Lin Yue's POV
"You bastard!" I lunged for the glowing talisman, but Zhang Wei stepped back, holding it out of reach.
"Don't make this harder than it already is!" His voice cracked with emotion, but his hand stayed steady. The golden light pulsed brighter, the signal already sent. "They're coming, Yue. The Heavenly Sword Sect will be here within the hour."
Within the hour. My life was ending in less than sixty minutes.
"I trusted you," I whispered, my whole body shaking. "I was going to marry you."
"And I wanted that!" Zhang Wei's eyes were red now, tears streaming down his face like he was the victim here. "But Mei Ling found me before dawn. She showed me evidence—demon cores hidden near your house, traces of spiritual energy on your clothes. She said if I didn't help expose you, she'd tell the sect I was your accomplice. I'd be executed alongside you, Yue. What was I supposed to do?"
"Stand by me!" The words exploded out of me. "You were supposed to stand by me! That's what love means!"
"Love doesn't mean dying for someone's stupid choices!" He was yelling now too. "You were reckless, hunting demons alone, keeping secrets. You did this to yourself!"
Each word was a knife to my heart. This was the man who'd held my hand under the stars, who'd promised to protect me always, who'd kissed me by this same river just two weeks ago.
He'd never loved me. Not really.
"Fine," I said coldly, my mind already racing through escape plans. "You made your choice. Now let me make mine."
I turned to run, but Zhang Wei grabbed my wrist hard enough to hurt.
"I can't let you leave. The sect needs to find you here, or they'll think I helped you escape." His grip tightened. "I'm sorry, but you have to stay."
"Let go of me."
"Yue—"
I twisted my wrist using a technique Father taught me for escaping bandit holds, breaking free easily. Zhang Wei stumbled backward, surprised. He'd always underestimated how strong I was.
"If you chase me," I said quietly, "I'll show you exactly what a Golden Core cultivator can do to a normal human. And it won't be pretty."
His face went pale. Good. Let him be afraid.
I ran into the forest, my enhanced speed carrying me faster than any normal person could follow. Behind me, I heard Zhang Wei shouting, but I didn't look back.
One hour. I had one hour to grab my demon cores, say goodbye to Father somehow, and disappear forever.
My mind spun with impossible plans as I raced through the trees. I could hide in the mountains, change my name, maybe find a way to—
A figure stepped out from behind a large oak tree directly in my path.
I skidded to a stop, nearly crashing into them.
It was a man, tall and dressed in simple gray robes. His silver-white hair was tied back, and his ice-blue eyes studied me with an intensity that made my breath catch. He looked maybe twenty-seven or twenty-eight, handsome in a cold, untouchable way.
But what made my spiritual energy react in warning was the powerful cultivation aura rolling off him in waves. This wasn't some random traveler.
This was a Nascent Soul cultivator. Someone powerful enough to crush me like an insect.
"Running from something?" His voice was smooth and deep, but there was curiosity in his tone, not threat.
"I—" Think, Lin Yue. "I'm late for... for market day. Excuse me."
I tried to step around him, but he moved with that impossible cultivator speed, blocking my path again.
"You're lying." Not accusatory, just stating a fact. "And badly. What's your name?"
"None of your business." Fear made me bold. "Please move. I really need to go."
His eyes narrowed slightly, and I felt him probe my cultivation level with his spiritual sense. I tried to hide it, but I was panicking and sloppy. His eyebrows rose in genuine surprise.
"Golden Core? At your age?" He looked impressed rather than angry. "How old are you? Twenty? Twenty-one?"
"Twenty," I admitted before I could stop myself. Why was I answering him?
"Remarkable. Self-taught?"
"How did you—"
"Your techniques are rough but effective. No sect would leave a disciple's fundamentals that unpolished." He tilted his head. "Are you in trouble?"
The question was so unexpected, so genuinely concerned, that for a moment I forgot to breathe.
"Yes," I whispered. "Serious trouble. The Heavenly Sword Sect is coming for me, and I—I need to run, please, just let me go—"
"Heavenly Sword?" Something dark flickered across his face. "Why are they after you?"
"I'm a rogue cultivator. They want to make me a cultivation furnace."
The temperature around us dropped ten degrees. Ice literally formed on the nearby leaves.
"A furnace," he repeated, his voice deadly quiet. "They still do that?"
"You didn't know?" I stared at him. "Everyone knows the sects enslave rogue cultivators."
"I've been away for a long time." His jaw clenched. "How long until they arrive?"
I glanced at the sun's position. "Maybe forty minutes now."
"And you're running? Alone? With no plan?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Desperation made me snap at him. "I can't fight a whole sect by myself!"
He was quiet for a long moment, studying me with those strange ice-blue eyes. Then he did something completely unexpected.
He pulled a jade token from his robes and held it out to me.
"Take this."
I stared at the token. It was carved with a sword symbol and emanated powerful spiritual energy. "What is it?"
"A protection token. It marks you as under my personal protection. No sect will touch you while you carry it."
"Why would you help me? You don't even know me."
"No, I don't." A small, sad smile crossed his face. "But five years ago, someone helped me when I was poisoned and dying. A girl with golden eyes who asked for nothing in return. She told me to 'fight for the innocent, not glory.' I never got to repay her kindness."
My heart stopped. "Five years ago?"
"I was on a mission near here. Collapsed by a road. A village girl found me and nursed me back to health in an old cabin for three days before my disciples found me." His eyes met mine. "She had eyes exactly like yours. Golden, warm, full of kindness."
Oh gods. Oh gods, that was him?
"I searched for her afterward," he continued quietly, "but by the time I returned, I heard she'd... died. Some family scandal, I think. I never even learned her name."
"Lin Yue," I whispered. "Her name was Lin Yue."
He froze. "How do you know—"
"Because that was me!" The words burst out. "I'm Lin Yue! I'm the one who saved you!"
For three heartbeats, he just stared at me. Then he grabbed my shoulders, his eyes wide with shock.
"You're alive. You're actually alive."
"I'm alive, but I won't be for long if I don't run—"
"You're not running anywhere." His voice was suddenly fierce. "I told you—you're under my protection now. The Heavenly Sword Sect will have to go through me first."
"You don't understand, there's too many of them—"
"I'm Shen Qinghan," he interrupted. "Sect Master of Heavenly Sword Sect. And I'm about to have a very serious conversation with my disciples about their recruitment methods."
The world tilted sideways.
The man I'd saved five years ago was the Sect Master? The leader of the very sect that was coming to enslave me?
"That's impossible," I breathed.
"It's true." His grip on my shoulders tightened protectively. "You saved my life, Lin Yue. Now let me save yours."
Hoofbeats thundered in the distance. Shouts echoed through the forest. They were coming.
Shen Qinghan stepped in front of me, his powerful aura exploding outward like a shield.
"Stay behind me," he ordered. "And whatever happens next, don't run. Trust me."
Trust him? Trust the Sect Master of the people who wanted to drain my cultivation and destroy my life?
But what choice did I have?
Fifty disciples in white robes burst into the clearing, led by three elders. They saw me immediately, and Elder Zhao's face split into a triumphant grin.
"There she is! The rogue cultivator Lin—" He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes going wide with horror as he recognized the man standing in front of me. "S-Sect Master? You've returned?"
"Yes," Shen Qinghan said coldly. "And someone want to explain to me why you're hunting a twenty-year-old Golden Core cultivator to turn her into a furnace?"
Elder Zhao's face went pale. "Sect Master, she's a dangerous rogue—"
"She saved my life five years ago. Show me the evidence that justifies enslaving her, or stand down. Now."
The clearing went silent.
Then Zhang Wei pushed through the crowd, holding up his communication talisman like a weapon.
"Sect Master, I have evidence! I'm her betrothed, and she's been deceiving everyone, hoarding demon cores, practicing forbidden techniques—"
"You lying snake!" I tried to lunge forward, but Shen Qinghan's arm shot out, holding me back.
"Betrothed?" Shen Qinghan's voice dropped to freezing. "And you're testifying against her?"
"I had to! She's dangerous! She—"
"She's dangerous?" Shen Qinghan laughed, a sound like breaking ice. "No. What's dangerous is men who betray the women who trusted them. Take him."
"What?" Zhang Wei's face went white. "But I reported her to you! I'm a hero!"
"You're a traitor to your own betrothed. We don't recruit traitors." Shen Qinghan nodded to his disciples. "Remove him from my sight."
Two disciples grabbed Zhang Wei, who started screaming protests as they dragged him away.
Elder Zhao tried again. "Sect Master, with respect, we have orders from—"
"From whom?" Shen Qinghan's aura flared dangerously. "I'm the Sect Master. Who gave you orders above mine?"
No one answered.
"That's what I thought." He turned slightly toward me, his voice softening. "Lin Yue, I need you to come with me to the sect. Not as a prisoner—as my guest. We're going to sort this out properly."
"Your guest?" I didn't trust this. Couldn't trust this.
"My personal guest. Under my protection. I swear on my cultivation, no one will harm you."
A cultivator's oath on their cultivation was binding. Breaking it would destroy their power.
But could I really trust him?
Behind the disciples, I spotted movement in the trees. A flash of green silk.
Mei Ling was watching from the shadows, and the look on her face was pure rage. Her plan had failed, but something in her eyes promised this wasn't over.
Shen Qinghan extended his hand to me. "Please. Trust me one more time, like you did five years ago."
I looked at his hand, then at the fifty disciples, then at Elder Zhao's furious face.
Then I heard it—a whisper carried on the wind, so faint I almost missed it. Mei Ling's voice, talking to someone hidden in the trees.
"Don't worry, Mother. I have backup plans. She'll be dead by sunset."
My blood turned to ice.
I took Shen Qinghan's hand.