Inside the cavern, the intense heat baked the air as the mist gradually dissipated, restoring the previously hazy landscape to view.
Han Qiancheng stood at the cave entrance, his eyes bulging as he stared ahead in shock, barely able to believe what he was seeing.
The Right Elder, copper hammer in hand, stood five paces from Su Yan, facing her squarely. But in this very moment, a sword tip had pierced clean through the Right Elder's chest. A faint halo rippled along the blade, pristine and spotless—there wasn't even a drop of blood.
As a frigid aura spread outward from the wound at its center, it rapidly engulfed the Right Elder's body—his limbs, his head...
"You..." The Right Elder opened his mouth, unable to believe he was going to die here. In his own estimation, having been struck just now had been utterly inexplicable—it had felt like nothing more than a momentary daze, and by the time he regained his senses, his chest had already been pierced through.
Su Yan was somewhat surprised as well, clearly not expecting to have killed a Right Elder so easily.
She had originally intended to trade wounds for wounds, but she hadn't expected her opponent to be this fragile.
Was he truly that fragile... A strange feeling was taking root in her heart.
There was no time to dwell on it. Her icy source energy surged madly into the Right Elder's body, freezing him into an ice sculpture in the blink of an eye. When she withdrew the Profound Frost Divine Sword, the Right Elder toppled backward and shattered into a pile of fragments across the ground.
Su Yan turned, sweeping the Profound Frost Divine Sword forward. A freezing aura wrapped around snowflakes, crashing down over the Left Elder from above.
The Left Elder hadn't yet recovered from the shock of the Right Elder's sudden death. Seeing the killing strike bearing down on him, he hastily moved to defend himself—only to freeze mid-motion as the snowflakes blanketed his entire body. In an instant, he shared the Right Elder's fate.
Each of those snowflakes was condensed from Su Yan's source energy, impossibly pure and terrifying in their destructive power. The frigid qi seeped through his pores and into his body, setting him trembling from head to toe. Even his source energy refused to circulate properly, let alone allow him to resist.
When Su Yan charged in with her sword, the Left Elder couldn't even lift his hand. A flicker of regret and pleading flashed in his eyes before Su Yan's blade split him in two, blood spattering across the ground.
Su Yan stood with sword in hand, her brow slightly furrowed. There was no sense of accomplishment from killing two martial artists of equal rank, no joy at having escaped death—instead, a strange, indescribable sense of dissonance settled over her.
Something within her body was surging.
She jolted to awareness and looked up toward the cave entrance. Her beautiful eyes blazed with an extraordinary light.
She had been locked in a life-or-death struggle with the Yunxia Sect's two Elders and had completely failed to notice the anomaly within her own body. It wasn't until the dust had settled that she finally became aware of it. She knew all too well what this anomaly meant. Despite her icy temperament, she could no longer conceal the emotions shifting across her face.
Anticipation. Surprise. Fear. Hesitation...
"Ah!" Han Qiancheng cried out in alarm, stumbling backward as he waved his hands frantically. "Se-Senior Sister, don't kill me! Today's matter... it's all just a misunderstanding!"
The Left and Right Elders had died just like that. Had he not witnessed it with his own eyes, he never would have believed it. He had been counting on the two of them to subdue Su Yan so he could do as he pleased, but now it seemed his scheme had not only failed—he might very well lose his life here too.
He was terrified, unsure whether Su Yan would strike him down as well.
How could two such useless fools have been killed so easily by a woman?
His retreating body suddenly came to a halt, as though he had backed into a solid wall.
He turned his head to look and his jaw dropped. "You... how are you here?"
That young man called Yang Kai was standing right behind him with his arms crossed, and who knew how long he'd been there. Han Qiancheng hadn't detected a single trace of his presence until this very moment. Wasn't he supposed to be back at the Yunxia Sect? Wasn't he supposed to have been captured already? How had he appeared here completely unscathed?
A wolf ahead, a tiger behind—Han Qiancheng's face drained of all color. Then he caught sight of Ruan Biting standing off to the side and cried out desperately, "Elder Ruan, save me!"
Ruan Biting regarded him coldly, making no effort to hide the disgust in her eyes.
"Young Sect Master, greetings!" Yang Kai flashed him a grin, revealing a row of white teeth. He raised his hand slightly. "Young Sect Master, farewell!"
His palm came down. Han Qiancheng didn't even make a sound before he was reduced to a puddle of meat. The stench of blood surged through the cavern, nauseating and thick. Having just reunited with Su Yan after so long, Yang Kai had no patience for wasting words on this piece of trash.
Yang Kai lifted his gaze toward the figure in the cave. The image in his memory gradually merged with the person before him, until the two became one and inseparable. He swallowed hard—there were a thousand things he wanted to say, but he had no idea where to start. An inexplicable nervousness gripped him.
Su Yan's clear eyes gazed at him in silence, as though the entire world had narrowed to this single figure, leaving no room for anything else.
"Ahem..." Ruan Biting gave a light cough. "You two talk. I'll be going."
Even a fool could sense the intimate atmosphere in the air. She certainly wouldn't linger. Still, she couldn't help but sigh inwardly—one wrong turn of thought, and the Yunxia Sect was truly finished this time. As for where she herself would go...
A reunion after long separation should have been the warmest of moments, but three corpses lying on the ground rather spoiled the mood.
But what did that matter? As long as they could be together, even a sea of blood and a purgatory of hell would taste overwhelmingly sweet.
"What are you staring at? Get over here!" Su Yan beckoned to Yang Kai, her voice trembling ever so slightly, betraying a calm that her composure on the surface belied.
Now she understood—she had killed the Left and Right Elders so easily not because they had made mistakes, nor because she had exploded with power in the moment, but because the man standing before her had quietly intervened.
Yang Kai rushed forward, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close with such force that he seemed to want to meld her into his very body, never to be separated again.
The familiar scent, the familiar touch—even after decades apart, he hadn't forgotten a single detail. The instant they touched, all the sealed memories came flooding back as though they were yesterday, every last one vivid and clear.