“Do you remember me?” Wan asked.

  It was finally time for her to deal with the heart demon plaguing her since she joined Jing. Kun Lao was finally at the stage where it wouldn’t be considered bullying if she fought him. Now she could get her revenge for the time he almost killed her. And she didn’t plan to hold anything back. One of them were going to die today.

“If you have business with me, I'm not interested.” He tried blowing her off.

“I challenge you Kun Lao. To a life-or-death duel!” She loudly announced. His eyes narrowed in hostility at her words. “If you refuse to show, I will finish the job this time and make sure to kill your little girlfriend.” And with that, Wan turned and left to go to the dueling ring.

“There’s no need for that. I’ll just take care of you here.” Kun Lao appeared just behind Wan Qing with his sword.

  His blade swung to remove her head from her shoulders. No one watching the interaction between the two could have expected such an outcome! They were about to go and spread news of the duel around for everyone to know but they didn’t even get the chance too! Kun Lao attempted to murder Wan with a surprise attack!

“Despicable!”

“Coward!”

“Lao! Do you even know what respect is?!”

  Those watching disliked Kun’s actions and actively berated him for it. He ignored them as his sword came closer and closer to beheading Wan Qing. This was someone he already killed. Lao had no idea how they were still alive after what he did to them but it didn’t matter. All he had to do was to was kill him again.

“Are you always this impatient?” Wan casually blocked the blade with her closed fan. “I guess that’s one reason why you climbed the ranks so quickly.” She continued walking forward as Lao was inwardly shocked.

‘I didn’t hold back in that attack... This guy won’t be easy to deal with.’ Lao thought.

“Go to the dueling rings like a man!”

“Hahahaha! Can’t even pull off a sneak attack properly! Let’s go tell everyone that Kun is about to die today by the sissy!”

“Kun’s scared of the ladyboy!”

  All the disciples watching their standoff quickly scattered in the distance to talk about the duel with the rest of the Inner Court. Lao momentarily thought of silencing them all with a few quick strokes of his sword but knew that would be going too far. He would be harshly punished at the Disciplinary Hall if he senselessly killed his fellow peers just because he didn’t want them talking. It looks like he had no choice but to take on that guy and kill him in the ring with everyone watching. And he wasn’t going to be an easy opponent to face either.

  Just from that one clash from before, Lao could tell that he was strong. A flimsy looking fan like that being able to stop his earth-ranked spirit weapon? That meant that either he had powerful qi or that fan was a spirit tool equal in rank to his sword. Both options were plausible but the powerful qi was more likely. An item like a fan being turned into a spirit tool that could contend with swords? Unlikely because who would consider using a fan as a weapon? It just didn’t make much sense but then again, his bow didn’t make much sense either. He’d best take this duel seriously and give it everything he has.

…

  About half of the Inner Court came to watch Wan Qing’s duel with Kun Lao. Both were talented disciples with problematic reputations. Recently Wan has stayed out of the spotlight and hidden himself from the public. When usually they’d find him doing whatever it takes to publicly grow stronger and stand at the center of attention. Kun Lao was just known as an arrogant genius archer with some skill in swordsmanship. He did whatever he wanted without caring who he offended. This landed him a discipleship under a high-ranked elder and allowed him to act even more unrestrained.

“I see you brought her here to watch you die. If you want, I can send her along with you after I'm done.” Wan offered.

“Don’t spout nonsense. The only one dying today is you.” Lao held a black bow in his hand.

“I planned to do the same thing to you when we first met. When I thought I killed your girlfriend I was going to send you off to join her. It would’ve been cruel to have you both apart from each other with one in life and the other in death.” Wan admitted.

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“Life doesn’t go how you expect it.”

“Today, it will.” She took out an elegantly designed fan with blue floral patterns painted onto it and held it in her hands.

  In the crowd were a group of familiar faces watching this battle. Bing, Li Li, Ying, Lei, Hu Tao, Runt, and Jie sat together in the stands. They came out in support of Qing accomplishing her task for Jing and hopefully not losing her life against this guy she said she nearly died to. It was because of him that she even got acquainted with Jing in the first place. So, in a strange twist of fate, Wan was actually thankful for Kun Lao. This did not mean she would hold back in their duel though. She fully intended to kill him with everything she had.

“Do you guys think she could lose?” Bing asked.

“Nope.” Ying immediately responded.

“I believe in her.” Lei smiled.

“If she loses, I'll laugh my ass off.” Hu Tao expressed with Li Li perched on top of his head.

“I was embarrassed to ask earlier but why do you guys call him her and she?” Jie asked.

“Me too.” Runt looked at Hu Tao.

“That’s because the fucker’s messed up in the brain and wants to be a woman even though he was born a man.” Hu Tao explained.

“So, he thinks he’s a woman?” Runt was confused.

“No. He identifies as a woman. He’s not confused about his identity. He just chooses to accept the one he wasn’t born with.” Lei spoke up

“Huh?” Runt was even more confused.

“Don’t think too hard on it. You’ll just tire yourself out. Just know that he is a she despite how he looks and sounds.” Ying tried simplifying it.

“But why?”

“Ask the bitch yourself, Runt.” Hu Tao shut him up. “If she lives anyway.” He snickered.

“She’s gotten a lot stronger after Bleep’s training.” Bing spoke.

“Anyone would get stronger after Bleep’s training.” Ying rolled her eyes.

“They’re starting! Shut the fuck up!” Hu Tao shouted.

“Begin!” The low-ranked elder watching over this duel brought his hand down.

  Wan waved her fan and immediately blocked the arrow shot at her forehead with a wall of wind. A second and third arrow split through the first one to pierce through the air barrier. With a sway of her head, she let the arrow fly past her and smiled at Kun as hundreds of butterflies began to fly towards him. His arrows wouldn’t be able to take down that many insects at once. He would have to expose his next available method of attack unless he wanted to be swarmed and find out what her butterflies did.

  Which is exactly what he did. Kun Lao placed his bow on his back and then took out his sword from his storage ring. He chopped, sliced, and stabbed at the insects to get rid of them. His speed was impressive as every second more than 5 butterflies would be chopped up. If he was allowed to continue then taking care of the butterflies would prove no issue at all.

“Ni Xong. Show him the results of your training.” Wan Qing confidently smiled.

  The not-as-small anymore panda cub came from behind her with golden gauntlets that were way too big for it. Hesitation was present on his face but it was soon thrown away after he met Wan’s eyes. He stood on two legs and dashed forward towards an opponent far higher than himself in the realms. Ni Xong gave a cute high-pitched roar as he rose his fist over his shoulder to punch Kun Lao.

“What kind of joke is this?” Kun questioned as he prepared to strike down the spirit beast with a single stab.

  His sword came piercing straight down towards Ni Xong’s heart only to be avoided by him with a grab from his gauntlet. Ni Xong grabbed the blade before it could stab into his chest and shattered it using the immense power held within the gloves. Kun Lao couldn’t hold himself back from gasping at seeing the little bear break his earth-ranked spirit weapon. This momentary lapse in his concentration was taken advantage of by Wan Qing.

  She appeared right behind him as silent as the wind and took his head off with a single swipe from her open fan. His head went flying into the air as blood followed right behind it. It landed with a thud on the arena’s stage and growing pool of blood. A scream was heard from the stands while everyone else was speechless. It was over? Just like that? Already? The duel only took a few moments!

“I’ll kill you!” Daiyu leapt from the stands with her sword aimed to pierce Wan Qing from behind.

“Still just as stupid...” Wan muttered as Ni Xong took care of it for her.

  Ni Xong appeared above Daiyu and slammed his giant metal glove into her back. Her back arched like a bent sword and snapped when they crashed into the ground. In only a second, her entire career and future as a cultivator was destroyed by an animal 4 small stages below her at the 1st stage of the Qi Consolidation realm. Wan Qing rewarded him with a pat on the head and gave him a treat before walking away the victor.

  After leaving, a massive brawl erupted amongst those who were interested in stealing both Kun Lao’s and Daiyu’s items for themselves. Hu Tao joined in as well. He wasn’t interested in the items but more of fighting the greedy bastards in front of him. Everyone else from Heaven’s Angels left together. Kun Lao’s storage ring was known to hold those mysterious bracelets that allowed him to make that ghostly bow. Now that he was dead, anyone could get their hands on them! It was because of that bow that Lao was allowed to rise so quickly despite his commoner background and lack of talent. Daiyu was just easy pickings. As far as they knew, you couldn’t become a cultivator with a broken spine. So, she wouldn’t need the items on her person or in her storage ring anymore. The low-ranked elder left after seeing to the end of the duel. He did nothing to stop the disciples nor was he interested in doing so. In this sect, it was basically survival of the fittest. There was no mercy spared for the weak.