8. I Will Protect You

“I told you to leave. Are you deaf?”

Ye Lan pointed towards the man’s neck with her sword and shouted harshly, “Get lost!”

The sword was quite sharp, but the manwas now looking ahead fearlessly. he was now even more silent compared with last night.

“Don’t push me do this, I don’t want to get my sword dirty.” She got her sword back and walked inside the room. The door was shut with a squeak as soon as she flicked her sleeve.

But the door was opened again after another squeak.

Ye Lan didn’t turn around. She faced the window, her hands at the back.

“What do you want?” Ye Lan gave him a cold stare and asked with a loud voice and stern look, “Do you want to stay then?”

The man didn’t answer.

“Let me make it clear! I am not the eldest daughter of the Ye family! If you follow me, you won’t have a luxurious life, but some fatal disaster may befall you.”

“So what?”

The man moved closer, Ye Lan pulled her sword out, the tip of the sword was against his throat.

“One more step, I will show you what I can do!”

“You saved my life.”

“I can kill you as well.” Ye Lan sneered at hearing this, “Get the heck out of here if you are wise enough!”

“Ye family is not the right place for you to stay!”

The man didn’t seem to stop and kept moving forward. The sword had now pierced through his skin and the blood came out, unpleasant to look at.

Ye Lan held back her sword immediately as she didn’t intend to hurt the man but to threaten him away.

The man, who was strong but also slender and taller than Ye Lan, walked towards her one step after another.

All Ye Lan could feel was a darkened figure before her eyes as the man stood still in front of her.

The man lowered his head and looked at Ye Lan in her eyes; his eyes were full of sincerity with his arrogance long gone.

“What do you want?” Ye Lan leaned back a bit, forming a gesture best fit for close combat and she was way ready than ever.

She could tear his head off if he attempted to make any threatening move.

“I will protect you!”

“What?”

“From now on, I will protect you!” The man repeated.

Ye Lan felt this was preposterous but couldn’t control her lips twitching. She ridiculed the man, “You protect me?”

She sneered with her eyes full of contempt, “I, Ye Lan, need someone to protect me?”

“You are now fairly weak…”

“Weak?!” she stressed with her face darkened. The light of the candle suddenly went out.

Ye Lan had her eyes wide open, the light of coldness glistening in them, “What you just said…Are you provoking me or what?”

She pulled out her sword and thrust directly at the man in black, with just inches away from the tip of the sword, the man dodged the attack swiftly.

“You can’t beat me.” The man didn’t fight back but jumped out of the window.

Ye Lan chased after him. Countless snow bullets were flying out as she made a sweeping move on the fallen snow, like flying arrows dashing towards the man.

“How dare you talk to me like that? Watch this!” She flew up on the tree and got in the fight with the man.

“You can’t beat me given your ability right now…” The man jumped on further branches as he fended off the snow bullets into pieces with just a swing of his sleeve. “My savior, please let me protect you.”

“You can see it as me repaying you for saving my life.”

Ye Lan found it hard to believe what he just said since he sounded like begging her for approval. She couldn’t believe that such a proud and arrogant man who cherished his words so much would beg her like that and said so much in one breath.

She didn’t say anything and halted immediately and then gently fell on the snow-covered crest of the peach tree.

She lowered her head, with mixed feelings in her heart. There was some sense of killing on the gloomy side of her face that sun could never reach. The air seemed to be colder than ever even with the bright sun.

“I have said it… I DO NOT NEED IT!”

She was aloof and proud alll her life. Did she need any company in this vast world? Ridiculous!

Hearing she said it with clear utterance and forceful tone, the man felt the winter this year became so long as the chilly wind blow against him.

After the wind, two stands of spiritual power slowly emerged from her sphenoid bones, like trickling golden stream, circling, whirling and drawing as her lovely black hair dancing in the air.

A pair of unparalleled transparent wings were then stretched out.

She opened her arms and looked up, her golden transparent wings vibrated and soon the red fire was lit. The place where Ye Lan stood, the snow started to thaw and the tree branch went like it was spring, producing buds all over, and delicate and charming peach blossom blossomed one after another.

Ye Lan fluttered her wings to full. The wings stretched more than ten inches in length and width, with the fire burning and hot waves billowing.

“You can control the spiritual power?” The man obviously couldn’t believe such a stage-three spiritual cultivator had got the ability to materialize her spiritual power.

“You seem to be surprised?” Ye Lan chuckled and slightly pursed her lips, “The best is yet to come!”

“Don’t you want to protect me? I will see if you’ve got the ability!”

Streaks of flames coming out altogether, clearing their way towards the man with their long tails carrying the red shadow as she fluttered her wings. The flames were lightening fast, making the ice melt and peach blossom flower.

“If I beat you, you should let me protect you!”

“Wait till you really do!”

The flames were like ten thousand horses galloping ahead, thundering past.

The man had a leap and some golden light came out of his sleeves as he swung them, turning the spiritual power into rain which put out the fire very soon.

As the rain drop met the cold air, it froze into ice and wrapped the peach blossom in it, as beautiful as a red pearl contained in a white crystal jade.

Ye Lan froze at seeing this but her eyes became frostier, like they could pierce through the enemy’s heart instantly.

She fluttered her wings again, creating a flow of conflagration, rushing towards the man unstoppably. Faced with the fierce flame, the man stood still and looked sideways.

The fire ran through with a full blossom of peach flower.

Thousands of fallen pedals dancing in the wind; among the rain of flower was the vast snowy wilderness and blue sky, a world of emptiness.

Where was the man? Was he dead?

Ye Lan looked up to the falling rain of pedals and found it dazzling to watch the glaze of the sun.

Before she knew it, a dark spot blocked the sun—it was him!

The man in black landed peacefully in front of Ye Lan, intact. His lips twitched as if he was saying, “I won…”

Ye Lan put her wings away and the spiritual power was turned into bits and pieces. She landed swirling, with the man in her wake.

She headed towards the peach blossom residence. The man followed her and stopped as she halted, respectfully kept a distance of one meter away from her.

“You may stay now.”

A sense of joy flashed through the man’s face as he heard what Ye Lan said.

“Nevertheless, I need to know your name.”

Ye Lan turned around and looked straight into the man’s eyes, asking him strictly, “What’s your name?”

The man shook his head.

“You don’t want to say it?” Ye Lan folded her arms across her chest and sniggered at him, “Since you dress in black and always have a gloomy face… why not call you Xiao Hei(little black).”

The man was emotionless and expressionless on his grim pretty face.

What a weirdo!

Ye Lan waved her hand and pointed to the west wing of the residence, “From now on, you may live in the west wing-room. I will find you a set of clothes and get you changed first.”

Xiao Hei looked even more handsome when he put on the guard uniform. Ye Lan was very pleased at her choice, but to her surprise, this “randomly picked” guard could even cook for her.

With a table full of different delicacies, Ye Lan had a hard time choosing which one to go fist, she pointed the food with the bamboo chopsticks, “Did you… did you make this all by yourself?”

Xiao Hei nodded.

Ye Lan commented, “Not bad.” Then she picked a piece of winter bamboo shoot up. The natural scent of it came to her before she put it in her mouth; she couldn’t wait to taste it.

She had been in this world for a couple of days, but had never been full like this, let alone having some quality food.

“Xiao Hei, come and join me.”

Ye Lan felt something wrong the moment she uttered the word: in the modern era, names like ‘Xiao Hei’ are usually for dogs, especially Chinese rural dogs. Would it be inappropriate to call a grown-up ‘Xiao Hei’?…

“You don’t like the winter bamboo shoot?” Xiao Hei sat down next to Ye Lan.

Ye Lan came back to herself and said, “I like it. Eat.”

“Don’t call me that, just call me Ye Lan.” Her face darkened instantly as she said it, “I am not a daughter from the Ye family.”

“You are my master. How can I call you by your name?”

“Nonsense!” Ye Lan answered coldly, “That’s the deal.”

“No!”

Xiao Hei said it pigheadedly, “Just let me call you my master.”

“Master?” Ye Lan thought it was interesting and nodded, “Let’s go out after dinner.”

Xiao Hei didn’t ask where to as he would protect her well wherever she went.