Regarding the Qilin Whip

What an unlucky day! First, she got into a car accident this morning, and now this! Xiao's patience was nearly at its breaking point. What should she do? She desperately wanted to rush out and give that person a good beating!

With that thought, she shook off Ouyang Xianyu's hand, intending to head outside. Ouyang Xianyu frowned at her—was she courting death? Did she really want to walk out there and get herself killed?

He quickly pulled her back to his side, his temper flaring. "Do you have a death wish?" Startled by his shout, Xiao came back to her senses, but she felt just as indignant.

Did he really think staying here would solve anything? It was infuriating! She retorted angrily, "Can't you see this house is about to collapse? If we don't leave now, are we supposed to just wait here for death?"

She truly couldn't understand—why did so many people want her dead the moment she returned to the country? Fuming, she pulled out her whip. Yu saw the whip in Xiao's hand; of course, he knew how formidable it was.

This was an artifact crafted over thousands of years, with embedded diamonds that made it nearly indestructible—there were few things in the world that could break it. He himself had tasted defeat from this very whip more than once.

Seeing the whip, Yu suddenly understood why there were people after Shangguan Xiao's life—the reason might have everything to do with that object. It was said the whip contained the power to control everything that belonged to the Shangguan family.

If their enemies had indeed come for the whip, then Xiao taking it out now would be playing right into their hands. He grabbed Xiao quickly and said gravely, "You can't use this! They might be here for the whip! Don't forget what it represents!"

Looking at Ouyang Xianyu, Shangguan Xiao remembered. She recalled the year she and Yu completed all their special training. Her father had given her this whip, and right in front of Yu, revealed its secret without reservation. She remembered him saying: the whip was called the Fire Qilin, and legend had it that it was crafted by an ancestor of the Shangguan family over a thousand years ago from the hide of a qilin.

Back then, the Shangguan clan had even established their own private army, which answered only to the one wielding the Qilin Whip. There was once a clan leader who used that army to lead the Shangguan family away from a massacre that would have wiped them out.

That army numbered only a dozen or so, but each one was said to be able to fight a hundred on their own—who knew if it was true. The army was rumored to be hidden in the back mountains behind the Shangguan family estate, but those mountains were said to be extremely dangerous.

Only those with exceptional ability, and who could fully master the Qilin Whip, could safely enter and leave the mountains and uncover the army’s sanctuary. But all this had happened over a thousand years ago—no one knew if the army even existed anymore. Still, it was precisely because of the legend of this army that the Shangguan family had been safe for generations.

However, by the time the family reached Shangguan Xiong’s generation, its numbers had thinned considerably. Perhaps the conflicts of the previous generation left a deep impression on Shangguan Xiong. He didn't want his children to end up like him and his brothers, resorting to any means for power.

Shangguan Xiong was born the eldest son of the Shangguan family, a man cold in manner but warm at heart. He simply wasn’t good at expressing his emotions. As the eldest, he shouldered many responsibilities and could not live as freely as others. He had to answer for everything he did.

—Author’s Note—

Feeling drained from writing… The stories I write bring in no income, but I always believe as long as someone is reading, it's worth it! Every day I check my bookmarks, my heart bleeding a little inside! (┬＿┬)