"Shang'er... I."
Ming Xuan stood hesitantly in the Lengyue Pavilion suspended high in the air, his hands at a loss for where to put them. His gaze lingered with lingering affection on the Spirit Ancestor Chen Liushang, who sat serenely in the pavilion, drinking fine wine and having already awakened. He stammered out her childhood nickname.
"You're here."
Suddenly, the cold gaze of the Spirit Ancestor, who had been calmly sipping her wine, shifted. With a flick of her small Liuli hand, she tossed aside her drink, leaped swiftly to her feet, and without a moment's hesitation, delivered a hard kick straight into the chest of her doting and affectionate good disciple, Ming Xuan, who was standing right beside her.
"Shang'er..."
Caught completely off guard, Ming Xuan instantly tumbled down from the high-altitude pavilion, his deep, graceful cries slowly fading away into the distance.
"Xuan'er, don't blame your master. This mob of mortal enemies is coming too fast, and I had no choice but to wrong you."
With a swift, agile leap, Chen Liushang gripped the Qingchen Sword in her right hand, her gaze locked onto several rooftops as she vaulted across them toward an expansive plain. She cast a disdainful glance backward at the half-hundred bitter enemies who had pursued her for centuries and now filled the sky behind her.
"A bunch of naive brats, haven't you grown up at all? Fortunately, I anticipated this long ago. Ha!"
"Kill her! Don't let this female fiend escape!"
Xuanjing, leading the pack, gripped a sharp sword and glared fiercely at Chen Liushang.
"She is the root of all our suffering! It's all because of her! Kill her!"
"My face was destroyed because of her!"
Zheyue, a purple-robed woman with a stunning figure but a veil concealing her face, pressed on alongside the army. She stroked the side of her face with her left hand and spoke with venomous hatred.
The crowd surged relentlessly behind Chen Liushang in a desperate pursuit, every single one of them wearing a fierce expression that showed they wished they could tear the female fiend to pieces a thousand times over.
Standing in the open clearing, Chen Liushang held her sword and calmly surveyed the fragile-looking army before her, a string of profanities bursting silently in her mind.
*A bunch of idiots. You lot should be thanking me instead.*
Swarming down from the rooftops, the soldiers filled the air, every single gaze locked with lethal, venomous intent onto the surrounded Spirit Ancestor.
A look of delight crossed Chen Liushang's face as she gazed at the various immortals she had once offended. With a flick of her right sleeve, she laughed heartily and spoke.
"Long time no see, my dear grand-disciples. Ha!"
"It seems she really has recovered."
Standing beside Xuanjing, the dark-robed youth Mo Ran wore a skeptical expression as he muttered quietly to him.
"The female fiend! It's that female fiend!"
"She really is back! The female fiend! I never thought she could return."
The purple-robed woman brandished her sword, her eyes venomous as she stared at Chen Liushang, who had fully recovered her breathtaking immortal beauty. With a ferocious look on her face, she clenched her right hand slightly, readying herself to strike.
"Who else could possibly cause such a massive uproar across the Xiuxian Continent? Let's all attack her together; we can definitely beat her."
"Senior Brother, I can still see that seven-colored Liuli protective barrier around her. I'm afraid we might not be able to defeat her."
Looking at the rows of grand-disciples who were all on the verge of breaking through their cultivation realms, Chen Liushang's cold face couldn't help but reveal a hint of amusement. Standing amidst this crowd of disciples, she twirled a lock of her own hair and mocked them one by one.
"Xuanjing, how does it feel to lose all your cultivation? Ha! You've thrown away seven hundred years of cultivation—must feel awful, doesn't it? Look at that broken hand of yours! Back then, you possessed the highest cultivation in my Xiuxian Palace, didn't you? Ha! You? You think you were ever worthy of being my Senior Brother?"
Stung right in her most painful spot, Xuanjing gripped his sword with a trembling hand, his eyes burning with vicious, unyielding hatred as he stared at Chen Liushang, who had fully regained her immortal body and cultivation.
Just as he was about to strike, a sudden thought crossed his mind: protected by her Liuli body, he was unlikely to win this fight. He slowly lowered his trembling hand.
He let out a weak, desperate cry of despair.
"Female fiend, it's all your fault! It's all your fault!"
Chen Liushang walked slowly toward Zheyue, whose face was ruined yet whose figure remained striking. With a quick, deft movement, she snatched away Zheyue's veil. Beneath it lay a face covered entirely in sword scars. Pointing at her face, Chen Liushang threw her head back and laughed loudly.
"Zheyue, you really are hideous now! Just look at that face of yours—I'll bet your Senior Brother Moran abandoned you long ago, didn't he? Ha! All because of this ugly mug of yours."
Tears welled up in Zheyue's eyes as a wave of bitter grief washed over her. She quickly snatched up her fallen veil to cover her disfigured face, glaring with pure malice at the radiant Chen Liushang before her.
"If it weren't for you, Senior Brother would never have abandoned me to be with that vixen!"
Overcome with emotion, Zheyue shed a tear, letting her weapon drop limply to her side while her eyes remained fixed on her with unyielding hatred.
"Stop listening to her nonsense! Kill the female fiend!"
With a sweep of his left hand, Moran made the first move. With a fierce leap, he lunged to Chen Liushang's left flank, pouring every ounce of his strength into a vicious slash aimed straight at her, murder flashing in his eyes.
Following his lead, the entire army brandished their swords and swarmed forward to strike at the female fiend. With a nimble step backward, Chen Liushang nimbly dodged the barrage of sword shadows and laughed aloud.
"My dear grand-disciples, you truly dare to commit patricide against your ancestor?"
"A pack of trash."
Turning around, Chen Liushang leaped gracefully away, her expression calm as she soared toward the woods ahead of the Xiuxian Continent.
"Don't let her get away! Everyone, after her!"
With murder in his eyes, Xuanjing stared at the fleeing figure of Chen Liushang and quickly broke into a run to keep pace with her.