Following the girl’s voice, a gust of sword wind and feathers swept in, forming a barrier in front of He Qiu.
Upon closer inspection, one would find that the sword wind was woven from countless red leaves.
No, they were originally just fallen leaves in the forest, but under the summons of a certain power, they soared into the air and swirled with bright fiery light, rushing toward He Qiu to protect him according to the caster’s will.
*Boom!*
Tens of thousands of falling leaf blades collided with the overwhelming wave of Sword Qi.
Like stones striking eggs, they easily fended off the demon cultivators’ encirclement.
Then, these leaves returned and swirled around He Qiu, creating a powerful protection circle.
“This… what sorcery is this!?”
For a moment, all the demon cultivators were filled with astonishment, not daring to approach He Qiu easily.
“My Spirit Art, do you think you demon cultivators can understand it?”
“Who are you! State your name!”
“Are you worthy of knowing this lady’s noble name?”
The girl’s tone was playful and teasing.
She stepped out from the shadows and appeared openly before everyone.
Standing 1.6 meters tall with a silver-white ponytail, a red dress, and a pure, pretty face, she was He Qiu’s Little Senior Sister, Luo Qianning, whom he had met once before.
Luo Qianning had originally snuck down the mountain to buy snacks.
On her way back to the Sect at night, she was suddenly startled by the Demonic Qi erupting halfway up the mountain, so she hurried to investigate.
This investigation turned out to be quite something — her cute and well-behaved Junior Brother was actually about to be killed by this group of ferocious villains!
How could Luo Qianning tolerate such a thing?
Although He Qiu had been quite annoying before, it was hard for Luo Qianning to finally have a Junior Brother.
If He Qiu died, then Luo Qianning would once again be the Junior Sister at the bottom of the Xueyin Lineage’s hierarchy.
Luo Qianning had a golden dream of being an older sister!
Being looked at with admiring eyes by a junior would make her feel cool and good about herself.
What was more, she hadn’t even settled the debt with He Qiu for him looking down on her earlier!
Therefore, Luo Qianning could not stand by and watch her Junior Brother be bullied by these ferocious villains —
“What is the origin of you demon cultivators? To think you dare to act wildly right under the nose of our Longyin Sect. Do you really think there is no one in our Sect who can deal with you?”
Summoning the leaves to swirl back into position, Luo Qianning simply controlled the countless blades.
Her gaze was cold.
Although her tone was light and teasing, she possessed an air of majesty that commanded respect without anger, giving people a sense of dignity that contrasted with her cute appearance.
Her Spirit Vein was called the Falling Spirit Vein, which could control fallen leaves as sharp blades, rotating at high speeds to kill enemies!
In theory, Luo Qianning’s ability could turn any thin and light object into a sharp blade for attack.
In reality, however, she had not yet developed her Spirit Vein to such an invincible level.
Currently, she could only manipulate the simplest fallen leaves.
But even so, in a terrain like a forest, Luo Qianning’s combat power was terrifying.
With almost no spirit consumption cost, she could control all the fallen leaves on the ground to strangle enemies or protect He Qiu.
Without absolute overwhelming firepower, Luo Qianning was an almost invincible existence in a forest environment!
Therefore, with a cultivation of the Fifth Stage Spirit Realm, she stood up to protect her Junior Brother.
Dealing with more than ten experienced demon cultivators alone was completely effortless; she was not flustered at all.
“Little girl, you probably haven’t seen the terror of us demon cultivators!”
“Hmph, buy one get one free. Go! Kill them all!”
At first, the demon cultivators still didn’t believe in such luck.
With killing intent rising, they brandished their swords and rushed toward Luo Qianning.
However, the silver-haired girl only slightly flicked her index finger, and what followed was an infinite storm of falling leaves.
The sharp blades swirled, causing the demon cultivators such agonizing pain that they couldn’t even get half a step closer.
After several rounds back and forth, the demon cultivators were all dazed, and no one dared to approach easily again.
“How is it? Junior Brother, your Senior Sister Qianning is pretty good, right?”
“Im… impressive…”
He Qiu was stunned.
Was this Little Senior Sister Luo Qianning, who usually seemed unreliable, actually a hidden powerhouse?
As expected, the Xueyin Lineage was full of experts.
“Heh heh — it’s good that you know!”
Enjoying her Junior Brother’s admiring and grateful gaze, Luo Qianning was delighted, her heart bursting with joy.
On the other hand, the demon cultivators were in a very uncomfortable position.
“Boss, this little girl is really not to be trifled with. She’s at least at the peak of the Fifth Stage, and her Spirit Vein attribute is extremely strange…”
In the demon cultivator camp, a scarred man in black chickened out.
Looking at the sharp leaves flying all over the sky, he felt that even ten of him would have no chance of winning.
If Luo Qianning wanted to, she could completely summon a rain of leaf-swords to drown them.
“Wh-what should we do?”
“How about we retreat… Her Highness the Princess is still waiting for us alone in the cave!”
“Tsk, how annoying!”
“Retreat!”
With an order, the demon cultivators turned around one after another and headed back.
However, before they could even take a few steps, they ran headlong into a group of righteous cultivators on Sword Flight.
Fleeing demon cultivators bumping into righteous pursuers — the scene was extremely awkward!
“Well now, we’ve chased you through half of the Kyushu Heavenly Dynasty. I didn’t expect you rats to walk right into our net today? How interesting, ha ha ha!”
“At this point, what else is there to say?”
“A group of cunning and wicked demons, accept the judgment of the righteous!”
“Fellow brothers, attack!”
*Whish, whish, whish —*
For a moment, a barrage of swords was fired simultaneously.
A dark blue formation covered the field, and Spirit Arts flew everywhere.
Several righteous cultivators of the Seventh Stage Spirit Realm showed off their prowess, each controlling their practiced spells as they dived toward the demon cultivators’ position, slaughtering them until they fled in all directions.
This scene could only be described as a one-sided hunt.
A few minutes ago, the demon cultivators who were still arrogant and overbearing toward He Qiu were now like rats encountering their natural enemy.
They had no power to fight back and fled for their lives.
Under a certain tree shade, Zi Menghan watched her subordinates being slaughtered, her heart feeling desolate.
Suddenly, a fleeing demon cultivator passed by her, causing Zi Menghan to grab onto a lifesaving straw —
“Hey! Quickly take the Prin —”
“Get lost!”
Before she could finish her sentence, the demon cultivator shoved Zi Menghan away in annoyance and then fled alone without looking back.
In such a critical moment, who had the leisure to protect the Princess?
The goal was to run as far as possible!
“…”
The purple-haired girl was left alone on the spot, her expression stunned.
In fact, when Zi Menghan saw her subordinates go out to hunt He Qiu, she had already predicted that righteous cultivators would hear the commotion and pursue them.
She had long wanted to abandon her subordinates and run away.
However, just as Zi Menghan was about to leave the cave, she looked up and saw a group of righteous cultivators rushing to provide support via Sword Flight.
She was immediately frightened into hiding again, and her desire to escape mostly vanished.
It wasn’t that she was too cowardly to run, but that she had a leg injury and couldn’t run at full speed at all.
In this situation, once she failed to leave the Longyin Mountain Range in a short time and was discovered by the pursuing righteous cultivators, she — a lone weak woman acting suspiciously in the middle of the night — would truly be unable to defend herself.
She would be trapped and facing certain death.
Therefore, Zi Menghan could not run away alone.
At the moment, her only option was to follow quietly, meet up with the demon cultivators, and then have her subordinates take her with them to escape.
But now, she had finally encountered a fleeing subordinate — yet she was abandoned!
‘Was I… sold out?’
Zi Menghan’s head was buzzing, her heart filled with anger she didn’t dare to vent.
She leaned against the tree in a daze, watching with her own eyes as her subordinates were slaughtered by the righteous cultivators.
Some died, some were injured, and in the end, they all ignored Zi Menghan and fled alone.
This time, she was truly stunned and on the verge of despair.
These subordinates were indeed all traitors!
Zi Menghan was now certain that someone among her subordinates wanted her dead.
They took advantage of the conflict with the white-clad boy to deliberately fan the flames, creating chaos and riots to lure the righteous cultivators.
In the end, relying on the fact that Zi Menghan had difficulty walking, they betrayed her one by one and fled, leaving a Demon Sect Princess in the middle of an encirclement of righteous cultivators.
‘Damn it, I was set up!’
Clenching her pink fists, the girl punched a crooked tree.
Her lip was bitten, and a few drops of blood seeped out due to her unwillingness.
No, she couldn’t just let herself be caught by the righteous cultivators!
Her father had once told her that righteous cultivators were a bunch of hypocrites.
When they caught a beautiful demon cultivator, they had no sense of morality at all.
The filthy things they did were not a bit less disgusting than those of the Demon Sect’s evil cultivators…
If Zi Menghan were caught by the righteous cultivators, with her important status as a Demon Sect Princess, she would definitely be tortured by that group of seemingly dignified hypocrites until she wished she were dead!
‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be caught and interrogated by those hypocrites. Please, please, someone save me…’
As her mood became increasingly anxious, the purple-haired girl’s dark, beautiful eyes became incomparably cold.
She repeatedly scratched at the tips of her hair, trying hard to calm the irritable emotions in her heart.
And just at her most desperate moment, Zi Menghan caught a glimpse of the white-clad boy in the distance.
A flash of inspiration hit her, and a slight hint of joy appeared on her lips, as if she had grasped a ray of hope for escape!
‘Maybe this isn’t a dead end yet…’