The Demon Lord is a Heartbreaker - Chapter 3

Both Lu Yaoshuang and Shen Changsheng were stunned when their names were called.

Lu Yaoshuang was purely confused. Having followed Ye Guixue to slay demons before, she could tell that Ye Guixue wasn’t looking for a friendly spar or a simple exchange of pointers. This was a life-and-death struggle. The killing intent in Ye Guixue’s eyes as she looked at Shen Li was identical to the look she gave the most heinous demonic cultivators.

Shen Changsheng, on the other hand, was sick with worry. Others might not know, but she was acutely aware that Shen Li had been gravely injured. Her master had drifted in and out of a deep slumber for years, only recently waking up. Although Shen Li didn’t show any pain, Changsheng could sense that the injury was still there, festering and affecting her.

Immortal Xuan Guang’s Xuanhuang Manual had reached the eighth stage, and she possessed the legendary Heartless Sword. Could her master truly stand against her?

“Come up,” Ye Guixue said, looking down at Shen Li. Seeing her remain motionless, she repeated the command, her voice cold and devoid of warmth. She wasn’t one for mockery or forced intimidation; her words were concise, carrying an absolute weight that brooked no refusal.

Fine, I’m coming up. Do you think I’m afraid of you?

Provoked by Ye Guixue’s bizarre hostility, a fire lit in Shen Li’s heart. She leaped onto the platform and immediately struck out with a palm.

The strike seemed light, almost effortless, but beneath that casual surface lay a hidden lethality. It wasn’t quite her full power, but it was far from simple. If anyone other than a sect leader or a high elder from a top-tier sect were standing there, they would have been coughing up blood and reeling backward.

But the person facing her was Ye Guixue.

She didn’t bleed, and she didn’t budge. She stood as firm as a mountain. She didn’t even draw her sword; instead, she simply raised the plain, unadorned scabbard of the Xuanguang Sword, effortlessly neutralizing the palm’s force into nothingness.

Shen Li was slightly taken aback.

The single strike she had seen on the memory stone had been stunning enough, and she thought she had given Ye Guixue enough credit—thinking they were perhaps evenly matched. Now she realized she had still underestimated her. It wasn’t a fifty-fifty split, nor even forty-sixty.

With her lingering injuries, Shen Li realized it would be incredibly difficult to defeat Ye Guixue in a real fight. This was becoming problematic.

“Draw your weapon,” Ye Guixue said, her eyes fixed on Shen Li’s hands.

They were excessively fair, looking slender and delicate, yet they were powerful enough to wield a whip with lethal agility. Ye Guixue lowered her gaze, a memory flickering: the first time they met, her invincible Xuanguang Sword had been ensnared by that person’s Black Snake Whip unable to advance, unable to retreat. That was the first time she had felt true pressure from a peer.

“A weapon?” Shen Li laughed. “You aren’t worthy of seeing it yet.”

How arrogant!

The surrounding cultivators were stunned, their gazes quickly turning to disdain. They all felt Shen Li was far too oblivious to the heights of the world.

Shen Changsheng sighed helplessly. Though they hadn’t spent much time together, she already understood her master’s temperament, she was someone who thrived on chaos and acted solely on whim.

Lu Yaoshuang pondered: Is the Demon Sovereign trying to provoke Master on purpose? Is she looking for a lapse in judgment to win with one strike? She shook her head. She hoped the Demon Sovereign would win so her master might finally agree to her relationship with Shen Changsheng, but she had lost hope. Since she had begun her apprenticeship, she had almost never seen her master show any emotional fluctuation. No matter how arrogant the Demon Sovereign spoke, it wouldn’t touch her master’s heart.

However, high on the platform, Ye Guixue was not as calm as Lu Yaoshuang thought.

Looking at Shen Li’s nonchalant expression, a fire ignited in her chest. Killing intent and anger flared simultaneously, unable to be suppressed. She drew the Xuanguang Sword. The strike was thunderous, decisive, and swift.

Night had fallen. Shen Li disliked bright light, so per her request, the Moon-Embracing Pavilion was dimly lit, save for the slanted beams of moonlight. Yet, the moment the Xuanguang Sword left its sheath, the entire hall seemed to glow. The sword light was blinding, and Shen Li, being the closest, felt it most intensely.

Looking at the radiance and hearing the whistle of the blade cutting the air, Shen Li couldn’t help but praise, despite the stinging in her eyes: “A fine sword! And even better swordplay!”

Seeing it in person was far more breathtaking than any recording. She glanced at the calm, sharp face of Ye Guixue, who seemed even more unstoppable under the shroud of her own sword intent and added, “The sword is beautiful, and the owner is even more so!”

Is she? Is she flirting with Immortal Xuan Guang?

The surrounding cultivators fell silent, their disdain shifting into a weird kind of respect. To speak like that while facing the Xuanguang Sword? The woman had nerves of steel.

Ye Guixue’s expression didn’t change, but her sword grew sharper, the shadows of the blade shifting so fast the sound made the onlookers’ hearts tremble. They weren’t even on the Gold-Silver Terrace, yet they felt their souls shaking. Was the Demon Sovereign not already drenched in blood?

Shen Li was not drenched in blood. She was dancing through the gale of the sword’s path, her red robes fluttering, her shadow seemingly shattering within the sword shadows.

Shattering?

The cultivators sat up straight, watching intently before realizing: she wasn’t being hit. Ye Guixue’s sword was fast, but Shen Li’s evasion was faster. She moved with such speed that her image and the sword’s trail couldn’t keep up, creating the illusion of her being sliced apart.

Ye Guixue was one of the most formidable fighters in the Immortal Sects. The fact that the Demon Sovereign seemed to hold her own suggested they were equals. This made some uneasy, the two races had only just found a semblance of peace; would this long-absent Demon Sovereign bring about a new era of strife?

However, Shen Li was not feeling “easy” at all.

She thought that after ten exchanges she would have a handle on the swordplay and dodging would get simpler. It was the opposite. It was getting harder.

“Draw your weapon, or the next strike won’t just land there,” Ye Guixue said, raising her hand. A scrap of red silk hung from the tip of the Xuanguang Sword like a victory flag.

“Master!” Shen Changsheng cried out.

Shen Li looked down. A piece was missing from the hem of her vibrant red robe—exactly the piece on the sword. It must have been sliced off just now, and she hadn’t even noticed.

Were those ten lethal strikes not even Ye Guixue’s full power? She was increasing the pressure, strike by strike. All just to force her to show her weapon?

Shen Li frowned, a flicker of doubt crossing her mind: How does she know for sure that I even have a weapon?

Ye Guixue lunged again, this time aiming straight for the heart. Shen Li, startled, decided not to take the hit. “I’ll take it out! I’ll take it out!”

The Xuanguang Sword paused. Ye Guixue, with a sense of grace, gave her the time.

Shen Li burst into a laugh and raised her hands, making a casual clapping motion. Seeing Ye Guixue’s frigid gaze, she explained, “Immortal, these are my weapons.”

It wasn’t unreasonable. Not all cultivators were masters of the blade or spear; some specialized in unarmed combat. Shen Li appeared to be the latter. Having said her piece, she stopped retreating. Her fingers moved like swords, her palms opened wide, and her fists clenched tight. Her fair hands whistled through the air, clearly aiming to snatch the blade barehanded. One slip, and her hands would be pierced by that razor-sharp edge.

The spectators watched with bated breath.

Ye Guixue’s frown deepened. Shen Li’s moves didn’t truly threaten her, and Shen Li was still technically at a disadvantage. She was frowning because Shen Li’s finger, palm, and fist techniques were actually. quite good. This wasn’t the level of someone who just dabbled in unarmed combat as a side-discipline.

If that was the case, her weapon wasn’t a whip. And if it wasn’t a whip, she wasn’t that person. No matter how much a person changed, the “Dao” they practiced could not be easily altered.

If she was wrong, then her actions today were indeed a grave insult.

But.

Ye Guixue’s gaze darkened. Even as she grew lost in thought, her movements didn’t stop. Her sword Dao had reached its peak; even her unconscious strikes were formidable. Shen Li was quickly becoming overwhelmed.

She retreated repeatedly, shouting, “Stop! I give up, I give up!” Seeing that the sword wasn’t being put away, she added, “Immortal, this is the Gold-Silver Terrace!”

The terrace, as the name implied, was built of gold and silver, encrusted with pearls and jade—a blatant display of the Moon-Embracing Pavilion’s wealth.

“If I break it, I’m not paying for it!” Shen Li declared.

Ye Guixue froze. Some things are harder to forget the more you try. In the silence of the night, they surge up uncontrollably, and a single external trigger can cause a total collapse. Like now, looking at Shen Li’s moving lips, a dialogue from years ago roared back:

“Ye-whatever-Xue! The genius of the Xuanqing Sect, the top disciple of the immortal path who’s supposed to practice the Heartless Sword. look closely! This is an antique shop! If we fight, one of your sword strikes will destroy everything. You’ll have to pay for it yourself and take the blame. I won’t help you!”

“Come out.”

“No way! I’m not stupid. Why would I go out there just to get beaten up? Besides, I’m not done shopping yet, and I’m staying the night!”

Ye Guixue gripped her sword and lunged forward with even more precision. “I can afford it.”

Shen Li: 

Who told me sword cultivators were all poor? This is total nonsense.

Seeing the sword strike again, she hurriedly dodged. But the terrace was only so large; there was nowhere left to run. Shen Li felt a chill as the beautiful blade swept past her. Looking down, she realized it was a literal chill.

Her flamboyant red collar had been severed by the sword intent, and even her inner garment had a small tear.

“Indecent”

Before she could finish, Ye Guixue struck again. Her eyes were bright now, as if she had suddenly reached a moment of clarity. The Xuanguang Sword grew sharper with every thrust, each one aiming for the blood, specifically for Shen Li’s heart.

Shen Li stopped frowning. She stopped talking. Her eyes went cold. No matter how long she had been asleep, she wasn’t so dull that she couldn’t recognize real killing intent.

Ye Guixue truly wanted to kill her. For no reason. They were meeting for the first time, what right did she have?

As the Xuanguang Sword lunged again, Shen Li met it head-on, her expression deadpan.

Clang!

The sound of metal was ear-piercing; the light was blinding. Surrounded by a storm of sword intent, Shen Li’s footsteps faltered, and she instinctively clutched her chest.

It hurts! Why does it hurt so much? It hurt more than when she had just watched the recording. It felt as if the sword had already pierced her heart.

“Master!” Shen Changsheng and Lu Yaoshuang cried out in unison.

Shen Li didn’t respond. Ye Guixue remained unmoved. Seeing Shen Li pale and sweating, she drove the sword toward her heart once more.

In the next instant, a green light erupted. Something flew out from between Shen Li’s brows, crashing into the Xuanguang Sword. With a deafening boom, gold and silver dust rained down, and Ye Guixue was forced back several steps.

As the dust settled, the cultivators finally saw the object that had blocked the sword. It was a fan. It had no tassel and floated in mid-air, shrouded in a layer of green light. The face of the fan seemed to depict a landscape of mountains and rivers.

Shen Li reached out, and the fan folded itself, landing softly in her palm. That must be the Demon Sovereign’s natal treasure, the onlookers thought.

Shen Li gently stroked the fan. When she spotted a minuscule, almost invisible crack on it, her eyes filled with a dark, violent aura.

She smiled and said, “Immortal Xuan Guang, Ye Guixue!”

“No wonder. No wonder you were forsaken.”

“What did you say?” Ye Guixue swallowed the blood rising in her throat, her voice so cold it could turn to ice.

“I said, no wonder you were forsaken!”

Shen Li sneered. “Arrogant, cold, heartless, unable to distinguish right from wrong, and striking out on a whim. You act more absurd and insolent than the demons you so despise.”

“If I were that demon back then, I wouldn’t have fallen for you either. At most, I would have put on an act to use you for as long as I needed.”

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