Qian Renxue could hardly believe it. Yes, Liu Erlong had misunderstood, seeing only a thief before her, but was there really any need to be so merciless?
"Fifth Soul Skill, Fire Dragon Roar!" Liu Erlong bellowed, flames surging in her throat like a volcano on the brink of eruption.
Qian Renxue's golden eyes narrowed. She'd read the reports, Liu Erlong had a reputation for violent tendencies, but witnessing it firsthand was still startling.
Crackle!
Another thunderclap split the sky as Qian Renxue stepped forward, her voice calm but decisive.
"Stay here," she told Ghost Douluo.
The old Title Douluo didn't move, folding his arms as Qian Renxue had ordered. He knew his young master's strength well. Young Master was more than capable of handling a Soul King, and he'd seen it with his own eyes.
He still remembered his shock the day Qian Renxue revealed her true cultivation, Level 49 after their visit to the Heaven Dou city. All he could remember is with Grand worshipper's help they had hunted a Dark Gold terror claw bear for her fourth soul ring sometime ago. The revelation of her cultivation had shaken him so deeply that he'd sworn an oath of absolute loyalty.
While Ghost Douluo's mind wandered back to that moment of awe, Qian Renxue herself was already in motion. Her body blurred like a loosed arrow, streaking straight toward Liu Erlong.
It wasn't that Qian Renxue had suddenly developed saintly compassion or some moral obligation to protect the boy. No her reasons were far more calculated.
One of Qian Renxue's reasons for intervening was practical, she couldn't allow Liu Erlong to kill an innocent over a misunderstanding.
But the deeper, truer reason was personal. She knew that boy.
His name was Lu Ping, and he was far from an ordinary street urchin. He had once been the cherished son of a captain in the Heaven Dou Empire's army. His father's position brought respect and stability, but when the man died in service, the vultures began to circle.
In a story all too common in the Empire, corrupt officials seized the majority of his family's assets under flimsy pretenses. Then, tragedy struck again, his mother fell gravely ill. She fought to survive while they travelled from home to reach a renowned physician in Heaven Dou City, but on the road there, she took her last breath.
The final blow came swiftly. The hired bodyguards, seeing no authority left to protect the boy, murdered the loyal old butler who had been with the family for decades and took what remained of their wealth. They had refrained from harming Lu Ping only because killing a civilian in broad daylight might stir the city guard into action.
The old butler's death had been particularly bitter. He had once been a slave, freed by Lu Ping's father in an act of compassion. Since that day, the man had sworn unbreakable loyalty to the family. His end was a tragedy.
Alone, stripped of everything, Lu Ping wandered until he reached Baskin Town. There, a small band of orphaned children, survivors like himself, took him in. It wasn't much, but it was a kind of family.
Life became dull and repetitive: stealing bread, running from shopkeepers who only half-heartedly chased them, sleeping in cramped, hidden corners of the town.
Until Qian Renxue arrived.
She had recognized in him a certain spark, the resilience of someone who had seen his world burned to ash yet still refused to bow completely. He was the first to truly surrender to her leadership, swearing himself to the Twilight Hermit Order without hesitation.
With his sharp instincts, Lu Ping had quickly realized that Qian Renxue was no ordinary noble.
That encounter had left its mark not only on him but also on Qian Renxue.
Until then, she had been almost careless about her appearance, blind to how her beauty seemed to sharpen with every breakthrough in cultivation. Normally, she would cast a light illusion to alter a few facial features, thinking enough to pass without drawing much attention.
But after meeting Lu Ping, she had begun to take far stricter measures, concealing her entire face beneath a full disguise whenever she moved among strangers.
The reason was simple. She remembered all too clearly the way he had first looked at her, not with the dazed infatuation of a commoner encountering beauty, but with an appraising gaze that saw past her clothes and mask, measuring the person beneath.
That day, Lu Ping had gone down on one knee before her, not in desperation but in solemn pledge. His voice had been steady as he swore his undying loyalty to her, asking for only one thing in return, her help in exacting vengeance upon the mercenaries who had murdered the old butler. That man had been more than a servant; he had been the last thread connecting Lu Ping to his lost family, the only figure who had truly cared for him after his parents' deaths.
Qian Renxue, curious, had brushed the edges of his surface thoughts, confirming every detail. There were no lies in him, only pain buried deep and a quiet, simmering determination. On a whim and perhaps out of a rare flicker of compassion, she had handed him a token of the Twilight Hermit Order.
She had told herself it was only to see how the story might unfold, to watch the future he might carve for himself under her banner.
And now, mere weeks later, that story threatened to end before it could even begin.
Liu Erlong's Fifth Soul Skill, Fire Dragon Roar, was already gathering heat, the air around her shimmering with destructive power. The hungry flames reflected in Lu Ping's wide eyes, as he still run ahead.