“No, put it down! You thick-headed girl!” Li Hua shouted as she saw the princess, her voice sharp with frustration. Zhang Xinyu shot her a venomous glare of her own hands clutching a writhing centipede.

“Your words border on treason, Li Hua,” Xinyu hissed, her voice laced with indignation. “You dare you speak to me like that?”

Li Hua cursed her luck when the first person she found in the forest turned out to be Princess Zhang Xinyu.

Of all the royal spawn why did it have to be her? She thought in annoyance.

Zhang Xinyu was nothing like the delicate jade beauties of the cultivation novels Li Hua used to read. There was no demure grace about her, no subtle elegance. Instead, she thrived in chaos, relished confrontation, and, most troubling of all had a penchant for the bizarre and dangerous.

The fact that she had bowed out as a contender for the throne surprised her because the girl had absolutely zero restraint. Li Hua had stumbled upon her bathing in a pool on her journey east, her first human contact in six months.

From there they became companions of convenience after she had told the Xinyu her plans of heading toward the distant eastern peak and from then on she knew no peace.

How did Zhang Shen grow up with such a hellion for a sister? She mused.

Back home in the Tranquil Manor of Virtue, the seat of the Li clan. She had kept her cousins in line with a firm hand, curbing the casual cruelty that was typical of the young master types.

Even when they eventually outstripped her and began training, which was barred to her until the imperial sect was reinstated, they still gave her a large berth and deferred to her.

Here, however, she constantly battled against Xinyu’s recklessness.

Ignoring the princess's outburst, she took a step closer, her eyes blazing with annoyance. “Put the creature down Xinyu,”

She didn't think the insect was dangerous, just repulsive and she couldn't stand to be in the same vicinity with it, a phobia that had followed her over from her old life.

Xinyu appeared to have noticed this and was relishing the opportunity to torment her. Her eyes sparkled with a mischievous glint as she twirled the writhing centipede in her hand.

"Why should I? It’s not every day I get to see the talented lady Li squirm over an insignificant insect," she taunted, her voice dripping with mock sweetness.

Li Hua’s jaw clenched, but she forced herself to stay calm. “Drop it.”

Xinyu's smile widened, clearly enjoying the way she was getting under Li Hua's skin. The centipede continued to wriggle in her hand, its many legs twitching erratically.

She twirled the centipede closer to Li Hua’s face. “Oh, come on, Li Hua. You’re mid-foundation stage and yet you’re afraid of a little bug? It’s quite unbecoming of you.”

Li Hua's scowl deepened as she clenched her jaw, her fingers grazing the hilt of her sheathed blade. When she noticed her movements, Xinyu’s laughter rang out, a sound that seemed almost too bright and carefree for the grim surroundings.

“Xinyu,” she said, her voice clipped, “this is not a game. Put it down, or I’ll be forced to take it from you.”

“Oh, is that a threat, Lady Li? I didn’t realize you had it in you.” Zhang Xinyu’s eyes danced with amusement, but a glimmer of understanding passed through them.

She seemed to recognize the seriousness in Li Hua’s voice. With a dramatic sigh, she finally released the centipede, allowing it to scuttle away into the underbrush.

"Fine, fine," Xinyu said with exaggerated reluctance.

Li Hua released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding as the centipede disappeared into the dense underbrush. Her hand loosened its grip on the hilt of her sword, though her muscles remained tense.

“Let’s go the mountain is just ahead,” With a swift jump she was in the trees landing lightly in the upper canopy. Xinyu followed moments after her orange robe fluttering softly behind her as she glided up.

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She was a little envious, to be honest. The manual she had chosen the Sutra of the Fathomless Abyss which was a chaos path script did not offer any special techniques until core formation. So she had to rely on the innate abilities she gained from her cultivation level and random skills she swiped from the library pavilion.

Still, she wouldn't have chosen anything else the Li clan tended to have fire and mental affinities but those were boring in her opinion. She was lucky she was born so talented as a result was not gated to a path. Chaos just spoke to her as a path and honestly, it was just raw as hell.

The princess had also gone with something unorthodox, Ghosts. When she’d heard that she was a little put off, such paths were usually used by demonic cultivators in the books she would read in her old life.

All paths led to the great Dao, so she wasn’t one to judge.

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As they neared the mountain, the forest thinned out, revealing the stark, rugged landscape of the eastern peak. The wind grew colder, and the air was thick with the scent of pine and earth. Li Hua took a deep breath, focusing on the path ahead.

Swish

Her sword flashed in the dim evening light as she parried the flying blade. she barely had time to process the attack before her senses were on high alert scanning the trees for their attacker.

Zhang Xinyu, who had been a few paces behind her, reacted swiftly, summoning a ghostly figure. The spectral entity materialized with a faint, eerie glow, intercepting another blade that had appeared from the shadows.

“Ambush!” Xinyu shouted, her voice slicing through the tension.

Another blade sliced through the air her reflexes were sharp as she spun to deflect the incoming blade.

“Show yourself!” she demanded, her voice echoing through the forest.

“Heh,” a male voice scoffed. “How arrogant, to intrude upon our grounds and demand things.”

“Elder brother these girls are unfamiliar with how we do things around here, let us teach them a lesson in humility and make them our women" A second voice chimed in lecherously

Li Hua's eyes narrowed at the sound of the second voice, irritation and disgust flashing across her features.

"You will die a dog's death," she retorted, her voice steady and cold. She tightened her grip on her sword, the steel gleaming ominously in the fading light.

From the dense foliage, two figures emerged. The first, a tall man with a cruel smile, his long hair tied back, and eyes gleaming with malice. His shorter but stocky companion looked at them with a leering grin that made Li Hua’s skin crawl.

Their auras were menacing but sloppy, if she were to guess she would say the tall man was peak foundation stage and the shorter was mid foundation stage. They both looked middle-aged.

Still, foundation building at that age? This might be easier than I expected. The corners of her lips quirked up.

Zhang Xinyu’s ghost hovered protectively at her side, its pale, ethereal form flickering like a candle in the wind. The princess’s usually playful demeanor had hardened into something more dangerous, her lips curling into a cruel smile as she assessed their attackers.

"Pretty little things, aren't they?" the first man jeered, his eyes raking over them with undisguised lust.

The second man smirked, twirling a short, jagged blade in his hand. "Let’s see if you can back up that sharp tongue of yours, girl."

Before either man could make a move, Li Hua struck. She lunged forward, her blade slicing through the air with lethal precision, aiming directly for the taller man’s throat.

He reacted quickly, raising his sword to block her attack, but the force of her strike pushed him back, his feet sliding on the uneven ground.

Xinyu, meanwhile threw a talisman that shimmered with bright blue light as it hurtled toward the shorter man. It exploded into a burst of ghostly blue flames upon impact, causing him to stumble back with a howl of pain.

His short blade clattered to the ground, and he frantically tried to douse the flames by rolling on the forest floor.

The taller man, still struggling to recover from Li Hua’s powerful strike, glared at his companion’s predicament. “Wang Rui!” He roared.

He pushed back against Li Hua’s assault with renewed aggression, his sword moving with a surprising swiftness.

Her blade met his in a clash of steel, and she felt the jarring impact reverberate through her arm. She twisted her wrist, redirecting the force.

He jumped back summoning a flying sword from his storage, launching it with a swift flick of his wrist.

The blade shot through the air with a deadly hum, aimed straight at her midsection.

Li Hua’s reflexes were sharp. She sidestepped the attack, her blade slashing through the air to intercept the flying sword. The inferior blade easily shattered.

Her opponent seemed momentarily taken aback, his surprise morphing quickly into fury.

He roared, “You insolent wretch!” and lunged at her with renewed ferocity. His strikes were faster and more erratic.

Good. She thought.

Li Hua met his fury with calm determination. She let his aggressive strikes come to her, each clash of their blades ringing out in the dense forest. He was outmatched, and it was time for her to end this.

She pressed her advantage and with a decisive strike to his neck; she separated his head from his body. The headless corpse collapsed with a dull thud.

The shorter man finally extinguished the last of the ghostly flames, his skin blackened and his clothes smoldering. He looked up at Li Hua and Xinyu with fear. His earlier bravado was gone, replaced by a desperate, pleading expression.

“Please, don’t kill me,” he croaked, his voice rough. “I’ll tell you everything. Just spare me.”

Li Hua’s expression was unreadable as she wiped the blood from her blade. “Why should we trust anything you say?”

The shorter man scrambled to his knees, clutching his burned and blistered skin. “We’re part of a sect that resides on this mountain,” he gasped. “We were sent to deal with anyone who came too close to our territory. I—I didn’t know you were cultivators. Please, I'm just an outer disciple! Be merciful senior sisters!”

Xinyu scoffed but said nothing leaving the reins in Li Hua's hands.

Li Hua’s eyes sharpened at the mention of the sect. “What is this sect called?”

“The Twilight Flame sect senior,” Wang Rui said pitifully.

Twilight Flame sect? Elder Chen’s sect… It seemed they had arrived at their destination. A small smile found its way onto her face. Wang Rui gazed at her hopefully.

“Fine, I shall grant you mercy on one condition cripple your cultivation,”

Wang Rui’s eyes widened in horror as he heard Li Hua’s demand. “Cripple my cultivation?” he stammered, shaking his head vigorously. “Please, senior, have mercy! You can’t do that!”

“Silence,” Li Hua interrupted, her tone brooking no argument. “Do it, or we’ll simply end your life here and now.”

Wang Rui’s face contorted with anguish. “I—I’ll do it.”

She watched as he dispersed his lousy cultivation base, she couldn't help but feel a small flicker of satisfaction.

Good