On the footage projected by the image-recording mirror.
The person who had been fleeing finally stopped.
They turned to face the enemies chasing them.
Several faces were displayed with perfect clarity before the crowd.
The most conspicuous among them were, naturally, the famously distinguished Second Master Li and his wife — of the Li Clan, one of the four great clans of the Dayan Imperial Dynasty.
The man wore white, every inch the gentle, radiant gentleman.
But in the footage.
The first words out of this well-reputed Second Master Li were spat in utter fury:
"Ning Hanyue. For the sake of our years as husband and wife —
cooperate with me and offer up the child in your womb for sacrificial refinement, and I can grant you a comfortable death."
At Second Master Li's side, likewise in a white dress, the gentle-as-water Madam Qingwu stroked her heavily swollen belly, her voice soft as silk:
"Sister Ning, it's not as if there's any love between you and my darling husband anyway — why insist on birthing this child at all?
If we're being truthful, it's you, Sister Ning, who owes me.
My husband and I loved each other for years, yet because you existed, we loved and could not be together.
And now the Ning family has made enemies and been wiped out. Perhaps that is simple karma — and simply your fate, Sister Ning.
Besides, the child in your belly carries my husband's blood.
Naturally he has the right to decide whether it lives or dies. Doesn't he?"
Most likely because the image-recording mirror had been carried on the person of this so-called "Sister Ning" —
she herself never appeared in the frame.
Only her voice carried out, despairing and burning with hatred:
"Li Su, this is your own flesh and blood... and you... you would refine her into a death-substitute puppet for that bastard child...
I will die before I let you use my daughter's life to complete that little bastard!"
The voice cut off.
What followed was the sight of Second Master Li and his wife going white-faced and stumbling backward in panic.
There, the footage ended abruptly.
But everything that needed conveying had been conveyed.
Second Master Li and Madam Qingwu had carried on in secret and conceived a child first —
then hounded his lawful first wife to her death, attempting to refine his own newborn's flesh and blood into a death-substitute puppet after.
And now, though that unbending first wife was gone —
her daughter, the child who had nearly been refined into a death-substitute puppet and had somehow survived anyway, had come back to avenge her mother...
Ning Ruan calmly withdrew the image-recording mirror she had watched countless times.
She looked around at the ring of stunned faces.
Then her lips curled as she turned to the Li girl opposite — eyes swimming with tears, nearly bleeding hatred — and threw out another dagger aimed straight at the heart:
"Actually, yesterday, your mother might not have had to die.
But at the very last moment, it was your father who snatched the defensive spirit artifact off her body.
Fascinating, isn't it."
Ning Ruan's voice wasn't loud.
But it was more than enough for every gawker in the vicinity to hear with perfect clarity.
"No... it can't be..."
Li Yu's delicate frame shook as she frantically shook her head:
"That's not what happened.
My father loved my mother more than anything. He would never do something like that.
Lies!
All of it, lies!"
Her head snapped up, scarlet eyes boring into Ning Ruan. "For insulting my parents — die!"
Her longsword whirled.
A cold gleam shot straight for Ning Ruan's heart.
Ning Ruan pressed her lips together and couldn't even be bothered to dodge.
Unhurried, she fished two black orbs out of the jade storage belt at her waist.
And pitched them at her opponent with impeccable aim.
BOOM!
Two utterly plain black balls without a ripple of spiritual energy about them — no one had paid them any mind.
Until the instant they touched the hem of Li Yu's robe and detonated.
Only then did the three accompanying direct disciples of the Crimson Heaven Sect blanch.
They lunged for Li Yu as one.
Too late.
Li Yu, who a breath ago had been all "kill" this and "die" that, now lay sprawled in a crater in front of Ning Ruan.
The crater: freshly blasted on-site.
The girl: knocked out cold on the spot.
"What... what was that thing? How is it that powerful?"
"I didn't believe a light-element spirit master could leave Second Master Li dead-and-crippled... but now, looking at this... it might actually be true..."
"Pah! Madam Qingwu, my foot. Refining an unborn child into a death-substitute puppet — that's the work of a demonic cultivator, nothing less."
"Exactly. The image-recording mirror doesn't lie. That woman deserved to die ages ago."
"..."
The moment Li Yu's eyes fluttered open, her ears were crammed full of the clamor of disgust.
Rage seized her heart. Her vision went black.
And she fainted dead away a second time.
Her Third Senior Brother clutched her tight, face dark as iron, and roared: "Silence, all of you!"
Whatever else, the prestige of a direct disciple still counted for something. The surroundings grudgingly quieted.
The Third Senior Brother swept a frigid glance over the testing elders, his tone cutting:
"Before even entering the sect, she has injured a direct disciple of our Suiyun Peak. This woman deserves death!
Whoever dares stand in my way makes an enemy of Suiyun Peak."
At that.
The testing elders opened their mouths, thought better of it, and finally sighed and stepped aside.
Ning Ruan stood ramrod straight, fingertips resting lightly on the jade storage belt at her waist, fully prepared for one grand demolition.
However.
At that precise moment.
A streak of red light dropped abruptly from the sky.
It landed with a wave of heat that rolled over every face.
On the receiving platform.
A woman in flaming red robes stood with a wine flask in hand, drunken languor written across a face of devastating allure:
"Interesting! Truly interesting!"
"A pack of sword cultivators, bullying one little light-element spirit master too weak to truss a chicken. What heroes you are.
Worthy disciples of Lu Xuanyuan indeed."
"Greetings, Peak Lord Liu!" The testing elders forced themselves forward to salute.
Still clutching Li Yu, the Third Senior Brother lowered his head coldly, his tone anything but respectful. "Does Peak Lord Liu mean to meddle in Suiyun Peak's affairs?"
Liu Yun's lips curved in a lazy smile as she tipped a mouthful of strong wine down her throat.
Her lovely eyes drifted downward:
"Meddle... that wouldn't really be proper, would it."
"So..."
Those wine-hazed eyes suddenly settled on Ning Ruan. "Little girl. Want a master?"
Ning Ruan blinked, then switched scripts without a moment's hesitation. "Master!"
Liu Yun nodded in satisfaction, smile rippling like light on water. "There. Now it doesn't count as meddling, does it?
My precious little disciple teaching a couple of sanctimonious curs a lesson — perfectly right and proper.
Of course, if you lot were thinking she's alone and easy pickings, then I don't mind doing a little bullying of my own."
The three direct disciples' faces darkened, grim as standing water.
The Third Senior Brother spoke first, eyes glinting cold: "Peak Lord Liu. This person injured our Little Sister. You truly mean to shield her?"
"Noisy!" Liu Yun raised her wine flask and flicked her sleeve.
The three direct disciples of the Crimson Heaven Sect — plus the unconscious Li Yu — were slapped away through the air as one.
Crushed under overwhelming spiritual pressure.
The three couldn't so much as twitch. All they could do was glare venom at Liu Yun.
"Lu Xuanyuan really is aging in reverse. All he collects is disciple trash.
Sword cultivators who can't even beat a light-element spirit master?
Might as well go chop vegetables in the Spirit Cuisine Garden."
Liu Yun clicked her tongue twice, her figure blurring.
In a blink she was at Ning Ruan's side.
Her wine-warmed voice rang once more across the entire testing plaza. "Come along, disciple. Suiyun Peak grows more trash than we could ever finish beating."
"Mm." Ning Ruan nodded, docile as a lamb.
Not a trace remained of the swaggering menace who'd just blown someone up.
She let her brand-new bargain of a master hoist her by the back of her collar.
And they streaked away at the speed of light.
Below.
The testing elders finally came back to their senses.
They looked at the Suiyun Peak disciples, still thrashing and cursing without the slightest hope of breaking the restraining seal.
Then at the red light dwindling into the distance.
And felt, to a man, that one head was suddenly two sizes too small.
Nothing about this day was okay anymore.
"Didn't Peak Lord Liu leave the sect a year ago? Why did she pick today of all days to come back?"
"Just hurry and report to the Sect Master. There's no smoothing today over."
"It... it can't be that serious, surely? Over a few disciples?"
"Those were direct disciples! And Peak Lord Lu of Suiyun Peak is due out of seclusion any day now. If he and Peak Lord Liu go head to head, something catastrophic is going to happen!"
"..."