Chapter 117 — Cold Night
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 6
Jin Pingyue still wore her never-changing smile. She stood smiling in the middle of the street, facing a young man before her who glared at her in fury. And this man, too, was someone Ming Li knew—Li Xun, an outstanding disciple of Fénxiá Valley.
And on the street behind him lay another Fénxiá Valley disciple, collapsed on the ground. By the look of it, he had just been wounded by Jin Pingyue: his clothes were slashed from the left chest straight down, a deep and gaping wound, and he was moaning weakly.
Yet Ming Li's gaze lingered on these three only a moment, and then, after a brief pause, settled entirely upon the last person.
In the desolate night, on the desolate street, upon the abandoned little tower that stood behind Jin Pingyue, a woman in white, a long sword slung across her back, stood on the eaves, facing the wind, her garments drifting slowly.
A woman of peerless beauty, her snow-like skin beneath the clear moonlight seeming almost to take on a pallid hue.
This night, this moonlight—was it because of her that they were so serene, so luminous?
Lu Xueling!
In those familiar bright eyes, whose shadow was reflected?
Ming Li was struck still.
In the darkness he quietly gazed at that woman who seemed to stand aloof from the dusty world. All the frost of the mortal realm, the ten years of years, seemed never to have touched her in the slightest. So that at first glance, all one saw was her figure in the moonlight, like a cool and ethereal immortal.
"Demoness!" Li Xun's handsome face was full of rage.
He and Lu Xueling had blocked Jin Pingyue from front and rear, but when they had just landed, this demon sect enchantress had suddenly struck: she had first bewitched the Fénxiá Valley junior behind him with her "art of ensnaring the mind," then wounded him with the Violet Radiance Blade. If not for Li Xun's intervention, the junior would likely have lost his life then and there.
Yet what concerned Li Xun more at this moment, besides his junior's wound, was something else: "What have you done with my junior sister Yan Fei? Hand her over at once!"
Jin Pingyue smiled faintly, but her gaze suddenly drifted, and whether by design or not, flicked toward the dark place behind Li Xun, where Ming Li was hidden. "You said it yourself—she's your junior sister, not mine. How would I know?"
"Bah!" Li Xun's face was full of fury; plainly he cared greatly for this junior sister. "If not for Uncle-Master Shangguan's sharp eyes, we'd still be in the dark, fooled by you, demoness. You deliberately slaughtered our Fénxiá disciples—this debt will be paid in full. If you have any sense, hand over junior sister Yan Fei, safe and sound, this instant!"
"Oh my! I'm so frightened!" Jin Pingyue patted her chest with one hand, but her face was all smiles—not a trace of fear in it. Rather, her seductive air deepened as she said softly, "You call yourselves orthodox cultivators—how can so many of you gang up on one weak woman like me?"
A cold snort came from Lu Xueling behind them.
Li Xun glanced at that beautiful figure standing on high, and his face darkened. To Jin Pingyue he said, "Demoness, if you remain stubborn and unrepentant, I won't hold back..."
Before the word "back" was out of his mouth, Jin Pingyue suddenly gave a bewitching laugh, and from beneath the sleeve of her right hand the violet radiance flared.
Li Xun at once gathered himself on guard. This demoness was full of tricks, and her Violet Radiance Blade was incomparably sharp—no small matter at all. Just now, with a single slash, his junior behind him—though affected by her mind-ensnaring art—had not been able to withstand even one exchange despite years of cultivation, which showed how high her powers ran.
But Li Xun had always been proud, and his own cultivation was high as well; wary though he was, he felt not the slightest fear.