From a distance, Deng Hui watched the chaos around Yue Rin and felt a grim pity rise, until Qiao Min's voice made him go still.
"It's them, they're the person that came out of the pond."
Deng Hui stared. "How are you so sure?"
Qiao Min's eyes narrowed. "Their hair. I remember seeing strands when they crawled out of the water. The color was… purple. Just like this person."
Deng Hui's gaze snapped back to the chaos by the tree. His expression shifted, something sharp and restless flashing across it.
Qiao Min thought Deng Hui was about to ask more.
Instead, he saw him step forward.
"Where are you going?"
"To help her."
Qiao Min went speechless for a beat.
"Did you suddenly grow a righteous heart behind my back or something?"
"I can explain later, but I'm not leaving her to get torn apart. It's fine if you don't want to come."
He shook off Qiao Min and rushed in.
Qiao Min watched him go, wide-eyed, then sighed and turned to Kang Loen. "He's troublesome, isn't he?"
Kang Loen only gave a short nod, then moved as well, following after Deng Hui without hesitation.
Qiao Min clicked his tongue at the mess they were about to step into, then sped after them.
Deng Hui didn't bother with words once he arrived.
He slammed a punch into the closest cultivator's jaw. Teeth flew. The man spun and crashed into another body, both tumbling through the dirt.
Deng Hui's voice cut through the chaos, hard and loud.
"Anyone who dares lay a hand on her will have to step over my body first!"
The looters froze for half a breath, startled by the sudden violence. Then mocking laughter bubbled up.
"Aren't you the one who injured her in the first place!"
"You attack her, then play hero. Shameless!"
Deng Hui didn't answer.
He drew his sword in a clean, cold motion and struck the arm of the man gripping Yue Rin's belt. Blood sprayed. The looter screamed and stumbled back, clutching his forearm.
That single strike made the crowd's laughter die.
He was not bluffing.
A cultivator with a scar across his cheek spat to the side. "Brothers, this dog attacked a fellow rouge for no reason, and now he dares assault us while we are trying to help. Let's teach him what happens to people who don't know their place!"
Three surged forward at once, trying to overwhelm him with numbers.
They didn't know Deng Hui had played this game before.
He retreated step, baiting them in, then twisted. The man on his right lunged, and Deng Hui caught his sleeve, yanked him off-balance, and dragged him into the path of the next strike.
Steel met flesh.
The 'shield' howled.
Another blade came for Deng Hui's back.
Clang.
Kang Loen arrived, his sword parrying the attack at the last moment. Sparks flashed.
Deng Hui barked a laugh, breath sharp. "On time!"
Qiao Min slid in a heartbeat later, joining the line with a grim face, matching strikes, forcing space. But even with three of them, the crowd was thick, and the greed in their eyes only grew hotter.
More cultivators pushed in, including Lu Yichen's group. Lu Yichen's men, who had wanted to kidnap Yue Rin, now surged in as if they had only meant to 'save' her. Some shouted about justice, others about protecting her, but their hands kept drifting toward the scattered loot.
They wanted the credit. They wanted to strip others. They wanted to be the ones who claimed the beauty and her belongings.
The battle raged.
Swords slashed. Talismans flared. Low grade techniques sparked against bark and earth. Dirt sprayed as feet dug trenches, bodies shoved, and blades carved shallow wounds that began to stack up.
Qiao Min took a cut across his shoulder and hissed, staggering back a step. He glared at Deng Hui through blood-smeared lashes.
"If we die today, I'll beat you in the afterlife!"
Deng Hui laughed again, even as blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. "Then you'd better not die!"
Kang Loen was faring the worst. He was sturdy, but not fast enough for the swarm. Attacks kept slipping toward his vitals, and he barely twisted away each time. A strike grazed his ribs. Another clipped his thigh. His breathing grew heavier, teeth clenched tight.
And then, over the clamor, a voice cut through like winter steel.
"You rogues are truly the worst."
The sound was icy enough to make everyone who heard it shiver.
Everyone's movements slowed, as if the air itself had chilled.
Han Suyin stood at the edge of the scene, her eyes burning with barely contained anger. For a moment, something pained flickered across her face, like an old memory trying to claw its way up. She crushed it down and stepped forward.
Han Suyin lifted a talisman, its paper thick and its ink lines sharp as blade edges.
She poured Qi into it.
The talisman ignited with a soft, pale glow, then burst into dust.
For a breath, nothing happened.
The surrounding cultivators blinked.
Then came the mocking.
"That's it?"
"Did the sect misteach you? Your talisman turned into ash!"
"Pretty face, empty hands."
"Maybe she's trying to scare us with paper scraps!"
Han Suyin didn't flinch.
Someone coughed.
A single white petal drifted down from the sky.
Then another.
Then dozens.
The air turned cold enough to bite. The petals weren't real flowers. They were ice shaped like flowers, each one thin and sharp, spinning slowly as they fell.
People looked up, confused, then uneasy.
The petals began to swirl.
At first it was gentle, like snow caught in a breeze. Then the wind tightened into a ring, and the petals gathered, circling, multiplying, weaving into a living storm. They moved like a school of fish, smooth and coordinated, too precise to be natural.
The first cultivator tried to run.
He took two steps, then the petals struck.
They didn't cut like blades. They wrapped him, layer after layer, sealing his breath, freezing his limbs, filling the gaps between cloth and skin.
His scream turned into a choking gasp.
In the space of a heartbeat, he became a statue of frost, eyes wide, mouth still open.
Panic exploded.
"They're coming!"
"Demoness!"
"Witch!"
"Run, run!"
Cultivators scrambled in every direction, trampling each other.
The storm moved through the crowd one after another.
Each time it passed someone, a statue made of ice was left behind.
A line of frozen bodies formed, some mid-strike, some mid-run, all locked in horror.
Qiao Min's stomach dropped. He almost turned to flee too, because he didn't know if Han Suyin was here as an ally or to wipe out everyone.
The ice petals swept toward him.
He realized too late there was no path out.
But instead of biting into him, the petals curved.
They flowed around Qiao Min, Deng Hui, and Kang Loen like water around stones, avoiding them with unnerving precision. The cold brushed their skin, raising gooseflesh.
Qiao Min stood in place, breath shallow.
A few seconds later, the wind died.
The last petals drifted down and melted into nothing.
Every cultivator who had participated in the looting, except those who had fled early enough, stood encased in ice.
Only a handful remained breathing and unbound, mostly those who had kept their distance, Qiao Min's group, and Yue Rin.
Yue Rin, already half-conscious, shivered from the sudden cold and slipped under again, fainting a second time.
Deng Hui immediately took a step toward her.
Qiao Min grabbed his sleeve. "Stop."
Deng Hui's jaw tightened. "She needs help."
Qiao Min just nodded toward Han Suyin, who was already rushing to Yue Rin's side. "If she wakes up and sees your face first, she'll panic."
Deng Hui hesitated, then let his breath out through his nose.
"Now come. Wrap your wounds. And while we do, you're going to tell me why you suddenly decided to be a saint."
Deng Hui understood the message. Their job here was done, and Qiao Min was angry. He didn't argue, and with Kang Loen, they followed him.
Near the tent, Pei Jinglan stood rigid, watching.
The others around him didn't dare get close. His face looked carved from ice, fury packed tight behind his eyes. Qin Xueyi stood beside him, oddly tense as well. Her expression remained unreadable, but when Han Suyin bent and lifted Yue Rin into her arms, jealousy, quick and thin as a blade, flickered through her gaze.
Han Suyin didn't look back.
Instead she only held Yue Rin tighter and carried her away.