Chapter 6
Her claws tore through the air, reaching viciously for Liu Meng’s face.
A triumphant smile had already spread across the girl’s face, as if she could see her opponent screaming and begging for mercy beneath her hands.
But in the next instant, the smile froze on her face.
A seemingly delicate hand moved faster than hers, meeting her wrist at an unbelievable speed with effortless ease.
“Smack!”
A crisp sound rang out.
Liu Meng caught her wrist with a precise, unyielding grip.
The girl felt an immense force surge from the other’s fingertips. No matter how she summoned her strength or struggled, she couldn’t move Liu Meng in the slightest.
“Th-this is impossible!” The girl’s eyes filled with shock and disbelief, and she shrieked, “How... how can you stop me? I’ve already condensed spiritual power!”
In her eyes, she was worlds apart from the person she’d been before. Even a single wisp of spiritual power should have been enough to make a mortal unable to resist her!
How could Liu Meng possibly stop her?!
“What a fool.” The maid in the white mask finally couldn’t hold back a sneer. “Did you think you were the only one who’d condensed spiritual power?”
The girl froze, staring at Liu Meng in disbelief.
Could Liu Meng have condensed spiritual power even before her?!
And if she couldn’t fight back against Liu Meng, did that mean... Liu Meng had condensed more spiritual power than she had?!
“No... I can’t lose!” A madness born of despair surged through the girl. With a piercing shriek, she clenched her other hand into a fist and swung it at Liu Meng’s face with all her might!
Liu Meng remained silent. She didn’t take this last-ditch struggle seriously at all.
She didn’t even release the girl’s wrist. She simply swung her free left hand forward, almost casually.
“Thump!”
A dull thud.
Liu Meng’s palm landed lightly against the side of the girl’s neck.
The girl stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes rolling back as she collapsed limply to the ground, instantly losing consciousness.
“Dispose of her.”
The Senior Sister in the black mask spoke coldly and gestured to the other maids.
The other maids immediately nodded, then came forward and dragged the unconscious girl away like a dead dog, into the darkness at the end of the corridor.
Only the Senior Sister and Liu Meng remained.
The Senior Sister’s gaze returned to Liu Meng. This time, she wasn’t merely sizing her up; there was also undisguised admiration in her eyes.
“Very good. You have the temperament, the skill, and the talent.” She nodded slowly. “But I can tell that you... haven’t reached your limit yet.”
As she spoke, she kicked the corpse of “Liu Er,” which still held a decent amount of yang energy, over to Liu Meng.
“This corpse is yours, too. Let me see just how many wisps of spiritual power you can condense.”
This unexpected “reward” made Liu Meng wary.
She didn’t understand why the other woman was doing this, but she obediently crouched down, placed her palm on the corpse again, and settled into position to continue cultivating.
With her mastery of the Profound Female Art and the pure yang energy in her body, condensing spiritual power had become as easy as eating or drinking.
The fourth wisp... the fifth...
The sixth! The seventh! The eighth!
As wisps of spiritual power took shape and gathered in her dantian, Liu Meng could clearly feel herself growing stronger at an astonishing pace.
Her senses became sharper; she could even hear people breathing in rooms far away. Her strength had multiplied, too. It seemed she could punch straight through the stone slab beneath her without difficulty.
Only after the yang energy from her main body was finally used up did she slowly stop and open her eyes.
Within her dantian, eight solid wisps of spiritual power swam slowly like eight docile little fish, radiating energy that made the heart tremble.
The Senior Sister stepped forward, placed a finger against Liu Meng’s wrist, and closed her eyes to sense her condition.
“Eight wisps...” Her voice held a trace of incredulous astonishment. “With only two corpses, you’ve condensed eight wisps of spiritual power. I’ve never seen talent like this in my life.”
Liu Meng respectfully lowered her head and asked softly, “Senior Sister, you’re too kind. It’s just... I don’t understand why you’ve given me such a great advantage.”
When someone offers you something for nothing, they must have an ulterior motive.
In this man-eating Profound Female Sect, she didn’t believe in kindness without a reason.
The Senior Sister fell silent for a moment, seemingly gathering her thoughts. At last, she spoke softly:
“Because I’ll be leaving here soon.”
“Leaving?” Liu Meng was even more confused.
“That’s right.” Qin Shuang looked at her and explained slowly, “Once the spiritual power within us reaches ten wisps, we can break through the bottleneck and enter the first layer of Qi Refining.”
“Once we break through, we’ll no longer be maids. Miss Su will take us in as disciples, then send us out into the world to establish our own cave abodes and gather resources for her.”
“The outside world is nothing like Miss Su’s cave abode. We new disciples have low cultivation and no backing. Every year, fewer than three out of ten of us survive.”
“As for me, I already have nine wisps of spiritual power. I’m just one step away from that breakthrough. So I’ve been waiting... waiting for someone.”
The Senior Sister took a deep breath and stared intently at Liu Meng. “Your talent is the greatest I’ve ever seen. At your pace, it won’t be long before you break through to the first layer of Qi Refining and are sent out into the world, too.”
“So I want to form an alliance with you.”
An alliance?
Liu Meng raised her head and met the Senior Sister’s sharp gaze.
“That’s right, an alliance.” The Senior Sister’s tone was utterly serious. “For disciples like us, once we’re sent outside, going it alone means certain death. But if two of us join forces and support each other, we’ll have a much better chance of surviving. I can tell you’re not the sort to submit to others. Your skill and talent make you a reliable ally.”
Liu Meng fell silent, rapidly weighing the pros and cons. Qin Shuang’s proposal was tempting; for the challenges ahead, it was undoubtedly a promising way forward.
But only if the other woman could be trusted.
As if sensing her doubts, the Senior Sister took a pitch-black token carved with the image of a crescent moon from her robes and held it out to her.
“This is a Sound-Transmission Moon Token. As long as we’re within a hundred li of each other, we can use it to communicate.”
Liu Meng accepted the token. It felt cool to the touch, its texture extraordinary.
“My name is Qin Shuang.” The Senior Sister in the black mask finally gave her name. “I’ll wait for you outside. I hope you won’t make me wait too long.”
The next moment, her body suddenly shuddered!
A powerful aura erupted from her with a thunderous roar!
The air around them seemed to freeze. The scattered points of spiritual Qi between Heaven and Earth seemed to answer their master’s summons, forming a visible white whirlwind that rushed wildly into Qin Shuang’s body!
Her tenth wisp of spiritual power condensed inside her in an instant!
Qin Shuang immediately sat cross-legged and circulated her cultivation art with all her might, guiding the immense torrent of spiritual Qi. Her aura surged higher and higher as her body, not yet fully at the Qi Refining stage, underwent a fundamental transformation!
Just then, a languid yet overwhelmingly majestic woman’s voice rang without warning in everyone’s minds.
It was Su Meier’s voice!
“All maids, assemble in the main hall immediately.”