Withdraw or not withdraw?

If she withdrew her sword, the sword qi backlash would wound her, and at the same time, the opponent could take advantage to attack, instantly reversing the situation.

If she didn’t withdraw, Mei Ruhua would immediately perish. She was already severely injured and would certainly die without question.

All this happened too quickly, in just a flash.

Su Zhuyi blinked once.

In the past, she wouldn’t have hesitated for even a moment.

She would have killed directly, one sword cutting down two people.

Now, Su Zhuyi only hesitated for an instant.

She was still that demonic path demoness who killed without blinking. When choosing between sacrificing others and being severely injured herself, she shouldn’t have the slightest hesitation.

Su Zhuyi didn’t withdraw her sword.

She glanced at Mei Ruhua, her gaze passing over her. The azure light was like a swimming dragon, piercing through the thorn barrier that the Dong Fushang Sect cultivator had placed in front of himself, penetrating Mei Ruhua’s body, and also stabbing into the Dong Fushang Sect elder’s shoulder. Due to the multiple obstructions, plus his blocking and dodging, the sword deviated from its position. But the moment Su Zhuyi approached him, her five fingers formed claws, and she directly reached out to pierce through his chest and rip out his heart.

“You…” He never imagined that Su Zhuyi would attack her sect member without the slightest hesitation.

He never imagined that Su Zhuyi also knew the demonic path’s vicious technique, White Bone Claw.

His eyes widened as his body collapsed, directly perishing. Even in death, his eyes remained open. The qilin’s eye fell from midair, landing right on his eye before rolling aside with a gurgle.

The originally frightened small qilin suddenly chirped a few times.

It looked at that eyeball on the ground, chirping continuously.

Li Shan, who was trembling while holding the qilin, looked at that bead and felt moved. She wanted to get that bead. She wanted to go over and pick up the bead, but her feet seemed rooted to the ground—she simply didn’t dare move, and couldn’t move. She could only watch helplessly, gently comforting the small qilin, hoping it wouldn’t move around and attract the other party’s attention.

Su Zhuyi’s fingers twitched slightly twice.

Her physical body had become extremely powerful, stronger than those body cultivators who had gone through bitter cultivation. When spiritual energy was infused into her hands, her fingers became rigid as iron, comparable to magical artifacts. Though she had never tested the heart-ripping technique in this lifetime, in her previous life, she had executed it extremely skillfully. But at this moment, holding that bloody heart in her hand, her face no longer had that cold smile from before, her expression somewhat wooden. Gripping the heart, she turned to look at Pan Siji, who was sitting to the side watching the show, and said, “Can you protect her primordial spirit?”

Pan Siji and his kind walked outside with the purpose of bringing back primordial spirits of the same origin. She didn’t know if there was a way to preserve Mei Ruhua’s primordial spirit.

Pan Siji was slightly stunned, then reached out to grab something. He muttered, “So weak, what’s the point of catching this? This kind of primordial spirit that isn’t from our clan will disappear in the Rebirth Pond in no time.” He carefully held it in his left hand, his fingers slightly closed as if protecting a small flickering flame. “I can protect it temporarily, but it won’t last long before it dissipates.”

He had once raised a dragon. Dragons also had long lifespans, yet still couldn’t outlive him. Later, when that dragon perished, he protected its primordial spirit for a long time, but ultimately it still couldn’t escape the destiny of the Heavenly Dao. That dragon’s primordial spirit still dissipated between heaven and earth. Even divine dragons would dissipate—how long could such a weak bit of primordial spirit persist?

However, this was her wish, and Pan Siji, as her guide, felt it necessary to fulfill it for her.

He gently protected that primordial spirit, then asked, “Are you done fighting?”

The Pangu clan members were all quite warlike. Of course, what they enjoyed was the passion of battle. They could only fight in the Rebirth Valley, and only spar with their own clan, stopping at the right point.

Every clan member who emerged from the Rebirth Pond would fight with their companions to celebrate, celebrating their rebirth. But this time, no one had this requirement and didn’t even think in that direction. The reborn one was so weak—who could she fight with?

When he followed her out and saw her fighting with those weak creatures, although Pan Siji felt somewhat helpless and sad, he still let her vent.

Pangu descendants had fallen to the point of fighting with such weak creatures…

He gripped his giant axe tightly and sighed quietly in his heart.

Was she done fighting? No! Su Zhuyi discovered that although Pan Siji didn’t help, he also didn’t stop her, so she felt somewhat more at ease.

It was just that she hadn’t finished killing everyone, and her spiritual energy was about to be exhausted.

Su Zhuyi stood in place. She raised her hand, crushing that heart bit by bit, coldly staring at the Dong Fushang Sect cultivators before her, saying, “Today, not one of you will escape.”

“Her spiritual energy is almost exhausted. Everyone, don’t be afraid!”

After Su Zhuyi’s spirit boat injured over twenty people and she consecutively killed two more—the two most formidable people from the Dong Fushang Sect—quite a few Dong Fushang Sect cultivators had already developed fear. Even though there were still living elders shouting not to be afraid, everyone was still unconsciously retreating.

When they saw her crush that heart, blood, and flesh flowing out from between her fingers and dripping down, one cultivator finally couldn’t bear it anymore. However, he didn’t run but instead charged forward like a madman to attack Su Zhuyi. Before he could get close, he was split in two by a sword strike, his lower half still on the ground while his upper half flew out…

No one saw her draw her sword, no one saw her raise her hand, yet that sword light flew out, one strike severing a middle Gold Core stage cultivator. Under such intimidation, no one dared advance another step.

Just then, someone suddenly turned and ran. Su Zhuyi leaped up, raising her sword to chase. The moment she moved, the Dong Fushang Sect cultivators seemed to suddenly wake up, all fleeing in different directions. Someone shouted, “Split up and run! She’s not Great Perfection Gold Core stage!”

The cultivators of Gujian Sect’s Luoxue Peak had true strength completely inconsistent with their cultivation realm.

The former Luo Ying and Qinghe were examples, and this current one was even stronger and more ruthless than Luo Ying and Qinghe!

Su Zhuyi caught up to that person and killed him with one sword, making a show of continuing to chase, but in reality, her spiritual energy was about to be exhausted. That imposing momentum just now was nothing more than wanting to scare people away so that after she recovered, she could slowly kill them one by one!

She was now pretty much like a paper tiger, with only a trace of spiritual energy left in her body. Chasing people was just for show, but when she turned and saw a female cultivator who hadn’t run but instead was frantically running toward the corpse nearby, she immediately flashed over to pursue, simultaneously thrusting out with her sword…

She saw that the female cultivator suddenly knelt, curling her body up and tightly protecting the qilin in her arms. Just then, Pan Siji’s axe descended from the sky, blocking in front of Su Zhuyi like a wall. He said, “That’s a qilin. Qilins are auspicious beasts, and their numbers are very scarce. We generally avoid them.”

So as not to accidentally step on them to death.

“Water qilins like to get close to kind creatures,” Pan Siji added.

“They killed the qilin’s parents.” This qilin was just born, and the Dong Fushang Sect cultivator had an adult qilin’s eyeball in his hand, meaning they had killed this small qilin’s parents and captured the small qilin.

“Mm. So when you fought with them, I didn’t stop you either.” Pan Siji smiled. “This small qilin has acknowledged this little person. If you beat her to death, the small qilin will have no one to raise it.”

Su Zhuyi sheathed her sword, saying, “Then I’ll spare her life.”

What choice did she have? That axe was like a wall blocking in front of her—Su Zhuyi had to back down.

After she made the promise, Pan Siji moved his axe away. At this moment, Su Zhuyi discovered that the qilin’s eye was being held in the small qilin’s mouth. At first glance, it looked somewhat like the stone lions with balls in their mouths at the gates of houses in the mortal world.

It was just a pity that it was its father’s or mother’s eyeball. It was still small and didn’t understand at all.

Su Zhuyi sighed, then had Pan Siji lift the overturned spirit boat.

When the spirit boat was lifted, Elder Mei and Elder Yi crawled out from inside. Elder Mei stumbled over, looking at Mei Ruhua’s corpse with a pale face, hands and feet trembling, lips moving but making no sound, tears already in his eyes.

Yi Lian followed closely behind, unable to stand steadily and having to support his body with his sword. He looked at Mei Ruhua’s corpse, pierced by the sword, then glanced at Su Zhuyi, not knowing what to say for a moment.

They had been under the spirit boat and could see everything that happened outside. They also knew that Su Zhuyi had pierced Mei Ruhua with one sword and killed the Dong Fushang Sect elder with one sword.

The atmosphere around them became tense. Su Zhuyi frowned.

Mei Ruhua was indeed killed by her.

She hadn’t hesitated much at the time, but now she did feel a trace of guilt in her heart. However, this didn’t mean she thought she had done wrong. If these two elders wanted to hold her accountable, Su Zhuyi’s hand gripping the sword had already tightened…

If he wanted to avenge his disciple, then she would not show mercy. After all, both of them were severely injured. Even if she had no spiritual energy left, her fists could still kill people.

She wouldn’t respect her sect elders and allow them to punish her, nor would she stay in the Gujian Sect anymore.

Just then, Yi Lian suddenly raised his hand and patted her shoulder.

“I know you’re also very sad, but we all saw the situation at that time. You had no other choice. Thank you for saving us.” After he finished speaking, Elder Mei raised his head and said, “I’ll take Little Hua’s remains back. I can’t bury her here.”

After speaking, he collected the remains, then said, “This secret realm is full of dangers everywhere. We need to find a place to heal our wounds.” Elder Mei looked at Su Zhuyi. “Your spiritual energy is also exhausted, right?”

“Mm.” Su Zhuyi softly responded.

They hadn’t said she was wrong.

And because they hadn’t said it, even though she felt she wasn’t wrong, now that trace of guilt in her heart seemed to expand a bit.

She still believed she wasn’t wrong and would do the same thing next time, but emotionally, she was somewhat shaken.

If she had withdrawn her sword, she would have been injured. If she had been attacked by the opponent and was near death, Pan Siji had a high possibility of intervening to stop it. She just wasn’t used to placing her hope for survival on others. But if she had done that, Mei Ruhua might have had a slim chance of survival.

Su Zhuyi stood there in a daze.

Next time, would she do the same thing again?