However, before the fire spears could touch Cang Lin, a palm print radiating bright golden light dispersed the dust, swept past Cang Lin, and blocked them one by one.
Boom boom –!
Explosions sounded in quick succession.
Fire spears incessantly slammed into the palm print, yet they still can’t slow it down. As if knocking away small pebbles on the side of the road, Jia Lan’s palm easily dispelled Xue Qilin’s attack.
“Damn it! Jia Lan, are you here to save me or kill me?!”
Xue Qilin quickly rose into the air and evaded the palm print. In this extremely short period of time, Cang Lin has already arrived in front of Xue Qilin and brought her into her domain once more.
Fluttering snowflakes and a blade ray intruded into her vision.
That blade strike is as fast as the wind, or a bolt of lightning
“Tsk!”
Affected by Cang Lin’s domain, the true qi inside Xue Qilin became sluggish at once, making it so she momentarily cannot evade.
“Have you forgotten about this old one?”
In the nick of time, Bei Xiaolu, who rushed over from the side, slapped the curved blade. Due to her nearly all-out strike, the curved blade deviated from its original path, giving Xue Qilin a chance to survive.
“Explode!”
In response to Xue Qilin’s shout, a radiance suddenly flashed between the three.
A small explosion burst out in the void.
The force of the explosion was not enough to hurt Cang Lin. However, the impact was still strong enough to push the other two people away from her. Xue Qilin and Bei Xiaolu thus were able to distance themselves from Cang Lin.
Not stopping at this, Cang Lin drew a circular trajectory and rapidly approached Xue Qilin from the left.
“Hey, why do you only come at me?”
Xue Qilin shouted impatiently, unsheathed the sword that she borrowed from Xia Xue hanging from the back of her waist, and faced the other party.
In the next moment, two arcs of light crossed in the air, and a high pitched sound of metal striking metal blew the heavy snowfall away.
“Oh –!”
Even though she successfully blocked the fatal slash, Xue Qilin still suffered severe damage. Unable to bear the force unleashed by Cang Lin’s slash, she was flung backwards.
Cang Lin pursued the other party.
She drew a perfectly straight cyan-silver trajectory in the air, and the tip of the curved blade in her hand shot towards Xue Qilin’s throat.
“Little one!”
Seeing that Xue Qilin is in danger, Bei Xiaolu tried to overtake Cang Lin and block in front of her. But Cang Lin is too fast. Additionally, affected by the Domain of Stillness, Bei Xiaolu couldn’t catch up to her.
“–!”
In just the blink of an eye, the blade tip shining with cold light arrived in front of her eyes. Xue Qilin can even feel the majestic true qi attached to the blade tip stinging her eyes.
She tried to lift her sword and face the attack. However, her hand, which still hadn’t recovered from the previous impact, trembled and couldn’t be lifted.
Damn it!
Xue Qilin has a bad premonition.
With Bei Xiaolu being unable to catch up, the last hope to save her life dissipated. In this way, the other party’s blade tip will undoubtedly run through her throat.
“– Little Seven!”
Xue Qilin closed her eyes, and Qi Qiqi’s face flashed across her mind.
“Cang Lin, I hope you haven’t forgotten what I said.”
Instead of the cold sensation and pain she expected, a warm and soft feeling came from behind. Just as she was wondering what’s going on, intense golden light penetrated her eyelids and burst into her eyes.
Clang –!
A powerful impact sounded.
Prompted by that, Xue Qilin opened her eyes, and then was stupefied.
— she could only be stupefied.
It’s Jia Lan.
She hugged Xue Qilin with one hand and sandwiched the curved blade between the fingers of her fight hand.
“Jia Lan, you…”
She just shot down “Alkaid No. 3” and now she came to my rescue… what on earth is she thinking? The confused Xue Qilin turned her head, looked blankly at the sweet face behind her, and called hoarsely.
“It’s more interesting this way.”
As if seeing through Xue Qilin’s doubts, Jia Lan smiled innocently.
“However, I also said that I will protect you.”
All of a sudden, Xue Qilin had a realization.
— she is enjoying it!
Even though she claims that she is going to protect me, it doesn’t prevent her from secretly laughing while watching me being chased by Cang Lin. Understanding this, Xue Qilin wasn’t exhilarated at the fact that she escaped with her life, but shivered instead.
“Asura’er, you’re in the way.”
A monotone voice escaped from between Cang Lin’s lips. She seems to be sick of Jia Lan’s obstruction.
Jia Lan showed an attitude of disapproval, but she still displayed proper manners.
“As I said, Xue Qilin is mine. I can tolerate others making fun of her, but if someone wants to take her life without my permission –”
Like cicadas suddenly turning still, Jia Lan shed all emotions on her face.
“Cang Lin, I will tear you limb from limb.”
Jia Lan spoke in a voice coated in ferocity, eyes flashing with a red gleam.
Her voice turned into a chilliness and swept in all directions.
Xue Qilin, who is in her embrace, is filled with hard to reconcile emotions. Regarding Jia Lan’s kindness of saving her life, she cannot express gratitude, nor can she ungratefully spurn it.
She is someone who draws a clear demarcation between whom or what to like or dislike. Occasionally, however, there are things that are entangled by countless threads and cannot be simply categorized as “black” and “white”. For the same reason, there are some people whom you can’t purely like or dislike.
After a few seconds of silence, Cang Lin withdrew the curved blade without a word. She evidently came to the conclusion that her and Jia Lan opposing one another here is more detrimental than beneficial.
“You said that I can deal with the other one at my discretion.”
“Yes, but now I’ve changed my mind.” Without showing any guilt for going back on her word, Jia Lan explained with a smile, “Since you just tried to kill my little Qilin, I changed my mind.”
“… breaking your word.”
“It’s more interesting this way, isn’t it?” Jia Lan covered the smile on her lips with a sleeve and shot her a sharp look, “But do you know the meaning of ‘interesting’, Cang Ling?”
Jia Lan let Xue Qilin go, letting her meet Bei Xiaolu.
“After practicing cultivation for a long time, your tracks reached the depths of permafrost, and you finally got a glimpse at Heaven mystery with stillness and became a Grandmaster. The way you are — you who internalized stillness as essential, sublimated to the limit, and obtained a most powerful domain — you cannot feel it, right?”
Jia Lan leaned forward, embraced her own trembling body, and stated.
“Ah, my impassioned feelings at this moment are as hot as burning red iron.”
The lass licked her lips, her bright red lips that seem like they will drip with blood at any time.
“You, whose heart is like a pool of stagnant water, a pool that cannot see the rise of any ripples, are most likely no longer able to feel that supreme happiness…”
Cang Lin is silent. However, is this a reaction to Jia Lan’s words? For the first time, some ripples rose in her always emotionless eyes.
“Poor Cang Lin, lamentable Cang Lin, respectable Cang Lin.”
As if a most compassionate saint, Jia Lan’s eyes are full of pity.
