Chapter 7: Defeat.
Li Tianxing landed with the air of a victor, his voice low and steady:
“No, no, no, why would I want to kill you? If I did, why wait until now? I could’ve just stood by during the beast tide.”
“Rest assured, you won’t die. But after all the effort I’ve put in, I deserve a little… interest.”
The word “interest” dripped heavily from his lips.
“I have no grudge against you. If you let me go, name your terms.”
Jiang Ningshuang’s face was pale, clinging to a sliver of hope.
If he wasn’t here to kill her, there were only two possibilities.
“No, no, no. I don’t lack cultivation resources.”
Li Tianxing shook his head.
Her pupils shook, the last shred of hope crumbling.
This man… he’d planned every step with ruthless precision.
A fierce will to survive surged within her.
Ignoring the tearing pain in her shoulders, she clenched her teeth, summoning the strength in her core to roll and attempt an escape.
She didn’t know who sent him, but one thing was certain—she’d become his prisoner.
Even if she had to crawl, she’d get away.
But the pain and imbalance from her dislocated arms made her movements clumsy and slow.
Li Tianxing closed the distance in just a few steps.
A ruthless glint flashed in Jiang Ningshuang’s eyes.
Ignoring the agony in her shoulders, she rolled to the side.
Her long, slender legs, infused with the last traces of her lunar energy, tensed like iron, whipping toward Li Tianxing’s ankles with a shriek that tore through the air.
At the same time, she opened her mouth—“Pfft!”—spitting a blast of icy mist, her essence of lunar origin, aimed at his eyes.
This was her last resort, formed from her lunar core.
If it hit, he’d…
But Li Tianxing seemed to have mapped out every possible move she could make.
His steps were cryptic, his body twisting unnaturally.
Her stone-shattering leg whip and her prized icy needle grazed his clothes, stirring only a faint breeze.
“How…” Jiang Ningshuang murmured, her will to resist fading.
Those two moves had drained the last of her spiritual energy.
Her health bar was empty, her mana gone, her stamina depleted.
She could only watch as Li Tianxing’s hand, cloaked in faint golden light, steadied like a rock and seized her slender ankle with precision.
“Let go! What are you doing?!”
She instinctively struggled, but every move tugged at her dislocated shoulders, sending waves of pain that soaked her back in cold sweat.
Li Tianxing’s grip didn’t budge, his strength seemingly endless.
“No! Get off me, you bstard!”
She fought through the pain, cursing relentlessly.
His grip tightened, leaving deep, glaring red marks on her pale, delicate ankle, even bruising it purple.
“You! What did you do?!”
She felt her connection to her lunar energy vanish.
Before, it was like a river run dry, waiting for the rainy season to refill.
Now, the river itself was gone.
“You bstard! Give me back my Lunar Saint Body!”
Li Tianxing released her tender ankle and stepped forward, slowly crouching before her.
His hand reached out, his distinct knuckles inching toward her flawless cheek, now smudged with mud and cold sweat.
She had no means left to resist.
She was the daughter of the Jiang Clan’s patriarch, one of only two in a thousand years deemed to have the potential of a Great Emperor.
She was the face and hope of her clan.
Since childhood, she’d faced no setbacks.
Today was her most crushing defeat.
All her techniques were useless before him.
She was to become his prisoner.
What fate awaited her?
Images flashed in her mind, chilling her to the bone: the Wang Clan, another imperial lineage.
Their imperial daughter, once a peerless prodigy, fell in a duel against the scion of the Ancient Devouring Heaven Beast Clan.
Afterward, she was stripped of all power and dignity, her consciousness broken, willingly reduced to that scion’s servant…
The Wang Clan became a laughingstock across the myriad realms, their imperial glory utterly lost.
Would her fate… be any better than the Wang Clan’s imperial daughter?