Aer checked her nails, humming a tune as her attacker unleashed a barrage of mana. A thousand deadly techniques flew towards her, but with the slightest flare, they dismantled under the pressure of her aura. Then, with a flick of her swords, a wave of cutting wind tore through the air towards the man. He brought up a defensive talisman, but the Blades of Tempest were a Saint-level treasure. The technique tore through his defenses, splitting him across the torso with a spray of blood. On instinct, killing intent flowed through her system, emanating pure, unadulterated malice upon the man's emerging soul.

She shook her head, lightly slapping herself on the cheek. She needed to stop doing that. She blinked, and as quickly as it came, the murderous aura dissipated without a trace.

"Sorry about that, good sir! I didn't mean to scare you!"

The smaller, transparent being that now housed the man's conscious trembled, terror evident in his eyes. "Please! I don't want to die! I just wanted to — I just wanted some spirit stones!"

Aer frowned. Was that a half-formed soul? Had she messed up? She pulled a healing treasure from her bag, crossing the distance between them in a blink. This was one of the highest worlds in the lower cluster — he should have been at at least the Synchronization stage!

Cool green light washed over the man, repairing his body and re-establishing its connection to his soul. The two halves combined, and the man was left sitting on the ground, sputtering.

"I apologise profusely, sir. I thought that you were of a higher stage, and that you would have no problem reforming yourself. I can see that you're good at heart — you even warned me before trying to rob me. It's my fault."

She examined the damaged talisman in her hand. That was supposed to go towards her recovery, but she would have been risking his life if she had used a slower-acting elixir.

The man looked at her, confusion evident on his face. "You… just used an immortal treasure. On me."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about the overload of energy. Your core might be a bit sore for a few days, but that was the only fast-acting healing item I had."

"So you're not going to kill me?"

She gave him a soft smile. "No, I really don't want to kill someone today."

***

Aer stepped into the void between worlds, humming once more. She lamented the loss of her treasure, but in return, she had made a new friend! It turned out that the man's sect leader had sent their weakest members to rob people, in a 'test' to weed out the untalented. She sighed. It wasn't that this behavior was particularly shocking — you needed a certain kind of ruthlessness to survive in the cultivation world — it just kind of, well, reminded her of herself. If she had been a bit more merciful, then maybe...

She shook herself. Dwelling on stuff like that was bad for the heart. Plus, after a nice little talk with the sect leader, she'd managed to convince him that sending your disciples to commit crimes was not the best way to filter out the weak. He hadn't budged on his mentality, but he'd at least given in when she pointed out the obvious flaws in such a plan, so they were working on it.

Speaking of horrible sect leaders, it had been a year since she had checked on Hong Tang Seira. The young woman was one of the only prospective disciples who consistently showed both talent and basic morality, which, considering she had specifically marked hundreds of talented youths, was very depressing. And after her brother… well, it was amazing that she turned out the way she was.

She casually moved against the void's currents, her destination decided. Assuming nothing had happened in the last year, it might finally be time for her to show herself.