As the moon rose over the horizon, the group began taking the girls somewhere, tied up to prevent them from escaping.

Crickets chirped in the grass, their song a soft chatter—the cool wind skimmed across the tops of the trees, and a thousand whispers and whistles.

Ayame observed from behind the trees. At least four men were working together to secure each girl. There were five more waiting around the perimeter of the clearing, ready to act if any trouble broke loose.

All of the girls' eyes were closed tightly, and they showed clear signs of exhaustion. But none cried out or begged for mercy.

"Were they drugged? Or maybe they're just afraid." Ayame wondered aloud.

If the captured girls weren't drugged, there might be another reason why they weren't resisting.

She took a closer look.

Dehydrated, nearly starved, the girls' bodies were stiff and weak, their skin dry and flaking, their lips parched and cracked. That must be why they were not resisting.

Ayame got on her knees and began walking closer to the group. She stayed behind dark spots so she wouldn't be seen easily. When she reached the back of their camp, she found one guard walking by. She stayed low, slowly crawling to prevent him from seeing.

He suddenly turned his head but couldn't see much since Ayame hid behind the bushes. He started cursing loudly, calling someone stupid and useless while trying to find whoever made such noise. As he got closer, Ayame released a qi-enhanced punch at the man's gut.

The burst of energy, along with the punch, caused the guard's ribs to crumple.

He slid forward, dropping to his knees. He gasped for breath, and drool ran down his chin. His mouth opened wide and revealed a bloody mess of teeth and gums.

He died soon after.

"Ah shit, I wanted to keep him alive and interrogate him," Ayame muttered on her breath as he saw the fallen guard.

"Hmm... if they're this weak, I can take my time with them." She said as she crawled back to the camp.

No matter what happens next, all she needs to do is destroy everything and leave.

But when she arrived at the edge of the clearing, she heard screaming.

Ayame slowly walked, ensuring she didn't bump into the guards while walking toward the source of the screams.

She heard a young woman's bloodcurdling screams for help, repeatedly begging for rescue.

The girl's sobbing was the only sound that could be heard in the night. Her pleas for mercy went unheard and unanswered.

She checked and noticed that the voice was coming out of a giant cauldron.

Her cries grew louder and angrier until, finally, she stopped.

The cauldron is made of an unknown material, it has a very intricate and ominous carving, and it took someone with great strength to lift its lid.

The leader opened the pot and took three small pellets.

"We have an intruder!" One of the guards shouted.

The guards found where Ayame is hiding.

"Dammit!" She cursed as she ran toward the guard. Her plan had gone wrong almost immediately.

It happened in a flash. The other guards leaped at her, but she instantly killed the man with a Deathblow Knee, her version of a Muay Thai-style flying knee with its speed and power enhanced by qi.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The front of the guard's skull caved in.

An audible cracking of bones echoed throughout the area.

The guard collapsed to the ground, his expression blank. His lifeless eyes stared at the starless sky, his body limp and lifeless.

The guard's blood drenched the soil. It's hot and sticky, like glue.

Then the rest of the guards rushed her. They attacked simultaneously, swinging wildly at her body and face.

The second guard rushed in but was caught unaware by Ayame's right hook. It was a feint, and Ayame immediately grabbed his head and drove a Penetrating Knee Strike at his face. Blood sprayed everywhere after the impact.

He fell to the ground, dead as well.

The guards charged toward her from three directions.

As Ayame was about to attack, she noticed something from her peripheral vision.

Something was moving toward her. As the unknown object was about to hit Ayame, she jumped backward to avoid getting hit by it.

It was a black smoke-like object with the outline of a sword. Its texture resembled smoke. It waves around when the wind blows, but the overall form stays together.

"You idiots can't even handle a lone Spirit Awakening brat." A cold and threatening male voice rang out, and the smoke creature flew in the direction of the voice before dissolving into nothingness.

In the direction of where the black smoke dissipated stood a tall figure; he wore a long coat with gold accents. His long hair cascaded down past his waist like a waterfall. He looked very regal.

He was staring down at Ayame in complete silence with a serious expression on his face.

"Who are you? Why did you kill my guards?" He demanded sternly.

He had golden hair that looked like silk. His complexion was smooth and pale, with a healthy glow on his face. His nose was straight. His eyes glowed faintly, which made them look like two stars.

Seeing the menacing aura emitted from the figure, Ayame knew that her situation was dangerous.

Ayame felt a chill running down her spine. The atmosphere around him gave off a chilling aura that left her unable to speak. Even his clothes seemed to carry the presence of death.

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not going to tell you anything," Ayame replied calmly.

"You will tell me everything you know." He said as he stepped forward.

"Or what?" Ayame challenged.

"Or I'll make you regret ever crossing paths with me." He threatened.

She tried to sense the enemy's qi and noticed the man had at least seven qi cores, "Shit. This guy's already an Initial Stage of the Spirit Communion Realm." Ayame cursed inside.

The golden-haired man suddenly summoned another one of those smoke-like objects. This time, it had no particular structure. It began to move in Ayame's direction quickly.

With Ayame's Meikyō Shisui, she easily evaded the object, but it suddenly changed direction and followed her.

After dodging and spinning around it several times, she ended up near one of the guards.

She grabbed one of them.

"Arrrrggghhh! You bastard...!", The guard screamed as he struggled to break free of the hold.

Without giving the guard a chance to escape, she threw the guard into the smoke-like object.

The guard was instantly dissolved as if he was dropped into a very acidic substance. He couldn't let out a single scream.

Ayame knew she couldn't defeat the man with the golden hair.

She ran as fast as she could by using gathering her qi and enhancing her lower body's ability.

The golden-haired man followed. He was swift and kept sending smoke-like objects at her.

Ayame evaded every single one. Thankfully they can only turn into small objects like swords and not bigger things that could trap her.

She couldn't get away as the man followed her close behind, but she was about to reach her destination.

It was a waterfall.

Ayame looked behind, watching the man and pretending not to know she was approaching a waterfall.

She fell and pretended to scream, then rolled in the water. She swam down a few feet and squinted up into the light, which was silhouetting the surface. The light shifted as a large fish darted by. She turned on her back and kicked her legs, and began swimming toward the bottom of the water.

She searched for the underwater tunnel that led to a cave. As soon as she saw it, she entered the tunnel before grabbing one of the large stones to hide the tunnel.

After she was done, she kept swimming until she reached the cave. The underwater tunnel was dark, so Ayame used Meikyō Shisui to navigate her way to the hidden cave.

Ayame knew this place like the back of her hand, as she and Yuuto had discovered it before when they were swimming.

She stayed alert, knowing the possibility that the man knew of the existence of the underground tunnel was high.

Thankfully, she didn't see any sign of the man coming after her.

But there was still the problem of food.

Ayame walked deeper into the cave system until she saw some bats hanging from the ceiling.

She can detect everything in the dark cave despite having no light.

Ayame took a nearby rock and, using qi, threw it at the bats.

The rock crushed the first bat, and the majority of the other bats fell to the floor, where they squealed and died.

The surviving bats swarmed Ayame, but she evaded the swarm of bats like a Touhou player in the rain.

She began killing the swarm of bats that swooped too close to her. Ayame killed at least 15 of them before the rest flew in a different direction.

"I can eat bats... but I don't have the tools to build a fire..."