I Was Called A Demon

While Bianca handled those three, the rest of them were left with a total of nine cultivators. Lacking any kind of leading figure to tell them which ones to take care of, they split however they wanted, with Xue Yaling and Han Rushu taking the five on the left, and Song Ming and Yu Juan handling the four that were on the right.

This decision was made in the moment, without discussion, but it just so happened that the more experienced combatants took to fighting the remaining third realm cultivator, while the less practised went up against only second realm cultivators.

In the lower realms, the gaps between cultivators were large in terms of powers, but relatively small in terms of strength. Unless one had the right skills to take advantage of that gap to truly set themselves apart from their foes, a second realm cultivator could overcome someone in the third, especially while the third realm lacked a core to protect the anchor. As long as the anchor was broken, anyone’s cultivation would effectively drop to the second realm – which applied for higher realms too, though the core and other advantages made it near impossible to destroy them in typical combat – so the difference was even narrower than some might imagine.

Thus, Xue Yaling didn’t dare to take this lightly, readying the Aureate Blade from the start and watching for the prime opportunities to use Anathema, which she couldn’t abuse without her opponents spotting what she had and avoiding her with planar constructs.

On the other hand, the blacksmith wielded a simple blade and no artefacts to be seen, but the heat around her was rather prominent already. Furthermore, her empty hand was enveloped with energy, ready to deploy whatever Bestial skills she had. Han Rushu seemed to have a rather good grasp of them, especially of the lewd ones, so she was would likely be able to take care of herself if needed.

Both sides stared one another down for a moment, their lines of sight being relatively clear, before both rushed into action.

Xue Yaling went for the third realm cultivator first, charging her as she threw out numerous ghostflames to serve as extensions of her spiritual perception. It would improve her ability to react to anything her foes were able to throw at her, and judging by their cultivation, she’d definitely need it.

By the looks of it, her foes were specialised in various shadowy cultivation techniques, perhaps even directly the Shadow archetype, which would lead to many shadows surrounding her and trying to take advantage of her blind spots. Even if not, fighting against five people at the same time would be extremely challenging if she couldn’t keep track of them all.

“Take the kitsune alive, do whatever it takes to the other!” the third realm fighter proclaimed, countless shadowy blades appearing behind him, forming a circle that was aimed at Xue Yaling.

‘They must know who we are, at least in some regard. There would be no reason to keep me alive and not capture someone with draconic blood when we’re both in the same realm… unless they’re kitsune fetishists, or capture slaves for those that are. Seems unlikely, though.’

Of course, the battlefield wasn’t the time to be thinking too deeply, so the kitsune tried to take initiative and rushed in, slashing at her opponent’s throat while he was still preparing his skill.

Unfortunately, the moment her blade grew near, one of the shadows behind him shifted into place and blocked her, and another sword emerged and flew towards her arm, aiming to disarm her – as in, force her to drop her weapon, since the loss of an arm could be quite lethal if not treated effectively and immediately.

She couldn’t do much beside unleashing her Anathema early, using it to completely disrupt and absorb the shadowy blade before it could touch her skin.

It was wonderful, but also unfortunately revealed her secret a lot earlier in the fight than she would’ve wished. The moment that her foes realised what happened, they withdrew, the man promptly yelling out without her having any chance to stop him.

“She can nullify planar constructs! Stick to regular weapons only!” the man called out without hesitation.

Although she expected them to continue wrapping energy around their weapons to enhance their bite, the degree to which she would be able to nullify such attacks was significantly lesser. Therefore, she had to either be quicker about this than she would’ve liked, or significantly more cautious.

“Take care of the weaker ones, I’ll focus on the third realm one,” the kitsune transmitted her voice and prepared the Aureate Sword to be used.

The blacksmith didn’t reply, but judging by how she charged into the fight, she got the message. The second realm cultivators were scared of her approach, the aura radiating from her body overwhelming that of the lower realms, but she also couldn’t just force them away with that alone. After all, such intimidation would only last until her true strength was revealed, which, if the blacksmith was wise, would not happen any time-

An anchor slammed down on the ground, and then Han Rushu suddenly charge forward, emulating some kind of bestial creature as she arrived at a fighter’s position in the blink of an eye, then swung wildly with her sword, as though she was striking with claws and not the blade. It was a preposterous sight, and Xue Yaling expected her not to stand a chance, but the instant her sword hit her opponent, it sliced into her shoulder with ease, cutting through a thin barrier of energy as though it wasn’t even there.

Furthermore, as she nearly cleaved her enemy in two, Han Rushu didn’t pause even for a moment and instead charged forward while using her foe’s body as a shield, pulling out her sword when she reached the next opponent, a man with far more armour upon his body than would’ve been reasonable to slice through.

So, instead of cutting through, she slammed her palm into his chest. A shockwave erupted as though her hit was powerful enough to tear the earth and sky asunder, and the chestplate caved in while crushing all the organs underneath.

“Impressive, didn’t expect you to be able to fight,” Xue Yaling transmitted again.

“I’m just putting my experience to use. Cutting up materials and slamming things into shape is part of the job,” Han Rushu said back, “That being said, I don’t have that much experience like this in the end.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll clean things up soon enough.”

With two – and a third one coming along soon – enemies out of the way, Xue Yaling turned to the third realm cultivator and this many shadowy swords and responded by summoning countless shards of her own, each one a limited projection of the Aureate Sword, and launched them all at him. Predictably, the man tried to block them with his shadow blades, which was exactly what she wanted.

Anathema had a larger range than just her body, and so those shadow swords were exactly what she needed to absorb to gain that little bit more energy.

The Nocturnal Aegis and the Butcher’s Cleaver were on the brink of being integrated into her body, enhancing her insides and offering her the full might of those broken artefacts, and with the energy she had gotten now, it was enough to make the push. Strictly speaking, she should’ve only been able to integrate three artefact shards at her current realm, but the research she had done on Bianca’s body, the small peeks she’d been able to get from Huang Su’s cultivation, and all of the things she had explored back in the Phoenix Sect, she was able to guarantee a fourth artefact shard fitting her body.

And now, they did fit, and the surge of energy that erupted was enough to push her forth two stages, and with that burst of energy she could instantly employ the two shards that she had integrated.

A vast phantom appeared above her, a terrifying figure that carried an enormous cleaver that dripped with steaming hot blood. It had a single glowing eye within the middle of its head and no legs – at least not on this enormous phantom – and the moment that it swung the cleaver, it was as though the heavens descended down to crush everything and everyone.

Of course, the true danger of the attack was the cleaver, which swung in a large arc and sliced through everything in its path. Cutting through the trees and air with ease, it reached the third realm cultivator and struck him with enough force to cleave a mountain, being blocked for only a moment before it cut through any and all defences he had. A vast amount of energy was wasted during the clash, an eruption of force shaking the earth for a moment, but what remained was sufficient to tear through the man with ease.

The fourth was knocked down by the impact of the cleaver against the man’s defences, and then it took little effort for Han Rushu to finish that opponent off, leaving their battlefield quiet.

 

Song Ming and Yu Juan were relative novices in the matter of combat, having fought only a few times prior, at least if one considered purely serious, life or death engagements. Those were rather different from the kinds of casual spars that might occur in Xi Village, or in the Dancer’s Abode, and thus neither had much knowledge of how to handle four opponents in the second realm.

“Help keep them in place, and I’ll subdue them,” Song Ming said quietly before the first blow was struck, with Yu Juan nodding right away.

Bianca’s cute little pet had the skills to obliterate foes far above her level as a result of her physique, but enemies that realised how her ability behaved could easily outmanoeuvre her and take her down, especially when they had the advantage in numbers. Yu Juan, on the other hand, lacked any especially powerful attacks, but her mirages and dreams could stun even larger groups with ease. Together, they were quite a good fit.

“I don’t recognise either of these… should we kill them?” one of their foes asked, a woman wielding a blade that seemed to be made of black crystal.

“They weren’t explicitly asked for, so it shouldn’t be an issue,” responded one of the others, aiming an arrow at Song Ming, since she had gotten in even closer, “Shame, they look pretty…”

“Now!”

A dream-like fog suddenly enveloped their foes, flooding into their eyes and inducing all kinds of visions of desire based on their subconscious thoughts. Most of them saw all kinds of lustful dreams, derived from the fetishes and idealised scenarios they had in their heads, and although they had the knowledge that they should escape it in the back of their minds, they struggled to push themselves when such dreams presented themselves for the first few moments.

Thus, Song Ming had the freedom to charge up the runes underneath their feet, but as the eerie glow from them shone brighter and brighter, their opponents slowly started to wake and become alerted to the danger underneath them. If she unleashed the runes right away, she could’ve injured them all, but failed to take down any, so she held on just a little longer.

“… wha- shit, wake up! Out of the way!” one of them woke up and caught on – surprisingly quickly – to the danger they were in, yelling out as she rushed towards the closest ally to her and flinging herself at him.

The others were shaken awake by the noise, forcing Song Ming to trigger her runes in that instant, countless greenish-blue sparks preceding the eruption of four runes that surged into the sky and torched the leaves above, with the two runes underneath the still-groggy foes unleashing the brunt of their strength upon them.

Even the two that managed to evade the runes were still in the periphery of one, and thus got hit by just a little bit of eerie energy, shaking them completely out of their stupor.

“Heavens, what the fuck was that?” the male survivor cried out, rolling away from his peer.

“Some kind of… physique? No way a normal skill should be this strong at only the third realm…” his ally glanced at the two near-still bodies lying near them, amidst a sea of ash and charred wood produced by the ignition of the runes, “W-We have to-”

A large, square rune appeared beneath them, Song Ming’s arm glowing faintly as she drew closer, “This was easier than I expected… If you don’t want to die, stand still. I know Mistress wouldn’t want me to hurt you for no reason.”

The two survivors shared a glance for a moment, and when they looked apart, one seemed to sigh and accept their fate, whereas the other suddenly dashed forward. Perhaps the man thought that if she didn’t have enough opportunities to set up a rune, she wouldn’t be able to resist, and would then give him an opening to escape or otherwise save himself and his peer.

Unfortunately, Song Ming had fought a harder foe not that long ago, and had spent a lot more planar energy than she really should’ve to set up additional runes.

Thus, when the man sprinted out, he was suddenly enveloped in ghostly light that erupted at full strength a moment after, the sound of a body thudding onto the ground breaking through the noise produced by the exploding rune. As the light faded, the man was revealed to be lying on the ground, breathing but badly burnt, his clothes turning into coal-coloured rags and his body being nigh-unrecognisable compared to before.

“Ah, I overdid it… but you’re still alive, and I think Mistress will be pleased regardless,” Song Ming muttered, an eerie crimson light within her eyes scaring her opponent into submission.

It was comparable to the intent that some of the most horrifying people she’d seen released, and even then, she could feel something more intense from a nearby part of the woods. Furthermore, this girl was obviously not the group’s leader, so she couldn’t help but wonder what the true nature of their leader had to be to have such intimidating underlings.

“Indeed, Mistress would hate to hurt a pretty face,” Yu Juan said as well, “Let’s remain here and watch over this one, just in case she tries anything. I think that the others would be able to handle their opponents easily enough if we had such an easy time.”

The woman they captured was only more concerned now that she’d heard both of them referring to that leader as their Mistress. Either there was some kind of complicated relationship there, or their leader was interested in dominating any and all women she came across, which… well, it was certainly something.

It was definitely better than some more common alternatives, such as killing opponents, so it was an upside in that respect.

 

Before Bianca could get far from the body, Huang Su appeared before her in a burst of flaming feathers, though her clothes had darkened and her face was covered by a veil that made it surprisingly difficult to perceive her features. With those two changes alone, she was nigh unrecognisable even though she knew exactly what to look for, so it wasn’t hard to see what the intention of this disguise was.

“I… I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s okay, Bianca, come here,” the Sect Master said, inviting her into her arms, “I understand that you struggle with controlling that other side, and when in the midst of combat… let’s just say I’ve seen worse.”

“… I guess that’s good to hear,” Bianca spoke into the hug, her voice being lost somewhere in Huang Su’s boobs, “I promise, I’m trying, I really am…”

“I know. Just don’t lose that fight, and I’m sure that I will be able to resolve this for you. Trust me, Bianca,” she patted Bianca’s head and let her rest in the embrace for a little while, though she eventually ended it and took a step back, “It would be best if we didn’t spend too long like this, however. There is a survivor that we can question, and this time you needn’t make any kinds of promises to them.”

“… Mhm. Are the others alright?”

“Yes, nobody was hurt, although some certainly struggled more than others. Song Ming and Yu Juan were able to handle their opposition without any issue.”

“Oh, that’s good. Song Ming is a good girl…”

The Sect Master didn’t comment on that, but Bianca understood even without it that she might be a little too comfortable in saying such things. Luckily for them, the plan was for her to become a Sect Master – or Mistress – herself, so it would mean that anything she says would have to be accepted if those she spoke with didn’t want to get into conflict with her.

At that point, she would definitely collar her pet and bring her around on a leash, if only to enjoy the control she would have over those around her.

‘Shit, I’m going to start drooling… I better not get used to doing that just after a fight, even if it does help distract from it quite a bit…’