The group stared at her with fear, but they responded quickly. As cultivators, they were still at least somewhat prepared for any unexpected emergencies like this one.
Zhang Baiyan reached into his spatial storage, pulling out numerous defensive talismans and throwing them in the air around them, morphing to all sorts of barriers to keep themselves safe.
If the fox really turned out to be as dangerous as she seemed, then these few talismans wouldn't do much to stop her. They were only supposed to slow down the attack so that one of his martial brothers who was familiar with formations could take some time to set a stronger defensive one. Still, Baiyan was slightly nervous, keeping his eyes focused on the fox while she made her move.
Xue Yao looked at their frantic actions and smiled to herself.
Did they think that just a few talismans would stop her? She was an immortal who still had two thousand years of spiritual energy. The one thousand year gap in spiritual energy between her and all the individuals in the group was too powerful to count, and talismans depended on the amount of spiritual energy an individual had as well.
She didn't put much thought in her next move.
The group watched with fear as she raised her small white paw, then set it down on the ground. Nothing happened for a few seconds. The cultivators looked at each other, both anticipation and confusion showing on their faces.
And then, a pure wave of spiritual energy slammed towards them.
The talismans all ripped at once in loud unison, completely torn apart from the current of spiritual energy. Before anyone in the group could do anything to defend themselves, the spiritual energy slammed into them, forcing them to stumble backwards by numerous steps.
Zhang Baiyan, who was standing at the very front of the group and carrying the majority of the force of the attack, clutched his chest and sputtered out a mouthful of blood.
His wide eyes looked at the fox before him.
An attack consisting of pure spiritual energy was a rarely used but effective method that could be deadly if the one using it was more than a thousand years higher in level than the ones who the attack were aimed at. Cultivators barely used it because it was too draining, but for spirits and immortals, their spiritual energy was more expendable and came back to them almost immediately.
The fox looked like she was still holding back when attacking. So, if he was to calculate how much spiritual energy she actually had, could it be five hundred more than him? A thousand more than him? Or even more?
Zhang Baiyan was scared in the past, but now, he was even more afraid.
Seeing that the majority of the group was struggling to stand after she made her move, Xue Yao walked closer to them. She waved her paw again, and an immense amount of spiritual energy radiated off of her, pressuring the entire group to kneel to the floor, bowing so low that they were almost eye level.
She walked up to the cultivator who proposed the idea of skinning her to sell her fur in the first place.
A curious look appeared in her eyes when a sudden idea came to her.
"Look at what this is," she giggled, repeating the same disgusting words he said to her a few moments ago, "a nice group of humans."
Realization struck the face of the cultivator who she was talking to when he recognized his own words.
"What do you say, humans? Should I skin all of you and sell your skin for some good money? Surely four fine quality sets of cultivators' skin like this is worth a decent price?"
Beads of sweat began to form on Zhang Baiyan's skin, goosebumps appearing as well.
This fox— she couldn't be serious with what she was saying, right? Just imagining what she described was a sight that would make him vomit with revulsion.
Human skin.
How messed up would a person be to have interest in buying that? He knew that she just exchanged a few words with what he said before about skinning her, but a fox pelt and a human skin had to be considered as two different matters. They were on entirely different scales.
Or…
All of a sudden, Zhang Baiyan comprehended that the same disgust he felt towards hearing that someone wanted to skin him was the exact same feeling that this fox had when she heard him saying the same words to her.
He gulped, knocking his head on the floor voluntarily.
"Great fox— or, no— great immortal, please spare this small insignificant one. I was too ignorant back them to have such audacity as to offend a superior being like you!"
Behind him, his martials brothers did the same, trembling in fear at what was to come if this terrifying fox didn't accept their apology.