Xiao Zhaoning curled her lips into a faint smile and licked the blood from the corner of her mouth. The middle-aged man standing before her in a black fox-fur coat was supposedly her father.
He certainly looked the part of a respectable man. Too bad he acted like a dog.
Seeing how completely unconcerned Xiao Zhaoning looked, Shen Qingqing’s face filled with undisguised disgust. She grabbed Xiao Yanshan and backed away several steps. She certainly did not want this wretched girl passing her bad luck onto them.
Even though the girl standing before her was the daughter she had carried for ten months and given birth to.
She had never liked her.
It was as though from the very moment Xiao Zhaoning was born, some instinct deep in Shen Qingqing’s bones had filled her with inexplicable hatred toward this daughter. There was no reason for it. She simply hated her.
But she could not say so. She could not possibly admit to others that she hated the child she herself had given birth to.
Fortunately, later on, a wandering mystic master happened to pass through the area. He took one look at Xiao Zhaoning’s fate and declared that she was the reincarnation of a cursed lone star—her destiny was harder than iron, and she was destined to bring disaster upon both her parents, ensuring that neither of them would meet a peaceful end.
When Shen Qingqing heard those words, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She no longer had to pretend to love the child.
From that day onward, everyone in the Kangping Marquis’s Residence avoided Xiao Zhaoning as though she were a plague.
Shen Qingqing stood before the ancestral shrine, dressed in a dark brocade jacket. The color made her already gloomy expression appear even more severe.
All these years, and this jinx was still occupying Yue’er’s place.
“What are you waiting for? Seize the eldest young miss and send her to Guoan Temple. Let her pray for Yue’er. She can come back only after Yue’er has recovered.”
Several rough servant women immediately rolled up their sleeves and charged toward Xiao Zhaoning with vicious grins.
Xiao Zhaoning leaned weakly against the pillar behind her.
They wanted to capture her?
Not a chance.
“Miss, just come with us quietly.”
Xiao Zhaoning gritted her teeth and suddenly lunged forward.
“Bang!”
She shot straight through the group of servant women and slammed directly into Shen Qingqing. The two of them crashed to the ground together.
Before anyone could react, Xiao Zhaoning was already straddling Shen Qingqing. She raised her foot and viciously stomped it onto Shen Qingqing’s face.
“Ahhh!”
Shen Qingqing’s shriek tore through the night.
Xiao Zhaoning sucked in several deep breaths. Taking advantage of everyone’s stunned silence, she scrambled to her feet and ran barefoot across the freezing stone pavement, rushing out of the courtyard.
Shen Qingqing remained sprawled on the ground, her face throbbing with pain. She was so furious she nearly spat blood.
“Stop her! Don’t let her get out!”
That wretched girl!
She had actually dared to ram into her and stomp on her face!
Shen Qingqing had had enough. Today, she was determined to kill that little brat!
But it was already too late.
Several servant women and household guards together still failed to stop a fifteen-year-old girl.
With her pursuers hot on her heels, Xiao Zhaoning staggered toward the base of the wall. Her fingertips were red from the cold as she desperately hooked them into the cracks between the bricks, her fingernails scraping white marks across the stone.
Her entire body trembled.
She tried to summon the spiritual energy within her, but there was not the slightest response.
The curses of the pursuing servant women were getting closer and closer.
“Miss! Stop right there!”
Xiao Zhaoning reached up and grabbed the top of the wall before leaping upward.
Snow that had gathered along the wall slid into her sleeves, sending a violent shiver through her body. Using the momentum, she twisted and flipped herself over.
She landed heavily outside the wall.
Her knee smashed against a nearby brick, and pain exploded through her leg, turning her vision black for a moment.
“Look! She’s over there! We found her!”
The shrill cries of the servant women rang out again in the distance, while torchlight flickered through the falling snow.
Xiao Zhaoning cursed under her breath.
No matter what happened today, she could not let them catch her.
If they dragged her back, she was dead for sure!
She stumbled around the corner of the street. Her foot caught on a loose stone, and her entire body instinctively pitched forward.
“Bang!”
She crashed straight into a warm embrace.
The faint scent of agarwood drifted into her nose.
She abruptly looked up and met a pair of eyes as black as ink.
The man appeared to be around twenty years old. His features were so exquisitely sculpted that every angle of his face was strikingly handsome.
His peach-blossom eyes, which should have been naturally alluring, seemed instead to hold thousands of years of frost and snow. They gazed down at her with utter indifference.
His nose was tall and narrow, his lips an unnaturally pale shade.
His black hair was secured beneath a white jade crown, with several loose strands falling around his face and making his skin appear even paler and more translucent.
He was tall and straight, his entire body radiating an intimidating, murderous aura that made anyone who saw him instinctively shiver.
The heir to Prince Jing’s title—
Xie Heng?
The youngest god of war in all of the Great Yong.
At twelve, he had taken command of an army.
At fifteen, he had put down the rebellion in the northern frontier.
At seventeen, he had ventured alone deep into the enemy camp and slaughtered thirty thousand barbarians, becoming a legendary figure after a single battle.
Later, he had been poisoned and given little time left to live.
Wasn’t Xie Heng the very man her wretched father cursed every day, asking why the man still hadn’t died?
Just then, three black figures shot out from the corner of the street!
The men dressed in black carried long blades gleaming with deadly cold. Blood that had yet to dry dripped from their edges.
The leader gave a cold laugh and pointed his blade at the two of them.
“Your Highness, today is the day you die.”
Xie Heng’s gaze darkened.
He wrapped an arm around the girl’s waist, then tightened his grip and abruptly shoved her behind him. In the same motion, he drew the sword from his waist and blocked the assassin’s blade.
“Clang!”
Sword and saber collided, sending sparks flying.
The impact made Xiao Zhaoning’s ears ring painfully.
Then she suddenly felt a warm current surge from her dantian.
Her eyes lit up.
Her spiritual energy was back!
Xie Heng was gradually being forced onto the defensive. Another assassin silently circled around behind him.
“Watch out!” Xiao Zhaoning blurted.
Xie Heng was the person the Kangping Marquis’s Residence hated most—the kind of person they could not get rid of no matter how hard they tried.
No!
This man could not die.
He had to stay alive long enough to make life miserable for that entire ridiculous family!
Xiao Zhaoning instinctively lunged forward.
She moved so quickly that no one had time to react. She seized the assassin’s wrist and twisted it with all her strength.
The assassin cried out in pain. The tip of his blade shifted an inch and swept past Xie Heng’s clothes, slicing off a strand of his black hair.
Xie Heng seized the opening and drove his sword straight through the assassin’s chest.
Blood splattered across Xiao Zhaoning’s pale face.
She stood there in a daze as warm droplets of blood slowly trickled down her cheek.
This…
This was the first time she had ever watched someone die right in front of her!
But she absolutely could not show that she was frightened.
What if Xie Heng lost himself to the bloodshed and stabbed her too?
“Run!”
Xie Heng grabbed her wrist and dragged her into a nearby alley.
Snowflakes stung her face as they flew through the air, while shouts continued to echo from behind them.
What terrible luck.
For no reason at all, she had somehow ended up being hunted by two different groups of people.
Were she and Xie Heng simply cursed with bad luck?
Xiao Zhaoning trudged through the snow, her feet already numb.
Xie Heng led her through a maze of twisting streets and alleyways before finally stopping in front of an old wooden door.
He kicked it open, shoved her inside, and immediately slid the wooden bolt into place.
Xiao Zhaoning collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath.
When she looked up, she saw Xie Heng cough up a mouthful of blood before leaning against the door.
His voice was hoarse.
“Thank you, miss, for saving me.”
Even in this condition, he had not forgotten to thank her.
What a genuinely good person!
He absolutely had to stay alive and make life difficult for Xiao Yanshan’s family!
Footsteps sounded outside again.
In the darkness, blades pierced through the wooden door with dull thuds.
Xie Heng was just about to rise when Xiao Zhaoning pressed him back down.
“If you use your inner force again, you’ll die.”
She did not want this man to die.
The moment her hand touched Xie Heng’s shoulder, a scorching current surged from her dantian and burst through her body.
Xiao Zhaoning’s pupils contracted.
A surge of delight rose from deep within her.
She could feel it!
She quickly formed hand seals with both hands.
Runic symbols flowed across her fingertips.
In the empty air before her, glowing runes crackling with lightning slowly emerged.
In the blink of an eye, the runes began to shine with golden light on their own.
Then they transformed into a bolt of lightning that violently struck the black-clad assassins on the other side of the wooden door.
“Crack!”
The wooden door exploded into splinters.
The screams of the assassins rang out amid the flying debris.
In an instant, the entire alley was illuminated by blinding lightning.
Charred marks spread across the snow-covered ground, while several bodies in black lay scattered across the alley, blasted apart by the thunderbolt.
All the strength drained from Xiao Zhaoning’s body.
She collapsed to her knees.
A searing, stinging pain still lingered in her palms.
She gasped for breath.
She had summoned lightning countless times in the past, but she had never been left this weak afterward.
Could it be because her spiritual energy was too weak now and she had exhausted herself by force?
Xie Heng emerged from the smoke and dust.
His dark brocade robes were stained with blood, yet he remained impossibly graceful and composed.
His gaze settled upon the young girl.
His eyes were deep and unfathomable.
“Miss… are you a mystic master?”