"Very." The house-pet-sized azure-scaled, one-horned dragon growled softly. Hearing that comment, the young woman elected to give a pleased smile and reward the dragon with a series of gentle head rubs that caused it to almost purr, completely unlike an illustrious and tyrannical member of the dragon race.
The young woman, whose hazel eyes were decorated with glistening blue flecks observed the duo's illicit acts, was none other than the Dragonborn Saintess, the sole official concubine of Wei Wuyin, the Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn and Worldly Alchemic Saint, Xue Yifei!
She could barely hide her revulsion for the pair; however, within those same eyes was also the emotional light of pity and exasperation. Her pupils reflected the image of a desiccated corpse whose arms hung to its side, a lingering smile on its face.
Seeing how that corpse was facing those two undergoing a ravenous indulgence of each other's bodies left her revulsion to transform into a type of extreme feeling that left her on the verge of complete and total eruption. An unbearably icy, violently demonic light flashed across her pupils.
Earlier, she had been quietly trekking across the vast lands in search of certain opportunities, scouring for a fragment, when she felt the urge to execute a unique visual obfuscation-removal spell that could peer into the folds of the three spatial dimensions and environmental integration spells. She oddly enough found an individual blasting through fixed space while concealed, traversing expediently somewhere.
Xue Yifei had felt that the rushing attempt wasn't an act of running away but to give chase. However, it was odd to chase someone while exhausting mystic energy to conceal one's movements. If not for the act of moving space, she wouldn't have sensed a Mystic Ascendant normally. Curiosity acquired, she followed along.
Then, she bore witness to everything.
While Xue Yifei didn't know the full story, she had heard the final words of the corpse and the extreme amounts of emotional love he felt within every syllable. A few things were cleared up after the illicit duo exchanged a few words, clarifying the relationship instantly, allowing her to properly understand that the one named Qian Yingjie had exhausted his cultivation and life to secure the woman named Zhou Meilin's life.
It was difficult for anyone to not feel enraged by what she witnessed. Very, very difficult. Xue Yifei wasn't ignorant of the cruelty of the world or the feeling of being subjected to an unrequited love by someone else. She knew how intrusive and unfair it could be to pour your feelings into someone and expect reciprocation that could satisfy you without their consideration. She had been the very target of such affection and intentions once before, forced by circumstances.
But while it was fine not to fully reciprocate, the fact that this woman had taken his sacrifice and replied with indifference and disrespect greatly exceeded what her heart could accept.
"..." Xue Yifei thought for a moment.
"Aaaargh!" A deeply pained, thunderous bellow of a roar shook the sky, ground, and stirred the winds from afar. Xue Yifei's robes fluttered from the winds. She eyed the faint earthen-yellow barrier, seeing it entirely undisturbed despite the ruckus. As she considered how to handle this with the least amount of effort or expended energy, the clash not too far away was approaching its inevitable end.
She softly sighed.
"Don't let him leave easily," Xue Yifei said quietly. The small-sized azure-scaled dragon grinned as the little fellow slithered out of her arms, jumping into the air. As if entering a watery pond, the dragon entered fixed space and vanished with a faint plop. Then, Xue Yifei turned her gaze toward the earthen-yellow barrier fueled by the last will of Qian Yingjie, the current site of an affair of the highest disrespect.
With a single step forward, as if the ground itself shifted under her command, she arrived before the barrier. Her arrival couldn't be hidden from the two Chosen. Their huffs and giggles came to an abrupt end.
Xue Yifei touched her wrist. A translucent bracelet shimmered into existence as if forged from crystals of the Void. She lightly rubbed it with index and middle fingers, producing a faint light-grayish light that seeped into the surroundings. The surrounding three spatial dimensions were sealed off.
"How apt? After your disrespect, the safest place for you will become your grave." Her words were light and airy yet there was an underlying rage that was volcanic, threatening to spew over and overtake the world. Xue Yifei's pupils became a deep, enchanting violet, exuding a demonic presence that could stifle souls and overturn the heavens.
Xue Yifei directly waltzed inside the earthen-yellow barrier, seemingly unaffected by its warding powers.
"Who are you?!" Within the mist, a glacial voice resounded with vigilance and anger.
"A passerby." That was the only response. Xue Yifei walked right into the mist without the slightest hesitation. A surge of Mystic Aura and Mystic Power raged like thunder for a brief moment, but that activity quickly began to whittle down in intensity by the passing breath.
"STOP!" A heart-pounding cry of Zhou Meilin resounded, followed by a bloody crunch and a soul-shaking shriek. "AHHHHHH!!!"
"Die!" A series of faint runic outlines surfaced in the mist, but they were quickly tainted with violet light, twisted by a mixture of bright and dark light. They were snuffed out in a single breath. "WHAT?!" The bewilderment was followed by a crisp snapping of bone and rupture of blood.
The earthen-yellow barrier was painted in a splash of blood. But it didn't end. The screams and shouts foretold horrors that were capable of causing the most experienced interrogators to quiver in their boots. The sounds were gruesome. The sounds were desperate. The sounds never ceased.
The earthen-yellow barrier quivered, as if it was the last remnants of Qian Yingjie's existence and will, growing smoother and stronger as it witnessed the unfolding events within itself. The splashes of blood kept occurring, dripping down.
Drop by drop.
The mist turned violet with a bloody tint. Shockingly, it grew thicker and thicker until it covered everything within the barrier.
BOOM!
A bloodied face with overflowing tears slammed against the earthen barrier. The barrier began to violently react, rapidly infusing the face with deterring light, causing the face to swell as its latent power invaded every pore it could. The head ballooned to comical levels, growing around thrice in size until it was unrecognizable.
PSSSH!!
The head exploded in a mass of mangled bone and flesh! The earthen barrier had acted in accordance with its last will to protect against everyone except Zhou Meilin. That head belonged to...Liu Zhiyuan!
His corpse slid across the barrier as a faint thrum exuded from the barrier itself, as if happily cheering its success. If one listened very closely, one might also hear the faint sounds of glorious laughter.
"Wh...y?" A weak voice filled with pain, grievance, and unwillingness echoed out. It belonged to Zhou Meilin. The hint of begging on her lips was heart-stirring, no longer cold or indifferent sounding. At the twilight of life and death, all of those things were swept away.
"Why? What an odd question." A throat-wrenching crunch of bone and flesh resounded. Xue Yifei's voice was light and utterly serene, as if she was far removed from the entire situation. "This is a competition; I can throw out so many reasons, all justifying myself perfectly, but why go that far? The truth is: because you're repugnant, and I felt like it."
Those words were so casually uttered that it felt as if it was said during a normal conversation between strangers.
Xue Yifei didn't care about Qian Yingjie personally. She wasn't so selfish that she would easily act to save others or exact revenge for them. She had taken over entire planets, ruined families, slaughtered her enemies mercilessly, and by no means was a saint; the Dragonborn Saintess was a title born from blood, battles, and death.
However, she, too, possessed a Heart of Cultivation that was reinforced by her desires and will. If she cultivated so fiercely to obtain the right to determine her fate and was unable to assuage her dissatisfaction with that strength, what was the point of cultivating?
She found them unseemly. She wanted to see them suffer.
So she did.
It was that simple.
It never had to be any more complex than that. Did they consider the why when they killed others? While Xue Yifei was aware of it, Qian Yingjie and Zhou Meilin had ruined four lives just a few minutes earlier. The sheer audacity to ask why was beyond understanding.
What a hypocrite.
The mist began to clear as Xue Yifei's figure became visible. Her robes were unstained yet her surroundings had gushes and pools of blood. Her expression contained a hint of a satisfied smile. Beneath her feet, however, was a gruesomely horrific sight of a headless corpse with more broken bones than the number of days in a year, twisted and contorted in a violent, brutal fashion.
There was also a half-nude woman whose neck was twisted a full one-eighty degrees, her eyes wide and filled with grievance. Beside them was a similarly unstained corpse, desiccated and smiling. But that smile...
Felt a little wider than before.
Xue Yifei gave Qian Yingjie's corpse one last glance. Her eyes widened slightly as the barrier began to fade away, seemingly allowing her to freely leave. She heaved a soft, heartfelt sigh, ready to leave when a voice echoed in her head.
"Disrespecting the last goodwill of a valiant sacrifice is unforgivable, but acting to rectify such a grievance should not go unrewarded; while the heavens may turn a blind eye, I will not." An androgynous voice filled with majesty and presence resounded in Xue Yifei's spirit as her hazel eyes shone brightly.
She almost thought Wei Wuyin was speaking to her for a moment. In a flourish of light before her, an ancient bronze compass covered in signs of rust and age emerged from space. Xue Yifei's brows furrowed slightly as she looked about curiously.
"Take it."
Xue Yifei might not have recognized the first voice, but she easily knew who the second voice belonged to! Wei Wuyin! She reached out to grab the palm-sized compass. As the rusted surface touched her fingers, information poured into her Spirit and transmitted into her mind as if she were reading a Spiritual Jade.
"..."
Her heart shook. Is this...?
Wei Wuyin was observing all of this and couldn't resist the urge to smile. "It seems the other Overseer from the World Beyond's side experienced a tragic past."
"Or is just and morally righteous." Wen Mingna chimed in with her eyes tightly closed while maintaining a meditative sitting position. She diverted less than three percent of her attention outward, fully entrusting her body to Wei Wuyin within this container. Despite that, one could tell from her faint smile that she didn't believe her words in the slightest.
Wei Wuyin's smile grew larger. "Fortune can come in many forms. Not everything has to be the result of the Heavenly Daos." He hadn't expected that Xue Yifei's actions would generate such a response.
As if predicting what Wei Wuyin was going to say, Wen Mingna preemptively answered: "I didn't see any fortune or orchestrate any interaction, only nudged her attention a little. What happened after were things I couldn't foresee."
Wei Wuyin knew Wen Mingna wouldn't lie to him, and she didn't have enough time to properly orchestrate everything precisely, especially while greatly distracted with her cultivation. This was a natural-born fortuitous encounter by the Overseer's will to reward and Xue Yifei's will to act.
A wisp of pride suffused his heart.
"But my actions have led to this," Wen Mingna suddenly said as her expression grew somewhat dark. Her meddling had caused this...
Xue Yifei kept the ancient bronze compass inside her Saint Ring. As she did, a small azure-scaled dragon leapt into her arms. She gave him a few gentle rubs on the head. Inclining her head, she saw a middle-aged figure blindfolded by a headband covered in runic symbols a few hundred meters away.
"He willingly waited." The azure-scaled dragon said through mental transmission.
"Yao Huoyi," Xue Yifei lightly said.
"Royal Mistress," Yao Huoyi calmly replied. Within his right hand was an object emitting a strange colorful light.
