Chapter 49: Tale of the Past (Part 1) [extra]
Thanks to Egoist_Panda for the gift (Pizza)
Extra Chapter: Tale of the Past (Part 1)
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Thousands of years ago, the cultivation world looked much scarier than it does now. All sorts of skirmishes broke out everywhere, bringing disaster to the world, and countless mortals died in agony.
There was a war. A war between the side of righteous cultivators and devilish cultivators. In this affair, there was no mercy. Everyone fought for their interests.
Hundreds of sects disappeared and appeared all over the world, but most of them lasted only a short time before they collapsed. However, three main sects held the entire defense of the world.
The Three Sacred Sects – this was an alliance of the three strongest sects, formed during the Great Righteous-Devilish War. In the current realities, it is difficult to give any records about the events of those times, as most of them have been changed to favor the righteous cultivators.
Although the cultivation world was divided into good and evil, the "good" cultivators were not good. It was even hard to imagine, as everyone who walked the path of cultivation was obliged to step even on their comrade if there was an opportunity to rise in power level.
Therefore, behind the scenes, a conflict also flared up in the internal affairs of the righteous sects, which was suppressed only because of the war.
"Tsk..."
A sound was heard as if someone clicked their tongue. The place was deep in the mountains.
High green mountain peaks pierced the sky, and waterfalls fell to the ground, mercilessly killing young trees with their flow. It was simultaneously a beautiful and horrific sight.
In one of the countless caves located deep in the mountains, a young woman stood. She appeared to be no older than twenty. She had rosy cheeks, tender and fair skin, long curly black hair, and youthful and resolute blue eyes.
"Why has the battle reached my hideout? I was just about to break through to the Core Formation level!" the girl raged, and the cave shuddered, and a few droplets fell from the ceiling.
Her Qi level was off the charts and was already making its way to the Core Formation level, while in the area of her forehead, a golden ball had formed, but it was semi-transparent and barely visible.
The girl\'s name was Xu Mei. She was a cultivator from an ordinary family. And although one might think that she was mediocre, she was not...
"I\'m already twenty-three... Sigh! I need to reach the Core Formation level soon, or else how will I be different from the mediocre idiots who think themselves geniuses?" Xu Mei thought and, snorting, returned to her cave.
She was abnormal! She was a monstrous genius! Reaching the Qi Condensation level at 18, in five years, she had managed to reach the peak and was now one step away from reaching the Core Formation level.
Anyone who heard of her combat records would want to commit suicide, and the geniuses who boasted of their achievements would lock themselves in their rooms, not wanting to exist at the same time as such a monster.
Her name was known in narrow circles, as Xu Mei spent most of her time either on the battlefield or in a secluded area to cultivate in solitude.
This girl\'s lifestyle was not the most suitable for girls her age, but it could be considered exemplary for cultivators.
Sitting in the lotus position, Xu Mei began to meditate. Slowly and confidently, a golden ball began to form in her head, and she smiled satisfactorily, feeling herself becoming stronger, when suddenly...
Babaaaah!
"AAAAAAA!!"
Xu Mei screamed in pain as cracks appeared in the Golden Ball, which was the Core of Qi, as she was distracted by the tremor and the loud sound of the explosion.
Fortunately for her, she came to her senses in time and did everything to keep the core intact and barely managed to close the crack, leaving only a small crack.
"Damn! Damn! I\'ll kick the ass of whoever dared to interfere with me! Don\'t they know that this mountain is occupied by me?!" Xu Mei roared angrily and, grabbing the sword lying half next to her, she took a step forward and soon appeared at the peak of the mountain.
Her piercing gaze, like that of an eagle looking for its prey, scanned all the mountains, and then she saw that a crowd had gathered at the foot of the mountain.
There were four people. Three of them were dressed in questionable red clothing with various bone inlays, and the fourth was a disciple who belonged to a famous sect. Not just any sect, but the Sect of Starry Stream.
"Hm? What are the bastards from the Sect of Bone Circle doing here?" Xu Mei wondered, and seeing that they had surrounded a wounded disciple, she clicked her tongue: "Damn, as if I didn\'t have enough problems in my life, the Heavens have shat on me with some crap! Why can\'t these bastards kill her somewhere else?!"
...her tongue was too sharp, but the fact was the fact. Xu Mei did not have to think long, and considering that she was still angry because of the recent tremor, she used a movement technique and quickly descended from the mountain.
***
"You can\'t escape, a disciple of the Sect of Starry Stream! Your damned disciples from the sect have bitten the devilish cultivators hard. It\'s time to know the measure!" exclaimed the devilish cultivator with a malicious face. He giggled – it sounded disgusting, as if someone had farted, and then belched simultaneously: "But...
it would be a sin to let such a pretty girl go without a good way, wouldn\'t it, guys?"
"Heh, Liu Bai, you know how to have fun" another disciple replied with a smile.
"...I don\'t care, as long as I kill this bitch" the woman with large "eyes" replied, crossing her arms over her chest, causing the male disciples to stare at her, but she did not pay attention to this, apparently accustomed to it.
The situation was this: two men and one woman from the Sect of Bone something or other had surrounded a girl from one of the Three Sacred Sects.
The disciple from the Sect of Starry Stream looked quite unusual. Both in terms of beauty and terms of charisma, she was stunning. Her gray hair reached her shoulders, and her brightly shining purple eyes made men\'s souls tremble.
There was fear and despair on the girl\'s face, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Near this place was a hideout of devilish cultivators, and she, deciding on such an adventure, was determined to get a few Contribution Points and receive praise from her Master.
But...
"I\'m done for," she thought, and her face contorted with unwillingness to die, but this only caused excited laughter from her opponents.
The enemies knew no mercy. She was sure that she had no good future ahead of her. She was only a cultivator at the fifth stage of Qi Condensation, her weapon was broken, and her pills were spent.
There was only one option left – suicide. She did not want to give herself alive to this group, as she knew that nothing good awaited her, especially from these two men. Her body trembled at these thoughts, and she looked frail and helpless.
And so, when the girl was about to bite her tongue to commit suicide, suddenly...
Boom!
Cold.
An astonishing cold passed through the bodies of this quartet, making them feel for a second... for a fraction of a second as if a beast was squeezing their throats. As if they were within an inch of a tiger\'s mouth.
Synchronously, they raised their gazes to the mountain. Along the almost perfectly even cut, which had turned one mountain into two mountains, someone was descending along the left part of this "cut mountain."
Because of the dust, it was impossible to see who it was, but the closer this someone came to them, the stronger they felt fear.
The girl with gray hair fell to her knees in fear. She was now even more afraid than before with the devilish cultivators.
The devilish cultivators, who were on the verge of Core Formation, swallowed their saliva nervously.
And then... before them appeared the one who was descending from the mountain. When the dust settled, everyone saw the face of this monster... eh? What kind of monster on earth could be so beautiful?
Apparently, this is what the devilish disciples thought and froze in place – first out of surprise, and then out of fear.
"Bastards... so that\'s who you are, huh? Dogs from the Sect of Bone Circle. A bunch of bitches with a dagger up their asses, not knowing their place," Xu Mei shouted angrily, and her Qi burst out of her body, causing the ground around her to deform: "I\'ll break your necks, bitches!"
Her anger was suffocating – that\'s what this trio thought. They swallowed their saliva in fear.
"I have to run away! This monster will kill me!" thought the female disciple and, turning around, began to run, but...
Plop. A quiet sound of something dripping was heard, and then everyone felt the smell of iron... the smell of blood!
"Eh?"
The head of the female disciple from the devilish sect disappeared! Her body fell heavily to the ground with a thud.
With a creak, as if they were unsmeared doors, they turned their heads and discovered the following sight:
Xu Mei stood behind them, her blade was painted red with blood, and in some places, pieces of flesh could be seen.
At her feet lay the severed head of the woman, an expression of pure fear frozen on her face.
Everything happened too fast. No one had time to react. As if a moon shadow, she appeared just as quickly, just as beautifully, and just as powerfully, killing the enemy.
They were at the same level of cultivation, but... Xu Mei showed who could be called a true genius.
"E-e..."
Everyone was shocked. Especially in shock were the disciples of the Sect of Bone Circle, who could not believe their eyes.
"Th-th-this... s-s-s-such a sh-sh-short time... she killed Disciple Lu?! Impossible!" one of the disciples exclaimed in shock and then turned around and began to run. Tears streamed from his eyes, and snot ran from his nose: "N-n-no! I don\'t want to die!
Fuck! Fuck!"
"I-idiot! Stop!"
The other disciple panicked and, feeling a gust of wind, unconsciously blinked. And in that short moment when he blinked...
"AAAAA!"
His comrade let out a long, agonizing scream. And in the next second, his body was neatly cut in half.
"I-I-I..."
Bah!
***
The gray-haired disciple looked in shock at the current situation. Three disciples from the devilish sect, who could have decided the outcome of her life or death just five minutes earlier, now lay dead.
One had his neck cut off, one was cut in half, and one was turned into cubes of flesh.
"Bu-u-u-e..."
Of course, not everyone opens their appetite at such a sight. Some close it, and in addition, there is an emergency evacuation of everything that you ate during the day. This happened to the gray-haired girl as well.
Xu Mei, who was sitting on a small boulder and cleaning her blade with a piece of cloth torn from the disciples\' clothes, looked puzzled at the gray-haired girl and then twisted her mouth.
"Well, yes, disciples of the Sect of Starry Stream are indeed soft-hearted. Did it scare you so much because of such a trifle?" asked Xu Mei rhetorically, and then snorted: "Tsk. I had to get into such a situation. If it weren\'t for these weaklings, I would have broken through to the new level long ago."
A dark aura emanated from her. It was clear that Xu Mei was not at all satisfied with the current state of affairs, but even so, she could not vent her anger on anyone. The trio was dead, and the girl from the righteous sect was essentially not to blame.
And so, when the gray-haired girl came to her senses, she noticed that a human shadow was falling on her. Looking up, she saw Xu Mei, who looked neat even after such a tense battle.
"What\'s your name, girl?" Xu Mei asked.
The gray-haired girl shivered all over with fear, and in her gaze, there was both admiration and fear. But she clenched her teeth and, without looking away, answered.
"My name is Zhang Mei."