The man at the head had a face as handsome as jade. With a cold expression, he said, “Qiqi said that only when Shen Yuexi is dead beyond all doubt will she be able to participate in the Sect Grand Selection with peace of mind.”
In almost an instant, Shen Yuexi recognized them. They were the senior and junior fellow disciples from Jiuyang Sect who had tormented her for years.
Day after day, they had tortured Shen Yuexi to the brink of death, all for the sake of earning another glance from Song Qiqi.
The man at the head was none other than the Eldest Senior Brother—the most devoted bootlicker of Song Qiqi, and the one who had bullied her the worst.
The bottom of the Soul-Devouring Abyss was cold and silent. The more Third Senior Brother looked around, the more uneasy he became. “Eldest Senior Brother, that trash Shen Yuexi has no spiritual root. She must have fallen and been smashed into a bloody mess. What if she turns into a ghost and comes back to take revenge on us?”
Once someone had started, Fourth Senior Brother also grew uneasy. “Exactly. Third Senior Brother pushed her into the river and nearly drowned her before. And Second Senior Brother and I locked her in a dog cage and beat her several times…”
Second Senior Brother, however, remained calm. “What’s there to fear? If she really dares to come back, the four of us can send her to hell again! Besides, didn’t Eldest Senior Brother throw her into the snake pit to feed the snakes? He should be the first one in line.”
The Eldest Senior Brother’s expression changed at those words. Suppressing his unease, he turned around and shouted, “Even if that trash turns into a ghost, she’ll still be trash! Whether she’s dead or alive, we’re taking her corpse back with us! Split up and search!”
“So you mean that even if I didn’t die, you would still have killed me without mercy?”
A clear, icy female voice suddenly rang out. Shen Yuexi slowly stepped out from behind a tree.
When they saw Shen Yuexi alive and well, Third Senior Brother at the front was the most guilt-ridden of them all. He was so frightened that he collapsed onto the ground, the sword in his hand trembling violently. “A ghost! A ghost! She really turned into a ghost to seek revenge! It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! I never harmed you!”
“You were the one who pushed me into the water and tried to drown me.”
Shen Yuexi snatched the sword from his hand and drove it straight through his dantian without the slightest hesitation!
The Eldest Senior Brother’s expression changed drastically. He shouted furiously, “Qiqi was right. A scourge lives for a thousand years. How dare you viciously kill your Third Senior Brother!”
“So what if I killed him?” Spiritual power circulated around Shen Yuexi’s body, yet her expression remained calm.
“How is this possible? How could you be a ninth-tier Spirit Adept? You clearly couldn’t cultivate, and your spiritual root was even extracted!”
The Eldest Senior Brother cried out in shock when he saw the spiritual power surrounding Shen Yuexi.
How could she have cultivated so quickly?!
He quickly calmed down. She was merely a ninth-tier Spirit Adept, while he and his two junior brothers were already second-tier Spirit Warriors. Killing her would be as easy as reaching into a bag and taking something out!
“So what if you’re a ninth-tier Spirit Adept? You’re still no match for me!” the Eldest Senior Brother sneered. Spiritual power surged in his hand. “My two junior brothers, attack together! Kill this trash!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the three of them simultaneously circulated their spiritual power and swiftly charged at Shen Yuexi!
Unexpectedly, a dangerous pressure suddenly bound them firmly in place. More than a dozen third-grade Phoenix-Tailed Snakes surrounded them, constantly flicking their scarlet tongues.
Terror spread across the Eldest Senior Brother’s face, his eyes filled with disbelief. “Third-grade spirit beasts! Run!”
Shen Yuexi curved her lips. A cold, bewitching smile played at the corners of her gorgeous lips. “Do you think you can get away?”
The dozen or so Phoenix-Tailed Snakes seemed to have received an order. They immediately strangled the three fleeing men where they stood!
None of the three had ever imagined that they would die at Shen Yuexi’s hands!
Watching as their corpses were torn apart and devoured by the Phoenix-Tailed Snakes, Shen Yuexi remained utterly calm. “Song Chengning and Song Qiqi must both die.”
With that, she took the four men’s swords and left the Soul-Devouring Abyss.
…
Jiuyang Sect.
“Ghost… there’s a ghost! Sect… Sect Master, Shen Yuexi has attacked the sect! Please go and see!”
Song Chengning had been delighted the night before after helping his beloved daughter fuse her dual spiritual roots. Upon hearing the disciple’s ghostly wails, his expression immediately turned grim. “What nonsense are you spouting? That trash is clearly already dead! Have your Eldest Senior Brother and the others still not returned?”
“None of the four Senior Brothers has returned yet!” the disciple answered truthfully.
Song Chengning furrowed his brows deeply. All four of them were second-tier Spirit Warriors. They should have returned long ago after finding a corpse!
At that thought, Song Chengning’s expression changed drastically. He immediately headed toward the mountain gate—and there, he truly saw Shen Yuexi!
“Trash, you’re still alive!” Song Chengning narrowed his eyes and stared at Shen Yuexi coldly, his expression one of utter disbelief. “A ninth-tier Spirit Adept? How is that possible?”
How could someone without a spiritual root cultivate?
Even if she had turned misfortune into fortune, how could she have reached the realm that had taken Qiqi more than a decade to attain in a single night?!
Could her aptitude actually be a hundred times greater than Qiqi’s?
Impossible. The moment the thought arose, Song Chengning crushed it.
“You and Song Qiqi haven’t died yet, so of course I’m going to stay alive and well.” Shen Yuexi let out a cold laugh, but the smile never reached her eyes.
At those words, suspicion filled Song Chengning’s heart.
There was no way this trash had accomplished it through her own ability!
Could there be some rare treasure at the bottom of the Soul-Devouring Abyss that had allowed this trash to turn misfortune into fortune?
If he could obtain it, it would certainly be more useful in his hands than hers. Perhaps it could even allow him to break through in one fell swoop!
At that thought, greedy light flickered in Song Chengning’s eyes. He said coldly, “Wretched beast, if you hand over the treasure immediately, I can still spare your worthless life! Otherwise, don’t blame me for showing no mercy!”
“All right. Here you go.”
With that, Shen Yuexi threw the four swords at his feet.
When Song Chengning saw the four swords lying at Shen Yuexi’s feet, an impossible thought suddenly occurred to him. “They…”
“They’re dead. I killed them.” A smile touched Shen Yuexi’s lips, but her next words sent chills down the spine. “You’re next.”
Song Chengning was so furious that his eyes nearly split open. He roared, “Once your master, your father for life! How dare you commit the inhumane crime of killing your senior brothers and murdering your father!”
“My Shen Family had no grudge against you, yet you killed more than a hundred members of my family! The extermination of my family, the deception, the theft of my spiritual root, and throwing me into the Soul-Devouring Abyss—if we’re talking about inhumanity, who could compare with you?” The smile at Shen Yuexi’s lips grew colder and colder. Anger stained her phoenix eyes as she enumerated his crimes.
“The Shen Family refused to hand over its resources willingly, so they deserved to die! You merely lost a spiritual root, while Qiqi lost her boundless future! You’re so narrow-minded that you’ve held a grudge over it all this time. Today, I’ve come to cleanse the sect!”
Song Chengning shouted furiously, enraged beyond measure. Spiritual power of the fire element began to coil around his hand, and he struck toward Shen Yuexi with a single palm.
Shen Yuexi raised her brows slightly. In the next moment, she neither retreated nor dodged, instead meeting that palm head-on.
Something bizarre happened. All of Song Chengning’s fire-element spiritual power flowed into Shen Yuexi’s palm, as though it were being absorbed by her!
Song Chengning’s expression changed drastically. “An evil cultivator! You’re an evil cultivator!”
Evil cultivators absorbed other people’s spiritual power to cultivate. They were beings that everyone had the right and duty to eradicate!
No wonder she had been able to cultivate so quickly!
“Take a guess.” Shen Yuexi curved her lips.
The ancient Phoenix was the ruler of the fire element under heaven and earth, while she possessed the purest bloodline. Forcefully absorbing fire-element spiritual power of impure quality was as easy as turning over her hand.
Trying to play with fire in front of her was simply asking for trouble!
She then condensed her spiritual power into a blade and sliced open her finger. Immediately afterward, she used her spiritual power as a brush and her blood as ink to draw the character “Ward” in the air.
Song Chengning’s vicious eyes remained fixed on Shen Yuexi. “If I could kill you once, I can kill you twice! Wretched beast, don’t you dare refuse to die!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Song Chengning circulated every bit of spiritual power in his body without holding anything back, preparing to kill Shen Yuexi with a single strike—
“Roar…”
Suddenly, a tiger’s roar brimming with spiritual power resounded across Jiuyang Mountain.
He looked closely and saw a third-grade Sabertooth Tiger open its bloody maw and leap toward him. His expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly dodged, only barely avoiding it.
How could this be?
Why had a third-grade Sabertooth Tiger suddenly appeared?
Song Chengning glared furiously and demanded of Shen Yuexi, “What are you doing?!”
Shen Yuexi curved her lips and stared straight at him, as aloof and coldly beautiful as a snow lotus atop the Tianshan Mountains. “Take a guess.”
“You think a single third-grade beast can kill me? Dream on!” Song Chengning roared. “All disciples, heed my order! Activate the mountain-protecting array!”
Spirit beasts were divided into spirit beasts, sacred beasts, innate sacred beasts, divine beasts, and so on. Spirit beasts ranged from first to ninth grade, while sacred beasts and those above them were divided into lower, middle, and upper tiers. A first-grade spirit beast was equivalent in strength to a Spirit Adept, a second-grade spirit beast was equivalent to a Spirit Warrior, and so on.
A third-grade Sabertooth Tiger was precisely equivalent to Song Chengning’s realm!
The disciples had long since been scared witless. Only after hearing his command did they return to their senses and gather to form the array.
Multiple streams of spiritual power converged into the mountain-protecting array, and it indeed blocked the third-grade Sabertooth Tiger firmly outside.