Chapter 582: Being beaten so badly that Zhang Zhiyun's mentality collapsed!
"Shen Anyu?!"
Zhang Zhiyun's expression changed abruptly, his pupils contracting.
Under the night sky, a man and a woman walked forward, the bright moonlight seemingly casting a layer of silver light upon them.
The man was incomparably handsome, like an exiled immortal descended to the mortal realm, a faint smile playing on his lips.
The woman wore a bunny girl maid outfit, her hair in twin tails, her exquisite face featuring a high nose bridge, and she was as cold as ice.
Who else could the handsome man be but Shen Anyu?
Zhang Zhiyun stood frozen, an icy wave of disbelief crashing over him. He felt an acute, phantom pain lance through his mind, a psychic backlash from the sudden severance of his connection to his most prized spiritual weapon. The fierce ghost, a creature he had nurtured with his own blood and soul for years, was gone. Not just banished, but utterly obliterated, erased from existence in a single, silent instant. How?
His mind raced, a maelstrom of confusion and rising panic. He was supposed to be the predator tonight, the unseen master puppeteering death from a safe distance. He was dozens of miles away from the luxurious Villa, cloaked by the wilderness and the secrecy of his Tianshi Sect arts. The assassination was meant to be a ghost story, a whisper of a young master dying inexplicably in his sleep, a perfect crime with no witnesses and no trail.
Yet, here was the target, Shen Anyu, strolling towards him as if on an evening walk, the very picture of unconcerned arrogance. It was a complete reversal of the situation, a violation of all logic.
With a flick of his wrist, Zhang Zhiyun's fingers blurred into a series of complex mudras, Daoist energy tracing faint, golden seals in the air before him. He performed a rapid divination, his spiritual sense screaming for answers. The results confirmed his worst fears. The psychic tether linking him to the fierce ghost was not just cut; it was a void, a gaping hole where a powerful Grandmaster-level entity used to be. The echo of its final, silent scream of annihilation still rang in the depths of his soul.
A cold sweat slicked his back. There must be an expert! A powerful guardian Shen Anyu brought with him from the capital! He imagined a hidden protector, a shadowy old monster from the Shen Clan who had intercepted the ghost and was now leading Shen Anyu here for a counterattack. They were besieging him.
Pushing his mental power to its absolute limit, Zhang Zhiyun's eyes blazed with a light so intense they looked like twin pools of molten gold. A wave of spiritual energy, fluid and heavy as mercury, surged from him, sweeping across the entire clearing and into the surrounding woods. It was a meticulous, all-encompassing scan. He felt every leaf trembling in the night breeze, every insect stirring in the undergrowth, the cold dampness of the earth beneath his feet. But that was all. There was no one else. No hidden masters, no concealed ambush, no backup.
There was only Shen Anyu and his bizarrely dressed companion—a woman who, despite the ludicrous bunny-girl Maidservant Attire, radiated a chilling stillness that felt more dangerous than a drawn blade.
What kind of trick is this? The absence of a threat was more terrifying than a visible army. Zhang Zhiyun's mind, usually so sharp and calculating, struggled to process the scene. Did Shen Anyu truly believe one maid was enough? Was he that arrogant? Or was this a bluff, a psychological ploy to test his nerve, banking on the reputation of Yanxia's Shen Clan to stay his hand?
The thought acted like a spark on dry tinder. Zhang Zhiyun's expression warped, the initial shock twisting into a mask of pure malevolence. So what if the Shen Clan found out? The gears in his head clicked into place, connecting the dots with a sickening certainty. The secret underground chamber at the Wan Fa Sect villa... the mysterious man Ji Xiaolin had met... it had to be Shen Anyu. It was the only explanation for her sudden, unwavering determination to follow him, the only reason his own Master, Zhang Tianen, would so readily agree to dissolve a politically advantageous engagement.
New hatred ignited old grudges, fanning the flames of his wounded pride into a roaring inferno. His fiancée, stolen. His sect, humiliated. His own status, undermined. The thought of Ji Xiaolin, the woman he had desired from the moment he saw her, giving herself to this pampered Young Master in that secret room… it was a poison that corroded his reason. At this moment, even the prospect of a full-scale war between the Tianshi Sect and Yanxia's Shen Clan seemed a small price to pay for vengeance.
He had never truly considered Shen Anyu a rival. A Young Master, born with a silver spoon, reliant on his family's prestige. How could such a person ever compare to him? He, Zhang Zhiyun, the most gifted disciple the Tianshi Sect had produced in a thousand years! A prodigy who had reached the Half-Step Celestial Master realm before the age of thirty!
"Shen Anyu, what courage, to come alone. Tonight, you will leave your life here," Zhang Zhiyun snarled, his voice a low growl. His handsome face was distorted by a furious sneer, his eyes locking onto Shen Anyu with a chilling, predatory glare.
Shen Anyu merely scoffed, a lazy, half-smile playing on his lips as he regarded Zhang Zhiyun with undisguised amusement. "Zhang Zhiyun, I'm not coming alone; I have my maid protecting me."
He gestured casually toward the silent woman beside him. "You try first. See if you can escape with your life from my maid's hands?"
Beside him, Bai Bing's exquisite face, already a mask of glacial indifference, seemed to drop another ten degrees. She could feel the stares, the judgment, and the sheer absurdity of her situation. Shen Anyu had been adamant. She had to wear this ridiculous bunny-girl Maidservant Attire. It was her "punishment," he'd said, a smirk dancing in his eyes. The outfit itself was surprisingly modest—long sleeves, a full skirt, nothing truly revealing—but the concept, the sheer indignity of the bunny ears and fluffy tail, was a profound humiliation. A gold-medal assassin of the Dark World, a warrior who had ascended to the Celestial-Human realm, dressed like a character from a cheap fantasy.
If Bai Bing's personality were not forged in blood and honed by years of solitary killing, if she wasn't colder and more detached than a fishmonger who'd gutted fish for a decade, she would have already dug a hole with her toes and buried herself in it. As it was, the coldness radiating from her was not just her natural state; it was a sign of a very, very bad mood.
"Shen Anyu, how dare you! To actually look down on me, Zhang Zhiyun, like this!"
Zhang Zhiyun's fury boiled over. He laughed, a harsh, grating sound devoid of humor. The air around him crackled and popped as arcs of raw lightning began to writhe over his skin. A crushing, murderous pressure descended upon the clearing.
"I, Zhang Zhiyun, have cultivated the arts of the Tianshi Sect for twenty years and have reached the Half-Step Celestial Master realm! Among the younger generation, no one can rival me! Even among the veteran powerhouses, few are my opponents! Yet you dare to belittle me with a mere maid?"
"You're courting death!"
His aura exploded outwards. The night sky, once clear and moonlit, was instantly blotted out by roiling, ink-black clouds that converged directly above them. Thunder rumbled, a deep, gut-wrenching sound that shook the very ground. The celestial phenomena themselves were twisted by his rage. He was a force of nature, every bit the prodigy he claimed to be, a nascent Celestial Master whose power could inspire awe and terror in equal measure.
"Ice Slave, teach him a lesson," Shen Anyu said, his voice calm and untroubled as he glanced at Bai Bing with that same infuriating smile.
Bai Bing shot him a glare sharp enough to kill. "I really should have killed you just now," she said, her voice a deadly whisper.
Shen Anyu had, in a moment of supreme arrogance, given her ten minutes to try and assassinate him. A free shot. But in the end, her sword had remained in its sheath.
Even now, Bai Bing couldn't fully comprehend her own decision. One clean strike was all it would have taken to regain her freedom. Instead, she had bent the knee, becoming his "maid," forced to endure this mortifying charade.
It all came back to that moment, that gentle touch in the pouring rain, a fleeting instant of warmth when her world was collapsing into a cold, empty void. In the suffocating darkness of her life, he had been an unexpected, singular point of light.
'Hmph, in the Main God Reincarnation Game, there must be a way to break this master-servant contract,' she thought, a spark of defiance kindling within her. 'When that day comes, I'll make Shen Anyu my male servant. I'll make him kneel and wash my feet every single day.'
The thought was so satisfying that her mood visibly improved. With a renewed sense of purpose, she took a step forward, her cold gaze finally settling on Zhang Zhiyun.
At the same time, Zhang Zhiyun's sharp ears had picked up their exchange. His heart stirred. He scrutinized Bai Bing properly for the first time, taking in her otherworldly beauty and the proud, untamed spirit that even the ridiculous outfit couldn't conceal. She was a prize, every bit as stunning as his former fiancée, Ji Xiaolin.
'Could she have been forced? Coerced by Shen Anyu's power and influence?' The thought bloomed in his mind, a seed of new opportunity. If that were the case, he could be her savior. He could turn Shen Anyu's own weapon against him.
He would steal Shen Anyu's woman, just as Shen Anyu had stolen his. It was poetic justice. His gaze sharpened, and he noted with satisfaction that the mark of her original essence above her brow was still intact and vibrant. She was pure, untouched. This wasn't one of Shen Anyu's conquests.
Forcing his rage-twisted features into what he hoped was a charming smile, Zhang Zhiyun spoke in a gentle, persuasive tone.
"Girl, were you forced into this by Shen Anyu? As long as you abandon the darkness for the light, I will help you deal with him. No matter how he threatens you, you needn't be afraid. I, Zhang Zhiyun, am the Young Sect Leader of the Tianshi Sect. My sect is in no way inferior to Yanxia's Shen Clan. We can offer you complete protection."
"Heh, you're utterly worthless from beginning to end. The greatest help you can give me is to hurry up and die!"
The response that answered him was a blade of pure, venomous contempt.
A flicker of scorn, the first real expression she'd shown, crossed Bai Bing's aloof face. With her experience navigating the treacherous depths of the Dark World, she could read the possessive greed in Zhang Zhiyun's eyes as clearly as a book. He didn't see a person to be rescued; he saw a trophy to be won.
Even Shen Anyu would never have broken through her defenses if he hadn't appeared at that one, perfect moment—the instant her lifelong quest for revenge was complete, leaving her empty, broken, and hovering on the brink of death.
This woman's words were as deadly as her heart was cold.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun is furious, plundering +9999 destiny value!]
…
Utterly worthless from beginning to end!
Hurry up and die!
The words echoed in the charged air. Zhang Zhiyun was stunned into momentary silence, his mind refusing to believe that such crude, vicious language could emerge from the perfect, rosy lips of such an ethereal beauty. Then, the shock was consumed by a tidal wave of incandescent rage. The disdain in her eyes—that blatant, undisguised contempt—was a personal insult more grievous than any physical blow.
Shen Anyu almost burst out laughing.
Bai Bing's mockery was a classic villainous face—arrogant, disdainful, contemptuous—which was particularly effective at enraging people. Most people couldn't tolerate it, let alone a high-spirited Child of Destiny?
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