The appearance of the flame dragon crushed the pressure radiating off the Sect Head. He retreated in disbelief and only just managed to set down a barrier right as the flame dragon was upon him. However, the barrier wasn’t of much use. The flame dragon wrapped around the barrier and squeezed. Cracks appeared.
“Ah Ci.” Shi Sheng called. Feng Ci hesitated for a moment before calling back the flame dragon. At the same time though, he shot out a few flame daggers which pierced through the barrier and into the Sect Head’s abdomen.
“Oof…” The Sect Head could only feel a wild energy forcing its way into his body and going on a rampage, as if it wanted to tear him apart.
All of this only took a few seconds. By the time everyone else had reacted, the Sect Head was already clutching at his abdomen and kneeling on the floor with one leg.
“Sect Head!”
“How dare you! You dare to attack the Sect Head! Just who are you?” Those who had reacted started taking out their weapons and closing in on Shi Sheng and Feng Ci.
“Hey, be reasonable! He attacked me first!” Shi Sheng pulled Feng Ci to her side before continuing with slight ridicule in her voice, “Oh, weren’t you guys aware I’m just in Foundation Building right now? Did you think I could survive a full burst of pressure from the Sect Head? What? You only allow officials to set fire but won’t allow commoners to light lanterns[1]?”
‘h.e.l.l, he never meant to hear my explanation at all. No matter what I said, I would still be guilty. It’s like how in the original storyline, even if Shang Shu had a witness to prove she didn’t do it, the blame was still on her, wasn’t it?’
“You’re a disciple of the Misty Sect, how can you disobey your betters? Even if the Sect Head punishes you, it’s because you attacked your fellow sect members first.”
“Yu Xiao, look at this disciple of yours! First, she harms her fellows, now she attacks the Sect Head! She must be punished severely!”
“Expelling her from the sect is already being lenient! Back then, Master had said that this girl’s fate was inauspicious and would bring Junior Martial Brother misfortune but you didn’t believe it! Now look at what happened! She not only harms her fellow sect members, she even dares to rebel against her elders!”
Yu Xiao’s expression didn’t change even though he faced a lot of criticism. He continued standing in front of Shi Sheng. “The Sect Head made a move on Xiaoshu first, so she was just protecting herself.”
“You- You- Martial Brother ah, how can you be so foolish?!”
Shi Sheng was a bit surprised as she looked at Yu Xiao. ‘My fate is inauspicious? In the original plotline, Shang Shu did bring Yu Xiao a lot of disasters. These people… Just what did Ye Qingqiu say to them that caused them to not even want to hear my side before confirming my guilt?’
Seeing that Shi Sheng’s expression wasn’t too good, violence flashed in Feng Ci’s dark red eyes and he spoke forcefully, “Hand Ye Qingqiu over. Otherwise, he dies.”
“Outrageous!”
“Yu Xiao, are you just going to watch them do this?”
“Yu Xiao-”
“What are you guys calling my Master for? He’s not the one doing anything.” Shi Sheng humphed coldly. “I, Shang Shu, hereby break off my master-disciple relationship with Yu Xiao. From now on, we’ll have nothing to do with each other.
Shi Sheng looked at Yu Xiao. “Master, sorry. This disciple is not filial. This disciple will repay your grace for all these years of education in the future.”
As long as she wasn’t there, Yu Xiao shouldn’t die. So the best method would be to break off relations with him.
“Xiaoshu…” Yu Xiao furrowed his brows as he looked at her.
“Master, don’t worry. I have the ability to protect myself.” Shi Sheng blinked her eyes at Yu Xiao. Not waiting for him to continue, she turned around to the menacing crowd. “I won’t bother you people with expelling me. I’ll leave on my own.”
“Kill them.” Feng Ci lifted his hand, intending to set more fires.
Shi Sheng didn’t stop him. She just called Pudding out when he started to set things on fire and pulled him onto Pudding’s back. They flew out of the burning great hall.
“Tell Ye Qingqiu to cultivate diligently! I’ll be back to look for her!”
Her words echoed in Misty Sect for quite a while.
Shi Sheng didn’t leave Misty Sect immediately. She went to find Lin Yiyi and Bai Lang and asked them to take care of Yu Xiao while reminding them not to oppose Ye Qingqiu. Lin Yiyi hugged Shi Sheng and cried herself into a mess. In the end, she was tossed out by Feng Ci. By the time Bai Lang managed to fetch his disciple back, the two were long gone.
……
Only when Shi Sheng saw the wanted posters for her and Feng Ci did she learn that the Sect Head had died.
Shi Sheng knew the cause of his death. If Feng Ci did not choose to recall the flames he had shot into the Sect Head’s body, the spirit qi in his body would slowly be consumed by the flames.
That was probably a feeling worse than death. Also, quite a few Peak masters were caught up in the fire Feng Ci set that day so a lot of experts died. This caused Misty Sect to be in never before seen danger. Feng Ci stared at the pictures in the wanted posters before finally spitting out a word, “Ugly.”
He lifted his hand to burn the wanted posters to ash. Shi Sheng checked their surroundings. Fortunately, there weren’t many people around so no one saw his actions, else, they’d have to deal with more trouble.
“You look good.” Feng Ci turned to look at Shi Sheng. “The drawing is ugly.”
Shi Sheng “…” ‘You don’t have to explain, I know!’
“I can help you annihilate Misty Sect.” Feng Ci didn’t understand why she stopped him from doing so. It was just a tiny sect from a lower world, he could destroy it with one finger.
“Don’t you think letting them live to wallow in agony is much better?”
Feng Ci cast a confused look at Shi Sheng. ‘Would it?
En, everything she says is right so of course it’ll be better. Next time I won’t let them die so easily.’
Shi Sheng was completely unaware that her words had caused Feng Ci to devise many new ways of tormenting people.
……
The next bi-centurial Inter-Sect Tournament would be in 10 years so Shi Sheng had time to cultivate.
In these 10 years, in order to increase Shi Sheng’s cultivation, they had travelled the world. Whenever they saw good things, Feng Ci would s.n.a.t.c.h them for the sake of aiding Shi Sheng’s cultivation.
And so, in these 10 years, these two had become infamous in the Cultivation World. Their enemies could circle the Cultivation World quite a few times.
The Misty Sect’s people were rather dogged in their pursuit of the two. The moment any news of Feng Ci and her were released, they would all swarm towards that area.
“You’ll die a horrible death, she-devil!”
“How come I’m the one who dies horribly? Aren’t you guys here for the Reaper’s Sword?” Shi Sheng lifted the pitch-black longsword in her hand. “You people are just using the excuse of protecting justice to rob others. So this is the best those ‘righteous’ sects have to offer.”
“Pei! You were the one who s.n.a.t.c.hed the Reaper’s Sword!” The man refused to concede.
“That I did. I have the ability to, so I s.n.a.t.c.hed it. I’ve never denied it. Though since you people want this sword so much then I’ll just… use it to send you on your way! No need to thank me.”
Shi Sheng then unhesitatingly stabbed the longsword into the man’s chest. His eyes widened. Bright red blood leaked from the corner of his mouth and his face rapidly paled. His body twitched for a bit before he lost all signs of life.
Feng Ci went forward to help her rub her hands clean. He spoke with an earnest expression, “Just let me do all these.”
Shi Sheng looked at the man helping her wipe her hands clean. His movements were very gentle, as if he was afraid to hurt her. He seemed to think it needed a lot of cleaning though, as he persisted in his ministrations.
“That’s enough already. It’s clean enough.” Shi Sheng caught Feng Ci’s hand and smiled as she looked at him.
Feng Ci rubbed one last time before enveloping her hand in his. “You should stay clean.”
‘Here we go again… I’m(bbb) not your pet dammit! And even pets can kill people, okay?!’
[1] This is an idiom. It means you’re helping those in power do what they want, even if it goes overboard, but being strict on those with less power than you.