Charlotte Harris raised her head and found herself once again in the arms of the “immortal.” Her heart was filled with grief and anger that she could not dispel, so she slapped Grace Miller across the face.

Grace Miller let out an “ah,” suddenly understood something, and even forgot the pain. He scrambled to his feet, catching Charlotte Harris off guard, causing her to fall to the ground with a cry of pain.

Grace Miller, both bewildered and delighted, frowned as he walked out of the bushes, raised a finger, and said to Mr. Clark:

“So that’s how it is. You’d better run—I’ll spare your life.”

The three officers were stunned at first, then burst out laughing, clutching their stomachs. Mr. Clark laughed so hard he couldn’t straighten up, pointing at Grace Miller, gasping for breath as he said:

“You… you…”

Grace Miller smiled faintly and pointed back at Mr. Clark.

Mr. Clark’s laughter stopped abruptly. With a thud, he fell backward to the ground, his left hand still pointing at the sky.

Now it was the two officers on horseback who looked at each other in confusion. They glanced at Mr. Clark, then at Grace Miller, unable to understand what had just happened or what kind of trick Mr. Clark was up to this time.

Grace Miller placed his right index finger to his lips and said:

“You two also have one chance.”

The two officers stared at each other, still not understanding. Suddenly, one of them pointed at Mr. Clark on the ground—there was now a small hole in Mr. Clark’s forehead, blood gushing out.

The two of them looked as if they’d seen a ghost, staring in shock for a long moment. Suddenly, with a shout, they turned their horses and fled back the way they came as fast as they could, even abandoning Mr. Clark’s horse.

Charlotte Harris had lingered in the bushes for a while and hadn’t seen what had happened. Sword in hand, she was about to say a few formal words to the three officers before killing herself, when she saw two experts from the Wuyi Institute galloping away on horseback, screaming as if possessed. Looking down, she saw that Officer Mr. Clark was already lying dead on the ground.

Charlotte Harris grabbed Grace Miller, her beautiful eyes wide open, and asked:

“Did you kill him?”

“Of course. For such a minor character, to die from my ‘Sword Qi Finger’ is already a great honor.”

“But just now you…”

“I was just putting on a show. Even immortals have to do this—first pretend to be weak, then strike. Play the pig to eat the tiger, as they say. No choice, it’s the rules of heaven—no one can break them.”

Charlotte Harris tilted her head and thought for a moment. The immortals in legends did seem to act this way, but as for why heaven had such rules, it was a bit baffling. In any case, the person before her was truly an immortal, so she pressed her hand to her chest and smiled with relief:

“Oh my, you acted so well—I really thought… When I hit you just now, did it hurt?”

Seeing the pretty girl smiling sweetly at him, gazing at him with deep admiration, Grace Miller’s psychological defenses collapsed completely, even faster than those two officers had fled. He wished he could have her right there in the bushes, but fortunately, a sliver of clarity remained in his mind. He thought, if I can’t make her fall for me completely, I don’t deserve to be called “romantic.”

Moreover, for Grace Miller, winning over the beauty in front of him was not just about satisfying his desires—there was an even more important reason. He had already figured out why the “Sword Qi Finger” sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t: it was all because of Charlotte Harris. She had accidentally swallowed Grace Miller’s inner elixir, and the last tenth of the Sword God’s power was now inside her. Grace Miller could only retrieve a bit of it when in contact with her, but she had no idea.

When Grace Miller fell from the sky, he collided with her. After waking up and fumbling around, he was slapped by her, which allowed him to use the “Sword Qi Finger” twice. By the time Officer Mr. Clark arrived, his immortal energy was gone. When Charlotte Harris was knocked away and they collided again, Grace Miller got slapped once more, but the contact was too brief, so he could only use the “Sword Qi Finger” once.

Letting the two officers go wasn’t because Grace Miller really wanted to give them a chance—it was simply that he had no immortal energy left. If those two had been braver, they could have killed him with a single slash.

As for the reason behind all this, Grace Miller certainly didn’t plan to tell the truth. The inner elixir was more precious than life itself to cultivators. Even though the Sword God only had a tenth of his power left, his inner elixir was still of the highest grade—probably unique in the mortal world. If word got out, who knew if the pretty girl would become greedy, but it would definitely attract countless people vying for it.

There were theoretically three ways to retrieve the inner elixir:

First, the person could expel it by circulating their energy, but Charlotte Harris had never learned any immortal arts and couldn’t even use her dantian, so she couldn’t expel it even if she wanted to.

Second, use an alchemy furnace to extract it, but Grace Miller had no tools on hand, and he couldn’t bear to burn the pretty girl to ashes.

Third, the union of yin and yang, the meeting of dragon and tiger—whoever became Charlotte Harris’s spouse would obtain the inner elixir. However, if an ordinary person or someone with a regular cultivation body got such a high-level inner elixir, they would immediately explode and die.

Therefore, Grace Miller suppressed his urge to act immediately—partly as a “sacrifice” for the beauty, and partly because he believed that there were very few cultivators in the world worthy of this inner elixir, so he wasn’t particularly worried.

Thinking that he actually had such a chivalrous and gentle side, Grace Miller felt quite pleased with himself. He looked up again and thought to himself: For the sake of this beauty, I’ll delay my rebellion in the heavenly court for a few more days.

Charlotte Harris saw the shifting expressions on Grace Miller’s face—one moment gritting his teeth, the next calm and relaxed—and couldn’t help but feel a little afraid, deeply sensing that immortals truly acted differently from ordinary people.

“Miss Ye, aren’t you seeking revenge for your father?” Grace Miller asked seriously.

“Yes, my father…”