"If you walk away now, I won't kill you for trying to murder my girlfriend." Cheng Chi warned.
"Pfft! Hahahaha!" Ying couldn't help but bursting out in laughter at the words of Cheng.
His eyebrows furrowed at the laughter. Ying could tell he didn't know why she was laughing. For such a handsome guy, he sure is stupid. No wonder he's with someone like Xiaohui.
"What's so funny?" He asked.
"It's just funny how you think you can save Xiaohui from dying today."
"I won't allow you to hurt her now that I am here. Like I said before, if you walk away now you can still live a peaceful life."
Yeah, he's pretty goddamn stupid. There's no way that Xiaohui would allow her to live peacefully after this. Next time she'll try and get some stronger guys to take her out with. Especially since she's seen how strong she's gotten since last time. If she doesn't take Xiaohui out here, her future will be filled with constant troubles by her. Plus, she hasn't even paid her back for the months of bullying thanks to her.
"Eat shit and die asshole!" Ying gave him the middle finger as she rushed towards him.
He pulled his sword from his back and with a simple horizontal swing, attempted to deflect her blade. Attempted, was the key word here. Her sword wasn't some simple large blade made out of regular steel. It was otherworldly in nature. Since the day she's got it, she hasn't seen a single crack appear on it no matter how hard she swung it into the ground. Its sharpness has also never dulled since they found each other.
Ying realized that he was still looking down on her. It made sense, he was 3 small stages ahead of her after all. Unfortunately for him, she decided to take advantage of him while he was still looking down on her. Ying's great sword easily overpowered Cheng's steel sword. Even with his qi strength being at the 9th stage, it couldn't hold against Ying's abnormal blade for long. It was even able to cut through qi itself! Given enough time, nothing could hold against her sword.
Ying sliced off Cheng's right arm, showering the ground in his blood. The scream produced by the ranked #5 outer disciple, caused Xiaohui and her lackies blood to run cold with fear. Ying's laughter at all his talk from earlier only heightened her mood as she tried to impale the genius straight through his chest with the giant sword.
"You piece of trash!!!" Cheng screamed.
His qi exploded in a shockwave, knocking Ying far away as he took care of his bleeding injury. Ying stabbed her weapon into the ground to recover. Luckily, she managed to cut his arm off in a way that made it fly off into the woods. Now if she can just survive till he...
He suddenly appeared right in front of her and punched her in the face.
'Oh yeah he's pissed. He's definitely not holding anything back against me anymore.' Ying thought as she crashed into a tree.
The force of his punch made Ying's insides jumble around. The worst part of that punch was that he wasn't satisfied after that one hit. After she crashed into the tree, he dashed after her and unloaded all his frustration and rage upon her by beating her with his one good arm till her nose was broken and face was bloody.
Taking a beating without trying to fight back wasn't her thing though. As he was wailing on her in his anger, Ying used her legs and kicked wherever she could. Kicking him in the stomach caused him to spit out saliva, kicking him in the thigh made his legs buckle, and kicking him in the nuts made his assault completely stop as he spat blood from his mouth onto her.
Ying pulled both of her legs back and kicked Cheng away. Seeing the pain he was going through was enough to make her temporarily forget about the pain her face was in. She had to kill him now before he could recover! Ying lifted her sword and was about to leap into the air over towards Cheng Chi but before she could jump, she was stabbed in the back.
"Guh! You spineless bastards...!" Ying cried out as she faced the one who stabbed her.
His hands were shaking as he held onto the steel going through her side. Ying pulled her hand back and back handed the weasel, killing him instantly. She slowly and painfully pulled out the sword in her back. With the weasel's head facing 90 degrees in the wrong direction, anyone else thinking of sneak attacking her were quickly dissuaded by that dead body. Or at least she thought they would be, Xiaohui and her groupies charged while Cheng was downing recovery pills.
" I'll take you all on then! A Yue never gives up!" Ying screamed as her body exploded in a crimson inferno.
The eruption of fire knocked anyone who attempted to get close to be blasted away with burns. Ying vanished with fire trailing behind her figure as she became death itself. Her sword slashed through her enemies like tofu, her fist incinerated them into dust, and her kicks shattered their bones into nothingness. Her strength was undying and her flames were everlasting. No matter how many times she was sliced, attacked, or injured, her fighting strength never diminished.
"That's enough! This is the end for you trash!" Cheng shouted as she was inches away from beheading Xiaohui.
He appeared in front of her with his body glowing in a blue aura. He palmed towards her sword and they clashed. A blue beam of qi fired from his palm. Ying slashed forward with everything she had regardless of what he was planning. Handling everything head-on was what she's always done. Running away instead of destroying everything ahead of her wasn't who she was. Whatever Cheng is planning to do wasn't even a thought in her mind. All she was thinking was of slashing through what was blocking her way. Going forward regardless of opposition could be the words that defined her.
"Impossible...! Just what kind of spirit weapon is that!?" Cheng cried in fear.
Her sword was splitting apart his martial arts technique! A martial technique that has even helped him overcome a cultivator at the Qi Consolidation stage. She was actually beating it back with nothing more than just a sword and willpower! Ying's blade was inching closer and closer towards splitting Cheng and Xiaohui in half but the sneaky bitch pulled out a talisman and activated it!
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Cheng and Xiaohui disappeared from in front of her and her blade split the earth apart. She looked around and found them a few trees away with Cheng wishing that he could tear her apart with just his eyes. He vanished and nearly palmed her in the stomach. Ying barely blocked with the body of her sword as she was lifted off the ground and into the air. He was running on fumes now if she could follow his movements and react to them.
As she was knocked into the air, Cheng kept on her. Knocking her across the Immortal Forest without holding anything back, Ying could barely hold onto her sword. She knew that dropping it would only lead to her death. She tightened her grip on her hilt as much as she could while enduring the volley of palms. After crashing through one of the infinite trees within the Immortal Forest, Cheng stood above her on top of a branch in a tree.
His eye fixed in a perpetual state of anger while looking down on her. She grinned even though her body felt like tapping out at this point.
"All this and you could barely even take out a little 5th stage Qi Gatherer. Ha..." She taunted with blood dribbling down her lips.
"Those were your final words trash. You can only blame yourself for not walking away when you had the chance."
His hand glowed in a blue qi. The color around it began to darken and condense around his palm. Ying could only watch and glare at his figure. Her body refused to move any further. She couldn't even twitch her pinkie. The only thing she could do was grip her sword across her body and stare death in the face. Cheng Chi fired a wave of qi down towards her with his remaining hand, confident that she couldn't escape death.
Blue filled Ying's vision and she grit her teeth at her helplessness. No matter how much willpower and tenacity she brought forth, it couldn't override her body's injuries. No matter how much she fought inwardly to twitch even a single finger, her body failed her. But until that attack killed her, Ying would not give up the slightest chance of hope. Only when she's placed into the reincarnation cycle, will be when her determination dies out.
Ying's sword sent her feelings of hope. Ying agreed with it and reassured her sword that she wasn't losing hope in the slightest. She was just pissed that she was so weak and useless right now. Her sword sent her feelings that told her that it was going to be okay. She wouldn't die just yet! Ying wondered how in the world was it going to save them from a situation like this but she fully gave it the support it needed. If it has a plan to save them, she was going to support it with all she had. She didn't really have anything else she could do right now.
The fleshy eyeball with slit pupils opened itself sideways and behind the eyes laid human teeth that widened and swallowed the blue beam attack whole. The qi attack landed in such a predictable path that it was begging to be ate by the sword. He fired it straight towards Ying's heart where the eye was protecting. Ying would love to say that she planned for such a thing to have happened but she would just be a liar if she did that. It was the sword that placed itself in that way!
The sword took in the qi of Cheng and started pumping energy within her body. Her body started visibly pulsing and thumping. Her fatal injuries started repairing themselves from the influx of energy taken from Cheng. Her body returned control back to her and she stood up from the ground. Cheng was in disbelief at the scene. It was as if she literally came back from the dead right in front of him. She was sure that she just advanced to the 6th stage because of what her sword did.
"You're a freak... How could someone like you get your hands on a spirit weapon that could bring one back from the brink of death? Something like that should be held by someone like me!"
"Strange choice for your final words, don't you think?" She smiled, fully recovered and feeling even stronger than before.
"If you kill me, the sect won't let you off lightly. I'm the 5th ranked disciple in the Outer Court. My death won't be ignored."
Ying only shrugged her shoulders before disappearing and reappearing elsewhere. The sound of Cheng's bisected body falling to the ground reached her ears.
"You talk too much." Ying murmured before dashing off to repay some debts.
Ying appeared at the fighting site where it all began to find everyone who she hasn't killed waiting around healing themselves. They shivered and screamed like crazy once she revealed herself.
"How...? How did you defeat Cheng?! That's impossib---" Ying decapitated Xiaohui with a blood fountain spraying into the air afterwards.
"I told you, you were going to die here. Along with everyone else who tried to play a part in my death." Ying looked towards the remaining survivors.
"We were ordered by Xiaohui to attack you!"
"She said if we didn't follow her orders, she'd kill us!"
"Cheng Chi threatened us to listen to that crazy bitch!"
Ying chuckled softly before killing them all. Each of them died with a single swing of her blade and painted the ground into a blood pond. She doubted she got everyone while she was off with Cheng Chi, but it doesn't matter. If someone tries to cause trouble with her in the future, she'll just deal with it the way she has always done. With an overwhelming assault and relentless spirit.
But this experience did cause her to understand one thing though. She needs to increase her current training and cultivation. She's pretty lucky that her current surroundings are filled with bodies that have things for her to take! Especially Cheng's body back there, she saw quite the shiny ring on his finger that she could use.
----------------------------------------
"Is this how I do it Teacher?" Jing asked as she threw the talismans towards the ground.
He looked over her placements and smiled.
"You are doing well. With a little more practice, you'll be able to increase your speed even further!"
"I still don't understand if I should focus on getting my trapping formation speed up or my mastery of movement arrays. If I get better at forming trapping arrays, it would help me deal with opponents faster but if I get better at movement arrays, I would have all the time I need to set up trapping arrays and be able to protect myself by avoiding the enemy."
"That's a very good question Jing but it is one that you can only find out for yourself. There is no progress in arrays without trying things out for yourself."
'Useless mongrel.' Jing thought.
"Thank you, Teacher! I'll make sure to test them both and find out which one is better for me." Jing responded gratefully.
"Besides talisman making and going over your spell placements, we are done for today. You are dismissed." He smiled.
"Yes, Teacher!" Jing bowed her head before heading down the mountain.
The things she's learning from Lang is quite nice. She's managed to memorize the spellbook when he had to take a trip down the mountain. But even with the knowledge, someone actually experienced in the field is still useful. That's one of the reasons why she hasn't disappeared and left his tutelage yet. The other was because it wouldn't fit her character she's shown so far.
With SCP-914, she's already refined a couple things for her career in arrays. Replicating blank talisman slips, a spirit brush that doesn't run out of spirit ink on its tip, and an infinite supplying jar of spirit ink. She embarrassedly chuckled thinking about that one. She didn't need to refine the jar because the brush never ran out of ink so, it was kind of pointless making it.
Li Li enjoys making talismans though. It's like playing with toys for him but instead of dolls and the like, its cultivator's worst nightmares. He has the most fun creating and activating Harming spells. Jing can understand why he would enjoy them the most. They are the most flashy and colorful spells. Trapping, Movement, and Supportive aren't as showy in comparison to Harming spells. Some Trapping spells can compete with Harming but just a small portion.
Playing with talismans is quite fun even if she doesn't need to rely on them at all. She's fully capable of fighting without them. She just thought it would be more interesting to learn this rather than going the combat route with the personality she's chosen to show. But enough of all that. Jing has to find out just what are the factions that are leading the Outer Court so, that she can get a start on her current mission of taking over the Outer Court.