Instructor Ci's Might

Time seemed suspended as both fighters hurtled through the air toward their inevitable collision. Jiu Mei's rainbow scales shined in the dim chamber light while her opponent's three energy daggers crackled with malevolent dark red Qi. The distance between them shrank with each heartbeat—

THOOM!

A massive dark purple palm seal came flying sideways like a battering ram, catching the man mid-flight and sending him crashing into the stone wall with bone-crushing force. The impact left a human-sized crater in the ancient masonry, chunks of rock raining down as his body slumped unconsciously within the indentation.

The chamber fell still, with dust floating around the air like sparks of lightning lingering after a thunderclap.

Jiu Mei landed awkwardly on the blood-stained floor, her legs buckling from the sudden change in momentum. Her serpentine tail immediately whipped around to steady her balance, the powerful muscles coiling and adjusting until she found her footing again.

Her head snapped toward the source of the attack, eyes widening as she saw Instructor Ci standing in the chamber entrance, his right hand still extended from delivering the devastating palm technique. His expression was unreadable, but the air around him crackled with residual purple energy.

In the blink of an eye, Instructor Ci vanished from his position and materialized directly beside Jiu Mei. His sharp gaze swept over her form, cataloging every injury with practiced efficiency.

It had only taken Instructor Ci one move to completely immobilize Duan Xong.

'So this is the enormous gap between us.' She thought in awe.

"You're injured," he muttered, his hands moving with a surprising gentleness as he examined her wounds. "They only appear to be superficial wounds..." His fingers hovered over a deeper gash on her shoulder that was bleeding more freely. "But this requires immediate medical attention"

Instructor Ci reached into his robes and withdrew a small leather pouch that seemed to shimmer with an otherworldly quality. Jiu Mei's eyes fixed on it with recognition.

'A storage bag,' she thought with wonder despite her pain. They contain semi-infinite dimensional space inside them. The higher the grade, the more the storage capacity. 'This one looks fairly low-grade—probably only holds eight to ten items at most.'

From the pouch, Ci produced clean white bandages and what appeared to be a small vial of healing salve. His movements were swift and professional as he applied the medicine and wrapped her shoulder wound tightly. His medical expertise seemed to be not short of a doctor's.

Ci's fingers were heavily calloused from numerous battles. Jiu Mei even felt like sandpaper was slightly rubbing against her skin, but the gentle manner in which It dis so was undeniably soft.

"There," he said curtly, securing the bandage. "This should maintain you for a while until you can get some real medical support."

Turning away from Jiu Mei, Instructor Ci walked deliberately toward the groaning figure in the wall crater. The man was slowly regaining consciousness, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he struggled to focus his vision.

"Duan Xong," Instructor Ci said, his voice cutting through the chamber's oppressive atmosphere like a blade.

The man's eyes widened in terror upon hearing his name. He coughed violently, more blood spattering the ground as he clutched his ribs. "Instructor... Ci..." he wheezed, clearly suffering from severe internal injuries.

"Why?" Ci's single word carried the weight of absolute authority. "Why did you target Jiu Mei?"

Duan Xong's hands trembled as he tried to push himself up from the crater. "Ling Shi... she told me about the girl's race. A demi-human... contaminating our sect." His voice was shaky but defiant. "I took it upon myself to... to cleanse this place of her filth."

Instructor Ci began pacing in a slow circle around the injured man, one hand stroking his chin thoughtfully. The gesture seemed casual, but the menacing aura radiating from him made the air itself feel heavy.

"Duan Xong," he began in a conversational tone that somehow made his words even more terrifying. "Three missing outer disciples from the eastern dormitories last month. Seven children mysteriously gone. The poisoning of an outer Elder's tea that left him bedridden for weeks. The theft of three cultivation tomes from the sect's treasury."

With each accusation, Duan Xong's face grew paler.

"And now this," Ci continued, gesturing toward the horrific charnel house around them. "Masquerading as one of our execution proctors, trying to murder a beyond Heaven grade talent."

Instructor Ci stopped pacing and faced Duan Xong directly, his expression hardening into something truly frightening. "In the name of the Patriarch, the Heavenly Demon himself, I will purge this sect of your polluting presence."

Dark purple Qi began gathering around Ci's raised hand, condensing into a lance of pure destructive energy.

"WAIT!" Duan Xong screamed desperately. "If you kill me, the little girl will have no cure for the poison I afflicter her with!"

Both men turned their attention to Jiu Mei, who had been quietly observing their exchange. She was now swaying dangerously on her feet, her face pale and drawn. The white bandage around her shoulder had turned an alarming shade of dark purple.

She could barely make out their words now but that one caught her even in this dazed stupor. 'Poision...?'

As she looked at the two men, the room began to quickly spin and her balance rapidly shifted underneath her own weight.

"What—" Instructor Ci rushed to her side, quickly unwrapping the bandage. The wound underneath had become inflamed and infected, dark veins of poison spreading outward from the cut like spider webs beneath her skin.

Duan Xong's broken laughter echoed through the chamber. "Even if you kill me, you won't be able to save her! The Scorpion's Kiss has no antidote!"

Instructor Ci's aura exploded outward as fury consumed him. Dark purple energy lifted Duan Xong from the crater and suspended him in the air, tendrils of Qi tightening around his throat.

"The cure," Ci demanded, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "Give it to me. Now."

"There IS no cure!" Duan Xong cackled maniacally, blood frothing at his lips. "She'll be dead within the hour, and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"

Without another word, Instructor Ci used his energy to gently carry Jiu Mei's weakening form to the wooden table, laying her down as carefully as if she were made of porcelain. Then he turned back toward Duan Xong, unleashing the full weight of his cultivation base and bloodlust.

The very air seemed to scream under the pressure of Ci's aura. Duan Xong's laughter died immediately, replaced by whimpering terror.

"Wait! Wait wait wait!" Duan Xong shrieked, struggling uselessly against the energy bonds holding him. "Don't do anything rash! We can negotiate! I have information! I have—"

His pleas were cut short as Instructor Ci placed two fingers against his forehead. Ci's eyes closed in concentration as dark purple energy began flowing from his fingertips directly into Duan Xong's skull.

"AHHHHHHH!" Duan Xong's screams of agony filled the chamber and echoed off of their walls. "STOP! PLEASE STOP! I'LL DO ANYTHING!"

Instructor Ci's eyes snapped open, but instead of his normal gaze, only swirling vortexes of dark purple energy could be seen where his pupils should be.

"Master Ji!" Duan Xong shrieked in his final moments of coherent thought. "MASTER JI, SAVE ME!"

His eyes rolled back and the cries of mercy were abruptly silenced.

Blood began pouring from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth in crimson waterfalls. His body convulsed violently for several seconds before going completely limp, hanging motionless in the grip of Ci's energy.

The purple glow faded from Instructor Ci's eyes as he slowly grounded himself, the oppressive aura dissipating. He had used a technique available only to cultivators at the seventh level of Qi Condensation and above—forcibly injecting his own energy into another person's mind to read and sift through their memories. But Ci had gone further than just the memory extraction. He had essentially lobotomized Duan Xong, leaving him in a vegetative state before completely destroying his brain.

Lifting the now-unconscious Jiu Mei gently in his arms, Instructor Ci spoke to the empty air with authority: "Finish harvesting the required materials and resources from the children. Burn the corpses when you're done."

As if materializing from the shadows themselves, two figures stepped forward wearing the same dark attire Duan Xong had worn. One bore a happy black clown mask painted with an exaggerated grin, while the other wore a mask depicting profound sadness.

Instructor Ci vanished from his position in a blur of movement, leaving only the faintest trace of purple energy behind.

The two masked figures immediately dropped into respectful bowing positions, pressing one fist into their opposite palm in the traditional salute. They held the pose until long after Ci's presence had completely faded.

Only his scent of dark plum and the overbearing scent of churned flesh and blood lingered in the air.

Finally, the figure with the happy mask straightened and turned toward Duan Xong's lifeless form. "You killed Anger mask," he said, his voice carrying cold fury despite the cheerful expression painted on his face. "You murdered our comrade and even stole his identity."

He raised his hand, and black and purple flames suddenly erupted around Duan Xong's corpse. The fire consumed flesh and bone with unnatural hunger, leaving nothing but ash within moments.

"Clean up this mess," Happy mask solemnly commanded his companion.