Using Falling Leaf, Yue Rin slipped back and tore open space between herself and the cultivator.
Qi ran through her meridians and surged into her legs, making her body feel oddly light for a breath. The technique was fast, clean, and reliable, but every use tugged at her reserves and left a faint, stinging heat behind, like her channels were being rubbed raw.
She used the moment to swing her backpack fully onto her back, then pulled the strap tight until it bit into her shoulder. If it shifted mid-fight, it would throw off her balance. If it tore, she would lose everything she'd prepared.
The cultivator didn't give her a breath to settle.
His movement technique carried him in like a sudden gust, and his sword came straight for her chest, used like a spear meant to pin her in place.
Yue Rin drew in one smooth motion and knocked the thrust aside.
He slid with another quick shift, cutting to her flank, and this time the tip angled for her throat.
Yue Rin didn't retreat. She simply tilted her head back by a hair.
The blade missed.
Before he could pull away, Yue Rin spun and lifted her leg. Her heel slammed into his stomach with a dull, heavy impact.
He coughed blood, staggering back to make room so he could steady himself. His boots scraped the ground, and his shoulders tightened as he forced his breathing back under control.
Yue Rin didn't let him have it.
Falling Leaf answered twice, carrying her forward. The cultivator braced, expecting a straight rush, guard already rising to meet her head-on.
At the last moment, Yue Rin changed her line with a third step and slid to his left.
An opening.
She didn't use Needle Draw.
Not yet.
Cultivators always had something hidden for the moment their lives were on the line.
So Yue Rin sold him a lie.
Her posture shifted just enough to suggest a technique was coming.
The cultivator's eyes sharpened. He sent Qi into the shield talisman beneath his clothes. A pale barrier shimmered around him.
And Yue Rin's sword met it with nothing more than a plain strike.
Clang.
No killing edge. No sudden burst. Just steel kissing a shield.
His expression twisted with anger at being toyed with, but instead of rushing to counter, he retreated at once. The fact she chose a simple strike told him she'd expected it not to land.
Which meant she'd expected a counter too.
He didn't want to gamble on it.
Seeing him retreat, Yue Rin gave chase.
Falling Leaf was already biting at its limit, the heat in her meridians sharpening each time she forced it, but the other cultivator wasn't faring much better either. His breathing had turned tight. His footwork couldn't be chained forever without cost.
She dashed in, sword raised, and threw a jab meant to cut at his mind as much as his guard.
"An assassin fighting in the open? What a fool you are."
He didn't answer. Words were bait, and he knew it.
But Yue Rin still saw it, the flicker in his eyes. He'd heard it clearly.
Their blades met with a hard lock, steel grinding against steel.
Then, while the swords pressed, he drove a Qi-laced punch with his free hand straight toward her chest, aiming to rupture her insides.
Yue Rin didn't dodge.
For an instant, his eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe she'd take it.
Her shield talisman flared.
The force weakened, but it didn't vanish. It still slammed into her ribs hard enough to steal breath.
Only, instead of soft flesh giving way, his knuckles struck something hard.
The impact jarred up his wrist, like he'd driven his fist into a spiritwood post.
His gaze snapped with realization.
A defensive technique.
He hesitated. Not long, not even truly thinking, just the smallest hitch in his flow.
That hitch was enough.
Yue Rin broke the sword lock and stepped off-line, shoulders turning to his right. Her stance shifted as if she was about to trigger Falling Leaf again, like she meant to slip away and counterattack before he could reset.
The cultivator read it.
But instead of bracing to block, he committed.
His movement technique carried him in, and his sword technique followed it, a clean line meant to end the fight in a single stroke.
Yue Rin's world narrowed.
The blade that had been a step away was suddenly inches from her neck.
She twisted, tried to tilt away, but she was a heartbeat too slow.
Steel caught the side of her neck and tore sideways.
Pain flashed white. Warmth spilled down her skin.
Blood streaked her cloak and spotted the strap of her backpack.
It was a deep cut, not a clean pierce. Not deep enough to open the artery, but close enough that her knees nearly buckled anyway. Close enough that her stomach lurched at the sheer amount of red.
Yue Rin didn't think. She reacted.
Falling Leaf answered with what little breath it had left.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Space opened between them, and she staggered to a stop, pressing her fingers to her neck. Her hand came away slick.
When she saw the blood, her gaze unfocused for a moment.
A hair's breadth.
A finger's width more, and she would have been done before she even understood it.
The cultivator didn't rush her. He started walking instead, slow and savoring, as if he wanted her to feel every step.
"Are my eyes deceiving me," he said, voice dripping with smug delight, "or is that your blood?"
His words yanked her back.
Right. Fight.
Yue Rin stared at him, at the blade stained with her blood, at the calm way he approached like the outcome was already decided.
Fear rose so fast it made her limbs tremble.
Fear of pain. Fear of blood. Fear of dying.
She could feel it in her throat, in her hands, in the way her knees wanted to loosen. The iron smell hit her a second later, and her stomach rolled again.
Since her transmigration, she'd always worn that stubborn front.
Always told herself she'd rise like the protagonists in the novels. That she'd become someone who made others bow, someone who lived freely.
But this world killed without blinking.
And her body knows that truth better than her pride did.
Her breath came shallow. Her vision narrowed until there was only him.
She could run.
She had the means. A Light-Step talisman would probably carry her into the nearby forest, and with enough turns and enough brush, she might lose him.
But even as the thought surfaced, another followed right behind it.
…And then what?
If she ran now, she'd run the next time too. And the time after that. Until 'cultivator' was just a word she wore like a cloak, hiding a life spent dodging other people's shadows.
A-Ling's face flashed in her mind.
A-Ling wouldn't blame her if she fled. She'd probably comfort her. Tell her nothing mattered more than her safety.
That kindness made something in Yue Rin's chest tighten.
Then, slowly, her grip steadied around her sword.
She forced air into her lungs, deeper this time, and swallowed the shaking down until it burned like bitter medicine. The fear didn't vanish. It just stopped steering her hands.
The cultivator slowed, confused. One moment they'd been trembling, the next they were still.
He sneered anyway, leaning into cruelty like it was strength.
"What's that?" he taunted. "Did you almost pee yourself? Want me to call your mommy?"
While he spoke, he measured distance, calculating the exact step he needed for his movement technique.
Yue Rin was doing the same.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
She counted his steps, not his words.
Three.
Two.
One.
The moment 'one' hit her mind, Yue Rin gambled.
Qi surged through her meridians, and Falling Leaf carried her into a left arc.
At the same instant, the cultivator launched for where she had been, sword driving forward for her chest.
But, instead of flesh tearing, his blade only met air.
Before he could even process it, Yue Rin's sword moved.
Needle Draw.
Not a heavy slash. Not a cleave. A clean, precise line.
She could have taken his throat.
But she didn't.
Her blade cut across his left eye.
"AHHH!"
He stumbled back with a strangled scream, clutching his face as blood poured between his fingers. Half the world vanished for him in an instant.
He looked at the blood on his hand and snapped, rage tearing through him.
"You bastard!"
He'd lost it.
Losing an eye wasn't just pain. For a rogue cultivator, it was a ruin that could follow him for the rest of his life.
Yue Rin's own hands still trembled faintly, but her sword stayed up.
Her voice coming out steady.
"Surrender your things, and I'll let you go, or I'll take the other one."
The cultivator shook with fury, pride surging up like poison.
Then his restraint broke.
With a broken snarl, he charged at her.