My goddess, Dixie Yang. [1]

I changed my course.

To be exact, I turned in the opposite direction to avoid the fight happening nearby.

I even silenced my steps to avoid any unnecessary conflicts.

But after taking only about three steps, I came to a halt.

Step.

Even the sound I had been suppressing stopped entirely.

Though I was headed in the opposite direction, I couldn't help but feel bothered by what I heard.

It was my mistake to enhance my hearing with internal energy. I ended up hearing something I shouldn't have.

"You vile scum! Stop this at once!"

"Haha! The old man is still hanging on! What will you do now, old man? Your granddaughter is in our hands!"

"You despicable creatures! She's just barely past her coming of age!"

Barely past her coming of age—she must be around sixteen years old.

Those thugs had a blade to the throat of a girl that young.

I had no idea what their goal was.

Whether it was for money or something worse, any martial artist who hears of such a situation can't just walk away.

'Hold on! When did I ever act like a hero?'

Still, Han Zhang usually tried to avoid such situations whenever possible.

I didn't care about being a chivalrous knight.

My goal was simple: safely find opportunities, gather treasures and elixirs, and perhaps win the heart of a beauty along the way.

But that plan shattered with the next sound.

Clang! Clang, clang, clang!

Again, the sound of blades clashing and a voice raised in pain.

****

[The other side.]

"Ugh! If you knew who you're messing with, you'd regret this."

"Oh? Really? Haha! Then tell me, who have we messed with?"

The old man's voice, shaky and broken from a previous battle, rang out again.

"T-The young lady! Her name is Dixie Yang!"

In desperation, the old man, who had been called "grandpa," revealed the girl's true identity to the enemies.

The girl, Dixie Yang, had begged her father relentlessly to let her attend the upcoming Rising Youngesters Martial Arts Gathering in Hangzhou.

She wasn't traveling alone either.

Five elite bodyguards from the Dixie family, accompanied her.

Yet, they were slaughtered in an instant by these thugs.

It didn't make sense—how could mere bandits take out such highly trained men?

The old servant, who had posed as a grandfather, had no choice but to reveal her identity, hoping the enemies would back down out of fear of her family's name.

The Dixie family of Shanghai was no small power, after all.

But instead...

"Oh, the Dixie family, huh? That explains the fierce throwing techniques. You must truly from the Dixie clan."

"W-What?"

The bandit leader, a man with the face of a tiger, responded to the old man in such a casual, matter-of-fact way that it left the servant stunned.

His voice carried no sense of respect or hesitation toward one of the most prestigious families in the martial world.

'Dixie Yang? No way!'

How could I forget her?

A member of the Dixie family, the heroine who had once saved the life of a lowly martial guard like me during a demonic sect ambush.

There had been rumours of an incident in her childhood, though I never knew the full details, it was said she was defiled by lowly men's though she killed them later.

When I first met her, she had seemed like a doll, emotionless and distant.

But I had always considered it fate, when I was assigned to guard her quarters while she stayed at the Martial Alliance.

That faint smile she occasionally showed me—it had once felt like a ray of light in my life.

It's a long story, but one thing was clear: I couldn't just walk away.

'Dixie Yang, It's time to repay the favour!'

With an empty, bitter laugh, I shot forward, cutting through the air with a sharp whoosh.

"Ugh! Who are you?"

The hoarse voice asking my identity must have come from Dixie Yang's old servant.

But those bandits weren't going to question me.

Because there was no need for them to do so.

"Who the hell—?"

Kaang!

My steel sword cleaved through the skull of the bandit who had been holding Dixie Yang hostage.

The thug who barely managed to block my follow-up strike with his sword looked utterly shocked.

But that's none of my concern.

Swoosh!