At this moment, Nan Mengling gripped her longsword, expressionless, and pulled the blade out of Shao Xiuqi’s chest.

Fresh blood dyed her white slip dress red once more.

Shao Xiuqi stared at her with wide eyes. There was nothing in them but disbelief. Pure disbelief.

“My Lord City Lord!!!”

Right then, the elevator inside the tower opened with a ding. Shao Xiuqi’s subordinate, the secretary who had always served him with complete loyalty, stepped out. The instant the doors opened, his eyes widened too, filled with utter shock at the scene before him.

The City Lord, the man above countless others... had lost?

Impossible. This was downright absurd.

“How could this happen? Why is the one lying on the ground... Lord City Lord?”

The secretary’s legs seemed to give out beneath him, and he collapsed to the floor. All his earlier composure and confidence were gone.

But before he could recover from the shock, the airflow in front of him suddenly turned chaotic and disordered. In the next moment, Nan Mengling appeared before him like a god of slaughter, and then...

The sword fell. Blood flew. A head dropped.

The inside of the tower sank completely into blood-soaked silence.

Shao Xiuqi watched the scene without a word. A rare sense of helplessness surged in his eyes. He sat weakly on the ground, while his earth-type ability formed a small earthen platform to support his body.

He knew it clearly. His heart had been stabbed. Right now, he was only barely maintaining the life force in his body with Spirit Energy. He no longer had any capital left to contend with Nan Mengling and Zhou Jiuyu. If he wanted to survive, he could only pray for their mercy.

“What did you do? Why did the puppet mark I planted in the Awakening Stone fail? No one in this world but me can undo that mark...”

Shao Xiuqi looked at Zhou Jiuyu. He wanted to know why he had failed.

He had clearly made everything foolproof. Even his act had been nearly flawless.

“No one can undo it, true. But... I can replace it.”

Zhou Jiuyu raised a hand, and an Awakening Stone appeared out of thin air.

Shao Xiuqi was speechless for a moment. After a long while, he finally said, “What exactly is your ability...?”

“No comment.” Zhou Jiuyu shrugged.

But in truth, the Awakening Stone in his hand was only an ultra-low-tier Awakening Stone with one percent purity.

With the amount of Spirit Energy in his body, directly creating a high-tier Awakening Stone was still unrealistic. After all, things like Awakening Stones were the root of ability birth. Their value went without saying...

When Shao Xiuqi hadn’t stopped Nan Mengling from awakening, Zhou Jiuyu had already grown wary. That was why he had personally held Nan Mengling’s hand and placed it on the Awakening Stone. At that moment, he had directly restored that Awakening Stone with his ability.

He couldn’t create a high-tier Awakening Stone, but modifying and restoring an already existing object was well within what his Spirit Energy could easily handle.

He didn’t know what was wrong with the Awakening Stone, so he simply restored it to how it had been a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago, that old bastard Shao Xiuqi probably hadn’t even been born yet. There was no way he could’ve tampered with it back then.

“But my puppet art did work. Even if you replaced my Awakening Stone, you still couldn’t make my mark vanish out of nowhere.” Shao Xiuqi stared at Zhou Jiuyu. This was his final question. He truly couldn’t accept it. He really couldn’t...

He was a Ninth Tier powerhouse, the City Lord of City Four! A man who stood above countless others!

He had survived storm after storm in the past, yet now, of all times, he had fallen to two half-grown kids like these...

How could he possibly accept that?

“You mean this?”

A long, slender steel needle appeared in Zhou Jiuyu’s hand. Then it shot toward a certain corner of the tower.

When the needle flew back, it carried a little cockroach pierced through the body. The bug was still twitching with surprising vitality.

Shao Xiuqi tried activating his puppet art. Then, on the cockroach’s body, the exact same mark appeared.

“Heh heh...”

For a moment, he fell back against the steps, feeling both pathetic and ridiculous.

He lay there for quite a while before looking at Zhou Jiuyu and saying in a low voice,

“You’re not going to let me go, are you?”

“Of course not.”

“I see...” Shao Xiuqi smiled. “Then killing me will be the greatest mistake you’ve ever made.”

“Here we go, here we go. If you’re gonna beg, then beg. Be sincere about it. Maybe... I can let you die with a little less pain.” Zhou Jiuyu raised a brow.

Shao Xiuqi only shook his head. “That guy, the Sword God, is far stronger than you imagine. Do you think he only reached the peak in swordsmanship? His sword skill is comparable to a Ninth Tier ability user, but he himself is also... a Ninth Tier ability user.”

“Top-tier swordsmanship. Ninth Tier ability. That’s why he’s called one of the strongest people alive.”

“With me and Little Mengling together, our odds of killing him would only be seventy percent. Not certain... And now you’re counting on her strength alone to kill the Sword God. If that happens, then her being captured by him again and ‘disciplined’... that outcome will be certain.”

The corners of Shao Xiuqi’s mouth spread wide. He looked at Zhou Jiuyu with a thick smile. “Young Master Zhou can kill me if he wants, but you’d better think carefully—”

Pshhk—!

A spray of blood bloomed inside the Awakening Spire once again.

Zhou Jiuyu held a sword and directly chopped off Shao Xiuqi’s head.

“Don’t worry. I already thought it through.”

“This old bastard sure talks a lot.” Zhou Jiuyu flicked his hand.

“Young Master.” Nan Mengling returned to Zhou Jiuyu’s side. At this moment, she couldn’t help asking in a low voice, “Actually, he was right. Even now, after awakening a Ninth Tier ability, I still can’t beat Master... My swordsmanship is only second-rate, but Master’s swordsmanship is first-rate. And not just first-rate, but top first-rate.”

“Even if my ability rank is equal to his, the gap in swordsmanship... is still hard to make up.” Nan Mengling bit her lip.

In ancient martial arts, strength was divided into first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate. They corresponded respectively to Ninth Tier, Sixth Tier, and Third Tier among ability ranks.

And the Sword God was first-rate in swordsmanship and also a Ninth Tier ability user. That kind of double-peak strength truly couldn’t be underestimated.

“Then train your swordsmanship until it’s on par with his.”

“But for the later stages of swordsmanship, Master never taught me. I don’t even know where to begin training anymore... Young Master.” Nan Mengling scratched her head a little blankly.

“Leave it to me. I’ll train you myself. Don’t worry.” Zhou Jiuyu very naturally patted Nan Mengling on the chest.

At once, that full softness trembled a few times. Nan Mengling bit her lip and lowered her head. Her legs unconsciously pressed together as she said softly, “But won’t that take a very long time?”

“That’s why you need to train hard!” Zhou Jiuyu patted her “conscience” again.

“I’ll work hard, Young Master... it’s just...”

Nan Mengling looked up. Her eyes seemed to hold a faint mist. “Will Young Master stay with me the whole time?”

This time, Zhou Jiuyu immediately smacked her pert, round butt hard. “You little maid, are you thinking of running away? If I don’t stay with you, who will? No one’s going to pay to redeem a silly little fool like you!”

“Oh...” Nan Mengling answered softly and lowered her head, but her eyes had become much clearer and brighter.

She had to work hard and become stronger.

Then one day, she would redeem herself...

And then...

She would buy Young Master! She’d make him stay by her side forever, forever and ever.

“What are you spacing out and thinking about now, you little dummy?” Zhou Jiuyu tapped her on the forehead.

“N-no, nothing, Young Master... My clothes are dirty. I want to go back to the hotel and change...”

“Change what? Just wear that one in the hotel for me to see. Then I’ll take you to buy a new one.”

“Oh...”

“Tch. You really do look dumb.” Zhou Jiuyu covered his forehead.

“I’m not dumb, Young Master!” Nan Mengling bit her lip and puffed out her cheeks as she glared at him.

One day, she was definitely going to buy Young Master! When that time came, she’d play with his chest too, play with his butt too, and call him dumb too!

Mm! She’d decided!