"Immortal Su," one called out, his voice distorted by the mask. "By order of the Divine Healing Sect, you are to surrender yourself for questioning regarding illegal medicinal practices, impersonating someone else and suspected demonic cultivation."
[THREAT ANALYSIS: FIVE DIVINE HEALING SECT CULTIVATORS, ALL GOLDEN CORE STAGE.
PROBABILITY OF DEFEATING THEM WITH YOUR CURRENT CULTIVATION BASE: APPROXIMATELY 12%.
WITH HEI WUYA'S ASSISTANCE: 97%.
RECOMMENDATION: STRATEGIC RETREAT IF POSSIBLE. DO NOT RISK KARMA’S INJURIES OPENING UP AGAIN.]
"Illegal practices?" Su Lan Yi scoffed, rising slowly with Karma clutched protectively to her chest. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Hei Wuya’s enraged expression, and signalled to him that they should leave. "How creative. I assume you have evidence beyond 'she sells better medicine than us and we're jealous'?"
"Surrender peacefully, woman, and you will be treated fairly," the masked cultivator insisted, ignoring her barb. "Resist, and we cannot guarantee your safety."
Hei Wuya stepped forward, his demonic aura flaring visibly around him like flames, consuming everything in their wake. "She is under MY protection. Touch her, and the truce between our sects ends today."
The cultivators hesitated, clearly not having expected to find the Terror of Blood Moon protecting their target. After a moment of silent communication, they spread out in a formation that Su Lan Yi recognized. The Binding Pentagram—a tactical arrangement designed to trap targets within a spiritual containment field.
If they succeeded, Hei Wuya and her would be stuck
"Blood Moon has no authority here," another cultivator declared. "This is a righteous sect matter."
"Righteous? Bah! How righteous to ambush a woman and her pet in the forest," Su Lan Yi remarked dryly. "Truly the pinnacle of moral cultivation."
[DETECTING ACTIVE SPIRITUAL ARRAY ACTIVATION IN PROGRESS. THEY'RE ATTEMPTING TO ESTABLISH A RESTRICTION FIELD. TIME UNTIL COMPLETION: APPROXIMATELY 30 SECONDS.]
Su Lan Yi lowered Karma to the ground, whispering, "Run if things get ugly." To her surprise, the fox kit stood his ground, fur bristling as he positioned himself protectively in front of her, growling and baring his fangs at the cultivators.
And then Hei Wuya moved.
In a blur of motion, his sword cleared its sheath with a sound like tearing silk. Before the Divine Healing cultivators could complete their formation, he had disrupted it, sending two of them flying backward with a single sweep of demonic energy.
"Last chance," he growled, his voice deepening to a commanding tone that made the air itself vibrate. "Leave now, or return to your sect in pieces."
The remaining three cultivators, undeterred, unleashed their talismans simultaneously, filling the air with crackling spiritual energy that Su Lan Yi recognized as high-level binding spells. Fast and deadly, but predictable.
With the practiced grace of a millennium of combat experience, Su Lan Yi reached into her sleeve and threw a handful of powder into the air. The binding spells collided with it, creating a spectacular reaction of multicoloured spiritual energy that temporarily blinded everyone in the clearing.
"Was that supposed to do something, Immortal?" a cultivator mocked, blinking away the aftereffects… only to discover he couldn't move his limbs.
"Temporary paralysis powder," Su Lan Yi explained helpfully. "Perfect for dealing with uninvited guests. It won't kill you, but it will give you time to reconsider your life choices."
Hei Wuya had already subdued the remaining two cultivators, his sword at the throat of what appeared to be their leader. "Who sent you?" he demanded.
"Divine-Healing-Sect-" the leader gasped, struggling against Hei Wuya's grip.
"Obviously, idiots, " Su Lan Yi interjected, approaching them. "You aren’t masters of discretion. But who specifically? Wei Chenglin? The elders? Who ordered this attack?"
Before the cultivator could answer, Karma suddenly yipped urgently, pawing at Su Lan Yi's robes with increasing desperation. The fox's eyes were wide, its entire body trembling with what could only be described as panic.
[WARNING! THE FOX IS DETECTING SOMETHING WE'RE NOT! THIS SUGGESTS EXTREME DANGER!]
"What is it, sweetie?" Su Lan Yi asked, kneeling beside the distressed fox. "What's wrong?"
Karma spun in a circle, then darted a few paces toward the direction of Bai City before returning to tug at her robes again, insistent. The message was clear: we need to go back.
A horrible suspicion formed in Su Lan Yi's mind. "Hei Wuya," she said quietly, "I think this attack was a diversion."
His eyes widened in understanding. "The shop—"
One of the paralyzed cultivators began to laugh despite his frozen state, the sound unnervingly satisfied. "Too late... the Medicine Immortal's antics... end today..."
Without another word, Hei Wuya knocked the man unconscious with the hilt of his sword. "We need to go. Now."
Su Lan Yi scooped up Karma, already running toward the path back to Bai City. "Can you fly us there?"
"Not both of us and Karma with my current energy reserves, " Hei Wuya replied grimly, keeping pace beside her as they rushed. "But I know a shortcut."
The two emerged from the forest at a run, taking a hidden path that Hei Wuya claimed was used by Blood Moon scouts when they wanted to infiltrate the city undetected. Su Lan Yi didn't question why demonic cultivators needed such access—her mind was fixed on a single, terrible fear that grew stronger with each step toward Immortal Remedies.
They were still several streets away when they saw it. The black smoke billowing into the sky from the direction of her shop, painting a horrifying picture of what might have transpired there.
"No," Su Lan Yi whispered, her pace faltering for just a moment before she redoubled her speed.
As they rounded the final corner, the full disaster came into view. Immortal Remedies was engulfed in flames, angry red and orange tongues licking up the sides of the building and devouring the roof. A crowd had gathered at a safe distance, their faces illuminated by the dreadful glow of the fire. Some people had buckets with them, trying to douse the fire, but it was of no use.
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"MIN!" Su Lan Yi shouted, scanning the crowd desperately for her young assistant. "MIN!!"
There was no sign of the woman among the onlookers. Which meant—
"She's still inside," Hei Wuya realised, his face grim.
Su Lan Yi moved to rush forward, but Hei Wuya caught her arm. "Wait," he cautioned, his crimson eyes narrowed. "Something's not right."
He gestured toward the ground surrounding the burning building. Nearly invisible in the firelight, a series of talismans had been placed in a perfect circle around Immortal Remedies, their edges glowing with malevolent energy. It wasn't something Su Lan Yi had seen before in her world, so she turned to Hei Wuya.
"A restriction array," Hei Wuya recognised it instantly. "Designed to prevent cultivators and associated beings from entering or exiting. Whoever did this didn't want anyone escaping—or being rescued."
[ANALYZING ARRAY: FIVE-ELEMENT IMPRISONMENT FORMATION. SPECIFICALLY CALIBRATED TO BLOCK CULTIVATION AND RELATED TECHNIQUES. CONVENTIONAL ENTRY OR EXIT IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT BREAKING THE STUPID ARRAY FIRST.]
"How do we break it? Huh?" Su Lan Yi asked, clutching Karma tightly as the fox whined in distress and thrashed about, trying to jump down, but she couldn't risk it now.
"The anchor points," Hei Wuya pointed to five specific talismans placed at strategic positions. "Destroy them simultaneously, and the array will collapse."
"We can't reach them all at once," Su Lan Yi said, desperation creeping into her voice as she watched the flames climb higher. "And we don't have time for—"
Before she could finish, Karma leapt from her arms, darting toward the burning building with astonishing speed.
"KARMA!" Su Lan Yi cried out, but the fox ignored her, racing straight for the barrier. To their shock, the little fox passed through the restriction array as if it weren't there, disappearing into the smoke and flames.
"Impossible, the array should affect all creatures." Hei Wuya breathed out, utterly shocked.
"Unless...?"
But Su Lan Yi didn't complete the thought, her mind racing. "We need to break that array. NOW!"
Hei Wuya nodded, already drawing his sword. "I can destroy two anchor points from here with focused attacks. Can you handle the others?"
[HOST. THE VILLAINESS SHOP OFFERS AN ACCURACY BOW, WHICH LETS YOU TAKE THREE SHOTS WITH PERFECT AIM, THEN DISAPPEARS. BUY FOR 200 POINTS?]
"I want it!" She shouted, desperation lacing her voice. The tune of money jingling was heard, and a pure silver bow materialized in front of her, accompanied by three golden arrows. They looked fairly standard, if you ignored the string made of pure spiritual energy on the bow.
"The System offered help," Su Lan Yi explained as she grabbed the bow, its metal cool against her palms despite the heat of the nearby fire. The weapon was surprisingly light, almost weightless in her hands, yet she could feel the power humming through it. "Just tell me where to aim."
Hei Wuya looked beyond bewildered at that, his eyes darting between her face and the bow that had appeared from thin air. Nevertheless, he quickly assessed the situation, pointing toward the three remaining talismans.
"There, there, and there," he indicated, gesturing to spots at the far side of the burning building where small, rectangular papers glowed with malevolent energy. "Don't miss."
"With this, I won't," Su Lan Yi assured him, nocking the first golden arrow. The moment it touched the spiritual energy string, the arrow began to glow with a matching radiance, as if awakening to its purpose and preparing to meet its opponent in a fair fight.
Drawing the string back, Su Lan Yi felt a strange sensation - the bow seemed to guide her arms, adjusting her aim with subtle pulses of energy. She'd never been particularly skilled with archery in her long life and found it incessantly arduous, but suddenly the distant talisman came into perfect focus, as if it were merely inches away instead of across a burning courtyard.
She released the first arrow. It streaked through the air like a shooting star, trailing golden light and hitting the first talisman with precision. The paper burst into flames, its energy disrupted.
"One," she whispered, already nocking the second arrow. Again, the bow guided her, compensating for distance, wind, and the distortion created by the rising heat from the fire.
The second arrow flew true, piercing the next talisman and dissolving it into sparks of disrupted spiritual energy.
"Two."
By now, several onlookers had noticed what they were doing, pointing and murmuring in confusion at the strange spectacle of the shop’s owner wielding a glowing bow and shooting at seemingly random points around a burning building.
Su Lan Yi took a deep breath as she nocked the final arrow. The bow hummed with anticipation, its power nearly spent. She drew back the string one last time, feeling the perfect alignment of body, bow, and target.
"Three."
The final arrow blazed through the air in a perfect arc, striking the last talisman dead center. As it hit, the arrow itself disintegrated into motes of golden light, its purpose fulfilled.
The bow in Su Lan Yi's hands began to fade, becoming translucent and then disappearing entirely, its magic expended.
At the same moment, Hei Wuya completed his part of the attack, sending two bursts of demonic energy from his sword toward the remaining talismans. The energy crackled through the air, striking its targets with deadly accuracy.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, with a sound like shattering glass, the entire array visibly cracked and dissolved, the restriction barrier falling like a curtain of light collapsing into the ground.
They rushed forward immediately, Hei Wuya using his sword to clear a path through the burning entrance while Su Lan Yi followed close behind. The heat was intense, the smoke thick and acrid with the scent of burning herbs and medicines.
"MIN! MIN!" Su Lan Yi called out, her voice barely audible over the roar of the flames. "KARMA!"
The interior of the shop was barely recognisable. Shelves had been knocked over, jars smashed, and everything of value either stolen or destroyed. This wasn't just a fire—it had been a calculated attack, a systematic destruction of everything Su Lan Yi had built.
[DANGER LEVEL: EXTREME.
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF BUILDING: RAPIDLY FAILING.
ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL COLLAPSE: LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES.]
"There!" Hei Wuya pointed to a crumpled form near the consultation room door, surprise on his face.
Lin Mei lay unconscious, her black attire singed and her exposed skin reddened from the heat.
When had she even gotten there?
Not far away, partially hidden behind an overturned cabinet, was Min's smaller form, equally still.
"We need to get them out," Su Lan Yi said, already moving toward her assistant. "Where's Karma?"
As if in answer, a small yip came from the back room—the private area where Su Lan Yi kept her most important documents and research. The same place where they had been gathering evidence against the Divine Healing Sect.
With Hei Wuya carrying Lin Mei and Su Lan Yi supporting Min, they made their way to the back room, fighting through increasingly thick smoke and unstable flooring. What they found there made Su Lan Yi's heart sink.
The room had been thoroughly ransacked. Every scroll, every notebook, every piece of evidence they had painstakingly collected—gone. In the middle of the destruction stood Karma, frantically pawing and sniffing at an empty space where Su Lan Yi's most crucial records had been stored.
"They took everything," Su Lan Yi realized with dismay. "All our evidence against them, all of Su Ruolan's research on the Heaven's Ascension Elixir—everything."
"We can worry about that later," Hei Wuya said urgently, adjusting his grip on Lin Mei's limp form. "This building is about to come down around us."
As if to emphasize his point, a massive beam from the ceiling crashed down behind them, sending up a shower of sparks and blocking their exit path.
"The window," Su Lan Yi directed, moving toward a small aperture at the back of the room. "Min first."
They managed to get the young assistant out the narrow window, where helpful hands from the gathered crowd received her. Lin Mei was next, her slender form easier to maneuver despite being taller than Min.
"You next," Hei Wuya insisted, practically pushing Su Lan Yi toward the window.
"Not without Karma," she replied stubbornly, turning back to look for the fox. "Karma! Come here!"
The fox kit was still desperately searching through the debris, as if convinced he could find what had been stolen. At Su Lan Yi's call, it finally looked up, blue eyes reflecting the dancing flames around them.
"Come on!" she urged, extending her arms. "We have to go!"
A tremendous cracking sound from above made them all look up. The roof was giving way, a massive section of burning timber breaking free directly over their heads.
"MOVE!" Hei Wuya shouted, lunging toward Su Lan Yi. But she had already launched herself in the opposite direction, moving towards Karma.
Thank you for reading!
NOTE: IF YOU THINK HEI WUYA WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO OP ML HIMSELF THROUGH THIS CHAPTER, EXPLANATION SOON ENOUGH!
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Now go forth, minions, and spread the chaos!