100th Life
“Why...? Why did you do it?!” Kai shouted in furious anger.
Behind him stood the bodies of June’s current followers. Followers she gained while exploring through the continent as a Corpse Collector for the Nine Swords Sect. June was pissed to say the least upon seeing this sight. Killing her allies just because she decided to exterminate his useless clan that basically abused, mistreated, and borderline tortured her for months? Even stupidity had its limits. If he was willing to stand beside his dead family over her, then was there any reason for her to keep him alive? It only made her even more upset when she thought about the fact that he didn’t even like his family! He should be thanking her for sparing Liang even if he’s a cripple now.
June wasn’t a saint. Liang didn’t see reason and was willing to give his life to protect Kai’s parents, the leaders of the Yingjie Clan. Just being able to cripple his cultivation was a miracle in itself instead of taking his life. But his mind was still intact and he could still function like a normal mortal, so what was the problem?
“I am a petty woman, Kai.” June admitted without shame. “Since you’re dumb, I'll explain it in a simple manner. The Yingjie Clan mistreated me when I was weak and vulnerable for my entire stay in their clan. Now that I am strong, I paid back what I was given to me tenfold.” There was no emotion on her face as she explained this.
That was when Kai realized there wasn’t a single bone in her body that regretted what she did. The torture she put his parents through, crippling Liang when he was the one to help her into the person she is now, and destroying the clan he was going to become the patriarch of! She didn’t care one bit about any of that! This evil ungrateful woman! Demonic vile ugly woman who only cares about herself! Pure wickedness incarnate!
“I don’t mind doing the same to you as I did to Liang. While I do care for you Kai, kind of like an elder sister, I cannot let you interfere in my plans for the future any further. Those people you killed on your way up here were my friends, you know?” A slight look of sadness glinted in June’s eyes before they were replaced with a certain coldness that sent a shiver into Kai’s heart.
Those months she spent with them weren’t something that could be just erased and forgotten. Each of them was met under unusual circumstances but in June’s heart, that only made it more special. So, when June saw Kai arriving at her camp covered in the blood of her friends, it took a lot of willpower to not kill him immediately. She planned to return to the sect with them and challenge her master and the sect elders eventually.
“You killed my entire family. Do you think that can compare to just losing some friends?!” Kai spat with visceral hatred. “You can always make new friends but family is something that never can be replaced.”
“Haah...” June sighed. “You didn’t give one crap about your clan. Tell me the real reason why you’re upset. I never heard you say one good thing about your clan.” June took out her sword.
“A lot of things can change in nearly six years. But what would you know anything about me?” He glared. “Even when we finally met again almost a year ago, not once did you ask me about my experience. You didn’t care at all about what I went through! You only thought for and about yourself! If you showed the slightest interest in me, then maybe you would know about why I'm upset about you killing my clan!” Kai began wrapping golden chains around his hands.
“Instead of trying to guilt me, why don’t you just come out and say it? I do not regret killing the Yingjie Clan and never will. Because of them, there was a time that I hated the color of my skin and the look of my face. Even staring at the mirror in the morning was something I avoided. After being taken in by my master, I learned to love myself and every part of me. Even the parts I eventually found as a Corpse Collector. It was one of the reasons why your mother was in such a horrible condition compared to your father. She was a constant harasser of mine.” June shared.
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“To think a girl as ugly as you could take my son’s heart.” Mei Yingjie, Kai’s mother, spat on the floor in disgust.
‘Don’t respond. Don’t respond. Don’t respond.’ June repeated to herself as she simply smiled at the wife of the Patriarch of the clan.
“You do know that your entire existence is a stain on this clan, right? If you didn’t rake your nasty claws into my son’s heart, you’d be killed without a thought! You’re lucky he threatened to run away if we did anything to you.”
‘Don’t say anything. Don’t say anything. You’ll deal with her when you’re stronger. There is nothing to gain from giving her a reason to do anything to you.’ June continued her mantra as visible veins of anger popped up on her forehead.
“Are you getting angry? Upset? I’m only telling the truth. You have to be the ugliest woman in the world but it looks like you have some value in bed. Otherwise, I don’t see what other reason why my son would be so insistent on keeping something like you around.”
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June was surprised by how little Kai took after his mother but didn’t think he took after his father either because only a certain type of man could marry this type of woman. An ignorant one or someone just as similar as she is. Being the leader of a clan like this where she’s openly mocked day by day, she one hundred percent doubted that it was the former. Mei’s hatred of June spread to the rest of the clan who only repeated the words she told her. Forcing June into a situation where only when she was training with Liang or with Kai that she could get a break from being treated like the clan’s communal crap hole.
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“I will be doing the world a favor by getting rid of someone as villainous as you.” He suddenly disappeared.
“I guess I should’ve expected an idiot like you couldn’t understand how something like this is better for the world. You were raised by those people after all. But I'm sure you’ll be more likely to listen to reason when all your limbs are cut off and your incapable of moving without the help of someone else. Sometimes I’m too nice for my own good.” June shook her head, taking the cloth off of her sword.
A massive invisible wave of demonic qi spread across the Immortal Forest. Any animals and spirit beasts weaker than a Qi Transformation cultivator immediately went into hiding, died of shock, or began fleeing in massive numbers from the opposite direction of where June was standing. Kai was sent flying backwards, crashing through multiple thick trees just from her unsheathing her unbelievably long sword. He couldn’t resist against the powerful force of demonic qi that released from it and was in disbelief as he saw June transforming into something inhuman.
“I’m not going to play around with you Kai.” Was June’s only warning as her body changed.
June’s brown skin slowly began turning darker and blacker until it was the color of darkness itself. Her twisted hair grew until it covered her figure and extended several meters around her. The human-like hands she previously had were now claw-like with the tips of her fingers becoming pointed and sharp. This was her demonic form when she fully allowed her sword to influence her body but she was still human in soul and could revert back to her normal appearance.
“This is your full strength...?” Kai questioned, staring in disbelief at the demon in front of him.
“What do you think?” She asked as if he was mentally challenged.
There was a reason why June was using this much effort to deal with Kai. And that reason was, there was no way he was capable of killing her friends without having a strength similar to her own. When he arrived in front of her, he was in perfect health. Meaning, he didn’t really kill her friends and they let him come to her for some reason or he killed them effortlessly. It was possible that it was the first one but the chance of it happening wasn’t higher than the second option either.
Kai really was a genius among geniuses. It wouldn’t be surprising to June in the least if he somehow jumped up in power in only a few months of training. Especially when he had motivation like revenge to do so. Maybe he even sold a part of his soul to some being for power. All she knew was that he wouldn’t come to her without having something prepared to deal with her.
“I guess she was right when she said I'll need something like this...” Kai softly muttered to himself.
‘She?’ June heard him loud and clearly.
Kai took out a golden pill in the shape of a sphere and attempted to swallow it whole. June projected her sword intent and diced it into dust before he could do such a thing. She didn’t need to know what the pill did to know that it wouldn’t be beneficial for her to allow Kai to swallow it at the start of their fight. An incorporeal blade long enough to slice all the trees around them in half formed behind June. A sword similar to the one she had in her hand but giant!
Sword intent can only be formed by those with extensive mastery of the sword. It was the mark of the true prodigy of the sword! Anyone that couldn’t form one by the time they were in the Qi Transformation stage was trash! With sword intent, one could use anything as a blade! Even nothing at all as sword intent manifested by using the energy of qi in the air rather than the qi of the cultivator.
June controlled the ecosystem destroying long sword into performing a vertical slash downward. A deep maniacal laugher rang out from the sword wind of this sword, eerily reminiscent of a demon’s laughter. She saw as Kai helplessly stared at the incoming blade but didn’t lower her guard. It couldn’t be this easy.
Ding!
June’s physical sword blocked Kai’s sudden attack that was basically borderline teleportation. Her eyes caught the red talisman attached to the center of his chest as if it was merged with his body instead of attached onto it. The qi inside his body explosively increased while his body also grew in strength. She could tell that this strength came at a severe cost though. Blood dripped from his eyes and with each punch thrown from him, she could hear the cracking of his bones and see the ripping of his skin. His body couldn’t take whatever power was etched on that talisman.
A sword strike aimed at his left arm barely went into his skin at all as he landed a fierce blow onto June’s chest, nearly shattering all the bones in her torso. Seeing that slashing wasn’t working, June tried stabbing her sword through his body only to get the same results. Meaning, she’ll have to use her other martial arts if she wants to survive long enough. Otherwise, with the force of his punches, it won’t take long for her to be killed.
With a powerful stomp to the ground, a gigantic mound of earth rose from the forest’s floor and shot Kai far into the sky on top of it. Raising three finger up into the air brought three more similarly sized rock pillars to shoot at Kai. From this distance, he was nothing more than just a dark figure in the sky as the rock mounds exploded into several boulders from colliding. None of this was to kill Kai but simply to give her time for this!
“Qi Domain expansion...” A dome filled with demonic qi threatened to swallow a majority of the Immortal Forest whole.
The cackling and laughter of millions of demons rose in response to this Qi Domain.