The next day, Murong Yingyue called Qie and had him send her to a universe with dense spiritual energy. In around half a day, she ranked up to the late seventh realm and had Qie teleport her back home.

Murong Yingyue stood at the entrance of the courtyard, having been teleported there just seconds ago. She blinked.

Wow, that was fast! It felt like two sentences, not two days! Whatever, let’s get this over with.

She first made her way to her Third Senior Sister’s house, which was actually just a large cave. Yingyue knocked on the large stone blocking the entrance and waited. A few seconds later, Lu Fei rolled the rock away, opening her room. A blast of heat exited her home, blowing back Murong Yingyue’s clothes.

“Yueyue? What is it?” Seeing her Third Senior Sister look so relaxed made Murong Yingyue’s cheek twitch.

“What do you mean ‘what is it’? Have you forgotten how you ditched me so soon?” The other woman shrank back.

“I’m sorry! But you know what he’s like now, right? Can't you understand my actions?” She pleaded.

“I can understand, but that doesn’t mean I’m not pissed. You and Second Senior Brother need to come with me. I’m enacting punishment.” Murong Yingyue gave her an assessing look. “Have you finished forging that weapon of yours?”

“Yes. I just completed it. Why?” Her Third Senior Sister asked. Lu Fei, being an alchemist, was able to refine and create weapons. The term "alchemist" was more of an umbrella term for anyone who could use fire attribute spiritual energy to interact with special materials. There were many types of alchemists, including pill alchemists, artifact alchemists, and weapon alchemists. Lu Fei was the last kind of alchemist, the most common kind.

“Good. Let’s go.”

Lu Fei hung her head down but acquiesced when Yingyue started pulling her towards their Second Senior Brother’s house. Soon, they reached a simple wooden hut, barely the size of a room. Although it looked shabby, it was well-built and was made of high-quality wood.

There were also invisible formations and poison traps surrounding the house, so the only person who could get into Yun Siye’s home was himself.

(At least until Murong Yingyue broke into it and caught her Second Senior Brother in an... awkward situation. It was why her spiritual power had been sealed in retaliation.)

“Go! I choose you! Lu Fei!” Yingyue pushed her Third Senior Sister straight into one of the poisonous traps, smiling as the trap triggered.

“Ahhh!” Her Third Senior Sister’s reflexes saved her when a barrage of arrows whistled through the air above her. Unfortunately (for her, not Murong Yingyue - she was enjoying this) by dodging she has set off another trap. A pillar of fire burst through from the ground, engulfing her in flames.

Lu Fei, being a fire attribute, was able to resist the flames. Her clothes were also fine, being fire-proofed as a precaution for when she forged weapons.

But that was the only stroke of luck she had. Drops of poison rained down on her, corroding everything that it touched, including the layer of spiritual energy Lu Fei had surrounded herself with as a shield.

“Yueyue! Please! I’ll never ditch you again! Just save me!”

Murong Yingyue happily ignored her.

“I’ll do anything you want!”

“Hmmm...” Yingyue took her sweet time answering back. “That’s a bit cliched, but...” Her Third Senior Sister perked up, eyes hopeful.

“No.” Lu Fei’s face dropped. She was too afraid to move and trigger another trap, and the poison was rapidly eating away at her spiritual energy. Just when she dropped into despair, a wave of spiritual energy surrounded her. It was Murong Yingyue - she wasn’t actually going to leave her there.

“Yueyue! I knew you wouldn’t leave me!” Lu Fei grabbing blindly at the person in front of her, wrapping her arms around their legs.

Not a second later, the person she had grabbed onto was flung away. It was their Second Senior Brother, who had stepped out to see who set off his traps. He had moved to help Lu Fei, but he was beaten to it by Murong Yingyue.

“How dare you deceive me, Yun Siye? I knew you weren’t Yueyue the moment I hugged your legs. I know the shape of her legs! I’ve had to beg her too many times to not know!” She flipped her hand, and a slender sword appeared in her hand. A wreath of flames appeared around her, and they shot towards the poison master’s downed body.

“Enough already!” Murong Yingyue stepped in and used her spiritual energy to block the blow.

“Yingyue...” Her Second Senior Brother said, hope shining in his eyes.

“If anyone has a right to beat him up, it’s me!”

“Yingyue...” Yun Siye repeated, this time in sadness.

“Come on, you dumbasses, we’re going to the training field. It’s part of your punishment.” Yingyue began walking to the field, confident that her fellow disciples would follow her. The last time they tried to escape punishment, she had tracked them down and paid them back three-fold.

“Are we going to get beat up again?” Yun Siye muttered to Lu Fei.

“Probably.” She responded reluctantly, refusing to look at him.

They arrived at a large, open, grassy field. Chu Cheng had designated that place to be the training fields, as whenever they sparred, they ruined the surroundings.

Lu Fei was naturally the most destructive of them, the grass easily catching on fire from her flames. She would create large craters and kill off all the surrounding life with big, flashy moves.

Yun Siye’s poisons were very potent - he didn’t hold back at all, as he had the antidotes. Even if he didn’t, they all knew their master had some good miraculous bring-you-back-from-the-brink-of-death shit. His poison would eat into the ground, corroding the soil and making it unusable (and also killing off all of the wildlife in the area).

Murong Yingyue, despite her personality being the most violent, was the one who dealt the least destruction. Her martial arts didn’t ruin the environment like her other disciples, only creating large dents in the ground, at most.

She cupped her hands to her face and enhanced her voice with her spiritual energy.

“Di Jinming, get your ass over here!” Murong Yingyue yelled. Yun Siye and Lu Fei immediately paled and tried to run away, but Yingyue grabbed on to both of them, holding on tightly.

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“You bitches better stay this time. I need a judge for this match.” She told them coldly. She still hadn’t forgotten how they ditched her, okay? This time she would make them stay, since now she knew they were deathly afraid of their First Senior Brother.

“M-m-match?” Her Second Senior Brother stammered out. “Fifth Junior Sister, you’re insane! You can’t fight him, he can read your mind!”

“Yueyue, listen to him! You can’t beat him! What if you lose? He’s going to torture you!” Lu Fei nodded urgently, agreeing with Siye. Yingyue only scowled at them.

“That’s because your skill sets aren’t a good match against him. Let me teach you noobs a lesson on how to fight a mind reader.”

“Oh? You want to fight me by using speed? So it won’t matter if I know what you’re going to do if I can’t react in time?” It was Di Jinming, dressed in another pristine green robe, which had dark green accents on the lining. He was wearing his white mask, and his red eyes were focused on her face.

“Good. You’re here. Take out your weapon. As your junior, let me take some pointers from you.” She unshrunk her staff and gripped it with both hands, pointing one end at him. Her First Senior Brother waved his hand, and a massive broadsword appeared in his right hand. It was adorned with fine lines running down the length on the metal, which glowed slightly with spiritual power.

“Holy crap! Who forged that sword? I need to meet them!” Lu Fei said, wiping the drool from her face. Her Second Senior Brother spoke up as well, forgoing his fear of his evil First Senior Brother.

“Did they do the formations too? They must have, since the requirements for the sword are too specific.” Murong Yingyue rolled her eyes at them.

“Isn’t just a crappy formation? Why do you both look like you’ll prostate yourselves to touch his weapon?”

“Shut up, Yueyue! You wouldn’t understand because you’re stupid,” Her cheek twitched, “But that’s not a normal formation. You can channel offensive spiritual energy into it to fight. All the ones I’ve created for you before were passive, and his sword has a condensed and altered attack formation on it. I don’t know what it does, but just by looking at it, I can tell that it’s very powerful.”

Yingyue twisted her arm, jerking Yun Siye off his feet and into the ground.

“You shut up! I can understand why Feifei is so excited about seeing his sword, but your main specialty is poison!” She let go of his arm and kicked his body into the air, watching it roll away after landing heavily on the ground. Murong Yingyue then turned to Di Jinming, giving the huge weapon a critical look. He didn’t need to be a mindreader to know what she was thinking.

“I’m of the persuasion that if they don’t scream, the sword’s not big enough.” He told her. Murong Yingyue smirked at him and moved her gaze to his crotch.

“Does it apply to that, too?”

“Naturally.” Di Jiming replied without missing a beat. Yingyue scrunched up her face in distaste at him.

“Whatever. Feifei, referee!” Lu Fei stiffened up, before drooping her head down in defeat.

“I hope you’re ready to get your intestines ripped out and stuffed down your throat.” Too bad he doesn’t have a stuck up personality. I don’t get to say that I’ll actually put a stick up his ass so the outside reflects the inside. I’ve always wanted to make a crack at sticks up people’s asses after I got my staff.

Ooh, how kinky. Dear, if you really want to do that, I’ll do it! Just remember to be gentle since your partner still inexperienced with this~

Yingyue narrowed her eyes at him.

“Let’s start the match.”

“A-alright!” Her Third Senior Sister started to count.

“Three!” Murong Yingyue and Di Jinming both took their stances.

“Two!”

“On- huh?” Di Jinming had already swung at Murong Yingyue, the large sword slicing into the ground where she had been before. She had jumped off to the side, her hair nearly being cut by the attack.

“Cunt!” Yingyue snapped when she had landed.

“Bitch.” Di Jinming replied coolly. “You were going to attack before the countdown ended anyways. I just took the initiative.”

“Oh? Is this your real personality? It’s nice to know that I’m not dealing with some mentally retarded fuckwit. It’s reassuring to know you’re not a total pussy.” Murong Yingyue snarked back.

“I’m just surprised you didn’t run away like the goddammed coward you are. What, not going to shrink yourself again?”

“We’re fighting right now. I challenged you, no-”

HEY, FUCKER!

She stopped in the middle of her sentence and sent out a loud thought, distracting Di Jinming.

He barely ducked in time when her staff shot right at his head, expanding in length in a blink of the eye. It retracted just as quickly, and he stood back up, reassessing her.

Nice trick. You planned out several methods to exploit my weaknesses beforehand and used your talking to cover up your thoughts so you could use a preplanned move. He communicated with her.

“Damn straight. And you nearly fell for it, didn’t you?” She leaped back, swinging her staff again. She only extended it at the last moment, when it was aimed at his chest, forcing him to block with his bare arm crossed over his torso, his sword too heavy to let him move fast enough.

Another tactic? I’m not familiar with your weapon or the angle of attack, so I can’t accurately judge how to block your move. Something else you’re exploiting. Maybe there is some truth to your claim. His face changed slightly when he felt his arm crack, then break in the middle. Turning and stepping quickly to the side, he moved his unbroken arm with the sword in front of him, the large sword protecting most of his body from her. She had put much more strength into the blow than he thought there would be, since he assumed her swing caused most of the force behind it go to the side.

“You fell for that one.” Her smug voice traveled over. The staff had already retracted again, his blood blending in the color of the wood.

“Not quite.” He answered verbally. He lifted up his arm, and his sleeve fell down, revealing a perfectly intact arm. There was no sign of damage.

“Of course. Your instant healing. But... can you heal forever?” He smirked in response.

“Try and find out, you whore.”

“No... if my guess is correct, you can heal infinitely. But where are you getting the energy from?” Di Jinming put both hands on his sword, hefting it over his shoulder. He stepped forward and slashed in her direction. A blast of fire shot straight at her, creating a scorched groove in the ground as it went. Does he have a secondary fire attribute? Or is it just the sword?

Murong Yingyue easily dodged it and ran at him, avoiding most of the debris. With another quick swing of his sword, a wall of earth appeared between them.

So it’s the sword. The formations must be converting the spiritual energy’s attribute. But it he drawing in the energy from the air? I don’t see any energy containers on him.

With a flick of her fingers, the earthen wall disappeared from sight, shrunken into nearly nothing but a line of dirt. Yingyue swung her staff over her head, leaping up to force Di Jinming into another block with his sword. The formations on his sword flicked again, and a gale of wind exploded from his body, trying to knock Murong Yingyue back.

“Dumbfuck, don’t even try to compare in strength with me!” Yingyue propelled herself high into the air using his sword and her staff as leverage and lifted her weapon again. Di Jinming dived to the side, but it was too late. With another jab, the end of the wooden staff expanded rapidly, not only in length but in width. Damn, I feel like the Monkey King.

The rate at which she expanded her weapon was faster than Di Jinming’s movement speed. In addition, she was expanding the tip of her staff towards him in one direction, so the force of the blow became more devastating.

Of course, as an honorary male lead (since he was severely nerfed - what kind of self-respecting male lead wasn't at least a shit ton of levels above their female lead?) he still had some tricks up his freshly laundered sleeve.

“Fuck!” Murong Yingyue was nearly hit on the back of the neck when a quick chop came from behind her. She shrank herself down, avoiding the blow, and twisted, unshrinking and attempting a counterattack with her staff.

Di Jinming teleported again, his sword slashing at her. Murong Yingyue lifted her staff to block since she knew that her opponent would expect her to follow her first instincts and shrink herself again.

As expected, he was slightly thrown off by her actions, so the side swing he attacked her with was easily blocked. Yingyue raised an eyebrow at him.

“So you can teleport, too? Fine! If you want to play the ‘who’s more broken’ game, let’s do it!”