Chapter 358: Diplomatic Solution
Serena was in total shock and could hardly keep her face straight. She had heard rumors of what peak Star Core cultivators were capable of but had never witnessed it with her own eyes. The higher cultivation a person achieved, the more elusive and reserved they typically became—spending months or years in closed-door cultivation and becoming very averse to fighting. After all, it became harder to progress the closer one got to Nascent Soul Realm, and while Star Core cultivators could live for centuries, they weren't immortal.
The amount of Qi a cultivator had to accumulate in preparation to form an infant soul was staggering, and the depth of their dao comprehension had to be absurd. Time was ticking, so to waste Qi on disposing of someone in such a spectacle of power when a simple sword swing would have sufficed was insanity.
Or it should be... but this girl, the Princess of Slaughter, seemed to be an exception. Serena looked at the Princess's youthful face and felt deeply inferior. Here she was, judging how this girl used her powers so casually because she would only have centuries to gather the Qi for a Nascent Soul while she appeared near the peak of the Star Core Realm at such a young age. The Princess didn't need to be considerate about her Qi usage as, unlike the talentless Grand Elders suppressed by impassable bottlenecks, she must have laughed at the heavens for trying to hold her back.
Serena felt a chill run through her spine. It was a universal rule throughout the realm that Star Core Realm and above cultivators didn't care for the actions of those weaker than them so long as you didn't offend them or those close to them. You simply weren't worth the effort of them exiting closed-door cultivation and wasting their precious Qi. But this girl seemed free of such constraints.
I need to get out of here. Serena made the resolute decision to leave right away. Trying to stick around when such an unreasonably powerful person was in charge would only lead to death. She had held out a sliver of hope that the Grand Elders of this sect would be dismissive of those below them, and she could lurk under their elusive gazes, but this Princess proved that point wrong. She went out of her way to argue and kill a drunkard mortal simply because he spouted some nonsense claims against her. If such a gruesome fate at the hands of a Grand Elder awaited those who talked badly of the sect, what fate awaited her for killing one of their cult believers and damaging a tree?
"This is Daisy. I met her in the tavern." The Princess's Disciple introduced her with the fake name she had made up earlier by looking around and seeing a flowerbed with some daisies growing in them. "She wanted to know stories about you."
Serena snapped back to reality and wanted to strangle this dumb, grass-haired girl. Keep your mouth shut! You're going to get me killed here.
"Oh?" Stella took a single step closer, and despite her best efforts, Serena's entire body tensed. She could feel a primal fear buzz at the back of her mind from the bloodlust emanating from the Princess of Slaughter as the girl curiously encircled her as if she were a statue. Finishing her rounds and coming to a stop before her, the blonde-haired psycho had an innocent smile made all the worse by the skeleton of the mortal still in clear view behind her. "So. Do I live up to the stories?"
Absolutely, if not worse...