A series of swallowed gasps echoed through the room.
"Senior Brother, what do we do?" one of them asked nervously. He was afraid that if they kept fighting, they might actually beat this Yang Kai to death.
"That guy's a freaking lunatic!" The Qi Movement Realm disciple's eyes twitched slightly as he gnashed his teeth in a curse. "Forget it — if he dares come at us, we hit him! This time we knock him out for sure!"
"Right!" The other four answered in ragged unison.
Just as the five of them were on heightened alert, a sudden chill rose from the depths of their hearts for no apparent reason. Moments later, the temperature inside the entire secret chamber plunged.
Cracking sounds came from every direction. The five spun around in shock to find a thin layer of frost coating the walls and floor.
"What's happening?" one of them blamered out, only to shudder again immediately.
With a thunderous **bang**, the chamber door was kicked open from the outside.
"Who goes there?!" The Qi Movement Realm Law Enforcement Hall disciple barked, spinning toward the doorway. His jaw dropped open so wide it could have fit a duck egg, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't close it.
Although the temperature inside had plummeted to what felt like the dead of winter, a sudden sheen of fine, cold sweat broke out across his forehead. He stared, stunned, at the woman who had appeared in the doorway, stammering: "Su… Senior Sister Su Yan!"
"Senior Sister Su Yan?!" The other four went pale as well. Following his gaze, they saw a breathtakingly beautiful woman standing there, her features cool and aloof, dressed in a pristine white skirt.
She was like a snow lotus blooming atop an eternal, unmelting snow mountain — descended into the mortal world cloaked in frost. So noble, so serene. When those beautiful eyes swept over them, all five felt an inexplicable sense of shame, and without thinking, they lowered their heads.
Su Yan had only just returned from the Black Wind Market in haste. She hadn't had time to investigate the situation — she'd simply assumed Su Mu had been thrown into the Forest Prison too. Having rushed in like a whirlwind, she'd noticed signs of combat here and come to see for herself.
What she saw upon opening the door made her heart tremble.
There were six people inside. Five were Law Enforcement Hall disciples — one at the second level of the Qi Movement Realm, four at the eighth or ninth level of the Kaiyuan Realm. And the sixth was a figure drenched in blood, clothes torn to rags, swaying on his feet. But those eyes — they burned with an indomitable will.
She had seen this person before!
Yang Kai! That time Su Mu had brought him to the Black Wind Market — the Trial Disciple who had defeated Cheng Shaofeng!
She extended her Divine Sense and probed him lightly. What she found shocked her even more. She could clearly sense that this Yang Kai's body was riddled with wounds. Injuries like these, while not life-threatening, should have been far beyond what someone of his strength could endure standing. He should have collapsed long ago.
How much iron will must it take to remain upright after sustaining such grievous injuries?
In the span of a few brief moments, Su Yan had pieced together everything that had happened in this room. Her heart, which rarely stirred with emotion, was touched by a nameless fury for the very first time.
Her figure flickered, and Su Yan appeared at Yang Kai's side. One hand steadied him as she channeled her cool Yuan Qi into his body, stabilizing both his internal and external wounds.
Strangely enough, as that icy sensation seeped into him, the churning blood and qi throughout Yang Kai's body settled with surprising speed. His groggy mind cleared considerably as well.
A clean, crisp fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose. Yang Kai turned his head to look at Su Yan standing beside him, and the grimace on his battered face gradually softened into calm. This senior sister wasn't actually that tall — half a head shorter than him, in fact — but with her by his side in this moment, Yang Kai felt a serenity he had never known before.
It was as if he were standing alone in an empty snow mountain, surrounded by nothing but cool, refreshing air, every noise of the mortal world dissolving into silence. With her near, an involuntary thought rose within him — to take her hand and retreat together into the mountains, far from the world.
"Who did this?" Su Yan's voice rang out, calm and cold.