41 Disgusted
A thunderous boom echoed through the forest like the death knell of worlds, the shockwave of Miao Ying's focused Qi shattering the Python's cranium in a visceral spray of gore and gray matter.
One second the beast thrashed with animalistic fury, and the next its nervous system flatlined, higher brain functions evaporating in a burst of emerald ichor.
Robbed of even the most basic motor controls, the River Python went permanently, horrifyingly limp. Like a grotesque coiling of oversized rope, its leviathan body impacted the ravaged forest floor with an earth-shaking finality, wisps of evaporating Qi bleeding from every pore.
"Hmph." Mei Xianxue coldly snorted as she jumped off the beast, flickering out her spirit sword in evident disdain. Her wild black hair whipped about her face as she casually strode over to Miao Ying, carnality simmering in her every movement.
This woman embraced the demonic through and through - there was no filter between thought and action when it came to Mei Xianxue.
Miao Ying barely reacted as the demoness slinked up to him, his calm gaze surveying the Python's corpse. He was about to reach in and claim its demonic core when a familiar voice called out.
"Excuse me, fellow brother. Your prowess is quite amazing to slay this beast even in its wounded state."
Miao Ying and Mei Xianxue turned to find four youths confidently approaching.
Two were handsome young men, their muscular frames rippling with the power of the 8th stage of Qi Establishment.
The other pair were beautiful maidens - one exuded the aura of the 9th stage, while the last was a half-step Houtian cultivator.
Her mere presence exerted a natural suppression upon any lesser beings. Each step she took flowed with the graceful inevitability of a river's current. This woman stood on the same level as the top fifteen disciples of the Earth Abode, the elite talents of the great sects.
As they drew near, the half-step Houtian flashed Miao Ying a disarming smile.
"Fellow brother, we're most grateful you intervened to stop this rogue beast," she purred in honeyed tones. "Who knows how many poor settlements or innocent lives might have fallen under its ravenous shadow if not for your courage and might?"
A few shallow pleasantries dribbled from those full lips, that harmless facade persisting for just long enough to sting the psyche with its transparent falsity. "But..."
And like smoke dispersing before a winter gale, every last veneer of civility sublimated, leaving only bone-deep, naked hatred writ across her aristocratic features. A sneer twisted those previously sublime contours as the half-step Houtian talent leveled a vicious glare of purest contempt at Mei Xianxue.
Not an iota of warmth or even basic human compassion flickered in those flinty eyes. Only the cold-burning embers of animalistic revulsion, stoked by generations of cultural bigotry and zealous indoctrination.
The young noblewoman practically spat out her next words.
"Why are you slumming it with HER? Can you not sense this woman's tainted, demonic essence befouling the very air we breathe?! If you have no good excuse for keeping demonic refuse like this around..."
The unvoiced threat trailed off into icy silence - the only punctuation needed to convey its bone-deep menace.
"It would only make sense if he does," the 9th stage cultivator intoned with absolute, dispassionate certainty. "Geniuses of the righteous path do not willingly consort with heretical chaff."
To these scions of a powerful noble family, it represented the most obvious conclusion. Any cultivators hailing from the demonic faction were lawless, amoral scum unworthy of the same air breathed by their righteous betters. Filth to be swept aside and exterminated like the vermin they were.
How could anyone from a righteous sect consciously choose to pal around with such vile, tainted beings?
The very notion reeked of blasphemy against the natural order.
Yet against all their smug preconceptions, Miao Ying and Mei Xianxue chose that precise moment to share a brief, loaded look. An exchange of gazes burning with conspiracy, their lips curling in perfect synchrony to match the eerie smiles suddenly blooming across their attractive features.
Youthful radiance hardened into something...sharper. Lighter, like oil slicks refracting the first rays of dawn. Something that sent prickles of pure, instinctual disquiet down even the half-step Houtian's formidably-resistant spine.
The smile of wolves marking prey ripe for the culling.
"Just what are you two smiling about?" the half-step Houtian harrumphed, hoping to reassert control with a surge of ambient pressure from her Qi essence.
Power swelled in thickening waves radiating out like the rising tide before a flash tsunami, that aura threatening to sweep away anyone lesser in its path.
Yet if either Mei Xianxue or Miao Ying reacted to that blatant display of intimidation, they gave no outward sign.
Indeed, the demoness only snickered in response - a bright, melodious giggle that rippled across the ravaged forest with notes of genuine amusement and undisguised disdain.
"We're smiling at how unbearably foolish you all are," she drawled, rubies glittering with unholy light. Those words slung like steel-jarring barbs from shamelessly painted lips, unrepentant missiles of ensorcelled blasphemy. "What was your next move, then? Threaten us, kill me in the name of your all-mighty 'greater good'... then try robbing this guy of any treasures or rewards he's earned?"
A beat of silence, as those simple words hung leaden with implication in the humid air.
Miao Ying allowed his gaze to trail over the gathered Qin cultivators, watching outrage and disbelief gradually give way to the cold certainty of truth revealed. They traded looks, composure shattering as all those carefully concealed calculations flitted openly across faces drained pale with visceral indignation.
Their ballooning Qi auras fused into a dense, borderline-suffocating fog of killing intent that swept the clearing, an overpressure warning crackling in the ozone. Yet none moved with overt hostility as the demoness's goading laughter rang out once more.
"I'm not quite sure where your misplaced confidence stems from...." the half-step Houtian talent finally bit out, enunciating each syllable with lethal, sub-zero chill.
A thin sheen of sweat beaded along her porcelain brow, veins corded taut against her straining neck. Whether from the exertion of throttling her potent Qi reserves, or the sheer effort of not strangling Mei Xianxue where she stood - even she could not rightly say.
"But any spirit items or talismans in your... possession, we could easily match or exceed. So tell me, 'fellow brother'..." The title dripped scorn like venom from a serpent's fangs. "Do you truly wish to consort with demonic riffraff when the tools to keep you safe sit right before your eyes?"
An amused, almost pitying chuckle slipped from Miao Ying's lips, the sound forcing spines to straighten and palms to sweat against clenched hilts. There was no mistaking the flat menace woven into each vowel, that enigmatic rasp like the reedy susurrus of Death's own dialogue.
"Is that so? Then allow me to pose a question to you..." Miao Ying sneered, his ice-cold voice freezing the atmosphere. "Who needs powerful talismans when I can simply kill you all with my sword?"
Those last four words dropped like apocalyptic thunderclaps into the abrupt, bowstring-taut stillness. None gathered in the ravaged clearing had even a fraction of a moment to absorb Miao Ying's lethal declaration - to process the staggering depths of sheer hubris contained in that open threat.
Not when the world itself erupted in uncomprehending, cataclysmic violence!
'Bang!'
An explosion of Qi detonated from Miao Ying's body, the sonic boom alone staggering those nearby. Gale force winds whipped across the clearing as he unleashed the full depths of his potent Qi Seed and Qi Sea, saturating the very air with power.
"You?!" The gathered cultivators recoiled, aghast at the sheer density of that oppressive aura.
All save Mei Xianxue, who was shielded as Miao Ying's unleashed Qi washed over them in scorching waves.
The demoness only retreated a few steps, her ruby eyes glittering with rapt fascination as arcane lightning crackled in the space surrounding her lover. Bolts of pure golden power arced across his form, shedding ambient sparks that danced along his blade.
In that singular moment of focus, Miao Ying vanished - his spirit manifesting as a mere blur of annihilating force.
The spirit sword lashed out in an intricate series of slashes, each strike carrying the weight of extinction behind its merciless edge.
One moment, the Qin cultivators tensed for battle, circulating their Qi in preparation.
The next blood gushed in torrential waves, splattering the ravaged forest with viscera.
The 8th stage cultivators crumpled first, their enhanced physiques proving utterly inadequate before Miao Ying's flawless sword work.
The 9th stage maiden fared only slightly better, her defensive Qi roiling futilely against that lightning-forged assault. Her body hit the ground in three precise segments, separated at the hips and collarbone by two of those world-shattering slashes.
By the time the half-step Houtian reacted, it was already too late.
