Watching Yan Xiaoxie trot off toward Murong Qiushui in high spirits, Fierce Shadow Star Soul let a distinctly evil smile spread across his face. He did not call him back. He simply followed along behind, unhurried.

“Big sister, are you leveling on your own? Would you like some company?”

For all that Yan Xiaoxie played the unscrupulous little hanger-on in front of Fierce Shadow Star Soul, put him in front of a beauty and he turned at once into a young man of poise — head up, chest out, wearing a smile, his eyes gentle. He was easy to warm to, or at the very least hard to dislike, and had he been a few years older that smile would have carried considerably more damage.

Chatting up a woman was child’s play, something Yan Xiaoxie had done any number of times and could manage in his sleep; he was long past the stage of blushing and going tongue-tied. Unfortunately, this time he had plainly picked the wrong target.

Of course, looks and a few words are nowhere near enough to win a beauty’s favor. Having said his piece, Yan Xiaoxie changed — shff, shff, shff — into a full set of combat gear, standard Assassin kit, and then… drew out a pair of silver daggers and took them in his hands.

Silver-grade weapons… At this stage of the game, a player who owned a single Silver-grade weapon was the equivalent of a man in the real world who owned a Rolls-Royce — the stretch model, at that. The moment those daggers appeared, anyone would know this youth was no ordinary player. Yan Xiaoxie’s confidence came entirely from them. He was certain the sight of them would put a light in this beauty’s eyes.

A light did indeed begin to appear in Murong Qiushui’s eyes. He glanced Yan Xiaoxie over a few times, and the corner of his mouth curled; the bewitching smile that opened across his face in that instant left Yan Xiaoxie so dizzy he came close to fainting on the spot.

“Yaa! Little brother, you actually have Silver-grade weapons.”

That soft, bone-melting figure had already dissolved half of Yan Xiaoxie, and the words “little brother” dissolved the other half — but happily he was something of an “expert,” and he collected himself at once. “Ah, a Silver-grade weapon, it’s nothing much… Look, see that man over there? That’s my hanger-on. He’s done all right for himself under my guidance. Terrible name, though — ‘Fierce Shadow Star Soul.’ Just about scrapes ninth on the Level Ranking these days.”

What did it mean to fight your way up out of hundreds of millions of players and break into the top ten of the Level Ranking? In ordinary eyes, anyone on the Level Ranking at all was a figure very like a god. Fierce Shadow Star Soul had never once dropped out of the top ten since the Level Ranking opened, and his name had long since been committed to memory by every player in Huaxia. Yan Xiaoxie was nothing if not shrewd, and he had taken the opening to drag Fierce Shadow Star Soul into it… and conveniently, the man kept his own name openly displayed, so one look above his head told anybody that here was the Fierce Shadow Star Soul.

“Big sister, shall I call him over to level with us? Mm, he’s no good for much else, but his attack power isn’t bad — he’d make the top ten of all Huaxia, more or less… Oh, and big sister, my name is Yan Xiaoxie. I haven’t asked yours yet?” Yan Xiaoxie had of course already seen the name “Autumn Waters” above Murong Qiushui’s head, but getting a beauty to give you her name herself makes for a decidedly successful start.

“Autumn Waters.” Murong Qiushui’s smile grew more bewitching still, and his voice softened by another degree. Yan Xiaoxie’s heart rate began climbing by geometric multiples.

“Wow! Big sister, your name is so beautiful, as beautiful as you are… Big sister, do you have a boyfriend? If I could have a girlfriend like you, I’d be the happiest man alive.” Reading the increasingly suggestive smile on Murong Qiushui’s face, the well-practiced Yan Xiaoxie knew immediately whether to advance or retreat… and chose to press the attack, quickening his pace.

“Oh, you want to pick me up?” Murong Qiushui stroked the metal bow in his hands, narrowed those peach-blossom eyes, and said it in a voice like cotton wool.

“Er…” Yan Xiaoxie had not expected quite so direct a question back, and visibly froze for a moment. Then he brought up a slightly bashful look and said, “Big sister, do you believe in love at first sight?”

And at that moment Fierce Shadow Star Soul, who had been walking over at an unbelievably leisurely pace, finally arrived — just in time to hear that line out of Yan Xiaoxie, and nearly went face first into the ground.

The smile vanished off Murong Qiushui’s face. In one stroke he went from a bewitching beauty to a grave and coldly gorgeous one, and the speed of the change set Yan Xiaoxie’s heart lurching. Murong Qiushui, straight-faced and earnest as a man imparting a life lesson, said, “Little pal, doing men is a great and beautiful sport, but doing men before you’re of age is wrong. Your job right now is to study hard and improve every day, and strive to become the loveliest flower of the motherland’s future. Understood?”

Lightning from a clear sky… Yan Xiaoxie simply went stupid where he stood.

That soft, gentle voice was gone. What reached his ears was a serious, four-square, full-chested, deeply magnetic — man’s voice.

Murong Qiushui’s voice could go either way. When he pitched it female it was more feminine than a woman’s; when he pitched it male it laid out a man’s roughness in full. It seemed to be a strange ability he had been born with, to match his face and his sex.

“You, you, you, you, you…” Yan Xiaoxie took a step back, gooseflesh over his whole body, and got out a long string of “you”s without ever arriving at the rest of the sentence. The sheer size of the drop had knocked the poor youth senseless.

Murong Qiushui paid him no more attention. He turned to Fierce Shadow Star Soul, who was fighting to hold back his laughter, and asked lazily, “My, the weather’s fine today. Now that I count it up, it’s been a while since we last met. That green boy of the old days has more and more of a man about him now — really, it sets a heart fluttering. Come to think of it, doing men now and then might not be so bad after all.” That said, he hooked the corner of one eye, and a rippling glance of autumn waters went sweeping straight at Fierce Shadow Star Soul.

Fierce Shadow Star Soul’s whole body tightened and he retreated two steps without meaning to, a cold sweat breaking out down his back… A few years without seeing him, and this man’s lethality had reached the “terrifying” grade.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead without letting it show and changed the subject as fast as he could. “Big Brother Murong, three years and you haven’t changed a bit. Haha. Haha. Hahahaha…”

Fierce Shadow Star Soul produced a few dry laughs, decided almost immediately that they were far too forced and far too dry, and obediently shut his mouth.

“So the boy has grown up. Three years ago you had already begun to interest me, and the you of today interests me rather more. It really is a surprise — the Ling family, with two people who have set foot on that wicked Level Ranking. It may be that… you’ll do as well for yourself as that unforgettable and thoroughly detestable brother of yours.” Murong Qiushui said it at his leisure.

Those idle, thoroughly empty words of his happened, without his intending it, to stir something violent in Fierce Shadow Star Soul. His brows drew together and his voice came out three notes higher. “I’m stronger than he is!”

“Oh?” Murong Qiushui looked at him with real interest.

“You wait and see. I will be stronger than he is… far stronger than he is. Far!!” Something in him seemed to have been touched. Fierce Shadow Star Soul’s brows knotted and every word rang like iron. He was sixteen years old, and there was a resolve and a hardness in his face that did not match his years.

“And what are you counting on to be stronger than him? Even on the Level Ranking as it stands, you are still below him.” Murong Qiushui raised an eyebrow. He had suddenly discovered something amusing.

“Hmph… I’m going to prove to him that I can be stronger than he is… Even without joining that so-called Undying Samsara of theirs, acting alone… I’ll still be stronger than he is!!”

The moment he finished, he realized his mouth had run away with him. The stiffness stayed on his face, but he said nothing further.

Undying Samsara… Murong Qiushui filed the name away. Mm. Interesting.

Fierce Shadow Star Soul… his real name was Lingjie, younger brother of Cloud-Piercing Sword — of Lingyun, of the Ling family.

“Se… Second Young Master, you, you, you, you… you two know each other?” Yan Xiaoxie stammered it out. Inwardly he had not begun to recover from the enormous blow of a moment ago; by now there were probably cracks running through him one after another… Love at first sight, and the beauty he had rushed over to and racked his brains to charm with every trick he had was in fact a man…

What greater blow than that exists in this world?

Fierce Shadow Star Soul took one look at Yan Xiaoxie’s expression with open delight in his misfortune, then adjusted his own face back to normal at once and patted his shoulder pityingly. “Xiaoxie, as your Young Master, I did warn you very seriously just now, so this is hardly my fault… That’s right, he’s a man, genuine and guaranteed. He’s the one I’ve told you about so often — mm, Murong Qiushui, of the Murong family of Jinghua.”

Murong Qiushui… Yan Xiaoxie murmured it over, a name that had sounded thoroughly familiar, and a moment later remembered exactly what sort of figure it stood for. The colors that came and went across his face were a sight to see. It was said that he was more womanly than a woman. It was said that he was a killing maniac who could smile while he did it. It was said that when he had dismembered a man in front of countless witnesses, without a moment’s hesitation, the smile on his face was more terrible than a devil’s. It was said…

And a moment ago he had walked up to this monstrous devil and tried to chat him up, and puffed himself out and bragged for good measure… Thinking of it, Yan Xiaoxie went cold inside, twitched all over, and was so ashamed he would have liked nothing better than to dig a hole and bury himself in it.

“Big Brother Murong has run into the same thing plenty of times over the years. He won’t hold it against you. But, Xiaoxie — from now on, listen to your Young Master’s instructions before you act, understood?” Fierce Shadow Star Soul said it, patting Yan Xiaoxie’s shoulder with each phrase.

Yan Xiaoxie said miserably, “Yes… yes… From now on I’ll listen to my Young Master’s teaching… Ah, Young Master Murong, just now I really was…”

Murong Qiushui raised his head to the sky. “Today’s weather runs contrary to my mood. It’s dreadful… Go forward, boy, in pursuit of the goal and the road that belong to you. Oh — boy, you might as well tell me where your goal points at present. Perhaps that wisdom of mine, which the very gods envy, will offer you some help and guidance.”

Fierce Shadow Star Soul pulled a face where it could not be seen, and said, “As for what I most want to do right now — to join the Heaven Soul mercenary corps founded by that mysterious Xietian, obviously. A strong man is bound to have a strong reason for it, and I’m very interested in this Xietian. Besides, everyone knows by now that joining the Heaven Soul mercenary corps means an increase in strength, and that would let me surpass Lingyun in the shortest possible time!!”

Murong Qiushui tipped his chin down. “That, I can’t help you with. But the person behind you might be able to. Good luck.”

(End of Chapter 207)