Demoness's Art of Vengeance

Hey guys, great news!  Two more top-performing sneak peek Chinese novels licensed from Zongheng have left VIP-only and are available for you to read, each with fifty chapters and a 2/day schedule!  These novels are Yama Rising, translated by Minotauruz (who did the great translation of Demoness' Art of Vengeance) and Star Odyssey, translated by OMA who did Warlock of the Magus World and City of Sin!  Both are veteran and highly capable translators, and I'm excited to bring this to y'all.

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“Everyone be on alert. Someone has entered our campsite.” Jun Xiaomo retrieved her Transmittance Talisman and whispered into it.

She had earlier handed everyone one Transmittance Talisman, and she even drew up a few more such talismans because there was not enough to go around. Her actions were smooth and natural, and she took only one attempt to create each talisman. Everyone around her was incredibly astonished at her actions.

Is Jun Xiaomo of the Heavenly Peak a spell master or a talisman master? How could she be so proficient with talismans and formation arrays at such a young, tender age?!

Regardless, they could appreciate the usefulness of Jun Xiaomo’s talismans and formation arrays. Just like right now, Jun Xiaomo had discreetly warned the others of the approach of uninvited guests through her Transmittance Talisman so that they would not alert their visitors to their knowledge.

Some of the disciples in her camp were too soundly asleep and failed to wake up to Jun Xiaomo’s call. Fortunately, the others beside them nudged them and roused them from their slumber.

“What’s going on?” They murmured as they rubbed their hazy eyes.

“Someone’s approaching. Wake up.” Jun Xiaomo’s clear and crisp voice resounded beside their ears. Her voice was like a resounding bell that immediately jolted the groggy disciples right out of their stupor.

Someone’s approaching at this time of the night? Who could it be?

Just like that, their hard-earned rest at night was disrupted by the approach of some unknown people. Anyone disturbed like that would hardly be pleased.

With frustration and indignation swelling from the depths of their hearts, several disciples intended to sit up and see for themselves who these immoral people were to be sneaking about behind their backs at night.

But in the next moment, Jun Xiaomo immediately gave a further set of instructions to everyone, “Don’t get up yet. They’ve inadvertently activated the formation array in the perimeter of our campsite, so we’ve been alerted to their presence. That said, they must still be thinking that we’re asleep. Since that’s the case, let’s continue to play along so that they will play straight into our hands.”

Mei Huanqiu’s eyes brightened as she immediately seconded Jun Xiaomo’s idea, “Sister Xiaomo’s right. That’s a great plan. I approve!”

Several others began to chime in with approvals as well. Thus, those who were standing guard around the campsite continued to stand guard; while others who were meant to be asleep remained “asleep”. Everything at the campsite remained ostensibly the same as it had been just moments ago.

That said, everyone had begun to release their divine sense probing around their surroundings. Then, they began to muster their spiritual energy and gather them in their palms, before applying on themselves a defensive talisman that Jun Xiaomo had earlier handed out to them.

The Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples were completely oblivious to the fact that the cat was already out of the bag, so they continued to slowly approach Jun Xiaomo and the rest on tiptoe. Then, when they finally arrived at where the first disciple standing guard was located, the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples glanced at and signaled to the rest of his team. Within moments, they began to spread out in all directions, thereby surrounding the Heavenly Peak disciples and locking them within the area of their offensive abilities.

It’s about time. The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples thought to himself.

“Go!”

With one loud cry, the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples immediately began to launch a fierce volley of attacks at the Heavenly Peak disciples who had earlier been surrounded. In the darkness of the night, a brilliant display of colourful spell abilities shot out and lit up the otherwise ink-black night sky. Incidentally, these spells also illuminated the vicious smiles plastered all over the faces of the assailants.

Once they began to launch attacks, the Invisibility Talisman on their body would immediately lose their effects. But at this moment, none of them minded that fact – in their eyes, the element of surprise would have done everything it was intended to do, and the Heavenly Peak disciples would either be dead or grievously wounded. After this volley of attack, they would no longer be any cause of concern anymore.

Besides, they were well aware of the fact that the strongest cultivator among the Heavenly Peak disciples was Chen Feiyu, at only the eleventh level of Qi Mastery. They firmly believed that there was no way he, or any of the Heavenly Peak disciples could be a match against the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples.

Unfortunately, in the next moment, their vicious smiles froze and stiffened up on their faces –

They’re alright? The Heavenly Peak disciples are all alright?! How could this be?!!!

The Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples were met with the cold gazes of the Heavenly Peak disciples. Before the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples could even react, they felt a sense of excruciating pain surge through their bodies and their Dantian.

Even if they were just Qi Mastery cultivators, the damage caused by such powerful close-ranged attacks was still incredibly considerable.

Several disciples from the Ashen Flats Sect who possessed a slightly lower cultivation level immediately felt as though their Dantian had been shattered by the oncoming attack, and they flew back and slammed straight into the ground. Crimson red blood sprayed from their mouths.

“We’ve miscalculated! Retreat!” The Ashen Flats Sect’s team leader cried out to the rest of his disciples. They had to find a safe place to treat their injuries, or they might very well be unable to leave these marshlands safely.

As for the Heavenly Peak disciples, they would have to leave them to the Eternal Summit Sect.

The Eternal Summit Sect is far stronger than us. They will definitely be able to teach these vicious Heavenly Peak disciples a harsh lesson and repay them tenfold for what they have done to us! The Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples thought to themselves furiously.

Right now, the only thing on the minds of these Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples was to retreat and escape. After all, their attempt at a sneak attack had been foiled, and they had even been seriously wounded by the opponents. Forcing the issue would not be a wise choice.

Thus, they began to retreat into the dark of the night in a completely sorry state – some clambering from the floor, only to stumble back down again; others clutching fervently at their chests; while others continued to cast spells covering their retreat. The only thought running through their minds was to leave Jun Xiaomo’s campsite under the cover of darkness.

But how would Jun Xiaomo and the rest allow their assailants to leave just like that, especially when they were already wounded to such extents? Thus, they gave chase and began to round up their assailants.

The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples began to panic. He did not want Jun Xiaomo to snatch away their right to continue with the group battles at all.

If the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples were able to persist till the end of these group battles, then they would be awarded a token for their participation, regardless of where the sect placed among the standings. On the contrary, they would no longer qualify for these tokens for their participation if their identity tokens were snatched away by others during the course of this competition.

Even though these tokens of participation were not things that large Secondary Sects would place in their sights, these were nevertheless significant rewards to the smaller sects. These rewards would even determine the leader’s standing within the sect in future.

“That…that…dear fellow cultivator, could you let us go, please? We’ve made a huge blunder. We weren’t thinking straight when we attacked you earlier.” The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples made a virtuous expression as he spoke.

He had truly cast his pride aside and trampled on it in the hope that Jun Xiaomo and the rest would not press the issue any longer.

“Hah, let you off? Then who’s going to let us off? Speak! Why did you sneak about our camp and attack us in the cover of the night?!” Wei Gaolang interrogated them incisively.

After experiencing various interactions with other sects over the last two days, he had finally discarded the unnecessary softness in his heart and become a little bit more of a man right now.

Jun Xiaomo glanced at Wei Gaolang with praise in her eyes, causing Wei Gaolang to involuntarily scratch his head and grin. Yet in the next moment, he adjusted his emotions and glared straight towards their assailants with a grim expression once more.

“That…we noticed that you were fast asleep, and we were tempted by the prospects of snatching the identity token in your hands. The points we’d obtained in this competition is simply far too low to contend for a decent standing, so our thoughts went astray when we were presented with a camp of sleeping cultivators…” The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples began to recite the excuse that he had already prepared in his heart.

“Oh? So you thought to steal some identity tokens just because your points were far too low…” Jun Xiaomo sighed dispassionately.

“That…that’s right. We know we’re in the wrong. It was really improper for us to have done what we have done, but we hope that you will be magnanimous and give us this one chance. We promise to run far, far away, so that we won’t be an eyesore to you.” The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples bowed obsequiously as he attempted to placate Jun Xiaomo.

He was also rather grievously injured, and the spiritual energy within his Dantian toiled furiously, while a faint stench of blood filled his mouth.

As he lowered his head, a trace of haziness flickered across his eyes.

Meng Huanqiu laughed contemptuously. She hated these pretentious people whose words hardly reflected their state of mind. Furthermore, shouldn’t such spineless people be more concerned about how they would support the weight of their actions before launching such surprise attacks on others?

“Tch. On what basis do you expect us to forgive you? With just this apology of yours? Do you really think that there are such profitable transactions in the cultivation world?” Wei Gaolang made a trenchant rebuttal.

It was evident just how much Wei Gaolang had matured over the last two days of these competitions. He had already shed much of his naivete and understood how his earlier softness and kindness could not be extended to everyone alike.

“I should have known better.” The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples continued to bend lowly as he responded, “I wonder what these fellow cultivators want in exchange for sparing our lives?”

“It’s simple. Hand us the identity tokens on your wrists and leave this competition, and we’ll let you off.” Jun Xiaomo responded in an unperturbed, matter-of-fact way.

“You must be kidding?! How can you call that ‘letting us off’?” Another disciple of the Ashen Flats Sect cried out with indignation.

“We’re simply treating you how you’d treated us earlier.” Jun Xiaomo responded nonchalantly, yet the intense frigidity in her obsidian-black eyes caused that disciple to recoil in shock.

Thus, both parties reached an impasse.

Just then, the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples suddenly began to laugh manically as he retrieved an item from his Interspatial Ring and threw it ferociously towards Jun Xiaomo and the others, barking, “Go to hell!”

This item was something that his master had handed to him just before the group battles. His master had cautioned him time and again that he was not to use this item unless it was absolutely necessary.

It was because this item would attack anyone and everyone around without regard for who it was. It did not distinguish friend from foe, and it possessed the potential to harm both its own master and his people as well.

Right now, faced with Jun Xiaomo’s relentless aggression, the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples was convicted that Jun Xiaomo was forcing his hand. Thus, he threw caution to the wind and sent his hidden trump card flying towards Jun Xiaomo.

He was naturally unaware of the extent of this trump card’s true power when he first tossed it out.

Jun Xiaomo was presently standing closest to the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples. Her heart trembled, and an imminent sense of danger immediately washed over her heart –

“Everyone, take cover!” Jun Xiaomo yelled out. At the same time, she retrieved a maroon coloured talisman from her Interspatial Ring.

Jun Xiaomo only possessed three of these maroon coloured talismans within her Interspatial Ring. These were talismans that she had spent an incredible amount of time and effort preparing, and even the materials required to prepare these talismans were precious and invaluable. Thus, she would never use these talismans if she could help it.

But at this moment, her intuition told her that everyone was going to be grievously injured if she did not resort to this talisman right now.

Thus, the maroon coloured talisman shot forward and quickly latched onto the ink-black pellet.

Then, in the very next moment, the pellet erupted with a deafening crackle, and the entire area was instantly filled with a dazzling bright light…

Those who were engulfed within the fiery light felt as though their skin was being corroded by the white-hot light. This feeling was especially intense for Jun Xiaomo who stood closest to the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples. Her skin felt like it was burning up as though he had just been doused with burning magma.

Furthermore, she even felt a trace of demonic energy rush into her body from the explosion of light.

The demonic energy burrowed straight through her skin and into her meridians.

Jun Xiaomo hurriedly began to recite her mnemonic to transform and subdue this incursion of demonic energy into true energy for her own use. At the same time, she felt a slight splitting sensation ring out at her ears, as though something had just been cleaved in half.

The earrings given by brother Rong?!

Jun Xiaomo knew that the earrings possessed an incredibly strong ability to protect her. Thus, one could only imagine what kind of immense strength this ink-black pellet possessed to be able to crack the earrings.

Finally, the dazzling light faded away. As expected, the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples could barely stand any longer.

“Impossible! How can you still be completely fine?!” The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples was unable to accept the reality that his injuries were far more severe than Jun Xiaomo’s injuries.

“Heh, this is called ‘shooting yourself in the foot’.” Wei Gaolang declared in delight.

They had earlier applied on themselves the defensive talismans given by Jun Xiaomo, and they damage they took from this explosion of light was naturally far lower than what it should have been. Besides, the talisman that Jun Xiaomo had retrieved earlier was clearly something special as well, and it naturally substantially mitigated the damage caused to Jun Xiaomo and the rest.

The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples spat out a large mouthful of blood. Nobody knew whether this was from his injuries or from his anger right now.

Wei Gaolang walked towards the leader and circled around him, before snickering twice as he asked Jun Xiaomo, “Martial sister, how should we deal with these fellas?”

The Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples were powerless to do anything anymore.

“Beat them up and take their identity tokens.” Jun Xiaomo declared with such nonchalance that caused the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples to feel even more incensed.

Wei Gaolang nodded his head, “Good idea. My hands have been itching for some time now.” As he spoke, he began to roll up his sleeve as he made his way towards the leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples.

The leader of the Ashen Flats Sect’s disciples turned pale with shock. In the end, he plastered a twisted and macabre smile on his face as he barked in despondence –

“Hah! Don’t be so delighted! There will be more coming for you in no time!”

At the same time, he transmitted the Heavenly Peak’s location to the Eternal Summit Sect’s disciples.

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