CHAPTER 315: CHAPTER 313: MARK OF LEYI

Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle—

Niruo’s body emitted ink-green light shadows, like a gentle smoke brushing against his wounds, completing the process of stopping the bleeding and healing within a few moments. The ink-green glow emitted by the fractured mask grew increasingly intense, almost illuminating the nearby woods!

Boom!

He stomped heavily on the ground, and the light shadows on his body seemed to be twisted downward by gravity, like taut bowstrings sharply curved, with light explosively gathering but not bursting, ready to erupt like a flood, bringing a strong sense of oppression that rendered Ming Shuiyun completely incapable of resisting, leaving her dumbstruck sitting on the ground!

Thud!

With a soft sound, Ming Shuiyun saw an ink-green fleeting phantom cutting through the sky, yet in the next second, Niruo had already leapt behind Le Yin, slashing at Le Yin’s nape like an executioner, with Sakura Dragon’s fangs on his long sword almost piercing into Le Yin’s flesh!

Sakura Dragon Sword Dance·Spin!

Watching this entrance full of momentum, the red-haired man was about to exit the stage without even looking handsome for a few seconds. Ming Shuiyun almost couldn’t help but exclaim, yet the sudden darkness engulfed all her thoughts.

"You’ve chosen the worst angle." She heard someone say, "Backstabbing is the rhythm I’m most familiar with."

Familiar? Familiar with stabbing others? Or familiar... with being stabbed by others?

In the few seconds while Ming Shuiyun was distracted, several sounds of flesh being torn echoed in the darkness, and then Ming Shuiyun felt someone splash water over her face.

When the darkness faded, she saw Niruo had retreated onto a branch five steps away, his limbs and trunk covered in bloodstains from tearing and biting, the fractured mask hiding all his expressions, with ink-green light flickering within the mask’s cracks seemingly reflecting his uneasy mood.

However, compared to him, the red-haired man’s injuries were even graver: a horrific cut slashed from the left shoulder to the right chest, and had the slash gone deeper, the red-haired man would likely have been split in two.

Ming Shuiyun instinctively wiped the traces of water on her face, discovering the splattered blood from the red-haired man.

Blood flowed down his arm, dripping onto the soil of Wanxiang Forest, gradually pooling into a river, like the countdown of life in an hourglass. His clothes hung down, revealing the snow-white skin and the ugly scars engraved on this white body.

It was her first time realizing that there was so much blood in a human body.

Although she was prepared to face death, witnessing this cruel slaughter scene still significantly impacted Ming Shuiyun—she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like having that slash on her body, likely painful enough to die?

However, the red-haired white snow gentleman didn’t let out a shout, nor did his knees buckle for a moment, maintaining a fighting stance in front of her, calmly watching Niruo on the treetops, as if he had merely been bitten by a mosquito.

This is... her sword sheath.

Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle—

Ink-green glow swiftly healed Niruo’s wounds once again, stopping his injuries completely within a few seconds, even regenerating flesh on the wounds bitten by Le Yin, producing a buzzing sound, appearing particularly terrifying within the ink-green light.

Is he a monster? Even after sustaining such serious injuries, he can heal so quickly? How could anyone possibly defeat that?!

However, Niruo merely quietly observed them for two or three seconds, then turned and fled without hesitation, disappearing into the darkness of Wanxiang Forest shortly thereafter.

"It should be alright now."

Le Yin sat down, relaxing her body, took out a bottle of alcohol, and poured it into her mouth, calmly saying, "He judged that he couldn’t quickly defeat me, so he decisively chose to forgo entangling with me and decided to hunt down others."

Does Niruo really lose his sanity with such decisive judgment?

Le Yin now seriously doubts that wearing the madness mask for too long leads to losing one’s sanity: not to mention Niruo’s exceptional combat instincts remain intact, just the fact that Niruo retreated decisively upon seeing him use the Veil of Strife makes Le Yin feel that his sanity is consistently present.

Rather than losing his sanity, it might be more accurate to say that Niruo killed under the guise of ’I can’t control myself anymore’—I’m now insane, so it’s reasonable for me to eliminate all other Sword Sheath Sword Seekers, right?

Ming Shuangli’s personality is easy to guess too, as the kindness typical of a woman is undoubtedly her weakness, or rather, many of the Sword Seekers participating in the competition for the Holy Sword possess this kind of useless kindness—they haven’t witnessed the cruelty of life, haven’t been beaten by reality, they are greenhouse flowers protected by life.

Le Yin doesn’t despise them either, he also wishes to be such a greenhouse flower, but unfortunately, reality and life always attack him from both sides, denying him any chance to breathe.

Generally speaking, the contest for the throne wouldn’t involve children from ivory towers, but with other ruthless individuals eliminated due to mutual slaughter and self-elimination, the contest for the Holy Sword becomes a game of low-tier players pecking at each other, dropping from professional matches straight down to bronze battles.

Also, because of the summoner’s poor skills, the sword sheath actually becomes their coach, but the statuses are unequal—the Sword Seeker is currently the sword sheath’s superior and will become the sword sheath’s emperor; if the sword sheath dares to speak up, they’d better wait to be recorded in the emperor’s little book!

Yes, the sword sheath possesses an absolute command authority over the Sword Seekers, seemingly like a benefit? But if the sword sheath truly uses this right, even if it’s for the Sword Seeker’s own good, the Sword Seeker would undoubtedly bear grudges.

Humans can easily forgive others’ mistakes, but struggle to forgive others’ being correct.

Especially when others’ correctness proves one’s own mistake.

No matter how good their relationship is now, it’s useless; time is the strongest fate changer, once relationships change and grudges form, then all past insignificant emotional scars will sting, and past vows will turn into fleeting clouds.

Power is the sweetest poison; it makes one unable to tolerate one’s blemishes.

And Niruo’s foresightedness in telling Ming Shuangli that the madness mask leads to madness appears very clever.

Firstly, Le Yin estimates that the madness mask does indeed affect one’s mind, with varying degrees of influence, or else it wouldn’t bear the name ’madness mask’.

Then, once Niruo dons the mask, he can refuse to obey Ming Shuangli’s commands under the guise of being ’mad,’ and as long as the results are favorable, Ming Shuangli won’t harbor any resentment towards him afterward; after all, it’s all the madness mask’s fault.

From this, it’s evident that being a sword sheath is genuinely difficult, needing to satisfy the Sword Seeker’s use value, providing the emotional value they require, not only bearing hardships together now but also laying the groundwork for a shared prosperous future.

Just as Le Yin was lost in thought, a timid voice came from behind: "Um, that..."

He turned his head to look at Ming Shuiyun, who was obediently kneeling, noticing the expectancy and worry in her eyes. Naturally, he knew what she wanted to do, so he rubbed his temples: "Right... let’s proceed with the oath ceremony first."

"Okay."

Since Le Yin was sitting on the ground resting, Ming Shuiyun didn’t dare to stand up and look down at him, so she knelt beside him, reached out her hand with a slight hesitation, and blinked at Le Yin’s red hair.

Oh right, does the oath ceremony involve touching the head? Just now, Niruo and Ming Shuangli’s oath ceremony not only involved touching heads but was practically a half-kneel proposal, overly dramatic.

But Le Yin had no interest in being touched on the head by a teenage girl; he was no frail cicada dust.

"A handshake should suffice."

"Maybe...?"

Ming Shuiyun grasped Le Yin’s hand, feeling it was smooth and tender, as if water could be wrung from it, not like a Martial Artist’s hand at all. Though she felt like scratching his palm to find out, Ming Shuiyun knew the importance of the matter and immediately said: "Do you pledge to recognize me as king in this life and use your hot blood to protect my territories?"

"I, Le Yin, do so pledge."

So his name is Le Yin, Ming Shuiyun thought.

However, after a few seconds, nothing happened. The back of Le Yin’s hand did not weave an infection-free seal.

Ming Shuiyun was somewhat nervous: "Must it be near the Holy Sword’s brilliance to perform the oath?"

"If there were such a condition, there would be no need for you Sword Seekers to obtain the mark first; just let the Sword Seeker and the scabbard swear beside the Holy Sword’s brilliance immediately." Le Yin calmly said: "Since the steps require the Sword Seeker to get the mark first and then make the oath, it means the ceremony only needs the scabbard and Sword Seeker."

"It should be a problem with the oath script. You merely copied Ming Shuangli’s oath script entirely, but you are not Ming Shuangli. Ming Shuangli truly hopes Niruo will fight for her in all directions, but you seem to lack such... intentions."

"Ming Shuiyun, do you have some grand ambition? Speak it, ask me to help you achieve it, and that will be your oath script."

Ming Shuiyun was slightly startled and matched Le Yin’s gaze, calm as a lake. She resolutely shook her head.

"I can’t tell you."

"A secret?"

"Before my dream is realized, it’s a secret I can’t reveal to anyone."

"...Looks like I drew a very unique card." Le Yin clicked his tongue, "Then like this, I’ll say a line, and you follow with a line."

"Okay."

"From this day forward."

"From this day forward."

"In prosperity or adversity."

"In prosperity or adversity."

"In wealth or poverty."

"In wealth or poverty."

"In sickness or health."

"In sickness or health."

"Will you pledge allegiance to me until death?"

"Will you pledge allegiance to me until death?"

Le Yin: "I do."

Ming Shuiyun instinctively repeated: "I do."

Golden threads extended from the back of Ming Shuiyun’s hand, weaving on Le Yin’s hand like a picky embroidery master. Since he no longer felt pain, Le Yin didn’t know if it hurt, but he felt his hand was warm, his palm like being gently tickled, overall a quality service, a trusted brilliance tattoo.

As the brilliance faded, they simultaneously stretched out the backs of their hands to look at each other’s marks.

"Mine is three clouds chasing each other, and yours is... what?" Ming Shuiyun frowned, "It looks like two overlapped tools?"

"It’s nothing."

Le Yin withdrew his right hand, tore a strip of cloth from his clothes, wrapped it around his palm, hiding the mark on the back of his hand.

"It’s just a sickle and hammer."