Those who don't want to die, get out. Those who stay, fight me to the death

However...

Xiao Feng, who normally obeyed her every command, now seemed like an entirely different person.

She peeled the human-skin mask off her face, revealing beauty so flawless she hardly looked like a woman of the mortal world.

Especially after her earlier insight, she possessed an elegant, tranquil air that transcended worldly dust.

"So beautiful!"

Even these prodigies caught their breath at the sight of her face.

It wasn't just her appearance.

More importantly, her aura stood above the mortal world, even more transcendent than that of these Foundation Establishment prodigies.

But Xiao Feng herself couldn't sense any of this.

She gave a bitter smile.

"Immortal sister, I've known all along."

She sighed. "Actually, I could tell from the very first day you met me. Only you looked at me the way they looked at the young mistress.

I just grew more and more unwilling to believe it.

If I hadn't met immortal brother, I would have been happy, because my fate would have changed.

But now, I'd rather I wasn't..."

Gu Zang could finally be certain.

Everything he had done in Yongning Commandery had been an utter joke!

Not only had he invested so much, he had even been intimate with this mortal woman several times.

Bai Nishang was fairly attractive.

But that depended on whom she was being compared to.

If Gu Zang's looks scored ninety-six, Bai Nishang's would only score somewhere in the seventies.

The thought that the woman he had spent these past few days using his looks to please really was nothing more than a mortal made the killing intent in his eyes almost impossible to suppress.

"Darling Gu..." Bai Nishang couldn't see the murderous intent hidden beneath Gu Zang's hollow smile at all.

She even nestled into his arms of her own accord, clutching his robes.

"I'm the mortalized body! She's just a lowly maid! Something must be wrong!"

She couldn't accept that she wasn't the one.

She vented all her anxiety, frustration, and other negative emotions on Xiao Feng.

Pointing at her, she cursed.

"You little bitch! I told you to kill yourself, so why haven't you done it? You owe your life to the White Household! If we hadn't been willing to buy you, your parents would have sold you to a brothel long ago!"

In the past, Xiao Feng would have dropped to her knees the moment her mistress grew angry.

But Li Yang's actions and the spirit he had shown in battle had awakened her.

She wasn't anyone's appendage. She was Xiao Feng, and nothing more.

Yet that was precisely why she suffered.

Because she was merely some great figure's mortalized body, she could never step onto the path of cultivation-and that also meant she could never follow in immortal brother's footsteps.

"Immortal brother was right-you deserve to die!"

Xiao Feng's beautiful eyes were resolute, yet tinged with faint sorrow.

"For your own selfish desires, you leaked the bridal procession's route to villains and nearly got everyone killed. You're no different from those villains!"

"You dare speak to me like that?!" Bai Nishang's eyes widened.

But suddenly...

She began to suffocate.

The perfect man who had made her fall in love mercilessly clamped his hand around her neck.

"Dar... darling Gu..."

She struggled frantically, but those jade-like fingers were like iron pincers, squeezing her throat tighter and tighter.

"You really are ugly. Your heart is uglier still." Gu Zang shook his head.

Then he turned to Xiao Feng with a smile as gentle as a spring breeze.

"I've always thought you were far better than her, actually. But I was misled too. Otherwise, how could I have tolerated a bitch like her treating you so insolently?"

Yet Xiao Feng found that smile nauseating.

"You deserve to die too." Xiao Feng feared nothing now.

Facing these lofty immortals, she remembered the slap she had received in that silk shop.

But now, her tone remained utterly blunt.

"You cultivators on your lofty perches treat the lives of the weak like weeds, killing them at will or using them as resources for your cultivation.

No wonder immortal brother wants to kill you. If I had the strength, I'd kill you too!

Don't put on an act in front of me. You! And you, demon dragon! And every last one of you! How many disasters have you brought upon Yongning Commandery?

Only immortal brother cares about how we mortals feel. You only think of yourselves!

I'd rather die than submit to any of you!"

Gu Zang kept smiling, allowing the despairing Bai Nishang to flail her arms and legs against him.

Only now did she turn her gaze toward Li Yang, like someone drowning and clutching the last straw that could save her life.

"Save... save me... you're... my guard!"

But Li Yang couldn't even be bothered to glance at her.

A crack sounded beneath Gu Zang's hand.

The tender, godlike man who had been inseparable from Bai Nishang a moment ago took her life in an instant.

But she had no one else to blame. She had pushed herself into the pit of fire, step by step.

She had fallen for his beauty and loved a brightly colored venomous snake. She should have been prepared to be bitten to death.

The seeds she had sown in the Martial Arts Arena had finally borne their bitter fruit today.

In this contest between prodigies, the White Household and the Qiu Lineage had imagined they could profit.

Little did they know that, in the storm that had risen, they were mere ants that would be torn apart with a single tug.

"I won't spare you even in death!" Those were Bai Nishang's last words.

But Gu Zang's smile remained.

A pitch-black banner merely flew out of his purple mansion, releasing a streak of black light into her body that swept up her soul and extracted it.

"Aaaah!!!"

Agonized screams soon rang out from within the Soul Banner.

"You think death is the end?" Gu Zang chuckled.

He looked at Li Yang.

"I know who you are now. The Mystic Heaven Sword Sect has a Sword Peak, whose peak master is named Lu Feng. He has ten... now only nine disciples.

I've heard that, aside from his ninth disciple, the other eight all have impressive backgrounds.

I presume this female fellow cultivator is Lu Feng's third disciple-Ning Xinyao.

No wonder you knew all along that Bai Nishang wasn't the mortalized body and established a good relationship with this maid so early.

You're the true masters of manipulating hearts, seizing the initiative and making her trust you completely."

His words were meant to drive a wedge between Xiao Feng and Li Yang and Ning Xinyao.

But Li Yang didn't care at all.

He had only just confirmed it himself.

Before that, he had merely suspected.

Still, whether she was or wasn't made no difference.

First level of Foundation Establishment.

Li Yang had more or less finished consolidating his cultivation.

His foundation was incomparably solid.

Beneath his torn robes, his skin shone with the warm luster of jade. Every injury had healed.

The disguise mask on his face was damaged, so he simply tore it off.

He revealed a handsome, resolute face.

Compared with Gu Zang, he possessed less feminine softness and more martial killing intent-a righteousness so intense it bordered on the sinister.

"Now-those who don't want to die, get out! Those who stay will fight me to the death!"

His voice grew colder, like an asura from the nine nether depths.

Fine, blood-red threads spread outward, severing all the vegetation in the surrounding mountain forest.

This wasn't merely killing intent being released.

It was infused with Li Yang's sword intent, allowing him to kill enemies with his aura alone.

But at only the first level of Foundation Establishment, he could hardly frighten them.

"You've only just broken through to the first level of Foundation Establishment, and you dare act so arrogant? Who do you think you are?"

"Fellow sword cultivator, hand her over. Your Mystic Heaven Sword Sect is decent, but it still isn't qualified to compete with my Supreme Truth Jade Radiance Palace for her." The male cultivator smiled.

The golden dragon spoke in a human voice, gazing tenderly at Xiao Feng.

"I am of the pureblood dragon race, and you possess the phoenix nirvana immortal body. If we become Dao companions, where in the vast Nine Provinces could we not go?"

Seeing that no one took him seriously, Li Yang didn't care.

Quite the opposite.

This was exactly what he wanted.

He had already warned them. Now he could slaughter to his heart's content!

"Senior sister, give me a Second-Rank Spirit Sword."

Ning Xinyao nodded.

She took out a wooden box and peeled back a sealing talisman of an absurdly high grade, using her own blood essence to undo the seal.

A slender sword lay quietly inside, its grade impossible to discern.

But instead of giving it to Li Yang, she handed it to Xiao Feng.

"Didn't you say you wanted to follow in immortal brother's footsteps? Now you have that chance."

Xiao Feng froze, then raised her hand and grasped the hilt. It felt as though she held nothing at all.

But the instant she gripped it, Li Yang, as a sword cultivator, immediately realized that this sword was extraordinary.

It had a spirit!

Not the spirituality of a spirit artifact, but sword intent of an exceedingly high realm!

A sword spirit!