A few minutes later, my Guardian Golems were lying almost in pieces, and Hei Ba was sprawled a few dozen meters away, unconscious. I was panting, blood streaming down my face and from several wounds as I glared at my opponent.
It wasn't as if Murderous Crow had gotten away completely unscathed. She was heaving with multiple injuries all over her battered and bruised body. My Guardian Golems and Hei Ba had a few good hits in, and I still recalled the last exchange.
A few seconds earlier, after she was swatted aside by a Guardian Golem, I had her in my sights. While she counterattacked and brought her assailant down, I seized the chance to notch Azure Frost to my bow and fire it at her. She had been distracted by her now toppled opponent that she couldn't dodge. Turning around just in time to see my arrow, she brought her heavy sword up and desperately slashed the projectile, only for it to explode into a freezing nova.
Then she broke her way out of the ice and crawled out, leaning on her heavy sword as she struggled to stand. Despite withstanding my blow, she was clearly severely injured. But so was I. As my summoned spirit beasts gradually faded away, teleported back to my dungeon, only the two of us were left. And neither of us had any energy left to fight.
Even though my situation was dire, I couldn't help but smile wryly. The enemy was Earth ranked, yes, but even she was inevitably weighed down by the sheer number of supposedly inferior Mystic ranked and Yellow ranked spirit beasts. Individually, we weren't a match for her, but I had managed to overwhelm her with simple numbers. It reminded me of a saying from somewhere, something about quantity being a quality all on its own.
It was also a cautionary tale for elites to stop annoying the masses, for they had the numbers to overthrow the outnumbered elites and start a revolution. That's why the whole "strong eat the weak" rhetoric made no sense. A tiger could hunt an antelope with ease, but even that renowned predator would go down if ten or so antelopes worked together to kick it to death. Or maybe think about how an elephant could be eaten by a swarm of army ants.
Murderous Crow should be aware of that, but she underestimated me and my spirit beasts. So she paid the price for her arrogance.
"Still, you're on your last legs." She chuckled, as if reading my mind. Raising her heavy sword, she staggered toward me. In contrast, I couldn't even stand. And she knew that. "All I need is a single blow and you're dead. Not that I will let you off easy. After all the trouble you caused me, I'm going to slowly flay you alive. You will wish that you are dead."
"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that."
Murderous Crow spun about, only to barely avoid Long Wang's claws. He was wearing the same gauntlets that he used against me, the gleaming blades extending out of its knuckles resembling claws. Murderous Crow parried the claws, only to be knocked back.
"You…!" She spat. Then she narrowed her eyes. "You're like the kid, only at Mystic rank! You really think you can defeat me?"
"Yes." Long Wang kicked her, hurling her across the forest. She hit a tree with a thud, causing it to fall on her. "I'll be frank. Under normal circumstances, I probably would be no match for you at my current strength. However, you're severely injured and you've exhausted most of your qi. Never mind a Mystic rank like me, a Yellow ranked cultivator could probably take you out effortlessly right now."
He then turned to me apologetically. "Sorry, my lord. Seems like we don't even need the spirit array anymore. I didn't think you would deal this much damage to her. You never cease to amaze me."
"Spirit array? That's what you're up to?" Murderous Crow's eyes darted to the direction where Long Wang was earlier. "I see. So that's why there's strange emanations of qi from earlier. I was distracted by the fight, but I didn't think you were setting up a spirit array nearby. I admit, I underestimated you."
"Yes. And now you will pay the price for hurting my lord. Die."
He slashed at her, only for her to dive to the side. Triple fountains of blood spurted out, but Murderous Crow paid no attention to the injury. Instead, she smirked.
"You make a good demonic cultivator, you know? All this cunning and scheming…it's a pity you are an orthodox cultivator. Perhaps you should switch sides."
"I might not be as ruthless as you, and I refuse to massacre others just to improve my own cultivation." I shook my head. "But at the same time, I'm not naïve enough to disregard schemes, subterfuge and cunning to fight demonic cultivators like you. You are the type who will resort to any means necessary in order to win. If I were to stubbornly and rigidly stick to so-called honorable methods, I will die horribly. I'm not shameless enough to call myself a good guy, but I have no intention of lowering myself to your level either."
"Hah! So you're aware of that, at least!" Murderous Crow cackled as she fended off Long Wang's strikes. "Admirable! Admirable, indeed! At least you're much better than most of the hypocritical orthodox cultivators, who delude themselves into thinking they are honorable and righteous, despite scheming behind in the shadows and backstabbing others so that they can climb to the top! At least you acknowledge your own immoralities instead of pretending they are justice!"
"Good and evil…they are all just labels anyway. What matters is that I don't hurt anyone, and I don't let anyone hurt me or the people I love." I nodded at Long Wang. "Finish her off."
"Very admirable indeed! I respect your principle, kid! But there's just one thing." Despite the blood flowing ceaselessly over her face and body, Murderous Crow grinned insidiously. "You and your servant don't have what it takes to kill me!"
"We'll see about that," Long Wang sneered and stabbed her. However, she deflected his claws to the side with her heavy sword.
"Yes, we'll see!" She let out a laugh before qi exploded around her. Long Wang was taken by surprise, knocked to the ground by the sudden shockwave. He rose shakily, just in time to see wings unfurl from her, shedding a few black feathers. Murderous Crow sighed mockingly. "I wanted to save this technique to use it against the Destroyer of Evil, but you actually forced me to use it here! In such a place! I'll remember this disgrace!"
"Huh? Destroyer of Evil?" I had never heard of such a person before. Murderous Crow brought a hand to her mouth and tittered derisively.
"Whoops! Wrong series! This isn't the Celestial Zone, after all!"
"What are you even talking about?"
"Who cares?!" Long Wang snapped as he lunged forward. "You're not getting away!"
Unfortunately, his claws embedded themselves deep into one of Murderous Crow's newly grown wings. With a forceful flick, she sent him tumbling away. Then she spread them and flapped once before launching herself high into the air.
For a moment, she hovered in midair, looking down on me scornfully.
"It's a pity, but we'll have to finish this fight next time. But I promise you this, kid. The next time we fight, I'll gut you for sure. I'll flay the flesh from your bones and hang your dying body in the desert to be picked apart by Carrion Crows. You will regret that you ever crossed me."
"Oh, I don't think so," I replied, internally vowing that I would grow stronger. The next time we clashed, I would hopefully be stronger. Powerful enough to contest against the likes of her. But I didn't say that because I knew she probably would improve too. And unlike her, I wasn't arrogant enough to underestimate my enemy. But neither was I going to give up, not to someone as despicable as her. I was going to fight with everything I had.
The only question was whether it would be enough.
"For now, I'll leave. But I'll be back…to hunt you down to the ends of the earth if necessary." Murderous Crow braced herself with a flap of her wings, ready to zoom away. Before she departed, she turned toward the tree branch where she hung Silvia earlier. She blinked in disbelief when she saw that her hostage was gone. "Where's the fairy?"
"What fairy?"
Perhaps it was my taunting tone, but Murderous Crow seemed to have guessed that Silvia's disappearance had something to do with me. Her eyes glimmered as realization dawned on her.
"You…you didn't just stumble upon me coincidentally. You planned the whole thing from the start. Your attack was just a distraction to rescue that fairy."
I shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're not a very good liar, boy." Murderous Crow snorted. "Well, I'll just add this to your tab. Enjoy what little time you have left, but mark my words…you'll regret the day you decided to cross me."
"Get back down here!" Long Wang shouted. Chopping his arm down, he sent a water dragon charging at Murderous Crow. She cursed and banked to the side before streaking away in a blur, fleeing my steward's vengeance. He simmered and shook his gauntlets at her, his claws gleaming in the dim lighting of the forest. "Coward!"
He then turned to me and bowed his head low. "Sorry, my lord. She got away."
"It's not your fault," I said with a heavy sigh. Glancing at the clearing where he emerged from, I nodded. "You can dismantle that spirit array. No sense leaving it in the forest."
"Good idea. Hopefully we can employ it again somewhere. Against that cowardly, insane bitch if possible." Long Wang set off to obey me. While he dismantled the spirit array, which was much easier than setting it up, I dropped to the ground and took a much needed breather. My body ached all over and my wounds continue to sting, but for now, I was immensely relieved that I was still alive.
Murderous Crow was one of the most difficult opponents that I ever had the misfortune to face.
The next few minutes passed by in a blur. I couldn't remember much of what had happened. Maybe I blacked out and Long Wang carried me back to the willow tree, but the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the root of the willow tree and drinking a healing elixir.
Unfortunately, this being reality, healing potions didn't conveniently restore me to full health instantly. This wasn't a game. Rather, the elixirs helped soothe the pain and sped up healing. It would take effect about thirty minutes to an hour after ingestion, and reduced the healing time from a few days to maybe a day or two. Elixirs were extremely useful, but they weren't miraculous.
"Ugh…" I groaned and capped the empty bottle before placing it back in my storage device. Kids, remember, don't litter in the forest. Be responsible and pick up your own trash.
"Are you all right, my lord?"
"Yeah." I turned to stare at the willow tree. "I hope Myria and the fairies are too."
"You should be more worried about yourself!" Myria snapped, suddenly showing up from the middle of nowhere and almost startling me. She placed her hands on her hips and glared at me. "I'm glad you're still alive, but you came back battered and bruised! You know how worried I am?"
"Sorry. But you managed to send Silvia back to her older sister?"
"Yeah!" Myria breathed a sigh of relief. "I think they returned to their village. Sylvie is talking care of Silvia right now."
"Actually, we didn't."
The three of us spun around when we heard the familiar voice. Out of a shimmering portal at the base of the willow tree's tremendous trunk, Sylvie poked her head out. She emerged, supporting a still dazed Silvia.
"Thank you very much for saving my younger sister." She was in tears as she bowed deeply, clutching Silvia's arm tightly. "Really, I can't thank you enough."
"Yes, allow me to express my gratitude!" In contrast to Sylvie, the younger twin was bubbly and beaming brightly. "I am Silvia, and thank you all for rescuing me! If you hadn't shown up when you did, that crazy bitch would have done all sorts of unimaginable things to me!"
"Don't mention it," I assured her. "We only did what anyone else would have done."
Myria nodded, though she giggled mischievously. "I don't think anyone else would have done the same as you, Jun Wen. You're just…such a kind person. First, Atlantis. And now the fairies. Seriously, you should stop getting yourself beaten up when helping others."
"My lord is a hero," Long Wang declared proudly. "That's just how he is. It is an honor to serve him."
"Indeed." Sylvie hesitated for a moment before stepping forward. She thrust a hand into the pocket of her white dress and met my gaze. "As promised, here's the reward for helping me rescue my sister."