Clash

Fan Qiuming’s eyes swept swiftly over the entire mall, his spiritual sense expanding up to two kilometers, but he could not find a trace of that person again.

“They fled quickly…” he muttered inwardly.

“Brother, what are you looking at?” Just then, Shangguan Wanwan pushed Fan Qiulin out of the lingerie store. She saw Fan Qiuming craning his head toward the sky.

“It’s nothing, my neck just feels a little stiff,” he replied, tilting his head to the side.

“Are you done shopping? If so, let’s head home. It’s getting late.” The encounter just now had left Fan Qiuming with a faint sense of danger; he had no desire to see Fan Qiulin caught up in anything risky.

“Alright! I’m satisfied after shopping for so long,” Fan Qiulin said contentedly, clutching her spoils for the night.

On their way home, Fan Qiuming kept his spiritual sense open, scanning their surroundings. The people he’d encountered previously at Mount Wutong hadn’t shown up again, which meant they were probably occupied or being investigated by the Dragon Sect stationed in Peng City. For them to show up now likely meant something unexpected had occurred.

Suddenly, a shadow flashed past behind Fan Qiuming. Shangguan Wanwan seemed to sense it too and glanced at him.

He gave her a look.

“You take Qiulin home first. I need to pick up some daily necessities from the supermarket.” He handed the wheelchair to Shangguan Wanwan.

She immediately understood—he wanted her to protect Fan Qiulin.

“Alright, but come back quickly,” she replied.

Seeing that Fan Qiulin was not suspicious, he turned and dashed toward an alley, nimbly leaping up the windows and security grilles between buildings to reach the rooftop.

A figure awaited him there, clad in a black robe, face entirely concealed. Fan Qiuming couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman, and he almost felt hot just looking at how bundled up the other was.

“And who are you? I didn’t expect to find a cultivator like you in a world so bereft of spiritual energy.” The robed figure spoke first, their voice altered to be completely neutral.

“And who might you be?” Fan Qiuming’s heart skipped a beat. Could this be one of the old monsters that survived before the worlds merged? If so, even a hundred of himself wouldn’t be a match now.

“You were the one in the mall earlier, weren’t you? Why have you been following me?”

“What’s your purpose?”

“No particular reason. I just found it amusing,” the figure replied, voice betraying neither joy nor anger.

“I wanted to test your skills. Defend yourself!” As the words fell, a green sword appeared in the figure’s hand, slashing toward Fan Qiuming with blinding speed.

He dodged aside.

“Resorting to violence after just a few words?” Fan Qiuming said. “If that’s how you want it, don’t blame me.”

He realized this person didn’t intend for a peaceful conversation, so he reached into his storage ring for his sword.

“Is this some kind of insult?” the figure asked, suddenly showing a flash of anger.

Fan Qiuming looked down and realized, to his embarrassment, that he was holding a large green onion instead of his sword.

“Sorry, wrong item.” Hurriedly, he stashed the onion away and finally drew his sword.

“Hmph. How dull… Try this!” The figure’s movements were leagues beyond those of Dongfang Jingming and Ximen Wending. Still, Fan Qiuming managed to hold his own.

“So you’re only at the early stages of Qi Refinement, yet you can block my sword?” After several exchanges, the figure gauged Fan Qiuming’s level—though Fan Qiuming hadn’t actually reached Qi Refinement.

“Fourth stage of Qi Refinement, and that’s all you’ve got?” Fan Qiuming replied easily, a hint of provocation in his eyes.

“You impudent brat! Take this!” The clash of their swords rang out over the rooftop.

Inside the building, someone watching a martial arts film exclaimed, “Wow, this TV is so advanced! It even has 3D surround sound.”

“You’re much more entertaining than the others. They couldn’t last more than two moves against me,” the figure said, somewhat excited.

Fan Qiuming felt a prickle of unease. “The others” likely referred to Dragon Sect members.

“Then you’d better pay attention.” With that, Fan Qiuming shifted from defense to offense, his attacks growing fierce, the edge of his sword glinting with killing intent.

“Your swings are too slow, your movements excessive, your strength lacking, too showy, and full of openings,” Fan Qiuming observed, seizing the moment to strike the other’s sword hilt, sending it flying to the rooftop.

He pressed his own blade to the figure’s throat, poised to strike.

“You’ve lost. That’s all there is to it.”

“You—!” the figure sputtered, but said nothing more.

“Let’s see who you really are,” Fan Qiuming said, pulling back the figure’s cloak and mask as he activated the All-Seeing Pearl.

Suddenly, the figure shoved aside his sword and vanished in a flash, just as Fan Qiuming caught a glimpse of her face. The All-Seeing Pearl had no time to display her name or gender—if the view was interrupted, the information vanished.

“Damn it, just you wait! I’ll get my senior brother to avenge me!” With that, she leaped to another rooftop and disappeared.

Fan Qiuming wanted to give chase, but the speed of someone at the fourth stage of Qi Refinement was beyond him now.

“Bai Qianyu, female…”

“You’d better hope we never cross paths again!” he muttered. As he prepared to leave, he noticed the sword lying nearby.

“Isn’t this Bai Wanqiu’s sword from earlier? Well, it’s mine now.” He picked it up, tucked it into his storage ring, and couldn’t help but smile.

“Not a total loss,” he thought, looking around before leaping from the fifth-floor rooftop, landing steadily, and hurrying back to the apartment.

Just as he was about to knock, it suddenly occurred to him that he had left to buy supplies.

Now, returning empty-handed would surely arouse suspicion.

He was about to head back out when the door swung open.

“Brother, you’re back? Where are the things? Why are your hands empty?” Fan Qiulin asked as she opened the door and saw him standing there.

“You didn’t sneak off to do something shady with Sister Wanwan, did you?” she teased. While he certainly had been up to something secretive, it wasn’t what Fan Qiulin imagined.

“No, no, of course I bought them!” he replied hastily. “But on the way back, a gang of bikers snatched the shopping bag right out of my hand and sped off. There’s no way I could catch up with a motorcycle!”

His mind worked quickly, conjuring up an excuse.

“Is that so?” Fan Qiulin stared at him, as if trying to see through his every word.

“Of course! I couldn’t help it. Maybe they needed daily necessities too,” he said, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

“Fine, I guess,” she said, wheeling herself back inside, leaving him to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Fooling her isn’t easy,” he thought, secretly pleased with himself.

Shangguan Wanwan, however, cast him a knowing, concerned look—she knew exactly where he’d gone.

She quietly came to stand beside him. Seeing this, Fan Qiulin slipped into her own room, not wanting to intrude. She loved gossip but had no interest in romance.

“Are you alright? Who was that person?” Shangguan Wanwan asked quietly.

“Have you heard of the Bai family? She’s a cultivator—Bai Qianyu. She got away,” he said. “With a surname like that, she’s probably from a powerful family. And from what she said, it’s as if she doesn’t belong to this world—like she came from somewhere else.”

He recounted everything that had happened that night.

“She was alone?” Shangguan Wanwan asked.

“Yes, just her tonight. But she mentioned having a senior brother. If he’s stronger than her, we could be in trouble. And there are things about them we still don’t know—like where they’re from. With the current concentration of spiritual energy in the world, it would take at least twenty years to cultivate a Qi Refinement practitioner, and that’s with great talent. She’s no older than twenty-five.”

Fan Qiuming shook his head. He knew too little right now and felt at a disadvantage. Shangguan Wanwan, for her part, knew even less.

“All right, go get some rest. We’ll take things as they come and solve problems step by step.” He reached out, unable to resist ruffling her hair.

But she dodged nimbly.

“Not a chance!” she stuck out her tongue, made a face at him, and retreated to her room.

Fan Qiuming chuckled—a smile that rarely graced his lips in the past. He had once loved someone, but she had become nothing more than a stepping stone on his path to immortality…

That was a memory he would rather not revisit.

Yet, Shangguan Wanwan really did remind him of her…