"Do you have enough money or do I need to get the full fifty cores?" Jie asked.

"I have the money, but you should try to get as many cores as you can. Any rewards you could get would be good. It's also excellent practice for you to battle as many as you can.

"Reach out with your spirit sense and find some magical beasts. I'll be with you, but I doubt you'll need my help here," Ming said.

Jie nodded and picked up her pace. She activated her lightning step technique and dashed through the forest like a blur while she reached out her spirit sense and felt the nearby magical beasts.

She quickly sensed a magical beast of the same rank as her and sped toward it like an arrow released from a bow.

She drew closer, slowed, and crept up on it.

It was huge, easily four times her size. It looked like a gorilla, with powerful forearms and a massive chest, but the resemblance ended there. Needle-like fangs filled its jaw and its fingers ended in six-inch claws.

Jie's heart pounded in her chest. The biggest thing she'd ever killed herself was a cockroach. It wasn't just that this thing was horrifying and she wanted to scream and run away rather than get any closer, but that she'd never hurt an animal before.

Bugs didn't count. They were gross.

So was this thing... but...

"What are you waiting for, kiddo? You'll have to fight a lot worse than a little ninth-star needlefang gorilla. Get to it," Ming said.

Jie gritted her teeth, and her qi flowed through her dantian in the pattern she knew so well. A crackling glove of lightning qi formed around her fist, far more powerful than the one she'd used on the villagers.

She swallowed hard and leaped out at the gorilla. She zipped through the air and slammed her fist into the back of the needlefang gorilla's neck.

A thunderous boom ripped through the air, and the massive creature's head tore free from its body. Blood sprayed everywhere.

Jie jumped back and clamped her hands over her mouth, holding back a scream.

The needlefang gorilla's lifeless body slumped to the ground, blood pooling beneath it.

She stared at it with wide eyes. Her hand kept replaying the sensation of the creature's neck giving way like wet cardboard. She shuddered and took a step back, her skin crawling.

Ming flew over to where the needlefang gorilla's head had landed and ripped the red beast core out of its skull.

He appeared next to her in the blink of an eye. "Here you go, kiddo," he said.

Jie stretched out her palm without looking, and he dropped the glimmering gem into her hand.

She closed her fist around it, pushing down her horror, revulsion, and the sickening taste of blood in the air.

"Are you okay, kiddo? You look a little pale," Ming said.

Jie nodded. "I'm fine," she said.

Jie slipped the beast core into the red bag she'd been given, fighting down waves of nausea that threatened to bubble up her throat... Her skin felt cold and she suddenly felt so utterly filthy. She ached for a shower and to scrub every inch of her skin in a desperate attempt to make this feeling go away.

Instead, she reached out with her spirit sense and quickly found another needlefang gorilla. Jie let out a shuddering breath, steeled herself, and sped toward her next target.

***

By halfway through the second day, Jie already had over a hundred cores. She took a break, sat in the lotus position, and cultivated some more.

She hated the thought of going a day without cultivating and increasing her strength. Ming served as a constant reminder of how far she had to go.

While she was greedily absorbing the Essence of the Heavens and the Earth, she sensed someone sneaking up on her. Or trying to at least.

Jie opened her fierce blue eyes. "I know you're there. Come out where I can see you," she said.

A young boy with light purple skin and long dark hair stepped out of the trees and into the small clearing. He wore robes almost as fine as her own and radiated the aura of the first star of the Adept rank. One star higher than her. Although that star pushed him into the next rank entirely, something Ming had warned Jie about many times.

Jie raised an eyebrow. What did this kid want?

"Hand over all your beast cores, and I won't hurt you," said the boy.

Jie almost burst out laughing.

Even the kids in this world were such scoundrels? And if this stupid thief had any clue what was hovering right next to them, invisible to all but Jie... he'd brown his pants!

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Jie shook her head. This world was just too much... was this how people were when all that mattered was improving their own strength?

"What's so funny?" asked the boy.

"You. This place. Everything," Jie said.

"You're weird... whatever. Just hand over your beast cores, and I won't hurt you," said the boy.

"No," she said.

"No?" said the boy as though it were the first time he'd heard the word.

"No," Jie repeated, "can you please go now? You're wasting my time."

The boy clenched his fists. "You dare! Do you know who I am? Give me all your beast cores or else!" he said.

Jie sighed. "Go away," she said.

"Fine. If you want to be stupid, that's your fault. I gave you a chance. Don't blame me for being ruthless!" said the boy.

Jie shook her head. Not blame him for being ruthless? Who should she blame then if not this brat?

"This will be good for you. I won't intervene. Take care of him," Ming said.

Strange dark purple qi gathered in one of the boy's hands and grew out into an amethyst sword made from his strange crystalline qi.

The density and purity of his strange qi was vastly beyond the magical beasts Jie had been fighting. Nowhere near her own level, but certainly high enough that she didn't want to be incautious. Especially since he was a higher rank than her.

Jie cycled her lightning step technique and the world slowed down around her.

She felt through her spirit sense as the boy gathered his qi for a technique of his own, but she couldn't identify what. Jie gathered her qi around her fists, ready for whatever might come. Her eyes locked on the razor-sharp edge of his crystalline qi sword.

The boy bent his legs and charged toward her with an enormous burst of speed. As he did so, he split into two copies, both bearing down on her from slightly different curving angles as they hurtled toward her, their blades ready to strike. Purple energy swirled about the pair of attackers as amethyst crystals burst into existence in a trail behind both copies.

Jie's eyes went wide at the strange attack. Rather than trying to meet either of the images, she simply dashed aside, using her lightning step skill to outspeed her opponent.

The boy's charging attack met only empty air, the two images resolving back into one as they both arrived at the same destination. The boy turned to her and slashed upward at her, his sword refracting as though seen through a prism, making it look as though he were unleashing a multitude of strikes.

It was a confusing sight to behold and if he'd been more powerful or she'd been weaker, Jie wasn't sure she'd have survived. As it was, Jie simply stepped back out of range of all the swings. The air whistled as his blade swept through the space where her torso had been.

"Is he trying to kill me? He's insane!" Jie said to Ming.

"It would appear so. Focus and do not let down your guard. Take him out," Ming said.

The boy continued to unleash a barrage of those strange illusory attacks and Jie pushed her lightning step harder, squeezing enough speed out of it to run around the boy and come up behind him.

He was vastly more powerful than the beasts she'd been facing, but even her low-powered strikes had been enough to kill them. As such, Jie very carefully struck his shoulder with a dragonfist attack from behind. She hoped it would be just enough to disable his sword arm and make him see sense.

A thunderous boom rang out as Jie's fist connected, almost covering the sickening crack of breaking bones. Dragon lightning qi arced over the boy and he screamed as he spun away, his sword slipping from his limp grip as he slammed into the ground.

Jie swallowed hard and shook out the hand she'd used to punch him. It didn't hurt, but the sensation of breaking his bones remained, making her feel sick.

The boy rose to his hand and knees, his other arm hanging limp and twisted at an angle that made Jie cringe.

Everything seemed suddenly so still and quiet after his insane attack. Jie felt as though she ought to say something, but she was unsure how to handle the situation.

She looked to Ming for guidance as she approached the boy. In that moment, as though somehow sensing her distraction, the boy spun to his feet, whirling to her with a fresh crystal sword in his good hand.

Jie's eyes widened as she leaped back as fast as she could. His blade sliced up through where her throat would've been if her cultivation had been even slightly weaker. As it was, the boy's crystalline sword cut a single strand of hair that drifted in the wake of her movement.

He screamed at her. An inhuman snarl of rage and defiance, his face twisted with emotion. He gathered his qi in a now familiar pattern, about to charge her.

He surged toward her, but this time she knew what to expect. Jie moved in closer before he could split in two, grabbed his sword arm, and drove her fist into his stomach. The force of his charge only made her strike to his gut that much more powerful and he doubled over, as the breath left his body in a hissing wheeze.

Jie continued with the force of the punch and drove him down to the ground, slamming him back into it. He lay there gasping for air, unable to inhale as his eyes bulged.

When he finally did inhale, he followed it with a cough that brought flecks of blood to his lips.

"I thought he'd be better at taking a hit than this. He's a star... even a rank above me..." Jie said.

Ming chuckled. "His qi just isn't anywhere near as pure as yours. Even though he's a star above you, it could be said that you were the one to bully him," Ming said.

"Will he be okay?" Jie asked.

"He's bleeding, and the scent may draw beasts to this area. He'll be unable to defend himself and will quickly succumb if that happens. A just reward for one without honor," Ming said.

"What? He's just a kid! I'm not going to leave him here to die!" Jie said.

"Why not? He certainly had no qualms about killing and robbing you. He very nearly succeeded because of your hesitance to do what must be done. Leave him to die. You can get away with it. I can sense there are no elders nearby and I could easily hide what traces remain. They will not know who killed him. Besides, he brought this on himself. It would only cause you trouble to save him," Ming said.

Jie clenched her fists. "I'm not a murderer," she said.

She stormed forward and grabbed the boy by the collar of his robe and dragged him through the woods, back toward where they'd started the test.

Ming sighed. "You need to learn that to show mercy to others is to be merciless to yourself. He's trash. He tried to rob you. Death is something he should accept as a rightful consequence," he said.

"Maybe he does deserve it. But I'm not a killer, and I won't leave someone to die if I can help it. I don't care if it causes me trouble. I'll do the right thing because it's who I am not because it benefits me," Jie said.

"But you are a killer, Jie. You've killed countless beasts and I know you enjoyed dominating them with your superior might," Ming said.

"I did not! I'm only doing this because I must, and I'm not just going to leave him to get eaten alive," Jie said.

Ming sighed. "Sometimes your stubbornness is not an asset," he said, "at least take his beast cores. It's only fair that he learns what it's like to be robbed."