The huge mass of light grey energy started condensing to form a much thicker but smaller formless cloud. With the energy becoming denser, the rapidly moving streams of energy too started slowing down.
With the slowing momentum, the energy became more and more compact till it started to look like a large ball of dense grey energy. The colour too had started changing, taking on a slightly darker hue of grey.
The sudden sound of something heavy falling to the ground broke the speechless state of both Uncle Yaoi and Artreya. As they turned around in confusion, they noticed a girl fallen on the ground behind them. Looking closer, they realized she was the same girl who had been following Zenoba Taskunae...one of his disciples. Also the supposed Clan-Sister of Rihanna.
Su Maihiya was in a daze. For what seemed like ages, she was stuck in a nightmare. A nightmare without any end. Where darkness seemed to be slowly engulfing her very being, and she could not find any exit from the surrounding, compressing, pressurizing darkness.
Within the nightmare, she had turned into a strange beast, and that beast was fighting with her. It was like she was fighting with her own darker version. Yet, this darker version of herself was so much more ruthless, and its powers were beyond her capability of handling. She did not manage to land a single strike, but was already covered in deep wounds all over.
She had felt that this would be her ending. She would probably never awaken from this frightening nightmare, and die at her own hands. Yet...suddenly she found the darkness dissipating, and then her body fell on the ground. For a long while she could only lie on the ground, staring blankly at the dense green around her and the dim light seeping through the thick leaves.
When finally she looked around, she realized that all of her other companions were trapped in similar nightmares. It was horrifying, watching each of them striking their own bodies, mutilating their limbs, cutting deep into their organs! It was terrifying, watching as one by one they all fell down, their minds completely shattered, and their bodies only twitching uncontrollably. .
After watching a few of them turning into completely mindless bodies, she couldn't dare to stay on any longer. She didn't know why or how she had managed to avoid such a horrifying fate. She only wished to escape this fate at all cost.
And that escape led her to here.
She had been standing for a long time, watching the three fighting against her Master. Not once did she think of joining the fight herself. Not once did she feel the desire of helping her own Master. She only stood frozen, wishing she could disappear from this place completely, as she silently watched the horrifying end of her own Master.
The Master she had wanted to boot lick. The Master who she had always felt was powerful and invincible. The Master she felt could help her in bringing glory to her Clan.
That Master.....was thoroughly defeated by the commoner girl she had always looked down upon!
She was in a daze. She wasn't sure if she was scared of the way Su Matsao crushed Zenoba....or astounded by the fact that Su Matsao could cultivate!! Never for once had she even contemplated that it was not a tool....that it had always been Su Matsao who had been defeating them again and again!
The energy gradually lost momentum, slowing down till a very compact and darker grey energy ball was slowly circling within the confines of the fading barrier. As the last layers of the barrier dispersed into the air around, the dense ball of energy retracted its form, turning into a very thick, dense stream of energy, and returned back inside Rihanna's body.
A deep shudder ran through the silent girl, who was still sitting cross legged in the same position. She drew a few deep breaths, flexing her fingers and limbs, then finally her eyelids fluttered open.
Rihanna kept sitting in the same position for a while longer. She was feeling very drained out. Her body weighed like a thousand ton rock, and exhaustion was overcoming her senses. For the time being she had managed to bring the energy to a condensed form and recall it back within herself. But it was far from stabilized.
It was very much unstable and beyond her current control. She would need to seek out some time as soon as possible to bring this energy under her control and solidify it some more. Unfortunately there were too many uncertain variables in this place. Not suitable for focusing on her inner energy.
Taking another deep breath, she finally pulled herself up, cracking her joints to bring back some more life to her already numb body. Turning around, she noticed Uncle Yaoi and Artreya staring at her in concern. From the corners of her eyes she noticed Su Maihiya staring at the already dissipated array and the almost motionless body of her Master.
Rihanna silently nodded towards Uncle Yaoi and Artreya to appease their concerns, then slowly moved towards Su Maihiya. Only when a dark shadow overlapped her vision did Su Maihiya turn her head upwards, her eyes still wide in shock and daze. Blankly staring at Rihanna, her mind was unable to move on from the scene she witnessed moments ago.
It was only when Rihanna knelt down by her side, her eyes staring straight into her own eyes, that Su Maihiya probably sensed the hint of danger, and her mind gradually started clearing. Blinking again and again, her eyes gradually focused on the sharp eyes before her, and fear instantly pummeled through her heart and veins.
She felt stuck, her body frozen in place and no longer in her control. The dryness within her mouth and throat spread outwards, and she licked at her lips, trying to ease the knots within her mind. As her mind cleared, a new thought struck fear inside her.
"Wondering why you are still fine? You are right in thinking that. Your master is now left with a broken brain. All your fellow students will never awaken from their nightmares. Then why.....do you think you are still okay?"
The fear turned to panic and anxiety coursed through Su Maihiya's brain as unconscious shivers ran through her body.
"You.....you are a demon!....you killed so many people....you are a commoner...you shouldn't be able to cultivate.....you must be a Devil Cultivator!"
"Hmph! Is that going to be your new weapon for coming after me? When I was a commoner, then you wished to sell me off and enjoy riches and fortune and fame through my tears and blood. And now that I can cultivate, you will seek the help of those righteous sects to take me down. Tell me...you say you are a cultivator. Then where is your own power? What have you achieved which is not given to you by someone else? Who.....the hell.....are you?!"
Su Maihiya shivered under the pressure emanating from Rihanna. Her words struck deep inside her mind and heart, creating a turmoil.
"Hmph! Devil Cultivators....cannot use elemental powers. But I owe you no explanation. You are free to believe what you wish to believe. If you want to send a hundred behind me, then I will kill a hundred. If you send a thousand....then I will massacre all of them and bathe the lands in blood and gore. And even if I die.....at least I'll die knowing I fought for what I believed in. At least I'll die knowing I did whatever I possibly could to change my destiny."
Su Maihiya shivered again. Destiny.....what was the destiny of a commoner? Fractured images flashed through her mind......he discussion with her Grandfather....the deal with her Master....Su Matsao being presented before Zenoba...Su Matsao escaping the Su Clan.....Su Caiwei being punished....Su Maihiya closed her eyes tightly, trying to dislodge these images which kept running through her mind relentlessly.
Rihanna stared at the tightly shut eyes of Su Maihiya, then slowly looked towards the sky beyond.
"Cultivation.....what do you think is cultivation?....I think it is evolution. Not the evolution of a species.....but the evolution of the being, the soul of a person. Only when the soul evolves can the true powers be unleashed. Otherwise you are simply a very strong puppet.
You simply focus on your elemental powers. But can you truly cultivate if your mind is full of garbage? Can you evolve, if your soul is so filthy with the blood and sweat of other people, that it stinks?"
Rihanna paused, contemplating her own words. Before this she had not really thought about these words. She had been too busy trying to understand the ways of this world, trying to explore her methods of cultivation. She had never truly thought of what exactly cultivation meant for her.
Sighing inwardly, she turned her eyes back onto Su Maihiya, whose eyes had opened again to stare back at her in surprise. Staring into those wide and scared pair of eyes, Rihanna let out a chuckle.
"I too don't know. I am still trying to find out. Still trying to figure out who I really am, and what I can become."
Rihanna raised a hand, letting her fingers caress the sides of Su Maihiya's face, chuckling again at the way she flinched from her touch. Her eyes glinted with hidden emotions.
"So I'll let you go today. You are free to believe what you want to believe in. You are free to come back after me with the righteous sects. That is your choice in life. But.....when we meet again.....at least become someone worthy. Because when I fight you next time.....even if I die, at least I will know that I died at the hands of a worthy opponent. Don't keep resorting to such cheap tricks and schemes....it makes you look very weak and worthless. Now....scram."
Su Maihiya didn't know how she managed to rise to her feet, nor how she managed to find her way back to the main group of the mercenaries. Her heart was beating fast, anxiety and panic hammered in her brain, and a very strange sense of depression was trying to bury her entire being.
Rihanna kept sitting in the same half-kneeling position for a while. She didn't turn towards Uncle Yaoi or Artreya because she didn't want them to know that her mind was growing blank. The fight had soaked out all her energy and mental fortitude. This talk with Su Maihiya was making her dizzy, and darkness was threatening to descend all around her.
She kept sitting, one hand on the ground to support her lightly trembling body. It took Uncle Yaoi a while to sense there was something wrong with her, and he scrambled to her side. He knew that this short but intense fight must be taking its toll on this little girl's body and mind, and he felt very conflicted.
"Be careful! There's incoming energy attacks!"