Chapter 51: Arc 3: Chapter 20

Under the watchful eyes of her two companions and the many gazes of those that had accompanied Lao Ping – an odd quantity, given that there was really no need for this many of them to show up, but she wasn’t going to question it if Xue Yaling didn’t see any issues – she followed Lao Ping over to the side, from one open area of the silver forest to another.

If he’d kept going too far, she would have certainly refused, but since she was able to remain within viewing distance of Xue Yaling and Song Ming, there was even less to worry about.

However, she couldn’t help but be worried. This situation seemed rather dangerous, regardless of the intentions of those that remained beside the other two. They were far more numerous than her side was, and even if none were in the third realm – it was difficult to be sure even if she had the ability to reach them with her spiritual perception – she remembered very clearly how tough a fight with fewer Blazing Skies outer disciples ended up being.

‘What am I doing? Stop worrying this much, it won’t do me any good. Just get through this, leave, and try to have some rest…’ Bianca thought, mentally slapping herself for how much she was overthinking this, ‘Xue Yaling says its fine, so it must be fine.’

“Well… Bianca, wasn’t it?” Lao Ping began, pulling out a small bag that was clearly weighed down by something, “I hadn’t expected that you would show up, but you have sped up our operations somewhat. It was a small bit of help, but it may be the edge that we needed in order to receive the most from Long Shiyi. This means that we might be able to earn back the cost of paying you twice over, at the very least.”

For a moment, she wasn’t sure how to interpret this sudden appreciation, but then her head seemed to begin working for once and concluded something obvious, which was that this explained the reason behind his previous agreement to pay her an outrageous sum. Presumably, there was also some involvement from her aura, perhaps allowing intimidation to play a certain part.

It didn’t solve the question of why he’d tell her about it, though. Surely, if he believed her performance earlier in the day, he’d want to make her think that she’d gotten a lot more out of him than he was comfortable giving?

‘Fuck if I know. I can’t reach her with my spiritual perception, so even if I could divide my attention well enough, I wouldn’t be able to communicate with her in any way,’ Bianca shrugged – in her mind and in reality – and put a hand on her hips, raising her head a little as to look down on the man as best she could, “Well then, you should have no issues passing them over.”

“True. I am curious about one thing, however.”

Without thinking much about it, she raised an eyebrow lazily, “And? Do you plan to waste my time again?”

“What compelled you to assist in our operation? I mean, you could’ve passed through without incident, but then, you not only show off your energy, but also that thieving nature of yours,” his tone changed blatantly as he continued without a moment of pause, “That was more enough to confirm your identity.”

‘My identity… Wait, does he-’

“Bianca!” a cry came from her side, and it was a very familiar voice.

‘Song Ming!’ she would’ve turned if not for Lao Ping pulling out a weapon and clearly aiming at her, meaning that if she was to lose focus for a moment, she could be attacked and potentially even killed without her understanding a thing.

“I’ve heard you took quite the interest in your own bounty. I’m surprised someone like you didn’t think about trading away one of your servants,” he said, but didn’t elaborate as he swung his weapon – a mace with a wooden-looking head – through the air before suddenly smashing it into the ground, resting both hands atop the handle.

For a moment, there seemed to be no follow-up, but a slight trembling of the earth betrayed the fact that this was no mere idle movement. In fact, on a closer look, she also saw the faint glow of energy around his body brighten for a moment, though she had little time to ponder the reason for it before she decided to act. Her hand went up and she focused on the last addition to her Demonic Tyrant panel – potentially the last addition that would ever come, too.

A sphere of smoke manifested around her, and a moment later a thick root burst out of the ground, right beneath her, crashing into the shield and throwing her up into the air.

The smoke endured, but she was left to simply rise and then fall back down to the ground, where the root retreated into the earth and seemed to vanish, leaving only the torn earth behind. Given that she had no idea how this skill was used to begin with, the motions of that man’s mace aside, she wasn’t sure if the root was going to burst out again or if she could safely land and consider her moves then.

‘Why does this happen a third time? Why can’t I just have a peaceful time without all these assholes showing up and trying to kill us?’ Bianca felt that darkness rise up within her again, but she held it back as she brought out her knife and filled it with her anger, slashing at the air.

The moment before the crimson arc would’ve hit the smoke barrier, she pulled her hand back and immediately began moving it forward again, as all it needed was a moment to travel past the boundary before she’d rather be fully protected from a repeat attack by the root underground. However, as she landed upon the ground once more, there was no root, and in fact, her opponent began to raise his mace again, indicating that he might only be able to perform the root lash once per strike.

She wasn’t going to check, since she knew for a fact that her own combat ability won’t be enough to carry her through this, nor through assisting the other two with the small army that had gathered to attack her friends – well, friend with benefits and an annoying fox… with benefits.

Her crimson slash made it to Lao Ping, but as he raised his mace this time, a strange wind seemed to blow past, and the overwhelming light was either blown out of its proper path or drawn towards his mace, striking it and resulting in minimal damage. At most, there was a slight mark left on the handle, but little else.

‘That weapon must be special, seeing as I can usually chop through trees with this thing,’ her conclusion was simple, seeing as she couldn’t exactly rely on her knowledge of artefacts – if this was even one – to determine what she was dealing with.

After all, she knew nothing about them.

However, she was aware that the moment the mace struck the earth once more, she would be dealing with more roots emerging from the ground, and also that she’d be chased by them if she tried to help Song Ming and Xue Yaling. Hence, the moment she landed, she ran in the opposite direction for a few seconds, evading the area where the root had burst out just in case.

Whether it would burst out in the same place once more or not, the last thing Bianca wanted was to be caught off-guard by a strange root and be struck anywhere near her groin or butt. Neither one would be pleasant, not to mention the unsuitability of the situation, and she was sure that even with her odd durability to attacks, such a strike would hurt quite a bit. Such a line of thought also made her ponder how she got distracted quite so quickly, thus throwing her off further.

In the end, by the time Lao Ping slammed the mace back down and caused an attack to appear once more, she had barely managed to do anything, her thoughts going all over the place.

She felt the earth tremble once again, but this time it was clearly stronger. Since she had no time to do anything else, she brought up her Abyssal Shield once more, ready to empower it in a specific spot if absolutely necessary.

A root burst out from the ground, but the trembling of the earth didn’t cease. Instead, just as it was about to strike, she saw and felt several more roots surge out of the earth, all coming at nearly the same time. The root beneath emerged in between her feet, as before, but the others were emerging in a manner that would leave them landing on the top of her defensive shield. Thus, before her smoky barrier was inevitably destroyed and she ended up being hit by all of these, she began dodging to the side and raised her hand to empower the top of the shield, shutting her eyes involuntarily as she prepared for the inevitable impact of the roots.

Perhaps it was due to shutting out everything around her, but it felt like it took a long, long time for the roots to finally emerge. However, when the impact finally came, it all happened in an instant.

She felt the root underneath her emerge on her side, slamming into the edge of the smoke barrier just a moment prior to the rest of the roots landing atop her defensive sphere of smoke. Their lash was extremely loud and powerful, to the point that she could feel it even through the smoke, though that barrier didn’t endure the strikes. The moment the majority of the force behind the lashing roots struck the shield, it shattered, smoke scattering everywhere, and the roots continued on their path, striking Bianca’s body with a fraction of their original strength.

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“To think that this rare effect activated on just the second try! The heavens must not favour you.”

The impact was enough to make her clench her teeth to supress a cry of pain, though, as usual, it was unable to pierce her skin and merely left some red marks upon it. Most likely, they would fade within a few minutes, but that didn’t stop them from bringing her a great deal of discomfort – and anger.

Anger that wasn’t helped in the slightest by the sounds of fighting breaking out to her left, where she knew that Song Ming and Xue Yaling would be left in danger the longer she continued fighting here… not that she could do much to avert the disaster entirely, but at the very least it would make the fight ever so slightly more even.

‘Fuck! I have to do something… and it seems like the only one that even stands a chance is that other me… if it is even me at all. That thing can probably fight a lot better, and if I hold it back enough, maybe it won’t get as out of hand as before,’ Bianca thought, and although every instinct told her that this would be a terrible idea, she had no choice but to conclude that this was the only option she had, ‘Demon Queen Bianca… Your time to shine, you horrible monster.’

Even though she decided to let her Demon Queen tendencies go, it was limited to letting out just the slightest amount of it. She knew that if it was left to do as it wished, she’d end up doing countless things that she’d regret, and so she watched out for even the slightest sign of herself losing control.

The result, even with that, were immediate. She saw the situation in a whole new light, and whereas she previously experienced worry and confusion, now she had a certain degree of clarity. The combat skill used by Lao Ping was simple, and the defensive method wasn’t especially complicated either. Provided that she used enough strength, enough fury to strike at a small enough spot, there was nothing the strange rustling wind could do to prevent her energy from reaching her target, given that it could only scatter so much.

And whereas Lao Ping was limited by his realm, Bianca could empower her attacks with her emotions. Her desire to kill, to hurt, to devastate – something Demon Queen Bianca seemed to have in excess.

Ignoring whatever the man was attempting to do next, she ran towards him and swung her knife several times in rapid succession, each slash releasing the vast power of her anger and fury. Their light was far greater than Bianca’s previous attack, and it forced Lao Ping to change his strategy and go from passively employing the strange rustling leaf defence.

He stopped his attempt to perform a third root lash and grasped the shaft of the mace with both hands, switching to performing a swing that met the crimson waves directly. For a moment, he looked as if he was a tree himself, and his mace was a vast branch meeting the winds of the world.

The crimson arcs met the weapon and exploded, and the first one stopped the sturdy branch in its tracks, almost reverting the feeling of the scene back to its original state. The second hit the side of the mace, forcing it out of the way, completely ruining the illusion, and thus the third was free to crash into the man’s arm, visibly slicing into it. Blood erupted from his limb, crimson mist seeming to cover Bianca’s vision despite her being a decent distance from him.

‘Control yourself, Bianca… He’s injured, so he’ll not be as much of a threat. I need to help the others and get out of…’ she thought before the bag that he had previously displayed caught her eye, ‘… Shiny.’

Her anger was already difficult to keep in check, and now she felt the incredible desire to take possession of that thing before her, the thing she believed to be full of planar shards. Even if it wasn’t, even if this had been a deception from the start, she felt something within that bag, some kind of energy that seemed to shimmer around it just as the cultivation of various people did.

With two overwhelming emotions such as this, any control Bianca might have retained collapsed in an instant. Her vision blurred, but her actions sped up. She – or rather, her body – rushed forward, right into the blood spraying from the man’s arm, and plucked the bag from his belt, where it had been left during their conversation.

Although he attempted to perform some kind of skill to stop her, or perhaps to injure her in passing, she used the Tormentor’s Strides to disappear and reappear a step away, before using it to accelerate her return to Xue Yaling and Song Ming.

It had taken no longer than a minute to walk away, and it took far less to return, at which point she could be certain of the situation. Neither one of them had suffered grievous injury, but both were clearly exhausted, and while several of their assailants had fallen, the majority still remained, weapons in their hands and their auras still strong and stable. It was clear that if they were to be left alone for too long, her friends wouldn’t stand a chance at survival.

Whether it was her kleptomaniac self or her Demon Queen self, they seemed keen to protect her allies, since the moment that she got close enough, she swung her weapon and produced a vast wave of crimson light to temporarily ward off the loggers.

“Bianca!” Xue Yaling called out, an extremely apologetic look on her face, “I hadn’t expected that-”

“Not the time! First, we must get away from those that dare to harm my property!” just like when she was bargaining with Lao Ping, Bianca’s mouth moved on its own, spouting a whole lot of nonsense.

The kitsune was a little surprised, and Song Ming’s face showed a complicated expression, but ultimately there was nothing Bianca could do unless she forced herself out of her current state, which she simply couldn’t allow. Thus, before her foes could recover, Bianca turned to Song Ming and stretched out her arm, leaving her hand wide open, eyes focused on Song Ming’s weapon.

“Hand it over,” she demanded, just barely managing to restrain herself from saying ‘servant’ or worse.

While the complicated expression got even more complicated, she didn’t end up refusing, instead tossing over the blade with as much care as she could muster to prevent it from injuring Bianca in some way, shape or form.

However, such concern was apparently unneeded, as Demon Queen Bianca caught it with ease and swung it once to get a feel for it, with her energy manifesting throughout the weapon. It felt far easier to use than the knife, not only due to the length, but also because her energy seemed to be able to flow freely throughout the blade, as if there were channels within it made just for her to utilise however she wished.

‘I think I remember something about artefacts, but…’ she tried to recall more, but her thoughts forcefully turned to the people before her, the loggers armed with various weapons, most of whom were at the second realm.

They glared back at her, but their gazes felt as if they didn’t land on her but somewhere in front of her, on something that wasn’t truly her. Thus, she didn’t feel afraid in the slightest, and simply adjusted her stance and let the Demonic Tyrant bring even more of her energy to the blade, completely enveloping it in crimson, causing arcs of scarlet lightning so large and intense that they even struck the earth beneath the weapon, each spark leaving a noticeable burn mark in the dirt. Even her vision seemed to gain this same glow, though she had no clue if it was a mere fantasy or not.

Regardless, the next moment she dashed forward thanks to the Tormentor’s Strides and swung her sword, greeting her opponents with an incredible tide of energy. Not all were able to block it, with the unfortunate victims being thrown to the ground, great gashes opening up on their chests, but those that endured it didn’t fare much better.

The Demon Queen appeared before them in the blink of an eye and went for any weakness that they showed, with many having their groins struck or even sliced into.

It was an utter bloodbath, but for a reason that the loggers found impossible to decipher at this time, the Demon Queen retreated without finishing them off, returning to the other two and throwing her sword back to Song Ming, before raising her hands in the air with a smile of utter lunacy.

“All hail the Demon Queen!”

 

END OF ARC 3

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