The Art of the Intercepted Challenge

“Your Royal Highness, I would, of course, be delighted to spar with you. However, I find myself wishing for a period of rest. I wonder if Her Royal Highness would grant me this reprieve?”

Qiu Yue smiled serenely.

She stood at the precipice where azure ice crystals met scorched earth, gracefully smoothing her slightly disheveled robes.

It was as if the recent deadly ambush had never occurred, as if Ji Xue’s ethereal blue pillar of flame, capable of burning bone and searing soul, had merely been a celebratory display.

Ji Xue’s neck felt piercingly cold, while the ethereal blue flames around her silently surged, twisting the very space they occupied.

They firmly shielded Liu Ruyan’s tattered, withered form within their shadowy embrace.

‘Rest?’ Ji Xue’s voice was colder than ten thousand years of profound ice. ‘In the mystic realm, where life and death clash, you have no such luxury. Qiu Yue, do you truly believe you can still stall for time?’

Ji Xue had already grasped Qiu Yue’s intentions and resolved to launch an immediate assault.

Time was running out, but if she could defeat Qiu Yue now, then even if Lin Mo had zero points, he would still be considered to have triumphed over Qiu Yue.

In this chaotic mystic realm battle, Lin Mo did not need to claim the top spot; he simply needed to defeat Qiu Yue.

The moment her words faded, an invisible surge of energy abruptly locked onto Qiu Yue.

A flash of light emanated from Ji Xue’s hand, revealing an ancient, unadorned token—the very emblem of a forced challenge right.

Arcane runes flared to life on the token, and a clear divine sense reverberated through the area like a booming bell, its resonance carried by the mystic realm’s laws into the minds of all observers.

‘Exercising the right to challenge, Ji Xue designates a challenge against—’

Buzz!

Before her words could even fully escape her lips, unseen ripples spread through the void, and the mystic realm’s regulatory power responded instantly.

A pillar of challenge light coalesced in a flash, poised to envelop Qiu Yue.

Yet, another beam of light simultaneously descended on the other side.

But the one it enveloped was not… Ji Xue herself?!

Buzz—

The other equally dazzling pillar of light belonged to—

“Lu Ping’an of the Bing-Domain, exercising the right to challenge! Designating a challenge against—Senior Sister Qiu Yue!!!’”

The challenge took effect!

The earthen-yellow pillar of light hummed, expanding instantaneously and, under Ji Xue’s astonished gaze, forcibly enshrouding Qiu Yue.

‘Wha—?’

‘Farewell, Your Royal Highness.’

‘She had been intercepted! Her challenge right had been nullified!’

‘Damn it!’ Fury practically erupted from Ji Xue’s eyes.

‘Good! What an excellent Qiu Yue! You truly are calculating!’ Ji Xue gnashed her teeth, her icy gaze sweeping over Qiu Yue, whose form was already blurred within the earthen-yellow pillar of light.

A faint, mocking smile still graced the other woman’s face, piercing Ji Xue’s nerves like a sharp needle.

Her rage had nowhere to vent, and her killing intent surged like a boundless tide.

She had wanted to take down Qiu Yue immediately! Yet, a third party, a mere lackey, had unexpectedly burst forth to intervene!

‘Time was running out!’

However, Qiu Yue was soon teleported back.

She remained standing on the scorched earth, not even shifting her feet.

‘You might escape for a moment, but when will you truly escape me? Even with a minute of cooldown time, you won’t shake me off. What harm is there in letting you live an extra minute?’

Yet…

Thirty meters away, sixty meters away, a hundred and fifty meters away…

In the dense forest not far from where her gaze landed, figures emerged one after another like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

Although each of them was far weaker than herself, still…

Instantly, Ji Xue understood…

‘Was this… a deliberate attempt to stall?’

‘Hmph, to think the esteemed Eldest Young Lady of the Qiu family would be such a coward, lacking even the courage to face me directly?’

Faced with Ji Xue’s taunts, Qiu Yue appeared utterly unfazed.

‘To abandon one’s advantages and engage an opponent in a one-on-one battle? Your Royal Highness, that is not courage; it is recklessness. How could someone of your noble standing utter such thoughtless words?’

Indeed, these people were precisely for stalling.

They didn’t need to defeat her; they only needed to use their challenge rights to hold her back for as long as possible, waiting for the third day to conclude.

Ji Xue clenched her jaw, truly not expecting this individual to be so devious.

‘Despite having such strength, Your Royal Highness, are you perhaps wondering something?’ Qiu Yue’s eyes gleamed with cunning light, like a venomous snake seeing through all deceptions.

‘Are you wondering why my subordinates, scattered across the mystic realm like headless flies, would, at this very moment, so… coincidentally gather here, awaiting your grand arrival?’

Ji Xue remained silent, though the ethereal blue flames around her burned with even greater ferocity, casting an enchanting glow upon the ruins beneath her feet.

Her taut posture, however, undeniably affirmed Qiu Yue’s unspoken question.

Qiu Yue chuckled softly, her finger twirling a strand of her dark hair as she slowly, deliberately unveiled the mystery.

‘The teams I dispatched for searches were not aimless. Each small squad was assigned a fixed zone, and at the starting point of each zone’s search, a discreet ‘periodic contact’ was stationed.’

Doubt stirred within Ji Xue, wondering why Qiu Yue was divulging such information.

‘The mission of these contacts was neither to search nor to fight. They had but one duty: like an hourglass, at fixed intervals, they would send a specific, inconspicuous spiritual energy signal to my main headquarters, reporting that all was normal. Concurrently, they were also responsible for receiving signals from my headquarters, which conveyed the latest instructions.’

Qiu Yue’s voice, like a spell, struck clearly at Ji Xue’s nerves.

What these words implied, Ji Xue understood all too well.

‘Once my main headquarters fails to receive a signal from a starting point within the agreed-upon timeframe…’ Qiu Yue’s voice abruptly turned cold, imbued with chilling killing intent.

‘Or, if a contact at a starting point fails to receive a responding signal from headquarters on time… that means—’

‘Headquarters under attack! Situation critical! Return swiftly for reinforcement!’

She enunciated each word, her voice echoing deafeningly over the desolate ruins.

‘Junior Sister Liu truly lives up to her reputation as a top-tier assassin; her actions are clean and decisive, and her methods for erasing traces are indeed brilliant. What a pity…’ Qiu Yue curved her lips into an exceedingly cruel smile.

‘Junior Sister Liu, you are still best suited for killing. Trying to save someone, however, only leads to stubborn blunders.’

At this moment, words transformed into sharp blades, piercing precisely through Liu Ruyan’s already withered and depleted form.

Fragments of the past surged uncontrollably through her numb mind.

Long-suppressed despair, self-loathing, and regret, deeply embedded in her consciousness, now erupted and burst within her heart, bubbling to the surface like a torrent.

‘I… I messed up.’

‘I…’

This grief was so profound that tears seemed insufficient to express it.

A shocking tear of blood silently traced a path down her gaunt cheek.

‘How ridiculous…’

‘Do not let her words affect you, Liu Ruyan. Her reluctance to move is merely a tactic to stall for time; it’s evident she hasn’t recovered from your earlier attack. That’s why she’s trying to break your spirit with such talk.’

Ji Xue’s gentle voice reached Liu Ruyan’s ears, devoid of any blame.

‘Since she has so many pawns, then… I shall simply eliminate them. So, the people present here are all of them, correct?’

With that, ethereal blue cold flames blazed fiercely within Ji Xue’s crimson pupils.

A bone-chilling coldness now permeated the entire area, and Ji Xue’s formidable presence enveloped everyone.