Suddenly Zhi Yan's eyes shot open and she jumped out of her spot on the tree just in time to dodge a sizable rock aimed at her. Immediately, she pulled out the cleaver from the Dimension Pouch and hid behind the tree, her eyes darting at the darkness around her. She waited, hands poised then a glint on her right caught her eye and she threw the knife with blinding speed at a nearby tree. A second later, a gargled yelp could be heard and she was on her attacker in a second, yanking the cleaver out of the tree and holding it to their throat.  

"Miss Yan, mercy I beg! Mercy, please!" When her eyes finally adjusted to the moonlight peaking through the branches, she recognized that her attacker was the chubby disciple, Wang Qin from the hostel earlier. 

Without letting go, she asked in a placid voice, "And I ask the reason for your attack on me?"

"Only a mistake, Miss Yan! I shall atone!" Wang Qin yelped, still nervously eyeing the blade underneath his chin as a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. 

"And where are your fellow disciples?" A look of confusion crossed Wang Qin as he realized neither one of his brothers had appeared.

At that moment, a boom shook the earth around them as an accompanying burst of bright blue light shot through the trees. 

"That's Senior Brother Qu's Tian Hua Sword! I must go help!" Wang Qin cried, wiggling in her grasp. "Miss Yan?"

Immediately, she let go. "Yes, go on." And I can leave without your little club following me. She walked over to where her donkey stood and prepared herself to leave.

"Miss Yan?" Wang Qin had not moved from where he stood. "Could Miss Yan grant us some assistance? This one has not had nearly as much experience and would not want to drag his senior brothers down."

Outwardly, Zhi Yan was all the magnanimous image as she calmly waved her sleeve in the direction of the commotion. "Naturally. Lead the way." Inwardly, she wanted nothing more than to knock the boy out with a nearby rock and run away on her donkey. Even though she lacked any sensitivity to small power fluctuations, Zhi Yan could tell from little signs that there were people several cultivation levels above her, following her throughout her trip. She had hoped that after dealing with them tonight she wouldn't have to interact with them ever again. Oh, how foolish.

As the two rushed through the trees, the sound got louder until they came across a large clearing against the side of a large cliff. The sound of metal clashing against one another reverberated about as blinding flashes of red blue and black flames lit up the space. 

"Senio-" Zhi Yan slapped a hand against Wang Qin's mouth and the look she shot him immediately wilted the words in his throat. 

"Look. Demonic cultivators." And she was right. Squinting against the lights, he counted around three cultivators fighting the two disciples.

"Then what do we do Miss Yan?" 

Quickly, she pulled out three talismans glancing at the trees around them before she pricked the tip of her forefinger with the cleaver. Under the moonlight, dark red blood glistened on the paper as Zhi Yan handed them to Wang Qin, patting him on the back. "Press it onto the Governing Vessel Meridian and say halt. Do it efficiently."

Wang Qin gave her a short nod, his round face full of determination, and rushed out into the chaos. 

"Come out." A figure emerged from the shadow, clapping his hands slowly. He was dressed in the same purple and black attire as the other demonic cultivators in the clearing with a piece of black fabric covering the bottom portion of his face. 

"What an interesting discovery to find the alleged trash of the Zhi family has a few tricks up her sleeve." A purple flame shot from his palm and grabbed the cleaver in her hand throwing it so that it was lodged in a tree several feet away from them. "No wonder there's a sizable bounty on your head." A bounty, huh.

Zhi Yan was silent unperturbed by the man and his taunts. A purple rope of energy suddenly wrapped itself around her throat yanking her forward. They flew for a couple of seconds up or rather he did while Zhi Yan got dragged down the side of the small cliff.

"What happened to all the chatter before, little mystery girl? Come on, beg for your life and I'll consider killing you nicely." The man taunted once they were situated at the bottom of the cliff, the loud clash of metal echoing in the distance. "If you scream here, maybe they'll even hear you."

She merely turned to the side, ignoring the man.

"Oh you just love silence, don't you?" He let out a feigned noise of pity. "No one ever listened to you before, anyways."

No response.

"Even your parents don't want you, I mean how worthless do you have to be for your parents to despise you? To want to kill you."

When he was met with more silence, the man sighed and grabbed her hair forcing her to look at him. "You know how much money I lost the first time because you wanted to be difficult and come back from dead?" Oh, what a lucky day to meet you. "But it is so fucking pathetic that you did all that work to survive and your parents still want you dead."

"Just like how the Heavens do not want you yet you still try through any means possible, mortal."

Before she could even register it, the sound of a harsh slap rang out in the air as rough calloused hands grabbed her chin.

"I see this life is something you don't want anymore, Young Miss. Whatever path I chose," He spat, his dirty fingernails digging into her cheek. "still placed me higher in life than you. Here I am with your life in the palm of my hand. Yet you like all of your kind can never seem to put down that fucking arrogance of yours. So, let me tell you, you pretentious little bitch, no amount of money can ever change the fact that you were born to amount to nothing, unlike me."

Using the coil he slammed her to the ground sending tendrils of pain shooting through her head and back. The strong taste of copper flooded her senses as she felt a trickle of blood down the back of her throat. Her hands reached for the hold around her neck and the man let out a gleeful laugh. "How does it feel, Young Miss? Think you can still look at me like that?" She spit the blood onto her right hand. "Because you won't when I dig out those annoy-Ergghkrghh."

A cleaver had sunk its blade into the back of his neck and a sudden look of shock emerged on the man's face as his hands moved to his neck in disbelief. The sadistic glee in his eyes had been replaced with manic fear as they darted from himself to his supposedly helpless victim on the ground in front of him. He coughed, the blood landing on her robes, one hand trying to stop the blade while his other squeezed the purple coil around her neck harder. This world spun and Zhi Yan could barely open her eyes as she clutched her bloody hand in a tighter fist. Clenching her teeth, she pulled with all her might at the force in her hand, driving the blade further into his neck as every tear in his flesh she felt propelled her.

"I thought..." He never finished. Thud. Thud. In his last moments, the man couldn't even scream, a gurgling choking noise taking over his body instead before his severed head hit the ground followed by his body. Those fearful glossy eyes watched as Zhi Yan pulled herself up against a tree, the cleaver flying to her open hand and her chest heaving up and down. 

Slowly with the weapon, she shakily crawled over to the head narrowly avoiding the rapidly forming pools of blood. "No, you thought right. I barely have any qi. But who said I was ever using my qi?" She whispered and flipped the blade revealing a talisman stuck on the other side with the words "siphon" written on in blood. Zhi Yan peeled the paper off, ripping it in half, and somewhere in the clearing, the matching one that was stuck to Wang Qin's back fell to the ground disintegrating in a burst of flames. Unlike you, I can amount to something because I lived and you didn't.