225 – Afterglow

At last, everything went calm.

Specks of light fell down from the sky like pale blue snowflakes.

The world in front of her eyes has changed dramatically.

The surging stream of light slashing though the air ravaged the earth and smashing everything in its wake, leaving a huge rift in the ground.

The entire manor was practically divided into two. Starting from Xue Qilin, the ruler-straight rift, the buildings near which turned into ruins, extended until it reached the Daoist, and then divided into small cracks that spread radially from him.

The blood-soaked Daoist, who bore the brunt of the attack, fell into a big pit. It seems that he managed to block the strike that contained Grandmaster Realm might. Even though he was seriously injured, he is still breathing, albeit weakly. He fainted.

Meanwhile, thanks to the fact that he stepped forward and shielded them at the critical moment, the guards didn’t die. They were just blown away and knocked into different places.

As for the culprit responsible for all this, she is still floating in midair.

The pale blue light covering her peeled off like pieces of glass. The large sword in her right hand has become bright red, is releasing smoke, and has deformed a little. The sword could not bear the simultaneous full strength release of Xue Qilin and Phecda.

However, it seems that not only the Empyrean Universe could not bear this force.

Xue Qilin gently landed on the ground, and then suddenly started coughing violently. She tried to pacify her disorderly breathing, but to no avail.

“Cough, cough, cough –“

After coughing for a short while, Xue Qilin suddenly coughed up blood.

Blood flowers bloomed in the air, and her complexion turned pale.

Her legs trembled and her entire body swayed unstably. Fortunately, before she fell, she managed to stabilize herself with the large sword.

“Qilin –!”

Seeing Xue Qilin teetering, Qi Qiqi finally recovered from the shock the scene just now gave her and exclaimed abruptly. She hurriedly came to Xue Qilin’s side and supported her.

“Qilin, are you alright?”

Qi Qiqi’s delicate face assumed a distressed expression mixed with worry, anxiety, and hesitation, and her bright red eyes filled with heartfelt concern.

At this time, Phecda transformed into her human form and touched Xue Qilin left and right with her hands in a panic, all the while whispering, “Was she injured somewhere? What to do, what to do…”

The true qi inside Xue Qilin was almost completely depleted. She feels like she can faintly hear her meridians full of cracks issue wails. She took several deep breaths and finally calmed her disorderly breathing.

“Little Phecda, if you touch me again, I’ll sue you for sexual harassment!”

“Ah, what is sexual harassment?”

Seeing Phecda blink her eyes curiously, Xue Qilin rolled her eyes unhappily.

Then, she stood up straight and raised her hand for Qi Qiqi to let go.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine! Go help Little Qing!”

Attacks often don’t differentiate between foe and friend.

Gong Tianqing, who is sitting weakly on the ground, was naturally affected. Even though she kept her body down and successfully evaded the fate of being blown away, she still seems to have suffered a significant impact, and is unable to stand up on her own.

“But…”

“No buts!” Xue Qilin glared at the hesitant Qi Qiqi in a rare fashion, “Be obedient and go!”

Qi Qiqi bit her lower lip, still unable to feel at easy.

Upon seeing this, Xue Qilin gave her a push.

“Go!”

Qi Qiqi staggered a few steps, looked at Xue Qilin reluctantly, and then ran to Gong Tianqing.

“Really… I’m not fine…”

She raised her trembling left hand and spread it open before her eyes. Just now, she seemed to have reached the Grandmaster Realm — no, once you break through to a realm, you would never regress. It was something different from a martial arts realm.

But what was it?

However, before she could ponder this issue, Xue Qilin coughed again.

She covered her mouth, coughed, and stooped down reflexively. But there was no blood this time.

“Qilin, Qilin, what’s wrong?”

Phecda panicked and circled around Xue Qilin, not knowing what to do.

“Stop circling around me! I feel dizzy — ah!”

Before she finished speaking, a sense of dizziness washed over Xue Qilin, and she fell backwards. She took a few steps back in he hopes of stopping the fall, but she still failed.

“Qilin!”

Startled, Phecda stopped at once and extended a hand to support Xue Qilin.

But someone was faster than her.

Suddenly, the sound of wind rose beside the ears.

Before Xue Qilin could realize what’s going on, she bumped into someone’s embrace and placed the back of her head on a pair of soft and warm things.

“Ah, Xia Xue, you’re here at last!”

Phecda heaved a sigh of relief and patted her “flat as a mirror” chest.

Upon hearing Phecda speak of Xia Xue’s name, Xue Qilin looked up suspiciously, and a pair of orange eyes entered her eyes at once.

“… Little Xue? What are you doing here?”

Xia Xue appears to be travel-worn. She evidently has just gone through a hurried journey.

“Oh, did you forget about me after not seeing me for a few days? Ei, that’s heartless.”

The corners of Xia Xue’s mouth curved into a smile. While holding Xue Qilin in her arms from behind, Xia Xue lent her the strength to stand firmly.

Feeling the tactile sensation coming from the back of her head, Xue Qilin blushed and coughed awkwardly.

“No, I just didn’t expect you to show up here.”

“I was the one who delivered her to you.”

With that, Xia Xue pointed to Phecda with her chin.

“It was your lovely, little apprentice who said that you might have use for the mechanism sword and asked me to do an “express delivery”. It seems that you teacher and apprentice duo like to order people around.”

“It was Little Yun?”

Xue Qilin is both surprised and delighted. She didn’t expect that Shui Yun’er would contemplate things to this degree and make preparations for her.

“Yes, yes, Little Yun is smart!”

Phecda smiled radiantly and replied while jumping about.

“He-he, who else could it be if not her?” Xia Xue’s tone is as always full of sarcasm, “Since our Temple Master can’t have any rest at night because of Qing’er, would she even have the strength to worry about other things?”

“I see…”

Little Yun is really reliable… Xue Qilin can’t help but smile wryly, feeling that she chose a good apprentice.

“That said, I should charge you or Younger Sister Shui an express delivery fee. It’s not much, just twenty tael.”

“Er…”

Xue Qilin had a stunned look on her face when she heard the mention of the concept “express delivery”.

She contemplated whether her coffers can handle this expense or not, and then finally came to a despairing conclusion.

“Little Yun should be the one to pay.”

After considering things again and again, she decided to throw Shui Yun’er under the buss.

Xia Xue cast Xue Qilin a half surprised and half teasing look.

“Wow, Xue Qilin, you really conduct yourself like a teacher!”

“He-he, thanks for the praise.”

Xue Qilin scratched her head and assumed an expression of “stop praising me, it’s embarrassing!”.

“Ha, someone has no sense of shame.”

“Qilin is shameless!”

Xia Xue sneered and Phecda chimed in.

Xue Qilin just shamelessly turned her face away and hummed an out of tune melody, not paying attention to their sarcastic remarks.