Chapter 122: The Lure

Che Wuyou lowered his head and gazed at Zhang Qing’er in his arms. Her brows were long and graceful, her nose straight, and from time to time traces of pain flickered across her delicate face. Perhaps even in her unconsciousness, the woman before him was enduring suffering known to no one else...

For a moment, Che Wuyou found himself staring blankly. He did not know when it had begun, but a haze had entered the young man’s eyes. In a daze, the woman before him slowly overlapped with the image of Liu Lanzhi.

“Senior Sister, is that you?” Che Wuyou murmured. “Senior Sister, don’t be afraid. I’m here. I will never let him hurt you in the slightest.”

In the depths of his memory, it was night. A man in black wielded his sword like the wind, while a young man and woman struggled desperately beneath his blade... In the end, the young man had used his own body to hold the man in black back, creating a sliver of hope for the girl’s escape...

As Che Wuyou sank into his memories, the wind raised by the Blunt Sword stirred such a sharp pain across his scalp that his skin prickled. Instinctively, he dodged away from his vital points, yet he continued to shield the girl in his arms with every ounce of strength. He could not allow the Steel Giant to harm her in the slightest—not unless he was dead.

A heavy blow crashed into Che Wuyou’s shoulder. The force was so tremendous that the pain pierced straight through his heart. The flesh of his shoulder was torn and mangled, and his entire body seemed to have been driven down by an inch. Blood slid from his shoulder and dripped onto the girl’s face. Like tears rolling down her cheeks, the droplets fell once more, resembling tears of blood.

Che Wuyou looked at the Steel Giant as it raised its sword again. Half his body had already gone numb, and even the slightest evasive movement had become exceedingly difficult. The Steel Giant’s sword was astonishingly swift to begin with, and there was still a girl in his arms—a girl grievously wounded and unconscious.

At some unknown point, the girl in his arms had opened her eyes. Perhaps she had been awakened by a few drops of warm blood... Though she was badly injured and weak, her eyes were remarkably bright.

There was not the slightest trace of pity in the Steel Giant’s eyes. Che Wuyou was someone it hated intensely. It had been faintly surprised that its first strike had failed to kill him, but it had not increased its strength. It wanted to watch the young man suffer beyond endurance. It wanted to see how many times he could withstand its sword. And it wanted to know whether the young man would truly sacrifice his life for the girl in his arms.

Another sword descended with terrifying force. The countless afterimages left by the Blunt Sword as it cut through the air were enough to make anyone tremble, yet the young man still refused to give up. He did not cast aside the girl in his arms. Facing the violent roar of the giant sword tearing through the air, an almost unprecedented calm appeared upon his face.

With a sharp thud, metal collided violently with flesh. Another spray of blood blossomed from the young man’s left shoulder. Droplets burst from his wound and spattered across the girl’s face. The young man seemed not to notice, and neither did the girl. He stared at the Steel Giant, a rare stubbornness rising in his expression.

The girl gazed at him, tears blurring her face.

“Boy, you had the chance to give up, yet for the sake of the girl in your arms, you would rather die. I truly cannot understand you humans. But that is beside the point. What matters is that you have provoked me again and again, so I will make your death utterly miserable, though I must admit I admire your courage in seeking death.”

The Steel Giant rarely spoke at such length. Perhaps it had been influenced by Yun Fan.

The Steel Giant raised its sword.

“Brother Wuyou, let’s give up,” the girl in his arms suddenly whispered weakly.

Perhaps hearing her voice steadied Che Wuyou’s mind. He had no time to look at her. His thoughts raced, and then he suddenly shouted toward Yun Fan, “Mother said that anyone who stands by while another faces death is no true human being! Yun Fan, if you don’t act now, when will you?”

The Steel Giant’s sword had only descended halfway when a black shadow that seemed to appear from thin air caught it between both hands.

Yun Fan paid no attention to the Steel Giant’s roar. He merely stared blankly at Che Wuyou and said in an utterly serious tone, “Mother has never said anything like that. Where did you hear it?”

Che Wuyou was left dumbfounded by Yun Fan’s feat. He had always known that Yun Fan was formidable, but he had still underestimated him. Yun Fan had actually dared to receive the Steel Giant’s Blunt Sword with his bare hands. His strength was almost absurd.

Only then did Che Wuyou understand what Yun Fan had meant when he said that one should remain low-key. The man truly lived by his words—he had merely been speaking the truth.

With Yun Fan’s strength, he should have been on the same level as Yang Fengge. Yet he had neither arrogantly stormed into the Heaven-Piercing Tower nor revealed his true ability when clashing with Yang Shi. He had deliberately held back, pretending that they were evenly matched, so that no one could discern the depths of his power.

By the looks of it, Yun Fan was the greatest dark horse in this trial of the Heaven-Piercing Tower. Everyone had misjudged him.

As the Steel Giant and Yun Fan wrestled over the Blunt Sword, Yun Fan still did not forget the matter that had troubled him. Even in the midst of the struggle, he turned back and sternly shouted at Che Wuyou, “Speak! Did Mother really say something like that? And where did she tell you? If you don’t answer, I’ll have Senior Steel Giant cut both of you to pieces!”

Only then did Che Wuyou return to his senses. He frowned slightly before answering solemnly, “Mother naturally said those words. She simply never said them to you. She told them only to me. She said that whenever I encountered danger, if I happened to meet Yun Fan, saying those words would surely save my life. I spoke them just now to test whether Mother’s words were truly reliable. After trying them once, I found that she was indeed right.”

“Anything Mother says must naturally be right. But she disappeared several years ago, and I have searched everywhere without finding her. Where did she tell you those words?” Yun Fan looked at Che Wuyou in confusion, as though he hoped to determine their truth from Che Wuyou’s expression. But Che Wuyou’s face was utterly serious. How could Yun Fan see through him?

Afraid that he might reveal a flaw, Che Wuyou thought for a moment before sighing. “I don’t know where Mother told me. Perhaps it was in a dream. In any case, I don’t know when it began, but those words have been carved into my mind as firmly as if they had been cut there with a blade.”

Seeing that Yun Fan refused to let the matter go, Che Wuyou’s thoughts shifted. It would not be difficult to invent some random place, but that would make it much harder to win Yun Fan’s trust. It was better to give him an ambiguous answer instead. Judging from the depth of Yun Fan’s cultivation, his mother was surely no ordinary person. The more mysterious and indistinct the explanation, the more convincing it would sound.

Yet after hearing Che Wuyou’s words, Yun Fan suddenly seemed to lose his soul. His hands remained locked around the Steel Giant’s Blunt Sword as he murmured, “It really was Mother. Why does she speak with me in dreams every time? Why is it that whenever I see her, it is only in a dream?”