Volume 3, Chapter 363 – The Head of Lingxu Sword Sect

“Let her go!”

Chi Xiyan raised her sword and formed a sword seal with her fingers.

Spiritual energy surged around her as two streaks of sword light shot toward the two black-clad warriors.

One of them summoned a dark-gold barrier shield and blocked the incoming sword force. The other grabbed the girl from the ground, hoisted her over his shoulder, and bolted.

He had barely taken a few steps before a talisman sailed past him and detonated directly in his path.

The black-clad warrior lurched backward in alarm, staggering with the girl still over his shoulder.

“Put her down!” Chi Xiyan’s voice cracked like a lash.

The one with the shield continued to intercept her sword force, blocking every strike.

But Chi Xiyan was the eldest daughter of the Chi family. Swordsmanship was far from her only means of fighting.

Her own cultivation was only at the Fourth Realm, and her sword technique hadn’t come from any of the Seven Sword Sects. On pure ability alone, she held no advantage over these people.

What she did have, however, were talismans. She flung them at the warriors like they cost nothing.

Immortal-arts talismans were a deeply unfair thing. They allowed a high-level cultivator’s technique to be stored temporarily within a small slip of paper, ready to be unleashed with nothing more than a burst of spiritual energy to trigger it.

Easy to use. Extremely expensive.

Only the children of wealthy families and sect disciples of exceptional standing tended to carry them on their persons. Outside of talisman-crafters themselves, almost no one burned through talismans in combat the way Chi Xiyan did.

And she wasn’t done.

After using talismans to cut off the black-clad warrior’s retreat, she reached into her storage space, produced a medicinal pill, and swallowed it in plain view of them both.

The moment the pill went down, her aura spiked. Fourth Realm to Fifth Realm, in an instant.

The gap between a Fifth Realm sword cultivator and a Fourth Realm one was enormous.

The color drained from both warriors’ faces.

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“Crazy woman!”

“Oh, so having money makes you something special?!”

Chi Xiyan’s gaze was ice. “I will say this one more time. Put her down!!”

The two warriors hesitated, weighing their options.

But Chi Xiyan had already used that brief pause. She channeled her sword seal, and a torrent of sword light swept outward like a breaking storm.

Faced with the full pressure of a Fifth Realm sword cultivator, the one carrying Lu Zhuxin went pale and simply threw the girl away from him.

“Fine, you win!”

“Take her back!”

The girl, used as a human shield, let out a shriek.

Chi Xiyan immediately reined in her sword force and caught the girl, pulling her into her arms.

The two black-clad warriors exchanged a glance, seized the opening, and fled into the distance.

Chi Xiyan had no time to give chase. She held the shaken girl close, her arms wrapping tightly around Lu Zhuxin’s back.

“Little Xue’er.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Thank goodness.”

“I almost thought I wasn’t going to make it in time.”

Lu Zhuxin’s eyes widened slightly.

She could feel the force of Chi Xiyan’s arms pressing against her back. Even through the layers of fabric, she could feel the rapid, unsteady heartbeat hammering inside Chi Xiyan’s chest.

This girl was actually this rattled?

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Had Chi Xiyan already grown this attached to Chi Muxue?

A faint curve touched Lu Zhuxin’s lips. She reached up and gently wrapped her own arms around Chi Xiyan’s back.

She pressed her cheek lightly against Chi Xiyan’s and breathed in the faint warmth of her.

“Older Sister, I’m fine.”

“I’m right here.”

“You got me back.”

Chi Xiyan still wouldn’t loosen her hold, as though only by keeping her grip could she finally quiet something uneasy inside herself.

Lu Zhuxin patted her back, softly and steadily.

After a moment, Chi Xiyan’s breathing evened out. She lifted her arms and let go, and her voice returned to its usual detached, composed tone.

“All right. You can let go now, Little Xue’er.”

“…” Lu Zhuxin had no words.

This woman. How did she flip like that faster than turning a page?

She was the one who had grabbed her first. The way she said it made it sound like Lu Zhuxin had been clinging to her the whole time.

Thoroughly out of words, Lu Zhuxin slowly let go.

She stepped back and dropped her head, a faint flush on her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Older Sister… I got carried away.”

“I should know better… I shouldn’t have been so forward with you.”

Chi Xiyan’s expression shifted, just slightly. She rubbed her fingertips together in a small, absent gesture. Then she said, “Come. Let’s get out of here.”

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…

Several days later.

Qionghua Commandery. Tianshui City.

Chi Xiyan had brought Lu Zhuxin to the most lavish inn in the city and secured them a room on the upper floor.

Seated by the window, Lu Zhuxin studied Chi Xiyan’s profile.

When they had left Beihe Commandery, Chi Xiyan hadn’t shared any details of her plan. Lu Zhuxin hadn’t expected her to head straight for Qionghua Commandery. It was only when they arrived in Tianshui City, and the name registered as familiar, that she understood. Chi Xiyan’s destination was Lingxu Sword Sect.

That gave Lu Zhuxin a quiet, wry sort of amusement.

The Demon Suppression Bureau had sealed off Beihe Commandery’s city gates early on to catch the wolf demon. But that kind of blockade was practically meaningless against a great clan in their own territory.

A clan entrenched in a commandery city would never tolerate the local authorities holding them in check. Even with the city’s grand formation locked down, a clan of that standing had their own ways in and out.

The fox clan’s secret paths worked on much the same principle, though they cost a fortune to build and couldn’t be too conspicuous this deep in human territory, which was why they hadn’t been able to lay them throughout every human city.

After leaving Beihe Commandery, Chi Xiyan had given Lu Zhuxin a thorough demonstration of what it looked like to travel when money was no obstacle.

Ordinary cultivators made do with escape techniques and flying artifacts.

Chi Xiyan was another matter entirely. Spatial transfer talismans were something she produced without a second thought. Teleportation formations that normally took months to power up, she simply forced open by pouring spirit stones into them.

The journey from Beihe Commandery to Qionghua Commandery would take even a high-level cultivator several months under normal circumstances. Chi Xiyan had done it in a matter of days.

Thinking about that, and about herself spending half a month crossing the border on her own cultivation alone just to reach Beihe Commandery, Lu Zhuxin felt faintly ridiculous.

The fox clan wasn’t poor either. She really had no excuse.

“The person we’ve been waiting for is here.”

Chi Xiyan’s voice pulled her out of her wandering thoughts.

“Who are we waiting for, Older Sister?”

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“The head of Lingxu Sword Sect.” Chi Xiyan paused. “Someone once told me that the person who could save the Chi family wasn’t in Beihe Commandery.”

“I thought about it for a long time. What kind of force could actually stand against Lingxiao Sword Sect?”

“The only answer I kept coming back to was a force of equal standing.”

Lu Zhuxin let surprise show on her face. “So Older Sister chose Lingxu Sword Sect? But Lingxu Sword Sect is also one of the Seven Sword Sects.”

Something came back to her.

Back when she had gone to rescue Bu Lianshuang, Bu Lianshuang had said the timing was inconvenient. Lingxu Sword Sect had been part of that reason, if she remembered correctly. Lan Shuang’er’s character background had some kind of grudge with Lingxu Sword Sect.

Chi Xiyan continued, “Lingxu and Lingxiao may both belong to the Seven Sword Sects, but the Seven Sects have never been a unified bloc.”

“Not long ago, Lingxu Sword Sect submitted a formal complaint accusing Lingxiao Sword Sect of harboring a traitor who had sold out their own people.”

“The matter was suppressed before anything came of it.”

Chi Xiyan lowered her gaze slightly. “Setting everything else aside, Lingxu Sword Sect is the force closest in standing to Lingxiao Sword Sect. That makes them our best option.”

While Chi Xiyan was still speaking, the door opened and someone walked in.

“I never imagined the eldest daughter of the Chi family would think so highly of my Lingxu Sword Sect. What an honor.”

Chi Xiyan turned toward the newcomer and rose to greet her. “Young Sect Master Huang.”

A girl in yellow robes. Small in frame, but with a gilded greatsword strapped to her back that looked far too large for her body.

So the head of Lingxu Sword Sect that Chi Xiyan had been waiting for was, in fact, the Young Sect Master of Lingxu Sword Sect, Huang Shangshang.

If Huang Shangshang had come to meet Chi Xiyan, then the Lingxu Sword Sect master, Huang Xifeng, was likely somewhere nearby as well.

A quiet resignation passed through Lu Zhuxin’s eyes.

She had never intended to let Lingxu Sword Sect get involved in any of this.