Chapter ~5~

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A visibly gaping hole in the barrier was letting in fluffs of those monsters in. Screeching, lantern red eyes revealed from beneath their seemingly cute, fluffy bodies.

A young maiden, looking like a waitress, was fighting towards the gap. Surprisingly, her mana expanded quickly thus attacking swiftly. Alas, it wasn't enough.

Cackling, the steel teeth of one Child's Deceit sank into her shoulder. Mei Yang winced as she thrust a glowing sword of magic into another's eye.

Pei Yi ran up to her to earn a yell of: '"Stay BACK!"'

Mei Yang dabbed her cheek with her thumb like her thumb was a napkin as blood dribbled down. There was no telling who the blood on her belonged to; the monsters' or her own. Patches of wounds and signs of victory mingled together, forming an awful odor.

In her fine-made gown, Pei Yi stood behind the battleline front lines. She curled her delicate hands into tiny fists. She disliked how useless she felt in the present moment. A weak glimmer of blue mana shone around her fist and dimmed. It rose again and extinguished just like that. She shamefully let this continue, yet she never had the confidence to form them into weapons until a monster found her presence.

Screeching with glee, it jumped at Mei Yang. The waitress's hand was already sore with pain for overusing her mana.

The core in her heart clenched with pain as mana was exponentially released. Too much- it was overdrafting too much. She lifted her arm again to strike the sinister monster yet it only leaped over her. Her senses were getting dull, and time seemed to freeze and as if only those demons were active.

Mei Yang's eyes widened as it sped towards the unarmed civilian, dormant in her clean, clad wardrobe, a ball of near-formed blueness in her hand.

This was very unexpected, and Pei Yi too, only stood there as the monster made it's arrival with her panicking inside, unable to move.

However the anticipated pain did not arrive and the monster surprisingly bounced away as it appeared. It hissed while it bounced a couple of times on the ground to prepare to pounce, just like a lion assembling to charge at its prey.

And this time, Pei Yi struck.

A blast of green mana tainted with blue exploded, and once it dissipated, no remnants of the monster was seen. Mei Yang coughed as she crawled up from falling as a result of the impact. This time when she looked up, her eyes were glimmering as she smirked "Nice."

Pei Yi returned a grin. Power.

Stardusts of mana emerged at her fingertips as if they were covered with diamonds. Pei Yi sliced through the monsters with incredible ease like a machete slicing plastic. There were a few times when it came close to her being hurt, but somehow, as if by some kind of force, she always got away with it.

From some distance away, Jun Sheng smiled as the flash of white green and blue weaved between screeching monsters, making sure that the ''princess'' was fine doing what she was doing. Jun Sheng entered a place where most of the monsters congregated. Shieldless.

"Now," she spoke softly. "I can't have you all wrecking my inn, can I?"

Clenching a fist, she raised an arm. One by one, her fingers unraveled, and as she moved, dusts of gold and mystery flinted into the air. Jun Sheng watched as almost every dust particle within a certain diameter was replaced with golden glitter-like debris.. She twirled her forefinger and they gathered around like a miniature tornado around her fingertip.

Jun Sheng placed the leaf of a certain plant in her mouth under her tongue, and puffed.

'"Poof.'" A mist of blue and green crawled up the twisted vines of gold.

It is only in these times that a childish glimmer exposed itself in her eyes, lit up by the spectacular firework show that she was about to give. Jun Sheng turned her palm downwards towards the earth beneath. Her lips curled into a smile of pure malice and childish mistrieviousness as her eyes twinkled and-

"Boom." She whispered.

An explosion lit the onyx sky into shades of orange and purple, as if the sun hasn't set yet. Not yet, not under her spells.

The barely formed last cries of the Child's Deceits within the diameter were the best applause of this show. When the heat and storm ended, not even splinters of those creatures were left.

Finally, she thought to herself, a bit of time to do work unbothered. In her heavenly consciousness, she scripted a rune, and all the debris around her levitated. With another twist of her mind, they merged together. Concentrated tightly together, a warm glow vibrated from it. Until finally, it seemed to cool down and dropped to her hand. It was still tingling but had a cool and smooth texture.

Like amber.

And in some ways, it is indeed like that. If someone listened carefully, they might be able to distinguish the trapped souls writhing within. Feeling bored of this incident caused by the unpredicted but also too predictable. She wandered away, deciding to make this quick.

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In a brief moment when the attack of the creatures seemed to supress, Pei Yi looked up, and instinctively searched for Jun Sheng's distinguishable figure. But when she saw where Jun Sheng was and what she was doing, all that she felt was bewilderment.

Jun Sheng's face was pretty much covered in dust, and she was standing in front of, of...Pei Yi squinted her eyes. There was some distance between them hence it was a little difficult to decipher. So she swung a blade through a monster in front of her and headed towards that way.

On the way, through the parts of the barrier which had not been damaged, she saw some people.

They didn't seem like the sort to come up and help though. They just stood there, with fear and curiosity, and some other emotion that Pei Yi couldn't read from this distance. Maybe she could, but perhaps it was because she didn't want to.

She had been wondering why no one else had come to help... but now, she somewhat understood. Cultivators are pretty common, but ones with enough power and dignity were rare. In other words, they were cowards. However, who can blame them? It wasn't like Jun Sheng's inn was the only one around.

Actually this might even be a pretty common scene. Spectators watched as someone's life burnt to ruins, they may sigh or pity, but in a day or, or even shorter, they turn around to another and smile. This is simple humanity. When unpleasant things are linked with their own safety, they naturally want to stay away.

Pei Yi couldn't help but think of the old term; "Watching the fire burn from the other side of a riverbank.", which must've been a spectacular show. But Pei Yi refused to think more about it as she sped towards Jun Sheng.