Choice

Their eyes met. Fang Huai yawned and closed his eyes again.

"Got up too fast, can't keep my eyes open. I think I'll just go back to sleep and pick up where that good dream left off."

By now, Jiang Miao had shed all pretense of delicate charm. Her gaze was vicious. "Once a good dream is broken, there's no point continuing it. I saw you were awake long ago, so stop pretending. Tell me, why were you staring at me without stopping?"

Fang Huai still tried to cover it up. "The night is deep, miss. You should get some rest."

Losing a bit of blood and Qi was nothing. Wasn't the cultivation of Corpse Sha Sect disciples all about you sucking me, me sucking you?

This wasn't his first time experiencing this. After all, in Corpse Sha Sect, whoever had the bigger fist made the rules.

Today, Jiang Miao had the right of it.

As for sending the Little Corpse Meteor Insects to attack Jiang Miao?

Forget it. He wanted to live a few more days.

Fang Huai had once wondered: in Corpse Sha Sect, those who hadn't entered Qi Refining relied on plundering to temper their bodies; low-level Qi Refiners relied on seizing blood and Qi to temper theirs. So how did high-level Qi Refiners temper their bodies?

Now, he understood clearly. This Corpse Sha Sect was a sect that treated human life like grass. The disciples within had no humanity, and the high-level disciples were even more bloodthirsty.

Having stumbled upon Jiang Miao's cultivation method like this, he could only play dumb and pretend not to understand.

Jiang Miao's eyes flickered. She let out a sudden laugh. "Interesting. But also boring."

The act she and Jiang Jing had put on—partly for fun, partly because the Human Puppet Hall was a mixed bag where she could secretly plunder some blood and Qi—was no longer necessary now that Fang Huai had seen through it.

Jiang Miao's Sha Qi surged around her. Her bones creaked and cracked. The iron chains on her body corroded and snapped.

She stretched lazily and walked slowly toward Fang Huai.

Fang Huai's hairs stood on end. He swallowed hard, a powerful sense of death welling up in his heart.

Jiang Miao's fingernails traced deep, bone-deep wounds across Fang Huai's chest. Her alluring body was only inches from his. She smiled lightly.

"Junior Brother, you really are beautiful."

Fang Huai's whole body was tense. His back was already soaked with cold sweat.

He knew it all too well. Beneath that soft, seductive skin was a cruelty more bloodthirsty than any Demonic Beast.

The next second, Jiang Miao's smile vanished. Her five fingers suddenly tightened, plunging into Fang Huai's chest.

The sound of bones cracking mixed with flesh tearing, grinding and squelching.

Blood trickled from the corner of Fang Huai's mouth. He stared straight at Jiang Miao. "Senior Sister, if you kill me, I'll make sure you pay the price even if it costs me my life!"

With no saving grace to call on, Fang Huai could only mobilize the Little Corpse Meteor Insects, ready to fight Jiang Miao to the death.

"That's the funniest joke I've ever heard!" Jiang Miao laughed as if she'd heard something utterly ridiculous, unable to close her mouth.

She pulled her hand out of Fang Huai's chest and said softly, "First Layer of Qi Refining, yet unaffected by the Bewildering Sha. You must have a special spiritual physique. Corpse Sha Sect needs talents like you. You're too interesting. I like interesting people."

Fang Huai stared straight at Jiang Miao, secretly accelerating the flow of blood out of his body.

For now, he could only activate a self-damage mode. Once she made her next move, he would instantly swap the negative tags over to her and have the Little Corpse Meteor Insects strike.

"Relax. It's not like I'm going to eat you."

Jiang Miao's fingers traced the chains on Fang Huai's body, and the chains snapped. "Looking at you, so green and inexperienced—you must be from a mortal town, right? I hear the secular world values feelings most, everyone spouting benevolence and righteousness. How about I give you a chance to be a saint? In the main hall, there are over a hundred New Human Puppets. These ones are less damaged—save them and they'll live. The remaining four hundred Human Puppets are severely damaged, on the verge of death, but if you rescue them, they might live a few more days. Do you choose to save a hundred, or four hundred?"

Fang Huai frowned. "Miss, please don't toy with me. How could I possibly control their life and death?"

Jiang Miao pressed the tip of her nose against Fang Huai's forehead and bit down on his earlobe. "Right now, I'm giving you the power to control their life and death. But you only have ten breaths to choose."

Their eyes locked. In Jiang Miao's gaze, Fang Huai saw a contempt for life. He believed she would really kill them all.

"Three... two... one..."

"I'll save the hundred healthy ones." At the last moment of Jiang Miao's countdown, Fang Huai made his choice.

Without backing or medical care, those four hundred were already crippled. They wouldn't last a few days for sure.

But the hundred healthy ones could enter Servant Valley to gather Sha. Maybe they still had a chance to live.

"Good!"

Jiang Miao's eyes turned bloodshot. She activated the Body Forging Technique at full power to plunder. Over four hundred lives were extinguished in a dozen breaths.

She seemed unable to digest so much blood and Qi. Her body swelled red, like a ripe apple.

"Junior Brother, these four hundred died because of you, you know."

Fang Huai's fists were clenched tight. He bit his lip until it bled. "Please, miss, keep your promise and release the remaining hundred."

"Good!"

Jiang Miao's fingernails sliced through the skin at her waist, pulling a storage pouch from the flesh. With a light tap, a spirit sword materialized in her hand.

The spirit sword swung, Sword Qi spilling in all directions, severing the chains binding the crowd of human puppets.

The freed human puppets wept with gratitude, kneeling and kowtowing endlessly to the two of them.

Fang Huai looked toward Jiang Miao, only to see the corners of her mouth curl upward. A bad feeling instantly arose in his heart.

"Fairy, don't—!"

Before he could finish, Jiang Miao swung her spirit sword again. Over a hundred flashes of sword light streaked past, and all the human puppets who had been bowing in thanks were separated from their heads.

"You!" Fang Huai's pupils contracted sharply.

"Interesting, interesting!"

Jiang Miao laughed without closing her mouth: "I kept my promise. I freed them—freed their souls to reincarnate."

Fang Huai said angrily, "How can you treat human life so lightly?"

But Jiang Miao leaned in again: "Fang Huai, once you set foot on the path of cultivation, don't harbor any compassion. You and I are the same kind of people; sooner or later, you'll be crueler than me.

Now, let me take you to change into a clean set of clothes."

With such a commotion, Li and Hu should have appeared by all rights. In fact, the two had indeed heard the sounds from the Human Puppet Hall.

But at that moment, they had just lit the Blood Jade Leaf and had no mind to bother with matters in the Human Puppet Hall.

The Blood Jade Leaf had hallucinogenic effects, but it could also truly stabilize the Dao heart, expel Sha Poison and resentment, and help cultivators break through bottlenecks.

However, the Ascension Society strictly forbade members from leaking the existence of the Blood Jade Leaf, so the two had to use it carefully.

"Junior Brother Hu, the Human Puppet Hall is making quite a racket. Should we go take a look?"

"Senior Brother Li, don't panic. It's probably some senior brothers or sisters having fun in there. Let's avoid trouble; when that person comes out, we'll just demand more compensation."

As the two were speaking, the door was shattered by Sword Qi. Jiang Miao, dressed in a white gown, strode in, followed by a grim-faced Fang Huai.

"May I ask which senior sister has graced us with her presence? What instructions do you have?"

Though their door had been destroyed, the two didn't dare to flare up and instead bowed in greeting.

"Senior sister?"

Li San, seeing Jiang Miao silent, looked up and felt an indescribable familiarity with the woman in white before him.

"I am Jiang Miao." Jiang Miao said with a fierce grin. "You two junior brothers have such poor memories. You just tied me to a Bronze Pillar, and now you don't recognize me?"

Jiang Miao? Jiang Jing?

The sect leader's lineage!

We're done for!

"Fairy Jiang!" The two were terrified and quickly knelt, kowtowing like pounding garlic.

Seeing the two kowtow until blood streamed down, Jiang Miao covered her mouth and snickered:

"You asked why I came? I'm here on behalf of Senior Sister Jiang Jing to take your heads and kick them around like balls."