Chapter Ninety-Six: Issuing the Challenge

Baikirui closed his mouth, at a loss for words.

Bodream looked at him with easy grace, smiling softly.

After a long while, Baikirui sighed in helpless resignation, his tone growing somewhat cool. “I am sorry, Lady Bodream. You will find someone better.”

He had declined her politely, and Bodream could naturally hear it, yet she still said with frank simplicity, “It’s all right if you do not like me. I will always like you!”

At those words, Baikirui could not help shivering. Under Bodream’s puzzled gaze, a memory surfaced in his mind.

It had been midsummer then. Shen Ruru, with her twin buns and dressed in pink, had already powdered her face with rouge and carefully chosen a few peony hair ornaments. She had blocked his path together with Baishengyun.

She had glared at him at once, telling him to leave quickly, but Baishengyun had promptly shot back, “What are you doing?”

Shen Ruru had no choice but to confess outright: “I like you!”

“Oh.” Baishengyun had replied indifferently, then reached out to pull him away.

But Shen Ruru had refused to yield. She had immediately broken into what she believed was a most beautiful smile and said, “It does not matter. Even if you do not like me, I will always like you!”

Then he had seen his younger brother lift an eyebrow and ask, “Even if I already have someone I like?”

Thinking of that, Baikirui’s expression grew even more complicated.

He remembered Shen Ruru blurting out, without hesitation, “Then I will kill the one you like!”

Oh dear... He could not help shivering again.

From that day on, whenever Shen Ruru saw some young and lovely girl who came near Baishengyun, she would inevitably pick a fight with her, like a mad defender of blossoms.

Seeing that his face looked terrible, Bodream recalled how he had once been badly injured and never properly healed, and later had even fought several elders again, and she immediately asked with concern, “What is wrong? Were you injured again yesterday?”

Baikirui rubbed his temples and gave a dry laugh, trying to get Bodream to leave as soon as possible. “Yes, so I am going to rest first. Goodbye.”

He had indeed been injured yesterday, but the reason his complexion was poor now was not because of that.

After speaking, he shut the door with a sharp bang, blocking Bodream outside, and only then let out a breath, thinking to himself: Such a cursed fate had better be cut off as early as possible!

Standing before the heavy wooden door that had been slammed in her face, Bodream felt somewhat saddened.

But soon she composed herself and comforted herself: “It’s all right. My benefactor will not dislike me forever!”

At that moment, in the Flower Union Palace, Xie Yingying’s fever at last began to subside.

Baishengyun had kept vigil over her for a long time and was already growing impatient, feeling rather stifled and hot. Now that Xie Yingying’s fever had finally gone down, he left the bedchamber, thinking a walk might help ease his irritation.

Outside the Iron Brambles, many had already departed, and only Huotianqing and Guluohan remained steadfastly on guard.

The moment they saw him emerge, both sets of eyes turned cold and sharp.

Baishengyun’s gaze swept lightly over Guluohan, then narrowed as he looked toward Huotianqing in the distance, as if thinking of something.

Seeing him stare at him, Huotianqing met the look without yielding. His eyes were icy with warning, and his expression was even more brooding.

When Guluohan saw him come out, he immediately asked anxiously, “Baishengyun, how is Yingying now?”

Baishengyun heard him, but did not answer. His gaze remained fixed on Huotianqing, with a trace of killing intent and scrutiny in his eyes.

Seeing that he ignored him, Guluohan felt a surge of anger, but with Xie Yingying still in his hands, he could only suppress it and ask in a low voice, “Baishengyun, what exactly is Yingying’s condition?”

Only then did he answer coldly, “Not bad. She is not dead.”

When Guluohan heard those words, the anxiety that had hung over him for so long finally eased, though he was also especially angered by Baishengyun’s manner when speaking of Xie Yingying’s condition.

The moment Baishengyun came out, he saw the two of them and felt inexplicably displeased, so he turned as if to go back inside.

But Guluohan stopped him again. “Baishengyun, I want to fight you!”

“Hmm?” Baishengyun lifted an eyebrow and turned to look at him. “Are you challenging me?”

“And if I am?”

“Oh.” Baishengyun gave a light response, then curved his lips faintly in a smile. “I am not interested.”

With that, he was about to go straight back into the room, as though he no longer cared about Guluohan at all.

Then Guluohan’s next words brought him to a stop. “If you lose, you leave Yingying. From then on, you are never to pester her again.”

Baishengyun turned back and looked at him with amusement. “And if you lose?”

“If I lose, I will let go of her willingly, and from then on I will not speak another word about whoever she chooses to be with.” Looking at him, Guluohan narrowed his eyes slightly, and his fighting spirit flashed like thunder. “Do you dare?”

“What is there not to dare?” Baishengyun sneered. “Only, I do wonder whether you will be able to keep your word.”

“Then we will both swear before the Heavenly Dao!”

“Fine.” Baishengyun nodded at once. “Time and place?”

Seeing that he agreed, Guluohan’s fighting spirit surged even higher. “Midnight tonight, at the Demon Sect’s martial arena.”

“Very well.”

This time, Baishengyun left directly, and Guluohan did not stop him again.

After he departed, Huotianqing’s expression remained calm as he said to Guluohan, “You will lose.”

Hearing that, Guluohan turned and asked angrily, “You look down on me?”

“He is of dual spiritual roots. He can balance yin and yang and cultivate both paths. Coincidentally, one of the arts he cultivates is precisely the bane of your technique.” When Huotianqing said this, he gave him a sidelong glance, and beneath his calm eyes there was a hint of contempt.

Guluohan snorted, unconcerned. “I am not afraid.”

Soon enough, night deepened to midnight.

In the meantime, Xie Yingying’s fever had flared again; she woke and then fell back into unconsciousness. Baishengyun had gone from caring for her at the start to growing irritable and ignoring her, then from that attitude back to tending her with tireless patience. The twists and turns of his feelings were truly like a roller coaster.

But when midnight arrived, Baishengyun still fed her a few pills at random, then immediately left the Flower Union Palace, fearing that if he lingered any longer, Xie Yingying would start spouting nonsense again and demanding this and that, until in the end he had no choice but to run outside for a moment of peace.

The martial arena was somewhat distant from the Flower Union Palace, and Baishengyun was in no hurry to get there. Besides, after a day of irritation, his mind was already in disarray, so on the way he wandered slowly, stopping and starting as he went.

Thus it took him the full time of two cups of tea to reach the Demon Sect’s martial arena.

Midnight was when yin energy was at its peak, so there were many specters around the martial arena. They saw Guluohan standing there with a grim, murderous expression, and whispered among themselves:

“What is Guluohan doing at the martial arena in the middle of the night? He is not even practicing. He is terrifying!”

“I think he is waiting for someone.”

“For whom?”

Just as the ghost finished speaking, a white-robed figure slowly appeared behind its companion, utterly out of place on that eerie, dark road.

“Ba... Baishengyun!”