"You... why?"
He groaned in pain, looking at her in shock. His eyes widened as a weak gasp came out of his mouth. A second later, he dropped to his knees and Xue Lan let him down slowly.
But her gaze never broke, she stared straight into his eyes, making sure that she was the last thing he saw.
"Do you think that I'm stupid enough to believe a lie like that?" she said to him.
"Even if you were to follow through, what makes you think that I want that? I don't have to search for new prey, they'll just come to me. You should know that you're the first Spirit Realm Expert that I'll kill, and I will savor every bite of you."
Her voice was ever so quiet, almost a whisper as she pulled back and took Yi Jiang's heart out. And she ate it right in front of him just as the light in his eyes slowly dimmed away. It was a visceral site as she tore at his heart, one bite at a time.
And when she finished, her body felt a bit warm and her eyes glowed even brighter. All throughout the night, the only sounds that could be heard was the ripping of flesh and the cracking of bones as she consumed all of their bodies.
By the end of it, her body was extremely warm as all sorts of different energies circulated through her body.
Suddenly, her face was a bit pained.
"Ah, I need to get it under control."
Xue Lan sat down, crossing her legs and closing her eyes, focusing inwardly. Aside from her was the life force of six others, all trying to wreak havoc on her meridians. Unlike the last one, each of them was strong in their own right and thrashed around.
One was difficult enough but six?
She couldn't even speak, furrowing her brows and sweat covering her face. Her body trembled as if it would break at any moment. Her hands balled up into fists as she grit her teeth, trying to subdue this power.
Forcing them through her meridians, it was a continuous cycle of pain as each point was on the verge of cracking. She had done too much, far too much for her to handle.
But the woman held on.
The black nail guards dug into her palm, a sharp pain that kept her conscious.
Suddenly, she spat out blood, trying her best to restrain herself, to keep herself alive.
Bit by bit, she made their power hers but that only made them more desperate. She wasn't just assimilating their strength but destroying the will that remained of those that died. It was a slow process, sometimes the pain would lessen, other times it was pure agony.
It was as if daggers were stabbing into her flesh and down to the bone. Or perhaps a better description was the sensation of being burned alive, a searing and sharp pain all over her body. Not even an inch of her was spared from this.
Her breath was heavy and just when she thought it was finished, the pain would return tenfold. And she couldn't stop herself from screaming out in pain.
"Heuk... aghhhhhh!"
It was a horrifying screech, one that made the birds flee and the beasts tremble. A wave of power burst out, black energy that consumed the life of everything around her. The plants wilted and trees turned lifeless, dropping leaves that turned to dust before they could even touch the ground.
Such power could not go unnoticed.
Breaking out of her meditative stance, share cracked on the ground, coughing up more blood until a pool of it gathered around her. Groaning in pain, she let out a breath of respite finally finishing the deed.
Xue Lan stared straight down at the blackish-red blood. It was quite dirty in fact different from the pure crimson color that she was used to. Her sight began to blur before she lost consciousness, dropping into the pool of her own impure blood.
Nothing but darkness surrounded her.
But then growing voices began to echo within her mind as she slumbered.
"Why did you leave us? Why did you do it? Xue Lan, why?"
"Mother, please! Please don't leave us like this!"
"Why did you kill us? All we wanted was to help you, why?"
"I have not wronged you, why would you do this to me?"
Slowly, it became louder and more numerous as the voices of those she killed spoke out. Each of them was pained and full of remorse, asking to be freed, to be let go.
Hearing all of this, the woman could only struggle, clutching her head to bear with the voices.
"It's nothing", she muttered, "Just a part of the backlash, that's it. Nothing else. It's just a side effect, they aren't real voices."
Her eyes were wide open, her mouth constantly moving, repeating the same things over and over again.
She had just managed to get through from the brink other own self-destruction and she wasn't going to lose her mind like this. She wasn't going to fail at the end of it.
"Just ignore it, ignore it."
Suddenly, there was crying and sniffling as the voice of her son outshone the others.
"Why mother? Why would you do this to your own son? Have we not suffered enough?"
And then her husband followed suit.
"Xue Lan, how could you? To commit such atrocities, I... I can't bear to see you like this."
Her body shook as the pair spoke like this, questioning her decisions, and causing her to waver. She just looked down, trying to ignore it all but those words tore at her heart. Tears had just begun to form.
But she held on, just as she held herself together earlier, she had to do it once more.
Those voices just continued, constantly talking, poking and prodding at her. But it would end soon enough, even when it seemed like an eternity, it would stop.
With that constant muttering of her, the voices slowly faded away and peace returned.
And then she stopped, letting go of her head and looking up. As soon as she did, a light came through and her eyes suddenly fluttered open. The darkness receded and she had awakened to pure and utter silence.
Xue Lan herself was quiet, slowly rising up from where she had collapsed.
Looking down, she saw the murky blood, seeing it stain her clothes. She looked at her hands, watching them tremble ever so slightly. The black nail guards dripped with her own blood. Even her breathing was shaky, every breath seemed weak and frail.
But then she noticed it, faint dark red energy emanating from her fingertips. They were just wisps though they flickered about like smoke. By the looks of it, she had broken through to the second stage. On the other hand, her body was in a miserable state so she was weaker than before.
Sucking in a cold breath, she calmed down, putting on an emotionless face.
"So it's going to be like this every time", she thought to herself, "Every time..."
Indeed, it was just the start, a taste of what was to come.
She had experienced the dangers of being an Evil Cultivator.
Turning away, she saw the bodies of her recent victims, all of them were shriveled up and lifeless. Everything had been taken from them, their blood, their life, their very soul. The woman walked over, grabbing whatever treasures they had on them before leaving.
Wandering aimlessly, Xue Lan just walked without a destination, going wherever she pleased. And there was certainly time for her to clean everything up.
Even then, a familiar sight soon appeared before her, Si Xiang City, her home.
Watching from a distance away, she looked at it wistfully before looking through her belongings. Among all of the things she had taken, there was a veiled hat. One that obscured her face, revealing only a faint silhouette.
"This should work."
Wearing the hat, Xue Lan made her way to the front gates, walking through it.
As she did so, she heard a voice calling out to her, a man's voice.
"Stop right there!"
Moments later, a pair of guards approached her, resting a hand on their swords. She did as told and looked at them.
"Is there a problem?" she asked.
The two guards shared a look before one of them took a step forward to speak.
"There have been some new rules in place. Anyone that is suspicious must be inspected by us. Unless you have an identity token of some sort, we will have to ask you a few questions before letting you go", he explained.
Xue Lan was silent, barely even moving before sighing.
Raising her hand, she used a finger to lift up a part of the veil, revealing a small portion of her face, part of which was her eye. It glowed red and seemed to captivate them both.
"Are you sure that there's a problem?" she asked.