How about this deal A good bargain, isn't it

Liu Yishou’s voice carried a bone-chilling delight.

“Desperate?”

He took two steps forward.

His boots crunched against the snow, producing a rhythmic “creak, creak” sound.

“Resentful?”

It wasn’t that he was particularly lustful—he was simply cruel.

He took a pure, simple pleasure in seeing others suffer.

Perhaps he had killed so many people that, in his eyes, a living soul was no different from a pebble on the roadside. Life and death themselves no longer held any thrill for him.

Instead, it was this slow grinding down of hope, dragging a person into a bottomless abyss—this twisted torment—that gave him a peculiar excitement.

But on Yun Ying’s face, the expression he wanted to see still wasn’t there.

Only a dead calm remained.

Yet Liu Yishou knew that the stiller the surface of a lake, the more violent the undercurrents hidden beneath.

He relished the process of prying open a hard shell, savoring the soft core within being crushed bit by bit.

Yun Ying was thinking hard.

He needed to figure out what to do, how to get his senior sister out of this alive…

But he couldn’t think of a way.

In cultivation, from the very first step, every level was an insurmountable chasm. A single realm meant a whole new world.

He and his senior sister had barely reached the Golden Core stage, while Liu Yishou was already a master at the Void Refinement stage.

Between them lay the Infant Transformation stage, the Spirit Transformation stage.

Two chasms wide enough to keep ninety-nine out of a hundred cultivators trapped for a lifetime.

Even if he burned his own golden core and staked his life, he didn’t believe he could buy his senior sister even a sliver of hope against a foe like this.

This was a no-win situation.

His master had once called him a genius unseen in a thousand years in the Yin Yang Sect, a hope who could shoulder its future.

But the title of “genius” was nothing more than a name for the weak who hadn’t yet grown up.

In the face of absolute power, such titles were utterly powerless.

Not every child hailed as the future would create a miracle.

Or rather, miracles shouldn’t have been created at all—because their existence itself defied common sense…

And tonight, clearly, there would be no miracle.

Still, the time he had stalled…

His senior sister must have run far by now, right?

If she kept running, kept going, as long as she left this place…

At that thought, Yun Ying’s heart felt as though it were being crushed by an invisible hand.

Useless.

Under the spiritual awareness of a Void Refinement cultivator, a few moments of time meant nothing. No matter where she fled, she couldn’t escape detection.

The man hadn’t gone after her right away simply because…

He wanted to keep playing this game of cat and mouse.

Liu Yishou seemed to read his mind, his smile growing even more cruel.

“Kid, don’t bother struggling.”

“Your senior sister isn’t getting away.”

“But I’m a merciful man. I can still give you a chance.”

Liu Yishou bared his teeth in a grin, revealing a mouthful of menacing white.

“If you don’t want to see what happens to your senior sister while she’s with me…”

“I have a condition.”

“I want you to go catch her yourself.”

“Then, in front of me, kill her.”

“If you do that…” Liu Yishou wiggled a finger before Yun Ying’s face, “I’ll not only spare your life—I’ll even make an exception, take you as my disciple, and bring you into my Blade Sect.”

“And your senior sister will be spared my… attentions.”

“What do you say?”

Yun Ying stared silently at Liu Yishou. His delicate, handsome face revealed no expression.

After a long pause.

He suddenly smiled.

A faint smile, carrying a liberation he had never known before.

“I understand.”

Yun Ying nodded.

He slowly raised his hand. Aiming for Liu Yishou’s crown, he brought it down without a moment’s hesitation—a palm strike!

Better to shatter the jade than to keep the tile whole.

Since death was inevitable, let it be with dignity.

Letting someone else boss you around was the dumbest choice.

Even if followed his orders,

Later, that man might still do those things to her corpse.

Just to watch him break down all over again.

Killing his senior sister with his own hands would still save nothing.

Watching this, the smile on Liu Yishou’s face vanished, replaced by a burst of violent rage.

“Fuck!”

He cursed aloud.

He hadn’t really wanted to take Yun Ying as a disciple.

He only wanted to watch the boy struggle between hope and despair, twist, and eventually become a monster that even disgusted himself.

But this kid had used a move like that to destroy his fun!

“Ungrateful bastard!” Liu Yishou roared, drawing the long blade from his back.

Yun Ying felt an overwhelming, irresistible force slam into him from behind.

A brutal, pulling suction.

His entire body was yanked backward through the air.

Then, the long blade pierced straight through his chest, pinning him to the wall of the livestock yard.

In the next instant, Liu Yishou’s form flickered as he set off toward where Yun Yao had fled.

He would drag that woman back!

He would show this kid every single thing he had promised, right in front of him, one by one!

…

Half an incense stick later.

A figure was thrown heavily to the ground, like a ragged sack, landing in the snow not far from Yun Ying’s feet.

It was Yun Yao.

Her whole body was shaking. Her face, always carrying a touch of innocent charm, was now streaked with mud and tears. Her lips were bitten white. Her round, bright eyes were wide open, filled with nothing but terror.

“A pity, truly a pity!” Liu Yishou’s rough voice echoed through the livestock yard.

He clapped his hands, strolling slowly back.

“Just that little more, and she really would have gotten away!”

He walked up to Yun Ying, looking down at the boy pinned to the wall, barely able to move, his face a mask of undisguised mockery.

“Kid, you see this?”

“This is what your sacrifice bought you.”

“What a touching story of sister and brother, devoted to each other until death! Tsk, tsk, tsk, it really moves me to tears.”

Yes.

He had risked his life, and what did it get him? Nothing more than the man’s cat-and-mouse game.

Everything, when faced with absolute disparity in power, was utterly futile.

Yun Ying said nothing.

He only clenched his teeth so hard they ached, letting the blood from his chest wound stain his robes.

Liu Yishou seemed displeased by his silence. He curled his lip and turned his attention to the girl still trembling on the ground.

“Pretty little thing.”

Liu Yishou crouched down, reached out a rough, calloused hand, and grabbed Yun Yao’s chin, forcing her head up.

“Don’t be afraid.”

His voice suddenly grew gentle, but his eyes, shockingly bright in the darkness, were pure violence.

“Your little junior brother here treats you well. He’d rather die himself than let you die.”

“I’m not an unreasonable man.”

Liu Yishou’s fingers traced lightly over the smooth, delicate skin of Yun Yao’s cheek. The coarse touch only made her tremble all the more.

“How about this?”

“If you’re willing, from today on, you stay with me and serve me well.”

“I promise you a life of luxury. Cultivation resources, anything you need—better than following these paupers, scraping by in the dirt on this godforsaken mountain.”

He paused, the smile on his face growing increasingly sinister.

"All you have to do is nod..."

"Right now, in this snow, you'll serve me like a mount."

"And I'll give your junior disciple a chance to live."

"What do you say? A fair deal, isn't it?"