A muffled grunt escaped from Chen Feng's mouth as pain overtook him. He hadn't expected her to fight back, much less with a top-grade talisman. That thread-thin bolt of purple lightning had struck his head squarely, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
But Wei Yunxi had no intention of giving him a chance to recover. She followed the simple rule: strike while your enemy is weak. Sword in hand, she lunged forward. Though she'd never formally studied swordsmanship, she had practiced the basics—slashes, thrusts, sweeps, and jabs—until they were second nature. Now, she unleashed every move in a wild, rapid flurry.
She wasn't about to let this chance slip away. A live target was too rare. Even though her techniques were unrefined, her sheer strength made up for it. Every blow landed heavy, and Chen Feng soon found himself overwhelmed.
The longer she fought, the more exhilarated she became. In contrast, Chen Feng's unease only deepened.
"You've been hiding your cultivation!" he shouted, his voice sharp with accusation.
Wei Yunxi didn't stop swinging her sword. Her response was calm and mocking.
"If I hadn't, how would I have lured you out?"
Truthfully, she hadn't known Chen Feng was watching her. But since he had just exposed her hidden cultivation, she seized the opportunity to mislead him. Her goal was to rattle his focus and explain away her concealment in one move.
But she knew one thing for sure—Chen Feng had to die. If he escaped tonight, there was no telling what he might do next.
That thought alone gave her another surge of strength. She tightened her grip on her sword and mixed in a few talismans between strikes, throwing off his rhythm again and again.
Chen Feng summoned a defensive shield in time to block six fireball talismans. Then, realizing he was at a disadvantage, he threw down a smoke talisman and tried to flee. He knew there was no winning here. Escape was his best option.
But Wei Yunxi had anticipated that. Her divine sense had locked onto him from the moment he attacked. As soon as he turned to run, she hurled her spirit sword at his back, aiming straight for his heart.
Chen Feng heard the shift in the wind behind him and dove to the ground just in time. The sword plunged into the earth where he had just been standing.
He didn't spare the blade a single glance. Crawling toward the hole he had dug earlier, he was about to slip underground when his body suddenly convulsed.
He looked down, stunned, and saw an icicle piercing through his chest. His limbs gave out, and he collapsed.
Wei Yunxi smelled the sharp tang of blood in the air, but she didn't approach. Instead, she used object control to snatch Chen Feng's storage pouch from his waist, dumped its contents into her own space, then threw the now-empty pouch into the flames.
Then, she activated ten low-grade fireball talismans and rained them down on his motionless body. She wasn't going to risk giving him a second chance.
It was the right call.
Just as the flames closed in, Chen Feng let out a final groan and tried to claw into the hole. Only when fire consumed his entire body did he finally fall still.
Wei Yunxi resisted the nausea welling up inside her and watched as his body and possessions turned to ash. Only then did she allow herself to breathe, staggering back and retching, though nothing came out.
This was her first kill.
She had come from a peaceful era. The psychological shock hit her harder than the physical strain. Earlier, her body had been running on pure adrenaline, but now, the aftermath settled in. She felt faint, jittery, a little cold.
This was the true face of the cultivation world.
Two outer sect disciples, a simple argument, and already someone had come to kill her. Her family hadn't even retaliated against him. Yet Chen Feng had nursed his grudge in silence for a whole year, waiting for the moment she was alone.
If she hadn't hidden her true cultivation level, she would be dead. If he had struck during the first half of the night—while she was drawing talismans with her spiritual power drained—she wouldn't have stood a chance.
Thankfully, he came after her power had recovered. Ironically, his own smoke talisman had shielded her next move. Her sword had been a distraction. The real killing blow was her instant-cast Ice Spike spell, and it had landed just as she'd predicted.
She might have let him escape otherwise.
Wei Yunxi sat for a long time, trying to collect herself. Finally, she used magic to erase all traces of the struggle, especially sealing the tunnel he had dug. Then she returned to her thatched hut.
But she couldn't settle down.
This had been her first true crisis since arriving in the cultivation world. Though she survived, it was a stark reminder that she couldn't always rely on luck. She needed a more reliable combat method—something that didn't depend on talismans alone. They would eventually run out.
Her mind raced with half-formed thoughts until dawn. Only then did she force herself to check on the fields. The spirit rice had begun to sprout, and she carefully removed a few weeds that had grown too close.
Nothing in her demeanor showed a hint of what had happened.
Throughout the day, she kept her divine sense extended, scanning the surroundings to see if anyone else was watching. She had to be sure Chen Feng didn't have any allies.
Luckily, no one else approached her. Even so, she didn't let her guard down. Every half-hour, she swept the area again, staying alert until Zong Hao finally returned.
"Yunxi, nothing happened while I was gone, right?" he asked casually.
"All normal. I even pulled a couple of weeds from your field," she replied without missing a beat.
"Great. I stocked up at the dining hall and bought some spirit flour buns. Also picked up some pearl spirit rice, a few cuts of first-rank spirit rabbit meat, and even a whole spirit chicken. Should last us a while."
Wei Yunxi beamed, her dimples appearing as she smiled.
"That's perfect. Did you find a stove?"
"Sure did. Got a secondhand one for just fifty spirit pearls. Oh, and I bought some spirit vegetables from a Senior Sister at the market."
"Nice haul. How's Sister Yunying and the others?"
"They finished their short-term tasks. Yunying, Zong Jin, and Zong Yu are all back at the disciples' compound in the outer peaks. Only Wei Yunqing stayed behind. The disciples at Dan Peak appreciated her work and asked her to stay. Even gave her extra spirit stones."
Wei Yunxi paused slightly as she picked through the vegetables, then continued cheerfully.
"Well, that's not bad. Dan Peak's spiritual energy is said to be denser than the cultivation halls. It's a good opportunity."
"She just got lucky, that's all," Zong Hao muttered, clearly unimpressed.
Now that he had improved his spiritual roots, Wei Yunqing couldn't suppress the Wei family disciples anymore.
That evening, the two of them feasted on aromatic stewed spirit chicken. The next morning, Wei Yunxi turned the leftovers into a hearty chicken noodle soup, giving them another satisfying meal.
The delicious spirit food soothed her nerves. She said nothing to Zong Hao about Chen Feng. The fewer people who knew, the better.
By the second month, the spirit rice had grown over a meter tall and entered the grain-filling stage. She and Zong Hao became even busier, casting Rainfall spells twice a day to ensure a smooth ripening process.
Then, in the third month, as the rice approached full maturity, Wei Yunxi noticed something strange.
Someone was lurking near their spirit fields.