None of My Concern

Half a month later.

Three figures made their way along a mountain path.

Their pace was not fast. It was downright slow.

But Yang Wuzheng and Yan Wushuang were in no hurry. Instead, they leisurely admired the scenery around them.

Every so often, their gazes drifted toward the quiet girl.

And lingered, unwilling to leave.

The girl kept her head lowered, her eyes bright and clear as she studied the book in her hands with utmost seriousness.

Her brows sometimes knitted and sometimes relaxed, as though she had grasped something.

Occasionally, a mountain breeze swept past, sending her lovely hair fluttering.

Then she would raise a hand and smooth the strands before her eyes with her fair fingers.

Quiet and graceful.

She was like an immortal maiden in a painting, serene and untouched by worldly cares.

With her beside them, they felt no boredom at all, however slowly they walked.

They even enjoyed it.

"Clop, clop, clop..."

Suddenly, the thunder of hoofbeats came from the distance.

The girl reading her book instinctively raised her head to look.

When she saw wisps of cooking smoke rising among the distant mountains, her expression instantly grew tense.

Yang Wuzheng and Yan Wushuang frowned as well.

Ordinarily, no one ever came to mountain villages like these.

Even if someone did, they would be hunters from other villages who had wandered in by mistake. They certainly would not be riding horses.

That left only one possibility: mounted bandits.

They were a vicious lot who did no work themselves, surviving entirely through violence, burning, killing, plundering, and committing every evil imaginable.

The two exchanged a glance and were about to speak, only to discover that the girl beside them had already swept away like a gust of wind.

Small footprints remained in the rocks beneath her feet.

Where she had stood, only a faint afterimage remained.

"That strength!"

The sight startled them both. Was this really the girl with the Waste Body?

Her strength was probably greater than that of an ordinary cultivator who had just opened their Bitter Sea.

Yet her blood and vital energy were not powerful. She still seemed as frail as any ordinary girl.

They could not imagine how such a delicate girl could unleash strength like that!

Was it from eating?

The image of her devouring raw meat surfaced in both their minds, stirring an inexplicable pang of tenderness.

The longer they spent with her, the stronger that feeling became.

It weighed on their hearts every moment.

Watching that delicate figure disappear, they exchanged a glance and hesitated no longer, hurrying after her.

In moments, they reached the mountain village.

It was not large, with perhaps a hundred households.

But a band of mounted bandits had charged inside, wielding swords and sabers, their faces ferocious.

The entire village erupted into chaos, cries of alarm and shouting rising everywhere.

"Kill all the adults. The children have no aptitude, so we can't trade them for anything. Don't leave them alive either. We don't have enough food to feed a pack of enemies."

The leader spoke, his eyes sweeping across the village and examining the children one by one.

Finally, he shook his head in disappointment.

Amid the villagers' screams, a petite figure suddenly darted forward.

A gleaming dagger rested in her hand.

The next instant, the dagger flashed coldly and plunged into a bandit's chest.

"Shhk..."

Blood spurted out.

Yet the figure made no attempt to dodge it. Without holding back, she stabbed him again.

Then her feet struck the ground, and her figure flashed to another bandit's side. The bloodstained dagger in her hand thrust out without hesitation.

Two stabs in succession, both straight into his chest.

Only then did everyone realize that the figure was a girl.

Her white clothes were spotless, but her face was icy and flecked with blood. A savage light shone in her eyes as she charged at the next man without the slightest hesitation.

"You dare!"

At the sight, the bandit leader roared. Divine radiance flashed before him, and a burst of Divine Power erupted.

That Divine Power shot straight toward the girl like a flying sword forged from divine iron.

Rather than retreating, she advanced, leaping high while still far away in an attempt to evade it.

But under the bandit's control, the Divine Power turned in midair and sliced across her waist by the narrowest of margins.

Blood instantly stained her white robes red.

Yet her expression did not change at all. Her eyes remained fierce as she crossed dozens of meters in a flash.

She tackled the bandit leader straight off his horse.

The cold gleam in her hand plunged viciously downward.

"Shhk..."

Eighteen stabs in succession, every one into his chest. Only when the bandit leader had stopped breathing did she stop.

The sight stunned Yang Wuzheng and Yan Wushuang alike.

She was utterly ruthless.

Compared to the girl who had quietly read beside them, graceful as a painting, she seemed almost like another person.

Two entirely different people.

It was as though two souls lived within her delicate body.

Even they could not help being shaken.

The villagers and the thirty-four remaining bandits were likewise frozen in shock.

"Thud!"

Seeing the girl rise from the bandit's body, stained with blood, the remaining bandits were frightened out of their wits and dropped to their knees.

"Spare us!"

All the bandits shouted and kowtowed, their voices terrified and pitiful.

Their leader had been an immortal, possessed of immense strength and immortal arts, his might astonishing. Yet he had been killed in an instant.

How could they still dare to resist?

But the girl's gaze remained savage. Without the slightest hesitation, she gripped her dagger and walked toward the next man.

"Spare me!"

The man cried out, but the next instant, blood spurted from his chest.

At that sight, all the bandits scattered. Even the villagers instinctively huddled together, staring at the girl in terror.

Her expression was cold and indifferent. With a light step of one foot, she became an afterimage once more.

Only agonized screams and desperate pleas for mercy remained, mingled with the faint sounds of a blade piercing flesh.

In mere moments, all forty-three bandits had been killed, one after another.

Every bandit had at least two stab wounds in his chest.

Blood dyed the earth red.

The stench of blood drifted on the wind.

Only after confirming that not a single bandit remained alive did the girl stop, a trace of joy in her eyes.

But when she turned and saw that those villagers were not her grandpa or the children who had once gathered around her, her eyes dimmed slightly.

Yes, Grandpa Shi was already dead.

Those children who had once grinned foolishly as they gave her meat were dead too.

She had not saved them.

She had even buried them with her own hands.

Still, when she thought of how this village would not suffer the same fate as Stone Village, a faint smile appeared on her face.

She stepped toward the villagers.

Perhaps because of Grandpa Shi and those simplehearted children, she felt an inexplicable fondness for this mountain village.

"Rustle, rustle..."

Watching the beautiful girl, as savage as a demon, approach with a smile still on her face, the villagers all backed away, their expressions utterly terrified.

At that sight, the girl stopped in her tracks, a flicker of sadness passing through her eyes.

She tightened her grip on the dagger, turned, and headed straight toward the village entrance.

Only then did Yang Wuzheng and Yan Wushuang recover from what they had just witnessed.

They stared at the girl in shock.

It seemed as though two souls lived inside her, one savage and one quiet.

But recalling that everyone she had just killed was a bandit, along with the enormous burial mound outside that mountain village back then, they instantly understood.

The girl's savagery was directed at evil.

She had done it to save those villagers.

Precisely because she had experienced that anguish herself, she wanted to protect everything with her fierce hatred.

This was, in truth, a kindness beyond words: becoming a demon to protect everything she cared about.

Yet those villagers truly feared her as though she were a demon.

Seeing the trace of sadness in her eyes, Yan Wushuang hurriedly said, "You did nothing wrong."

"They... they..."

Yan Wushuang began, but for a moment, he could not find a gentle way to explain the villagers' fear without hurting her at all.

Even Yang Wuzheng, standing beside him, frowned slightly.

A trace of sadness touched his heart as well.

She clearly saved you, yet you fear her.

It was just like the people he had once helped. Though those villagers had been grateful and kowtowed to him,

their eyes had held that same fear.

Li Qingyue raised her head, looked at Yang Wuzheng and Yan Wushuang, and suddenly smiled.

"I'm fine. I just remembered Grandpa from Stone Village, the uncles and aunties, and Stone Monkey, Little Chubby, Er Ya, and the others."

Seeing her smile, and the trace of self-mockery hidden within it, both felt a slight ache in their hearts.

It was hard to imagine how the girl could still speak with a smile at a moment like this.

But they knew that this was her way of expressing goodwill.

"They're just afraid!" Yang Wuzheng said calmly. Hearing him, Yan Wushuang hurriedly shot him a meaningful look.

He had wanted to say that himself just now, but how cruel those words would be to a girl who had saved others, only to be feared by them.

Yet Yang Wuzheng ignored Yan Wushuang's look.

The girl before them had always been strong.

Strong enough to fear no injury, just like the wound at her waist, which she had not glanced at even once from beginning to end.

Li Qingyue's eyes were bright and clear as she smiled. "It doesn't matter. I'm only doing what I want to do."

As she spoke, her smile faded little by little, and her voice grew steadily colder and more indifferent.

"What anyone else thinks is none of my concern!"

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Otherwise, Yueyue will come looking for you with a dagger (fierce.jpg).