An indescribable sense of embarrassment instantly welled up in my heart.

Helian Jue mustered his inner strength to suppress the spread of the poison and tried to stand up, but he stumbled and fell to his knees. His left hand instinctively covered his injured shoulder, and blood quickly stained his dark clothes.

Zi Xi glanced at Helian Jue, who had suddenly appeared, inexplicably made things worse, and even got shot with an arrow, and frowned slightly.

But now is not the time for mockery.

Zi Xiqing moved with the speed of the wind, advancing instead of retreating, and took the initiative to rush towards the direction from which the crossbow bolts came. The soft sword in her hand seemed to come alive, and she wielded it with great skill.

"This is a tough problem!!"

A rough, hoarse shout rang out from the rocky forest.

Seven or eight dark figures leaped out of their hiding place, wielding steel knives and iron rulers with ferocious expressions. They were clearly desperate members of the Blood Hand Gang, who, having failed in their attempt to ambush, turned to a deadly attack.

Swords flashed and shadows clashed in an instant!

Amidst the siege of several thugs, Zi Xi's martial arts style was extremely strange, showing no trace of any martial arts sect or the gracefulness of women's martial arts. Instead, it was full of simplicity, efficiency, and even a ruthless, combative aura.

She dodges like a ghost, and her attacks are cunning and ruthless. She wields her soft sword with unpredictable speed, sometimes sweeping like a whip, sometimes stabbing like a needle, and sometimes as straight as a spear.

Screams rang out one after another.

The thugs who attacked her were often disarmed in a single encounter. She was very measured in her actions, not taking lives, but enough to render these desperate criminals incapacitated instantly, leaving them lying on the ground howling and rolling in agony.

Helian Jue's fingertips dug into the cracks of the bluestone slab, and thick blood dripped down his black brocade robe.

The arrow wound in his shoulder blade should have been excruciatingly painful, but when that figure entered his field of vision, all his pain receptors felt as if they had been severed by a sword.

He saw Zi Xi's soft sword pierce the first assassin's throat, the blood droplet drawing a perfect parabola in the air, landing precisely on her brow, like a speck of cinnabar.

His heart was pounding in his chest, and Helian Jue suspected that his wounds were about to burst open.

He greedily traced Zi Xi's figure with his eyes.

As the soft sword pierced the second assassin's chest, she spun around, her skirt billowing, revealing a winding old scar on her calf, like a crack in the glaze of white porcelain.

Helian Jue could clearly hear the sound of his heart pounding.

So beautiful... This is the woman he loves!

The wound on my shoulder didn't seem to hurt as much anymore; at this moment, all my senses were occupied by the figure in the battle.

His gaze was drawn to her like a magnet, unable to leave her. Watching her swiftly and decisively take down one enemy after another, Helian Jue felt an indescribable surge of excitement and exhilaration.

Zi Xi deflected the incoming hidden weapon with the tip of her sword, dodged the sneak attack by turning to the side, and then wrapped her soft sword around her opponent's neck like a silver snake.

As the warm blood splattered onto her eyelashes, she heard a hoarse shout of praise from not far away: "Excellent swordsmanship!"

Without turning around, she knew it was that seriously injured fool staring intently at her back.

Helian Jue was indeed smiling.

Despite the overwhelming dizziness caused by blood loss, he was mesmerized by the sight of her beautiful yet deadly appearance. He stared at her back, which rose and fell with her breath, her clothes clinging to her shoulder blades with sweat, outlining two silhouettes as if she were about to take flight.

Zi Xi flicked the blood off her sword and noticed that Helian Jue's pupils were dilated, but a strange smile still lingered on his lips.

The sound of her crouching down seemed to awaken the dying woman. Helian Jue suddenly grabbed a corner of her skirt and climbed into her arms.

"Miss Liu...you...are so beautiful..."

He murmured weakly.

Zi Xi was speechless. He was about to die and he was still thinking about women?

But at this moment, Helian Jue probably felt he was really about to die, and a smile appeared on his ashen lips: "Miss Liu... if I don't speak now, I might not have the chance... if I speak now..."

"Shut up..."

As Zi Xi watched Helian Jue's eyelids gradually close, she inexplicably leaned down, fed him an antidote pill, and pinched his mouth shut.

The body in her arms had long since lost consciousness, but she could clearly see that the corners of those pale lips had turned up slightly.

Helian Jue felt as if he were sinking into darkness, his limbs heavy as if filled with lead, and the sound of water droplets falling could be heard from near and far.

He tried hard to open his eyes, but he didn't even have the strength to lift his eyelids.

In a daze, he smelled a familiar medicinal fragrance, a blend of perilla and angelica, crisp and slightly bitter.

And that blurry yet familiar figure.

Helian Jue's heart skipped a beat.