The Forsaken cultivator was shocked to see a strange cloaked figure behind her, wondering how they even sneaked up behind her.
"Hey—" But before she could call out in confusion, Valentina stabbed her ethereal core while covering her mouth before silently laying her down.
She quickly removed the dead cultivator's silver mask and used her Mask of Mischief to disguise her appearance into that of the female cultivator.
She then quickly picked up her corpse and hid it somewhere else where nobody would find it unless they looked for it.
She then quickly made her way back towards the ethereal formation center, which was powering the barrier.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
But at that moment, Valentina was surprised to see two Forsaken cultivators approaching her, making her wonder if she got caught.
'No...nobody should have seen me killing her...Otherwise, they would have brought more people to deal with me…' Valentina inwardly thought as she was quite sure she did everything discreetly and decided to see what these two were up to before doing anything.
So she answered casually, "Where else should I be?"
"Oh, look at her. Gara seems to have learned to talk back."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Gara, didn't you get the message that your current shift is on the other side? We are going to take over here. You can go," One of the Forsaken cultivators said as they walked past her.
'Oh no...I can't let down Damien here…' Valentina became worried since she didn't see this coming, and within three minutes, she was sure there would be more cultivators coming here, and by that time, she would definitely have no chance in deactivating the barrier.
She immediately sensed the cultivations of these two, making the two turn around while saying, "Gara, why the hell—hrkkk"
Before the two could realize, they had a crimson dagger puncturing their throat till all the way to their head.
These two were at the Peak Levels of the Earth Ethereal Realm, and Valentina's quick sudden probe had made them turn around only to meet an unexpected death.
Valentina clicked her tongue in frustration seeing that things were only getting more troublesome, and now she had more bodies to get rid of.
She quickly carried the two corpses over her shoulders and discarded them in the same place as the first.
But by now, barely a minute was left, and she quickly started to deactivate the ethereal formation by using her own ethereal energy to disrupt the ethereal energy that was flowing through the formation.
Valentina grimaced as she realized that this formation was even tougher to break than she realized and had to exert her complete strength to slowly disrupt the flow till the ethereal formation's light began to dim.
And within seconds, it completely dimmed as it got deactivated, making the barrier around the palace grounds break down.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Valentina then quickly took out a talisman and activated it as a brilliant white ray of light shot into the sky from the talisman.
Meanwhile, far away, Damien's eyes gleamed as he saw the white beam, "That's my girl."
"Quick, let's move!" Tristen, who was sitting on a horse, said as he charged forward along with Kale and his regiment while Tristen's general stayed behind to rally the remaining army to attack.
"Hey! Catch her!"
"We have a traitor!"
But just as Valentina sent out the signal, multiple Forsaken cultivators had arrived near her, especially when it was nearly the shift time for others to watch over the ethereal barrier.
"Gara...why did you betray our Lord?" One of the Forsaken cultivators asked in a grim tone.
"No...this couldn't be Gara. Remember, we are all just mere slaves who would die if we betray our Lord. There is no way Gara would still be alive after betraying him. This is someone else disguised as her! I am sure of it!" Another Forsaken cultivator said as he took out his dagger.
'Shit…' Valentina realized that there was some kind of fail-safe in Drake's men that prevented them from betraying him even if they wanted to.
So she knew her cover was exposed, though her real identity was still safe.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})She took out Gara's weapon, which was a weapon similar to a sickle but with a sharp enough blade to cut through someone's throat effortlessly.
"I knew it! Get her!!" All five Forsaken cultivators charged towards her like a mad crowd though Valentina didn't get intimidated even though three among them were at the First Level of the Sky Ethereal Realm while the rest two were at Peak Levels of the Earth Ethereal Realm.
She was confident of her strength and the fighting skills Damien taught her to take on all five of them all on her own.
She first targeted the Sky Ethereal Realm with the strongest aura, whose eyes widened as he saw this girl charging towards him while ignoring others.
"You!" He quickly brought down his sword at her, but it passed through her body, much to his surprise, realizing that it was just an ethereal image produced by some strange arts.
But it was too late when he realized that her real body was standing behind him and only felt a cold blade touching his skin before everything went dark for him.
Valentina easily skewered his neck with her sickle, beheading him completely, much to the shock of the other four who felt quite intimidated seeing their fellow cultivator getting beheaded in such a gruesome way before their own eyes.
Valentina smiled, seeing that the others had got intimidated by her and used it to her advantage as she projected multiple illusory bodies of herself to attack them who got taken by surprise and was confused, especially when they couldn't tell which one was real.
Taking advantage of their confusion, Valentina easily sliced the necks of the four as their bodies collapsed before they could even put up any real struggle.
But if they knew how strong Valentina's soul and her illusion arts were, then they would realize the frightening combat prowess someone with a superior soul would have even if their ethereal strengths were equal.
"There's the traitor! Kill her!!"
But by now, a dozen more Forsaken cultivators appeared, with a very few of them having cultivations in the Middle Levels of the Sky Ethereal Realm, much to Valentina's dismay.
She had nowhere else to escape with all these cultivators surrounding her, but right then, the walls of the palace ground crumbled down as a figure rushed forward on a white horse with an army behind him, making Valentina's eyes gleam as she inwardly shouted, "Damien!"
