Shui Lanxin seemed to sense Wen Xian’s resistance and stopped teasing the frightened young woman. She took out a storage pouch and handed it over.
“This contains the two million middle-grade spirit stones you earned from the sale. We have deducted the fifty thousand you spent on the supreme-grade artifact. The remaining one million nine hundred and fifty thousand stones and your purchased sword are all inside. You may examine them.”
Wen Xian accepted the pouch and sent her spiritual awareness into it. After carefully counting everything in her head, she confirmed that not one stone was missing. The supreme-grade sword artifact was there too.
She put away the pouch. “I have other business, so I will take my leave.”
Wen Xian turned to go, but Shui Lanxin’s beautiful voice followed her.
“Private room one belonged to Ming Yuan, Young Sect Master of the Blood Demon Sect, one of the Demon Realm’s Four Great Demonic Sects. Private room two belonged to Gu Ningxue, the celebrated daughter of the Sword Control Sect, one of the Four Great Immortal Sects. She is known as a once-in-a-century sword genius.”
Wen Xian stopped and looked back.
Shui Lanxin offered her a small smile. “Honored guest, I look forward to our next transaction.”
After a shallow bow, she turned and left. Wen Xian watched her graceful figure for a long moment.
“If she weren’t a leech spirit, I would definitely have fallen for her!” Wen Xian said with heartfelt pain.
As she nearly began beating her chest in grief, Bai Yan raised her head from Wen Xian’s wrist.
“Master, those two have left Water-and-Sky. They’re heading west.”
West?
Perhaps they already knew they were traveling toward the afterlife.
The moment Wen Xian stepped out of Water-and-Sky, she raced west at full speed.
“Master, they’ve started fighting,” Bai Yan reported.
Already?
Could the timing be any better? Even heaven was helping her.
Soon, the deafening noise of battle reached Wen Xian. The ground itself shook, revealing the terrible force of the clash. She immediately hid her presence, slipped into the trees, and continued forward in a crouch.
As a sword spirit, Wen Xian could restrain her spiritual energy until almost nothing escaped. Humans were less sensitive to another person’s presence than demons or spirit beasts. Unless a human cultivator stood far above her in realm or possessed a specialized detection spell, they would never notice her.
Wen Xian reached the battlefield and quietly crept behind a tree wide enough to conceal her body. She carefully leaned out to look.
The surrounding land had been ruined. Spells had torn apart the ground and trees. Corpses lay everywhere, with blood splashed across the earth.
Fortunately, this was not Wen Xian’s first bloody scene. After witnessing the demoness’s slaughter, her courage had improved greatly.
Compared with Feng Lingruan’s work, this destruction was a small stream beside a great river. It barely deserved mention.
Wen Xian leaned a little farther out.
A woman dressed in white held a sword broken halfway down its blade. She had suffered many wounds, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away. Her cold, beautiful face showed the determination of someone prepared to die.
The man standing a short distance ahead of her was hardly untouched. Only a few pieces of cloth remained across his upper body. Several sword wounds had cut so deeply into his bare chest that bone showed beneath them.
His injuries looked frightening, but his color and remaining spiritual energy were both far better than the woman’s.
Her face was as white as paper. Almost no energy remained inside her. Only determination kept her standing.
The man had suffered wounds to his flesh, while hers were internal. If she forced her spiritual energy to move again, it would turn against her and make the damage worse. Then he would not need to strike. She would destroy herself.
“The Sword Control Sect’s celebrated daughter deserves her reputation. Even one of my sect’s elders died beneath your blade.”
Ming Yuan’s blood-red eyes glanced toward an old man lying in a pool of blood. This was the same elder who had suggested murdering the buyer and stealing the sword. Now he lay on the ground without any sign of life.
The old man had sacrificed himself for Ming Yuan, but the Young Sect Master showed no emotion. In his view, servants were supposed to surrender their lives for him. Any number of deaths would be worthwhile if he obtained the Blood-Remnant Sword.
Gu Ningxue pressed a hand to her chest and breathed lightly. Each breath tore through her with pain. Her internal wounds were so severe that even moving had become difficult. With a deadly enemy before her, however, she had no attention to spare for anything else.
“Gu Ningxue, I must admit that I underestimated you,” Ming Yuan said. “Every person I brought died by your hand. Fortunately, attacking you one after another achieved its purpose. You can’t move now, can you? Hand over the Blood-Remnant Sword obediently, and I’ll leave your corpse whole.”
A wicked smile hung on his face as he walked toward her.
Gu Ningxue tightened her grip on the broken sword. Determination flashed in her eyes.
Even if she died, she would drag this demonic cultivator with her.
Ming Yuan prepared to kill Gu Ningxue. Gu Ningxue prepared to destroy them both.
Then a silent arrow flew from behind a nearby tree.
Ming Yuan noticed it at the first possible instant, but he still could not dodge. The arrow missed any vital place, yet it struck his shoulder and sent pain through his body.
He tore it free and discovered that it had been formed from spiritual energy. It was already fading in his hand and disappeared completely a moment later. If not for the terrible pain in his shoulder, he might have believed the attack was an illusion.
“Damn you! Which fool has come here to die?”
Ming Yuan clenched his fists and roared. Veins stood out across his face with rage.
Wen Xian slowly stepped from behind the tree. Her black veiled hat and loose cloak concealed her body so completely that no one could tell whether she was a man or woman.
“Young Sect Master, please be patient,” she said in her rough male voice. “If you may murder someone and steal her treasure, then surely I may benefit while the two of you fight.”
“It’s you!”
Ming Yuan recognized the voice of the “man” who had competed with him and Gu Ningxue for the sword.
“You shameless coward!”
His blood-red eyes filled with killing intent. He wanted to tear Wen Xian apart.
“Young Sect Master, that accusation seems unfair. You exhausted this young woman by sending one opponent after another. Why should I not strike you from hiding? When facing a dishonorable person, dishonorable methods are perfectly reasonable.”
Wen Xian had never lost a war of words. She had merely spoken the truth, yet that was enough to make the short-tempered Young Sect Master tremble with fury. He wanted to rip out her tongue.
The corner of Gu Ningxue’s lips lifted slightly. That small trace of warmth on her cold face could have captured anyone’s heart.
Unfortunately, neither Ming Yuan nor Wen Xian noticed it.
One was too angry to think. The other remained impossibly calm.
Wen Xian had provoked Ming Yuan because she wanted him to attack first. As expected, the Young Sect Master could not win the argument and chose murder instead.
“I’ll slaughter you!”
Blood-red spiritual energy erupted from his body. Crimson patterns appeared across his skin and spread toward his face. His presence climbed without pause.
“Be careful!” Gu Ningxue warned. “That is the Blood Demon Sect’s secret Blood-Burning Art. It raises his cultivation by one full realm and reflects every ranged attack. You absolutely cannot fight him from a distance!”
If her wounds had been less severe, she would have helped. Now she could only watch and offer a warning.
“No ranged attacks? In that case…”
Wen Xian smiled beneath her veil.
“Bai Yan, please hold him still for one second.”
“Understood, Master!”
Wen Xian extended her hand. Bai Yan launched herself from her wrist and flew directly toward Ming Yuan.
“You don’t know the difference between life and—”
Ming Yuan snorted and waited with contempt for the little snake to strike him.
Golden light flashed in Bai Yan’s slit pupils.
The instant Ming Yuan saw it, the world spun around him. He recovered almost immediately, but it was already too late.
Wen Xian stood directly in front of him.
Ming Yuan sneered. “You intend to fight me at close range? You truly wish to die!”
With a shout, he raised one leg for a powerful kick.
Wen Xian seemed to know his movement before he made it. Her foot struck his knee first, stopping the attack.
Ming Yuan froze. He finally understood that she was no ordinary opponent. Gritting his teeth, he punched at her.
Wen Xian tilted her head and avoided the fist with ease. Then she counterattacked.
She pressed the four fingers of her right hand together and naturally folded her thumb. The precise finger thrust shot forward like a swimming dragon and struck Ming Yuan in the eye.
He had never imagined that she would attack such a vulnerable place. He could not react in time.
Pain exploded through his right eye. He cried out and raised a hand to cover it, but Wen Xian gave him no chance to recover. Her leg swept sideways and struck his face.
A blood-covered tooth flew from Ming Yuan’s mouth. His whole body sailed backward, rolled several times through the air, and crashed onto the ground.
His eyes rolled back. Blood ran from his nose and mouth. He had lost consciousness completely.
Only then did Wen Xian lower her leg. The damage she had caused left her shocked.
*Good heavens. This ability is powerful too!*
The system had given Wen Xian three abilities. The first was Super Recovery. The second was the passive Luck ability. The third was Supreme Martial Arts, which granted mastery of the major schools of physical combat.
It possessed another extraordinary feature: when Wen Xian encountered danger, it activated by itself. Whether it counterattacked or fled depended entirely on the enemy’s strength.
In other words, Wen Xian had barely understood what was happening. Her body fought on its own. She felt it make several quick movements, and then Ming Yuan fell like a dead dog. The battle was over before she even saw how she defeated him.
Wen Xian remained confused, but Gu Ningxue had witnessed every detail. She watched this mysterious “man” use strange movements she had never seen before and defeat Ming Yuan in a few simple exchanges, even after he activated the Blood-Burning Art.
The mysterious expert had not used any spiritual energy.
Who was he?
