Making a companion?
An Fei immediately found herself cross with the thought, and her expression was clearly conveyed to the heavenly dragon. Xilong pointed its claw towards the frustrated expression on Chang Jungyoon’s countenance, and its patient voice drilled deeply into the young girl’s conscience.
“If so averse about making companions directly, why don’t you think about the wording of both people?” the heavenly dragon suggested.
“The lass offers you a personalized favor, but doesn’t mention anything regarding her sect. The uncouth child, on the other hand, guarantees that he won’t throw his sect’s attention on your head, but doesn’t mention anything about his personal choices – and those of his attendants.”
“In the end, they are… practically the same choice? By that matter, you deem it inconsequential to even think about it?”
An Fei murmured in reluctant acknowledgement, and tapped her chin in thought. The young girl promptly turned her head towards the happy expression on Xu Lingxin’s countenance, and raised a question to shatter all of the latter’s dreams.
“This Elder Sister here… now you owe me a favor, no?”
“Ah?”
Xu Lingxin’s head snapped up to face a pair of dull, scarlet irises, and blurted out in incomprehension. In response, the young girl pointed towards the ends of the street behind her back with her thumb, of which five flickering shadows began to approach.
“Er…”
Those haunted cultivators again… but what happened – one of their members were missing?
The temple maiden balked as she directed an unpleasant glance towards An Fei, only to receive a mortal girl’s expectant expression in response.
As Xu Lingxin clapped her forehead in mixed exasperation towards her circumstances and accomplishment at fulfilling her duty, the five cultivators of the Haunted Buddhist Sect arrived before Chang Jungyoon, and saluted with a grim frown.
“S-Senior Brother Chang!” the leading cultivator’s words faltered, before pointing with his finger towards An Fei’s direction.
“That blasted mortal girl, she killed Xiao Tao in an ambush!”
Killed!?
Chang Jungyoon blanched at the word that extricated itself from the cultivator’s mouth with much difficulty, and his mind immediately flickered towards a particularly grim scene in his memories. In one of his early missions, he had resulted with numerous casualties that clearly exceeded the minimum threshold set by the sect – and the incurred punishment was not pleasing to think about, not at all.
He was already straining that limit when confronting the temple maiden at Grace Street, and the mortal girl had unexpectedly killed one more…
“The elders responsible for this mission definitely weren’t pleased with me at the start. With the results of this mission, if I can’t manage to return in success, they’ll simply slaughter me outright…”
“Senior Brother Chang?”
“Laceration… no, it might even be the Five Ropes Endearment by that Elder Huang… no, no, no!”
Chang Jungyoon rapidly mumbled underneath his breath as he crouched against the wall of a nearby building. Each imagined punishment caused his body to tremble in fear and agitation, until it erupted and clouded over his rationality.
“Everyone, attack! Even if we return with more casualties, nothing is worse than returning with failure!”
The words prompted the cultivators of the Haunted Buddhist Sect to rile up with great furor, and the various weapons of steel flourished before An Fei and Xu Lingxin once more.
As he stood in the lead, Chang Jungyoon unsheathed his longsword, pointing the tip towards the flabbergasted temple maiden.
“All of you, eliminate that mortal girl as fast as possible!” he ordered with bloodshot eyes.
“Kill, and kill without mercy! I will stall the temple maiden’s <Purification>, so make use of the time!”
“Understood!!”
Shua!
Five emboldened cries of assent reverberated throughout the streets, and An Fei saw five men launch themselves towards her body. Their limbs were wreathed in a dense layer of shadows, causing her to be unable to aptly predict their movements, much less react to them at all.
“Despicable!”
Xu Lingxin scolded as she lunged towards the cultivators swarming the young girl, but faced Chang Jungyoon’s agitated countenance tinged with a hint of lunacy.
The temple maiden craned her head towards An Fei’s position with a hint of worry etched across her brows, but was quickly warded off by a swift flurry of blows.
Caught by surprise, the expected <Purification> of the Morning Star Temple didn’t arrive as Chang Jangyoon had predicted with, nor did a mortal young girl’s cry of agony grace the malevolent air. Rather, no later than thirty seconds into the brief and strained engagement, a male’s bitter cry screeched through the clearing.
“W-w-what was that!?”
The cultivator of the Haunted Buddhist Sect stumbled backwards with his left hand plastered against his clothes, above his liver. The man’s forehead sheened with the radiant glow of cold sweat, and the sword dropped to the ground amidst the intense pain.
His compatriots disengaged to glance onto his figures, only to discover a pristine male physique without any signs of injury or bleeding. Yet, the cultivator continued to writhe on the ground as he howled, his expression warped with the death throes of a lethal wound.
“Something is wrong with this mortal girl. Quickly kill her!”
The four men wreathed in shadows quickly arrived at a consensus, and swept towards An Fei with hastened steps for a second time.
The cultivator responsible for charging from the front expertly twirled the sword and bypassed the mortal girl’s defenses with ease, and the blade slashed downwards onto the delicate countenance below.
“…wha – “
There wasn’t the slight jerking sensation of cold steel slicing through delicate female human flesh, nor was there an agonized cry. As his blade fell, the cultivator watched with dumbfound expression as An Fei’s body seemed to have faded into the background.
The young girl clearly stood before her eyes with her pair of butterfly swords clenched before her chest, but she seemed illusory and intangible.
There was a blade supposed to be embedded in her chest from what his eyes were informing his brain, and yet his hands responded that the sword had passed through nothing, as though the figure before him was a ghost…
Shua!
“Argh!”
Before the cultivator could come to his senses, a searing pain assaulted him at his sides, causing his knees to buckle as they rapidly lost their strength. Clutching at his liver and bitterly withstanding the lethal waves of heat that seemed to sear at his organs, muscles, and skin from the inside, the man stumbled backwards in desperation – identical to his companion.
Having lost its owner, the sword that was supposed to be embedded deep within An Fei’s chest dropped and clattered on the ground. It phased neatly through her body as though the young girl was nothing more than a mirage, and not even the delicate folds of her dress were touched.
“Ghost!”
It was unknown who exactly was the first to utter such a terrifying word, but the number of those who dared to contest against An Fei immediately dropped to zero.
The cultivators of the Haunted Buddhist Sect famous for enslaving ghosts and spiritual wills to their command retreated towards Chang Jungyoon’s position, their hidden countenances flushed with terror.
When they struck at the young girl, their blades merely phased through her body as though she were an illusory ghost. Similarly, when An Fei struck with her twin butterfly swords, their armor, clothing, and skin were untouched, but their organs sung with death knells of agony.
Moreover, each step of the mortal girl was accompanied with physical sounds, and loose stones underneath her feet were kicked away – far beyond the capabilities of any ghost…
An Fei immediately gave chase, not forgetting to sheath one of the butterfly swords to allow her body to move faster. The young girl lunged towards the closest person before her, and the steel edge of the butterfly sword brushed towards Chang Jungyoon’s hair.
Pa!
The longsword expertly danced to ward away Xu Lingxin’s harried thrusts to swat away An Fei’s butterfly sword, and Chang Jungyoon found himself staring directly into the young girl’s countenance. He saw a pair of scarlet irises with a dull lustre that seemed only appropriate on children’s dolls, and a scorching heat raged through his right thigh.
This damned mortal girl!
Chang Jungyoon hissed in pain as he swiftly retreated, not giving An Fei to chase and deliver a second strike. The cultivator scowled deeply at Xu Lingxin as he surveyed the injuries and casualties inflicted onto his brethren, and his expression darkened one shade further.
“I, Chang Jungyoon, will not let this matter go, nor will the Haunted Buddhist Sect. You remember that, shrine maiden Xu!”
With one last, desperate cry, a patch of shadows erupted underneath his feet, enveloping all of the cultivators of the Haunted Buddhist Sect. When it had receded, all that was revealed was the damaged Grace Street that had suffered eight cultivators’ wrath.
