Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 74

At the same time, Yuan Yao found herself trapped inside a room of her own.

Five other people were with her. Two were plainly no longer lucid: an old man and a little girl of six or seven.

Of the remaining three, Yuan Yao recognized only one—the young man from the Severed Affections Sect, Ye Guqiu.

Her attention was drawn to an orange-robed youth sitting in meditation nearby. He had not opened his eyes once.

The youth had refined, handsome features. Silver armor plates adorned the rim of one ear, resembling a coiled python.

“Don’t eat me…don’t eat me…”

The little girl suddenly began to mumble, her voice trembling.

Yuan Yao paused, then hurried over and crouched in front of her. When she took the child’s hand, she found it deathly cold.

She touched the girl’s cheek and forehead.

They were just as icy.

Yuan Yao’s heart sank. “Can you hear me?” she asked gently.

The girl’s eyes remained unfocused. She gave no response, merely repeating, “Don’t eat me…”

“Who wants to eat you?” Yuan Yao asked, holding her cold little hand.

The girl did not react.

Behind Yuan Yao, Ye Guqiu stared sharply at her back as a sword materialized in his hand.

Sensing danger, Yuan Yao sprang to her feet.

Ye Guqiu swung his sword at her.

Clang!

Yuan Yao turned and blocked with the Phantom Spirit Sword. Gritting her teeth, she thrust his blade aside with all her strength and sent him staggering several steps backward.

Ye Guqiu’s expression darkened.

“What a heaven-sent opportunity. There is no one here to help you now!”

He hated the Six Disciples of Qianshan to his very bones.

Ye Guqiu attacked again.

“You want to kill me?” Yuan Yao raised her sword in defense and stared at him in disbelief.

“I do.” Her foolish expression drew a mocking laugh from him. “You never expected this, did you?”

His gaze swept over the old man, the child, the silent orange-robed youth, and the timid young male disciple. Then he smiled.

“The heavens themselves are helping me!”

Yuan Yao calmed down. The disbelief faded from her eyes, replaced by resolve, and her fingers tightened around the Phantom Spirit Sword.

Ye Guqiu immediately swung at her.

Yuan Yao sidestepped the strike and launched a fierce counterattack.

“Sword Arcs to the Heavens!”

“Flowers Whisper, Rain Shatters!”

“Heaven and Earth in Motion!”

She unleashed three sword techniques in quick succession.

Ye Guqiu blocked every one of them. Then he slashed hard and sent Yuan Yao stumbling several steps backward.

Her chest tightened.

“I am the true sword cultivator!” Ye Guqiu glared at her resentfully.

He unleashed the sword techniques of the Severed Affections Sect, every move exceptionally vicious.

Yuan Yao raised her sword to defend.

In the next instant, his sword energy swept her off her feet and flung her into the wall.

Bang!

The violent impact sent a piercing agony through her sea of consciousness. The pain nearly robbed Yuan Yao of speech, and her vision swam.

Through the dizziness, she could just make out Ye Guqiu advancing with his sword poised to stab through her heart.

No—

Yuan Yao bit the tip of her tongue hard to remain conscious, then rolled aside and narrowly avoided the fatal thrust.

More sword energy pursued her.

She scrambled upright and blocked, only to be driven back several steps by the force.

Just before she struck the wall again, Yuan Yao stopped herself. She stepped forward, poured all her spiritual power into the Phantom Spirit Sword, and slashed at Ye Guqiu.

“First Form of Taihuang—”

“Cross Cut!”

Boom!

Ye Guqiu’s expression changed dramatically. He raised his sword to block, but the next instant, the attack hurled him across the room and slammed him into the wall.

Bang!

Agony tore through both his body and his sea of consciousness.

Warm, viscous blood flowed down his cheek.

He could not even groan. The sword energy had split his throat open vertically, and blood gushed from the wound.

Yuan Yao instinctively tightened her grip on her sword. Then she took a deep breath, rushed forward, and drove the blade through his heart.

Shhk—

Ye Guqiu’s body convulsed. He raised his eyes with enormous effort and glared at Yuan Yao.

Then his body slid to the ground with a thud.

His breathing stopped, his eyes still wide with hatred.

【Target Ye Guqiu has died. A replacement target will be selected.】

System 250’s sudden announcement brought Yuan Yao back to herself. She pulled the Phantom Spirit Sword from his body.

The next moment, Ye Guqiu’s corpse dissolved into smoke that drifted out of the room.

At the sight, Yuan Yao recalled the inexplicable pain that had struck her sea of consciousness when she collided with the wall.

She suspected that this room was a prison.

Yuan Yao turned to the timid young man. “Do you know something about this place?”

“I-I-I know a little. D-don’t kill me,” Qiu Xingwen stammered.

“I-I’ve been trapped here for four days. At first, we tried to get out too, but whenever we touched the door or walls, an intense pain struck our sea of consciousness. The harder we tried to open the door, the worse it became.”

As Qiu Xingwen continued, his voice gradually steadied.

He pointed at the old man and the little girl. “The longer someone stays here—like this old gentleman and the child—the more scattered their soul and mind become. They grow less lucid by the day.”

“Once a day, one person in the room is taken away at random.”

“Tomorrow, one of the four of us will be taken.”

Yuan Yao’s heart stirred. “Taken by what?”

“An invisible force,” Qiu Xingwen answered.

Could that invisible force be mental power?

“Has anyone who was taken ever been brought back?” Yuan Yao asked.

Qiu Xingwen shook his head.

Yuan Yao now had a general understanding of the room.

She looked at the old man and the little girl. They were probably residents of Yunming City.

Returning to the child, she found her still repeating the same words.

Don’t eat me.

Yuan Yao stroked her icy face and suddenly thought of something.

She took out a jade bottle from her storage space, poured a third-grade Mind-Clearing Pill into her palm, and fed it to the little girl.

Qiu Xingwen was stunned. If he was not mistaken, that was a third-grade pill!

And she had simply fed it to a child?

The girl seemed to taste its intense bitterness. Her expression finally changed, and her brows scrunched together.

“Is it bitter?” Yuan Yao asked softly.

The child did not answer, but at least she stopped repeating that sentence.

After a moment, light gradually returned to her eyes.

She focused on Yuan Yao and blinked. Then she instinctively whispered, “Fairy Sister…”

【Target Gu Zhaozhao’s Awakening Value has reached 50. Congratulations, Host. Your lifespan has increased by one day. Current remaining lifespan: six days and eighteen hours.】