Chapter 420: Night Raid

The night was heavy, and the evening wind grew cool.

Binhai City’s Antique Street.

The empty street was immaculate, with only the occasional cargo truck speeding by.

Xia Qingxue sat cross-legged on her bed, dressed in a white dress, her expression cool and detached.

An invisible Dao rhythm circulated around her as waves of potent Spiritual Power grew increasingly turbulent.

After a period of dedicated Cultivation, her Cultivation had finally reached a new level—the Peak of the Third Layer of the Qi Refining Stage!

This Realm was already equivalent to that of an ordinary Grandmaster.

Exhaling softly, Xia Qingxue opened her eyes. Her clear pupils were like a cold mountain spring, devoid of any emotion.

Xia Qingxue got out of bed and walked to the window. As she gazed at the flawless, silvery moonlight, a trace of melancholy suddenly appeared on her stunningly beautiful face.

Ever since she and Chen Erbao had parted ways in Dian Nan, he had rarely called her…

He had sent plenty of messages, though, and Xia Qingxue knew that Chen Erbao would be coming to Binhai in two days.

She picked up her phone from the side, turned it on, and saw the latest messages from Chen Erbao.

“Qingxue, I should be in Binhai the day after tomorrow.”

“I have something important to do this time, so I might not have much time to spend with you.”

“How has your Cultivation been recently…”

Although they were just ordinary questions, a warmth spread through Xia Qingxue’s heart as she read the words on the screen, and her cold expression softened slightly.

She had grown up in the Miaoyin Sect and had barely ever interacted with unfamiliar men. After her sect was destroyed, she became a fugitive, hunted by the Celestial God Sect, forced to hide and flee with her junior sister.

‘I thought I might die during the chase, or perhaps I’d have to hide somewhere and cultivate for a century or two, only emerging one day to avenge my sect.’

‘But I never expected that, through a strange twist of fate, I would meet a man to whom I could entrust my life…’

Thinking of Chen Erbao, Xia Qingxue felt a flush of heat spread through her body.

His roughness and infatuation when they parted often left her reminiscing deep in the night…

From the moment Chen Erbao taught her the Cultivation Technique, she had completely given her body and soul to him. It wasn’t just because he had saved her life, but also because the image of his face and the sound of his voice and laughter were deeply etched into her mind.

Though they had spent little time together, she could no longer forget this man…

Xia Qingxue sighed softly, suppressing the longing in her heart. She stepped out of her room and surveyed the house in the moonlight.

Song Yao was resting in the next room; she could clearly perceive the faint sound of her breathing.

Since returning to Binhai, she had spent most of her days cultivating in the backyard, leaving the shop’s business to her junior sister, Song Yao.

RING RING RING…

The phone suddenly rang.

Xia Qingxue picked up her phone and saw the call was from a contact named “Baldy.”

“Hello, is that Boss Xia?”

Once the call connected, a fawning laugh came from the other end.

“Have the goods been delivered?”

“Yes, yes! We’re right outside!”

Xia Qingxue hung up, glanced at her junior sister’s room, and then walked out into the courtyard.

In the narrow alley, a bald man and a shorter man were furtively glancing around.

Hearing the gate open, both men started in surprise. They looked up and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Boss Xia, this is the stuff my brother and I just dug… uh, just acquired. Please take a look.”

The bald man bowed and scraped with a smile, waving for the shorter man to bring over several wooden crates.

Xia Qingxue didn’t say a word. She walked straight to the crates and swept her Divine Sense over them, discovering they were filled with rust-spotted iron artifacts.

They were ancient in style and still covered in damp soil.

Once her inspection was complete, Xia Qingxue brought a black bag out from the courtyard and tossed it in front of the bald man.

“This is acceptable. I’ll take them.”

The bald man and the shorter man excitedly ran over. They unzipped the bag, looked inside, and immediately broke into satisfied laughter.

“Excellent, excellent… Boss Xia, do you need us to help you move them inside?”

“No need. You can go.”

Xia Qingxue waved her hand, clearly unwilling to say more.

The two men took the hint, nodded, and hurried away with the bag.

After the two had left, Xia Qingxue effortlessly moved the crates into a side room in the courtyard.

Those two were the same pair of goofy smugglers Chen Erbao had met on his first trip to Binhai City’s Antique Street. After returning from Dian Nan, Chen Erbao had given their contact information to Xia Qingxue, transferred ten million yuan to her, and tasked her with collecting the goods these two managed to procure.

As for whether the goods were stolen, robbed, or excavated, Chen Erbao didn’t care.

Xia Qingxue closed the gate and was about to return to her room to continue her meditative Cultivation when her brow suddenly furrowed. She whipped her head around to look outside the courtyard, her fair hand moving to her waist at some unknown moment.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!”

SWOOSH!

A blurry, indistinct black mist shot out from a corner, heading straight for Xia Qingxue’s face.

Xia Qingxue’s expression remained unchanged. With a slap of her jade-like hand, Spiritual Power surged from her body and collided with the shadow.

BANG!

After a dull thud, the shadow dissipated, revealing a person dressed in black robes in the courtyard.

In that hasty exchange, the two were surprisingly evenly matched!

Xia Qingxue’s heart trembled. ‘He’s a Grandmaster too.’ Her heart slowly sank.

“The Celestial God Sect?”

She turned silently and stared at the black-robed man, her voice cold.

“Jie jie jie, I didn’t expect you to have broken through to the Grandmaster Realm… But even so, you shouldn’t have been a match for Gu Li. Tell me, who is your accomplice?”

“You talk too much!”

Of course, Xia Qingxue had no intention of answering him. With a light wave of her right hand, a snow-white longsword flew out from her room and landed in her grasp.

Song Yao was also awakened by the commotion of their fight and rushed out of her room.

“Senior Sister, what’s wrong… The Celestial God Sect!”

Her young face fell, and she moved to stand behind Xia Qingxue.

An attendant also appeared behind the black-robed man.

The four of them each took a corner of the courtyard, facing off against each other.

Xia Qingxue instructed Song Yao via Divine Sense, ‘Xiaoyao, you go first. Notify him. I’ll hold them off.’

But Song Yao stubbornly shook her head. “Senior Sister, I’m not leaving! I want to fight by your side!”

She knew who her Senior Sister meant by “him,” but distant water can’t quench a nearby fire. By the time Chen Erbao arrived, Xia Qingxue would likely be gone.

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Hurry up and go. You’ll only hold me back here. The enemy is also a Grandmaster… Don’t worry. Even if I can’t beat him, he can’t stop me from leaving if I want to. Go now. Head to that house in the suburbs and stay out of the city. The fact that they found us means someone helped them…’

“No, Senior Sister…”

Tears welled up in Song Yao’s eyes. She refused to abandon her senior sister and escape alone.

“Listen to me!”

Xia Qingxue had no more time to persuade her, because the black-robed man was already charging.

The indistinct black shadow clung to her like a second skin, darting up and down around Xia Qingxue, trying to overwhelm her.

But Xia Qingxue was no weakling. She wielded her longsword in a seamless, impenetrable defense, unleashing astonishingly powerful bursts of sword energy.