"Xiaotao, get behind me."
Standing before Xiaotao, Zheng Xiu's frame swelled, his muscles hardening like tempered steel. He was like an indomitable Little Steel Cannon.
"Mm."
After her initial panic, Xiaotao stared intently at his back. A strange sense of peace washed over her, and her trembling hands gradually steadied.
SCHLICK.
Only after their brief exchange did a bloody gash finally appear on Zheng Xiu's cheek. The flesh parted, and blood trickled down the contours of his facial muscles.
Xie Luohe glanced at the wound on Zheng Xiu's face out of the corner of her eye, her fists tightening.
Zheng Xiu's mood right now was perhaps completely different from Xiaoxie's.
'Can't let it go to waste.'
Zheng Xiu silently dipped the Luohe Brush into the blood on his cheek, his gaze fixed forward on the newcomer.
A sliver of fish-belly white appeared on the horizon.
The sun rose, bit by bit chasing away the night.
