345: Chapter 345: Contest

Su Qinghan's heart slammed hard against her chest.

She raised her eyes, meeting his gaze.

In the twilight, his eyes were as deep as two wells, reflecting the last trace of orange light on the horizon, as well as her face wearing a half-mask.

"What kind of person is the one the Alliance Leader knows?"

She asked, her voice as calm as a pool of water.

Xiao Ran looked at her for two breaths, then leaned down slightly, moving closer—close enough for Su Qinghan to see the curve of his eyelashes.

"A rather interesting person," he said.

"Stubborn, soft-hearted; she clearly has skills but insists on pretending to be a poor, pitiful thing. She thinks she's hiding it well, but actually..."

His fingers slid down from the hair behind her ears, landing on her jaw, and gently lifted it.

"Actually, the first day she stood before me, I recognized her."

Su Qinghan's breathing hitched for half a beat.

But she didn't retreat.

She met Xiao Ran's gaze, her lips even curling into a faint arc.

"Then, this Disciple would also very much like to meet the person the Alliance Leader speaks of."

"Someone who can make the Alliance Leader remember them for so long must be very special."

Xiao Ran's movements paused, and then he smiled.

That smile was different from the previous times; the corners of his lips curved deeper, and genuine amusement rippled in the depths of his eyes.

"You are indeed like her." After saying this, he straightened up, turned around, and continued walking forward.

"Let's go, it's getting dark."

Su Qinghan followed behind him, her heart beating like a drum.

Was his last sentence a test or a showdown?

He said he recognized her on the first day, but if he recognized her, why didn't he strike? Why did he still play along with this act?

She couldn't make sense of it, but she at least confirmed one thing.

Xiao Ran had indeed recognized her.

And since he hadn't exposed her, it meant he was waiting for something.

Waiting for her to admit it herself? Or waiting for her to reveal a bigger flaw?

Su Qinghan gripped the short blade in her sleeve, her steps becoming steadier.

No matter what he was waiting for, she would not let him get his wish.

...

It was already late at night when she returned to the Eternal Night Demon Sect.

Just as Su Qinghan walked into the small courtyard of the Hehuan Sect's station and hadn't yet had time to close the door, she saw a dark green figure standing under the old locust tree in the yard.

Poison Lady.

She had her back to the courtyard gate, her hand raised, twisting a locust leaf, her fingertips gently caressing the veins on the leaf's surface.

Hearing footsteps, she turned around, her narrow, long eyes like two thin blades in the moonlight, slicing Su Qinghan from head to toe.

"Liu Qingyan." Poison Lady's voice was not loud, but as cold as spring water at the bottom of a well.

"You've returned quite late."

Su Qinghan stood still at the courtyard gate: "Poison Lady, do you have business with me?"

Although Poison Lady was a favorite by Xiao Ran's side, everyone in the Demonic Path knew the two had an affair.

For a period of time before, Poison Lady would spend the night in Xiao Ran's bedchamber almost every night.

As for what they were doing? A lone man and a lone woman, what else could they be doing?

Therefore, very few people in the Demonic Path dared to provoke Poison Lady.

After all, the power of a bedfellow went without saying.

But Su Qinghan simply didn't care about her.

As if to say, it wasn't like she hadn't slept with Xiao Ran herself.

"I didn't come to find you for anything big."

Poison Lady released the leaf, letting it drift onto the bluestone ground, then she walked up to Su Qinghan and stopped very close.

Close enough for Su Qinghan to smell a faint herbal scent on her, bitter, like aged mugwort.

Poison Lady tilted her head slightly, her nose twitching, as if smelling something.

"You have a scent on you," she said.

Su Qinghan's internal alarm bells rang loudly, but her expression remained unmoved.

"What scent are you talking about?"

"I went outside today; maybe I picked up some dust on the road."

"It's not the scent of dust." Poison Lady's gaze fell on the side of her neck, then shifted to her cuffs.

"It's a... a scent I can't name, very faint, but I have smelled it before."

She paused, her voice lowering a few degrees: "It's like the aura that would only be picked up in a place like the Ancient Battlefield."

Su Qinghan was stunned, a layer of cold sweat seeping from her back.

Seriously, sister, are you a dog? Your nose is so sensitive.

Su Qinghan did have a scent on her, and it was indeed an aura that would be picked up from the Ancient Battlefield.

Needless to say, it was naturally from the thing in the ruins. The Snow Lotus.

Poison Lady was talking about the scent of the Snow Lotus.

When she drew her short blade during the fight today, that short blade had once been quenched in blood within the fissures of the Ancient Battlefield; the aura remaining on it was extremely faint.

She herself couldn't smell it, but Poison Lady's sensitivity to such things far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Su Qinghan said, lowering her eyes.

"A place like the Ancient Battlefield, I have never been."

Poison Lady stared at her for several breaths.

That gaze was like a fine-toothed comb, combing over Su Qinghan inch by inch.

Every subtle change in expression, every depth of breath, was seen by her.

Then she smiled.

That smile was very short; the corners of her lips just curved slightly upward, but there was no amusement in the depths of her eyes.

"You haven't been? That's for the best."

Poison Lady withdrew her gaze, turned around, and walked toward the outside of the courtyard; when she reached the door, her steps paused, and she did not look back.

"Liu Qingyan, I don't care who you are or where you came from, I will only tell you one thing."

"The Alliance Leader is not someone you can touch."

"If you touch him, I will let you know what regret is."

After she finished speaking, the hem of her dark green robe disappeared into the shadows where the moonlight could not reach.

Su Qinghan stood in the courtyard; the leaves of the old locust tree rustled overhead, and the night wind passed through the branches, carrying a chill into her collar.

She slowly exhaled, walked into the room, and closed the door.

Sitting by the window, she did not light a lamp.

Moonlight leaked in through the cracks in the window, drawing a thin white line on the floor.

She took out the short blade and placed it in her palm.

On the blade's surface remained a trace of an extremely faint, almost imperceptible golden pattern—that was the mark left after the aura from the fissures of the Ancient Battlefield had seeped into the metal.

She had previously thought it was a pattern from quenching, but now that she thought about it, what Poison Lady smelled must have been this.

She returned the short blade to its sheath and looked up out the window.

In the distance, the faint blue bead on the main peak hung with a serene glow, like an eye that would never close.

Su Qinghan closed her eyes, and the face of Xiao Ran, who had leaned close to her in the twilight today, appeared in her mind.

He said he recognized her on the first day.

He spoke of her being stubborn and soft-hearted, said she thought she was hiding it well.

The action of Xiao Ran tucking her hair behind her ear was too gentle.

So gentle that it didn't seem like something a Demonic Path Alliance Leader would do to a Disciple of unknown origin.

Su Qinghan opened her eyes, looking at the lines on her palm in the moonlight.

She told herself that all of this was fake.

She was here to kill him.

She was the sword of the Righteous Path, a Disciple of the Supreme Dao Palace, a chess piece laid out by Li Changsheng.

But...

She gripped the short blade tightly, her knuckles turning white.

She dared not think any further about what came after that "but."

The night wind squeezed in through the window cracks, causing the bronze mirror to sway slightly, reflecting her half-masked face.

The eyes beneath the mask were startlingly bright, as if they held the moonlight, or perhaps something else entirely.

She looked at herself in the mirror for a long time.

Then she put away the short blade and blew out the last lamp.

In the darkness, she whispered a sentence to herself.

"Remember, no matter what happens, come back alive."

That sentence was said by Li Changsheng.

But as she recited it at this moment, what appeared in her heart was a figure in a dark gray robe, and a pair of eyes filled with amusement in the twilight.

Su Qinghan pulled the quilt over her head, pressing that figure and those eyes together into the darkness.

Xiao Ran.

A figure that constantly influenced her.