The dark clouds hung exceptionally low, like a blood-soaked grey cloth suspended overhead. When Ye Fan smoothed down a stray lock of hair for Qín Wǎnshuāng, his fingertips brushed against the cold sweat on her temple—the saber slash on her Xuanjia Army armor was still oozing blood, tightly plugged with cotton wadding from the inner lining of her military tunic.
"A-Ye." Su Qingxue's voice came from the left, carrying a trace of hoarseness. She leaned against the Jiuxiao Huanpei; the qin's body was still stained with enemy blood, but her fingertips plucked the strings gently, sweet fragrance mingling with the reek of blood in the air. "The torches in the mountain hollow are a signal from Hanmei Pavilion's secret posts." She paused, her rouge-stained fingernail tracing a smudge of blood at the corner of her lips. "Not pursuers. An invitation."
Before her voice had even faded, the sound of hoofbeats wrapped in night mist crashed into the battlefield. As the lead guard dismounted, his dark cloak flipped open at the corner to reveal an alchemy furnace emblem embroidered on his chest—the mark of the Qingyun City Alchemy Association.
Chapter 196