There are several beasts or creatures that have lived in the Bloodmoon forest throughout time. The reason the books in the study room said that these were unnamed and mysterious because these creatures have been known by various names from ancient times to modern times. No one even knows if one of them were even true or whether they were even correctly identified as they often evolved through the centuries. But there was a way to differentiate the creatures from each other.
These women/creatures since ancient times were known as Huli Jing, kitsune, fox spirits, vixens, fairies, etc. But in recent books, they have settled on the term 'tricksters'- a term irrespective of gender and points out their most notorious characteristic. They are known for playing cunning tricks and in every generation, the nature and medium of their tricks change. They can be good or bad and have the ability to change forms and gender but in recent years, some have been observed to have settled in one form but whether that observation is legit is questionable. But either way, they are super annoying.
Since all the underlings have settled on the female form, it's okay to guess that they are led by a female leader, so a queen. A king having all women underlings would be unheard of- but with changing times, who knows eh?
Ming-Yue joined her hands together and did a chant. A red light engulfed her, forming a barrier. As soon as the five women touched the barrier, they all bounced back with force and fell about fifty steps away. As soon as they fell back, the barrier was removed.
Summoning and maintaining a barrier cost too much unnecessary energy. Which is why many cultivators highly preferred using combat techniques. Being the cultivator of phoenix blood, Ming-Yue had a higher reserve of energy or mana or often known as chi. With enough cultivation, the baseline could be increased, and Ming-Yue had been on it ever since her ascension. Even though her cultivated mana is not a lot given the short time she cultivated for. Since her baseline had been at a high point already, her masters called her a pretty good cultivator and the best among all starters of her generation. Hence one or two barriers were something she could easily afford.
Barriers were equivalent to luxury items and she often did not use one but this time she was being pounced from five directions with no scope of dodging. Now she could afford one more but she'd rather save for a higher-level technique so she cannot let them pounce all at once.
The chime sound was heard again, and the women were starting to get up on their feet. With flash steps, she went in front of one of them kicked her back on the ground, then went to the other women and used the same move repeating in a circle, keeping them all down.
She was preparing for her next move while the five of them were still down. 1 to 5 ratio was rather troublesome and this was her first proper fight and not training so she did not want to risk anything. But before she could initiate her next move, a force wave passed by, and even though it couldn't hurt her, Ming-Yue was startled from the sudden move that came out of nowhere.
"Come to me," she heard a voice that gave her a sense of déjà vu, and her eyes glazed over.
"Wake up!" a different, almost childish voice yelled in her head and the charm broke instantly. Her pupils shrank and before she could even think of what happened, she was hit by a punch on her stomach and back simultaneously. Ming-Yue gritted her teeth, and in a swift movement made a power jump upwards, took her form while observing the two women beneath her, and the three running to join the two. She gathered all her strength in her legs as she was falling back and with fast movements kicked the two women who flew backwards and hit two of the incoming women. Then right away pointing her palms towards the third incoming woman and a quick chant, a visibly red force wave went straight at her, making the other woman fall towards the other four in a heap.
"Quick, a binding spell!" the childish voice from earlier yelled again in her head. And as if right on reflex, Ming-Yue chanted a few words, and a bright glowingly fluorescent spiritual rope was summoned, and the five women were bound together.
She heaved a sigh of relief and gazed fiercely at the distant lake. Her eyebrows scrunched up and she took deep breaths, her blood boiling as she let out three words,
"Come on out!"