Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

Langyue broke free of her cage and ran for ten miles in one breath. She stopped by a stream, bent down, scooped up a handful of water, and drank it down her throat.

Feeling a bit better, Langyue sat down by the stream and began to think about her next plan.

“Ouyang Xuanyi and Li Wan’er are still in the hands of the Jurchens. Once I recover my strength, I must find a way to bring them back and then return to the Shu Mountain Sword Sect.”

"Ye Fan..."

At this moment, as the system's influence dissipated, Lang Yue felt nauseous when she recalled her experience with Ye Fan.

"I never expected Ye Fan to be so useless. I valued him so much, and even cultivated with him and gave him my body!"

"I used to think he was like a man, but now that I think about it..."

His obsequious manner before the Jurchens was truly disgusting.

"I must have been blind to have fallen for something like this."

The thought of her and Ye Fan having consummated their marriage and making love in bed made Lang Yue feel nauseous.

"Forget it, just consider it as being chewed by a dog. Since this kind of person is useless, let him fend for himself."

"It's laughable now that I think about it. They wanted to establish a sect dynasty, but all they had was this kind of ability. They couldn't even handle a group of Jurchens."

"What's even more disgusting is that Ye Fan was actually raped by a man, ugh~"

The thought of Ye Fan's body being ravaged by a burly, horse-dung-smelling golden man made Lang Yue want to vomit again.

She tried to shake off these chaotic thoughts and quickly regained her composure.

"Let's find a place to properly recover our strength first. This Hundred-Day Strength-Dissipating Tea is indeed several times more potent than ordinary strength-dissipating tea."

"We must also be careful of that expert among the Jin people who is on par with me, and try to avoid contact with him."

After making up her mind, Langyue immediately decided to find a safe mountain forest or secret cave to restore her cultivation.

But just as she stood up, she felt a chill creep up from behind.

In the instant he turned around, a cold glint was already right in front of him.

Langyue instinctively dodged the fatal sword strike to the side and then struck out with her palm.

The sword's momentum suddenly reversed, and the palm struck the spine of the sword, directly knocking the attacker back several steps.

"Who dares to plot against me!"

"Langyue, do you still remember me?"

Upon hearing this, Langyue focused her gaze and saw a graceful figure standing alone a foot away, her spirit sword radiating a dazzling cold light.

"You are……"

After a moment's thought, Langyue finally recognized her opponent.

"You are Lin Yunxiu? You're still alive?"

Her eyes were filled with disbelief that Lin Yunxiu could actually survive her palm strike.

Lin Yunxiu's eyebrows were cold and arrogant as she twirled her spirit sword.

"Langyue, as a member of the Shushan Sword Sect, you have aided and abetted evil, causing the deaths of twenty-eight members of my Jinyun Manor and allowing hundreds of innocent women to be brutally violated by the Jurchens."

Today, I will make you pay the price for everything you've done!

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Upon hearing this, Langyue immediately smiled.

"Lin Yunxiu, since you've survived by sheer luck, you should live a life of ignominy instead of eagerly courting death."

"Hasn't the difference in strength between us made you realize the reality?"

Lin Yunxiu replied calmly, "In the past, I would never have had the chance to kill you, but now you are forcibly using your internal energy to recover your cultivation."

"My own strength has been greatly reduced; I can probably only exert less than half of my original power. That's the reason I'm confident I can kill you."

"Oh, really?"

Langyue lightly stroked her luscious lips with her little finger and smiled disdainfully.

"Even with only half my strength, killing you would be more than enough. I don't care how you survived; I'll just let you live with hatred once more."

Lin Yunxiu raised an eyebrow, and the spirit sword in her hand flew out of her grasp and spun rapidly, aiming straight for Langyue's vitals.

His first move was a deadly strike without reservation—the Sword Separation Style.

Lang Yue's smile vanished, and with a wave of her hand, she unleashed a flying sleeve attack, and the two immediately clashed and began to fight.

After several moves, Langyue's expression became increasingly serious.

"Your sword is faster than before?"

Trapped by the sword net, Langyue found herself in grave danger in the blink of an eye.

She hadn't expected that in just a few days, her opponent's moves would be even more exquisite than when they first met.

Lin Yunxiu remained silent, but the resolute look in her eyes foreshadowed her determination to die in this battle.

Amidst the clashing swords, the flowing sleeves were all severed by the sharp blades.

The sound of tearing fabric echoed.

puff-

The moment the sword came into his hand, he slashed with his backhand.

Before Langyue could react, a sword mark was immediately slashed across her palm.

"court death!"

In an instant, Langyue was enraged. She used her palm as a sword and attacked like a thunderstorm, giving Lin Yunxiu no chance to catch her breath.

Even though Langyue could only exert less than half of her strength, her absolute suppression of cultivation still left Lin Yunxiu with only the ability to defend herself.

The situation reversed instantly, and Lin Yunxiu switched from offense to defense, doing her best to resist the opponent's outburst.

However, prolonged defense inevitably leads to defeat.

"Heart-destroying palm!"

boom--

Langyue struck out with a palm strike from mid-air, the force of which shot three zhang high, breaking through Lin Yunxiu's defense and hitting her shoulder.

Instantly, Lin Yunxiu coughed up blood and staggered back several steps.

"Die!"

Langyue struck again, intending to kill Lin Yunxiu quickly while he was still unsteady.

However, at this moment...

"Broken Sword Style!"

Lin Yunxiu, who had been staggering and losing her balance, suddenly leaned forward and thrust out her long sword like a ghost.

"Pfft-"

After a hiss, the two men, back to back, stood alone in the wilderness, maintaining their attack posture.

The sound of a babbling brook echoed in my ears, signaling the end of this thrilling battle.

"How can it be……"

All that could be heard was Langyue's incredulous and questioning voice.

Then, a crimson sword wound suddenly appeared on his chest, accompanied by a spray of blood mist.

"No, how could I lose to you..."

Lin Yunxiu slowly sheathed her sword and spoke to Langyue behind her.

"This is the path you chose yourself. From the moment you chose to aid and abet evil, no matter how high your cultivation level was, you were destined to fail in the end."

Lang Yue coughed up a mouthful of blood: "So, I've already lost, right? How ridiculous! I actually lost to my own defeated opponent, you..."

"Go to hell and repent properly for those you killed and those whose families were destroyed because of you."

Leaving behind a sentence, Lin Yunxiu strolled forward.

"I... I hate it so much..."

Langyue uttered her last unfinished words before collapsing by the stream. Her eyes remained wide open, her face filled with disbelief, until the very end.

After killing Lang Yue, Lin Yunxiu traveled two miles alone, entered a dense forest, sat down under a maple tree, and quietly awaited the final moment.

"Your Majesty, thank you for granting my request. Now, I can leave this world without any regrets."

She slowly raised her hand, as if she could see Zhou Xianwu waiting for her not far away.

"Xianwu, in our next life, let's admire the moon and recite poetry together again, and never concern ourselves with anything again..."

After saying that, Lin Yunxiu closed her eyes with a smile on her face.

The wind howls, and fallen leaves flutter down.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Yunxiu slowly opened her eyes.

"How come I'm not dead yet? Wasn't it said that once the Yi Jing Dan was taken and its potential was unleashed, one would only have less than twelve hours to live?"

Just as she was wondering what was going on, a voice sounded behind her.

"The Regent may be cold-hearted, but he will not let a chivalrous person die in vain. Heroine Lin, your mission is not over yet."

The people of the Song Dynasty are waiting for you to save them. Go to Xizhao County; they need your help there.