Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 6

Pressure slammed into Yuan Yao’s chest. When she raised her head, Eldest Senior Brother had already planted himself in front of her.

“Junior Sister, are you hurt?” Song Yan’s voice was taut with concern.

“I’m fine.” Yuan Yao scrambled to her feet and glanced at Lu Xiangxiang, who was retreating nearby.

Without hesitation, she seized Song Yan’s arm and dragged him in Lu Xiangxiang’s direction. “Junior Sister Lu, let’s run!”

Before Lu Xiangxiang could react, Yuan Yao caught hold of her as well and took off with both of them.

One in each hand, Yuan Yao ran like the wind.

Song Yan and Lu Xiangxiang could barely keep up.

Song Yan’s pupils contracted in shock. As far as he remembered, Little Junior Sister used to pant three times for every ten steps. How could she run like this today?

At the same time, Xie Yan glanced toward the fleeing trio as he fought the middle-aged man. One corner of his mouth tugged upward, his expression unreadable.

“Xie Yan, hand over the Matchless Pearl!” The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes.

In an instant, his arm transformed into a massive brown python. Its bloody maw gaped wide as it lunged at the white-robed youth.

The youth flicked his left wrist and swept out his sword. The blade seemed vast enough to cross the four seas as it crashed into the python.

Shrrk!

Flesh split open. The python’s scream followed.

“How many days do you think the Matchless Pearl would remain in the hands of an idiot like you?” the youth drawled.

The middle-aged man opened his mouth to answer, but terror seized his face.

The wind surged for a single instant.

Then all was still.

The youth slid his sword into its sheath.

On the ground below lay a corpse cut cleanly in two.

Xie Yan descended beside it. Frowning faintly, he picked up a branch and used it to pull aside the man’s blood-soaked robes. A totem soon came into view on the corpse’s chest.

It depicted the outline of a sun, with a serpentine pattern traced inside.

Xie Yan’s gaze remained indifferent. He tossed the branch away.

Then his steps halted.

Familiar agony tore through his heart. Numbness swept through his entire body, leaving him barely able to stand.

At that same moment—

The ground beneath Wuduan Forest transformed into an enormous vortex.

“Damn it!” Xie Yan’s expression changed. He tried to leap away, only for a tremendous force to drag him downward.

Elsewhere, Yuan Yao and the others were pulled into the vortex as well.

The wind screamed. Air currents spun like a raging tornado, and in the blink of an eye, every cultivator in Wuduan Forest had been swept toward the center of the maelstrom.

Yuan Yao’s cultivation was only at the ninth level of Qi Refining, but the defensive artifact she wore shielded her from the violent gale. She escaped serious injury.

Song Yan reached for her, only to hear Lu Xiangxiang’s shrill cry for help.

“Eldest Senior Brother! Save me!”

His heart clenched. The distraction slowed the hand reaching for Yuan Yao by the smallest fraction.

That instant cost him his chance to catch her.

“Yaoyao!” Song Yan’s face changed as he shouted her name.

“Eldest Senior Brother, I’m all right!” Though Yuan Yao had been dragged into the heart of the storm, she answered him at once.

The sickening sensation of weightlessness swept through her. She fought to steady herself.

Then a flash of white caught the corner of her eye.

It was him.

Xie Yan.

She remembered how he had called her “little trash” and narrowed her eyes.

At that exact moment, the vortex flung Xie Yan below her.

His back was turned.

A smile crept over Yuan Yao’s lips. She flexed her fingers, shifted with the force of the vortex, and kicked out hard.

Xie Yan sensed her movement and spun around, but it was too late.

Her foot struck him squarely in the chest.

Pain flashed across his face, and a muffled grunt escaped him.

His eyes turned glacial. He seized her ankle and yanked.

Yuan Yao lost her balance and dropped into a flawless split at the center of the vortex.

Their eyes met. Sparks seemed to crackle between them, though something about the moment was indescribably bizarre.

Guilt crept into Yuan Yao’s voice. “Do you think I did that on purpose?”

Xie Yan smiled without warmth. “What else am I supposed to think?”

Yuan Yao had nothing to say.

Before she could try, the vortex’s pull intensified and swallowed them whole, dragging both into the Wuduan Secret Realm.

“Little Junior Sister—!” Song Yan’s desperate shout dwindled into the distance.

…

Inside the Wuduan Secret Realm, Yuan Yao gradually regained consciousness.

Her head spun, and a powerful discomfort ran through her body. When she finally opened her eyes, dim stone walls filled her vision.

Where was she?

After several seconds, she managed to rise, swaying on her feet.

She appeared to be in a dark underground cavern.

As she studied her surroundings, she spotted another person lying unconscious nearby.

Their back was turned to her.

Yuan Yao tensed. This was the first time she had ever faced an unfamiliar cultivator without her senior brothers and sisters beside her.

“Are you awake?” she asked cautiously.

There was no answer.

Knowing how low her cultivation was, she did not dare approach directly. Instead, she made an enormous circle around the cavern before reaching the stranger’s front.

One look made her mouth twitch.

Him again.

Xie Yan.

His black ghost mask had slipped crooked and looked ready to fall off.

System 250’s voice rang through her sea of consciousness.

【Target Xie Yan’s Awakening Value: -99.】

Yuan Yao turned and left without hesitation. She could not waste time on Xie Yan. Winning him over would be more than twice as difficult as dealing with anyone else.

After walking a short distance, however, she stopped.

She spun around, dashed back behind him, and kicked him squarely in the ass.

“Hope we never meet again!” Yuan Yao arched a brow in delight and turned to leave with a jaunty step.

Then—

A red thread flashed out and wound around her ankle with lightning speed. It bit through her skin. Blood welled at once, staining her white sock crimson.

“Hiss…”

“Little trash.” The youth’s hoarse voice came from behind her.

Yuan Yao’s heart lurched. Every hair on her body stood on end.

She whipped around.

The white-robed youth who had appeared unconscious was sitting on the damp ground, unhurriedly straightening his mask. A red thread was looped between two fingers of his left hand.

He lifted his head.

The utter coldness in his eyes sent a chill through her bones.

“Once wasn’t enough, so you had to kick me twice? It seems you don’t want that foot anymore…”

“I do! I want it!” Yuan Yao surrendered instantly. She pressed her palms together. “I know I was wrong. I promise I won’t do it again.”

Then she bowed to him three times with perfect solemnity.

Xie Yan was speechless.