Let you see with your own eyes, how the hope you traded your life for turns into... mud.

That enormous Blood Hand was disproportionately huge, nearly blotting out the dim and already fading night sky above.

Yun Ying only had time to brace his back to withstand the blow, one strong enough to shatter mountains.

But the anticipated searing pain and sound of cracking bones never came.

The blood hand stopped less than three feet from his back, suddenly dissipating into a mist of blood that filled the sky.

Then, a vast, sweeping force surged past.

"Thud!"

Yun Ying and Yun Yao both tumbled into the snow, dazed and disoriented.

Without a thought for himself, Yun Ying immediately checked on his senior sister's condition.

Yun Yao was stunned from the fall, but fortunately, she was not seriously injured. Still, her already delicate face grew even paler.

"Running, are you?"

A voice tinged with mockery came from not far away.

Liu Yishou strolled slowly from behind. He brushed off nonexistent dust from his robes, tilted his head, and his eyes—shockingly bright in the darkness—studied with keen amusement the two pathetic figures on the ground.

He didn't even rush to finish them off. Instead, like someone savoring fine wine, he let out a satisfied sigh.

"Why stop running?"

"You little fish and shrimp, you're only interesting when you run."

"If you just lay there waiting to die, where's the fun in that?"

Like a cat with nothing better to do after a meal, he toyed with the mouse beneath his paw first, savoring the sound of its desperate squeaks before finishing it off.

Yun Ying's hand was clenched tightly on the hilt of the sword at his waist.

He was weighing the odds.

Calculating his chance of victory.

The answer came quickly.

Zero.

The man before him had slaughtered an early-stage Nascent Soul elder as easily as crushing a bug. That gap in power could not be bridged by courage or desperate struggle.

It was an unbridgeable chasm.

But...

Yun Ying's gaze fell on his senior sister behind him, trembling uncontrollably, barely able to stand.

His master had told him to protect her.

So he would protect her.

Even if it meant dying, he would protect her.

"Senior Sister," Yun Ying said suddenly, his voice soft but resolute.

Yun Yao jerked her head up. Her lips parted, wanting to speak, but no words came.

"When I count to three," Yun Ying said without turning around, his eyes fixed on the man who was savoring the thrill of the hunt.

"Run as far as you can. Don't look back."

"Junior Brother, you—"

"Listen to me!"

Yun Ying spun around. His face, always bearing a trace of youthful seriousness, broke into a smile so gentle it seemed almost impossible.

That smile was pure, clean—like the first plum blossom quietly blooming on a branch when the first snow falls on Kongxuan Mountain.

"I've listened to you for years."

"This time, let me decide. Listen to me."

He took a deep breath.

The cold air mixed with snowflakes cut through his already injured lungs like a blade, but it miraculously calmed his heart, which had been racing with fear.

"One..."

Liu Yishou seemed intrigued by this scene. He didn't attack immediately. Instead, he crossed his arms, watching with interest the play of farewell between the junior and senior siblings.

He loved watching this.

Watching so-called cultivators, in the face of death, slowly tear away their hypocritical masks and reveal their most primal fear.

He expected that in the next moment, the boy would abandon his senior sister and flee alone.

But no.

"Two..."

Yun Ying's hand was already gripping the sword hilt.

The hilt was cold, bitterly cold.

But the warmth of his palm burned.

"Three!"

The moment the word fell, Yun Ying drew his sword!

"Clang!"

A flash of azure sword light, like a shooting star cutting through the darkness of night, charged straight for Liu Yishou's throat with reckless determination.

At the same time, his other hand shoved forcefully.

A gentle but unstoppable force sent Yun Yao flying toward the back of the mountain.

"Junior Brother—!"

Yun Yao's cry stretched long through the wind and snow, fading into the distance.

Liu Yishou watched the sword light streak toward him like a shooting star, his face showing disappointment.

"That's all you've got?"

He didn't even bother to draw his blade.

He simply raised his left hand, two fingers pinching lightly.

"Clink!"

A crisp sound.

That sword light, fierce enough to pierce through the protective aura of an average Golden Core cultivator, was caught firmly between his fingers. It could advance no further.

Yun Ying's face turned deathly pale.

He frantically channeled the little spiritual power left in his body. The veins on his wrist bulged as he tried to wrench the sword free.

But the sword felt welded between his opponent's fingers. It didn't budge.

"Kid, as for your sword..."

Liu Yishou laughed, a joyful sound. His stark white teeth glinted coldly in the moonlight.

"Too slow."

The moment he finished speaking, his wrist flicked lightly.

"Crack!"

A sound so crisp and heartbreaking.

The lifebound flying sword, connected to Yun Ying's very spirit, was snapped in two by two fingers!

The blade shattered into countless specks of light.

"Ugh—!"

Yun Ying spat out a mouthful of blood.

Then he flew backward.

With a thunderous crash, he hit the ground and skidded, leaving a long scar in his wake, sending stones flying.

He struggled to get up, but his lifebound sword had been destroyed, and his Golden Core was badly damaged, cracked with fine lines. He couldn't even stand. His vision went black.

Liu Yishou strolled over leisurely.

He walked as if taking a walk in his own backyard, every step unhurried.

"A whelp like you isn't even worth me drawing my blade," he said.

He looked down at the boy coughing up blood on the ground, his gaze like that of a man eyeing a crushed insect, full of mockery.

"But..."

"Since you put on such a brave show of sacrificing yourself, I'll give you a chance to live."

Liu Yishou's face twisted into a grotesque smile.

That smile chilled Yun Ying's blood to ice.

"I'll go catch that little girl," Liu Yishou said, licking his lips, his eyes gleaming with cruelty.

"Then, I'll have some fun with her, right in front of you."

"I'll make you watch with your own eyes how the 'hope' you bought with your life turns into a mess of mud beneath me—so unrecognizable you won't even know her."