When she didn’t need to fight, she could still avoid eating whenever possible.
After all, converting something into energy in one bite wasn’t as good as keeping it around in case it proved useful later.
If she relied on eating these things to break through, she’d have to wait until the cows came home.
Better to just train diligently and look for spirit items that matched her physique.
Spirit items were far healthier and more nutritious than demonic cultivators.
Bringing this unlucky bastard back to the heavy criminal cell on the third underground floor, Hua Jian manipulated him into sitting on an empty chair, then waved Xia Hui over.
“Give me the potion. I can just inject it directly into his bloodstream?”
“Yeah, but the toxicity…” Xia Hui handed the potion to Hua Jian, hesitation still visible on her face.
After all, this was still a human life.
“It doesn’t matter. I never planned on letting these guys go anyway. Dead is dead.”
These magic path cultivators were all scum who deserved death a thousand times over.
Now that they’d fallen into Hua Jian’s hands, did she have any reason to go easy on them?
Xia Hui just didn’t know what these guys had done before. If she did, she’d probably already be enthusiastically helping Hua Jian out.
“Don’t feel sorry for them. This one alone has over a hundred innocent souls on his hands, all tortured to death by him. Want me to give you the details of his ‘glorious achievements’?” Hua Xinrui, who was diligently stirring a large cauldron nearby, spoke up on Hua Jian’s behalf.
Over the past few days, she’d dug up everything there was to know about these demonic cultivators. Suffice it to say, every single one of them was a piece of work—even by magic path standards, they were the lowest of the low.
Calling them “evil” would be a compliment. The cultivators of Wanhuagu were practically innocent little girls compared to them.
Hua Xinrui considered herself a core disciple of Wanhuagu, and even she thought these people were better off dead—which just showed how disgusting their deeds truly were.
Without waiting for Xia Hui to refuse, Hua Xinrui packaged a portion of her memories and sent them to Xia Hui, including some of the evidence she’d uncovered of these demonic cultivators’ crimes.
Xia Hui only took one glance, and the hesitation on her face turned to firm resolve.
“Miss Hua Jian, just inject it straight into his bloodstream. Aiming for the head works too.”
What else was there to say? Based on what she’d just seen, even a thousand cuts wouldn’t be punishment enough for these demonic cultivators.
These bastards didn’t even deserve to be called human—they were beasts!
“If I aim for the head, I’m afraid I’ll kill him outright. That’s no good.” Hua Jian took the potion and directly immersed her vines into it, absorbing the liquid within.
The vine, now fully saturated with the potion, became like a needle.
Under Hua Jian’s guidance, it pierced into the unconscious demonic cultivator’s bloodstream and injected all the potion inside.
At the same time, Hua Jian released her soul control over the demonic cultivator, allowing him to awaken from his unconscious state.
“Ugh! Aaah… Huh? Gah!”
The demonic cultivator forcibly awakened by Hua Jian immediately widened his eyes and let out a strange wail of agony.
His body began to convulse unnaturally. After about fifteen minutes, the cultivator’s head lolled to the side, blood seeping from all seven orifices as his life faded away.
“That toxic?” Hua Jian brought the crystal bottle that had held the potion up to her eyes for inspection, letting out an exclamation of surprise.
No wonder refining alchemists were so much more valuable than poison refiners.
The difficulty of crafting poisons was nowhere near that of refining pills.
The waste products and failed pills that flowed out of alchemists’ hands could probably be packaged into super poisons by poison refiners and sold off.
“His brain is basically burned out. Seems the potency was too strong.” Hua Jian examined the demonic cultivator’s cause of death, checking whether the man was truly dead.
After confirming he wasn’t just playing dead, the vines she’d left inside his body all activated at once, completely shredding his body from the inside out.
Hmph, who knew if this guy had some secret technique for faking death? Hua Jian always did things thoroughly.
If he could still survive after all that, then Hua Jian would just have to accept the loss.
“Hmm, this potion’s effect should have been to put a cultivator into a state of mental blankness with their soulforce open, allowing them to receive the information we feed them. I guess my grasp of the raw materials and refining techniques isn’t good enough yet.” Xia Hui lowered her head and muttered self-deprecatingly.
Hua Jian reached out and patted Xia Hui’s head. She was supposed to be the one who looked most like the little sister among the three, yet here she was, the younger one comforting the older sister. It was a bit topsy-turvy.
“It’s fine. There’s plenty of raw materials here. When they run out, I’ll go ask Huaxinhu for more. Don’t worry about saving her money.”
How much material could one Xia Hui possibly consume?
If Wanhuagu couldn’t even meet such a small demand, it might as well dissolve and rebrand itself as a massive red-light district.
And upon hearing that all the materials were being paid for by Huaxinhu, Xia Hui’s embarrassment vanished instantly.
Oh, so it was that bad person footing the bill? Then she could fail as many times as she wanted!
Sensing Xia Hui’s renewed fighting spirit, Hua Xinrui couldn’t help but cast an admiring glance at Hua Jian.
Miss Hua Jian was way too impressive! Two simple sentences and she’d reignited Xia Hui’s motivation!
Truly worthy of being the Saintess!
“Don’t look at me like that. Is that stuff in the cauldron done yet?”
And then she got caught red-handed by Hua Jian.
“Just a little more! I guarantee there won’t be any problems—I’ve done this many times before!”
Fortunately, Hua Xinrui had great confidence in herself and answered Hua Jian’s question with considerable assurance.
“Oh? So this isn’t your first time?”
“Hehe, a few years back I helped out some senior martial sisters in the valley and often did this kind of assistant work.” Hua Xinrui chuckled twice.
During the years Hua Jian and Xia Hui had been locked up, she’d been free to move around as she pleased, and assisting powerful senior martial sisters was one way she earned her living expenses.
Wanhuagu gave her a decent amount of cultivation resources, but for a cultivator, such things were never enough.
Hua Xinrui was also an ambitious young woman who naturally wanted to gather more resources. So here she was, doing this kind of work.
“These are the materials for refining high-grade soul-confusing spiritual fragrance, but they can also directly produce the soul-confusing effect themselves. That’s more than enough for us!”
While explaining, Hua Xinrui slowly extinguished the flames beneath the cauldron.
As the green substance inside gradually solidified, she sprinkled a handful of black powder into the pot, making the green substance’s color deepen slightly.
With her stirring, the powder and green substance mixed completely, forming a solid mass that looked fairly firm.
If this thing needed a name, it would probably be: Soul-Confusing Spiritual Fragrance (Diet Version)—better suited for low-level cultivators’ physiques.
“Hyup! As long as we put it in an incense burner and burn it, anyone who smells the fragrance will unconsciously slip into a state of wandering consciousness. At that point, we can do whatever we want!”
Hua Xinrui forcefully knocked the now-solid spiritual fragrance off the wooden stick, then presented her masterpiece to Hua Jian with pride.
“Impressive. Reward: a head pat~” Hua Jian gave Hua Xinrui a head rub, treating her just like she did everyone else. “You two try out the fragrance and see if it works. I’ll take this guy upstairs to dispose of him.”
“Okay!” Hua Xinrui wore an utterly satisfied smile. When Hua Jian praised her and patted her head, she felt like she was about to float away.
This feeling was so wonderful that she thought it was better than any reward she could ever receive.
Of course, Hua Jian wouldn’t tell her that this wasn’t entirely Hua Xinrui’s own feeling—it was the effect of the little earpiece she’d installed on her.
She couldn’t directly control a person’s behavior or thoughts, but making someone feel happiness and satisfaction? That was simple enough.
Moreover, the emotions she induced were one of a kind in this world. Hua Xinrui couldn’t get this feeling anywhere else.
Ahem, anyway, this wasn’t something a good person should do.
But Hua Jian still had some lingering wariness toward Hua Xinrui, and only this could put her mind at ease.
Once Hua Xinrui completely became a little dependent who couldn’t live without her, Hua Jian could rest easy.
“Goodbye, Miss Hua Jian!”
Hearing the energetic voice coming from behind her, Hua Jian felt a slight twinge of guilt.
Xinrui was a Wanhuagu disciple, but she wasn’t really a bad person. What Hua Jian was doing was a bit much.
But there was no helping it. As long as Hua Xinrui didn’t betray her, then none of this mattered to Hua Xinrui—if anything, it made her life happier.
Compared to how other magic path cultivators controlled their subordinates, Hua Jian’s method was quite gentle.
Guiding the limp demonic cultivator’s body to the second underground floor, the three demonic cultivators on duty there stared with wide eyes at Hua Jian, who had gone down just moments ago and was already coming back up—along with the lump of flesh beside her.
What exactly did she go down there to do? Was the Saintess really this brutal?
Hua Jian didn’t bother explaining. She simply tossed the body onto the ground. “One of you, handle this.”
With that, she turned and disappeared into the darkness, leaving the three demonic cultivators staring at each other.
Only after Hua Jian’s footsteps completely faded did they dare approach the corpse.
As they drew closer and got a look at it, a layer of cold sweat instantly covered their foreheads.
This was way too gruesome of a death. They didn’t even want to imagine what kind of torment this cultivator had endured before dying.
Looking at the terrified expression on his face, looking at the seven orifices still bleeding—what in the world had the Saintess done?!
One person kicked the corpse with his foot, and the cold sweat on his forehead only increased. “His whole body is shattered. Did the Saintess…”
This was even more terrifying than a thousand cuts!
At least a thousand cuts went from outside to inside.
But this demonic cultivator who died at the Saintess’s hands looked like he’d been shredded from the inside out.
The moment they imagined their own insides slowly being ground to pieces, all three demonic cultivators felt a phantom pain ripple through their bodies.
The Saintess’s methods were truly terrifying. They must never, ever provoke the Saintess in the future… otherwise, they’d end up like this corpse!
Death wasn’t scary, but dying in such agony was enough to instill fear in any cultivator.
“Rock paper scissors. Loser carries it.”
One demonic cultivator voiced his suggestion quietly.
The other two immediately agreed. Nobody wanted to carry that thing, so this was the only fair way.
The match was quickly decided. The losing cultivator let out a resigned sigh, stiffened his face, and hefted the flesh-like lump of meat before heading upstairs.
Wanhuagu cultivators were also stationed at the passageway between the second underground floor and the second floor.
When they saw this cultivator carrying something up, they were immediately puzzled.
What was he doing?
When they got a clear look at what he was carrying, the stationed cultivators wore the exact same horrified expression as the two before them.
Holy mother! What the hell was that thing?!
“This is something the Saintess ordered to be properly dealt with. How dare you—”
“It was the Saintess herself who did this. If you don’t believe me, go ask the Saintess. I’m just carrying out her orders.” The cultivator carrying the corpse quickly explained.
The cultivator stationed at the passageway sucked in a breath of cold air tinged with the smell of blood.
This was the Saintess’s handiwork?
In that moment, they fully realized that the Saintess was more than just good-looking.
Her ruthlessness was enough to rank among the top even in Wanhuagu.
Hua Jian never would have imagined that casually throwing out a manual labor task would stir up such a small wave among the Wanhuagu cultivators in the Red Flower Building.
As the demonic cultivator carrying the corpse walked through various parts of the Red Flower Building’s underground, Hua Jian’s fearsome reputation began to spread among the demonic cultivators there.
Within a single day, the story had been embellished to the point where even Huaxinhu was left utterly bewildered when she heard it.
When Hua Jian was dragged out of the smoke-filled basement by Huaxinhu to explain herself, Hua Jian was equally confused.
“That absolutely didn’t happen. I just tested a potion on him, he couldn’t take it and croaked. To make sure he wasn’t faking his death, I finished him off. It’s nowhere near as serious as they’re making it sound.”
Sitting in her own room at the top floor of the Red Flower Building, Hua Jian said seriously to Huaxinhu that she really wasn’t a murder maniac, and definitely not the sadistic freak the Red Flower Building was currently rumoring her to be.
Could these magic cultivators keep their thoughts a little cleaner? Did she really look that much like a villain?
“You call that finishing him off?” The corner of Huaxinhu’s mouth twitched. “Normal people just cut off the head when they finish someone off. But you, Hua Jian—you did everything except cut off the head!”
“You have to help me clear this up. I’m really not that kind of person!”
“Too late. It’s already spread everywhere. By now, the news has probably reached the valley.” Huaxinhu rolled her eyes. Gossip like this spread fastest of all.
By the time she found out, it was already too late.
Most of the Wanhuagu cultivators working in the Red Flower Building were just refining alchemists who knew very little and had no sense of protecting Hua Jian’s privacy.
Of course, these people could only spread it internally. But proper Wanhuagu cultivators had external means of communication.
And since this wasn’t exactly a sensitive matter, the Wanhuagu cultivators happily passed along the gossip.
And just like that, Hua Jian’s image inexplicably became that of a big demon head.