After a good while of calming them down, the civilians who had been imprisoned for so long gradually came to their senses and thanked the two of them profusely.
“Thank you, heroes, for saving us! We can never repay this debt!”
Xiao Minghuang waved her hand and said, “It was nothing, really.
You don’t need to be so grateful.
Just go home and get on with your lives.”
Next, Xiao Minghuang led everyone out of the stone building, about to move forward.
Suddenly—
Her elegant brows furrowed as she sensed a hidden presence lurking in a corner.
“Miss Lin, take them back inside.
Unless I call for you, don’t come out.”
Lin Wanqiu, always thoughtful and perceptive, immediately understood what she meant.
After leading the civilians back inside, she looked at Xiao Minghuang with some worry and reminded her, “Be careful not to get hurt.”
Xiao Minghuang’s lips curled up slightly, her eyes showing a hint of mockery and a lot of nonchalance.
She looked toward a dark corner and said coolly, “He’s not even worth worrying about.”
Before she finished speaking—
A burly figure stepped out from the darkness, reeking of blood, as if he’d just come from a massacre.
“You killed all my brothers.
Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
The speaker was the leader of the demonic cultivators, radiating the aura of the fourth level of Qi Refining, exuding a murderous presence and impressive power.
He had just been out looting, and when he returned to the cave to see corpses everywhere, he first thought the court had sent experts to wipe them out.
But after investigating, he realized it was just a young girl at the fourth level of Qi Refining.
However, he’d just fought a fierce battle with the Beiyang City guard, barely escaping with his life, and was now extremely weak.
He had no desire to fight this little girl to the death.
But Xiao Minghuang didn’t see it that way.
She spoke calmly, “Too much? If you dare show yourself in front of me, you’d better be ready to die.”
The demonic cultivator’s face changed.
He knew things wouldn’t end well today, so he tried to bluff, his voice cold: “We’re both at the fourth level of Qi Refining, and you’re just a snot-nosed brat.
What makes you think you can take me on?”
“I’ll give you a chance.
Hand over all your spirit stones and pills, get out of this cave, and I’ll let you live!”
Hearing this, Xiao Minghuang raised her hand, golden light flashing at her fingertips, her gaze toward the demonic leader full of disdain.
“You? You’re not even worth it.”
The demonic leader couldn’t take it anymore.
He made a snap decision and attacked first, roaring,
“Blood Wave!”
Four vortices of energy appeared around his body, rapidly pulling in the surrounding spiritual energy and raising a blood wave over three meters high, crashing toward Xiao Minghuang.
As the fierce blood wave surged toward her, Xiao Minghuang’s pupils flashed with light.
Golden brilliance flickered at her fingertips as she formed a sword with her fingers and slashed through the air.
“Seven Star Sword: Yaoguang!”
Xiao Minghuang’s red lips parted as she chanted softly.
The golden light condensed into a dazzling thread, carrying a brilliant and fierce sword aura, instantly slicing through the blood wave and slashing toward the demonic leader.
The blood wave he’d cultivated for years was easily destroyed.
The power of the Yaoguang Sword made the demonic leader fearful.
Instinctively, he gathered all his spiritual power into his palms, trying to deflect the sword light.
Buzz!
The moment the sword light met his palms, a dull sound rang out.
The starlight faded, and Xiao Minghuang’s expression remained unchanged.
The demonic leader’s face turned pale.
Blood gushed from his wrists—his hands were gone, cut clean off!
“How… how is this possible?!”
He’d practiced Blood Wave Palm for years, focusing all his skills on his hands.
Even against a fifth-level Qi Refining expert, he thought he could put up a fight.
But this delicate-looking girl had casually sliced off both his hands with a single move.
Such strength was simply terrifying!
“Who the hell are you? We’re both at the fourth level of Qi Refining—how can you be this strong?!”
He trembled all over, staring at Xiao Minghuang in disbelief.
Xiao Minghuang said calmly, “I am the Ninth Princess of the Great Xia royal family, sent to Beiyang City to eliminate the demonic cultivators causing trouble.”
The Yaoguang Sword was the first move of the “Big Dipper Seven Star Sword Technique,” harnessing the power of the Yaoguang star, and was incredibly powerful.
But using it in this starless cave was quite limiting, and without a magic weapon in her hand, its power was greatly reduced.
Even so, it was more than enough to defeat the demonic leader.
Xiao Minghuang’s eyes flashed.
Four energy vortices appeared around her, spiritual power surging.
She raised her hand again, golden light swirling at her fingertips, formed a sword, and struck.
This sword was even sharper and more powerful than before.
Facing the incoming starlight sword, the demonic leader was terrified.
Knowing he was no match, he turned to flee, but Xiao Minghuang caught up and pierced his skull with a finger, killing him instantly.
After the demonic leader died, Xiao Minghuang searched his body and found a storage pouch containing the spirit stones they’d looted.
There were over a thousand in total, along with some low-level martial arts manuals, all of inferior quality and not worth much.
Xiao Minghuang frowned slightly.
These things were useless to her, but better than nothing, so she put them all in the storage pouch.
What caught her attention was a strange technique she found among the worthless manuals.
Calling it a technique was a stretch—it was more like a secret art.
The name was plain and simple: “Dual Cultivation Technique.”
Xiao Minghuang flipped through it and saw drawings of two little figures in all sorts of positions.
What surprised her was that the last few pages of the booklet even described methods for same-sex dual cultivation.
Xiao Minghuang had been curious, but after reading it, she was thoroughly disappointed.
What should have been exciting was ruined by the terrible artwork, making it look ridiculous and not the least bit arousing.
“So this is the demonic trio’s evil technique.
If they have to practice something this low-level, no wonder they’re only at the Body Tempering stage.”
Xiao Minghuang sneered at the author of the secret art, tore out all the earlier chapters, kept only the same-sex dual cultivation part, and put it in her storage pouch.
She also found a stack of letters in the pouch, recording this group’s correspondence with some big shot in Great Xia.
“Well, that’s an unexpected bonus.”
Xiao Minghuang’s eyes lingered as she muttered to herself.
Finding nothing else of interest, she turned and went back to the stone building.
“Miss Lin, it’s all taken care of.
We can go now.”
Xiao Minghuang knocked on the door and spoke.
As soon as she finished—
The door creaked open, and Lin Wanqiu’s pretty face appeared before his eyes.
He glanced over her from head to toe—her dress was spotless, her hair was neatly done, she looked elegant and refined, noble and otherworldly.
She didn’t look like someone who had just been through a bloody battle.
“Has the leader of the demonic cultivators come back?” Xiao Minghuang nodded.
“That’s right, but I’ve already killed him.”
Hearing this, Lin Wanqiu’s eyes flashed with shock.
“That demonic cultivator leader was a fourth-level Qi Refining martial artist.
My father sent the guards after him several times, but they could never catch him.
And now Miss Xiao has taken him out just like that?”
Xiao Minghuang didn’t want to take all the credit, so she answered honestly, “Before fighting me, that demonic cultivator seemed to have just gone through a big battle.
His energy was weak, he had no will to fight, and he was like a startled bird.
That’s the only reason I could beat him so easily.”
Even so, the demonic cultivator leader at his peak wouldn’t have been able to withstand a single strike from Xiao Minghuang.
But when Lin Wanqiu heard this, it meant something else to her.
“A fourth-level Qi Refining martial artist couldn’t even block one of Miss Xiao’s strikes… Miss Xiao, you’re truly extraordinary!”
With the praise, Xiao Minghuang felt a little embarrassed, her cheeks turning slightly red.
She quickly changed the subject, “Now that this is over, let’s get out of here!”
Lin Wanqiu nodded, then led the group of civilians out of the stone building, and everyone headed toward the cave’s exit.
In no time, they all left the cave.
It was still night outside, pitch black all around.
Just as everyone was breathing a sigh of relief, they suddenly heard the sound of a large group of people approaching from not far away.
The footsteps were neat and orderly, all in a line, like they’d been strictly trained.
Each person’s presence radiated the aura of someone at the peak of the Body Tempering stage.
One of them even had the aura of a fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator!
Xiao Minghuang’s expression changed.
She’d just fought twice in a row, her spiritual power was almost gone, and she didn’t have many spirit stones left—she couldn’t keep fighting.
If these were more demonic cultivators, what would she do? She knew Eunuch Wang was secretly protecting her, but if he had to step in, this whole training exercise would lose its meaning.
As she was thinking, the footsteps got closer and the figures finally appeared.
Xiao Minghuang stepped back, ready to run at any moment.
But Lin Wanqiu’s face lit up with joy.
She walked straight toward the sound of the footsteps and called out happily, “Uncle Lin!”
