Chapter 36
Chapter 36: Decisive
Jin Shu never imagined he’d fall to a Qi Refining Stage early-phase cultivator.
Two fireballs crashed toward him. He forced himself free of the mud with everything he had, but he was half a beat too slow—and that half beat was enough.
The flames hit him head-on.
He gagged as heat tore across flesh, the pain sharp and immediate.
He was Qi Refining Stage mid-phase, a whole level above Song Jiu Lai. That difference should’ve been crushing.
But after swallowing two fireballs to the face, his “advantage” burned away to nothing.
“You!” Jin Shu’s face contorted. “You tricked me!”
He’d seen Song Jiu Lai poisoned and assumed she was already done. He’d stepped into her range without thinking.
What he hadn’t expected was that an early-phase cultivator would dare strike at a mid-phase cultivator.
“So what?” Song Jiu Lai’s voice came out hoarse—and crisp. “You walked in.”
She didn’t waste breath on anything else. A third fireball flew.
The nonstop output was a brutal drain on her qi, like tearing at the last threads holding her together.
But she had to seize the initiative. Against a mid-phase opponent, one second late could mean endless regret.
She swallowed two more second-rank Blood Replenishing Pills, forcing the rotting wound to halt—just enough.
The pain was horrifying, then muted, pressed down by the pill’s effect like a hand over a scream.
She’d predicted he would come.
The venom’s stench had grown heavier, thicker, until she was sure he was nearby. She’d dragged the devil-horned snake this way on purpose.
If she looked half-dead, someone like him would bite.
After all, he’d abandoned an earth-bell ling zhi. Could he truly let it go?
Jin Shu jerked aside and narrowly dodged the third fireball, but his qi churned violently.
He had never seen an early-phase cultivator like this. Her control of the Fire-Wielding Technique was as clean as his—maybe cleaner.
And she’d already killed the devil-horned snake.
She looked wrecked, bleeding, corroded… and she still had a third-rank Qi Replenishing Pill in reserve?
What kind of sect sent an important disciple out with this much backup?
Jin Shu cursed under his breath. With no Qi Replenishing Pills left, his instincts screamed one thing:
Run.
As long as the green mountain remained, there would always be firewood.
But the fireballs seemed to accelerate the burning of his qi, and the poison he’d barely held back surged again.
Once the venom took hold, qi consumption multiplied.
He tried to flee—and slowed by half a beat.
Song Jiu Lai didn’t let him have even that.
She cast the Water Control Technique again. The earth under his feet turned to mud.
In battle, something in her snapped into place. The two basic techniques she’d been using—fire and water—felt smoother every time, like the world itself was finally matching her hands.
Jin Shu sank again. Realizing Song Jiu Lai truly meant to kill him, he whipped around, eyes savage.
“You refuse a toast and you’ll drink a forfeit!”
He flicked his wrist. An Ice Blade Scroll appeared, and he sent it flying.
At the same time, he used the Water Control Technique—one far more refined than hers. Water wrapped around Song Jiu Lai like binding rope. She couldn’t dodge.
The Ice Blade Scroll struck.
A violent shock tore through her body. Her qi wobbled, scattered—she spit blood for real.
The System’s voice burst out, urgent and sharp. “Should I transmit it? Should I really transmit it?”
Song Jiu Lai coughed, breath ragged. “…Wait.”
The closer she got to the edge, the more stubborn she became.
She reached into the sect’s supplies and swallowed whatever the players had managed to buy—one after another, fast and ruthless.
Fan Gu Zhou’s third-rank pill was already gone. Materials took time to sell, and the sect didn’t have the assets to buy another third-rank.
Everything left was first-rank and second-rank.
Even a mosquito’s leg was still meat.
The pills didn’t make her strong, but they kept her alive. A thin trickle of qi steadied her injuries. She gagged twice, blood on her lips, and forced herself to remain upright.
Across from her, Jin Shu looked like a dead man walking. The corrosion on his face had resumed, and his skin had gone so pale it looked haunted.
Jin Shu’s mind was breaking.
Especially when he saw how Song Jiu Lai kept swallowing pills like water.
And she still raised her hand—still forced out one last, extreme fireball.
Jin Shu’s qi was already in chaos. He could only watch helplessly as the fireball slammed into him.
He screamed. Flames chewed across his cheek, and his howl sounded like a ghost being dragged from a grave.
He vomited blood.
The devil-horned snake’s venom spread faster, darker. With his qi destabilized, he couldn’t heal, couldn’t even slow the poison’s march.
The blood he spat turned thick and black. Bubbles rose in it, ugly and sickening.
Desperation flared in his eyes. He raised his hand—
Song Jiu Lai’s instincts screamed. She rolled away.
Ice blades burst from the ground with a violent hiss, barely scraping past her.
She was poisoned too. Fighting like this would destroy her as well. A spike of pain stabbed her skull—proof she had pushed her qi to the absolute limit.
Her only advantage was simple.
She had more medicine.
She could steal one more breath.
Jin Shu’s last hope collapsed. He didn’t know who she was, and he never imagined he’d die here. He stared at Song Jiu Lai with bitter, unyielding resentment.
Then the venom flooded through him.
Even with the devil-horned snake dead, its poison kept eating. Without treatment or a way to cut it off, it would still corrode a cultivator’s body.
Song Jiu Lai watched Jin Shu’s eyes slowly shut. His presence thinned, faded, and disappeared.
Her heart gave a heavy, startled thud.
Her fingers trembled for a few seconds, like they didn’t belong to her.
Then she exhaled hard—one long breath—and finally let herself relax.
She lay on her back and stared up at the sky. Closing her eyes, she dragged in heaven-and-earth qi as if she could drink it, trying to suppress the poison still spreading inside her.
[Zhou Xiao completed the task of buying second-rank pills…]
Song Jiu Lai’s eyes snapped open. She grabbed the pill and swallowed it instantly.
Good.
One more breath.
The price was simple: the sect’s assets dropped back to zero.
Her body ached so badly she could barely move. She had nothing left.
Yet she still found the strength to joke, voice faint in her mind. “System… without you, I’d be dead today.”
If she couldn’t restock medicine remotely, she would’ve had to run even from the devil-horned snake, let alone Jin Shu.
The System went quiet for a long moment.
Then it said, almost softly, “You killed so decisively. I thought you wouldn’t get used to this world.”
Song Jiu Lai stared at the sky. After a beat, she said, “There’s nothing to get used to. I knew what kind of world this was the moment I arrived.”
The cultivation world ran on one truth: the strong ate first.
The players could die and have their accounts banned, and they would still live just fine in another world.
If she died, she died for real.
Of course she would eradicate a threat when it showed its teeth.
She didn’t feel panic or fear about killing Jin Shu. He’d dragged the devil-horned snake to her because he wanted her dead.
But she didn’t feel thrilled either.
She took a deep, heavy breath. “I don’t like the feeling of killing. But if danger comes, I can do it.”