No Repeats

Punishment for overreaching

As Yue Xiulan's face rapidly transformed into an ever increasingly older version of herself, Zu Bai Ye rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Yue Xiulan, you should have kept inside your square and I would have turned a blind eye to your degenerate and evil activities for at least another ten years. Why have you decided to overreach and mess with me at this time? Did you not enjoy your decadent lifestyle enough?" he asked with a mocking tone.

"Bai Ye, you bastard! We have been oppressed for too long, over a hundred years is long enough and now is our time to lead Wulin. What have we done wrong to be side-lined and oppressed like second class citizens all these years?" she screeched.

"Looking at you aging so rapidly, I guess you must have stolen many people's lifeforce? That is evil, immoral, and cruel. Why then, do you ask me such a stupid question?" asked he.

"It is not wrong; it is living according to nature's laws as the strong always has the right to oppress the weak. Plus, their lives were not wasted, I saved them from a life of destitution and gave them a larger purpose. They gave their youth and vitality to enhance my own beauty. That is such a blessing to them!" she shouted as she struggled to resist Bai Ye from drawing out her powers.

Behind her, Jin Delan did not fare much better, both having reached a point that their internal force is no longer attacking but defending from Bai Ye's powers drawing theirs out. Once all their force is depleted, they will become a pile of bones.

"Bai Ye, your righteous sects decimated one of ours one hundred years ago, I remember the scene of blood flooding the Suita River and turned it red for days. Your sects are hypocrites and just as evil, so you have no right to stand on a high moral ground and lecture us," said Jin Delan.

"Your demonic sects kill and suppress innocents, subjecting them to humiliation and harm to satisfy your own depravity. Of course, the righteous sects have the right to punish you. But that is not the point now, like you say, the strong will always have the right to suppress the weak. It is the law of nature, that I am more powerful than you and will not only suppress you, but decimate your sect at will. Yue Xiulan, just as you witnessed your poison sect being wiped out one hundred years ago, you will also witness this Zhua Zhu sect that you have created and grew to be exterminated today. That is the power of might."

"How dare you!" screeched Yue Xiulan again, digging deep inside her core to push out another blast of power.

"You made the big mistake of targeting the Zuyi sect and placing a mole in patch. How long did you plan this?" asked Bai Ye casually.

"So long, I planned for so long, once you disappeared ten years ago, it was my opportunity. But why did you have to come back? The Xan brothers are so obedient to me, I raised them you know? Haha, they are so clever, we planned every step so meticulously and right before we attacked Wulin, you had to come back. The leadership spill should have killed you, but like a cockroach you continued to live. Bai Ye, you will be forever my greatest enemy. I will make sure that you will die without a burial place!" said Yue Xiulan, struggling to hold back tears of frustration.

At that point, her life flashed before her eyes as she remembered the massacre of the poison sect one hundred years ago. Her mother picked her up and hid her inside the waste bin filled with watery faeces before rushing away. She was only seven years old that year, but she remembered every moment very clearly, how she choked and vomited from the stench around her. She could still recall her own mother's screams as she was stabbed to death.

She remembered the heat inside the bin and the struggle she had climbing out of it when the killing stopped. The image of thousands of dead bodies and blood running down the slope into the river, dyeing it blood red imprinted on her mind, like it was yesterday.

Yue Xiulan clenched her jaw, remembering how she had to sell herself to survive as a seven-year-old and the opportunity she had to seduce the leader of the Zhua Zhu sect when she was fifteen. The lecherous man was besotted with her and gave her ample opportunities to cultivate her powers. Eventually, she became powerful enough to kill him and take over the sect. At that point she was dissatisfied with her aged appearance and just wanted to pursue youth, her ambitions to revenge her sect and take over Wulin would just have to wait until she is young and beautiful again.

She laughed, at least in that one thing, she was successful, for fifty years she managed to perfect her formula and remerged as the beautiful and young sect leader. It was such a wonderful feeling to be desired by beautiful young men again and absorb their lifeforce so that they age right in front of her. She was in control of their fates and the flow of time; it was so very satisfying.

But she realises in great regret that by pandering to her vanity she had missed the opportunity to take over Wulin and now she must contend with the great obstacle that is Bai Ye. This realisation hit her in the guts, and she vomited out blood from anger. Oh vanity, her own vanity is her biggest downfall!

"Such big words for a loser," said Bai Ye simply. He was getting bored talking to the crazy woman, so he decided that he needed to stop wasting his time with her, after all Lu Bai is still knocked out from the poison.

"No, I promise you..." she started to say before he knocked her unconscious by releasing a sudden burst of power.

"Too noisy. Now, Jin Delan, do you want your sect exterminated as well?" he asked casually.

"No...no...we will obey," stuttered Jin Delan after seeing the fallen fragile figure in front of her.

"Then tell me, where is the antidote to your poison that you threw at Lu Bai?" said Bai Ye.

"No...sorry, there is no antidote. That poison is my last line of defence. It will put the person to sleep indefinitely until they die of starvation..." stammered Jin Delan.

Bai Ye's face twisted into a terrifying version of himself, no longer handsome and chill but full of contempt and rage.
"No antidote? Then you and every member of your sect will suffer a consequence worst than death. I will ensure you will beg for release!" shouted Bai Ye.

Jin Delan's face paled, she knew that death is not the worst outcome that could possibly happen. No, there are far worse things than death!

"But there is a way to save him!" shouted Jin Delan weakly.

"Spit out now, I am not a patient man," said Bai Ye coldly, ignoring the turmoil in his heart.

"You need to force the poison from his body right now, the longer you hesitate the harder it would be to cure him. I know with your powerful internal force; you can do it. But I need to warn you that this will severely weaken you, especially after having expended your energy with us, you will be in a very vulnerable place for a few days," said Jin Delan.

"Don't forget, even if I am weakened, I can easily kill you!" said Bai Ye as he turned around towards Shu Mei.

Jin Delan nodded in defeat. She is now slumped on the ground with barely any energy to talk, let alone do a sneak attack. Looking around at the thousands of dead bodies, it terrified her to think that she would be next making her involuntarily shudder.

Bai Ye smirked as he continued to eye Jin Delan while sitting down next to Shu Mei's limp body, his heart aching for her. He gently lifted her up in his arms and brushed her hair from her face before setting her into a sitting position. Then he gathered all his remaining internal force and sent his powers through his palm into her back. As his powers started to rapidly drain from his core, it pushed into Shu Mei's own core and evaded every cell in her being.

Slowly the power started to push away anything that did not belong in her body through every part of body. The power heated up her internal temperature creating droplets of black sweat on her skin and staining her white clothes, like black ink on paper.