Chapter 451 The Candle Arrives Again in the Snow (First Update)
Inside the alley, a snow-white longsword named Zhi Shuang burst out of the carriage and hovered in the air.
A faint, dazzling white sword aura soared into the sky.
Inside the courtyard, Rong Zhen, who was closing his eyes to await death, suddenly felt the sword energy at the tip of his nose disappear.
The pressure on my body suddenly eased, as if the mountain that had been pressing down on me had been removed.
The girl in palace attire opened her eyes in surprise, and the [arc] in front of her disappeared.
The young man with the bronze fox mask turned to look at the strange phenomenon outside the courtyard gate.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the snow-white sword aura outside the courtyard wall suddenly weakened and turned into a clear blue light, which subtly overshadowed its momentum.
That arc seemed to be suppressing that touch of snow-white.
"you……"
The girl in the cold, palace-style dress had just opened her mouth when the young man with the bronze fox mask suddenly turned around and grabbed her hand as she tried to snatch the mask away.
As sword energy poured into her body, she groaned and spat out blood.
The bronze fox-faced youth slashed diagonally across the man's neck with his palm.
Rongzhen fainted and collapsed to the ground, lying on her side next to the unconscious little nun who had been severely injured by Zhenming.
Ouyang Rong neither helped him up nor even glanced at him.
His brow furrowed beneath the bronze mask as he stared out of the courtyard gate.
Beside the carriage, the [arc] descended once more, like a crescent moon returning to the sea.
The sword aura emanating from the snow-white longsword was suddenly suppressed.
At the steps inside the courtyard, the unconscious blue-clad constable suddenly jumped up. He first looked around the courtyard, showing no surprise at the unconscious Lady Rongzhen and the corpses scattered on the ground, then turned and ran out of the courtyard.
"Your Excellency, I'll take care of it."
Yan Liulang, who was closest, ran to the courtyard gate.
Ouyang Rong, wielding the Ding Sword, attempted to store the snow-white longsword into its scabbard with Liu Lang's help.
Along with the sword box, an arc also returned.
However, to their utter surprise, even after the snow-white longsword was pressed into its sheath, faint sword energy still seeped out from the gaps.
The long, tightly sealed sword case, like a luminous object placed inside at night, emitted an irresistible, snow-white light through its gaps.
"Your Excellency, what should we do? Is this alright?" Yan Liulang turned around, his face troubled.
Ouyang Rong also frowned.
This Frost-Knowing Sword is acting strangely today. Now it seems that it's not just because the craftsman left the sword case a stick's time ago and lost some of his restraint.
It's as if it was activated by some kind of entity. Now that the craftsman has returned, even the Mo family sword box can't suppress it; the sword energy is too strong.
"Bring it in along with the sword case."
Ouyang Rong suddenly spoke.
Looking around, a strange sense of unease crept over me.
"Why is this so heavy!"
Yan Liulang struggled to lift the long wooden sword box, which was radiating sword energy, but he couldn't even lift the entire box. He turned around and asked anxiously:
"Your Excellency..."
Just then, the little girl in the red coat, who had remained silent throughout the entire incident amidst the pile of corpses in the courtyard, suddenly turned her head, gazed northward with her innocent eyes for a moment, and whispered:
"My benefactor, it seems an older sister has arrived."
Ouyang Rong did not remove the bronze mask, but she had seen through the truth from the moment he entered the house.
"What older sister?"
Yan Liulang was curious and couldn't help but take another look at Huang Xuan's innocent and bright eyes.
Huang Xuan withdrew her gaze and said crisply:
"That older sister had blonde hair and a somewhat menacing aura; the aura emanating from her was the same as the white, glowing longsword in your box..."
Blonde hair? The same sword aura?
A candle in the snow!
Ouyang Rong suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Why is this woman's spirit so persistent?
No wonder the snow-white longsword seemed to be on steroids.
It was originally Xue Zhongzhu's sword, and being too close triggered its activation.
Upon closer examination, this is the personal sword of a top-tier swordsman who stands at the pinnacle of the Qi Refining world, so it naturally possesses many mysteries.
As for why this Yunmeng Grand Queen appeared near Xunyang City...
He suddenly remembered that not long ago, Aqing had asked Magistrate Diao to send a message from Longcheng, saying that Xuezhongzhu had passed through Longcheng and inquired about Aqing's intentions again.
Now it seems that this woman and her possible companions are heading straight for Xunyang City to seek revenge and avenge their previous humiliation.
Having just broken through the formation and relaxed, Ouyang Rong took a deep breath.
This is not Dagushan, but Xunyang City. Not to mention the lack of a continuous stream of Lotus Sect worshippers, fighting within the city could easily destroy the buildings of the poor people in Xingzifang and harm innocent people.
The sword's aura was now soaring into the sky, revealing the location of the courtyard. Xue Zhongzhu would be there soon.
"Walk."
Ouyang Rong suddenly spoke.
Yan Liulang asked curiously, "Where are we going?"
Huang Xuan squatted down and picked up the unconscious little girl in Confucian robes. She glanced at the Chief Secretary with a worried expression. The blonde older sister who was rushing over aggressively in the distance clearly had a grudge against the Chief Secretary. She hesitated to speak.
It seemed to be asking whether they could escape the blonde woman's speed, especially if they were burdened by the two of them.
Ignoring Huang Xuan's worried gaze, Ouyang Rong turned to Yan Liulang and said:
"Put down the Frost-Knowing Sword, bring in the sword case, clean up any traces of us in the courtyard, and leave the body alone..."
Yan Liulang couldn't help but glance at the calm expression on the Mingfu's face. He felt as if he had found a pillar of support and immediately took action.
With a "click," the sword case opened by itself.
In the eyes of Ouyang Rong, Huang Xuan, and others who possessed Qi cultivation techniques or spiritual eyes, the heavy, snow-white sword energy accumulated in the box poured out like an inverted waterfall.
[Arc] It flew out of the box in a flash, spun around in the air, and returned to the courtyard.
At the same time, Yan Liulang abandoned a snow-white longsword beside the carriage, roughly cleaning up the traces of Ouyang Rong and his hasty rehearsal not long ago.
Huang Xuan stared intently at the rapidly approaching blonde woman in the distance, her eyes unblinking.
Ouyang Rong then put away the remaining red leaf with the poem in it into his sleeve, and quickly strolled around the courtyard where the Moon Array under the Pond was set up, occasionally stopping to move the corpses that were being blocked.
As he passed the spot where he had previously placed the bowl of porridge, he paused briefly, squatted down again, and picked up a bowl of now-cold porridge, which still contained traces of his blood.
He carried the porridge with one hand and returned to the center of the courtyard.
A short while later, Yan Liulang returned to the courtyard carrying the sword box and came to Ouyang Rong's side.
"Put it on."
Yan Liulang watched with curiosity as Ouyang Rong removed the bronze mask from his face and handed it to him.
After removing the Mirage Beast mask, his tall and thin figure changed, returning to his roughly frail appearance.
Ouyang Rong's face was pale, with traces of blood still clinging to the corner of his mouth. His back was no longer as straight and unshaken as when he had strolled into the courtyard as the "Master of Butterfly Love Flower".
He was nothing like the immortal poet and swordsman who had killed a man with a single step not long ago... Huang Xuan couldn't help but glance at him sideways.
After Yan Liulang took the Mirage Beast Mask, Ouyang Rong suddenly coughed, covering his right chest with his free left hand.
"My lord, are you alright?"
Yan Liulang saw that Ouyang Rong was clutching his right chest, and the collar of the scholar's robe that he had just changed into on the carriage was gradually stained with blood... The poems and red leaves that the magistrate had previously written were all written with the blood of his injured chest under his staring in astonishment.
Ouyang Rong shook his head, reached out and put the Mirage Beast Mask on Yan Liulang, whose eyes were full of concern and anxiety, and helped him change his form.
Ouyang Rong turned his head and flipped the sword box that Yan Liulang had brought back over.
With a thud, the box slammed heavily to the ground. He opened a hidden compartment on the back of the sword box, deliberately opening only a crack, just big enough to fit a girl's hand.
Looking through the crack, one sees a dazzling, cool moonlight, as condensed as mercury in a sword case, with a sword hilt faintly visible within.
It was the Moonlight Longsword that hadn't been seen for many days. No one knew how long it had been nurtured in this Mo family sword box, which was designed to preserve the spirit of the wind and cultivate qi, and how much moonlight sword qi it had accumulated.
Huang Xuan suddenly noticed that Ouyang Rong was looking at her.
"Wait a moment, the moment she takes one step into the courtyard, you draw your sword immediately, understand?"
Huang Xuan's small hand was grabbed by Ouyang Rong and stuffed into the gap of the sword box, placed on the hilt of the Moonlight Longsword.
"Oh." The little girl in the red coat nodded quickly, then realized what she meant and said weakly, "My benefactor, I don't know swordsmanship."
"It's okay, you just need to pull it out."
Ouyang Rong's slightly magnetic voice sounded somewhat weak to Huang Xuan. Her face flushed red, and she stammered:
“Okay…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. How could I possibly hurt my benefactor?” Her tone was surprisingly firm: “Those insults were all lies, and I was hurt too.”
Ouyang Rong paused for a moment, then nodded and gestured to the girl, whose eyes were filled with guilt, that it was alright.
In this critical moment, he didn't have time to think about what had happened before; the wound on his right chest was now so painful that it had gone numb.
Ouyang Rong's lips were pale and dry, indicating blood loss and dehydration.
He reached out and stopped Huang Xuan, who was about to loosen her grip on the sword hilt to fetch water.
Ouyang Rong lowered his head, took a sip of the cold porridge, and then picked up the golden four-eyed fierce mask from Rong Zhen's hand.
I vaguely heard from Rongzhen and Lianqing that this fierce face seemed to be called something like "Fang Xiangmian" (方相面).
Ouyang Rong put on the square face mask, then took the unconscious Confucian-robed girl from Huang Xuan's arms and embraced her in his arms.
Holding a bowl of porridge in one hand and a small child in the other, his face, adorned with a golden mask and fierce eyes, surveyed the array within the courtyard.
Just then, the snow-white sword energy that had been unleashed outside the courtyard wall suddenly disappeared.
The alley was completely silent.
Huang Xuan stared straight at the courtyard gate, while Ouyang Rong and Yan Liulang turned to look.
A tall, blonde woman with fiery red hair held a snow-white longsword in her backhand, held it horizontally in front of her, and quietly walked towards the courtyard gate.
Her aloof and arrogant blue eyes swept across the courtyard, passing over the corpses scattered everywhere, the unconscious female historian, the masked youth, and so on. Finally, after excluding the slightly shorter youth wearing a bronze mask, her gaze fixed on the scholar-official wearing a golden mask in the center.
A familiar arc hovered in front of the scholar-robed youth, subtly obstructing the blonde Hu woman's view.
The stench of blood that filled the courtyard, instead of fading with the autumn wind, became even more pungent.
A hazy mist slowly rose from the feet of the scholar-official wearing a golden mask, continuously making the air in the courtyard appear somewhat misty.
The blonde Hu woman, who was advancing with her sword in hand, suddenly stopped, stopping precisely at the same spot where Ouyang Rong had stopped in front of Rong Zhen, Lian Qing, Yan Zhang, and the others not long ago.
We didn't see Xuezhongzhu make any move either.
Yan Liulang and Huang Xuan suddenly felt a darkness before their eyes.
The next instant, when they opened their eyes again, a majestic snow-capped mountain standing in the far north rushed towards them, and an overwhelming avalanche spread down from the top of the mountain, which was covered with snow lotus flowers, and rushed straight towards the two of them.
Compared to this magnificent avalanche, an individual is like an ant compared to a vast ocean, utterly insignificant.
Yan Liulang and Huang Xuan were horrified. They felt powerless to resist. Their stiff limbs began to move mechanically out of control, and they instinctively knelt down or retreated to run away.
This was an overwhelming pressure they could not resist; despair spread through their eyes.
Until a gentle voice resounded in their small world, a world ravaged by landslides and avalanches:
"Not again? Who are you trying to scare?"
I finished this chapter and was thinking of posting it all at once to complete this part of the story and make it more coherent... But it's too late, so I decided to post it now. There will be another chapter at midnight!
(End of this chapter)
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