Meng Fuyao pulled the two over behind the mountain rock as she clasped the guinea pig in her hand. Behind the rock, the trio immediately collapsed onto the ground. Meng Fuyao felt as though every single bone in her body was going to shatter as she grimaced. "Zhan Beiye... can not last…"

Yun Heng, slightly breathless, asked, "Why do we need to wait till nightfall?"

"It's just a guess… perhaps a hope… tonight is a full moon…" Zhan Beiye muttered to himself irresolutely. Smiling bitterly, he said, "Hang in there, let's see if we have this luck."

The trio seized the moment to heal themselves. Meng Fuyao gave out the Ajuga gra.s.s medicine like it was free, "Eat! Eat! It would be useless when you are dead!"

Cloud Soul sat behind the rock in a trance. "Hey, continue," she called them over, estimating that they were done changing the diapers.

This battle lasted for another two hours as the trio took turns to get flung out. There were splatters of blood all over the floor. This round, the spoils of this battle consisted of a piece of Cloud Soul's sleeve, half a nail and three strands of white hair.

Once again, Meng Fuyao raised her hand, "Yuan Bao needs his milk…"

In the next round, the trio had an addition of 38 scars. The spoils of this battle was a small slit on Cloud Soul's shoulder by Zhan Beiye.

Meng Fuyao raised her hand.

"Yuan Bao needs to pee…"

In the next round, Yun Heng waved his sword which was accidentally stopped by Meng Fuyao, the two coincided. Panting, Meng Fuyao raised her hand.

"Yuan Bao… needs to sleep…"

In the next round, Meng Fuyao mumbled, "Nightfall… Nightfall…" as she attempted to climb back up to fight. Zhan Beiye pulled her back as he stood back up unsteadily, with his sword supporting, "Elder… please…"

The brilliant orb of amber sunk lower and lower in the sky until it dipped down into the horizon, painting the sky with magnificent hues of fiery red and crimson purple. With every inch the sun lowered, it was as though Zhan Beiye could see another glimmer of hope. His eyes sparkled with antic.i.p.ation. On the other hand, for Cloud Soul, frustration grew with time.

Cloud Soul's complexion was no better. For her, whose ability swept through the martial art world, to not be able to kill the three youths, despite using her full power, was thoroughly exasperating.

She looked at the sky impatiently. The initial calm and lazy expression were now replaced with a look of frustration. With a snort, her palms turned into fists, directing her punches at them.

Those fair and slender hands pounded harshly and cruelly into Zhan Beiye's chest.

Zhan Beiye punched out too with all his might. The two collided. Cloud Soul took a step back and vomited a mouthful of blood. On the other hand, Zhan Beiye flew out like a kite with a broken string.

He plummeted into the ground filled with gravel and mud beside Meng Fuyao. Yun Heng beside him had lost conscious, and Meng Fuyao was breathless as she struggled to move closer to Zhan Beiye. Barely audible, she whispered, "… blurred vision… can't see the sky… is it nightfall already?"

His heart trembled in pain as he gently covered her eyes with his hand and comforted her, "… almost…"

"Not … here yet…" Meng Fuyao's voice was filled with disappointment. What quickly followed was humorless laughter as she collapsed onto the ground, mumbling, "Zhan Beiye, in the end, we still couldn't make it through, huh…"

Zhan Beiye carefully wiped off the blood stains at the corner of her mouth. He looked at the agitated Cloud Soul standing by the cliff and smiled.

His smile was gentle and calm, contrasting against his usual loud, cheerful laughter.

"Fuyao, I feel like this is the happiest moment in my entire life — to fight together, to kill together, to risk our lives together… and to die together…"

As the murderous aura overwhelmed them, miles away, flowers were blooming, and laughter was in the air.

…

Back to a few days ago, it was probably when Meng Fuyao had just stepped onto the soil of Heaven Demon nation, bathing under the warm rays of light. The rays of light too shone into the Imperial Study at Wuji Palace.

The Imperial Study was filled with tiles of gold, reflecting a lone figure of a man buried in doc.u.ments.

The door creaked open softly as a eunuch cautiously brought more doc.u.ments into the room, leaving it on the desk.

Zhangsun Wuji stared at the mountain of doc.u.ments he had to look through and leaned back as he frowned unconsciously — in the past, he never felt that dealing with the national affairs was a ch.o.r.e, but these days, he found that to rule a country was a troublesome matter.

The eunuch observed his expression and carefully moved backward. Drawing the blinds, the eunuch let in rays of light, composing what looked like a beautiful poem with rows of words.

Zhangsun Wuji watched the light rays mindlessly and suddenly inquired," What has the princess been up to these days?"

"Various discussions and visits to the senior." The eunuch knew what Wuji was asking without him spelling out and continued, "She requested for an audience once, but the servants said that you were not around, like what you ordered."

Zhangsun Wuji contemplated. "The princess has been out for a long time. I believe that Xuanji Empress would miss her and be very worried about her? I've also heard that the princess had encountered bandits on our land? Send my orders to the Ministry of Rites, to write a letter of apology to Xuanji, stating our inability to protect the princess, letting her almost fall into the hands of the bandits… well, they know how to write."

"Yes." The eunuch bowed.

As he bowed, the corner of his mouth twitched. He knew that the crown prince was finally going to chase that princess away out of frustration. That Empress of Xuanji was a renowned jealous lady that cared deeply about Princess Lotus, who could strengthen her position and bring about great reputation to the country. She would definitely send someone to bring the princess back immediately upon news that she had come face to face with danger. In the future, even if the princess wanted to travel around in the name of Buddha, it would be challenging.

He turned around to pa.s.s down the order and suddenly remembered something. "Crown prince, a few days ago, the empress heard that the princess was arriving and mentioned that she wanted the Ministry of Rites to arrange a meeting."

Zhangsun Wuji's busy hands that were going over the doc.u.ments stopped. His expression remained unmoved though he lifted an eyebrow. He paused, "Then?"

"The Ministry of Rites said that they will report to the Crown Prince," the eunuch pointed to the doc.u.ment sitting on the table, "It is inside."

"Alright," Wuji casually flipped through the doc.u.ments and placed one of the doc.u.ments in a golden box, "Leave it."

"Yes."

The eunuch retreated. Zhangsun Wuji suddenly lost interest in dealing with national affairs. He pushed the doc.u.ments on the table, and he stood up. He walked towards the open window, welcoming a gentle breeze into the study. The breeze was laced with a delightful fresh fragrance of Magnolia flowers, filling up the room with a pleasant aroma.

Zhangsun Wuji stood by the window as he looked at the maid kneeling down to pick flowers in the imperial garden. The young lady's slender finger reminded him of a familiar loved one. The corners of his mouth raised slightly as he caught a petal between his fingers, carving a word on the petal…

A familiar sound code reached his ears. Zhangsun Wuji's hands stopped, but he did not turn around, "Hm?"

"There is chaos in the Heaven Demon Nation, and Prince Lie went missing in Changhan mountain range…"

Zhangsun Wuji turned around abruptly, "What about her?"

The man in grey raised his head to meet Zhangsun Wuji's gaze. The frightening darkness in his eyes actually made the man cower in fear. Softly, he reported, "According to investigations, Zhan Nancheng had brought tens of thousands of soldiers to ambush Zhan Beiye at the entrance of the Changhan mountain range. There was someone that rushed to save Zhan Beiye and disappeared with him… and…" The man in grey daren't go on.

Zhangsun Wuji closed his eyes to regain his composure. He paused and calmly opened his eyes. "Continue."

"They were forced into the Changhan forest, also known as the forest of death. Apparently, no one can get out of the forest alive. Some subordinates risked their lives to enter the forest and discovered the remains of a corpse. From the signs of the corpse, it died only a few days prior. Though some subordinates tried to go deeper into the forest, three died in a single day… they had no choice but to retreat…"

They were the elites of the Wuji secret force. To have three people die in a forest in a single day was unprecedented.

No one said anything or made any movement. The atmosphere got heavier and colder to the point of suffocation. It was as though someone was using a gigantic ice boulder to put pressure on the atmosphere. No one could breathe nor escape. The man in grey remained upright as cold sweat gradually formed on his forehead.

Zhansun Wuji stayed silent, without any reaction. The magnolia petal in between his fingers suddenly, but slowly, dried silently. He crushed the petal in his grip as his fingernails dug into his palm.

…

Bam!

'We will die together.'

Zhan Beiye laid on the floor. Beside him was a half-conscious Meng Fuyao and a fully unconscious Yun Heng. Even Lord Yuan Bao was sweating profusely as it panted.

Cloud Soul slowly made her way over. She looked into the resolute eyes of Zhan Beiye and calmly uttered the words, "You three have lost, though in glory."

Zhan Beiye let out a long sigh. He knew that this sentence came from the bottom of her heart and knew that this was a recognition of their abilities as a top-notch young fighter from one of the strongest martial artists.

For 30 years, in the Five Region Continent, there was no one else that could cross more than a hundred moves with the top ten martial artists. Especially with the top five martial artists not fighting anymore, Cloud Soul was definitely the number one martial artist. And today, they had an intense battle with this almost mythic person and even injured her with their experience and inner energy.

That was to say, if it were a one-on-one battle, the three of them could cross over a hundred moves with Cloud Soul.

It was an achievement worthy of admiration. One that was unprecedented, one that might never occur again.

Zhan Beiye only smiled. "Actually, I am very grateful to you."

Cloud Soul's gaze landed on his hand that held tightly onto Meng Fuyao's hands. She watched him as his b.l.o.o.d.y fingers carefully, preciously touched Meng Fuyao's broken finger. She witnessed him holding onto Meng Fuyao's hand, trying to transmit some inner energy over despite him too suffering. Pain flashed in her eyes as she watched him display his love for Fuyao. It was as though her heart was being pierced by something. The original term used was 留中 (Liu Zhong) which refers to the emperor leaving the doc.u.ments untouched — neither approve of it or reject it