16: choose

Their eyes met. Fang Huai yawned and closed his eyes again.

"I got up a bit too fast and can't open my eyes. I'd better go back to sleep and continue my sweet dream."

By now, Jiang Miao had lost her charming and weak appearance, her gaze turning ruthless. "Once a dream is broken, there's no point in continuing it. I saw through your act long ago, so stop pretending."

"Tell me, why were you staring at me so intently?"

Fang Huai still tried to cover it up. "It's late, you should get some sleep."

If he lost some blood and vitality, so be it. Wasn't the cultivation of the Disciples in the Corpse Fiend Sect just a cycle of devouring one another?

It wasn't the first time he had experienced such a thing. After all, in the Corpse Fiend Sect, might makes right.

Today, Jiang Miao was in the right.

As for sending the Small Corpse Meteor Worm to attack Jiang Miao?

Forget it. He still wanted to live a few more days.

Fang Huai had once wondered: if those in the Corpse Fiend Sect who hadn't reached Qi Refining relied on Plucking and Supplementing for body tempering, and low-level Qi Refiners relied on seizing blood and vitality, then how did high-level Qi Refiners temper their bodies?

Now, he finally understood. The Corpse Fiend Sect was a Sect that viewed human life as expendable grass. Its Disciples were devoid of humanity, and the high-level ones were even more bloodthirsty.

Having stumbled upon Jiang Miao's cultivation method, he could only play dumb.

Jiang Miao's eyes flickered, and she suddenly burst into laughter. "Interesting, yet also boring."

She and Jiang Jing had put on this act partly for fun and partly because the Human Puppet Hall was a chaotic place where they could secretly plunder some blood and vitality.

Now that Fang Huai had seen through it, there was no need to keep up the charade.

Evil Qi surged around Jiang Miao, her bones creaked and popped, and the iron chains on her body were corroded until they snapped.

She stretched lazily and slowly walked toward Fang Huai.

Fang Huai's hair stood on end, he swallowed hard, and a powerful sense of impending death welled up in his heart.

Jiang Miao's nails carved deep wounds into Fang Huai's chest, exposing the bone. Her alluring body was only an inch away from him as she chuckled:

"Junior Brother, you really are quite beautiful."

Fang Huai's entire body was tense, his back already drenched in cold sweat.

He knew all too well that hidden beneath this charming skin was a ruthlessness more bloodthirsty than any monster or Yao Beast.

In the next second, Jiang Miao's smile vanished. Her fingers suddenly tightened and pierced into Fang Huai's chest.

The sound of bones cracking and flesh tearing grated in the air.

Blood seeped from the corner of Fang Huai's mouth as he stared straight at Jiang Miao. "Senior Sister, if you kill me, I will make you pay a price even if it costs me my life!"

Without any Labels to save him, Fang Huai could only mobilize the Small Corpse Meteor Worm, prepared to go down fighting with Jiang Miao.

"That is the funniest joke I've ever heard!" Jiang Miao laughed uncontrollably, as if she had heard something incredibly ridiculous.

Withdrawing her palm from Fang Huai's chest, she said softly, "At the First Level of Qi Refining, yet able to remain unaffected by the Confusing Evil Qi... You must possess a special Spirit Body. The Corpse Fiend Sect needs talent like yours."

"You are quite interesting. I like interesting people."

Fang Huai looked Jiang Miao in the eye, secretly urging his blood to flow faster from his body.

He could only enter self-harm mode for now. The moment she made another move, he would immediately swap a negative Label onto her and have the Small Corpse Meteor Worm strike.

"Relax, I'm not going to eat you."

Jiang Miao's finger brushed against the chains on Fang Huai, and they snapped instantly. "Looking at your inexperienced face, you must be from a Mortal town, right?"

"I've heard that the Secular World values emotions above all else, and everyone speaks of benevolence and morality. Why don't I give you a chance to be a Saint?"

"In the main hall, there are over a hundred new human puppets. They aren't very damaged and can survive if saved. The remaining four hundred are severely damaged and on the verge of death, but they could probably live a few more days if rescued."

"Do you choose to let the hundred live, or the four hundred?"

Fang Huai frowned. "Fairy, please don't toy with me. How can I possibly control their life and death?"

Jiang Miao pressed the tip of her nose against Fang Huai's forehead and bit his earlobe. "Now, I am giving you the power to decide their fate."

"But you only have ten breaths to choose."

Their eyes met. In Jiang Miao's gaze, Fang Huai saw a complete disregard for life. He believed she truly would kill everyone.

"Three... two... one..."

"I will save those hundred healthy ones." At the final moment of Jiang Miao's countdown, Fang Huai made his choice.

With no background and no one to treat them, those four hundred were already broken; they wouldn't last more than a few days.

But those hundred healthy ones could enter the Miscellaneous Labor Valley to harvest Evil Qi. Perhaps they still had a chance to survive.

"Good!"

Jiang Miao's eyes turned blood-red as she fully activated the Body Tempering Art to plunder. Over four hundred lives were extinguished within a dozen breaths.

She seemed unable to digest so much blood and vitality at once; her body turned bright red, like a ripe apple.

"Junior Brother, these four hundred people died because of you."

Fang Huai's fists clenched tight, and he bit his lip until it bled. "Please fulfill your promise, Fairy, and release the remaining hundred."

"Good!"

Jiang Miao's nail sliced through the skin on her waist, and she pulled a Storage Pouch from her flesh. With a light tap, a spirit sword appeared in her hand.

The spirit sword swung, Sword Qi overflowing as it severed the chains of the human puppets.

The newly freed human puppets were moved to tears, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly to thank the two of them.

Fang Huai looked at Jiang Miao, but when he saw the corners of her mouth curl up, a bad premonition suddenly rose in his heart.

"Fairy, don't!"

Before he could finish, Jiang Miao swung the spirit sword again. Over a hundred flashes of sword light passed, and the heads of the kowtowing human puppets were all severed from their bodies.

"You!" Fang Huai's pupils shrank.

"Interesting, interesting!"

Jiang Miao laughed uncontrollably. "I kept my promise. I released them—I released their souls to be reincarnated."

Fang Huai said angrily, "How can you treat human life with such contempt?"

Jiang Miao leaned in close once more. "Fang Huai, once you step onto the path of cultivation, do not have a heart of pity. You and I are the same kind of person; sooner or later, you will be even more cruel than I am."

"Now, I'll take you to change into some clean clothes."

————

After such a huge commotion, Li Hu and Li San should have appeared long ago. In fact, the two of them had indeed heard the noises from the Human Puppet Hall.

But having just lit a blood jade leaf, the two had no desire to bother with the affairs of the Human Puppet Hall.

The blood jade leaf had a hallucinogenic effect, but it truly could stabilize the Dao Heart, expel Evil Qi and resentment, and help a Cultivator break through a Bottleneck.

However, the Ascension Society strictly forbade members from revealing the existence of the blood jade leaf, so the two had to use it carefully.

"Junior Brother Hu, there's quite a commotion in the Human Puppet Hall. Should we go take a look?"

"Don't panic, Senior Brother Li. It's likely some Senior Brother or Senior Sister having some fun in there. We should avoid trouble. When they come out, we can just ask for more compensation."

As they were speaking, the door was blasted open by Sword Qi. Jiang Miao, dressed in a white gown, strode in with a grim-faced Fang Huai following behind.

"May I ask which Senior Sister has graced us with her presence? What instructions do you have for us?"

Although their door had been destroyed, the two didn't dare show any anger and bowed to welcome her.

"Senior Sister?"

Seeing that Jiang Miao didn't speak, Li San looked up and felt that the woman in the white gown before him seemed inexplicably familiar.

"I am Jiang Miao," Jiang Miao said coldly. "You two have such poor memories. You just tied me to a Copper Pillar, and you don't recognize me in the blink of an eye?"

Jiang Miao? Jiang Jing?

The Sect Masters Lineage!

It's over!

"Fairy Jiang!" The two were terrified and hurriedly knelt, kowtowing like they were pounding garlic.

Seeing the two kowtow until blood flowed freely, Jiang Miao covered her mouth and snickered.

"You ask what I'm here for? I'm here on behalf of Senior Sister Jiang Jing to take your heads and kick them around like balls."