"You should not have tried to stab a physician in the back," Qiao Zhi replied. "We both seem to have made choices we regret."
The attacker slashed toward her face. Qiao Zhi turned the strike aside and reached for the wrist, but the figure suddenly opened their free hand. A small black talisman lay between two fingers. The paper glowed with an oily red light, and a wave of corrupted energy burst outward. Qiao Zhi immediately raised a defensive layer of qi, yet the explosion was not intended to injure her directly. It filled the roof with thick, dark smoke and shattered the tiles beneath the attacker's feet.
