by Virlyce
“I won’t swear an oath. I won’t! The young master didn’t deserve to die! I can’t swallow this injustice!”
Brother Claw exhaled through his nostrils and lifted his sword. I can’t just watch him cut down a crying woman who can’t even resist! My grandfather always told me cultivation could never be wrong. Planting heart devils in people to advance in strength was perfectly alright even though it lowered the other person’s chances at immortality. But a technique that required another’s death to advance in strength? Surely, that can’t be right. Though, who am I to judge? The road to immortality is paved with bones and blood. But this woman is a mortal-realm disciple! Brother Claw will gain nothing from killing her!
“Why are you stopping me, Sister Moonlight?” Brother Claw turned his head towards me. My whip was coiled around his arm, holding back the sword that was less than an inch away from the poor disciple’s neck. “I am merely following Chosen Lucia’s orders.” Brother Claw’s eyes held no anger, no curiosity. No respect. Just indifference, as if he were staring at an ant. Why was he looking at me with a gaze like that? I’m not insignificant!
“There are other ways to follow Lucia’s orders! As the second-in-command, I will not let you indiscriminately kill people!” Lives are precious. If someone dies, the impact will affect everyone around them. People shouldn’t be treated like nothing just because they’re weak. …That’s a bit hypocritical coming from me since I follow Lucia, huh? She’s the greatest abuser of power, but she tries not to kill people! I think. I really want to believe Lucia kills people out of ignorance. She’s not a bad person; she’s just an idiot sometimes.
“Right, Sister Moonlight is second-in-command and can order me around. Then I’d like to challenge you for your position. After I beheaded Sun Fire, I surpassed your cultivation level, Sister Moonlight. Shouldn’t I replace you as chosen?” My whip uncoiled as qi exploded out from Brother Claw’s arm, freeing his limb.
“Hmm? Is this infighting? Were we allowed to challenge people to claim their spots?” Ilya finished putting away a corpse and looked up. “No one told me I could do that. How about you give me the title of second-in-command and both of you can fight for third?”
…Why would Ilya want to join in on this fight too? “You’re not satisfied with where you are? Everyone respects you and no one orders you around.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Ilya said with a nod. “But I just don’t like being someone else’s subordinate, even if it’s in title only. Call it a result of my upbringing.”
“Hey! Aren’t you guys done yet?” Lucia shouted from her spot by the statue. “I’ve been waiting for you to get over here already!”
“We shouldn’t keep Chosen Lucia waiting,” Brother Claw said. “I’ll kill them all to speed things up. Our fight will have to wait.”
“If you’re going to kill me, then I’ll take you with me!” one of the Great Axolotl Sect members said as white light poured out of him. He’s going to self-detonate! An earth-realm expert’s self-detonation isn’t something I can block!
“Hey, stop right there,” Ilya said. As if her words were a prayer answered by a god, the light around the expert’s body dimmed. Just above his groin, there was a bloody icicle that pierced through his front to his back. Ilya had stabbed his dantian, releasing all the pressure built up by the gathering qi and crippling the expert at the same time. She clicked her tongue and muttered, “The last time someone exploded on me when I was interrogating him, I nearly died. You think I’d let someone explode on me again? Unlike Lucia, I learn from experiences.”
“Guys? What are you doing? I’m going to start without you!” Lucia shouted and kicked the statue that had repaired itself for the hundredth time or so, breaking it again.
“If you wish to live, swear an oath to the heavens, or my Junior Brother Claw will really kill you all.” Maybe Brother Claw was right. The best way to persuade someone was by threatening to kill them. And I have to take the fastest method to keep Lucia from waiting. “Please, swear the oaths. I don’t want to see you all die for nothing.”
“Oh! She’s like an angel! How could we refuse the young lady crying for us? She cares about our lives.”
I’m not crying! My eyes are naturally this watery!
“Don’t cry, young miss. We’ll swear the oaths.”
Brother Claw tilted his head and sheathed his sword. “How come you listen to her, but not to me?”
“Because you’re ugly.”
“She’s beautiful. She must be an angel. An angel wouldn’t lie to us.”
“Yes, that’s right. Young miss, please, exchange messenger signatures with me.”
…I’m starting to think I was born in the wrong sect. Wouldn’t the Seducing Succubus Sect have been a much better fit for me? Lucia did exchange some used underwear for their techniques…. If I learned them, maybe I could seduce Lucia as well? A-as practice! I’d try to seduce Lucia as practice!
***
Whew, I must’ve broken this stupid thing over a thousand times, but it keeps fixing itself! The sky cracks apart occasionally like before, and there’s some screams, but it’s not as vivid as the first battlefield. I don’t think I’m weakening the sky-realm expert inside at all! I guess the only thing I can do is keep breaking it. Mm, if this necklace of intelligence was just a bit stronger, then I bet I’d instinctively know when to stop. Ah, I forgot to tell Ilya to make me more necklaces to become fourtimely smarter. Speaking of Ilya, aren’t those three done yet? It shouldn’t be that hard to make people swear oaths! You just have to grind their bones a few times and hit them to wake them up when they fall unconscious.
Oh? The statue’s eyes turned red. Is something happening? A circle appeared on the ground next to me, and a person appeared out of nowhere! They must’ve come from inside the formation. I’ll do a quick check with my tail, and … he’s about as strong as that running-fish rider. So, a sky-realm expert? I thought the crown prince said it’d be hard to obtain sky-realm experts’ heads. It turns out you can’t really trust anyone except for yourself! And Ilya.
“You’re still breaking the formation even after I show myself!?”
Ah. After breaking the statue over a thousand times, I hit it again out of habit when it repaired itself. “Oops. That was an accident.”
“Oops? Accident? You think you can get away with what you’ve done by saying oops!? Which country do you belong to? I’ll have them reimburse me for all my wasted medicinal pills. I suffered multiple internal injuries because of your actions! If you’re part of my Fang Country, I’ll have your whole sect exterminated!”
“Oh? You’re part of Fang Country? And you’re a sky-realm expert, right?”
“Are you afraid now? It’s too late!” The sky-realm expert stretched his hand towards me, but before I could grab him, a white light appeared in between us and another person appeared. She was a sky-realm expert too! The crown prince was right; these people travel in packs!
The woman that appeared glared at the man. “You went outside, but the formation was destroyed again! No wonder why your Fang Country is suffering from internal strife. Your sky-realm experts are completely incompetent!”
“Shut up! This foxkin ignored me and broke the statue under my watch.”
“And you didn’t stop her? Incompetent!”
…Maybe these two people are enemies? Mm. If Fang Country has a sky-realm expert, then our side needs to have one too! Even without the necklace of intelligence, I can do basic math. For the two sides to be equal in power, the number of sky-realm experts have to be the same. Therefore, this woman has to be on my side!
“And you, foxkin! Do you know how annoying it is to repair a formation repeatedly? I’ll skin you alive and turn you into a rug.”
Or not…? Mm. Alright. Clearly, there’s only one answer: Violence! “Breaking Madness Fist Strike!” Direct—! …Hit? I was aiming for the woman, but she suddenly switched places with the man! And now the man’s crumpled up on the ground with froth coming out
of his mouth. Is he dead? Hmm, I think this is what people call on the verge of death. I can’t let him die because of my punch! “Claw! Come cut this sky-realm expert’s head off before he dies!”
“Yes, right away, Lady Fiery Rain!” Claw shouted. In an instant, he appeared next to me with his sword drawn.
And just like that, I obtained another sky-realm expert’s head! Just three more to go! If this woman’s head will count, then it’ll be two heads left! “Hey, old lady, are you part of Fang Country or Kang Country?”
“K-Kang Country.” The lady was holding onto her necklace. If she squeezed it a little more, it’d probably break. It must be a life-saving treasure of some sort, like an instant-teleportation button. It’s weird how the sky-realm experts that I’ve already beaten up haven’t had any of those. They just probably didn’t have the time to react to my quick thinking! That must be it. When I accomplish great things, it’s because I’m amazing. There’s no other explanations for the sky-realm experts’ failures.
“Mm. I guess there’s no point in killing you if your head can’t be traded in. How about you leave behind your interspacial ring and underwear and I’ll let you go?”
“You’re not going to take her clothes too?” Claw asked.
“Well, it’s just a white robe. Look at how plain it is. I bet I couldn’t sell it for more than a single spirit stone.” There’s not even a nametag. Why would I bother taking something so useless? Oh, I guess it’d plant a heart devil, but I already planted one in her when the man died to Claw just now.
“No, it’s a special robe made of volcanic chameleon skin that can change its appearance at will.” Claw shook his head. “It’s worth at least ten earth-realm-ranked swords.”
“Robes. Give. Now. Or death.” Ten earth-realm-ranked swords! That’s worth an uncountable number of used panties! Only an idiot would let a chance like this go! I have my Unrelenting Path of Slaughter ready to activate at any moment. I’ll drown her with my Tides of Blood if she refuses!
“T-that’s a lot of bloodlust you’re giving out,” the woman said. “H-here. Take it.” She stripped and handed me her robes and her ring. She didn’t give me any underwear…, but she was completely naked. A pervert?
“Underwear?”
The woman’s face flushed bright red. “I usually don’t wear any….”
Yup, she’s a pervert. I want nothing to do with her. “Okay. Get out of here.”
“Yes. Goodbye, Fiery Rain of the Flaming Sparrow Sect.” The woman rose into the air and flew away at a lightning fast speed. Ah! She was still wearing her life-saving treasure necklace thing! I was completely distracted by her lack of underwear that I forgot! But why did she call me Fiery Rain? Oh, I’m still wearing the nametag. I forgot to put that away too! Why am I forgetting so many things? Maybe the necklace of intelligence is wearing off. Mm. I’ll ask Ilya to recharge its effects.
***
Pledging my undying loyalty to Chosen Lucia was the greatest decision of my life. I grew up without any parents, taken care of by only my elder sister. My parents were mercilessly slaughtered by a group of people because of my family’s so-called evil cultivation technique. I was too little to remember who the killers were, and my sister never told me their identity before she died, but she did leave behind a necklace with a message that she made me promise not to read until after I became an earth-realm expert. My sister’s life was spared because women couldn’t cultivate my family’s technique, but they destroyed any chance for her to have children in the future. And I was spared because my mother had fed me to a snake which my sister killed and retrieved me from after the killers left. When I turned twelve, my sister imparted my family’s technique to me, but learning such a bloody technique didn’t come without a cost. The life of a family member was required to start it. After my twelfth birthday, I no longer had a family.
A few years passed, and I reached the peak of the mortal-realm. A lot of people died by my hands, but I didn’t keep track of how many. It’s hard to remember. Everyone makes the same face when they die. They make the same sounds: the dying gasps, the whimpers, the last exhalation before they fall still. Everyone’s the same when faced with death. Perhaps I killed ten people. Perhaps I killed a thousand. In the end, it doesn’t matter.
I attracted the attention of many sects, but the Shadow Devil Sect kept their eyes on me for a different reason than most. They liked me, liked my potential. And I became a core disciple under the terms that I wouldn’t kill a fellow sect member. I kept to those terms, and my growth stagnated. If Chosen Lucia hadn’t made her appearance when she did, I might’ve done something that would’ve gotten me expelled from the sect. She didn’t seem special at first, running away from our greeting when she met us for the first time. But not even a day later, she attended our cultural exchange and started the great massacre. My stagnating cultivation grew by leaps and bounds that day, and when Chosen Lucia recruited people to subjugate some sects in Kong County, I was the first to sign up. When we got back to the Shadow Devil Sect after a year, I claimed the spot of number one core disciple.
Now, I’m part of the squad fighting at the Gates of Hell. The first battlefield we went to, Chosen Lucia let me kill two earth-realm experts and a sky-realm expert. Then, I killed another sky-realm expert when he tried to rob us. Sister Moonlight stopped me from killing more, but I had already surpassed her in strength. The next time she tries to stop me, I’ll claim her spot as the chosen of the sect. Before we entered the second battlefield, another sky-realm expert came out who Chosen Lucia, once again, gave me the honor of killing. The way she’s able to disable people so perfectly is a form of art. I’m just a lowly member of the saint realm, but after Chosen Lucia’s done with her victims, they can’t resist me even if they’re able to kill me with a single glance when they’re in their best conditions.
And we entered the second battlefield despite Sister Moonlight’s protests. She thought we should flee before anyone discovered the sky-realm experts’ deaths. But Sister Ilya gave Chosen Lucia a bracelet that changed her appearance. Combined with the volcanic chameleon robe, Chosen Lucia’s appearance changed to a completely different person’s. She doesn’t even have a tail right now, and her ears are hidden behind her hair. She switched her nameplate to that of the Golden Bush Sect too. They were one of our allies that Chosen Lucia robbed blind on our way here.
“I, Long Mistletoe, challenge any earth or sky-realm expert!”
Right now, Chosen Lucia is pretending to be Long Mistletoe. Before that, she was pretending to be Rough Stone. And before that, she was pretending to be Icy Wind. Every time she wins a fight, she drags her opponent over and has me behead them. Then she changes her appearance, her clothes, and her nametag before running up onto one of the arena platforms again. So far, she’s had me kill over two hundred earth-realm experts, but I think people are starting to catch on.
“How could so many of our earth-realm experts lose in a single strike? It doesn’t make any sense! Since when has Kang Country acquired that many experts? They must be at the peak of earth realm. But none of them were famous beforehand. Where is Sir Fang? He went outside to fix the formation, but he hasn’t shown himself again.”
“You’re right. There’s something strange going on, but there’s no proof.”
“Whoa! Look at that! Long Mistletoe of the Golden Bush Sect defeated her opponent in a single strike! She’s dragging him away to be beheaded like those previous experts!”
“Hey, aren’t all of our earth-realm experts being taken towards the same place every time they lose?”
…Yes. People have indeed caught on. But I’ve been changing my appearance after every kill as well thanks to Sister Ilya’s bracelet. Though Chosen Lucia may be abnormally strong, I don’t think she can win against a crowd of over a million people. Everyone here is an elite who belongs to a sect that won a province exchange. And there’s another problem with having me kill all these earth-realm experts. If I don’t stabilize my foundation, I’l
l explode from all the excess qi. In a few hours, I’ve advanced to the peak of saint realm, skipping many levels in the process. This rate of growth is completely abnormal.
“Alright, Claw. This one too.” Chosen Lucia dumped the limp person onto the ground in front of me. I raised the sword that Chosen Lucia had gifted to me and brought it down without hesitation. There was no resistance, as expected of an earth-realm-ranked sword. Warmth flooded my dantian as the fallen expert’s soul entered my body, sucked in by my cultivation technique. I could hear his soul screaming as it was ground to bits before merging with my qi.
“Lady Long Mistletoe, I need to take a break. I can sense my earth-realm tribulation approaching.”
“Earth-realm tribulation!?” Sister Moonlight stiffened, her action so quick that it seemed like she had jumped. “I thought Brother Claw was weaker than me just a week ago! C-congratulations.”
“Mm. Alright. Anyone else want to harvest heads?” Chosen Lucia asked, sweeping her gaze over our fellow sect members. None of them had a technique like mine, so none of them volunteered. “No one? Oh! I’ll just have Puppers do it. I almost forgot he existed.” Chosen Lucia bent over and grabbed her socks. Then she lifted her arm and pulled out a wolfkin by the scruff of his neck. “Go do your tribulation stuff, Claw. I’m not going to stop even though you’re on break! I still have”—she counted off her fingers, but when she reached the last one, she wrinkled her forehead—"a lot of heads to harvest! Mn!”
Like my technique required a sacrifice to learn, Chosen Lucia’s abnormal strength extracts an equally dreadful toll. It’s a shame, but her strength is inversely proportional to her intelligence. I fear she’ll be no smarter than a vegetable if she ever becomes an immortal.
Chapter 21