- Ava -

The night had been fruitful. She had started with the cultivation technique Senior Hall taught her, but soon felt the need to rely on her Yin Demon breathing. She wasn't worried about getting caught. She had long since realized that none of the Seniors could tell when she cultivated it. She wondered how they could all be so incompetent, but it didn't matter to her. It was already in her next report.

In the meantime, it just made things easier for her. The Yin Demon technique was perfect for her physique. She had a rare Pure Yin Constitution, and in spite of her weak spirit root, her constitution allowed her to cultivate large quantities of yin chi. The only downside was that she would have to work hard to protect herself from men when she was older, but that wasn't so different from most women in the cultivation world. She would just have to be stronger than them.

Her bunkmate had nearly died last night. Unfortunately, Senior Rebecca noticed at the last moment, and rescued the girl. Ava thought it was a shame. She could have absorbed the girl's yin chi if she had died. Also, her screaming had been rather annoying. She could have saved the girl herself. She actually knew the correct technique. But why should she waste her own cultivation time? The weak didn't deserve to live.

Senior Rebecca had given her an odd look before leaving the tent. Had that been a test that she had failed? Was the Senior annoyed by the girl's screaming as well? Perhaps she had been meant to kill the weak girl, and stop her screaming.

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No, that didn't make sense. Why would the Senior have saved the girl if Ava had been meant to kill her? Perhaps it was a punishment?

She'd decided to stop worrying about it. She needed to make observations, not speculations.

The children they'd fought yesterday had not returned. Katrina and Amanda said the Grand Ancestor had sent them ahead, and they didn't know what happened to them. Ava suspected that the Grand Ancestor had eaten them. That would make the most sense. They had been defeated in battle, and were worthless to the sect.

Ava had wanted to kill them all herself, and absorb their yin chi as they died, but some of the others seemed squeamish. They were even talking about saving the idiots. She couldn't imagine why. Did they want to keep them as slaves? That was a common enough practice in her Demonic Desert Cult, but she honestly thought they'd be worthless, even as slaves. Especially the one whose nose she had broken. He'd almost earned back some respect when he tried to stand up, but then she broke his leg, and he started screaming, so she hit him in the head. Not hard enough though. He didn't die.

She was sitting with the other children while they cooked tree bunny meat they had preserved the night before. She noticed something strange going on with Sam and Kyle. They were behaving like twin cultivators. She had known a pair of twin cultivators in the Demonic Desert Cult. Annoying little twits. She couldn't remember their names, but she didn't care. She had killed them before coming on this assignment. Their yin chi had been excellent.

She watched as Kyle passed Sam a tree bunny skewer. Sam was facing the other way, but had grabbed it without looking, and without obvious communication. She knew they hadn't learned any sound transmission skills. That definitely looked like twin cultivation. Could non-twins learn that technique? She didn't think the boys were related at all. She'd have to pay more attention. They weren't as annoying as those girls, but if that changed, she would have to take action.

She wouldn't have anyone giggling behind her back. Only fools would tolerate such disrespect, and she was no fool.