It was in February, Qiling. Lightning pierced the sky, and thunder roared.

"Rumble..."

Lightning split down from the dark night sky, tearing it in two parts with its bright cold light.

The deafening sound of thunder followed.

Around the Prefect's Mansion and Donglai post house were in chaos. People were woken up by the great change. They ran outside and saw a red, burning world. Panic, anxiety, confusion, and bewilderment appeared in their eyes looking at the tragedy on the earth.

In the Prefect's Mansion, after the fake prefect revealed his face, Gu Yunxi pointed at him and shouted,

"Master, it's him! He shut the real Feng Yunheng away in the Prefect's Mansion's secret room underground!"

The wind brought Gu Yunxi's excited shouts to them. Leng Qingtang and the fake prefect both turned their heads to her.

When he saw Gu Yunxi, Leng Qingtang rose his dashing eyebrows. His face lighted up with pleasure, and his backbone relaxed as if he had let out a heavy sigh.

She was safe and sound. His heart fell back into its original place.

In the front, the fake prefect Wenren Junzheng changed his face and stared sharply at Gu Yunxi. His eyes were as cold as ice.

The broadsword rose in the air, Leng Qingtang's pupil shrank. He held his sword tightly. Faint zither sound came from the shiny blade.

Swords flashed in the air. Leng Qingtang stopped Wenren's attack with his sword and tried to prevent him from hurting Gu Yunxi.

More than a dozen blows followed.

Sword collided with the broadsword. Silver sparks seemed red in flames. The two men moved back and forth in flames as fast as ghosts. One could hardly tell the difference between their figures and sword lights with naked eyes.

As they passed by each other again, Wenren Junzheng raised the broadsword with one hand and changed his movement.

A sound of dragon split through the sky.

The broadsword swept to Gu Yunxi. Countless invincible sword light shed to her like surges burst the bank with fierce pressure that she had never felt.

Subconsciously, Leng Qingtang looked at Gu Yunxi, who stood erect and motionless by the firelight like her soul had wandered to somewhere else. Her pale face covered with terror, and her almond eyes were filled with shock and bewilderment.

Leng Qingtang rushed to her and waved the sword, infused with his strong inner strength, to defend the strength of Wenren's broadsword.

Even the clouds were shaken by the overwhelming power of this collision. It was like a thunder exploded above Gu Yunxi's head, which pulled her out of incomprehension. Bright colors reflected in her eyes.

She rose into the air when the house and trees around her collapsed. When she fell, she fell on something soft that she didn't feel any pain.

She looked down and found it was Leng Qingtang who cushioned her by himself.

Just then, the huge force created by the collision of two strong internal strength ejected Leng Qingtang, Gu Yunxi, and Wenren Junzheng out in different directions.

Leng Qingtang covered Gu Yunxi in his arms and turned over at the moment of landing, so his back hit against the ground.

"Master? Master!"

Their danger temporarily came to a conclusion. Gu Yunxi staggered to her feet and found Leng Qingtang breathing rapidly with a pale face. The shake loosed their bounded hair so they were disheveled.

Supported by Gu Yunxi, Leng Qingtang sprayed a mouthful of blood. He gasped hard. On his forehead, blue veins stood out, and large drops on sweat slid.

"Master..."

Gu Yunxi knew that he had his heart injured in the shake, trying to protect her. In a mood of deep sorrow, tears tricked down her cheeks.

"Get out of here, girl. Quickly!"

Looking around at the fire, Leng Qingtang grasped Gu Yunxi's another arm and used all strength to warn her.

By touch, Gu Yunxi could feel his big hand on her forearm quivering. It seemed that the grip was gradually depleting his final strength.

However, his dark eyes were still bright, and his tone, sonorous tone, was so firm that he wouldn't let her refute.

"Master!" She shouted again, with a cry in her voice.

Blood that stained his lips, reflecting the fire, stung her eyes.

She said resolutely, biting her underlip,

"I don't leave! You have always protected me, and today, I'll protect you!"

"Yunxi!"

Astounded, Leng Qingtang tried to stop her, but Gu Yunxi had stood before him against strong wind mingled with thick smoke. She held Leng Qingtang's sword with both hands, narrowed her eyes, and focused on Wenren Junzheng slowly approaching. Shadow of hatred crept on her delicate face.

Wenren Junzheng didn't look good, either. He was also injured when they had ejected away, and the first finger web of his right hand, holding the broadsword, also split.

His right hand was badly mutilated. Blood streamed down along the handle of the broadsword and then dropped on the ground like flower petals of red plum.

The wind blew stronger, so did the fire. The wind pelted their faces with flying sand and pebbles, which was as hurt as hot blades.

"Master,"

Loud calls came from the west. The second captain Lu Rong was rushing to Wenren Junzheng with his men. He was going to fight with Wenren Junzheng to protect Leng Qingtang, but several guards blocked them halfway.

Now, they took passivity, struggling in fighting in the Prefect's Mansion, because the aid was on the way as most of the Eastern Depot people were in Donglai post house.

"Take one more step, and I'll kill you with this sword!"

Wenren was within her safe distance. Gu Yunxi held the handle of Qingshui Liuyun sword with both hands and daunted Wenren coldly.

"Girl, you can't kill him. Go."

Regardless of other problems, Leng Qingtang roared to her on a bended knee. His chest immediately ached as if it was torn up. Something tasted like iron upwelled from his throat.

He spread his fingers over his chest and coughed painfully and violently.

Gu Yunxi stared at approaching Wenren Junzheng and said in a hoarse, deep voice, sounding stern,

"I have... killed a man just now. I don't mind to kill another."

Shocked and speechless, Leng Qingtang gazed at this stern girl's back.

She stood erect and unshaken in the howling wind. Her black silhouette cast on the ground, straight and slender, as though it contained limitless potential and strength. She was indestructible.

It was Gu Yunxi definitely...

Leng Qingtang had never thought that his girl, a soft and delicate girl, would show him a perseverant, firm, and awe-inspiring back today.

She was a star. Even if in darkness, she would shine a bright light on her own and attract people's eyes.

Wenren Junzheng, opposite them, was as astonished as Leng Qingtang.

Girl? This guard was a girl?

He paused approaching and felt confused. Driven by a growing desire to explore the truth, he went on approaching "him".

The sword gave a zither sound.

When a wide bolt of lightning slanted across the night sky, Gu Yunxi raised the sword with both arms. Cold and dazzling light flew silently from the straight blade.

"One more step and I will stab you,"

Gu Yunxi threatened. Her tone was heavier than before. She opened her eyes wide to direct the blade to the enemy a few steps away.

Wenren Junzheng stopped in amazement, eyes settling on "him".

Flashes of lightning flashed in the upper air, lighting up a face, furious, dainty, and young.

Her facial features were beautiful, but her eyes, which were clear in the past, were bloodshot because of hatred. Her long, black hair danced in the strong wind.

In "his" hands was the sword too long for him to use.

For lack of strength, "he" barely raised it in the air to point at the enemy's face. The sharp blade quivered between the eyes of Wenren.

"He" stubbornly held on with murderous intention all over "him". Like a demon crawling out of purgatory, "he" was unwilling to give up easily.

An inch away from Qingshui Liuyun's sword blade, indescribable astonishment climbed on Wenren Junzheng's face.

Thunder rolled again, and lightning, as vigorous as magnificent silver dragons, disappeared and rose again.

Gu Yunxi's face was covered alternately with light and darkness as lightning flashed.

All of a sudden, someone who faded in that snowy night gradually emerged from Wenren Junzheng's bitter memories, like an illusion.

He couldn't forget that, eleven years ago, when he and his men went on the way of saving the family of Zheng Ran, his sworn brother, they met the guards from the Eastern Depot.

In the tangled fighting, he put Zheng Ran's youngest daughter, a girl covered in blood, on his back. When he was about to leave, Leng Qingtang cut down half of his left arm.

Leng Qingtang was seventeen years old then and was appointed Chiliarch of Penalty of the Eastern Depot.

"How old are you?"

Wenren settled his eyes on Gu Yunxi and asked her rambling question.

She felt puzzled but remained hostile.

"How old are you? Tell me!"

She held her tongue, but Wenren's mind tangled. He cried out impatiently, anxious for an answer.

"...Sixteen."

Gu Yunxi was shocked by his shout and replied with a little nervous.

"..."

Thunder grumbled. Gu Yunxi's weak and speculative reply made a heavy blow in Wenren Junzheng's ears as well as his heart.

As soon as he got the answer, his strong-built body tottered, and his look of incredulous astonishment deepened as he faced the girl before him.

"Ruo."

Looking mournful, he murmured a name which was quickly blown away by the wind.

The skin on his chest was gouged open by a cold blade that thrust into his body. The wound screamed pain to him.

In his front, Gu Yunxi showed him a malicious smile, satisfied as well as unsympathetic.

Wenren's face crumpled. He couldn't tell whether it was his wound that hurt or his heart. He staggered back. Warm blood streamed down from the wound and wet the clothes.

Gu Yunxi couldn't go on. She dropped the sword and gasped hard.

"Big Brother!"

An injured guard rushed onto Gu Yunxi, but he was stroke away by Wenren Junzheng before attacking her.

Shock, doubt, and deep emotions...

Those complex feelings mixed on this vicissitudinary old face.

"Ruo... Are you Ruo..."

He persisted in an answer and continued asking her.

He thought she had died already. On that day, he failed. His men risked their lives to bring him away from the Lord Protector Zheng's Mansion. From then on, he deemed that the massacre was conducted by the Eastern Depot, and the girl, the youngest daughter of Zheng Ran's two children, must have been murdered by someone of the Eastern Depot...

However, she looked a dead ringer of Zheng Ran's concubine Pei. Who was she?

It was Gu Yunxi's turn to be shocked.

Ruo...

She still remembered this name in her nightmare.

Ruo! Whose name was this?