CHAPTER 48: ORIOLE

Yu Tian watched over Xueling as she circulated the healing energy from the pill.

As he observed her recovery, he made his own calculations.

There seemed to be something he was missing.

Su Jiang appeared to have been used by Su Ming to achieve his goal. So it could be seen that Su Jiang was the praying mantis and Xueling was the cicada. But when he ran calculations specifically targeting Su Ming, even with his companion, they weren’t much of a threat to them.

Then... his eyes suddenly brightened when he realized what was happening.

"Could it be... Su Ming is actually the praying mantis?" he wondered.

[95%]

Now everything was beginning to make sense. But then, who was the oriole? Who was profiting from all of this? He could only think of one person.

"The sect master."

Instantly, the number shifted to a hundred percent. Indeed, it was the sect master. He was the only one who could profit from all these children dying. After all, they all seemed to be after his life, whether for greed or other reasons.

As he thought of this, Xueling opened her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"As good as new," she said happily.

"Looks like your final battle is happening much sooner than we thought," Yu Tian said.

She had a confused expression. "What?"

At the same time, she sensed an approaching aura and looked up where she saw Su Ming floating above with an unknown girl next to him.

Su Ming gazed at the sight below. He wore an uncomfortable look. He was late. Although he had expected this to happen, it had happened way too fast. Was she really so strong that Su Jiang never stood a chance?

He had been hoping to swoop in at a dire moment and capture Yu Tian when she was busy dealing with Su Jiang. He could then use him as leverage against her, but to think that things would turn out like this. What should he do now?

"Su Ming, you are so scheming, but in the end, you were also just a pawn in someone else’s scheme," Xueling said with a smile.

"What?" Su Ming asked, turning around instantly only to be met with a claw attack that pierced right through his abdomen.

"No way," he thought as the girl who had come with him easily ripped out his core and he dropped toward the ground, falling with a thud.

"You’re smart. As expected of my daughter," a man’s voice appeared behind Yu Tian and Xueling.

Xueling quickly turned around and stood before Yu Tian, her sword drawn.

"It’s you..." Now she understood why Yu Tian said her final battle would happen so soon.

"I’m no daughter of yours," she cursed.

"Ho..." he spoke, rising from Su Jiang’s body, holding a core in his hand. "I expected you to instantly rush after me to attack. To think you’ve grown so much," the man teased.

"Could it be..." he spoke, looking at Yu Tian behind Xueling, but Xueling moved to block his view of Yu Tian.

"Hahaha, how interesting. Even the cursed princess has found love," the man laughed. "How truly beautiful," the man said.

He then stopped laughing and wore a serious expression. "Too bad you and your lover won’t get a happy ending. He just so happens to be a specimen I find quite interesting," he said.

Suddenly, Xueling found herself on the ground, the sect master’s foot pressed hard on her stomach.

"You... what are you?" he asked.

"Just an ordinary human," Yu Tian responded calmly.

The man broke out in laughter. "There is nothing ordinary about this," the sect master said, placing his hand on Yu Tian’s stomach.

"You..." Xueling cursed, but...

"Now now, no need to be jealous. The master isn’t interested in men," the woman who had attacked Su Ming before said as she descended. She then kneeled before the sect master and handed him the core she had gotten from Su Ming. He put both cores in his pocket and returned his attention to Yu Tian.

"You don’t seem to be in the Core Formation realm. You don’t look like a monster either, but you still have such a perfect core. If I can refine it, I will definitely be able to make it. The absolute core," he said, laughing heartily.

...

The woman squatted next to Xueling’s face, poking her cheek with a stick like she was a toy.

"Master, should I extract her core for you?" she asked.

"No need, this one is a special case," he said. He then smiled evilly. "Besides, I want to make her watch me kill her boyfriend just like I did with her mother back then," the man said with laughter.

"That is indeed much better," the girl said, also adopting an evil smile.

"You..." Xueling began.

"What’s that? I can’t hear you," she said mockingly, bringing her ear closer to Xueling.

This wasn’t the first time Xueling was seeing such a thing and she instantly attacked. Using her teeth, of course. She bit into the woman’s ear and used qi to enhance her teeth. The woman screamed in terror, causing the sect master to turn around to see what was happening.

The woman managed to escape from Xueling, but not without her ear.

Xueling spat out the ear, her mouth covered in blood. Due to the commotion, the sect master’s leg pressing down on her had loosened slightly and she rolled to the side, grabbing Yu Tian and running into the forest.

"Quick, use concealment," she said, but Yu Tian shook his head.

"It’s useless," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"He saw through my inner core despite it being under concealment. He probably has an extremely powerful spiritual sense," Yu Tian explained.

"That’s right," the sect master’s voice reached them. He was before them, and the girl was next to him, holding her hand over her torn ear.

"Actually, I have already entered the Golden Core realm," he said. "Well, more like half-step," he explained. "I have a level five mind and just need to form a golden core to breakthrough." He then began juggling the cores from earlier in his hands.

"But I don’t want to just be a normal Golden Core cultivator. I want to refine the golden core of geniuses like you. When I refine them all and use them to establish the absolute golden core, I will become invincible," he said, laughing loudly.

Yu Tian thought to himself that it was almost impossible to avoid the detection of a level five mind with his current abilities.

...

Author’s Corner

"Su Ming is actually the praying mantis?": its from the chinese saying "the praying mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind"