Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 38

“And if I win?” Yuan Yao stared at him.

Xie Yan gave a muffled laugh, as though he had heard something absurd. “You think you can beat me?”

Yuan Yao remained perfectly calm. “Don’t be so arrogant, Xie Yan. If I win, you have to call me Boss every time you see me.”

“Dream on.” The two words emerged coldly from beneath his mask.

The instant he finished speaking, Yuan Yao kicked him hard in the shin.

“You—!”

Xie Yan had never expected such a move. The sharp pain distracted him for a fraction of a second—more than enough time for Yuan Yao to break free of his pressure and retreat several steps.

“First Form of Xiaoyao—”

“Sword Arcs to the Heavens!”

Her sword flashed.

Xie Yan leaned aside without concern, easily avoiding the strike. A trace of mockery touched his lips. Then his figure blurred, and his longsword came slashing violently toward her.

Sword shadows poured down like a storm.

Caught off guard, Yuan Yao could only retreat again and again to evade them.

Even so, she could not withstand Xie Yan’s swordplay, which was so tight that not even wind could pass. Several wounds, some deep and some shallow, quickly opened across her body.

Her gaze sharpened.

When Xie Yan swept his blade horizontally, she suddenly sprang upward and used her momentum to stamp one foot onto the flat of his sword.

He frowned, undisguised disgust in his eyes.

With a twist of his wrist, the blade rolled beneath her. The descending edge reversed in a streak of cold light and slashed upward.

Yuan Yao’s expression changed. She flew backward and swung her own sword at him.

Clang—

The blades met.

Pain and numbness shot through Yuan Yao’s arm and the web of her thumb. Her face blanched.

Xie Yan’s swordsmanship was formidable. In fewer than ten exchanges, he drove her into a dead end.

His blade came to rest across her throat.

“From now on, avoid me whenever you see me,” he said coldly. “Where I go, you don’t.”

“What if there’s no other road?” Yuan Yao asked earnestly.

Xie Yan’s brows drew together. “Stop playing games with me. If you dare appear in front of me again—or try kicking me again—I’ll cut off all four of your limbs.”

The threat sounded strangely familiar.

Her Fourth Senior Brother said similar things whenever he was angry.

He was even crueler. He threatened to turn her into a limbless human stump.

Yuan Yao blinked at Xie Yan.

“Did you hear me?” he asked impatiently.

She nodded. “I heard you.”

That did not mean she intended to obey.

If she did, how could she ever win him over?

Besides, once she became stronger, Xie Yan would be the one fleeing whenever he saw her.

An image rose in Yuan Yao’s mind: herself beating Xie Yan senseless while he ran in terror…

Just imagining it felt wonderful.

By the time she returned to herself, he had vanished.

Yuan Yao looked around, but there was no sign of him anywhere.

The golden egg shuffled to her side.

—Take me outside!

Yuan Yao looked at it, raised a fist, and pounded the shell several times.

“You ungrateful egg!”

Stars spun before the golden egg’s eyes. It tried to flee at once.

Yuan Yao kicked it straight into the lake.

Splash!

Water erupted across the surface.

“Come here!” Yuan Yao sneered when it tried to escape again.

The egg needed her help, so it could only tremble its way back. Yuan Yao promptly gave it another beating.

The golden egg whimpered. This was cruelty to eggs.

“If you want to leave, then you have to follow me.” Yuan Yao stroked its shell and spoke with great solemnity. “I don’t know what species you are, but I happen to need a little spirit pet. You can be mine.”

Most of her fellow disciples raised spirit pets. She wanted one too.

The golden egg protested.

—I refuse to be a spirit pet!

It was the pure-blooded descendant of an ancient divine beast. How could it become some human’s pet?

Yuan Yao held it in both hands and asked in the gentlest of voices, “Tell me, whose spirit pet would you like to be?”

The egg trembled.

—Yours…

Yuan Yao nodded with satisfaction. “Then let’s establish a master-servant contract right now.”

—An equal contract! Not a master-servant contract!

It might have surrendered, but it still had the dignity of an ancient divine beast’s descendant to preserve.

Yuan Yao considered this.

“Fine.”

And so Yuan Yao and the golden egg exchanged blood essence and formed an equal contract.

Far away, the white-robed youth stood atop a tree and watched the entire scene.

He did want the ancient divine beast.

But it was clearly more inclined toward Yuan Yao.

Through leaves stirring gently in the night wind, he studied her for several seconds. The fingers of his left hand unconsciously rubbed the jade-green gourd at his waist.

Yuan Yao seemed to sense someone watching her and looked directly toward him.

Xie Yan did not hide.

Their gazes met.

For a moment, even the wind seemed to stop.

The youth sent spiritual power into his secret-treasure key. In the next instant, both of them were transported out.

Yuan Yao swayed. When her surroundings came into focus, she found herself back where she had been before entering the secret-treasure realm.

Xie Yan stood beside her.

Several cultivators had been waiting nearby. The moment the pair reappeared, the cultivators’ expressions changed, and they exchanged glances.

They had noticed the golden egg in Yuan Yao’s arms.

One look was enough to tell them it was extraordinary.

Greed kindled in their eyes as they studied Yuan Yao and Xie Yan.

Xie Yan ignored them and walked straight past.

“Stop!”

The cultivators exchanged another glance, hurried after him, and surrounded him.

Xie Yan halted. “Move.”

“Hand over the secret treasure!” one of them demanded arrogantly.

“She has it.” Xie Yan turned and cast Yuan Yao a look.

All the Golden Core cultivators immediately stared at her.

Yuan Yao’s expression changed. She sent the golden egg into her spirit-pet space, then said in exasperation, “Xie Yan, have you no shame? You’re the one who cleaned the place out! You didn’t even leave the tables and stools!”

Xie Yan raised a brow. “You did that.”

“You really are a dog, Xie Yan. Do you want me to tell them your weakness?”

“Go ahead.”

Anyone who learned it would have to die.

If he had not sworn an oath not to kill her, she would have to die too.

Yuan Yao turned to the cultivators and sighed. “I’m only in the early Foundation Establishment Realm. How could I possibly compete for secret treasures against someone in the Nascent Soul Realm?”

At the words *Nascent Soul Realm*, the cultivators’ faces changed. They retreated two steps and stared at the ghost-masked youth in disbelief.

One asked warily, “Is she telling the truth?”

“No,” Xie Yan said.

The Golden Core cultivators turned and fled for their lives.

In a situation like this, anyone who said *no* was obviously admitting *yes*.

Xie Yan stared after them.

What?