Chapter 262 - The False Retreat and a Familiar Face

Chapter 262: Chapter 262 - The False Retreat and a Familiar Face

From where Su Bai stood, the battle looked simple enough.

The demonic cultivators had been pushed into a narrowing space between several broken ridges, while the bandits continued pressing from three sides. Their attacks came without much discipline, but they had numbers on their side, and they clearly believed the advantage was already theirs.

At first glance, Su Bai had thought the same.

However, the longer he watched, the less convincing the situation became.

The demonic cultivators were giving ground, but not because they were being overwhelmed.

Their retreat was too orderly.

Whenever one of them stepped back, another shifted just enough to cover the opening. Their formation looked loose from a distance, yet none of the bandits had managed to break through it. Even the injuries among the demonic cultivators were mostly shallow wounds in places that would not seriously affect their movements.

More importantly, they were not actually trying very hard to escape.

Su Bai’s gaze moved toward the center of their formation.

Ning Shuang stood there with a narrow blade in one hand.

She barely moved compared with the others.

Whenever the bandits pushed too aggressively, she would interfere just enough to stop the formation from collapsing before allowing her people to retreat again.

Su Bai understood.

’They’re drawing them in.’

The bandits probably thought they were slowly crushing a desperate group.

In reality, every step forward was taking them deeper into a position chosen by Ning Shuang.

A broad-shouldered bandit shouted something and rushed ahead with several others.

That was apparently what she had been waiting for.

Ning Shuang’s cold voice carried across the battlefield.

"Move."

The retreat ended instantly.

The change was so sharp that even Su Bai raised an eyebrow.

The demonic cultivators who had been giving ground suddenly separated.

Two swept toward the flanks while several others drove directly into the center of the bandit formation. Dark Qi erupted from their weapons as blades, chains, and short spears struck almost simultaneously.

The bandits had already committed themselves too deeply.

Their numbers, which had seemed like an advantage moments earlier, now prevented those in front from retreating.

A black chain wrapped around one man’s ankle and dragged him off balance.

Before he could recover, a spear pierced through his shoulder.

Another bandit tried to turn, only for two demonic cultivators to cut across his escape route.

The entire battlefield reversed within several breaths.

Su Bai watched quietly.

The individual cultivation of Ning Shuang’s group was not especially overwhelming. Most were still somewhere within Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment, much like the bandits surrounding them.

The difference was coordination.

Every movement followed the same rhythm.

Ning Shuang had allowed the bandits to believe they were winning until they were too close to disengage cleanly.

Now she was dismantling them.

One bandit managed to force his way toward her. His saber descended with enough force to split the ground beneath his feet.

Ning Shuang stepped half a pace aside. Her blade passed beneath his guard.

A thin line appeared across his throat.

Cold Yin Qi bloomed from the wound like pale frost spreading across winter glass.

The man’s saber slipped from his hand before his body collapsed.

Su Bai stared for a moment.

The technique was unexpectedly elegant for something so lethal.

Perhaps that made the contrast worse.

Ning Shuang turned toward another attacker.

At the same time, part of her attention swept beyond the battlefield, checking for approaching reinforcements or any unexpected movement around the perimeter.

That was when her gaze landed on the distant figure watching from outside the fight.

Su Bai had not concealed himself physically. He had simply remained well outside the conflict.

Ning Shuang’s eyes passed over him once before abruptly returning.

For the briefest moment, the cold expression on her face faltered.

Their gazes met across the distance, and Su Bai caught the unmistakable flash of recognition in her eyes.

Ning Shuang’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

Her next movement came a fraction later than it should have.

That tiny delay was enough.

A bandit who had been waiting for an opening suddenly lunged from her blind side.

"Die!"

His heavy saber swept toward her neck.

Ning Shuang reacted immediately, bringing her sword up toward the man’s throat.

For a moment, it looked as though she intended to kill him like the others.

But just before the blade reached him, she hesitated.

Her footwork changed instead. Cold Qi gathered beneath her feet as she slipped past the saber and moved behind the bandit.

The pommel of her sword struck the back of his head hard enough to drop him unconscious.

Several nearby Abyssal Lotus disciples noticed.

Ning Shuang rarely changed her mind once she decided to kill someone.

She caught their reactions and immediately understood the problem.

Her expression remained cold.

"Keep some of them alive."

The disciples looked toward her.

"We still don’t know whether this group is acting alone. Capture the rest and question them."

The uncertainty disappeared from their faces.

"Understood."

Their fighting style changed almost immediately.

Killing blows became disabling strikes.

One bandit had his knee shattered before being dragged to the ground. Another lost his weapon and was pinned beneath a boot. Those who tried to flee were intercepted and forced back toward the center.

Su Bai watched the adjustment with quiet amusement.

He continued observing Ning Shuang.

Su Bai watched her for a moment.

The Ning Shuang he remembered from their brief time together had been much easier to read. She had been nervous, easily embarrassed, and far more expressive than the woman standing on the battlefield now.

The contrast was striking.

At first, Su Bai might have wondered whether the Abyssal Lotus Sect had managed to brainwash her again.

But he had already seen the answer.

The brief crack in her expression when their eyes met had been enough.

Su Bai understood why she was maintaining that cold demeanor.

The disciples around her had no idea that Ning Shuang’s old conditioning had broken.

As long as she remained inside the Abyssal Lotus Sect, she had to behave exactly as they expected.

If anyone noticed that she could think independently, the Heart-Sealing Blood Gu would become the least of her problems.

Su Bai studied her cultivation more carefully.

Ninth Stage Foundation Establishment.

His eyebrows lifted slightly.

She had progressed quickly.

However, after thinking about it, the result was not unreasonable.

When they had first met, Ning Shuang had tried to use the Yin-Yang Plucking technique on him to draw out his Yang Qi.

Instead, the process had gone wrong.

His Reversal Body had pulled the extreme-Yin Qi out of her Dantian, and afterward she had broken through almost immediately.

Su Bai did not know what had happened to her cultivation after they separated, but with the old frostbite and imbalance no longer holding her back, reaching the Ninth Stage of Foundation Establishment after all these months did not seem impossible.

He nodded faintly.

Whatever had happened during that time, Ning Shuang had clearly grown much stronger.

...

The fight ended shortly afterward.

Several bandits lay dead across the ground, while the surviving ones had their cultivation sealed or their limbs restrained.

The Abyssal Lotus disciples began gathering them together.

Ning Shuang stood nearby, quietly cleaning the blood from her blade.

One of the younger demonic cultivators suddenly looked toward the distant ridge.

His eyes narrowed.

"Leader."

Ning Shuang glanced at him.

"There is someone over there."

Several others followed his gaze.

Su Bai remained where he was.

His aura was so quiet that from this distance, there was little for them to judge.

Combined with his pale complexion, he probably looked like a sickly traveler who had made the unfortunate decision to stop and watch the wrong battle.

The young disciple frowned.

"A mortal?"

His hand settled on his weapon.

"Should we silence him?"

Ning Shuang slowly turned her head toward him.

For the briefest moment, something colder than usual flashed through her eyes.

The young disciple stiffened beneath that gaze, though he could not understand what he had done wrong.

Ning Shuang then looked toward the captured bandits.

"Question these pests first. Find out whether there are more of them nearby and where they have been operating."

Her gaze shifted toward Su Bai again.

"I’ll deal with the witness myself."

The young disciple immediately lowered his head.

"Understood."

No one objected.

To them, there was nothing unusual about their leader personally handling a lone passerby.

Ning Shuang stepped onto her sword.

Cold Qi gathered beneath her feet.

She shot across the distance.

Su Bai watched her approach without moving.

From the expression on her face, anyone else might have assumed she was coming to kill him.

Su Bai knew better.

Ning Shuang landed several steps away.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Her cold gaze remained fixed on him.

Su Bai almost smiled.

Ning Shuang walked forward, grabbed the front of his robe, and pulled him closer.

Su Bai looked down at the hand gripping his collar.

Her fingers tightened slightly.

"Don’t resist."

Her voice was low enough that only he could hear it.

Su Bai’s eyes flickered with amusement.

He obediently remained still.

Ning Shuang lifted from the ground with him in tow.

From the battlefield behind them, several Abyssal Lotus disciples watched their leader disappear with the pale stranger.

One of them gave an approving nod.

"Leader Ning truly wastes no time."

Another glanced toward the captured bandits.

"Stop staring. She told us to interrogate them."

The group immediately returned to work.

Far above them, Ning Shuang continued flying without looking back.

She did not release Su Bai’s collar until the battlefield had disappeared completely from view.