Chapter 10 I Will Save You

Yu Sui put away the Wind Listening Ruler and ran outside; she needed to find a secluded place.

Fortunately, the house was noisy enough, and she ran fast, so no one noticed her.

Juxianlou was booked out, and there were guards everywhere. Yu Sui ran out, disturbing many servants who asked her what help she needed.

A voice kept echoing in her mind:

"Can I live? I'm asking you, can I live?" the man asked irritably. "What's wrong with me just wanting a good night's sleep?!"

A voice, neither clearly male nor female, asked, "Who?"

"Cough cough..." the old man chuckled in a hoarse voice, "It's me."

So far, all three voices were ones that Yu Sui had heard before. After the old man answered who the deceased was, a trembling young voice rang out: "What is this? Who are you? What's going on?"

The newcomer seems to know even less than Yu Sui.

The boy's terrified voice amused the man: "You two might as well die together. I've already thought of how to die: the older one will die of old age, and the younger one will die from his own stupidity."

Yu Sui ran downstairs and found there were even more people below. She carefully avoided them and successfully left the entrance of Juxianlou, running through the night market.

No one was in the mood to answer the terrified boy's questions at that moment. The androgynous voice asked again, "How did you die?"

"Cough cough... Everyone, don't panic, I still have some time. It's just that I'm too badly injured. You will only be affected after my soul cores are shattered." The gentle old man smiled. "There are too many people who can kill me later. I really don't know who will kill me or how."

Yu Sui was slightly taken aback. Dual soul cores? That must be at least at the ninth level or tenth realm. But wouldn't their strange fire give birth to new dual soul cores?

She left the bustling streets and ran towards a deserted place.

The man said irritably, "I think you're still breathing, old man. Tell me a place, and I'll come and get you."

The old man said, "I am at Taiyi Academy, in the Five Elements Water Field."

The man immediately replied, "Too far, I'm not going, you might as well die."

"What? Who's dying? What does that have to do with me?"

The still terrified boy howled.

"I've spent my whole life trying to figure out how to get rid of the strange fire and the mark of the destroyer," the old man said in a low, hoarse voice. "It has the power to destroy the world, but I have no intention of using that power, nor do I want to destroy this continent."

"Although we don't know why it came to us, I believe that none of the chosen ones have the idea of ​​destroying the world... But the identity of the destroyer makes us live in fear, constantly worrying about being discovered by the world. If our identity is exposed, we will be hunted down by the six kingdoms, leading to the separation of wives and children and the destruction of our families."

“I’ve lived for over seventy years and I’ve seen this kind of thing too many times.”

The man sneered, "You're about to die, and you're still pitying others."

The old man smiled, completely unconcerned. He coughed twice more, leaning against the wall of the Five Elements Water Field. Blood flowed like a river on the ground, and lights in the distance began to illuminate the shadows as they approached.

The number of World Destroyers is fixed at five, but these five individuals can be different. When someone dies, the Strange Flame will search for a new World Destroyer.

You can never guess when it will arrive.

Perhaps it was when you were just born, or perhaps it was when you were about to die.

"Hide your flames well." The old man lowered his head, his eyes dimming little by little. "The six kingdoms are all searching for the Destroyer of Worlds. They need to know the secrets of the Strange Flame. If you want to get rid of the identity of the Destroyer of Worlds, then come to Taiyi Academy... I can assure you that the way to unlock the secrets of the Strange Flame lies in the Heavenly Script kept by the academy."

"It's a pity, if only I had a little more time..."

Black flames suddenly erupted, and the heat wave that swept over them caused the pursuing shadows to retreat and scatter.

The darkness vanished in an instant. When people looked up again, the old man was already burning, the red flames engulfing his body. They could see the figure sitting in the fire fall down, no longer making a sound.

The last thing Yu Sui heard was the man's curses and the terrified boy's helpless questions. Soon, these sounds disappeared, and a familiar pain spread throughout her body, causing her to break out in a cold sweat.

Yu Sui, who had run out of the bustling city and into the desolate area, saw a pond ahead, its surface shimmering in the moonlight.

Yu Sui felt as if white smoke was rising from her whole body.

As she ran towards the pond, she never expected that Zhongli Que would chase after her from behind, calling out, "Sui Sui! Nangong Sui!"

Yu Sui looked back in shock. Zhong Lique was covered in sweat and was holding the Wind Listening Ruler. She had found the place by using the Wind Listening Ruler to locate it, following the method Yu Sui had given her.

"Don't come any closer!" Yu Sui shouted. Zhong Lique was stunned by her shout. When he stopped, his pupils constricted as he looked at Yu Sui. "How could this be..."

In Zhong Lique's eyes, Yu Sui was being engulfed and consumed by flames, just as she had foreseen.

Yu Sui didn't have time to explain to her. Losing her strength, she fell into the pond. The splashing water and the sound made Zhong Lique's heart skip a beat, and she hurriedly chased after her.

How could this happen...? Am I too late?

If I hadn't hesitated and had caught up sooner, if I could ride a horse and know the Nine Schools of Kung Fu, and had arrived even faster, wouldn't she have been spared from being burned to death?

Countless possibilities flashed through Zhong Lique's mind. The splashing and crashing of the water was extremely jarring in the quiet night. Her legs seemed to have lost their strength, and her hands were trembling uncontrollably.

She wanted to go down and save Yu Sui.

But she can't swim.

The area around Yu Sui, who had fallen into the water, was completely silent; she couldn't even hear her own screams.

Now that she is no longer an infant and completely unable to control herself, she can at least barely resist the pain of having her flesh and bones burned.

The cold, heavy pool water eased some of her pain.

The last World Destroyer that died was powerless to resist and was slowly consumed by fire.

The old man who died this time seemed to not want others to suffer too much pain and to prevent them from being subjected to the agony of being slowly sliced ​​to death. In the end, he used a strange fire to burn himself to death. The speed at which the strange fire engulfed life meant that others did not suffer for long.

The icy pool water made Yu Sui open her eyes again, and she began to wave her arms to float upwards.

With a splash, Yu Sui broke out of the water, shook his head, splashing water everywhere, and looked up to see Zhong Li Que standing by the pond.

In just a short while, Zhong Lique became dirty and her face was covered in dust. She took off her outer dress, wrapped it together with some clothes she had found from somewhere, tied them together, and tied them to a tree by the pond. Holding onto the rope made of the clothes, she was about to jump into the water.

Yu Sui's sudden appearance stunned Zhong Lique, and the two stared at each other in disbelief.

After a moment, Yu Sui seemed to understand what Zhong Lique was going to do and burst out laughing.

"Are you...are you alright? You're not dead, waaaah...you scared me to death!" Zhongli Que instantly released all her strength, clutching the rope and collapsing to the ground, wiping away her tears. "You're still laughing? Nangong Sui!"

Zhong Lique had never been so afraid in his life, not even when he was confined to his home by his father a few years ago because of a long arrow.

She understood the meaning of death, so she couldn't accept her friend's death.

Where did you get these things?

Yu Sui floated towards the shore, her smile still lingering.

“I wanted to call for help to save you, but I was afraid of being discovered. I happened to see an abandoned yard here, so I climbed over the wall and saw some clothes that people had thrown away.” Zhong Lique sniffed and wiped away her tears. “I used them to tie up my clothes so I could go down and save you… Why didn’t you tell me you could swim?”

She was furious.

Yu Sui floated ashore, shook her head, wrung out the water from her clothes, and looked at Zhong Lique with a tearful and aggrieved voice, saying with a smile, "Of course I can swim, that's why I jumped in, otherwise why would I jump in?"

"You were almost burned to death!" Zhong Lique said angrily. "Didn't you jump down to put out the fire?"

Yu Sui paused in her wringing motion, and the smile vanished the moment she looked up. "What did you see?"

“I saw you burning, your whole body was engulfed in flames, the fire was huge, it swallowed you up completely.” Zhong Lique didn’t notice anything wrong with Yu Sui, who was still wiping away tears, “I…I was so scared, I was afraid you would be burned to death.”

Yu Sui stood in front of Zhong Lique, blocking the moonlight, and the shadow she cast covered her.

It shouldn't be seen.

The death sensation brought by the Fire Spirit Orb will not cause wounds, only pain.

How did Zhongli Que see it?

Yu Sui reached out and untied the clothes binding Zhong Lique's waist, then helped her to her feet and asked with a smile, "How did you manage to catch up with us? Did you use the Wind-Listening Ruler to locate us?"

Zhong Lique nodded.

Yu Sui opened her Wind Listening Ruler and discovered a message she hadn't seen before:

"Don't go to Juxianlou!"

"Go home quickly!"

"You'll be burned to death if you go to Juxianlou!"

Although her "burning to death" had nothing to do with Juxianlou, the prophecy was half right.

She was indeed "burned to death".

Yu Sui feigned surprise, holding the Wind-Listening Ruler and looking at Zhong Li Que with a puzzled expression: "How did you know?"

“I…” Zhong Lique froze. She didn’t dare to look into Yu Sui’s eyes, turned her face away, and fell into her own inner turmoil.

Yu Sui then asked, "Can you foresee things in advance?"

Zhong Lique gritted her teeth and said in a low voice, "I guess so."

Yu Sui suddenly reached out and wiped the water off her face. Zhong Li Que looked back and saw her smiling, "If it's too difficult, I won't ask. I don't need to know. As long as you're alright, that's all that matters."

Zhong Lique was slightly taken aback, and impulsively blurted out, "Actually, I..."

"Shh." Yu Sui reached out and covered her mouth, signaling her not to speak.

The flickering flames of the strange fire indicate that there are other people nearby.

Zhong Lique stared at her with wide eyes, and for once, she saw Yu Sui looking wary.

The movement on the water subsided, and there was no sound. On such a night, there wasn't even the chirping of insects or the sound of the wind. Yu Sui looked around and was certain that the people hiding in the shadows were not from the Nangong family or the Zhongli family. If their guards were there, they would have already jumped into the water to rescue her.

When leaving Juxianlou, Yu Sui deliberately shook off the guards. Perhaps it was because she came out with her third brother Sheng Fei today, and they had booked Juxianlou and were with many young masters from aristocratic families, so the guards did not enter Juxianlou to keep watch, which gave Yu Sui the opportunity.

If it were someone from the Zhongli family, they would have already shown up to help. But if the person who came out with Zhongli Que was someone monitoring the Zhongli family, then her actions tonight and her conversation just now are dangerous.

Yu Sui used the strange fire to pinpoint the other party's hiding place, then turned to look at the old house on the opposite bank of the pond and said, "Come out!"

If it was someone monitoring Zhong Lique

After a brief silence, a strange laugh echoed from the opposite bank of the pond.

A man's sarcastic voice rang out: "Everyone says that the princess of the royal palace is a talentless idiot, but I think you're quite perceptive."

Zhong Lique's eyes widened in shock.

I really shouldn't have gone out today.

When a person is down on their luck, all sorts of bad things can happen to them.

Yu Sui shielded Zhong Lique behind her, facing the opposite bank, looking every bit the majestic princess: "Who are you? How dare you point fingers at me, the princess?"

The man was amused by her forced composure and laughed loudly, "Isn't this an opportunity given to me by you, Princess?"

"If the Prince's secret guards were still around, I wouldn't have had the chance to point fingers at you."

Yu Sui understood from these words that the other party was targeting her, not Zhong Lique.

"Hmph, you know my royal guards are still here. If you know what's good for you, get lost." Yu Sui sneered, her expression arrogant. "If I catch you, I'll cut out your tongue and gouge out your eyes."

Whether it's targeting Zhong Lique or her, this person cannot be let go, because if anything he saw or heard tonight gets out and Nangong Ming finds out, both she and Zhong Lique will be finished.

Judging from the current situation, Yu Sui has no way of actively contacting the other party; she can only provoke her opponent and make the enemy come looking for her.

The man hiding in the shadows laughed heartily, "Today I was just trying my luck to see if I could take the Farmer's treasure, the Breath Soil, from a fool, but I never expected to actually get my hands on it. Little Princess, don't be stubborn when you're about to die. I should thank you for shaking off your own guards and giving me this opportunity."

So they came for the Breath of Earth.

A dark figure landed on the wall from the tree. The thin man had just appeared on the opposite bank of the pond, but after making a hand seal, his afterimage flickered and he was already behind the two little girls.

The shadow cast by the adults loomed over them.

The man's eerie laughter, so close at hand, was like the flicking tongue of a venomous snake, sending chills down one's spine.

Zhong Lique tried to run away by pulling Yu Sui, but Yu Sui pushed her into the pond instead. They were standing on the bank, so close that Yu Sui pushed her in without much effort.

"Why?!"

Zhong Lique didn't even know what happened the moment she fell into the water.

"Trying to run?" The man appeared in front of Yu Sui in a flash, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. He grabbed Yu Sui's neck with one hand and lifted her up from the ground. "Don't worry, I'll finish this quickly and won't let you die too painfully, Princess."

He pulled her closer and sniffed her: "This delicate little girl really does smell wonderful. The fragrance is so enticing that I almost don't want to... Hmm?"

The girl, who was about to die in his hands, did not struggle pitifully, but instead reached out and hugged his neck.

Yu Sui said softly, "Let's finish this quickly."

This is her only chance to make the enemy underestimate her and deliver a fatal blow.

The Five Elements Light Core in Yu Sui's hand shattered against the man's neck. The black flames that overflowed from the light core instantly engulfed the man. He didn't even have time to scream before his burning body reflexively staggered backward.

Freed from her restraints, Yu Sui fell to the ground. She rubbed her neck and used one hand to push herself up. Her already dark pupils seemed to appear even darker and brighter when the flames reflected the burning human body.

The strange fire was powerful and fierce, ignoring all supernatural abilities and techniques. Its flamboyant flames were demonstrating to Yu Sui their terrifying power capable of destroying all life.

Yu Sui felt this power attracting her; it was alluring, whispering in her ear like a lover's words, yet also like a demon's seduction.

A fierce wind blew the flames toward Yu Sui.

The black flames flickered, seemingly both near and far, silently inviting Yu Sui to expand this power that could devour heaven and earth. Use it, for it is the supreme power of this continent, capable of crushing everything and destroying everything.

The night wind blew through Yu Sui's long hair, and her five fingers hanging at her sides twitched slightly. She was soaked to the bone and felt increasingly cold. Suddenly remembering that Zhong Li Que couldn't swim, she immediately turned around and jumped into the pond.

The black flames chased after her, roaring as if unwilling, but disappeared after Yu Sui entered the water.

The underwater world is cold and quiet.

Zhong Lique couldn't even keep track of the passage of time. After entering the water, her brain stopped functioning, and she remained dazed for a long time before she could react.

From the moment she fell into the water in a daze to the moment Yu Sui pulled her out, Zhong Lique remained completely bewildered.

Yu Sui pulled her back to shore, patted her back, and asked, "Are you alright? Did you choke on water?"

Zhong Lique coughed and shook her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a charred mass next to her and stood up in fright. She grabbed Yu Sui's hand tightly: "Are you alright? Where is that bad guy?"

"It's alright, he's dead." Yu Sui patted her reassuringly, wrung out the water from the clothes again, then bent down and threw the charred corpse, which was now just a pile of bones, into the water. "If he hadn't died, we would both have died, so we can't let him leave alive."

Zhong Lique stood there, staring blankly at Yu Sui.

As Yu Sui struggled to move the charred bones, he saw Zhong Lique standing there in a daze and looked up to ask blankly, "Did I scare you?"

Zhong Lique came to her senses and said no, then scratched her head and asked, somewhat puzzled, "Did I slip and fall by accident, or did that person push me down?"

"I pushed it," Yu Sui said honestly.

"You...you?" Zhong Lique felt somewhat overwhelmed. "I can't swim..."

Before she could finish speaking, Yu Sui added, "I know, I will save you. Don't worry, I will protect you."

If Zhongli Que were to see the strange fire, it would be troublesome.

That's why she pushed Zhong Lique into the water and then took the opportunity to kill him.

Regardless of whether Zhongli Que understood the matter of the World Destroyer, Yu Sui did not want her to know that the danger level of the Strange Fire far exceeded that of the Breath Soil.

It can even be addictive.

This was Yu Sui's first time using a different kind of fire. Even though she had discovered a way to summon a different kind of fire while testing the Five Elements Light Core, she did not try it lightly.

Her subconscious told her not to use the black flame unless absolutely necessary.

This was the first time Zhong Lique had ever heard anyone say such a thing to her.

Simple and straightforward, yet full of a sense of security.

In fact, since meeting Yu Sui, she has always kept her word and never broken her promise. Perhaps this is why Zhong Lique is willing to get close to her, because Yu Sui never disappoints her.

"Why is it you who protects me?" Zhong Lique whispered.

Yu Sui thought for a moment and said, "Because I'm older than you!"

“Your birthday is in May, and mine is in January, so I should be older than you,” Zhong Lique said to Yu Sui. “Since I am older than you, then I will protect you from now on.”

She said earnestly, "I will protect you too."

As Yu Sui squatted on the shore washing her hands, she looked up and saw a girl full of courage, earnestness she had never shown before.

The two, who had agreed to protect each other, fell silent after a moment, staring at the several charred bones remaining on the ground.

Yu Sui said, "We need to throw him into the water and remove the charred parts from the ground."

Zhong Lique hesitated and said, "But...it's so dirty."

Yu Sui blinked and looked over: "That's why I don't want to do it alone."

The two exchanged a glance and resignedly began to fight.

After throwing the charred remains into the water, they squatted down with stones to remove the charred marks. Yu Sui muttered, "I hope fewer people will come after me in the future. Destroying the body is too much trouble."

Zhong Lique switched hands and continued shaving, her face contorted with distress as she asked, "Why are they chasing you?"

Yu Sui replied, "They say that the farmer's most precious treasure, the Breath Soil, is with me."

Zhong Lique asked curiously, "Is that something very powerful?"

"I guess so," Yu Sui said. "I don't know what it's used for."

Zhong Lique paused for a moment, then said softly, "You asked me before why I could foresee things in advance. Actually, I don't know either. When I was very young, I would inexplicably foresee the bad side of the people around me."

“I can’t control it myself, and I don’t know what to do. Maybe it’s when I’m sleeping, or maybe it’s when I’m eating or writing. Whenever an ominous sign appears, I can vaguely sense it.”

Zhong Lique stopped what she was doing and fell into her memories.

“When I was six years old, I suddenly foresaw that my mother would accidentally fall into the water when she went out, so I cried and told her not to go near the water.”

“My mother was very surprised. After asking me in detail, she held my hand tightly and told me not to tell anyone. She said that if this happened again, I absolutely, absolutely must not tell anyone.”

Yu Sui tilted his head to look over; this was definitely one of the nine types of arts.

Related to divination and prediction, it may be the supernatural abilities and techniques of the Yin-Yang School, Taoism, and the School of Divination and Techniques.

Zhong Lique always heeded her mother's warning and never told anyone.

Until I met Yu Sui.

Besides her mother, Yu Sui was the second person she spoke to remind her of the bad luck she wanted to avoid.

"I later learned that this must be one of the nine types of magic. If others had discovered it, I would have been dead." Zhong Lique said softly, "I was afraid of dying, afraid of putting my father in a difficult position, and afraid of implicating my mother and brother."

Yu Sui said, "If you don't understand what this power is all about, then it's dangerous. Rather than letting it become an uncontrollable danger, you should try to master it."

Zhong Lique turned to look at Yu Sui, who was still scraping the charred ground: "Don't be afraid, go learn the Nine Streams Technique. You won't die, I won't let you die."

The naive girl risked her life to save her, relying solely on courage.

In return, I will save you, both now and in the future.

[Author's Note]

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!