A Bitter Confrontation

Yingluo showed not the slightest hint of evasion, simply remaining seated on the ground. Her eyes were filled with a peculiar emotion.

‘Why, at this very moment, are his eyes still brimming with such doting affection?’ she thought, a faint sadness stirring within her. ‘Truly, it’s so irritating. I despise being in situations like this.’

Slowly, Bai Chen lowered the sword in his hand. He uttered no further words, merely turning and departing.

“Tch!”

Watching Bai Chen’s seemingly casual, yet undeniably deliberate, approach toward Bai Qiao, Yingluo savagely dug her fingers into the earth. Ten deep gouges instantly appeared on the ground, and the spaces between her fingers filled with dirt, leaving her looking utterly disheveled.

“Xiao Luo…”

A hand extended towards her, attempting to help Yingluo to her feet.

“Slap!”

Yingluo slapped away the outstretched hand with a swift backhand, as if all her recent fury had been instantly transferred to this new target. She glared fiercely at the person. “I can get up on my own. I don’t need anyone’s charity.”

Heiyao silently withdrew his hand. ‘I wasn’t offering charity,’ he thought, his gaze turning grim as he looked at the two distant figures.

‘The white path…’ As a figure second only to the Grand Leader within the underworld, Heiyao possessed formidable strength. Even with Bai Chen deliberately suppressing his internal energy, Heiyao could still discern the faint, yet immensely powerful, internal energy emanating from both Bai Chen and Bai Qiao.

Suddenly, Heiyao pulled Yingluo into an embrace. The abruptness of the action startled her, but she quickly recovered, reaching out and struggling to push him away.

‘What kind of joke is this?’ she fumed inwardly. ‘Any man other than my A’Chen is utterly filthy. If he weren’t useful to me, he would have died long ago.’

“Ugh…”

As his touch grazed the spot where Bai Chen had just injured her, Yingluo couldn’t help but cry out in pain. She instinctively tried to pull her hand back, only for it to be fiercely seized.

“Hiss!”

Fabric ripped and scattered. Yingluo stared, stunned, at the torn clothes on her shoulder, from which fresh blood still oozed from the sword wound. Panic flared within her. “What are you doing?!”

The knife she had just raised was parried away before it could even reach Heiyao’s shoulder. Immediately, Yingluo found herself enveloped by Heiyao’s intense, chilling aura.

In stark contrast to this somewhat gentle embrace, Heiyao’s voice was utterly frigid, carrying a palpable, heavy killing intent. “He was the one who hurt you?!”

“…”

“Qiao… do you know that woman?”

“Mm…”

“So… you really were a boy before? And that woman was just a crazed admirer of yours? You’re truly a boy…” Bai Chen repeated the phrase several times, seemingly lost in thought.

Bai Qiao suddenly halted, an inexplicable surge of anger flaring within her. “Yes, I am a boy!” she declared. “So stop always clinging to me! I’m a man, and I’m a man exactly like you! I’d rather be with women than with men! If you truly want to, if you really can’t stand it, then you… just look in the mirror and with yourself… Ugh!”

As Bai Qiao spoke in her fit of anger, she was suddenly enveloped by powerful arms. The scenery before her instantly shifted, blurring into vertical streaks.

She looked up, somewhat bewildered, at Bai Chen, who held her tightly in his embrace. It had to be said, Bai Chen’s arms were indeed broad and strong; at least, Bai Qiao could see nothing beyond them. However… a trickle of fresh blood ran down the corner of Bai Chen’s mouth.

“Heh~”

With blood still staining the corner of his mouth, Bai Chen’s lips twitched into a scornful laugh. He reached behind him, slowly extracting the sharp sword embedded in his body.

He merely glanced at the blood still dripping from the blade, then disdainfully tossed it aside. The sword fell to the ground with a crisp clang.

No one was visible behind him. Bai Chen narrowed his eyes for a moment, then slowly closed them, extending his internal energy to sense his surroundings.

The very next second, Bai Chen abruptly reached back, seized Bai Qiao’s arm, and leaped high into the air. A deep gouge appeared on the ground where they had just stood.

Invisibility consumed a significant amount of internal energy. An experienced practitioner, after a failed strike, would never attempt to remain concealed.

Just as Bai Chen had anticipated, Heiyao’s figure immediately reappeared, moving swiftly to stand before him. The sword in Heiyao’s hand lunged forward.

Bai Chen dodged with a quick shift of his body. The rooftop was clearly no place for a proper fight. Using his own sword to block Heiyao’s attack, Bai Chen then leveraged the force to directly press Heiyao towards the ground.

Before his feet even touched the ground, Heiyao had already broken free of Bai Chen’s control, retreating several meters backward. Before Bai Chen could fully stabilize himself, Heiyao had already charged forward, sword raised.

Swords clashed with such speed that there was almost no visible movement, only a blur of silver sword shadows and the cold ring of steel. The expanding waves of internal energy affected everything around them; the house began to collapse, and the ground beneath them fractured into numerous deep, wide cracks.

After a powerful collision of internal energy, both men retreated several meters, their faces grim as they eyed each other. Bai Chen was the first to advance, sword raised.

Heiyao hastily brought his own sword to parry, holding it horizontally before him. Sword tip met sword blade, generating a shower of sparks. Bai Chen then used the force to propel his body upwards, his foot fiercely kicking his own sword hilt.

Under the sudden impact, Heiyao couldn’t help but fly backward, barely managing to regain his footing. His expression grew even more somber.

It wasn’t merely the slight inferiority he felt compared to Bai Chen in front of Yingluo. As a leader of the underworld, for someone like Bai Chen—even when injured—to be able to fight him to such a degree, he was undeniably a formidable and troublesome opponent.

“Heh heh,” Bai Chen scoffed, looking down at Heiyao with a somewhat condescending gaze. “Are you here to avenge your beloved girl? What a pity, to achieve such a pathetic result even in front of the one you adore. Remember, your opponent is me. A sneak attack won’t grant you victory.”

Heiyao gritted his teeth, watching Bai Chen retreat. He tightened his grip on his sword even further.

‘Currently, I truly can’t defeat him,’ he conceded inwardly. ‘But we are the underworld… we don’t adhere to legitimate methods. A sneak attack? That’s entirely normal. A siege, poison… Heh heh, can you truly withstand all of that?’

“Heiyao, don’t hurt A’Chen!”

The sudden voice jolted Heiyao awake. Looking at Yingluo’s face, he once again felt an urge to rush forward and fight Bai Chen.

‘What’s so good about that man, Yingluo?’ he thought, a bitter taste in his mouth. ‘I got hurt for you, and you… can’t you see it?’

However, taking a deep breath, Heiyao replaced his grim expression with a smile. He looked at Yingluo and said, “Once I get him, I’ll hand him over to you, alright? You can do whatever you want with him.”

“Eh? Really?” Yingluo’s eyes lit up. “Then I’ll chop off A’Chen’s limbs, so he’ll always be by my side, never able to leave, hehe~”