Just then, a flash of light blue darted in front of Li Yun. A pair of slender arms wrapped tightly around Li Yun, then he felt himself fall to the ground as he rolled away in the warm embrace. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a beautiful pair of sharp eyes looking down at him.
"You...!" Li Yun didn't get to say anything. Xiu Xiang had already set him on his feet as she shouted, "Dumb brat! What were you thinking stepping right into a battle?"
"I..." In fact, Li Yun wasn't thinking. All he knew was that the lady he was looking for was right in front of his eyes. He looked down, unable to face the pretty lady in front of him.
Seeing that her little brother almost got hurt by her, instead of blaming herself, Li Yue blamed it on Xiu Xiang.
"You bitch! Because of you, I almost hurt my brother! I want your life!" she screamed. She jumped forward, having forgotten that her little brother was still in Xiu Xiang's embrace.
Having lost all patience for Li Yue, Xiu Xiang decided enough was enough. Her eyes flashed a brilliant red. She raised out her palm. A fire arrow emerged from within her palm. She aimed and the fire arrow sped forward, piercing through Li Yue's left shoulder. Not only did it pierce through skin, it even burned her entire shoulder. A scent of burnt meat pervaded the air as Li Yue dropped to the ground. Her body twitched harshly from the bloody burnt injury.
"Yue Er!" Chu Ling screamed.
"Elder sister!" Li Yun cried. He escaped Xiu Xiang's embrace and rushed to his sister's side at the same time that Chu Ling appeared on the stage next to Li Yue. When Li Yun saw how horrible the injury was, he glared angrily at her.
"Why did you hurt my sister?!" Li Yun cried.
Xiu Xiang didn't explain herself. For a child like Li Yun, he wouldn't understand how the world works. It was strongest of the fittest. However, she felt her heart tugged, being stared at like a monster. When she was the Demoness, everyone's eyes on her looked just like the boy's: fear and loathing.
Chu Ling quickly poured a jar of medicine into Li Yue's mouth then staunched the injury with powder. Once he was sure that Li Yue's life wasn't in jeopardy, he finally turned to look at Xiu Xiang. The look on her face was cold and merciless. How was such a young girl able to produce such a killing intent? He even felt scared of her for a moment.
Xiu Xiang saw that Li Yue could no longer fight and she also didn't want to stay any longer. She was just about to leave when there was a commotion from the crowd. The crowd quickly parted ways revealing a group of men on horses.
Every single man gave off a dangerous aura as they stared right at the stage. Their eyes quickly zoomed in on Xiu Xiang.
Xiu Xiang recognized one of them right away. It was that Big Brother Yu who led the Black Bandit Group. Next to him was a young man in his early twenties. His dead cold eyes reveal a murderous glint. He smiled at the sight of Xiu Xiang.
"Is that her?" His cold voice rang out causing fear among the crowd.
"Yes, Leader Situ Long," Big Brother Yu replied.
Situ Long looked at Xiu Xiang and said sternly, "Woman, hand over everything that you stole from us and maybe I'll leave your dead body intact."
Despite feeling like crap, Xiu Xiang managed to laugh. She smirked at Situ Long and asked, "You're talking about the things you stole?"
"It belongs to us!" a lanky youth roared.
"Ha! Because it's stolen so it's yours? Since I've stolen them from you, it's now mine. Why are you here trying to claim it as yours?"
Situ Long has never seen such an audacious woman before. No woman has ever stood fearlessly in front of him nor spoke that rashly to him. He had thought to kill her once he got his gold back but now he was quite interested in her. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and eyed Xiu Xiang up and down.
Even from a distance, he could tell how great of a figure Xiu Xiang had. His lecherous eyes sparkled at the opened treasure before him.
"I change my mind. I want you as my woman," Situ Long said. He turned to his men and said, "Break her legs if you have to, but don't kill her. I'll make her mine."
Uncertainty surged in the men's heart. Situ Long didn't go up against her so he doesn't know how fearsome Xiu Xiang was. Just the pressure from her aura was enough to make their legs go weak.
"Did you not hear me? Capture her!" Situ Long roared.
His booming voice, gave the men courage to jump off their horse and advance on Xiu Xiang. Since there were so many of them, there was possibly no way for Xiu Xiang to fight back, or so they thought.
Xiu Xiang's eyes turned red again as she faced the crowd. Many saw her glowing red eyes and someone instantly screamed, "Demon!"
As if on cue, everyone screamed and started running in multiple direction. They didn't care where as long as they could run as far away as they could from the battle stage.
"You really think you can capture me?" Xiu Xiang asked. A wind pressure kicked up around her, making her dress flutter about. Her hair rose up from the wind, looking like flames. She only gained back half her powers, but it was more than enough to deal with humans.
She pressed her palms together, compressing her energy. Then she swung her hand in a horizontal motion. Bursts of small fire darts flew out, piercing the advancing men in different places. When the fire darts landed on their bodies, they instantly burst into flames.
Screams filled the north side of the city. Soon piles of burnt corpses filled the front of the battle stage. She looked at Situ Long with a serene smile on her face like the dead corpses in front of her hadn't been killed by her.
"What were you saying about capturing me earlier?" Xiu Xiang asked.
Situ Long looked at his fallen men. Not a single one survived the attack. He pulled out the daggers from his waist and jumped forward. With a slash of his dagger, a tidal wave of green energy burst forth.
Xiu Xiang quickly called up her fire and a wall of fire shot up from under her feet. The green energy wave slammed into the wall of fire. It exploded loudly as if a bomb had gone off. The pressure from the explosion blew both of them backwards.
"You're a rogue cultivator," Xiu Xiang stated as she finally regained herself from the impact.
"I've long heard about the Demoness with red eyes and fire power, but she disappeared years ago. Could you possibly be the Demoness?" Situ Long asked.
Xiu Xiang merely shrugged. She held her hands behind her back looking quite relaxed, however in her heart, she wasn't so relaxed. Situ Long was a lot stronger than he looked. She already knew when Situ Long went up against her flame barrier.
"What of it?" she asked.
"You don't look as strong as the rumors say. Perhaps you've lost your powers over the years..."
The man was a lot smarter than he looked too.
"If you truly are the Demoness, I want you more than ever!" Situ Long shot forward like an arrow. He swiped his dagger at her. She barely dodged the attack as she swung around him, casting a ball of fire and throwing it at him like a bomb. It exploded in front of him, but Situ Long was prepared. He flipped backwards then sprang up into the air. He swung his daggers again. A burst of brilliant green energy shot down towards her.
As the fight ensued, off to the side, Li Yue was muttering, "Ling Gege, avenge me..."
Chu Ling was too busy watching the fight, fearing for Xiu Xiang. He's only met her today, but his heart was screaming for her. He didn't even hear Li Yue's weak muttering; however Li Yun had heard. He was angry that the man who claimed to care for his sister was too absorbed staring at the pretty lady in light blue.
"Don't worry, Elder Sister. I'll avenge you."
Li Yun grabbed the fallen sword next to his sister and charged forward like a madman.
"Li Yun!" Chu Ling cried. He watched in horror as the little boy rushed forward toward the dangerous fight in front of him.
Xiu Xiang felt a killing intent behind her. She dodged Situ Long's attack and whipped around with her palm open. She was about to thrust it forward when she saw that it was the little boy, Li Yun.
She paused in her attack. If she had shot her palm forward, the little boy would definitely die. No matter how many people died under her hands, she wasn't able to kill a little boy. At the same time that Li Yun was rushing toward her with a sword, Situ Long had taken the chance to attack. Another wave of green energy rippled towards her.
At this moment, Xiu Xiang could jump out of harm's way, but the little boy would die under Situ Long's attack. In the end, she turned around to blast back Situ Long's attack. As soon as she did, she felt a blade pierce her back.
"No!" came a sharp cry.
A black tall figure rushed toward the battle stage. One hand shot out at the boy and the other shot out at Situ Long. Both big and small figure went flying back.
Xiu Xiang fell into the tall figure's arms. A sharp pain filled her back as she struggled to breathe. She looked up into the face of the tall figure. Shock filling her face.
"Wei Xing...?" She winced at the pain and felt warm blood trickle down her back.
When Wei Xing saw Xiu Xiang wincing from the pain, he lost all reason.
"I'll kill them all!" he seethed. With one arm grasping Xiu Xiang tightly to his chest, he raised his other toward Situ Long.
"Die!" A burst of purple energy blast forward like a giant tidal wave. It blasted away half the stage and Situ Long. By the time the energy dissipated, Situ Long and the half of the stage was nowhere to be found. Wei Xing then turned to the Li siblings and Chu Ling. He held out his palm, ready to destroy them.
"Don't...!" Xiu Xiang quickly grabbed Wei Xing by the arm. The killing intent in Wei Xing's eyes disappeared as he looked down at her. She on the other hand was staring at the little boy who was on his knees crying and shivering from fright. He looked horrified at what he had down. The sword he had used to attack Xiu Xiang was by his side. Blood covered three inches of the sword.
"Let them go. It's not worth it killing them," Xiu Xiang said.
Wei Xing's dark eyes glared down up the surviving three. Since Xiu Xiang didn't want him to kill them, he left them be and inspected her injury. It wasn't too deep but she lost a lot of blood. Pulling a pill out from his sleeve, he placed it in her mouth to staunch the blood. Once that was taken care of, he carried her in his arms and disappeared on the spot.