“Boom!”

In the silence, the impact of the stone against her forehead rang out with startling clarity.

“Ah!”

Yanzi cried out, one hand flying to cover the throbbing spot, immediately springing to her feet, her whole body on guard.

If there was anything this woman cared about nearly as much as her own life, it was her beauty.

This might be the foot of Mingsha Mountain, her own territory, but she had absolutely no idea this passage existed, knew nothing at all about this place.

A small trap, one small ambush—and it could easily cost her her life.

“Who’s there! Come out!”

The force and direction of the stone told her the person was ahead, somewhere in the darkness the night pearls’ light couldn’t reach.

Looking from dim light into darkness made the darkness seem even blacker, impossible to see a hand in front of one’s face—but looking from darkness into dim light made things appear brighter than they actually were.

Yanzi rose, lifting her head, while Baili Weisheng clapped a hand over his mouth, his bright, star-like eyes widening enormously.

No way—this ugly?

The great beauty, turned into a hideous monster? Yanzi’s once heavenly, exquisite face was now a tangle of white gauze bandages and dried blood, gruesome and horrifying.

Combined with her current expression—vicious and wary—it was all the more shocking to behold.

“Too ashamed to show your face? Too scared to come out?”

Yanzi said coldly, narrowing her eyes, advancing step by step with her sword drawn.

Baili Weisheng was about to speak, but stopped himself, an unusually cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth as he silently stepped back, retreating without a sound.

Yanzi drew closer and closer, growing more suspicious by the moment.

She couldn’t sense the person’s breathing at all!

As skilled in martial arts as she was, she couldn’t detect subtle shifts in airflow and breath location the way Jun Beiyue could, but she should still have been able to make some rough judgment.

Yet she felt nothing, not even the faintest trace. Could the person have already left?

The darkness left her uncertain, but she continued advancing carefully, step by step.

Then, suddenly—”boom!”

Another hit—and this one landed hard, striking Yanzi square in the face.

But it was this very stone that gave away Baili Weisheng’s position. A flash crossed Yanzi’s eyes, and she immediately darted into the darkness, vanishing from sight.

In the pitch-black darkness, nothing at all could be seen!

Yanzi grew even more cautious, yet strangely, that sense of breath vanished again.

She was certain the person was nearby—yet how could there be no trace of breathing at all?

Could this person be dead, someone who didn’t even need to breathe?

Baili Weisheng wasn’t breathless by nature—he possessed the unique breath-holding ability of the jiao people. As long as he stayed silent, no one could locate him.

He was, without question, a formidable fighter. At such close range, he could sense every breath Yanzi took, gauge her distance, even determine her physical condition.

He knew that at this very moment, Yanzi had come to stand right in front of him, her face now very, very close to the dagger in his hand.

Baili Weisheng was equally a formidable fighter—if he made a single move, even without speaking, Yanzi would sense it, breathless or not.

In the darkness, if visible, Yanzi’s expression at that moment would surely have been one of exaggerated, almost comical anxiety.

“Don’t come any closer! Whatever you do, don’t come any closer!”

Baili Weisheng cried out silently in his heart, in a fit of good-natured panic. “Come any closer and this blade’s going to lose its manners!”

Yet Yanzi kept advancing, step by careful step, drawing steadily closer, her face inching nearer and nearer to the blade’s edge!

Suddenly!

She abruptly turned her head aside, finally putting a little distance between them again.

She seemed to be listening for something, tilting her head, listening intently.

But just as Baili Weisheng had let out a breath of relief, his heart leapt right back into his throat!

Her ear was coming closer!

Baili Weisheng’s eyes widened further and further—he could clearly feel something drawing near his blade again, and if he wasn’t mistaken, it had to be Yanzi’s ear!

Closer, closer, even closer than her face had come before, just a little more, almost there!

Baili Weisheng couldn’t help holding his breath—only then did he realize he’d already been holding it the whole time.

Almost there, so close now—and his blade was sharp, terribly sharp.

“Don’t come closer, I didn’t mean it!”

Baili Weisheng pleaded desperately in his mind!

But then!

Somehow, inexplicably, Yanzi suddenly turned aside, shifting to probe in another direction instead!

The face that had been feigning such anxious worry a moment ago suddenly went cold, hardening instantly into something as frigid as ice, like a demon buried deep within a glacier.

Suddenly, he swept his hand up, the flash of his blade slicing through the darkness.

“Ah…”

Yanzi cried out immediately, utterly caught off guard, one hand flying to cover her bleeding ear. “My ear! Ah… my ear!”

At that very instant, one of the night pearls on the wall suddenly flared to life!

In the dim light, Yanzi, tears streaming from the pain, staggered backward, unable to see Baili Weisheng’s face clearly, yet she could distinctly feel the dangerous aura radiating from him.

“Who are you! What do you want!”

She demanded furiously, sensing somehow that this man was the master of this hidden chamber.

Baili Weisheng lowered his head, a sinister smile curling at the corner of his mouth, and said in a low, eerie voice, “You’ve crossed my forbidden line… you deserve to die.”

He was a man who cared for nothing, who took everything with careless indifference—yet one particular woman was his sole, absolute taboo.

Yanzi’s heart lurched with alarm. From the way he’d controlled that stone throw earlier, she could tell this man’s skill was only slightly above her own—yet here, in the darkness, she had clearly been at a severe disadvantage.

Though the wounds to her face and ear weren’t fatal, and her strength remained intact, she had no intention of continuing to fight.

She immediately began to retreat—even though the way ahead remained shrouded in ignorant darkness, she had to flee.

But she didn’t have the time.

Baili Weisheng never fought a battle he wasn’t certain of winning. In an instant, he snuffed out the night pearl’s light, plunging everything back into darkness, and once again Yanzi had no idea where he was.

Yanzi shrieked in terror—this time, she was truly afraid—and turned to flee back toward the light.

But Baili Weisheng was already standing directly in front of her, less than three steps away, dagger aimed at her abdomen, waiting for her to run straight into it.

Just then, however, an unexpected “boom!” rang out.

A thunderous, earth-shaking blast suddenly rocked the entire passage, shaking loose a great deal of sand and earth!

What was happening?

The figure had come from behind her. Startled, Yanzi froze in place, and at the same moment, another “boom” rang out!

After that second blast, a beam of light suddenly shone down from above!

By the light spilling in from behind her, Yanzi could faintly make out a figure standing ahead, dagger in hand.

She forgot even to run, instinctively stumbling backward, several steps, until she collapsed onto the ground.

“Boom!”

The third blast came, the light growing even stronger—but the white-robed figure ahead had simply vanished into thin air.

Had she seen a ghost? Yanzi stared, dumbstruck, then scrambled up and ran straight toward the light, her face and hands covered in blood, utterly disheveled, looking nothing like a woman at all.

Meanwhile, in the other passage, Jun Beiyue heard the explosions and felt a mix of alarm and joy—he knew at once that the woman must have woken up.

Only she could give the order to detonate “Nizhen”!