It was truly her bad luck.
The path of shadow souls she cultivated was extremely vicious against others, but when facing Hua Jian, these spirits were utterly useless—instead, they became a little snack for her.
Aside from her unknown true form, most of Hua Jian’s skills came from the Illusory Dream Flower, which was an invincible anti-spirit weapon.
Let alone shadow souls condensed by a Ling King realm cultivator; even a Ling Emperor realm cultivator would find it hard to gain an advantage under Hua Jian.
That swarm of resentful spirits had charged into Hua Jian’s ability range moments ago, and they were absorbed by the Illusory Dream Flower almost without resistance.
As for how much effect they had? Perhaps they just made Hua Jian feel a bit stuffed, needing to convert some of those vengeful souls into Soul Liquid.
Speaking of which, isn’t Soul Liquid also a treasure that demonic cultivators would fight to the death over?
Ahem. To sum it up, the demonic cultivator’s counterattack didn’t achieve much.
Instead, it gave Hua Jian an opportunity to spread the Illusory Dream Flower’s phantom right next to her.
The sleep-inducing fragrance of flowers drifted around the demonic cultivator, but she had already held her breath, so the fragrance couldn’t harm her yet.
However, that wasn’t the issue. As her surroundings were covered by the Illusory Dream Flower’s phantom, her spiritual power underwent a very unfavorable change.
Because of her unique cultivation method, her spiritual power carried a strong soul attribute—one that Hua Jian countered too perfectly.
Being caught directly in Hua Jian’s domain, her combat power was reduced to less than half.
This sudden weakness made her extremely uncomfortable.
And to make matters worse, Hua Jian wouldn’t give her a moment to breathe. She was already charging forward with her sword.
All her spirit techniques were heavily weakened. Now, her only reliance was the spirit tool she held, which was not of the soul attribute.
But soon, she discovered something even more despairing.
She couldn’t hit her opponent at all.
Even when she resorted to a suicidal tactic, all she saw was her opponent flying backward, spinning in the air, and then flying back again.
It was as if her spirit tool attacks had done no damage to this person at all.
And that was a peak Ling King realm’s full-force strike! Even if her two teammates had taken that hit at close range, they wouldn’t have been able to brush it off so easily.
She herself had suffered internal injuries from the shockwave, which was exactly what a normal cultivator should experience after taking a spirit tool blow at close range.
Not like this monster, who was completely unaffected.
This wasn’t a little mouse—this was a big tiger!
What nonsense about early Ling King realm! This is early stage my ass!
Which sect’s heavenly talent was this? Here to experience life in a secret realm?
Countless thoughts flashed through her mind, and then one of them rapidly expanded.
Perhaps she had guessed this enemy’s identity.
For a genius of this level, even the great demonic sects would treat her with utmost care. They would never allow her to enter such a dangerous secret realm.
Unless the sect to which this genius belonged was confident in protecting her safety.
This secret realm was created by Wanhuagu. So who would be most confident in protecting a genius’s safety? No need to say more.
It could only be Wanhuagu’s own genius!
And coincidentally, Wanhuagu indeed had such a genius.
Moreover, all the techniques this genius used were related to wood and flowers, which further exposed her identity.
“I know—you are the Wanhua Saintess!” the demonic cultivator screamed hysterically.
The shout made the black-robed figure pause for a moment. A few seconds later, she shook her head helplessly.
“Reason?”
“It can only be you!”
Hua Jian stroked her chin, thinking for two seconds, and felt the question was indeed pointless.
Right, after fighting for so long, any cultivator with a functioning brain should have figured out her identity.
Able to fight above her level, appearing in Wanhuagu’s secret realm, mostly using plant-based abilities—put those conditions together, and her identity was basically fully exposed.
It wasn’t as if Wanhuagu was hiding another genius of her caliber inside the valley, right?
“Correct guess, but no prize.” Hua Jian twirled her sword into a flower and continued her assault without hesitation.
Such a small interruption didn’t affect anything. She had to kill this demonic cultivator anyway; now she just had one more reason to do so.
Seeing that Hua Jian didn’t bother to deny or argue, the demonic cultivator felt a moment of melancholy.
She knew her accusation was entirely useless.
So what if she knew that the person killing her was the Wanhua Saintess?
Even if she could bring that news out alive, what could she do?
Complain that Wanhuagu was abusing its authority and letting its saintess come in to murder and set fires?
Nonsense. Was Wanhuagu afraid of being scolded?
They would definitely bite back, saying “You can’t defeat our saintess—maybe you should think about whether it’s your problem.”
And when other demonic cultivators learned about this, they wouldn’t react much.
Was it news that Wanhuagu’s saintess was killing people in the secret realm?
At most, they’d see the cultivators in the secret realm as free sparring partners.
Keep in mind, Hua Jian was a cultivator below mid Ling King, and the demonic cultivators in the secret realm all had at least late Ling King foundation.
What, you couldn’t beat a lower-realm cultivator despite being at a higher level, and now you need an excuse?
Have some shame!
“There’s no grievance between us, so why are you bent on exterminating me?”
As Hua Jian’s identity was exposed, the pressure on the demonic cultivator suddenly increased.
Earlier, Hua Jian hadn’t been able to use Wanhuagu’s various spirit techniques, but now they were all unlocked.
Just that elusive Flying Flower Escape Technique had the demonic cultivator struggling to cope.
After just a few exchanges, her defeat was obvious.
Seeing that she was truly about to lose, the demonic cultivator began to shout recklessly, trying to stall for time or even persuade Hua Jian to spare her life.
The Wanhua Saintess was still young; maybe she had a little mercy?
“Reason? Do I need a reason to kill?” Hua Jian didn’t take the bait. If these people were good, she might have shown some mercy.
But they were demonic cultivators, each bearing heavy blood debts deserving death.
Killing them gave Hua Jian no psychological burden; on the contrary, it made her feel happy.
“If you want a reason, it’s that your sins are too heavy. I am acting on behalf of heaven!”
As she spoke, Hua Jian swung her sword heavily at the demonic cultivator.
The already dull spirit light of the barrier shattered under that blow, exposing the demonic cultivator’s true body completely within Hua Jian’s attack range.
Swish!
At the same moment Hua Jian broke the barrier, the plant shooters hidden in the mist fired a lethal bullet into the demonic cultivator’s back.
Both events occurred almost simultaneously. Before the demonic cultivator could react, the bullet had already struck her in the back.
Even worse, the bullet did not stop upon entering her chest—it took root and sprouted in her heart.
Yes, that was the ability of the Heart-Eating Vine.
“You… hypocrite!” the demonic cultivator shouted, clutching her chest, but there was no turning back.
The Heart-Eating Vine had already sprouted inside her.
To resolve this, she would have to carve out her own heart to minimize the damage before the vine spread to other parts of her body.
But if she did that now, would Hua Jian just stand by and watch her eat pills to recover, waiting like some old-fashioned gentleman for her to regain full strength before fighting again?
Anyone knew that was wishful thinking!
At this point, without external interference, there was only one outcome for her: death.
Completely, without a doubt—death!
The demonic cultivator wasn’t that afraid of death. When she chose this path, she had already anticipated the day she would die.
But she still wanted to struggle, because who would want to die if they could live?
However, Hua Jian wouldn’t give her that chance. She wasn’t one of those foolish villains who would ramble on before a kill.
Why not say all those things after killing? Wait for the target’s teammates to come and rescue them?
“I am acting on behalf of heaven. Die, demon!” Hua Jian thrust her sword at the cultivator’s head.
“You call me a demon?” Before the cultivator could voice that question, her head was pierced straight through by Hua Jian’s sword.
Nor was her soul spared. The Illusory Dream Flower’s phantom, already diffused nearby, reached out its tendrils to her soul and immediately dragged it into Hua Jian’s Godsoul Space.
Then, Hua Jian heard a sharp howl from within the space.
It was a roar filled with pain and hatred, cursing the hypocritical Hua Jian for dying an unnatural death.
Those noises faded away after a short while, and the demonic cultivator’s soul turned into a single drop of sparkling Soul Liquid.
After eliminating the cultivator on the soul level, Hua Jian tilted her head and looked at the still relatively intact body.
The lifeless corpse had a shattered heart and a pierced head, but with some repairs, it might still be usable.
Seeing it this way, it was quite a good prop?
Hua Jian pulled the wooden sword out of the cultivator’s head and pointed lightly at the corpse.
Several thin vines emerged from the soil and began to restore the wound on the head.
After a short time, Hua Jian nodded with some satisfaction—at least it wouldn’t look problematic at first glance.
Unfortunately, she was currently controlling someone else’s body through the brain, and this cultivator’s head had already been turned into mush by her.
Otherwise, she could have directly possessed the Demonic Cultivator and gone to play self-destruct with the group still fighting in the resource point.
If she used vines to control it, the movements would be very stiff, and it would probably be hard to fool those cultivators… Hua Jian began to think about how to maximize the use of the resources she had on hand.
……
By the time she was done fighting, the free-for-all in the resource point had entered its white-hot stage.
Almost every few moments, a Demonic Cultivator would be injured or killed.
Everyone, without realizing it, had been affected by the Mirage Qi, becoming extremely vicious and bloodthirsty.
Normally, when faced with such a situation, these cultivators would have long realized something was wrong and stopped fighting.
If they kept fighting like this, they would definitely both suffer losses. The final victor couldn’t even be called a victor—he would merely be a survivor.
Even if he won this fight, so what? His condition would be severely weakened, and the resources he had on hand would be almost completely exhausted.
If he ran into other teams later, would he even have the strength to fight?
No, there wouldn’t be. Every team here had already lost at least one person.