The Fusion stage cultivator was left speechless by Li Yunxian’s words.
If your physical body is destroyed and you have to rebuild your soul, you’ll have to start all over from the Qi Refinement stage. For cultivators like them, that’s no different from being truly killed.
But strictly speaking, that Nascent Soul wasn’t actually dead.
Under everyone’s watchful gaze, a transparent, soul-like form slowly floated out from the body of the fallen Nascent Soul.
His companions glanced warily at Li Yunxian and the others, then cautiously tossed out a figurine-like Avatar Puppet-type Magical Tool to collect the soul.
Li Yunxian paid absolutely no attention to their actions. She looked at the distant Fusion stage cultivator as if nothing had happened, and even addressed him respectfully.
“Weren’t you the one who wanted everyone to stop? Well, we’ve stopped. Do you have something you’d like to say?” Li Yunxian said.
The Fusion stage cultivator was instantly furious.
What he wanted was for everyone to stop, but certainly not this kind of stop.
Seeing that he was at a loss for words, Li Yunxian calmly said, “Since you don’t seem to have anything to say for now, we can talk again when you do.”
With that, Li Yunxian turned to Su Wenjing. “Let’s go.”
In less than ten seconds, she had unilaterally declared that there was nothing more to say and was ready to leave. The Fusion stage cultivator, infuriated once again, barely got a word out: “You…”
He’d just managed to utter the first syllable when he saw Su Wenjing’s hand already resting on Li Yunxian’s shoulder.
The next instant, all the Shenzhou cultivators present vanished from the scene.
Su Wenjing had taken them all away.
As soon as Su Wenjing left, the invisible space around the Ascension Platform shattered, and the Qingxing Cultivators who had been blocked outside rushed in anxiously.
“Senior Zheng, what happened? Why did the Ascension Platform explode? Was it an attack by outsiders? Why wasn’t there any warning?”
“Where is Senior Feng? Why don’t I see him?”
“Ah! Who’s this fallen cultivator?!”
A chorus of jumbled questions instantly drowned out the Fusion stage cultivator named Zheng Yue.
He rubbed his temple and, faced with the chaos before him, simply said, “…It’s nothing. Clean up this place.”
The Qingxing Cultivators who had come to provide backup all looked at each other in confusion.
With this level of destruction, how could it possibly be ‘nothing’?
***
Meanwhile, Li Yunxian, who had just returned to the top floor of the hotel, was being asked the same thing.
“Yunxian, what just happened?” Duan Qiu and a few others, who’d followed Li Yunxian in a daze and gotten dragged into a wild fight, were completely at a loss about the current situation.
Anyway, since Li Yunxian told them to fight, they fought.
Hearing the question, Li Yunxian:
She looked at Duan Qiu in silence. “Didn’t we arrive together?”
Duan Qiu and the others didn’t understand, and of course, neither did she!
The meaning in her words dawned on Duan Qiu and the others, and they were instantly shocked.
They had all assumed Li Yunxian knew everything!
But you didn’t know anything, yet you still went and beat people up, killed them, and then stood there provoking the other side?
However, for Li Yunxian, as for the specific ins and outs of the situation, that could be sorted out later. In a situation like that, just knowing who’s friend and who’s foe was enough.
It was obvious at the scene—Su Wenjing was one of their own, and the people fighting Su Wenjing’s side were mostly those who had targeted her—those on the list.
The rest, the ones who stood by and didn’t intervene, didn’t need any introduction; Li Yunxian understood well enough.
Anyone in the Qingxing Ascension Platform had to be a high-ranking figure from Qingxing.
Su Wenjing had come today with that list to seek justice from the Qingxing higher-ups.
Those people were the ‘neutral’ top Qingxing Cultivators.
But neutrality only exists when both sides are roughly equal.
If one side is bullying the other, and you still choose to stand in the middle and not help, you’re siding with the bullies.
Seeing the way those people acted, Li Yunxian didn’t hesitate to count that ‘neutrality’ as being on the enemy’s side.
Since they were the enemy, there was no need to show them any respect once their side had won.
Being too polite only makes people think you’re easy to bully.
With Li Yunxian’s words, Duan Qiu and the others finally realized and turned to look at Su Wenjing.
But Su Wenjing didn’t look at them.
He frowned at Li Yunxian, then said something that left everyone stunned.
“You can’t even walk, and you’re still standing here talking?” Su Wenjing’s voice was cold.
All eyes turned to Li Yunxian.
It was only then they noticed that her complexion was extraordinarily pale. The hand poking out from her sleeve, with only a few knuckles showing, seemed to be trembling faintly.
But Li Yunxian’s expression was perfectly controlled, and her posture was so straight that no one had realized something was wrong.
Having been exposed, Li Yunxian stopped pretending and promptly collapsed onto the sofa, her voice finally growing weak.
“To wield a sword that can cut down a Nascent Soul, of course there’s a price to pay,” Li Yunxian said.
“A price?” Su Wenjing’s cold laugh came as a private sound transmission in Li Yunxian’s ear.
Knowing that Su Wenjing was just worried about her, Li Yunxian replied, uncharacteristically meek, “Yeah, but I’d already healed a lot of my soul before, and this time I got a lot of Merit Golden Light. Other than the pain, there aren’t any side effects.”
Her cultivation had increased, her body had become stronger, and most of her soul had already healed. After all, she’d once been a sword cultivator in the Tribulation stage.
Taking advantage of the moment before the Nascent Soul could react, she didn’t have to pay as steep a price as before.
This time, Li Yunxian had used her soul directly as a sword, letting it clash against the enemy’s body.
If her soul didn’t hurt, that would be strange.
“How did you see through it?” Li Yunxian thought she’d hidden it well—after all, the Fusion stage cultivator hadn’t noticed.
Su Wenjing glanced at Li Yunxian, not bothering to answer.
With Li Yunxian’s temperament, if she were still able to move, she wouldn’t have called him over to open a portal and help her escape.
And with her usual sharp tongue, she wouldn’t have left after just a couple of words.
It was obvious that something was wrong with Li Yunxian.
And as for her slashing the Nascent Soul with her sword, there was no doubt she’d once again recklessly used her soul.
Su Wenjing had originally thought Li Yunxian had blown her soul apart again, but seeing her attitude now, it seemed that wasn’t the case.
His expression softened a little.
The others hadn’t heard their follow-up conversation and only caught Li Yunxian’s line about “paying a price.” Instantly, they all scowled.
No one believed that the price for a Foundation Establishment cultivator killing a Nascent Soul would be “just a little.”
Everyone started lecturing Li Yunxian.
There were plenty of people here whose cultivation was higher than Li Yunxian’s!
Even if they couldn’t handle a Nascent Soul, there was still Su Wenjing!
There was absolutely no reason for Li Yunxian, at mid-Foundation Establishment, to risk her life.
She really should have thought about herself before doing something so reckless!
As they blurted out these words, Duan Qiu and the others felt a bit out of sorts.
Until now, as Gold Core cultivators who’d been following Li Yunxian and listening to the Qingxing folks talk about her in awe, they’d thought those people were exaggerating her image.
But it turns out…
This big-eyed, clever-looking person actually does the whole self-sacrifice thing!
Li Yunxian took the criticism and, after everyone had finished, explained for herself.
“But we couldn’t just keep fighting. It’s only with a swift, decisive win that you have deterrent power, and people will shut up.” That was the judgment Li Yunxian had made after sizing up the scene.
Hearing this, Su Wenjing:
Was she talking about how he and those two Fusion stage cultivators had been deadlocked for most of the day, and only managed to capture the two after Li Yunxian cut down the Nascent Soul, causing them to lose focus?
The others picked up on it too.
Everyone immediately fell silent, sneaking glances at Su Wenjing.
Li Yunxian was always friendly, and after just a few days, she’d gotten along well with everyone—they could say anything to her. But as for Su Wenjing, who always kept his distance…
Only someone truly fearless would speak their mind to him.
They wanted to see how Su Wenjing would react, so they could decide how to smooth things over.
But all they saw was Su Wenjing rolling his eyes in exasperation, completely ignoring Li Yunxian’s subtle jab.
For one, he couldn’t compare to her in this respect.
He couldn’t match Li Yunxian’s all-out, no-holds-barred approach—she’d risk everything just to kill the other side.
He valued his own life a bit more, and he’d admit it.
“All right, now that everyone’s taken their medicine and recovered, let me fill you in on what happened over at the Ascension Platform.” Su Wenjing cut the chatter and changed the subject.
Everyone relaxed.
They’d never expected Su Wenjing to react this way to Li Yunxian’s words.
It seemed their captain…while a little cold and impatient, actually had quite a good temper?
Everyone wondered a bit, then perked up and turned to Su Wenjing.
Su Wenjing briefly recapped the background.
This morning, he’d taken the list to meet with the Qingxing higher-ups, so he’d gone to the Ascension Platform.
Recently, ever since Li Yunxian’s arrival, Qingxing’s Central City had become a bit chaotic. To be on the safe side, most of Qingxing’s high-level cultivators were present.
After looking at the list and evidence, most of those people didn’t want to get involved.
What Li Yunxian brought out benefited the lower-level cultivators—it didn’t affect them.
The group with great admiration for Li Yunxian didn’t include these people.
Still, with the evidence in hand, the Qingxing higher-ups had come out and called in a few of the people on the list for a chat, to “clear up any misunderstandings.”
Some who were on the list came, and some who weren’t on the list came too.
With the evidence right in front of them, they didn’t even try to deny it. They just smiled and said they only wanted to be friends with Li Yunxian, that there was no malice.
Su Wenjing then asked who among the Qingxing side had leaked his cultivation details.
Qingxing had two Fusion stage cultivators: one was the so-called ‘neutral’ Zheng Yue, and the other, who Su Wenjing had locked up, was named Feng Songhua.
Feng Songhua admitted it right away.
He said he didn’t mean anything by it, just that a friend had asked, and since he knew, he answered.
“It’s not some big secret, anyway.”
Su Wenjing recounted Feng Songhua’s original words in a flat tone, but the Nascent Soul cultivators who’d been there were incensed.
“That guy’s attitude was terrible!”
“Yeah, he just thought Su Professor was a Nascent Soul and he himself was a Fusion stage, so he didn’t care what we thought.”
“It made me so angry!”
A few of them slapped the table, venting their rage.
Su Wenjing waited for them to finish, then went on, “I said it really wasn’t a big deal. Just have Feng apologize and let’s move on.”
“He refused.”
“If we couldn’t talk it out, we’d just have to spar.”
“And the ones who wanted to ‘make friends’ wanted to spar too, so we all sparred together.”