Chapter 19: A grade 3 cultivator

More cats are approaching us from a distance. I can feel the unison of Qi from the undergrowth.

"What??" Jin asks, his mouth wide open. "What did you just say??"

"There are more cats coming to eat us alive!" I cry out once again.

Badump! Badump!

My heart beats faster than before. If we get surrounded by a group of Azure spirit cats, it's certain death for us. There is no escape.

'Hey! Xin – run out of here as fast as you can! I'm coming out!' Chang'e exclaims from within. I feel her presence leaving my body.

She'd come out any moment now, and we'll be revealed. After all, she's our only hope now.

"Hey…. you two," Liu says, grabbing me and Jin by our shoulders. I turn to Liu Meiling, only to see a dark expression hanging over her face.

"I'm gonna push to my limits, so don't move."

I don't move a muscle. Jin nods to her. Suddenly, she grabs both of us by the waist and lifts us, taking us to her left and right shoulder.

She has such brute strength; she lifted us both in one swoop.

I gaze into the shadows in the undergrowth, and blue specks appear within it. The azure spirit cats are coming for us.

"Liu, hurry ~"

SWOOSH!

Everything suddenly blurs, and I close my eyes.

///

She escaped Xin's body the moment she felt more Azure cats arriving. There was no time to waste. If she took one single wrong move, her son and his friends would be obliviated.

Through a beam of moonlight that fell into the forest from a small gap in between leaves, Chang'e shaped her clone.

Her glowing ethereal body took shape in the undergrowth the moment Liu Meiling rushed further into the forest. With her white hair touching the grass and covering her giant peaks from the front, she stood between the kids and the approaching spirit cats.

"Hm… I haven't killed anything in a while," Chang'e said to herself, deliberately raising her hand. "This should be enough to take a few of them out."

Suddenly, flaming azure eyes appeared from the shadows under the trees.

"Freeze blast," she said, releasing a beam of ice from her hand.

ZWOOSH!

Gigantic spikes of ice rose over the trees in an instant, freezing many of the spirit cats that launched head-first into Chang'e.

However, the moment the spell hit the ground, all the other cats went around her and rushed into the forest.

"Wah – I'm your prey!" She called out angrily. However, the cats didn't seize their chase. They kept chasing the kids without being disturbed by Chang'e.

Irritated, the Moon Goddess summoned two soul swords into her hand and the oozing moon aura that covered her body formed a blue cloak of aura around her. It enveloped her entire body.

Her eyes glittered in blue. She stepped forth to pace her dash and —

BOOM!

All of a sudden, something massive exploded where Chang'e stood.

Trees crumbled down as the flames engulfed everything around them. All the insects and the small creatures there burned to a crisp.

As the smoke cleared away, a blue light appeared through the mist. This time, it wasn't the eye of a creature. It was something… more artificial.

A mechanical arm with a blue linear pattern drawn around it appeared as the mist cleared away. And amidst the smoke, there stood a man. A tall buff man with a scratch mark on his eye, wearing a white sleeveless tank top.

His tank top was covered in scratch marks, and his jeans were too. He had a warrior's knot and a long white ponytail. He was a…. Cultivator.

"Still alive, huh?" He spoke. It was a deep voice, but it was certainly young.

Chang'e slowly floated down before the cultivator, gently resting her feet on the grass. She was unharmed, of course. She had sensed the blast the moment it was fired. And her actual speed was nothing compared to this man's mechanical arm.

The cultivator gazed at the Moon Goddess, twisting his mechanical arm around, ready for another blast.

"Of course… you're no human. No wonder you escaped my blast," the man added, smirking. "But – what is a spirit doing here, protecting three kids lost in the woods?"

Chang'e scowled.

"I have a much more important question for you… idiot. What in the world is a grade 3 cultivator doing in a forest like this, ordering his cats to devour three children? What's your purpose here…?" She asked, raising her two swords.

The cultivator shook his head upon hearing this. "What's my purpose? Hmm…. let me tell you then."

Chang'e was all ears now.

"You see, I am a naturalist. I like to collect these creatures for mere enjoyment… but – that's not all I am. I am also, let's say, an opposer to the current human society. There's something… wrong with how people are treated in this world. Cultivators killed my mom and dad, and I myself learned to become one of them ever since I was 10.

It really hurts me to see these kids growing up to become those foolish things. They are just frauds. Useless faces, the society wears to cover up their lies…" the man said, summoning a soul sword to his left hand. This hand was human flesh, unlike the other.

"Hm… so, I just want to simply destroy these useless creatures called Humans in order to bring eternal peace."

Chang'e sighed upon hearing this, shaking her head. 'Another one of these edgy teenagers who wants to destroy the world. Why are there so many of these guys nowadays?' she thought inwardly.

"Hm? Why are you so disappointed… spirit? Is it because I was not killed along with my parents?"

Chang'e lowered her gaze. "No, not at all. I loathe whoever killed your parents and if they are cultivators… Hm. But, first, order your cats to calm down and leave. Otherwise, I'll have to send you to your parents right now."

The cultivator laughed. "How sympathetic," he said, raising his mechanical arm to blast away Chang'e.

"This time, I won't miss, sweet spirit. And… My cats are hungry. They'll only disappear if you kill me right here. But – I guess that won't happen then, would it?"

His mechanical arm lit up with a blue spark and his hand began to vibrate. Chang'e calmed herself, and she slowly leaned forward, raising her swords.

"Boom –"

'Double crescent moons,' Chang'e thought, and she swung her swords.

Chang'e stood up with a smile.

The cultivator's mechanical hand fell to the ground, along with his left hand. Blood spluttered out of his left elbow. Both his hands were cut off in an instant.

"Wha – argh~" He roared in pain, falling to his knees.

The man broke into halves and dropped to the ground. Chang'e stared down at the body and shook her head. "Pathetic," she said, turning around.

The moonlight shone upon the clearing she stood. Her swords dispersed into thin air. There was only little Qi left in her clone to help the kids.

"Please, let this be enough for me to carry them back to that old guy's house at least," she said, rushing into the forest.

However, right at that moment, she felt the presence of three strong cultivators approaching her. It was a Qi too familiar for her to overlook.

"Hm," she smiled. "Then… I'm no longer needed here," she said, gazing up at the moon.

Her body turned to sparkling dust. Her time of the month was over.

///Author's Note///

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