Just as An Fei could not properly understand the conversation between Wen Jiu and Sima Ji-Hu, none of the people within the clearing could understand the English word that had flown from her lips.
Nonetheless, they could not find the urge within themselves to scoff at the mortal young girl, for their hearts were busy fleeing from their bodies.
Directly before An Fei’s outstretched right hand, the faint silhouette of a character could be spotted. The inscription shimmered with a faint cyan light, nearly indiscernible to the eye had the members of the Violet Jade Pavilion and Wen Jiu not possess great attainments in cultivation.
The inscription was ordinary, lacking any visual embellishment nor did it radiate any significant aura capable of scaring them away. Instead, it seemed to be a failed attempt at an illusion, simply hovering above An Fei’s palm and fading in and out of existence by the minute.
From its appearance, they could understand that the mortal girl had somehow, inexplicably conjured a talisman.
Disregarding the mysteries regarding how she had even managed to grasp the necessary spiritual essence to form a talisman in the first place, the manifested word astounded them.
Compared to the majestic, linear strokes that formed most of the primary elements of Chinese script, the letters were scribbled, cursive and feeble in comparison.
Regardless of their scrutiny, the various cultivators simply could not decipher the meaning nor intent contained within the talisman.
Neither could they understand why their bodies were drifting away from the young girl at a slow yet steady pace, as though their existence was being separated from hers.
Not even Wen Jiu was an exception from this unexplainable phenomenon.
The handsome man’s countenance flickered between a massive array of expressions including understanding and confusion, his body distancing itself from the young girl.
Differences in elevation did not matter to their current experience, nor did the ground below their feet. Their bodies passed through the soft earth and hardened stones as though mere mirages, simply enacting on the majestic concept depicted within the flickering talisman before the young girl.
Go away.
Since she commanded them to scram by will of the <Heavenly Talisman>, how could they not scram?
“Y-you!” one of the cultivators of the Violet Jade Pavilion spluttered with an awestruck expression, his arm outstretched in dumbstruck disbelief.
“How is a mortal capable of conjuring a talisman!?”
And why can’t we resist its effects as cultivators!?
The second question was howled within their hearts, but nobody dared cast the shame upon their shoulders and relieve the question from their throats.
With baleful eyes, the cultivators of the Violet Jade Pavilion watched An Fei leisurely scratch the back of her head, before throwing each of them an interested glance.
“Who is willing to explain what they meant by dire danger?” the young girl intoned with a lighthearted chuckle.
What dire danger?
Aren’t we the ones in dire danger, hovering dozens of meters above the ground? Look, one of them had been ‘pushed’ away from a cliff, and was hanging over a ravine without any nearby support!
“This Esteemed Young Miss here, please have a virtuous heart, and allow us poor cultivators to be released from our torment?”
One of the cultivators muttered with a shameful expression, finding himself unable to wrench his sword from his sheath regardless of his persistent and sincere efforts. Furthermore, An Fei’s next words threw them into an unexpected chaos.
“You just mentioned that I am in dire trouble, and some of you even pulled your weapons towards me,” the young girl released a soft sigh.
“What if I let you go – wouldn’t you take that opportunity to launch a strike onto me? I’m just a helpless mortal girl – I’m certainly unable to withstand a cultivator’s unrestrained assault.”
What helpless mortal girl was capable of unleashing a talisman capable of quelling any resistance of a cultivator even at the Core Formation Realm!?
“Please let us go!”
“Explain what you meant by ‘dire trouble’!”
“That was a joke! My dear Ancestor, please let us go!”
“You all can just break out, can’t you? Aren’t you all profound cultivators, esteemed with endless pride?”
“Pride isn’t something that can be converted to spiritual essence! Also, my Third Brother is floating above a ravine – he will die if you just drop him! Please spare us, our dear Grand Matriarch!”
An Fei ignored the desperate cries echoing from the numerous cultivators of the Violet Jade Pavilion, her scarlet irises gleaming with interest as she witnessed their flailing and squealing as they hovered above the massive fault of an abrupt cliff.
The young girl stretched with her hands on her waist before exiting the jungle and stepping onto the plains, her dainty fingers tearing the cyan inscription into a multitude of faint light.
“Young Miss, here… can’t you let me go, at the least?” Wen Jiu’s exasperated voice could be heard from within the throng of cultivators.
“I haven’t attacked you at all back then, have I? Our karmic bond shouldn’t be this stale?”
The young girl briefly paused, ultimately nodding her head after reluctantly searching through her memories. Suddenly, Wen Jiu seemed to have been released from the binding of the talisman, his body dropping onto the ground with a soft thud.
“Let us go!”
“…I still don’t know how to release any of you. Besides, why should I?”
The cultivators continued to unleash a continuous barrage of threats, pleas, and tears, but the young girl and now handsome man remained unmoved.
Their bodies continued drifting away, bypassing all physical obstacles as though they had attained the zenith of cultivation.
–
Stepping onto another set of seemingly endless grassland, An Fei’s mood was not so satisfied.
Her eyes carefully tracking the snow-white fox’s movements as it waded through the sea of green, the young girl questioned Wen Jiu for the second time.
“What is this Battleground you speak of? Why do you seem so panicked about it?”
Wen Jiu paused, his eyes glaring into the skies as he silently pondered for a brief moment.
“The Battlegrounds of Bei Tang… are the fields and environments in which large-scale conflicts have taken place, and the training grounds utilized by the Violet Jade Pavilion to train their disciples and reforge them into frightening monsters of cultivation,” he spoke with a hint of hesitation.
“I mentioned this before, but as battlefields, these Battlegrounds are stained in generations’ worth of blood. Bei Tang’s cultivators seek to uphold a worship towards the mighty and strong. As such, disciples who die during their training at a Battleground often…”
Squelch. Crunch.
A large shoe crashed into a warm, slimy pool of substance concealed underneath a large berth of verdant grass. Simultaneously, a small leather boot stomped onto a pile of brittle material, the splintering sensation travelling through the legs.
“…die.”
The young girl and handsome man whispered at the same time, neither daring to glance downwards onto the utterly decimated body of a failed cultivator of the Violet Jade Pavilion.
An Fei extricating her boot from the pile of bones and Wen Jiu blasting the human remains from his shoe with his spiritual essence, the two quickly departed from the calamitous sight casually deposited onto the soft soil.
…and their next step forward proved that such calamitous offerings were in fact, exceedingly common.
The grasslands that were casually pointed out by Sima Ji-Hu were in fact, a graveyard for the Violet Jade Pavilion’s cultivators who had perished in their training. The bodies were simply thrown into the battleground to unite with the lingering spirits of previous wars, withheld from even the simplest posthumous respect.
The shoe continued to step into puddles of remains and blood, while the boot crashed through bones hidden underneath the grass.
Their ears stung with the disorienting yet numbing sounds of squeezed slime and crushed chalk, yet their noses smelt only the freshly growing grass.
Finally, An Fei opened her mouth after a long period of strained silence.
“Those who do survive will transform into monsters of cultivation?”
“…they are virtually undefeatable within the same cultivation realm,” Wen Jiu calmly responded.
“Monster is the only correct definition for such people, since some of those disciples can skip across realms of cultivation in direct combat. Granted, they might not be able to kill their opponent, but they certainly won’t lose.”
“They won’t be able to kill, but they definitely won’t lose a battle?”
The young girl wondered with an expressionless voice. The snow-white fox growled with annoyance as it was forced to awkwardly leap around to avoid the ‘hazards’ of the plain, its tail swinging around to express its anger.
“Well, our Great Yong’s cultivators will never be able to kill a matured warrior of Bei Tang by ourselves,” Wen Jiu remarked with a bitter tone.
“Without the assistance of arrays and spiritual artifacts, it would require at least a dozen cultivators to slay one from Bei Tang. Brother Yang’s desire to strengthen himself was in fact, understandable even if it was unacceptable and despicable.”
