The next day.

A young woman sat on a table near the window casually flipping through a small notebook. She rested her cheek against her fist. The twilight of the setting sun cast a reddish-orange hue across her sculpted face, giving her delicate features an enchanting beauty, leaving many unable to look away.

The young woman, though, seemed oblivious, lost in her thoughts.

‘Yesterday’s research was rather enlightening,’ Rialda mused, flipping through her notes. Having watched several battles between Qi Gathering Stage, Earthen Origin Stag and even a rare one between Sky Spirit Stage Immortal Cultivators, she had gathered quite a lot of data.

‘Going by Xiao Hong’s description, Zhenqi, the Energy an Immortal Cultivator trains in, is some sort of fusion between the Lifeforce of a Cultivator and refined World Energy - which the locals apparently call ‘Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth’.

‘Immortal Cultivators use Spell Arts and Cultivation Techniques to exert the power of their Zhenqi.

‘Interestingly, Zhenqi can directly be used without an intermediary process.’ Rialda noted. ‘This is quite unlike the process of casting Magic - which requires me to use my Intent to drive the conversion of ‘Magical Potential’ within me into specialised Mana and then shape the produced Mana into spells.

‘However, despite the decrease in the number of steps, it is not much faster than Magic. In fact, a more proficient Mage like me can even be slightly faster.’

She lightly tapped her pen against her chin. ‘Moreover, as far as I’ve seen, compared to Magic, these Spell Arts and Battle Techniques seem quite rigid.’ For example, she could use her Intent to create rings of Mana around her that could serve to cast both fire-attribute and lightning-attribute Spells.

‘But, this rigidity allows them to recover unused Zhenqi - an unused Spell Art can be turned back into pure Zhenqi - with a loss of about 50% (This seems to be variable). Whereas in Magic, once ‘Magical Potential’ is turned into Mana, it can never be turned back into ‘Magical Potential’. A Mage can only wait for it to recover on its own.

‘I need to conduct more research into this.’ Rialda leaned back into her chair, comfortably watching the people come and go in the lobby. ‘Unfortunately, Xiao Hong didn’t give me enough Spirit Stones to hire some Immortal Cultivators to be my experimental subjects…’

Just as she was lamenting her companion’s stinginess, she noticed something.

‘Hm?’ Her brows slowly furrowed as she watched the random strangers pouring into the inn from the door, chatting with the owner of the inn and ordering some food and drinks. They sat down and started chatting casually.

Her gaze flickered to another side of the lobby where she noticed a few of the patrons getting up and leaving.

Everything seemed to be quite normal.

‘But what is this feeling as though something is off? Like something I can’t quite put my finger on…’ Her frown deepened. A strange feeling appeared in the back of her mind, urging her. It was an odd feeling - like a chilly breeze brushing across the nape of her neck.

‘I should go and inform Xiao Hong.’ She got to her feet and made for the stairs, only to stop midway. Two burly figures had suddenly appeared and blocked her path.

She looked up at them and then to her sides. Several figures had surrounded her at some point. She turned back to her front and asked calmly, “Why do you block my path?”

The only response she got was a rapidly expanding palm.

At the same time, on the second floor.

Xiao Hong slipped out of her room, looking somewhat tired but also quite satisfied. She had refined many Healing Pills, Antidote Pills, Qi Gathering Pills and so on. It was more than enough to last her a few months of intense consumption.

‘Well, now that I have enough pills and information, I should quickly leave before some unforeseen calamity descends on my head…’

Just when she had such a thought -

Booom!!!

A tremendous explosion sounded, shaking the entire building!

“What the-?!” Xiao Hong jumped, her Qi reacting instinctively - whipping into motion and forming a thick, red film that quickly enclosed her. And just in time too - for three arcs of silvery-blue Sword Qi slammed into her hastily cast Zhenqi Shield, causing it to crack and dissipate.

Xiao Hong’s eyes darted to her right, from where the Sword Qi had appeared.

Then, she disappeared in a burst of starlight, reappearing in front of a middle-aged man who held a sword that seemed made purely from silver. His eyes widened in utter shock when a delicate, yet somehow tougher than steel fist drove itself into his gut. It was so fast he could not even react!

“Aaaargh-!” the man let out a pained scream, only for it to be cut off almost immediately by a vice-like grip on his throat.

“Who are you?! And why did you attack me?!” a qi-powered growl shook his eardrums!

Mesmerising vibrant red orbs stared into his, and seemed to hold a storm within them, a tempest of power that belied her delicate appearance. His heart shuddered in fear. Why the hell was the target so overwhelmingly powerful? Wasn’t she supposed to be a weakling in the mid-stage of Divine Sea? How the hell was a 2nd Disaster Stage Cultivator like him so easily defeated and even captured by the other party?!

This didn’t make sense!

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Yet, as a seasoned Cultivator, he reacted quickly. His right hand quickly formed seals and his left, holding the silver sword, sliced it through the air towards his opponent’s waist.

His heart leapt in joy when the girl did nothing to stop the blade - and then directly flew into an ice cellar when all the sword did was cut through her robes. All he could see was a small red mark on her otherwise unblemished skin. She did not even flinch!

‘What the fuck? Why is this mere mid-stage Divine Sea so damned abnormal?!’ He was shocked.

Crack! Crack!

“Ugh!” A choked grunt of pain managed to force itself out of his throat when both his arms were shattered by two casual strikes, rendering them useless.

She gripped his throat even tighter. Just as she was about to threaten the man -

Boooom!!

Another explosion rang through the building, causing pieces of debris and dust to rain down.

Xiao Hong’s eyes widened, for she felt fluctuations of the incredibly unique ‘Essence’ that Rialda wielded.

‘Dammit!’ Cursing, she gritted her teeth and slammed her palm into the man’s gut and forcefully pushed her Qi into his body. She drove it into his meridian system, forcing a very crude and temporary but effective seal on his energy channels - rendering him unconscious from the sheer agony of having foreign Qi violently pushed into his meridians.

Tossing the man to the side, she clenched her fist and slammed it downwards onto the floor!

With a great rumble, the floor gave in and collapsed, bringing her downwards along with itself.

Through the clouds of dust, she saw Rialda in battle, rings of purple fire revolving with her as the centre, far brighter and larger than before when she fought the pack of coyotes. Three men and two women surrounded her, fighting with all their might, barely defending against the ceaseless onslaught of explosive balls of plasma.

While Rialda, Xiao Hong observed, was completely relaxed. She seemed almost serene, her movements fluid and graceful as she dodged and countered. Rings of purple fire danced around her and a shield of pure energy floated around repelling the enemy's attacks. There was even a thoughtful expression on her face - as though she were pondering something completely unrelated to fight.

The moment she had crashed through the floor, Rialda had turned her gaze upwards. Their gazes met for a split second and a tacit understanding passed between them.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Hong locked onto two of the attackers, a cold glint flickering across her eyes. These two had clearly practised some Physical Cultivation method - judging from their rough skin texture and abnormally burly figures. Gathering her Qi, she thrust her palm forward, a vibrant red Qi swirling around it.

A colossal, translucent palm, several times her size, materialised in the air. It slammed down with tremendous momentum.

Essence Annihilation Palm!

It was only at this moment that the five cultivators that besieged Rialda looked up at the ceiling that seemed to be collapsing on their heads.

Terror gripped the two burly men’s hearts when they saw the massive palm. They threw out all their defensive measures - shields and barrier spells, yet nothing seemed able to stop it. It gained upon them with incredible speed, inevitable as the sun rises every morning! A mere peak-Stage Divine Sea could do little to stop her normally, much less when they were already engaged in battle with an even more formidable opponent.

Booom!

Their defensive barriers shattered like glass, their screams swallowed by the deafening roar of the impact. Yet again, the whole building seemed to shake under the might of her attack. Without even bothering to check the result, she knew that the two men would be incapacitated for a long, long time.

So, she simply turned and shot towards the entrance of the White Jade Inn.

The moment she was outside the main gate of the White Jade Inn, she shot towards the skies. Rialda caught up with her from behind, the rings of fire still around her but dimmer, less vibrant.

“We need to get out of the City as soon as possible!” Xiao Hong said, her tone urgent.

Her companion simply nodded.

Yet, hardly had they moved a few hundred metres when a shout reached their ears!

“Stop right there, you criminals! How dare you cause trouble in Golden Sea Port City?!” A powerful voice echoed through the streets and across the skies, causing the hundreds of Immortal Cultivators and Martial Artists to look up in anticipation - it seemed there was a show to watch!

The pair of criminals couldn’t be bothered to even respond.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast they bolted, they could not outrun those already ahead.

Therefore, surrounded completely, they had no choice but to halt in midair.

Xiao Hong warily surveyed her surroundings, trying to quickly establish the fighting strength of her opponents, assessing their numbers and individual strength. ‘Three, four, seven, twelve, fourteen. Seven at the peak of the Divine Sea Stage, three below the 5th Disaster Stage, two at the 6th and 7th Disaster Stages, and two more at the 8th Disaster Stage. And that’s not counting the Martial Artists below.

‘What in the Nine Hells?!’ She cursed vehemently in her mind, ‘Why are they treating us like some high-profile criminals who broke out of jail?!

‘Moreover, it is awfully convenient that Law Enforcement is so close by and to be able to catch up with us so quickly…

‘It seems we are being schemed against, but… why?’ There was no reason for anyone to go out of their way to scheme against her - a Divine Sea mid-stage Immortal Cultivator for absolutely no reason. Even if she wasn’t the most powerful Cultivator around, she was still a formidable force!

Her eyes flickered towards Rialda for a split second before quickly glancing ahead. Did it have something to do with her?

Xiao Hong couldn’t help but think so.

But, now was not the time to think about this. Her immediate survival was more concerning.

“What is the meaning of this, sir?” Her Qi-powered voice rang through the streets, echoing in the ears of mortals and practitioners alike. “Why are you surrounding us for no good reason?”

“What audacity! You criminals dare to cause a ruckus in the Golden Sea Port City, harming innocents and you still pretend to be harmless?!” A rickety old man sneered contemptuously.

He pointed his thin, bony at the two, and spoke loudly, voice layered with Qi just Xiao Hong, “As an Elder of the Thunder Saint Sect, I will not stand for it! I will put you in your place!” A vast aura spread from his body, belying his powerful Cultivation Base at the 8th Disaster Stage. The very air seemed to crackle under the sheer energy he exerted.

“Indeed! These two female devils have committed heinous crimes!” Another old fogie spat out through clenched teeth, also at the 7th Disaster Stage. “My son, my precious, one and only son was brutally slaughtered by them! Turned into little more than minced flesh and crushed bones!!” He clenched his chest in immense pain and grief. He seethed, levelling his malevolent glare at them.

Xiao Hong narrowed her eyes, carefully sizing up the second old fogie. Then, she turned to the Elder of the Thunder Saint Sect, lips curling with barely suppressed scorn, “How disgusting! Since when did righteous Immortal Sects start to collude with Demonic Cultivators?”

A strange flicker of light flashed through the elderly man’s eyes. For just a moment, she thought she saw an expression of disgust and helplessness, but soon it was erased.

“Heh! You must not be a very good spy, huh?

“If you were,” the man turned into a blur, reappearing in front of Xiao Hong, his hand suddenly sporting a head-sized ball of blue thunder, “you would know that all sects under the banner of the Flowing Cloud live harmoniously - it matters not whether they are Immortal or Demonic!”

He expressionlessly slammed down the ball of lightning in his palm.

“Now surrender or die!”