Chapter 104: Little Brother, Please Accept Ah Lian.

Jiang Yan went deeper, and was startled to see that the swords around him were trembling.

And he could feel, however faintly, a chill.

This was abnormal. He was already a celestial-cultivation practitioner—how could he still feel cold?

Could this be what people called “sword qi” cooling things?

“Yun Yun, do you feel cold? If so—”

His gaze dropped to the little girl beside him, no taller than his waist.

“Brother Yan, I’m not cold!”

Yun Yun’s clear eyes were lifted up to him, and her face broke into a sweet smile.

Brother Yan is so wonderful.

I just adore him more than anything!

Jiang Yan nodded lightly and was about to move on, when he found her tiny, warm hand gripping his tightly.

For an instant he was taken aback—her little hand felt like a compact little stove.

This won’t make me look weak, will it?

“Brother Yan, Yun Yun is just warming your hands,” she said.

“Cough, I’m not cold. Little girl, stay close.”

As soon as he spoke, Jiang Yan strode forward with long strides. Although the surrounding swords shook as if summoning every trick they had, he did not pause for them at all.

In cultivation stories, the more extraordinary a sword is, the deeper it is usually hidden.

At the very least, one must have the luck to notice it.

After about half a stick of incense had passed, Jiang Yan suddenly felt his steps grow unnaturally heavy, as if an invisible force were pulling him downward.

“Little brother…”
A cold, shadowed female voice whispered at his ear.

“What the hell…?”

His heart jumped. He looked around in every direction, but there was no one.

Just as he began to suspect he was hearing things, Yun Yun’s sudden cry shattered the silence.

“Who are you? Let go of Brother Yan!”

A dull clink rang out...

His heartbeat seized in an instant. He knew at once—something was wrong.

“Yun Yun, what did you see?”

“It’s a long-haired ugly sister in a red bridal robe, floating around us!”

At the words, Jiang Yan’s Adam’s apple rolled of its own accord.

It was one of those formless specters.

You can’t see it, but you can feel it, and when that happens the fear hits full volume.

And just when the dread reached its peak, the specter appeared in a flash, leaping from nowhere to give a sudden fright.

“Oh? Ho ho ho. Little sister, why call sister ‘ugly’? In my day, I was the most beautiful among all beauties!”

The voice came from the woman in red as she slowly materialized.

Her hair cascaded like a waterfall all the way to her ankles. Her skin was so pale it seemed almost translucent. Her eyes were round and wide, and from the corners of them flowed two streaks of bloody tears. The sight was appalling.

Jiang Yan felt something amiss and at once drew his Flame Sword, the tip aimed directly at the woman before him.

In a grave tone he asked, “Who are you, and why are you making ghostly tricks here?”

The red-robed woman only gave a soft smile. “Little brother, A-Lian is already a ghost. Why should she put on an act?”

Yun Yun nodded quietly, her tiny voice still clear. “Brother Yan, she truly is a ghost.”

Jiang Yan’s lips twitched inward in frustration. In front of outsiders, couldn’t this little girl show him a little face?

His earlier question should have sounded imposing enough, right?

He breathed in deeply and asked again. “Why are you blocking our path?”

“Little brother, please take in A-Lian,” the red-robed woman said suddenly, dropping to her knees. Her voice held a sharp edge of sadness, and her eyes brimmed with pleading.

But before Jiang Yan could finish replying, Yun Yun had already gone red with anger, her tiny face puffed, her eyes flashing.

“You’re dreaming! Brother Yan already has Yun Yun. He won’t keep any other woman.”

Jiang Yan couldn’t help gently pinching her springy cheek. Fine texture, really.

“Little girl, she didn’t mean it that way. Enough, don’t be angry. Keep fuming like that and you’ll turn into a pufferfish.”

Then he turned back to the red-robed woman and said evenly, “Sorry, I’m not an exorcist. I can’t capture spirits, so I cannot take you in.”

The word *take in* meant different things to Jiang Yan and Yun Yun.

“Hahahahaha—”

The red-robed woman let out a piercing shriek of laughter, ugly and feral.

“See, Brother Yan? I told you she called you ugly.”

“Yun Yun, don’t say she’s ugly in front of others. That’s rude.”

The woman’s laughter slowly ebbed. She then spoke more calmly:

“You two have misunderstood A-Lian completely. After she died, A-Lian became a sword spirit and entered the red short sword over there.
Little brother, please take that short sword. A-Lian is willing to become your sword spirit. I only ask that you take me away from here. I need to leave and cut that treacherous, unfaithful fool beneath my blade.”

When she said *unfaithful fool*, her eyes turned blood-red, her hatred threatening to break from her sockets.

Both Jiang Yan and Yun Yun looked at once toward the red short sword she indicated.

It lay alone on the ground, its blade like moving blood, all blood-red, and even giving off a threadlike, eerie black vapor. It made the hair on one’s neck rise.

No matter how one looked, it was uncanny.

Only an absolute fool would agree to take such a cursed sword.

Jiang Yan answered her directly. “Then find someone else. I have no interest in that blade, and I’ll never take it.”

Yun Yun echoed, “Exactly. How could that ugly sword suit my Brother Yan?”

“Are you in league with that faithless man?”

The woman flared with rage. Her body jolted and surged into a streak of red light, lunging at Jiang Yan and Yun Yun. Her nails, like sharpened blades, flashed with a cold gleam.

But Jiang Yan and Yun Yun moved as if they were apparitions, dodging her strike with effortless ease.

A thought flickered through Jiang Yan’s mind: lightning might ward off evil. He gathered thunder essence in his palm and sent it at her.

The ghost dodged in desperation, but the lightning, like a beast with eyes, pursued her without mercy.

“Ah!”

She failed to evade in time and cried out in a shrill, pained scream.

“Great Hero, spare my life!”

The red-robed woman dropped to her knees in supplication and even bowed toward him.

Jiang Yan said coldly, “It seems you can speak reasonably when needed. As for this so-called unfaithful man, we do not know him, and we’re not interested. You can take your revenge, but don’t go after us. I’m very busy—if you’re sensible, just stay out of our way.”

“Alright, alright, Great Hero. A-Lian will leave at once,” the red-robed woman said, her voice trembling.

The lightning attacks were terrifying; one or two more hits, and she might have been reduced to ashes. She still had to settle her vengeance—she couldn’t disperse yet.

With that, she dissolved into a wisp of blue-green smoke, like mist scattered by wind, and returned into the short sword. Her presence seemed no more than an illusion.

Yun Yun’s eyes shone with admiration as she exclaimed,
“Wow, Brother Yan, you’re incredible. So dominant and fierce!”