Chapter 49: Familiar Steps, Uneasy Omens
wrong.
This sense of familiarity does not come from the description in the intelligence files, nor does it come from the remote induction of Qi between masters.
It came from her memory, from her instinct.
She had seen this kind of movement before.
No, more than just seeing it. She had felt it up close, even... been protected by it.
The figure who had descended from the sky in the valley and rescued her from despair; the figure who had fought alongside her when the Nether Spring headquarters was destroyed, moving between the enemies like a ghost...
These images flooded into her mind uncontrollably, slowly overlapping with the image of the god of death walking towards her in the moonlight.
No!
impossible!
Su Qinghan roared in his heart, forcibly driving out these ridiculous thoughts.
She told herself she was too nervous. It was because before the decisive battle, she'd thought of Chen Ye that she'd made this absurd association. Martial arts in the world draw inferences from similarities, and it was perfectly normal for top-tier martial arts techniques to share some similarities.
"Candle shadow" is "candle shadow", and deep night is deep night.
One is her sworn enemy who killed her father.
One is the sweetheart to whom she promised to spend the rest of her life.
How could they possibly...
She bit the tip of her tongue hard, and the sharp pain instantly sobered her up. She focused her mind again, her eyes sharper, trying to find flaws in the other person's movements, to find the differences between him and Shen Ye.
But she failed.
The more carefully she observed, the more the sense of familiarity surged over her, almost drowning her reason.
It's footwork.
It's the subtle, split-second pauses and shifts in the body's center of gravity during high-speed movement. That unique rhythm is like a piece of music that belongs only to one person: once heard, it's unforgettable.
Back when he was recuperating in the courtyard, Chen Ye had practiced swordplay under the moonlight. She leaned against the door, watching quietly. His swordplay was sharp and deadly, but his footwork always carried a rhythm that danced between moonlight and shadow. She had thought it was beautiful at the time, but now, thinking about it, each seemingly casual step was exactly the same as the one before her.
Su Qinghan's heart began to beat wildly uncontrollably.
She felt a thin layer of cold sweat oozing from the palms of her hands.
Why?
Why is this happening?
A terrible thought that she didn't even dare to think about deeply began to grow wildly in her mind like a poisonous ivy that grew out of hell, entwining her heart and tightening more and more.
She desperately searched for reasons to comfort herself.
Maybe... maybe Chen Ye and "Zhuying" are from the same school?
Or maybe, Chen Ye learned this set of body movements from one of Zhuying's defeated opponents?
Or maybe, inside the Tianji Pavilion... all the top assassins are practicing the same kind of light skills?
Countless thoughts flashed through her mind, each one carrying a shred of plausibility, yet each one also sent a chill through her spine. Because no matter which possibility it was, it meant that Chen Ye, the Tianji Pavilion, and the organization she hated the most were inextricably linked.
The beautiful future she built on love and the promise she made on the Yangzhou Bridge became precarious at this moment.
Just when she was feeling extremely confused, the black shadow finally stopped ten feet away from her.
He did not speak immediately, nor did he make any attacking gestures. He just stood there quietly, as if he had merged into the shadows of the bamboo forest.
Su Qinghan forced himself to calm down.
As long as he opens his mouth, as long as he draws his sword, as long as he fights with her... she will definitely be able to tell whether he is Chen Ye or not.
She still had a chance. That most terrifying guess must have been just her own fantasy.
However, the other party's final retracting action became the last straw that broke the camel's back for all her self-deception.
It was a transition from extreme movement to extreme stillness, his figure leaving a faint afterimage in the moonlight, as if the light had been distorted for a moment. The entire process was smooth and natural, without the slightest trace of mundane art, yet it fully demonstrated the cunning and exquisiteness of Qinggong.
It is a "fleeting glimpse".
It was the movement that belonged to Chen Ye, which she was so familiar with.
She even remembered that Chen Ye had half-jokingly explained the origin of the name to her. He said that when the speed reached its extreme, it could create a brief visual illusion between light and shadow.
At this moment, this name and this set of skills appeared exactly as they were on the body of her father's murderer.
Su Qinghan's head buzzed and went blank.
She couldn't feel the wind, couldn't hear the rustling of bamboo leaves, couldn't even feel the weight of her sword. Her entire world was filled with the motionless black figure before her and the question swirling in her mind.
Why?
Why would the people who came use Chen Ye’s light skills?
That horrible thought, no longer suppressed, broke through all the barriers of reason and grew wildly in her heart. The bamboo forest was silent, and the moonlight was like frost.
Time seemed to have completely frozen in the moment when the "fleeting glimpse" was frozen in time.
In Su Qinghan's world, only the shadowy figure stood still ten feet away. The sound of the wind, the rustling of bamboo leaves, the beating of his own heart... everything vanished, swallowed by a boundless, suffocating emptiness.
Her mind refused to think, her body refused to move. Like an ice sculpture with its soul drained away, she froze in place, all her reason and emotion crumbling before that terrifying thought.
The dark shadow didn't give her much time to sink into chaos.
He slowly raised his hand.
This action was like a huge rock thrown into stagnant water, causing destructive ripples in Su Qinghan's stagnant world.
Her eyes were uncontrollably drawn to that hand.
That hand had distinct joints, was slender and powerful. She had seen it pull out an arrow for her, seen it clumsily hold a medicine bowl, seen it tightly hold her cold hand in the middle of the night, bringing her warm inner strength.
And at this moment, this hand was slowly and resolutely reaching towards the black scarf on his face.
don't want!
Su Qinghan screamed silently in her heart. She wanted to close her eyes, turn around, and flee from here at all costs. She would rather believe this was a nightmare, and would rather be killed by the real "Zhu Ying" than face the truth that she couldn't imagine.
But she couldn't do it.
Her feet seemed to be nailed to the ground, and her gaze was like being locked firmly on that person by invisible chains.
The night veil was gently taken off.
The moonlight fell on that face without reservation.
Handsome and tall, with a hint of alienation and fatigue between his brows. His eyes, as deep as an ancient well, were staring at her quietly from a distance of ten feet.
It is a deep night.
It is really a dark night.
Su Qinghan's last shred of self-deception was completely shattered by this familiar face. She felt as if her heart was being gripped by an invisible hand and then suddenly crushed. The excruciating pain made her vision black out, and her body stumbled back uncontrollably. She only managed to hold herself back by leaning on the hilt of the "Hanjiangxue" sword.
"Why...why?" Her lips moved, but only a few broken, dissonant syllables came out. Her voice was dry, as if it had been blown by the desert wind for three days and three nights. "Why...are you here?"
She still held on to one last glimmer of hope, a hope so absurd that it was laughable.
"Where's 'Zhuying'?" She raised her head and used all her strength to make her voice sound less trembling. "He captured you, didn't he? He used you to threaten me? Don't be afraid, Shen Ye, I will rescue you!"
Even she herself found these words absurd. How could someone who could sneak into this place silently and possess such ghostly movements be caught by "Zhuying"? But this was the only reasonable explanation she could find for him, and for herself, that would prevent her from going crazy immediately.
Shen Ye, who was sitting opposite her, did not answer her question.
He just looked at her quietly, at the last spark of hope in her eyes, and then, in the calmest and cruelest way, he extinguished it with his own hands.
He said slowly and clearly, "I am 'Candle Shadow'."
The world collapsed the moment Shen Ye uttered those five words.
"I am 'Candle Shadow'."
These five words were like a curse from the Nine Nether Hell, like an axe that cut through the ties that held heaven and earth together, smashing everything Su Qinghan knew into pieces.
Her world was torn in two.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
