“Let’s go, Yōuměi!”

“Right, Big Sister!”

Hou Jingshu and Yōuměi charged toward Li Liang. Yōuměi quickly hopped into Hou Jingshu’s shadow as she raced toward the goliath of a man. Chi was already radiating from her body, creating the scales, tail, wings, and horns that she had begun manifesting more clearly after reaching the Human Limit Realm. She reached the man within seconds and slammed into him with her spear.

“Bwa ha ha ha! A little attack like that’s not gonna hurt me!”

Li Liang lauighed, but his mouth was forced closed when Yōuměi leapt out of his shadow and slapped him in the face with her tail. He stumbled back, growled, and tried to attack her, but Yōuměi once more leapt into his shadow. Hou Jingshu rushed in to take Yōuměi’s place.

[Dragon’s Roar]

A raging dragon made of chi erupted from her spear and slammed into him, unleashing a fierce roar that rattled the bones, but it did little against Li Liang, who merely laughed as he crushed the dragon with his bare hands.

Yōuměi once more leapt out of Li Liang’s shadow to attack, but the man was ready this time. He slammed his palm into the cat’s flank. Yōuměi released a loud, roaring cry as she flew backward.

“Yōuměi!”

Hou Jingshu raced toward Yōuměi and the cat disappeared into her shadow before she could hit the hard stone. Turning, she glared at Li Liang, who merely grinned at her like he was having the time of his life.

“That’s quite the glare you’ve got, but you can’t get upset at me for hurting your precious magical beast. This is a fight.”

The man stomped his left foot on the ground, creating cracks that spread all the way to where Hou Jingshu stood. His aura flared wildly. His hair and clothes billowed as if caught in a stiff breeze. Li Liang lowered himself into a combat stance, then pushed off the ground, propelling himself forward far faster than Hou Jingshu could move.

[Martial Mountain Palm]

With a sharp thrust of his hand, Li Liang created a powerful hand-shaped projectile. It was about the size of a human adult. There was way too much chi packed into that thing. Hou Jingshu felt the hairs on her neck rise. She knew, instinctively, that getting hit by that attack would be enough to finish her off. Well, her armor could probably take it, but she didn’t want to test that.

Hou Jingshu leapt into the hair, her wings flapping even though they were little more than decoration, then dove at Li Liang from above. She spun around and led her next attack with her tail.

[Dragon’s Tail]

Raising his arms in an x-pattern above his head, Li Liang blocked her tail. The ground cracked underneath his feet. He held strong, however, the veins in his arms bulging.

While Li Liang was dealing with Hou Jingshu, a massive block jutting from his shadow and slammed into his back. The man’s eyes widened as he was crushed between shadow and tail. Blood seemed from his mouth. Yet the damage he suffered seemed minimal at best. The man was still smiling.

“AAAHHHH!!!”

Power erupted form Li Liang’s body as he screamed to the heavens. Hou Jingshu was launched skyward while Yōuměi leapt out of the man’s shadow with a hiss, hair raised. Flipping around to stabilize herself, Hou Jingshu landed back on the ground next to her companion as Li Liang raised his hands to the sky.

“You’ve really impressed me, girl. Allow me to show you one of my ultimate techniques.”

Hou Jingshu stood in place as chi gathered above the man’s palm. It looked like a tiny sphere at first, but more and more energy kept pouring into it, making it grow from the size of a fist to that of a head, then a torso. It soon became even larger than that.

There was an old story that all cultivators had been told. It was about two young men who had a disagreement and got into a fight over who had the better technique. To prove their technique was better than the other’s, they used their strongest techniques on each other, first one, then the other. Whoever could take the other’s technique headon would win.

Hou Jingshu did not remember who won the contest, or if there had even been a winner. That was not important. The story represented how cultivators were supposed to comport themselves. A cultivator was never supposed to interrupt another cultivators technique, for doing so was a disgrace. She didn’t know if the same rules applied here. Li Liang was an entire realm above her, so surely, she didn’t need to take his technique.

And yet…

She wanted to.

She wanted to see if she could block his technique.

A thrill raced down her spine as adrenaline pumped in her veins. What was this excitement? She knew there was a very real possibility that she would die, and yet, all she could think about was how fun it would be to crush this man’s technique.

“Big Sister… your smile is scaring me…” Yōuměi murmured.

“Heh. Heh heh. I’m sorry,” Hou Jingshu said, her grin widening.

“Your laughter scares me too.”

Hou Jingshu did not respond. Her cultivation was skyrocketing as she stood there and took in this moment. Li Liang’s attack had grown to be about two times the size of an adult male, but then it suddenly shrunk. Hou Jingshu blinked several times. The ball had gone from the size of two adult men to about the size of her head. She didn’t think the power had dispersed, so it must have been condensed into that tiny sphere.

She shivered.

“Let’s see if you can receive my attack,” Li Liang said.

Hou Jingshu slid her feet wide and adopted a horse stance. She was going to take this attack head on. Chi pumped through her meridians and dantian as she quickly broke through the third subrealm of the Human Limit Realm, then the fourth. She barely noticed the sudden breakthroughs, however, more focused on Li Lian and the attack hovering over his palm.

“Here it comes!” he shouted.

[Martial Bomb]

The attack moved a lot faster than she thought it would, speeding toward her as it destroyed the ground, creating a thick trench. Hou Jingshu gnashed her teeth together as she thrust her spear forward, roaring like an enraged dragonkin. The tip of her spear glowed a brilliant gold as the sphere slammed into it.

Almost immediately, the attack pushed her back. Her cheeks flapped as the armor on her body shredded. This armor was supposed to be capable of protecting her from a Deva Realm cultivator’s attack, but that was only on the assumption the cultivator in question didn’t use all of their power. This attack was far more than what it could handle. Large chunks of metal fell off her body, until the armor was completely gone. Even her clothes were tearing apart.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Hou Jingshu’s feet slid backward as she struggled against the attack, her knees shook, blood burst from her arms, but the golden chi scales she had adorned herself with held strong. Screaming as she exerted her strength to its fullest, Hou Jingshu unleashed as much chi as she possibly could and directed all of that into her attack.

An explosion of light engulfed the area. Hou Jingshu was forced to close her eyes as a beam of pure destructive energy punched through Li Liang’s attack, forcing it to disperse. When she opened her eyes again, the sphere that had been pushing her back was gone.

As were most of her clothes.

Hou Jingshu grimaced as she looked down at her exposed chest. She quickly summoned some spare clothes and donned them. It was just a basic wushuguan. The white shirt had long-sleeves, and the white pants went down to her ankles. Even her shoes had been destroyed. She donned a pair of simple black slip on shoes. Then she finished her outfit by tying a sash around her waist.

She glanced up and saw that Li Liang had turned his back on her. His ears were red.

“You done changing?” he asked.

“… Yes,” she answered.

“Good.”

She wasn’t sure how to feel about this man. Li Liang had invaded her kingdom, but he only seemed to care about fighting. He didn't actually give a damn about her kingdom or its many resources. He also had honor. Any normal man would have leered at her when her clothes were destroyed, but this man had turned around. She wanted to hate him for invading her nation. Yet she didn’t. It would have been easier for her if she did, though.

“I can’t believe you took that attack head on and survived.” Li Lian laughed as he rubbed the back of his head. “I’ll have you know I put almost all my power into that attack. There was more than enough chi to even kill a peak Deva Realm cultivator, and yet you’re still alive. You’re really something else. Hey, wanna become my woman?”

Hou Jingshu’s face twitched. She took back all the kind words she had for him.

“Absolutely not. Not only am I a taken woman, but you invaded my kingdom, have killed my men, and caused my people to suffer. Even if I wasn’t taken, I would never be with someone who could so callously cause such suffering.”

“Yeah. I figured that was what you would say. Still worth asking.” He sighed, lowered his hand, and stared at her hard. “You can’t win. You’re strong, very strong. Given time, I’m sure you could easily surpass all of us ancestors from the Ming Province, but right now, you’re just a baby chick. No matter how much talent you have, it’s useless if you don’t have the time to cultivate it. So why don’t you surrender now?”

“I refuse.”

“You’re being unreasonable…”

“Really? Because I think you’re the unreasonable one for asking me to surrender. I am this kingdom’s first princess. The only way of surrender to me is death.”

“Haaah. So be it.” Li Liang’s expression hardened. “I’ll make your death as painless as possible then.”

Li Liang began walking toward her, and Hou Jingshu popped a chi replenishing pill into her mouth and settled into a combat stance. She was tired, having used up most of her chi to block his attack, but that didn’t mean she would give up. So what if she didn’t have the strength to win? She still sought victory nonetheless. Yōuměi also stood by her side, growling and hissing, ready to continue the battle.

What happened next was a complete beatdown. It couldn’t even be called a fight. Li Lian slammed his fist into her chest, launching her backward. She struck the ground but got back up--only to receive a fist to the face. She staggered and somehow managed to block the attack, but then his knee rammed into her stomach. Agonic asphyxia sent sharp jolts through her body as bile and blood spewed from her mouth.

Yōuměi tried to attack as well. Dark shadows wrapped around Li Liang, but he tore them to shreds and launched the cat into the air with a kick so powerful the sound barrier broke. The magical beast didn’t give up, just like her, and they continued attacking, even though he blocked every attack they threw at him. It made sense. Both of them were tired and used up most of their chi. Li Liang might have also used a good deal of his chi, but that hardly meant anything when she and Yōuměi were running on empty.

“Ngggggg!!”

Hou Jingshu gasped as Li Liang wrapped his hand around her throat and lifted her into the air.

“Big sister!!”

Yōuměi leapt at Li Liang and bit into his arm. Blood welled up, but he didn’t so much as flinch, merely grabbed the cat with his other hand and slammed her into the ground. He raised his foot and stomped on her before she could get back up. Yōuměi howled, but then sunk into the shadows.

“Tch.”

He waited until Yōuměi popped out again, then kicked her so hard that even Hou Jingshu could hear the magical beast’s bones snapping. That attack was more than enough to put her out of commission. Yōuměi dropped to the ground and whimpered, unable to move.

“You’re really tenacious. I admire that. But it’s time to end this. Sorry. I’ll make your death painless. Consider this my way of honoring you.”

Hou Jingshu gritted her teeth as she struggled to break free, but even her immense strength was not enough to break this cultivator’s grasp. She felt her vision going dark from lack of oxygen. All she could see now through her blurry vision was Li Liang’s raised hand. She didn’t know how he intended on killing her, but she refused to accept her defeat even now.

Damn it! If only I was stronger! If only I had more time! Then I’d become so powerful this man would be forced to kneel at my feet!

Hou Jingshu could only lament the lack of time she’d been given. If she’d had more time to train and prepare, they could have pushed these people back. However, there was no cure for regret, so all she could do was stew in her feelings of helplessness.

“What are you doing to my fiance?”

Yet just before Hou Jingshu began to truly wallow in despair, someone spoke up, and it was a familiar voice.

“AAAAAAHHH?!”

Blood spurted in her vision. Hou Jingshu began falling, but the next thing she knew, someone was holding her close like a young bride being swept off her feet. She looked up to find dark eyes hidden behind a plain mask.

“Wu Jian…?” she whispered.

“I’m here,” he said, his words filling her with relief. “Sorry it took so long.”