Chapter 167 – Love Conquers All

Whoosh-!

Zhao Xinning jumped as a dagger suddenly struck the ground beside her feet.

Its blade was an eerie, brilliant scarlet. The front half had pierced the ground, leaving the dagger standing upright beside her.

“Did it fall from that flying monster?”

Hidden in the corner, Zhao Xinning had clearly seen the creature burst through the shop window.

It had barely flown any distance before two Fireballs burned away its wings.

“Those Fireballs had to be Xi’s…” Zhao Xinning reasoned. “Was that flying monster Xi’s enemy?”

“Did they enter the shop one after the other and then start fighting?”

“As long as Xi is safe…”

When she saw the strangers enter the shop, Zhao Xinning had been worried. “Just as I thought, there was no need. Xi really is incredibly powerful…”

She saw Lin Xi and Qin Ling run out of the shop toward the spot where the monster had fallen.

They soon reached it.

But…

“Are they looking for something?” Zhao Xinning watched them bend low and search the area.

The range of their search grew wider and wider.

“Don’t tell me…” Zhao Xinning lowered her head and looked at the strange dagger beside her feet. “Don’t tell me this is what they’re looking for?”

She had not been interested in it before. Now she was interested at once.

“Whatever they’re searching for certainly isn’t ordinary,” Pluto said.

Zhao Xinning crouched down, reached out, and pulled the dagger directly from the ground.

Nothing happened.

She examined it in her hand. Apart from the unusual color of its blade, it looked perfectly normal.

“They’re widening their search. They’ll reach you soon,” Pluto warned. “You need to leave.”

“Mm.” Zhao Xinning had no intention of letting Lin Xi discover her here.

“I’ll take it home and find out what’s different about it…” Carrying the dagger, Zhao Xinning slipped away unnoticed.

…

“Lin Xi, any luck? Did you find it?” Qin Ling had spent ages scanning the area with wide eyes, but found nothing.

Lin Xi was bent at the waist too, sweeping her head back and forth like a detector as she searched the ground. There was no sign of the dagger.

“No. I can’t find it either.”

“That doesn’t make sense…” Qin Ling said, baffled.

“It definitely fell somewhere around here…”

The man Lin Xi had knocked from the sky with her Fireballs was already dead.

He had been unlucky enough to land directly on a large rock.

If he had survived, they could at least have asked whether he had thrown the dagger somewhere.

“We’re finished. Completely finished…” Qin Ling paced in frantic circles.

Lin Xi still had no idea what was going on, so she told Qin Ling to explain while they continued searching.

“Mo told me that containing Dark Realm Relics is one of ZERO’s major responsibilities,” Qin Ling said.

“A ‘Dark Realm Relic’ is an object from the Dark Realm whose danger level rivals that of a high-grade Dark Realm Disaster.”

Lin Xi remembered what the man had said when he took the dagger-a relic on par with a Special-Grade Disaster. “So this Cursed Blade is a Dark Realm Relic?”

“Mm,” Qin Ling said. “I think our murdered colleague obtained the Cursed Blade first. At the same time, the man and woman set their sights on him.”

“They were probably members of the Dark Realm Alliance. They killed our colleague yesterday but failed to take the weapon right away… Most likely, they didn’t have the necessary protective equipment with them.”

“Protective equipment?” Lin Xi thought for a moment. “You mean the gloves?”

The man had put on those unusual black gloves before touching the dagger.

“Right.” Qin Ling nodded. “They couldn’t retrieve it yesterday, so they came back prepared today-and ran into us.”

Lin Xi finally understood the broad outline. “The Cursed Blade really is an ominous object…”

“It’s worse than ominous. It drinks blood,” Qin Ling said. “Judging by the corpse, it wasn’t difficult to conclude that the blade absorbed every drop of his blood.”

“No wonder it was such a bewitching scarlet…” Lin Xi murmured.

Now fully aware of how strange and dangerous the thing was, the two expanded their search and combed the area with even greater care.

“Lin Xi! Over here!” Qin Ling called.

“What is it?” Lin Xi hurried to her side. “Did you find it? Don’t touch it. Let me handle it.”

Lin Xi had taken the man’s gloves. To retrieve the dagger safely, she would have to wear them.

“I didn’t find it,” Qin Ling replied.

“Huh? Then why did you call me over?”

Still crouching, Qin Ling said, “There’s no point searching anymore. Someone must have picked it up.”

“What?!” Lin Xi crouched beside her. Qin Ling pointed to a narrow gouge in the ground.

“This should be the mark left when the dagger struck.”

“It fell here, and then someone picked it up.”

“But…” Lin Xi looked around. There was no one in sight. “Some random passerby took it?”

“Mm.” Qin Ling stood. “We’ll never find it now.”

“In that case…” Lin Xi rose as well. “Isn’t whoever picked it up doomed?”

“It’s the Cursed Blade-an ominous object!”

Qin Ling gave no definite answer. “All we know right now is that it can’t be touched with bare hands and that it can drain blood. We know nothing about its other unnatural powers.”

“It might hurt whoever picked it up, or it might hurt someone else… Anything is possible.”

Lin Xi: “…”

“What do we do now?”

“There’s nothing we can do.” Qin Ling sighed. “Let’s go home.”

“The Cursed Blade is dangerous. It may cause another abnormal incident very soon.”

“All we can do is wait for it to surface again.”

“I guess that’s our only option…” Lin Xi left with Qin Ling.

Inwardly, Lin Xi prayed that the unwitting passerby who had taken the Cursed Blade would be lucky enough to withstand that ominous thing…

…

Zhao Xinning hurried home. The moment she entered her room, she took the dagger from her bag.

“It really doesn’t seem that special-“

As she spoke, a sharp pain stabbed through her palm.

“It… it bites?!”

She was holding the dagger by its hilt, yet a thin cut had opened across her palm.

Then dizziness struck.

The entire world spun around her.

Worse still, everything around her rapidly turned a flat, uniform red.

Zhao Xinning felt as if she had fallen into a sea of blood. She thrashed wildly, on the verge of suffocating…

No!

I don’t want to die!

I can’t die!

I don’t want to go to a world where Xi doesn’t exist!

It was not death that Zhao Xinning feared. She was terrified that she would never see Lin Xi again.

“I don’t care what you are!”

“You will not drag me into a world without Xi!”

Zhao Xinning believed her love for Lin Xi could conquer anything…