Humiliation

(Wangyou)

A winged girl floated high in the sky, then roared, "Which bastard stole my cub?" Everyone present couldn't help breaking into a cold sweat.

"Who was it? Who, exactly? Come out and show yourself, right now! Don't hide like a coward!" Ignoring what everyone thought, the girl swept her gaze over the crowd below and shouted again.

The crowd broke into another cold sweat. That little girl was terrifyingly fierce.

"Nobody move! If anyone dares, I'll kill them. That guy's definitely still here—he couldn't have gotten far. You, search! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find that bastard!" The two Poxue Realm experts from the Huang Family and the Jiang Family were so furious they were practically fuming. They had guarded the cub for so long and driven off several people who'd tried to snatch it, only to end up doing all that work for someone else. They still couldn't figure out what that sudden yellow paper was or where it had come from. But they knew it had to be the work of a person.

The snakes had started retreating as soon as the girl stopped playing the snake-summoning tune. Now, with more than two thousand people gathered there, not a single person dared move. But they searched all around with their eyes, hoping to spot whoever had managed to take the tiger cub under such circumstances.

After signaling the Huang Family members to carefully search for anything out of the ordinary, the two Poxue Realm experts turned their attention to the girl. A flicker of surprise crossed both their eyes—not because of the girl herself, but because of the pair of wings on her back.

Only Poxue Realm experts could fly through the air, yet the girl's cultivation was merely at the Pi-Hai Realm. Her ability to fly obviously came entirely from the wings on her back. They weren't part of her body; they were a kind of artifact.

Artifacts were items crafted by the artifact refiners of the Lianyue Continent, much like the pills made by Alchemists. They had all sorts of uses. Depending on their strength, artifacts on the Lianyue Continent were divided into six tiers: Mortal Artifacts, Refined Artifacts, Treasure Artifacts, Dharma Artifacts, Spirit Artifacts, and Divine Artifacts. Each tier was further divided into three grades.

Mortal Artifacts were the most ordinary and weakest. They were barely stronger than weapons made of ordinary steel, and at most, they contained ten runes inscribed by an artifact refiner to increase their power. Most people present used Mortal Artifacts.

Refined Artifacts contained at least twenty runes and at most a hundred. In other words, even the weakest Refined Artifact was twice as powerful as the strongest Mortal Artifact, while the strongest could be ten times as powerful. The weakest Refined Artifact could easily destroy the strongest Mortal Artifact. That was why the Huang Family guard had dared to rely on his Refined Artifact-grade sword to clash head-on with the spear in Chu Xiaotian's hand, which looked like a mere Mortal Artifact. Of course, the truth had proved that Chu Xiaotian's spear was no Mortal Artifact.

Treasure Artifacts contained at least two hundred runes and at most a thousand. Across the entire Lianyue Continent, such items were already scarce. They were always expensive, and sometimes money alone couldn't buy one. Of everyone present, only the two Poxue Realm experts from the Huang Family and the Jiang Family each possessed one—the lowest-grade Treasure Artifact. No one else could hope to own one.

The higher tiers followed the same pattern: the weakest low-grade artifact was far inferior to the weakest high-grade artifact. Their prices rose by geometric leaps as well. Divine Artifacts, the mightiest of all, were especially rare. As far as the world knew, each of the five empires on the Lianyue Continent possessed just one, a national treasure. Elsewhere, no one had even heard of such things.

The two men couldn't tell exactly what tier the wings on the girl's back belonged to, but they were at least high-grade Treasure Artifacts. They might even be Dharma Artifacts or something higher. Before this, they'd only ever glimpsed such things from a distance. Owning one was almost impossible; only people from the truly great families could possess them. Yet now, one had appeared right before their eyes, on a little girl at the Pi-Hai Realm. The two men couldn't suppress the greed stirring in their hearts.

They exchanged a glance, and the corners of both their mouths curled into smiles. The Poxue Realm expert from the Huang Family suddenly pointed at the girl in the air and shouted, "Witch, quit your act! Hand over the Spirit Beast cub you've hidden, and we might still let you off!"

"Little witch, don't think we don't know you summoned those poisonous snakes just now. So many people died—don't you owe us an explanation?" The Jiang Family expert spoke with a sneer. More than a hundred people had died in the snake attack, and over a dozen had been forced to cut off their own hands or feet. If they truly held the girl responsible, she'd deserve to die a hundred times over. The Jiang Family expert was only trying to slap a righteous label on himself, giving them an excuse to attack.

Sure enough, the crowd's expressions shifted slightly at his words. They looked at the girl with a trace of hatred, and a hint of fear hidden beneath it. They weren't fools. Hearing the Jiang Family expert's accusation and recalling what the girl had done, it was easy to guess that she really had summoned the snakes. This stunning girl had killed more than a hundred people without batting an eye. That was a heart as cruel as they came.

"Hmph. If you're too weak, don't come looking for trouble. Those lechers got what they deserved. You two old fools—don't think I don't know what you're after. If you want my Flying Wings, you can just try to take them. I won't call you shameless. And if you're going to make excuses, at least come up with better ones. If I had the Spirit Beast cub, do you think I'd still be standing here wasting my breath? If I wanted to leave, could the two of you stop me? I'm looking for the cub too, so don't get in my way. Otherwise, I won't hesitate to turn your families into snake nests." The girl merely gave the crowd a cold smile, completely unbothered by their reaction. Then she taunted the two Poxue Realm experts.

Without waiting for their response, she beat her wings and started to fly away, searching for the Spirit Beast cub.

The two Poxue Realm experts looked livid. Even with their thick skins, being exposed by a little girl was hard to take. She was right: if she wanted to leave, the two of them really couldn't stop her. But her last threat had enraged them. It was a brazen threat. If they didn't respond, they'd never be able to hold their heads up in Yufeng Prefecture again.

They exchanged a glance, a flash in their eyes, then shot into the sky together. One appeared on either side of the girl, and both swung their weapons down at once. Two streams of Sword Qi burst from their weapons and slashed toward her.

The crowd below was startled, then a trace of contempt crossed their faces. Both men were Poxue Realm experts, yet they'd teamed up to attack a little girl at the Pi-Hai Realm as if they were launching a sneak attack. It was simply too shameless. Even though the girl had caused the deaths of more than a hundred of them, they still couldn't help worrying about her. That was one of the advantages women had: no matter what they did wrong, men would always find some way to excuse them.

Even the many young members of the Huang Family felt embarrassed by the actions of their own family's old patriarch. At the same time, they sighed inwardly that he had no idea how to show tenderness toward a woman. How could he bring himself to attack such a delicate girl?

"Hmph, you two shameless old bastards. I knew you'd try this!" The two Poxue Realm experts failed to injure the girl. Before their attacks could land, she beat her wings once and vanished beneath their Sword Qi. Then she appeared above their heads, pointing at them and cursing. Both old men's faces flushed. Sneaking up on a little girl at their age was bad enough, but failing at it too? They'd truly lost face.

After cursing them, the girl spread her wings and flew off into the distance. The two men remained suspended in the air, unsure whether to chase her. Their cultivation let them stand proudly in the sky, but with a pair of wings, she could stay up there even longer than they could. They couldn't remain in the air for long and would certainly be outlasted. If they failed to catch her and then got ambushed in return, they might as well kill themselves. Besides, they still had to search for the Spirit Beast cub.

The two gave up the chase and reluctantly returned to the ground, using their spiritual power to search for anything unusual in hopes of finding traces of the Spirit Beast cub. The girl saw that they weren't pursuing her, but she didn't leave either. She continued circling through the sky, searching for any clue that might lead her to the Purple Flame Tiger cub.

While everyone continued searching high and low, Chu Xiaotian, the one who'd actually gotten away with the Spirit Beast cub, had already reached the edge of the forest. He'd used an Invisibility Talisman together with a Godly Speed Talisman to steal the cub so quietly that no one had noticed. After taking it, he'd raced out along a route he'd chosen in advance. At the time, the others hadn't even realized what had happened. By the time the Huang Family began searching, he'd already been gone for quite a while.

He glanced at the people still searching the valley, then looked at the girl circling overhead and smiled faintly. Turning around, he plunged into the forest. Stealing something from a girl gave Chu Xiaotian a twinge of guilt. But when he remembered how she'd killed a whole crowd without a sound, clearly a demon through and through, that guilt eased a little.

The Godly Form Talisman could last a long time, but even all eight Invisibility Talismans together could keep him and the little tiger cub in his arms invisible for only four minutes. He'd spent one minute stealing the cub and escaping, leaving him three minutes. That wasn't enough time to get out of the forest, but the farther he ran, the better his chances of avoiding detection. So he didn't bother wondering what might happen behind him. As soon as he plunged into the trees, he ran at full speed. (Wangyou)