Su Fei

In the world of cultivators, possession of resources without the strength to protect themselves is considered a crime in itself.

Thus, the cultivators who came to seek fortune in the mountains tried to stay as far away from each other as possible. After all, the number of them killed by the beasts was far lower than the number killed by the other cultivators.

However, the more one stayed in the mountains, the more difficult it was to avoid it; especially in the outer region.

Usually, if two groups met each other under normal circumstances, they would stay on guard while exchanging provisions and information with each other.

The pair of Tianlong and Qingxue was one of those few who didn't meet up with other people till now. The reason being the inborn racial trait of Rocs which gave them strong visual prowess.

However, now that they were deeper into the forest, the thick canopy of leaves kept others hidden from his prying eyes. So unless someone was at a relatively close distance, he couldn't spot them.

It was no wonder that he couldn't sense the cultivators who were fast closing up towards the place where they had just fought the beast.

Qingxue knew way better than to confront them alone. She went inside the nearby thickets and camouflaged herself.

It was then that she saw three people running towards the place. The person in front was a beautiful female who looked no older than twenty. She had snow-white skin and an alluring figure.

However, her current appearance was flustered and pale. A large piece of her dress was torn off, which revealed her beautiful shoulders.

Two middle-aged men were chasing after her. There wasn't any hint of worry on their face, as if catching her was only a matter of time.

One of them suddenly sneered and sent a palm strike towards her, "Little thief, you should have obediently stayed as Boss Qin's slut and you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. But you just had to get greedy didn't you?"

The female let out a scream as an even larger portion of her clothing was torn off. Her long white legs were completely out for display.

Seeing the spring scenery in front of them, the other man lewdly smiled. "Su Fei! don't listen to the ramblings of Old Wu! If you obediently choose to surrender and tell us how you nullified the restriction of the boss, we won't kill you."

The young woman gritted her teeth and continued to run forward in a half-naked state which caused nefarious fires to burn in her pursuers.

Seeing another female being molested like this, Qingxue naturally became enraged. However, she still maintained her rationality and didn't try to blindly save the woman.

When the trio was in a hundred-meter range, she could sense the qi fluctuations from their body.

'One of the men has just reached the third level while the other two are in the second level of Qi condensation. Hm, manageable… but I still need to take some safety measures in case things go south.'

Taking out a jade slip and a talisman, she stuck the latter to her chest and hid the slip inside her sleeve.

The young woman furiously ran forward, without noticing that there was someone else watching all of this unfold with a calm gaze.

Just as the two pursuers ran past the bushes, Qingxue jumped out from her hiding position and sent out a sword slash towards the legs of the man called Old Wu.

"Aargh!!"

The man gave a shrill cry as he felt a scalding sensation in the adductor muscles of his legs.

"You bitch!!!"

The other man quickly noticed the unknown assailant and sent a palm strike towards her. A barrier suddenly sprang out from her robe and negated the incoming attack.

The two men quickly took out their weapons and surrounded her. After sensing her cultivation base, they lost their sense of danger. However, they remained vigilant.

"Girl, are you trying to challenge the Qin mountain bandits?" Old Wu sent forward a halberd strike as he tried to threaten her.

His halberds turned into shadows that went towards her vital spots.

If she failed to dodge a single strike, she would become a mangled corpse.

"Why aren't handling him yet?!" She yelled at the other female.

The first thought the young woman had after seeing Qingxue was to flee. Although she didn't know why someone would save her, she knew this was the best chance to lose her pursuers.

But after sensing that Qingxue was in a disadvantageous position, she understood that her saviour wouldn't be able to hold them for too long. She needed to make use of their combined might and kill the two bandits.

Gritting her teeth, she stopped in her tracks and joined the battle.

Qingxue handled Old Wu while the young woman attacked the other man. None of them paid any attention to her and only focused on attacking Qingxue.

Blazing flames covered Qingxue's sword as she used it to simultaneously attack and defend at the same time.

Fighting demonic beasts and sparring with Tianlong over the past few weeks, her swordsmanship was more polished than before.

"That… that's a spirit treasure… Aah!!" Old Wu bellowed in agony. Qingxue had already injured his legs with her surprise attack, which seriously reduced his mobility. As of now, his chest was already scorched and had large sword gashes.

Hearing that the beautiful golden sword in her hand was a spirit treasure, the other man was shocked. As far as he knew, treasures which possessed a spirit of their own were incomparably precious. Only peak stage Yin yang Cleansers were qualified to wield such weapons.

A bit of greed crept inside their heart.

"Girl, let me tell you that our boss Qin Houzi is a Ying Yang Cleansing expert and he's already closing upon this place. Hand over that sword to us and we'll let you go. Otherwise, once he catches up …hehe, you'll be reduced to one of his furnaces."

Qingxue frowned at the man's provocation and sent a huge torrent of spiritual energy inside the sword, a shrill cry of a bird could be heard from it.

A firebird as wide as an adult's arm erupted from the sword that split into two. The smaller one of the firebirds went towards Old Wu and the larger one flew towards the other man.

"Not good!" Sensing the danger from the firebird, the men hastily retreated.

However, before they could go far, the birds crashed against them and exploded with a huge bang.

Old Wu was already injured, he couldn't retreat far. His corpse was burnt beyond recognition and fell with a thud.

"Wait-"

When the dust cleared, she saw the other man's headless corpse. Although he had received most of her attack, it was the other female who used the smoke to quickly behead him.

His body twitched while blood rushed out of his neck like a small fountain.

Qingxue felt a strange sensation when she saw those corpses.

'Is it because they are humans?'

Even though she had participated in lots of hunts with Tianlong, it was the first time she had killed another human.

While she was still lost in her thoughts, the young woman approached her from behind.

"Senior, you must have spent most of your qi on that attack right?" Her voice was incredibly soft.

"Un. Let's get out of here. One of them said that their boss was following them… Although I'm sure he said that to scare me, I don't want to take any chances." Qingxue replied.

"Right, but what about their corpses?"

Qingxue released a stream of fire that burned their bodies to ashes. The two quickly left the scene.

…

The burbling sound of water could be heard as the river flowed past the branches and rocks.

Schools of fish could be seen swimming in places where the water was crystal clear. Luckily, there wasn't any aquatic beast in the river or such an abundance of lifeforms wouldn't be possible.

*Splash!*

Another fish was caught by the young lady standing in the knee-deep water. Her pale skin glistened in the sunlight and the clothing which was severely damaged, stuck to her half-naked body. It painted a picture so alluring, that any man would feel their heart burning with desire.

"So, what's your story?"

Qingxue was sitting on top of a rock near the river bank. Having overdrawn her qi reserves, she was silently cultivating.

It was only after they moved far away from the crime scene that they could finally rest and get a chance to catch up.

"I'm Su Fei from the Eastern Ridge city. One year ago, like many other cultivators, I came to the mountain to seek riches." Six fishes floated behind her as she stepped out from the water.

Putting them on a rock, she took out a sheathed knife from her waist and started to gut them.

"Unfortunately, it all changed when I caught the eye of Qin Mountain bandits. Their boss Qin Houzi is a lustful demonic ape who practices dual cultivation. If any beautiful woman without strength and background catches his eyes, he'll capture them and turn them into his furnaces." Her voice was filled with fear and hatred as she gutted the fishes.

The innards were thrown into the river. Other carnivorous fishes smelled the blood and flocked towards them.

"Umm… do you have any salt? My baggage was destroyed while I was running."

Without saying anything, Qingxue took out bottles of condiments from her backpack and threw them towards Su Fei.

"If you don't mind telling me, why is someone who can afford spirit treasures also carrying a backpack?" Su Fei caught the bottles and asked her in an inquisitive tone.

"The interspatial ring only has two hundred cubic meters space. So, I need to save as much space as possible, it's not like I have more than one ring or someone else to carry it for me …Also, it creates a misconception of me not possessing a ring."

With how big the demonic beasts were, two hundred cubic meters wasn't enough. A few corpses and the ring will be filled up.

"Wow! You are so intelligent!" She clicked her tongue in admiration.

"Just simple tricks." She replied with a smile.