Hou Jingshu could do little more than glare at the man looming over her. Her three companions were unable to aid her. They were trying, but their opponents used their superior numbers and teamwork to prevent them from reaching her.

Retou Meng grinned as his eyes trailed from her feet to her chest. She gritted her teeth as he leaned over.

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this,” he said with a chuckle. “Ever since the moment you first spurned me, I’ve wanted to own you, to make you my pet. I didn’t think I’d get a chance so soon.”

“You’re a twisted bastard,” Hou Jingshu snarled. “I’d rather commit suicide than belong to you.”

“You say that now, but you’ll see. Once I teach your body what it means to feel pleasure, you’ll come to understand that I’m not such a bad man.”

Retou Meng reached out with a hand as though to grab her. He was aiming for her chest. Despite trying to resist her fear, Hou Jingshu felt her eyes closing against her will. She didn’t want to see what this man would do to her.

“Your highness!”

“Princess!”

“Dammit! Get outta my way!”

Her companions screamed at her, but it felt like their voices were coming from far away.

A million thoughts ran through her head. Most of them were about how she didn’t want this to happen to her. She didn’t want to become this man plaything. Retou Meng was a very typical young master. Because his strength had not been earned, he abused his power to have his way. She hated people like him the most.

Yet among the thoughts racing through her, one thought popped into her head.

I really wish I had given Wu Jian a kiss before I left the Wu Clan.

Hou Jingshu should have told him that she loved him. She should have kissed him when she had the chance. She had always regretted not expressing her feelings for him properly, and now that chance would never come.

Maybe I should just kill myself now. Perhaps if I did, I would get to see him again.

Just as Hou Jingshu resolved herself, an inhuman scream echoed around the clearing. It contained both surprise and agony in equal measure. Something warm and wet splattered against her face. Hou Jingshu opened her eyes and blinked several times.

Standing in front of her was a man in a cloak. She could see no identifying features save his black hair. As she stared at him, an image of someone else overlapped with his figure. She shook her head. There was no way this man could be him. He was dead, and she had to accept that.

“Are you all right, Jingshu?” asked the person before her.

“Ah?” Hou Jingshu blinked at the young voice. This person couldn’t have been much older than her. He turned around. A mask covered his face. “I am… fine. Do I know you?”

The man shook his head, but she could swear she had seen him somewhere before.

“My… my hand… you… bastard! YOU CHOPPED OFF MY HAND!!!”

The enraged and agonized scream forced Hou Jingshu to look away from the masked man and toward Metou Reng. He was hunched over, his left hand clutching the stump attached to his right forearm. The hand had been cleanly severed and laid on the ground several chih from Retou Meng’s feet. Blood gushed from the wound as the Burning Hand Sect core disciple glared at him.

“You’re lucky that’s all I removed,” the man snarled, and Hou Jingshu blinked at the rage in his voice. “I was tempted to remove your head.”

“Bastard! Do you know who I am?! I’m—”

“I don’t care who you are,” the masked man interrupted. “I don’t need to know the name of a dead man.”

“Ignorant little shit! Do you think I’ve lost?! It doesn’t matter if I only have one hand, you’re still not strong enough to defeat me!!”

The masked man snorted. “Your cultivation might be higher than mine, but you’re not my match.”

“You’re courting death!!”

With that as his battlecry, Retou Meng rushed forward to attack the mysterious masked man. He blasted off the ground as flames gushed from his feet to propel him forward. Yet before he could even reach his target, the masked man threw a punch, and despite being too far away for the attack to hit, it still hit. Hou Jingshu could only blink in shock when Retou Meng flew backward and rolled across the ground.

“Don’t think I’m done with you yet. There’s plenty more where that came from,” the masked man said as he cracked his knuckles.

He took a step forward, but then stopped when Hou Jingshu stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“While I really do appreciate your help, this isn’t your fight. It’s mine. Please, don’t interfere.”

Hou Jingshu had no idea what was going on. Who was this man? How had he appeared out of nowhere? Why was he protecting her? She knew she wouldn’t find the answer to those questions no matter how hard she tried, so she decided not to think about them for now. There was only one thing on her mind: Defeating Retou Meng.

I have to do this myself. I can’t rely on others for help. I need to be stronger.

If she let someone else fight her battles for her, then she would never progress in her cultivation. She could not allow that to happen. She had to keep pressing forward.

“I understand. In that case, I’ll help your comrades,” the man said. Hou Jingshu felt her cheeks grow hot at the warmth in his voice. “Teach him a lesson.”

“I will,” she said after snapping out of her stupor. What was she thinking? Why did she feel so embarrassed by this man’s words?

Hou Jingshu picked up her fallen spear, then walked forward.

Her mysterious savior was already rushing over to Zheng Yawen, who seemed to be struggling the most. He threw several punches that somehow reached his enemies despite being too far away. This gave Zheng Yawen the opportunity to finish them off with a thrust of her dagger.

Hou Jingshu stopped just a few chih from Retou Meng. She twirled the spear in her hands before pointing it at her opponent. The man in question glared at her.

“Are you really going to do this? You know what will happen now that I’m injured, don’t you? Once I go back to the Burning Hand Sect, I’ll let my master know about what happened here. I wouldn’t be surprised if he declared war on the Hou Family… but you can still make things right. Say you’ll become mine, and I’ll forget this whole thing ever happened.”

Hou Jingshu merely continued glaring at the man. “You’re delusional.”

“What?”

“You’ve raised your hand against the Imperial Princess of your own nation. That’s a crime not even your sect can protect you from. There is only one punishment for Lèse-majesté.” Hou Jingshu paused. “Death.”

Retou Meng’s face turned red, but then he became calm. Blood no longer dripped from his wrist. He had cauterized it at some point. He must have been in incredible pain. The fact that he was acting like having his hand chopped off didn’t hurt was a testament to his strength.

“Fine then. I offered you a chance, but since you have made your grave, I can only help you lie in it. It’s a shame, really. I would have liked to taste your body at least once.”

Hou Jingshu’s lips became a flat line, but she didn’t attack right away. She studied Retou Meng. She was waiting for a sign that he would attack; a twitch of the shoulder, a turn of the hips… something that would let her know what he would do next.

The passage of time seemed to lengthen. It felt like hours, but she was sure it had only been a few seconds. Sweat threatened to get in her eyes. She didn’t close them, however, for doing so would have given her enemy a clear advantage.

Retou Meng suddenly rushed forward and rotated his torso. He was going to punch her with his only remaining hand.

She moved forward and left, bypassing the hand and trying to stab him through the chest, but he was too fast and leapt back. He then came at her with a kick. It was clear from his awkward movements that he was by no means an expert at kicking. Yet the flames sprouting from his feet protected him from her spear, which she had used to try and slice off his limb.

As the fight continued, it became clear that Retou Meng was still a threat even with his missing hand. He blocked her attacks with limbs coated in flames. His own attacks packed incredible power that threatened to break her guard. The only thing that seemed to have changed was how swiftly he could attack her.

His attacks had slowed down.

More attacks flew her way, but Hou Jingshu deflected them with her spear. Retou Meng’s attacks were powerful, but they were very straightforward. So long as she could predict where he would attack, she could angle her spear and redirect his attack to lessen the power of each blow.

“Dammit! Just die already!!” Retou Meng screamed.

“You first!” Hou Jingshu shot back.

Retou Meng leapt back and began shooting fire from his palms. He attacked with impunity, either not caring or no longer concerned with conserving his chi. Hou Jingshu was forced to retreat as she moved left and right to avoid getting hit. She watched him, however, and soon realized there was a gap in his projectile wall.

Hou Jingshu pumped chi through her limbs as she dashed forward. She slipped between a pair of flame projectiles, ducked underneath another one, and skidded across the ground until she came within reach of Retou Meng. After coming into a crouch, she thrust her spear forward and felt satisfaction when her spear tip pierced his chest.

Blood seeped from the wound in his chest and also from his mouth. Retou Meng stared at the spear like he couldn’t figure out what had just happened. His eyes soon went from the spear to Hou Jingshu, who glared at him with fierce loathing.

“You… bitch…” he rasped. “You’re… gonna… regret…”

Retou Meng said no more. His eyes glazed over, his head slumped forward, and his body began leaning against her spear. He was dead.

Hou Jingshu stood up and yanked her spear from his chest, ignoring the blood on her blade and what spilled to the ground. Retou Meng’s corpse tilted before falling face first onto the ground.

“Haaah…. Haaaah…. Haaaaaaah…”

Hou Jingshu took several deep breaths. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She couldn’t believe she had just defeated someone much stronger than herself. This was a huge victory.

She turned to her companions. They were no longer fighting. It looked like they had managed to win thanks to the mysterious stranger who had saved her. She was surprised when she saw another man standing there as well, one with flaming red hair, but she just assumed he was that man’s companion.

She was just about to take a step forward and call out to everyone when she staggered as power gathered around her. Her eyes widened as the bottleneck on her cultivation loosened.

She sat down and began going through the hand seals needed for her cultivation method. Each seal flowed into the next as she gathered chi inside of her dantian and prepared to attack her bottleneck. If she could reach the Asura Realm, that would make her one of the youngest people to have reached it.

The energy swirled around her body. It caused goosebumps to break out on her skin. She’d never felt anything quite like this before. There was so much chi that it was actually hard to control.

Once she was ready, Hou Jingshu popped one of Zhou Lihua’s pills into her mouth, closed her eyes, and sent all of her chi to attack her bottleneck.