Chapter 581: Bai Bing Retreats Step by Step, Raising Her Sword to Slay Ghosts and Gods!
As Bai Bing looked at herself in the mirror, she was overwhelmed with shame and anger, even having thoughts of murder. She was Ice Phoenix, the top female assassin in the Dark World, who made people tremble in fear. Now, she had even broken through to the Heaven-rank, and was wearing a bunny girl maid outfit, complete with twin pigtails??
"Of course I changed them. You are my female slave, so wearing Maidservant Attire isn't very fitting?" Shen Anyu tilted his head, his tone so casual it was as if he were discussing the weather. The words, however, landed like hammers against Bai Bing's pride.
Bai Bing's hand tightened around the hilt of her sword, her knuckles turning white. An arctic killing intent, honed over a thousand missions, began to bleed into the air, causing the temperature in the room to plummet. This man had not only enslaved her but was now subjecting her to the ultimate humiliation. Her very identity as the feared Ice Phoenix was being mocked.
The next moment, with a sharp clang, the longsword in her hand fell to the ground, bouncing off the polished floor with a sound that echoed the shattering of her defiance.
Bai Bing's knees buckled. Her phoenix eyes shot wide with disbelief and horror as an invisible, irresistible force crushed her will. Even though the vast Martial Path True Essence of a Heaven-rank master surged within her meridians like a raging river, it was utterly useless against the absolute authority of the contract. She couldn't resist. Her body betrayed her mind, forcing her to kneel straight down before Shen Anyu, her head bowed in submission.
Shen Anyu stepped closer, the soft soles of his shoes making almost no sound. He crouched down, his fingers gently but firmly pinching Bai Bing's delicate chin, forcing her to look up at him. A slow, dangerous smile played on his lips.
"Also, Master doesn't like you talking to me like that," he said, his voice a low, almost intimate murmur. "Nor does he like having a sword held to his neck." He leaned in, his warm breath ghosting across her cheek. "If there's a next time… hehe, then I'll have to punish you severely."
He paused, letting the threat hang in the air before adding, his tone laced with a playful wickedness, "Little maid, you don't want to be punished, do you?"
Kneeling on the hard floor, her chin captured in his grip, Bai Bing was forced to meet his gaze. Even with her iron will and famously cold personality, a furious blush of shame and anger crept up her neck, staining her cheeks crimson. Her phoenix eyes flashed with a firestorm of emotions, and deep within the icy fortress of her heart, a strange, unfamiliar ripple spread. It was a chaotic mix of humiliation, rage, and something else… something she refused to name.
"Why didn't you act immediately just now?" a playful voice came from above, pulling her from her inner turmoil.
Bai Bing remained kneeling, her face tilted upwards, her gaze stubbornly fixed on a point just past his shoulder. She couldn't bring herself to look directly into those all-seeing eyes. She snorted, her voice cold and clipped. "With the Master-Slave Contract, I cannot act."
"Really? I don't believe it," Shen Anyu said, his smile widening. He saw right through her lie.
Bai Bing bit her lower lip, refusing to say another word. The truth was far more complicated. While the contract did indeed prevent her from harming him, the stark reality was that she hadn't even intended to. In that moment when her hand was on her sword, there had been no genuine killing intent at all.
Her mind betrayed her again, flashing back to that bloody, rain-swept night. The image was burned into her memory, unforgettable. The scene of Shen Anyu stepping forward, holding that black umbrella, a solitary beacon of calm in a world of chaos.
She had just annihilated the Bai Family, avenging her mother and settling a debt written in blood. The high of vengeance had quickly faded, replaced by the unbearable agony of a poisonous curse wracking her body. She was alone, cornered, and in despair. The torrential rain had chilled her to the bone, sapping the last of her strength. It was then, in her darkest moment, that a handsome man had slowly walked out of the downpour, his umbrella shielding her from the heavens' tears, and saved her.
'Could it be…?' The thought was a heresy, a betrayal of everything she stood for. 'Could I have fallen for this awful, infuriating man?'
"No way, you haven't fallen for me, have you? Is that why there's no killing intent?" Shen Anyu asked, his voice laced with mock surprise, perfectly echoing her own horrifying thought.
"Who… who likes you?! Self-obsessed, narcissistic!" Bai Bing's pure and cold, jade-like face instantly flushed a deeper shade of red. The words tumbled out of her mouth in a flustered retort, a far cry from her usual icy composure.
"I'm handsome, I'm powerful, and I saved you like a hero from the heavens. Haven't you ever felt anything for me?" Shen Anyu's gaze softened, his affectionate peach blossom eyes seeming to look past the air between them, staring directly into the depths of her soul.
Unable to bear the intensity of that gaze, the soft, shimmering light in his eyes that seemed to promise and question all at once, Bai Bing instinctively tried to dodge, to turn her head away. But his fingers held her chin firm, a gentle prison from which she could not escape. All she could do was bite her lip, the pressure a small anchor in the storm of her emotions, as streaks of crimson deepened on her exquisitely beautiful face.
Shen Anyu watched her, a genuine smile touching his lips. This cold, sharp-tongued assassin, the legendary Ice Phoenix, was at this moment showing the endearing shyness of a young girl experiencing her first crush. It was a fascinating transformation.
"Hmph! It's the Master-Slave Contract! It's the contract's fault!" Bai Bing finally found her voice, latching onto the excuse like a drowning woman to a piece of driftwood. "If it weren't for the Master-Slave Contract's restriction, I would definitely kill you!"
'Yes, that has to be it,' she told herself desperately. It was all because of the damned contract. Otherwise, she would have dismembered Shen Anyu a long time ago.
"Alright then," Shen Anyu said, his smile never wavering. He released her chin, his hand falling away. "I won't use the Master-Slave Contract to restrict you. You can try to kill me. If you kill me, there will be no Master-Slave Contract to restrict you anymore." He spread his arms wide, a gesture of complete vulnerability, inviting her to act.
"Master allows you to kill me within the next ten minutes. I will not retaliate, nor will I dodge."
Bai Bing was stunned. She stared at Shen Anyu, her mind reeling in disbelief. He was serious.
She had already broken through to Heaven-rank. In her professional opinion, with her current strength, even if Shen Anyu was also a Heaven-rank psychic, she could absolutely kill him in a straight fight. After all, she had slain the Bai Family Ancestor, a veteran Heaven-rank, when she had just ascended.
And now, Shen Anyu was promising not to resist? Not to even dodge? It was suicide.
"Really, I'm not lying to you. I, Shen Anyu, always keep my promises. Go ahead," Shen Anyu said, his smile unwavering. He tilted his head. "Or could it be… that you've truly fallen in love with me and can't bear to act?"
That last barb hit its mark. All her confusion and turmoil instantly coalesced into indignation. Bai Bing's face flushed scarlet. She snatched her longsword from the floor, the cold steel a familiar comfort in her hand. Her phoenix eyes narrowed, locking onto Shen Anyu with a sharp, lethal focus.
"I'm really going to do it!" she warned, her voice tight.
"Go ahead."
"I… I'm really going to do it?" Her resolve wavered for a fraction of a second.
"Do it."
Bai Bing bit her lip, her expression a chaotic mix of uncertainty and anger as she stared at the serenely smiling man before her. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She should just raise her sword and end him. A single, clean strike was all it would take. Why was she hesitating?
'But… do I really want to kill him?' a small voice whispered from the deepest part of her heart. 'He's the only person in this entire world who has been good to me.'
The memory of that rainy night returned, not as a fleeting image, but as a full sensory experience. The tenderness in his touch, the warmth of his body shielding her from the cold. For Bai Bing, who had lived a life of cold-blooded killing since childhood, that brief period of care was the only warmth she had known since her mother's death in her early years.
She still vaguely remembered the sensation of Shen Anyu gently picking her up, his strong arms a cradle of impossible safety. The careful, methodical way he removed her blood-soaked armor, the focused look on his face as he helped her heal, his large, warm hand caressing every inch of her snow-white skin to treat her wounds…
"Kill you! I must kill you!" The memory sent a jolt of heat through her, and she flushed furiously. She pointed her sword at Shen Anyu, the tip gleaming menacingly under the lights.
"Kill me, then. Go ahead," Shen Anyu repeated, his smile undiminished.
Bai Bing was trapped in a dilemma. The hand holding her sword trembled slightly. This was the man who had humiliated her, dressed her like a plaything, and bound her with a slave contract. But he was also the man who had saved her, tended to her wounds, and shown her a kindness she thought no longer existed.
A glint of amusement flashed in Shen Anyu's eyes. He noticed, with some satisfaction, that Bai Bing had unconsciously angled the sword so that the tip wasn't even touching him. It was a clear sign she had taken his earlier words—about not liking a sword at his neck—to heart.
"You release the Master-Slave Contract, or I'll really kill you!" Seeing that hint of a smile in his eyes, Bai Bing felt a surge of annoyance. Her voice turned frigid once more.
"Can't do it!" Shen Anyu spread his hands, his honesty almost comical. The Master-Slave Contract was a divine treasure that had cost him one million Destiny Points; there was naturally no way to dissolve it.
Bai Bing's brow furrowed. If it truly couldn't be dissolved, was she really going to be shackled to him for life? A wave of cold dread washed over her. That settled it. She had to kill him. It was the only way to end this.
"Five more minutes. This is your last chance," Shen Anyu announced cheerfully, as if counting down to a game.
Bai Bing gripped her longsword tighter. Shen Anyu stood before her, completely defenseless. A single flick of her wrist, a flash of gleaming sword light, and she could cleave him in two. Why couldn't she bring herself to do it?
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Just then, the heavy, muffled sound of ponderous footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.
Shen Anyu's smile grew even wider, a knowing, predatory curve of his lips. Bai Bing's phoenix eyes narrowed, her senses screaming danger.
A dark shadow detached itself from the doorway and shambled towards Shen Anyu. The form was a grotesque, terrifying mockery of a man, so eerie and suffused with malice that even the most vengeful spirit would seem tame in comparison. As this horrifying shadow appeared, the temperature in the room plunged into an extreme, unnatural cold. Frost began to spiderweb across the windows. An ordinary person would have been paralyzed by fear, their screams choked in their throat.
But neither Shen Anyu nor Bai Bing were ordinary people. They both recognized it instantly: a fierce ghost, cultivated by a powerful master of sorcery, with strength comparable to a Martial Grandmaster.
"How annoying! Where did this filthy thing come from!" Bai Bing's phoenix eyes flashed with arctic fury. Without a single moment of hesitation, she raised her silver-white longsword. A gleaming arc of sword light, accompanied by a piercing whistle that tore through the air, shot towards the abomination. Her vast Martial Path True Essence detonated from the blade like a thunderclap on a clear day.
Boom!
In a blinding flash of silver energy, the fierce ghost was violently cleaved in two, its tormented form disintegrating into motes of dark energy. Its soul wasn't just scattered; it was utterly annihilated.
…
On the other side.
Zhang Zhiyun stood with his hands clasped behind his back, a cold, triumphant sneer twisting his features. "Shen Anyu, you will die a miserable death, consumed by extreme fear."
"Really? I don't believe it." A playful, familiar voice suddenly echoed right behind him.
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