How to Be the Perfect Junior Sister to a Reborn Villain - Chapter 23

Chapter 23 

The street bustled with life. Under the curious and startled gazes of the crowd, a disheveled woman stumbled forward, hair in disarray, eyes swollen and red from crying.

She grabbed anyone she could reach, her voice hoarse from screaming, face pale and frantic.

My child has anyone seen my child?

He was just here! Playing right beside me! Did anyone see him?

“Please, I’m begging you, someone tell me! My child my child is gone!”

Tears and snot streamed down her face, her grief raw and pitiful.

You! Did you see him?

Li Xi froze when the woman suddenly grabbed her arm, looking helplessly toward Yan Jiuzhi for aid. Senior Brother,” she asked urgently, “do you know any tracking techniques?

Yan Jiuzhi nodded once and said to the woman, “Give me a strand of your hair, or something that belongs to your child.”

Among the onlookers, someone recognized them and shouted, “Quick, give it to him! He’s an immortal master from Yunxiao Sect!”

“Yes, yes! The Yunxiao Sect immortals are amazing!”

“With a celestial master helping, your child will be saved for sure!”

At those words, the woman, trembling uncontrollably, tore a handful of her own hair from her head and thrust it into Yan Jiuzhi’s hands along with the little wooden rattle she had been clutching.

Then she dropped to her knees with a thud, knocking her head repeatedly against the ground.

“Immortal master, please save my son! He’s only three! I just turned around to grab some vegetables and he was gone!”

Her cheeks were sunken, her lips cracked and bleeding, her thin frame shaking from exhaustion and terror. Her faded cotton clothes were coated in dust, making her look utterly pitiful.

Xiaocui hurried forward to help her up, but the woman could barely stand, her entire body trembling.

Only her eyes still burned bright with desperate hope, fixed unwaveringly on Yan Jiuzhi.

Li Xi watched her third senior brother anxiously, frustrated that her own abilities were still so shallow at a time like this, she couldn’t even help.

Yan Jiuzhi swiftly formed a series of hand seals. His gaze sharpened suddenly toward the distance. “Go,” he said simplythen darted forward, light as wind, toward the city gates.

Li Xi and Xiaocui immediately followed, weaving through the streets and the crowd at full speed.

Just outside the gate, Yan Jiuzhi drew his sword in one fluid motion and slashed down. A scream split the air short, sharp and a man in grey robes collapsed to the ground, dead.

A strange, pitch-black cage materialized out of thin air.

Inside were several unconscious children, no more than three or four years old. There were at least six or seven of them.

Gasps rippled through the people nearby. The guards at the gate hurried to usher civilians back into the city, sealing the exit to prevent anyone from leaving.

This was clearly not something ordinary people could handle it was best to leave it to the cultivators.

The grey-robed man who had taken Yan Jiuzhi’s strike lay twisted on the ground, eyes wide open, black bl00d seeping beneath him.

A demonic cultivator.

The people inside the gate craned their necks to look, both fearful and curious. But their faith in Yunxiao Sect ran deep, and so they stayed to watch keeping their distance, but unwilling to flee.

No one dared approach the cage or the unconscious children. This was the immortals’ battle.

“Be careful,” Yan Jiuzhi warned curtly, then leaped into the air to clash with another figure cloaked in black.

This black-robed man was far stronger calm and composed, even as he countered Yan Jiuzhi’s attacks with effortless precision.

Li Xi darted toward the cage, but a sudden rush of killing intent brushed the back of her neck.

She spun aside just in time, drawing her sword to block a slashing blade.

Clang!

The impact drove her back two steps.

Her attacker was a greasy-looking man with shifty eyes and a thin mustache. His grin was vile, his voice sharp and nasal.

Well, well~ what a pretty little thing,” he sneered. “Qi Refining, eighth level, eh? Lucky for you, I’m tenth.

He didn’t spare a glance for the dead demonic cultivator on the ground only ogled her with open malice.

“Tsk tsk… such smooth skin. What a waste, living in this backwater.” His beady eyes glinted, roaming her from head to toe. “Don’t worry, I won’t scratch that lovely face. The masters love girls like you fresh and delicate.”

He licked his lips and swung his broad blade down at her, already calculating how much profit he could make selling her.

Li Xi ignored his filthy words.

She remembered what Third Senior Brother had taught her In battle, focus only on killing. Don’t listen. Don’t think. Just strike.

Any hesitation could mean death.

Her eyes narrowed, grip tightening on her sword. She watched every motion of his blade with unflinching focus.

The man’s broadsword crashed against her blade again and again, the metallic clangs echoing through the air. Her footwork faltered briefly, but she recovered at once steady and sure.

She hadn’t been training in vain. The Water and Moon Radiance Sword Technique flowed like silk, soft on the surface but carrying hidden sharpness each move laced with lethal intent.

The mustached man couldn’t even get close, let alone capture her.

Meanwhile, Xiaocui silently circled behind him, waiting for an opening to strike.

Li Xi pressed forward, attacking relentlessly, her sword flashing slashes, thrusts, parries, ripostes seamless and fluid.

Her opponent was strong and aggressive, his strikes brutal and heavy, but his mouth never stopped running.

Feisty little thing, aren’t you? Men prefer gentler girls. Come quietly with me you’ll live a rich life, eat well, dress fine.

Li Xi’s sword whistled past his head, a silvery arc of light grazing his scalp. Several strands of his hair drifted down, leaving a shiny patch behind.

The man’s expression twisted with fury.

That little brat had humiliated him! He’d make her pay hand her over to the master who liked turning beauties into puppets!

Roaring, he launched himself at her, hacking wildly, his blade clashing against hers in a storm of sparks.

Li Xi was forced back again and again, her arms aching, her palms split and bleeding. Her sword nearly slipped from her grasp.

Yet her eyes burned brighter than ever.

That last flash silver and sharp was sword qi.

She had unleashed sword qi!

A thrill shot through her. So it’s true battle is the best teacher!

Her confidence surged. With a deft twist, she parried another heavy blow and flowed into the first stance of her sect’s sword art Silver Hook, Falling Moon.

A gleaming silver arc swept through the air, cold and radiant like moonlight on snow. Even though the mustached man’s cultivation was higher, he staggered backward, barely blocking.

Xiaocui seized the moment, springing forward with a punch aimed at his head.

Boom!

He snarled and lashed out with a kick, sending Xiaocui flying back to the ground.

He was still far above them in cultivation it wouldn’t be that easy to take him down.

Gasps rippled from inside the city.

“The immortal masters were hit!”

“What if they lose? What will we do?”

Doors slammed shut one after another. Half the spectators fled.

Others rushed home to grab whatever weapons they had hoes, cleavers, rakes ready to defend their families if it came to that.

The distraught mother struggled to run forward, but people restrained her, holding her back from what would surely be death.

Tears streamed down her face as she stared at the cage of unconscious children.

That was her child her life.

“Immortal master, please save them! Please save my baby!” she sobbed, collapsing to the ground.

“Quiet!” someone hissed beside her. “Can’t you see they’re fighting? Don’t distract the immortals!”

“Stop wailing, woman! You’ll get them killed!” growled another man, his own eyes red. His child was in that cage too, but he clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay put.

Li Xi could hear their shouts, their fear, their desperate hope.

Her heart clenched for Xiaocui, who lay motionless behind her but she didn’t dare look back.

The more dangerous the fight, the calmer she became. Her mind turned clear as still water.

Sword qi born of the heart.

The silver light around her blade flared brighter and brighter, dazzling in the sunlight. Her movements grew faster, sharper, surer.

The sword qi pulsed like a living thing, bursting with killing intent.

The mustached demonic cultivator stumbled backward again and again, his body slashed open in countless places, dark bl00d oozing from the wounds.

He crashed to the ground, shock twisting his face.

What kind of sword technique is this?!

This wasn’t something an ordinary rogue cultivator could wield.

Could she be a disciple from one of the great orthodox sects?

Had they just kicked a hornet’s nest?