Lesser Beings

Dappled sunlight filtered through the slowly closing sandstorm, faintly falling upon the clifftop. Staring at the fair, slender hand extended toward him, Mu Xingyi locked eyes for a moment with those dazzling, deep golden pupils and spoke in a measured tone: "Miss, what is the meaning of this?" The palace-dressed maiden tilted her head in thought and let out a melodious laugh. "Was I not clear enough? The transaction was between you and him, but I am the owner of the goods. A man of principle such as yourself wouldn't renege on a debt, would he?" Mu Xingyi looked at the maiden's radiant smile, fell silent for a moment, and said: "The fault in this matter lies with me, but I had no choice." The maiden in palace robes raised a brow, dragging out the word: "Choice?" A flicker of inner conflict crossed Mu Xingyi's eyes as he said in a low voice: "Brother Zhou is a unique individual. To allow Nuonuo to be born whole, he must be wronged. And if Wan'er is to survive the process of Nuonuo's birth, I have no choice but to forcefully take this blade." The palace-dressed maiden gave a light chuckle and murmured: "Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost?" "..." Hearing this, the faint smile on Mu Xingyi's lips vanished, and he remained silent, offering no reply. The maiden shook her head, chuckling softly. "You have principles, but not many. I've seen plenty like you before..." "Saintess, by the ethical standards your human race espouses, this matter is indeed our fault." A gentle woman's voice suddenly interrupted the maiden. Madame Wan lowered her eyelids, lovingly caressing her lower abdomen as she spoke in a soft tone: "Yet no matter how you humans attempt to conceal it, isn't the reality lurking beneath that veneer of hypocritical ethics still the supreme law of the Heavenly Dao—the strong prey upon the weak?" As she spoke, Madame Wan let her hand fall from her abdomen and slowly raised her scleraless, abyss-like eyes toward the palace-dressed maiden hovering in midair. "Nuonuo is special—a being that has never existed before. That Zhou Junqing can aid in His birth is part of the Heavenly Dao's reincarnation. "Saintess, you should know well how vast the chasm in strength between us is, and you should also realize what great mercy it is that he is willing to spare you female dependents. "Therefore, I hope you will accept his kindness." Madame Wan's voice was exceedingly calm, devoid of condescension or overbearing arrogance, as if merely stating a fact. She knew what exalted status the maiden before her held across the vast Central Plains, and she knew what a blow these words would be to someone so proud. But what did it matter? No matter how noble one's station, no matter how powerful one's background, nothing could alter the fate that right now, he and she were merely two lambs waiting for slaughter. Yet to her surprise, Madame Wan could not discern the slightest trace of anger in those beautiful, deep golden eyes. The maiden did not speak, only keeping up a faint, amused smile, looking thoroughly intrigued. Madame Wan assumed this was protective armor forged from the other party's shrewd composure. Nobles of the human race were always like this. Something called integrity forbade them from showing terror or displaying cowardice, yet whenever she pierced through that protective shell with a blade, ninety percent of them would abandon that so-called integrity and drop to their knees, begging for mercy. Out of selfishness, Madame Wan hoped the Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion before her belonged to that rare ten percent. For if she did, the Saintess would resist. And with Xingyi's tacit approval, Madame Wan could then offer these women to their child as a birth gift. Therefore, Madame Wan intended to play the villain to the very end. Fixing her chilling gaze upon the maiden, who looked like a goddess descended to the mortal realm, Madame Wan spoke in a cool, smiling voice: "Xingyi is a good man. I hope you will not make things difficult for him any longer, nor harbor any more extravagant hopes. "Being devoured by your superiors is an honor for lesser beings like you, is it not?" "Heh..." Tianye let out a soft chuckle upon hearing this. Then, her voice, tinged with a hint of curiosity, rang clearly into the ears of every being present: "But what if... you're the lesser beings you speak of? What then?" Madame Wan frowned slightly at this ridiculous response, though inwardly she was pleased. Subconsciously, she raised a hand to soothe the restless infant in her womb and gave a gentle smile. "Then naturally, so be it." "Then if I crush your precious Nuonuo to death, that would naturally be so as well, wouldn't it?" "..." At those words, both Mu Xingyi and Madame Wan furrowed their brows. Madame Wan's eyes turned sinister, her gentle voice laced with killing intent: "Saintess, watch your words. You seem to have forgotten how you barely escaped with your life at my hands back then. "As for now, you may take him and flee." "..." Tianye remained standing where she was, her playful gaze sweeping back and forth between the two of them. After a brief pause, she suddenly turned to Xu Yuan at her side and asked: "Brother Changtian, are you interested in this pregnant yin ghost?" The moment the words left her mouth, the loess clifftop fell dead silent. Even the howling wind seemed to freeze. Under the maiden's smiling gaze, Xu Yuan said nothing. He didn't dare make a sound. He wasn't clear on the second half of what happened in the Charm God Illusion realm; he could only vaguely recall that he had stabbed her, and she had stabbed him. The two of them seemed to have been locked in mutual torment for a very long time. Amid the silence, Tianye shoved Xu Yuan in slight dissatisfaction and asked with a beaming smile: "Hey, I'm talking to you." Xu Yuan clicked his tongue. Under the three pairs of eyes fixed on him, he replied casually with an expressionless face: "Not at the moment." "Didn't you have quite a penchant for married women back then?" "I don't recall." "Hmph, I knew you'd say that. But if you are interested, you'd better say so now. I might just let you ravish her right before her husband's eyes, Brother Changtian~" "..." The enchantress's brazen audacity was almost more than Xu Yuan could bear. Naturally, Mu Xingyi and Madame Wan across from them could hardly bear it either. Through their spiritual vision, their qi dynamics had already locked onto Tianye in Tianyan's guise. Tianye seemed to sense this as well. She let out a soft string of giggles and slowly shifted her gaze from Xu Yuan toward the couple. Meeting the two pairs of increasingly cold eyes for a moment, the corners of Tianye's lips curved upward. She instinctively moved to cross her arms over her chest, only to find the crook of her arms completely empty, prompting an involuntary click of her tongue. Tapping her chin with a slender index finger, she teased in a mocking tone: "You talk incessantly about how human ethics are hypocritical, yet when it comes to the Heavenly Dao's copulation, why are you even more prudish than humans? 'One person, one lifetime, one pair'—heh~" Madame Wan's slender fingers tightened slightly. Staring at the loose-tongued maiden before her, she bit out every word: "Saintess, my patience is wearing thin." "And what if it is?" "You—" Just as the word left her lips, Madame Wan abruptly realized that the palace-dressed maiden in front of her had vanished. Before she could even register shock, in the very next instant, amidst the swirling yellow sand, Tianye's figure suddenly appeared behind her, back turned, smiling flippantly: "A half-dead Saint Tier yin ghost from gestating a ghost infant..." Hummm— Before her voice could fade, the aura across the entire clifftop violently surged. A tremendous howl of fierce ghosts abruptly blasted a circular crater dozens of zhang wide into the cliff face behind Madame Wan. When the residual shockwave dispersed and Madame Wan turned around warily to look, that flippant, smiling voice quietly rang out behind Mu Xingyi: "...and a Semi-Saint insect-man wounded by the Dragon Seal of the Lord of Guyuan." BOOM!!! A tangle of colossal insect blade-legs thrust up from the earth. Carrying the might of a Saint Tier yin ghost, they brought about a catastrophic collapse of the clifftop. Countless boulders and plumes of sand plunged down toward the valley floor like a mudslide. Amidst this colossal roar of collapse, amidst the boundless swirling dust, two graceful silhouettes spiraled upward in rapid flight. Their incredible speed generated sonic booms, tearing a vacuum corridor through the sandstorm. And in the end, the slender maiden seized an arm of the fleeing young matron. She looked at her, her eyes filled with shock and bewilderment. She could not fathom why the Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion before her had undergone such a staggering change in strength. Rip! As if struck by an invisible, crushing blow, the woman's arm was violently torn off, and her midair figure streaked across the sky in a blur of afterimages before slamming heavily down into the valley floor. Then, standing alone in the void above, the slender figure let her bright, enchanting laugh echo across the entire gorge: "Just the two of you cripples, and you dare try to snatch this lady's man?"