoyan saw that the Feilai Blade was still hovering in mid-air, even after the terrified blade spirit had long since ducked back into the shelter of the blade.

The rope of spiritual energy that restrained the blade was still present, but it hadn’t tightened further or made any additional effort to drag the blade away. Instead, it felt as though everything was held in stasis.

“Mistress, they might be discussing how to deal with that muddleheaded blade spirit,” Qiuqiu responded.

“Is it possible that they’ll seize the Fielai Blade?” Yun Ruoyan asked, concerned. After all, Kongming Academy had expressly forbidden bringing sixth- or higher-rank spiritual weapons into the secret realm, and she had knowingly broken that rule. Yun Ruoyan felt as though the Feilai Blade would surely be confiscated, and that she would likely be stripped of her qualifications as a student.

“I don’t know, Mistress…” Qiuqiu seemed as concerned as she was.

Suddenly, a voice rang out in Yun Ruoyan’s head.

“Little girl, I was going to confiscate your spiritual weapon and then punish you, but someone interceded on your behalf. As such, I’ll spare you this once. The spiritual weapon won’t be confiscated, but will instead be sealed in your body until you become a sword saint.”

Yun Ruoyan very much wanted to ask who had stepped in for her, but before she could do so, the voice had disappeared. At the same time, the spiritual energy binding the blade vanished, and the Feilai Blade returned to Yun Ruoyan’s mind. Following the blade was a surge of spiritual energy, efficiently and effectively wrapping the blade up.

“What’s the matter? What’s this energy surrounding me?” the blade spirit began to yell out. “How dare you try to entrap me, you foolish mortals! Once I emerge from this binding, I’ll be sure to give you a good beating!”

“Old man, can you stop embarrassing yourself?” Qiuqiu couldn’t help rebuking.

“Little mythical creature, even you dare look down on me? Just you wait until I get out of these restraints!”

“Alright, alright, elder blade spirit. If you’re so powerful, then tell me who you are.”

The blade spirit choked on his words, then finally sputtered out, “Once I go to sleep and wake up again, I’ll surely remember who I am.”

The blade spirit once again fell asleep for an interminable duration, returning blessed silence to Yun Ruoyan’s mind.

“Wh—What happened just now?” Rong Yueshan, who had buried her head in the sand, finally emerged once more after noticing that the disturbances seemed to have stopped.

Just as dazed as Rong Yueshan were Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue, who asked as one,” Sister Ruoyan, what just happened?”

“I’ll tell the two of you later. Now, what’s more important is escaping from this mess,” Yun Ruoyan whispered back.

The sudden turn of events had caused all three girls to forget their perilous situation. When they tried to move their bodies, they only felt a sense of numb paralysis, seemingly stronger than before. Rong Yueshan’s paralytic poison was truly quite extraordinary!

Rong Yueshan was also slowly recovering from her befuddlement. Yun Ruoyan had clearly taken out a very strong spiritual weapon intending to kill her, but just when she had thought herself dead, a beam of spiritual energy emerged from the heavens and prevented her murder.

Then, the spiritual weapon’s blade spirit emerged and fought against the bindings from the sky. As for what happened later, Rong Yueshan had no clue—because after that fight, she hadn’t dared to raise her head. However, when she inspected her surroundings now, everything seemed to have returned to normal. The powerful spiritual weapon that Yun Ruoyan had released was likewise nowhere to be seen.

Rong Yueshan guessed that Yun Ruoyan’s spiritual weapon had been defeated by the sudden burst of spiritual energy, and that spiritual energy very likely came from some powerful existence in Kongming Academy.

Rong Yueshan hadn’t expected to be saved out of nowhere—after all, quite a number of people had died of various causes during the trial. Why would someone intervene just for her? Was there some elder who wanted to take her as a disciple? Rong Yueshan’s expression turned ecstatic.

Having lived two lives, Yun Ruoyan had an inkling as to what was going on inside her head. As she’d claimed, Rong Yueshan easily overestimated herself.

“Yun Ruoyan, killing me isn’t as easy as you thought, eh?” Rong Yueshan grinned wolfishly. “Even the heavens are helping me—you’ll die today! But,” she continued, “if you’re willing to tell me your secrets, I’ll consider giving you a more painless death, haha.”

Rong Yueshan stepped toward Yun Ruoyan.

Within the forest, Zhuo Yifeng’s eyes brightened, and he loosed a tiger-canine arrow at Rong Yueshan. The bow was made of a simple, unadorned wood, and the bowstring was simply a sturdy vine. The combination of the two run-of-the-mill materials led to a rather clumsy product with limited range, and Zhuo Yifeng had to take advantage of every opportunity he could find.

When Rong Yueshan stepped forward and into his range, he immediately released an arrow at her. The tiger-canine arrowhead provided the necessary penetrating power to make the shot relevant.

Because of her excitement that a noble figure was looking out for her, Rong Yueshan had actually forgotten about Zhuo Yifeng’s existence. As soon as she stepped forward, she heard a whooshing noise. Before she could step back, the tiger-canine arrowhead penetrated her thigh.

Rong Yueshan yelped and fell to the ground. When Zhuo Yifeng confirmed that his arrow had left her immobilized, he rushed out of the forest like a leopard, darting toward the three girls. Gritting her teeth in pain, Rong Yueshan removed a few small silver darts from her waist and began throwing them at Zhuo Yifeng.

“Brother Zhuo, be careful!” Lin Qingxue shouted.

Zhuo Yifeng agilely dodged the darts. While Rong Yueshan was preparing for her next volley, he quickly aimed and shot another arrow at her. However, because he didn’t have the time to attach a tiger-canine arrowhead, the arrow was far weaker than his original.

Rong Yueshan’s fourth-rank silver darts easily sliced the wooden arrow in two. The momentary distraction gave Zhuo Yifeng the time to install a tiger-canine arrowhead on his next arrow, before aiming it at Rong Yueshan. At the same time, Rong Yueshan prepared to throw the darts at Yun Ruoyan and the Lin sisters.

The two factions came once again to a stalemate.

“If you dare move, I’ll kill all three of those girls!”

Rong Yueshan’s row of small darts weren’t aimed at Zhuo Yifeng, but rather the three girls. She knew that her injury would likely render her unable to hit the agile Zhuo Yifeng, so she decided to aim at the paralyzed girls instead.

“And if you dare move, I won’t be shooting at your thigh this time!”

“We’re in trouble,” Yun Ruoyan murmured. “Her companions are back.”

“Haha, none of you will be able to escape today. All of you will perish here!” Rong Yueshan could also detect her companions’ aura.

Three youths stepped into the clearing, led by Rong Yueshan’s pale-faced sidekick. Six people from Rong Yueshan’s team had died, and there were only Rong Yueshan and three others left.

“Miss Rong, you’ve been injured!” The pale-faced youth rushed toward Rong Yueshan in distress.

“Ignore me for the moment,” Rong Yueshan commanded. However, even as she did so, she continued training her eyes on Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng—there was no way she was going to let down her guard again!

“Where are those members from the Chen kingdom team?” Rong Yueshan asked.

“As you’ve instructed, we lured them into a horde of beasts. None of them survived,” the pale-faced youth replied.

“Good, good. If they want to take advantage of me, they’ll pay with their lives,” Rong Yueshan responded evilly.

Yun Ruoyan didn’t know what enmity Rong Yueshan had with the Chen kingdom team that had allied with her, but this was sufficient to show how vicious and merciless Rong Yueshan was. Yun Ruoyan reaffirmed her desire to kill her.

“Miss Rong, what’s going on now?” the pale-faced youth asked. Without Rong Yueshan’s direct order, the youth didn’t dare to make a move on his own.

“Hahaha!” Rong Yueshan cackled. “Good timing. Now, kill Yun Ruoyan and her three sisters!”

1. The exact terms he uses are ‘父皇’ (father-emperor), ‘母后’ (mother-empress), and ‘宮女姐姐’ (palace-maid-sisters), so the elder knows of Li Mo’s noble birth. It is difficult to express this concisely in the translation because the appositive-vocative construction used here does not have a natural English analogue.