Rushing out of the tavern to join Han Wenyan and Zhao Xiaoli in pursuit of the last Rogue Cultivator, Jun Li finally realized just how absolutely covered in blood she was. It was hard to find an inch of her clothing lacking a foreign splash of red.

  “My new Inner Sect robes are ruined…” Although Jun Li muttered complaints to herself, a satisfied smile bloomed on her lips, as if she couldn't help but be pleased with the proof of her efforts.

  Half-heartedly shaking off her sleeves, Jun Li shot down the street to catch up with her peers, feeling the soreness in her body more keenly now. 'I overdid it…'

  Ahead, the Rogue Cultivator in red furs made a mad dash towards the village gates. Even if he could escape the village, there was no way he would be able to gain much distance from the trio without knowing some sort of profound Movement Technique.

  In the blink of an eye, a small jade disk appeared in the man’s hand, appearing from thin air, preceded only by a faint purple glint. The moment the disk appeared a faint light began to shine from it.

  Not wanting to find out what that disk could do, Han Wenyan raised his bow in the hopes of shooting it out of the man’s hand.

  Before he could, however, a violent roar shook the air, and the village gates ahead buckled and cracked. “Hey! I think he’s controlling the Magical Beast in front of the village with some sort of Treasure!”

  Slowly pulling a short sword from her sleeve, Zhao Xiaoli called out. “Senior Brother Han, go after that Crimson Palace Cultivator! We can handle the beast!”

  Han Wenyan accelerated towards the man in red furs. “Just don’t let the Viridian-horned Beast run amok in the village! Try to guide it away!”

  Originally, the trio had planned to deal with the beast last, after subduing the Cultivators in the village. According to Han Wenyan’s description, it was apparently quite strong, enough to threaten the life of any one of them if caught alone.

  Because of the danger, they intended to attack all at once and kill the beast as fast as possible. But with the Cultivator that controlled the beast proving surprisingly proficient at running away, they couldn’t afford to divert their attention entirely.

  Hearing that she wouldn't be able to kill the man at the Crimson Palace stage herself upset Jun Li more than she expected, causing her heart to sink for a moment.

  “...No complaints here!” Jun Li shook off her odd emotional reaction and followed Zhao Xiaoli's recommendation to focus on the Beast.

  Ahead, the village gates splintered and cracked as they got closer, threatening to release a terrible and destructive force into the village.

  “Senior Sister Zhao, follow me!” Tearing a hefty-looking iron lantern from the side of a building, Jun Li jumped up the side of a building at the edge of the village, and from there, leapt onto the village walls.

  Stepping over to the edge of the wall, Jun Li could see the Viridian-horned Beast breaking through the village gates. Across the other side of the gates, Jun Li could see the Crimson Palace Cultivator sail over the village walls, Han Wenyan not far behind.

  The moment they passed the wall, the beast diverted its attention and began to charge towards Han Wenyan the moment he landed outside the village.

  From atop the wall, Jun Li threw the lantern she picked up as hard as she could, sending it sailing through the air and shattering harmlessly off the scales of the beast.

  Jumping from the wall to the rocky ground below, Jun Li ran towards the beast. ‘Let’s see how good that treasure you’re using to control this thing is! Will it ignore me and keep chasing Senior Brother Han to save you, or will it turn and try to kill me to protect itself?’

  ‘Either way… It's dead!’ As Jun Li closed the distance and made the beast aware of her presence, it initially ignored her and continued to chase after Han Wenyan.

  As Jun Li and Zhao Xiaoli got closer, however, the beast came to a sudden stop, instantly ceasing its forward momentum and lashing out towards the two with its tail.

  Zhao Xiaoli was a bit further behind and reacted in time to entirely avoid the attack, but Jun Li was caught in the middle of attempting to jump atop the beast and was unable to move out of the way mid-air. The coarse scales of the beast’s tail gripped into Jun Li’s clothes and flesh, pulling her through the air and sending her crashing into jagged stones of the mountain valley.

  Bouncing off the ground, Jun Li coughed a mouthful of blood and tumbled away like a rag doll.

  “Are you okay!?” Clambering to her feet, Jun Li steadied her breath and responded to Zhao Xiaoli’s concerns.

  “I’m fine!” Despite how she seemed on the outside, Jun Li was a bit shocked and struggled to regain her balance. ‘I think that’s the hardest I’ve ever been hit by anything… Even Master Zhu didn’t hit that hard, even if he held back...’

  Tightly gripping the Treasure spearhead she picked up in the Tavern, Jun Li took a deep breath, sensing the condition of her body and tasting blood in the back of her mouth.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Ahead, the Viridian-horned Beast seemed to be wary of the two and had ceased pursuit of Han Wenyan, knowing that it had to defend itself.

  ‘Good…’ Jun Li looked towards Zhao Xiaoli, who stood ready and alert, and slowly circled around to the other side of the Magical Beast. “Senior Sister Zhao!” Jun Li called out, staring down the beast in front of her. “You mind letting me handle this alone?”

  Zhao Xiaoli was shocked by Jun Li’s request and quickly shook her head. “Don’t treat this like a game! If you got hit by its claws instead of its tail just then, you might have died!”

  “Relax, I can do this safely! Just hold off for now.” Jun Li felt a bit odd as she spoke.

  She didn’t lie very often and couldn’t help but blush a bit as she wondered if her lie was too ridiculous.

  Regardless of what Zhao Xiaoli thought, she didn’t speak up in protest any further.

  Taking Zhao Xiaoli’s silence as resignation, Jun Li focused her attention on the beast.

  ‘Now… how best to kill this thing?’ Slowly approaching the beast, Jun Li thought over her options. ‘It’s not like fighting the weaklings in the village. I don’t think I can kill this thing in one blow.’ Suddenly, as Jun Li took a half-step forward, the beast shot into motion, swiping out at her with its claws.

  Her body flickering, Jun Li shot past the beast’s claws with the Glass Cloud Art, landing beside its body. Though she was in range to strike, she instead used her Movement Technique again to retreat, appearing ten meters away.

  ‘When I moved just now… its eyes followed me…’ Jun Li felt anxious as she realized that this beast wasn’t merely physically stronger than her, but it also had the ability to keep up with her speed, if only in perception.

  ‘Senior Sister Zhao was right, if I get hit by those claws, I might just die.’ Keeping a distance from the beast, Jun Li unknowingly emitted a thick Killing Intent, such that the beast was unable to divert its attention from her. ‘This is good… By all accounts, I have no real advantage in this fight. Master Zhu said there were two elements of a ‘Genius Cultivator,’ the talent to reach a high Cultivation at a young age, and the talent to fight above your level.’

  ‘Senior Brother Han called this thing a threat, and I’m pretty sure his Cultivation is a decent bit ahead of mine…’ Ahead of Jun Li, the beast appeared less and less like a living creature, and more like an opportunity to prove her strength to herself.

  The anxieties that were building within Jun Li were slowly burned away as she carefully and deliberately stoked the flames of her own ambition.

  Feeling the balance of the half-treasure spearhead in her hands, Jun Li dashed towards the Viridian-horned Beast. Immediately, a green-scaled claw flew towards Jun Li, tearing through the air and eclipsing the world in front of her.

  Lowering her stance, Jun Li sped up, executing her Movement Technique to the very limit of what was possible for her.

  Scraping across the ground, Jun Li slipped under the oncoming claw and raised the spearhead in her hand as she approached the underbelly of the Viridian-horned Beast.

  "Sparking Thorn - Single-Point Strike!” As Jun Li thrust her weapon into the beast, the Treasure Spearhead was met with remarkably little resistance; the comparatively thin scales on the beast’s underbelly split open and immediately coated the stones below red with blood.

  Jun Li pulled the spearhead from the beast’s body and prepared to leap away, but before she could step away, the beast suddenly pressed its weight down as if to crush her.

  Jun Li didn’t expect the beast to react with so little hesitation after being stabbed. “Does this thing not feel pain!?” Jun Li didn’t know how much the beast weighed, but she no longer had the opportunity to escape, and so it ceased to matter.

  Standing against the beast’s underbelly, Jun Li braced herself against its descending body. In an instant, the pressure of the beast’s weight made it feel like her spine was compressed to the point of being about to snap.

  Circulating her Qi, Jun Li practiced her Qinggong Breathing in an effort to lower her weight as far as possible, not wanting her own weight to be the proverbial feather that broke her back.

  Jun Li didn’t want an opportunity to escape the underside of the beast anymore; now that she was forced into this position, she intended to turn it to her advantage.

  Bracing the beast’s torso painfully between her shoulder and head, Jun Li brandished the Treasure Spearhead in her free arm.

  “Sparking Thorn - Three-Point Strike!” Precariously shifting her body weight, Jun Li’s arm turned into a blur that pierced the underbelly of the reptilian beast, spilling three streams of blood onto the ground below. The pained roar of the Viridian-horned Beast reverberated through Jun Li’s body as she barely held its body off the ground.

  Suddenly, the weight of the beast disappeared as it pushed itself away from Jun Li. Momentarily caught off guard by the change, Jun Li wasn’t able to react in time to avoid the beast’s claw, mercilessly crashing into her like a bladed battering ram, the instantaneous force twisting Jun Li's body as she flew through the air.

  Feeling her organs warp and her blood roil, Jun Li lost consciousness for a moment, only reawakening the moment she hit the ground.

  “Damn…” Struggling to her feet, Jun Li held her left arm. The beast’s claws had left some deep gashes across them, but Jun Li was more durable than she expected.

  Although she was bleeding heavily, the cuts didn’t sever her muscles and tendons to the point of rendering her arm useless.

  “Jun Li!” Observing from the side, Zhao Xiaoli called out from the sideline with clear concern; her unspoken want for Jun Li to relent made quite obvious.

  Gritting her teeth, Jun Li glared towards the Viridian-horned Beast. Although it was bleeding profusely from the deep cuts on its underbelly, the beast still stood quite steadily, looking down towards Jun Li with little sign of losing its vitality.

  “I guess I’m still a bit far from being a ‘genius,’ huh?” Hitting her limits, Jun Li felt bitter, having thought she would fare better against the beast in front of her.

  ‘If only I could go back to that mental state from earlier… Fighting seemed so much easier when I was having fun…’ Regardless of her hopes for the future, Jun Li could only swallow her misgivings for now and move on.

  “Senior Sister Zhao, I’m done playing around. Help me out here!”

  Drawing a short sword from her sleeve, Zhao Xiaoli gave a resigned sigh. “So, you actually were just messing around… Honestly, look at the state you’re in! I hope you’ve learnt a lesson from this.”

  Hearing her friend’s lecturing, Jun Li chuckled. “Don’t worry, it was worth it! Those idiots in the village really were too weak, now I know where I really stand...”

  Readying herself to strike alongside Zhao Xiaoli, Jun Li spoke towards the beast, though it could not understand her. “Sorry that I’m not strong enough to beat you in a fair fight!”

  ? Extra’s Mantle: Wait, What Do You Mean I Shouldn’t Exist?! ?

  by NekoSama#9999

  What To Expect:

  A protagonist who refuses to accept fate before he has tasted some beauties.

  > Good variety of side-characters with their own lives, motivations, and personalities.

  > Magic, stats, guns!