Jie turned her glare from Elder Kanev to Chen Yi, Chen Lisha, and Chen Huo standing on the bridge to the portal room.
She took in a deep shuddering breath as she cycled what little qi she had remaining and exhaled a bright blue beam of dragon lightning qi at them. She turned her head to sweep it across all three of them in the hope it would distract Elder Kanev long enough for her to get free.
The attack lacked the focused technique of her finger of light or dragonfist skills and expanded in a cone of lightning toward the Chen family.
Elder Kanev raised his hand upward and a wall of rock burst through the icy ground. Jie's lightning breath impacted it, sparking and crackling over it to no avail.
Jie slumped, panting hard and struggling to stay standing after expending the last of her qi. Her lightning step fizzled out and the world sped up around her.
"Cute trick," Elder Kanev said, "but no. There'll be no diving in to save your friend this time. And no Elder Shi to save you. Just you watching her die before I kill you."
Jie drew in deep, shuddering breaths. She ignored the sharp pain stabbing through her chest as she refined Essence of the Heavens and the Earth as fast as she could in a desperate bid to gain enough qi to do something. Anything.
"Your body is strangely tough," Elder Kanev said, "I'm sure I can make your death take a lot longer than your little friend. Make sure you use that movement skill of yours to stretch out every moment. We don't have as long as I'd like, and I wouldn't want you to miss out on any of it."
It was hard to concentrate through the pain and her hot blood dribbling down her leg and feet. But she'd spent so long cultivating that she could do it nearly automatically.
And, gradually, she gained some fumes of her energy back. It wouldn't be enough, she knew. But she didn't know what else to do as her mind raced, trying to think of a way to get the pill and save Pan Tian.
"Let us go and I'll pay you more than the Chen family," Jie said. The words tasted like bile as she spoke them, but it was the only thing she could think of.
Elder Kanev laughed. "So you can have your bodyguards kill me? I'm not that stupid," he said, "I'll just have to be satisfied with what the Chen family offers. Besides, I'm sure a rich brat like you has all kinds of treasures in your storage ring anyway."
Pan Tian's shallow breathing stilled and the bubbly, cheerful, vibrant life in her olive green eyes went out even as her qi continued to spill from her wound.
Elder Kanev chuckled and popped the nine cloud's healing pill into his mouth. He licked his lips and gave a satisfied moan as intense healing energy pulsed through him.
The branch-like bruises on his skin faded away as every minor injury Jie had inflicted upon him was erased in a moment. He stretched as though utterly revitalized.
"I've always wondered what those pills were like," he said, "I probably should've saved it... but I'm sure you have plenty more stored away, don't you?"
The tiny fragments of qi Jie had gained surged inside her and slammed into the barrier to her middle dantian so hard that the impact rippled through her body, and she tasted blood.
Jie's entire body vibrated with a mixture of rage and hatred, widening the wounds in her leg and feet and sending a stabbing pain pulsing through her chest. But the pain felt so far away as she stared at Pan Tian's lifeless body.
"Why are you still struggling?" Elder Kanev asked with sadistic mirth in his voice, "Even if I let you reach her now, she's too far gone for even the grandest of healing pills."
Tears froze on Jie's eyelashes as sadness welled up in her so thick it ached in her soul and made it hard to breathe.
Pan Tian was the first friend she'd made on this world... the first friend she'd made at school... the first friend to take her out in the city... to an auction house... to make her a gift...
One of the only ones to make her feel that people in this world weren't so bad... that there were good people no matter where you looked... even in this brutal world.
She was the kindest person Jie knew of.
She felt more like a sister than a friend... and now someone had taken her away... someone had taken her away just like everyone else...
How could people destroy what little good there was? How could they be so cruel? So petty. So vindictive. So malevolent.
Ming had been right from the very beginning. If she'd killed that worthless bully in the Crimson Academy entrance trial... If she'd acted emotionless at the tournament... If she'd worked even harder and broken through... if she'd insisted on going back to her training and leaving this place... then Pan Tian would still be alive.
This is my fault, Jie thought.
Compassion? Mercy? How could she be so stupid!? People like Elder Kanev and the Chen family didn't deserve mercy. None of them did. There was only one thing they deserved.
Everything she felt... everything she thought... everything anyone had ever said to her was all drowned out by a growing, burning, all-consuming rage that boiled up from deep within her.
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Something inside her broke.
The barrier to her middle dantian cracked and leaked energy that painted her dantian with red light. The amount of Essence she drew in suddenly increased as Essence streamed into her body and rotated within her dantian so fast that it refined almost instantly.
She drew in so much Essence that even the wind in the chamber flowed toward her.
Her cultivation soared as ultra-refined Essence exploded into dragon lightning qi and howled upward where it slammed into the barrier covering the entrance to her middle dantian.
The barrier shattered.
A bright howling storm of dragon lightning qi burst into her middle dantian. It bathed her dantian in intense blue light and revealed a vast, empty, dried-out seabed that seemed to stretch on forever...
Jie's qi raced into the air above and flashed bright blue as a sound like thunder rumbled through her dantian. Dark, pitch-black clouds pulsed into existence. They swirled, rotated, and writhed as multi-colored lightning arced, flickered, and rumbled within them.
Essence rushed into Jie's lower dantian like never before, continuing to almost instantly purify before exploding into dragon lightning qi. Though, some of the energy she drew in possessed an odd, cold quality to it before being purified and exploding into dragon lightning qi like all the rest.
Then again. And again. In an almost continuous storm as her body swelled and lengthened. As it did so, the spikes tore through her feet and leg. The sharp pain only enraged her further before being drowned out by mind-searing agony.
She opened her mouth to scream from a mixture of rage, hatred, and pain but whatever sound she made was drowned out by a thunderous roar...
***
Elder Kanev watched in horror as the monster of a girl before him broke through into the first star of the Elementalist rank.
She drew in Essence with such incredible force that he had to shape rock around his feet to keep from being pulled toward her. And even now at this distance, she sucked some of the frost qi and spiritual energy right out of his dantian.
Thankfully, the effect reduced enough with distance that the Chen children seemed safe enough on the bridge. Though their robes fluttered from the wind that rushed toward the monstrous girl.
He wanted to attack her while she was preoccupied rather than risk allowing her to finish breaking through, but it took all his concentration just to keep his energies within his body.
He stared at her, his eyes wide with disbelief. How was he supposed to know killing the Pan brat would be her trigger?
How was it even possible for her to reach this rank so young? Pan Tian's protracted death was only supposed to help appease Lord Chen Liang for his failure.
But now as the girl broke through, his very cultivation was at risk. He staggered back, his feet wading through the rock lest he be drawn closer toward her. His crimson robes flapped violently in the wind.
Every step back was easier than the last as he moved further away from the girl and the suction force upon his energies lessened.
He took in panting breaths and tried to settle his cultivation. His heart pounded in his chest and his hands trembled as dread crawled up his spine. What she'd done... it shouldn't be possible. People who could extract the cultivation of another were nothing more than stories to frighten children.
It wasn't possible! It wasn't! But... even at this distance, he was still losing some of his cultivation. Only a trickle, but that trickle would take days... maybe weeks to get back.
The spikes of rock impaling her feet and leg shattered and the ground beneath her feet cracked. Her body grew several feet as her hair lengthened and she looked as though she aged two years before his very eyes. Her robes strained against her rippling cords of muscle and tore.
The bleeding wounds in her body glowed with intense green light as green lightning flickered over her body. He watched, stunned, as her bones and flesh knit themselves back together.
The bones in her hands snapped back into place with sickening cracks as her body rapidly healed.
The entire cavern chamber trembled as rock and stone warped, twisted, and levitated in the air around her. The lake of blood churned and frothed as flickers of green lightning played over her feet and vibrant green plants sprouted between cracks in the icy rock.
Those same plants burst into blue flames and swirled around her in a cloud of ash and glowing embers as the ice steamed.
The air grew thick with the scent of a coming storm as though the heavens themselves were preparing to unleash their rage.
Elder Kanev's war hammer trembled upon the ground where he'd left it. The metal screeched and groaned as it bent and curved.
He watched in disbelief, his icy gray eyes wide. Nothing below the Spiritualist rank should even be able to scratch it...
Traveling the world... finding his place in this academy... he'd seen more than his share of breakthroughs. Many of which were from peerless geniuses. Not to mention his own.
None had ever looked anything like this.
He felt like he was watching someone break through into realms beyond anything he'd ever seen. But when he scanned her with his spirit sense, he sensed only the transition into the first star of the Elementalist rank. Even if her aura was exceptionally frightening... it still didn't explain what he was seeing.
She shouldn't be able to threaten him and yet he dared not even stand near her for fear of losing his cultivation.
And though her cultivation was still five stars beneath his own it felt oppressive even at this distance.
She was stronger than she had any right to be. Even at the peak of ninth star of the Expert rank she'd moved so fast that he'd had no choice but to get serious just to catch her. There would be no time at all for games now that she'd broken through.
He slowly edged away from her and gained more control over his cultivation.
Yes... why even risk it? Better to kill you now, Elder Kanev thought as he cycled his spiritual energy and thrust out his fist toward the girl.
The icy ground bulged and exploded in a line of jagged rock that raced toward the girl.
Elder Kanev smiled. No more holding back. No more games. Now, you die, he thought.
The air suddenly turned unnaturally still. Then, crackling blue electricity swirled around the girl as a wave of force pulsed out from her. The line of jagged rock exploded before it could reach her as the entire chamber shook.
Elder Kanev raised his arms and braced himself as the explosive force washed over him, spraying him with shards of rock and ice. It knocked Chen Ai down behind Jie and sent Chen Yi, Chen Lisha, and Chen Huo flying back off the bridge.
They landed with a series of splashes in the lake of blood as Liu Jie's aura surged. She broke through into the second star of the Elementalist rank.
Elder Kanev grunted as his body trembled against the forceful waves emanating from her. The pressure coming off her aura doubled as she broke through. His legs trembled as though a mountain weighed down upon him.
Worse than the pressure itself however was the raw killing intent her aura carried.
It made his blood feel like ice.
He swallowed hard. His mouth was dry. It was all he could do to stay on his feet, but he readied himself for his moment to strike.
She opened her mouth and roared again. An inhuman, unnatural sound that no human voice could produce which turned his bones to jelly.
Everyone had tried to figure out the strange girl. To find her family. Her clan. To uncover who she was. They'd all failed.
Of course, they had... they were asking the wrong questions. The question wasn't 'Who is she?' but rather 'What is she?' A monster? A magical beast that could take human form? Some undiscovered bloodline? Some unholy amalgamation of all three? Or, perhaps, something far worse...
Lightning arced over her body as her hair flowed unnaturally in the air around her as though she were underwater.
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