“Haah….Haaah….” a maid ran through the corridor, gasping for breath as her robe fluttered behind her.
Ahead of her, four figures moved swiftly, barely showing signs of exhaustion, their breathing steady despite the maid’s own struggle.
They were cultivators, after all.
But something felt off.
Even with their abilities, their speed wasn’t much faster than hers.
It was as if something had dampened their strength.
It was most likely a battle that exhausted their bodies and energy.
“My Lady!” she called out as she finally reached the door, bursting through without hesitation.
The guards who had been trailing her took their positions on either side of the door, their expressions tense as the maid’s voice echoed through the room.
“Huh? Is he already here?” Jenny muttered, pulling her daggers out and sliding them into the sheaths on her outfit—a dark, sleek garment designed for swift movements.
She had already been preparing for the potential arrival of Ryuk at Jade Dominion, anticipating the battle that would follow if he dared interfere.
But seeing the maid’s terrified face, and the bloodstains at the edge of her uniform, it was clear something had gone horribly wrong.
How had one person managed to breach all their defenses so easily?
Could Ryuk have grown even stronger than in his previous life?
These thoughts swirled in Jenny’s mind as she glanced at the maid, who was visibly shaken.
“My Lady, this isn’t the time for this! We need to leave now!” the maid stammered, her panic obvious.
Seeing her young mistress still preparing for battle, the maid couldn’t understand what Jenny was thinking—this was no time to act brave or stubborn.
They were under attack.
“Childish? How dare—” Jenny started, her anger flaring at the maid’s words.
booomm!
But before she could finish, a thunderous explosion rocked the building, shaking the ground beneath them.
Jenny’s eyes widened, her heart pounding.
Gritting her teeth, she realized Ryuk had already infiltrated the estate—much faster than she had expected.
And there was no sign of Mahila, the one she had sent to stop him and kill him on the trial grounds.
“Damn you, Ryuk!” she growled, her frustration building as she turned to the window.
There wasn’t time to wait for Diana to come to her aid.
She had to act now.
Without a second thought, Jenny channeled her internal energy, her body becoming weightless as she leapt through the window.
Her feet skimmed the air as she used wind steps, gliding effortlessly across the sky.
Her eyes scanned the scene below—chaos.
People from the Celestial Phoenix Order were clashing with Ryuk’s forces, their Qi auras flaring with power as they fought.
“WHERE IS YOUR MASTER?!” Jenny yelled, her voice cutting through the battlefield.
She wasn’t interested in their small skirmishes.
She knew Ryuk was behind this, hiding like a coward, sending others to fight in his place instead of facing her head-on.
Her anger only deepened.
She wouldn’t stop until she found him.
Jenny’s voice rang through the chaos like a sharp blade, cutting across the battlefield outside.
The mountaintop, where the Celestial Phoenix Order’s palace stood, had turned into a battlefield of flashing auras and clashing weapons.
Cultivators from both sides were already engaged, their techniques lighting up the sky in bursts of flame and wind. The air was heavy with the pressure of internal energy being unleashed in every direction.
Far below, a group of cultivators in dark robes had been holding their own against the Phoenix guards. They looked up as Jenny’s furious voice reached them, her silhouette outlined against the darkening sky.
One of them, a tall man with a cruel smirk, wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes narrowing as he pointed up toward her.
“There she is!” he shouted, barely dodging a strike from one of the Phoenix Order guards. “She’s trying to run away!”
“Catch her before she slips off!” another called out, arrogance dripping from his tone as he deflected a fireball, completely unfazed by the ongoing battle around him.
Jenny’s mouth twitched.
Run away? ‘They think I’m running away?’
The idea that they believed she was fleeing sent a surge of anger through her. Her grip on her daggers tightened, and her aura flared even more fiercely, wrapping around her like a storm.
“I AM NOT RUNNING AWAY, YOU BASTARDS!” Jenny’s voice boomed over the clamor, her tone filled with fury. She wasn’t going to let them walk away with the thought that she would ever retreat. “I’LL KILL YOU FIRST, THEN DEAL WITH THAT COWARD YOU CALL A LEADER!”
Her words sent a ripple of shock through the enemy cultivators, their faces losing a bit of their smugness. One of them opened his mouth to retort, but before he could get a word out, Jenny was already moving.
With her body still light as a feather from her wind technique, she shot downward, daggers gleaming in her hands as she aimed straight for the group.
“Damn it!” The cultivators below scrambled, but they weren’t fast enough. Jenny’s speed, boosted by her internal energy, was overwhelming.
She slammed into the ground in the center of them, the impact sending a shockwave through the earth.
Dust and debris flew up around her, but she was already in motion, her daggers spinning in a deadly dance as she struck at the first man who had pointed her out.
He barely managed to raise his sword in time, the force of her blow sending him skidding back several feet, his eyes wide with panic.
“You think I’m scared?” Jenny snarled, her eyes blazing as she pressed the attack. “I’ll show you what it means to face me!”
Around her, the battle raged on, cultivators from both sides clashing in a frenzy of power and skill.
Flames roared, and blades clashed as the Celestial Phoenix guards fought to defend their palace.
But Jenny didn’t care about any of that.
Her only focus was on these bastards—and finding Ryuk.
One of the dark-robed men tried to flank her, but Jenny spun on her heel, her dagger slicing through the air with deadly precision.
“Arghh!” He yelped in pain as the blade caught him across the arm, blood spraying into the air.
“Where’s Ryuk?” Jenny growled, her voice low and dangerous as she stalked toward the next cultivator. “Where is he hiding?”
None of them answered. Instead, they backed up, their arrogance gone, replaced by the cold realization that Jenny wasn’t just any opponent.
She was a threat—and she wasn’t running from anything, given how their mission today was to get rid of her.
“Save the Young Lady!” The guards from the Phoenix Order looked towards the battlefield where the woman they were trying to protect was engaged in battle, and they all, motivated by determination, pushed back against the infiltrators attacking them.
They were not able to send any reinforcement signals to the other party. It appeared as if a whole army had somehow infiltrated the ranks of their people and attacked the main peak of the Celestial Phoenix Order, prompting them to understand that these people were not coming from the side of the upper town but instead they came from the other side, which was the Capital Kingdom of the Jade Dominion.
Though they didn’t know how they arrived here under the eyes of the Empress, they needed to protect the young lady, as these people seemed to be targeting her. In the absence of the matriarch, this whole battle was crucial.
“Ahh…Damn you!” Jenny, in a series of fluid movements, killed five people in a row as she slid through the battlefield like an untouchable butterfly, her body not receiving a single scratch as she continued killing them. Finally, beheading one man, his head flew off, her rage-filled blood splattering over her face as she declared, “Damn you, Ryuk!! YOU COWARD!”
