The two Foundation Peak cultivators fighting Mei had stopped, and were now staring at their fallen instructor. Their leader, their Core Formation superior, now a corpse at Longwei's feet.
"What are you?" one of them asked.
Longwei looked at them.
Then looked at Mei, who was bleeding from her shoulder, barely standing.
Looked at the two women who'd cut her.
They Hurt Her.
They're Enemies.
And Their Cultivation Is Forfeit.
He moved, like lightening.
The first woman never saw it coming.
She was still staring at Bingwen's corpse when Longwei's hand punched through her defensive Qi. Foundation Establishment Peak against Peak, but he had momentum and surprise and the absolute conviction that she deserved what was coming.
His fingers wrapped around her core.
"There."
He ripped.
He didn't squeezed or crush it, he simply just Ripped it out of her like tearing out a little tree's roots.
The woman's scream was short, high pitched then just cut off when her core shattered in his grip.
The energy rush was...
Gods.
"Gods, that's..."
Foundation Establishment Peak became Core Formation Stage One.
Longwei had broken through, and achieved in minutes what should have taken years, jumping from Foundation Two to Core Formation in the span of a few kills, of those who deserved it... He'd let the children go.
Why did I let them go?
Weakness. Sentiment. I Should have killed them too, wasted potential.
No... they were children, there's a line.
What line? Where? Who decides?
The last Foundation Peak cultivator was backing away with her sword shaking, and eyes wide with terror.
"Please," she said. "Please, I was just following orders..."
"So was I," Longwei said. His voice sounded strange to his own ears, it sounded distant and void. "Survival orders."
He moved toward her.
She ran.
Got maybe ten paces before Longwei caught her, with his hand on her shoulder and Yang energy flooding through, burning away her defensive Qi like morning mist.
"Please..."
She wanted to kill us.
She's an enemy.
Her cultivation is mine.
Longwei's hand found her core, and closed around it.
The woman was crying. "I have children. Please, I have..."
Everyone has something, everyone has reasons to live but that doesn't make them less dangerous.
That doesn't mean they deserve mercy.
Does it?
His hand tightened.
And her core shattered.
Core Formation Stage One solidified.
Three dead.
And Longwei now standing in a valley he'd called paradise, covered in blood and feeling power flow through his meridians and hating that he felt good.
"Wei?"
Mei's voice cut through the haze.
He turned and she was staring at him, hand pressed to her bleeding shoulder, but her face was in horror.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Am I..." She laughed. It sounded broken. "Oh... am I okay?"
"You just killed three people and You're asking if I'm okay?"
"You're bleeding."
"So are you."
He looked down, she was right. There were cuts along his ribs, his forearm but luckily the weren't deep. He didn't even feel them.
"Yeah... Hmmm."
"We should treat those," he said.
"SHEN LONGWEI." Her voice was sharp. "Look at me."
He finally met her eyes.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
Powerful. Invincible. Hungry for more. But also, Disgusted.
"I don't know," he said honestly.
And she could feel it through their bond. The cocktail of emotions, the high from stolen power, the sick satisfaction of watching his enemies fall, the self-loathing creeping in at the edges.
And underneath it all, still there, still present, where the part that had let the children go, the part that had almost released the girl before killing her. The humanity barely holding on.
"You let them go," Mei said quietly. "The young ones, you let them escape."
"They were children."
"They were enemies, and they were armed. Trying to kill you."
"They were children," he repeated. "There should be a line."
"Is there?" She took a step toward him, pressing at her wounds. "Because from where I was standing, I couldn't tell where your line was."
She took a breath.
"You killed Bingwen so fast, Wei. and the others, you were moved like..."
"Like what?"
"Like you enjoyed it."
Did he?
Maybe.
"I needed the power... I needed to save..." he said. "You were hurt and they were going to kill us both. I did what I had to."
"I know." Her voice was soft. "I'm not saying you were wrong, I'm saying I'm worried of how much you didn't hesitate."
"Should I have hesitated? When? Huh? While you were bleeding?"
"No. But..." She gestured at the bodies, at the blood painting the rocks. "This is what it looks like. It's so much worse than I imagined."
They stood in silence for a moment.
Three corpses cooling in the morning sun, and three children running to probably go tell anyone who'd listen about the crippled cultivator who was with Mei. Who'd killed a Core Formation like she was nothing, who'd drained down her cultivation and asked for more.
Word will spread, Longwei thought. They'll tell someone, and then everyone will know I'm alive.
"We need to leave," he said quickly. "Those children will report and your people will send more hunters."
"Soon even the Celestial Sword will hear I survived, and then every fucking body will come for us."
"I know."
"And I also need to bandage your shoulder."
"Mmmm."
They both just stood there.
"But Wei," Mei said finally. "Promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me you'll remember this moment, how you feel right now both the good and the bad." She met his eyes. "Because I think you're going to need to remember, especially when the rush fades and the guilt sets in, when you start wondering if you're becoming a monster."
"I might already be one."
"Maybe, but you let those children go. I don't think a monster would do that?"
"A smart cultivator would have killed them and eliminated witnesses."
"You're not a cultivator right now." She moved closer, ignoring the pain she was in. "You're a man covered in blood trying to figure out if he's still human. That's the most human thing I've ever seen."
She gave him a peck.
When she pulled back, there were little tears on her face. Longwei wasn't sure if they were hers or his.
"Come on," she said. "Let's go patch up, then we run."
"Where even too?"
"I don't know, but anywhere that isn't here."
"Sorry you had to see that."
"I've seen worse." Her smile was sad.
They walked back to the cave, leaving the dead behind.
Above them, the sky was still clear and blue still indifferent to the blood soaking into the valley soil.
MEANWHILE, AT THE VALLEY'S EDGE...
The three young disciples ran until their lungs burned and their legs gave out.
Collapsing in a heap, the boy gasping and the girl with a broken nose crying, the burned one clutching her throat trying not to scream every time she swallowed.
"We need to report," the boy managed a sentence. "Get back to the palace, and tell them what happened."
"Tell them what?" The broken nosed girl's voice was wet with blood and fear. "That Instructor Bingwen is dead? That some cripple isn't crippled anymore? That he... that he..."
She couldn't finish.
The boy pushed himself upright. "We tell them everything. The cultivation absorption... I mean, look at way he killed Core Formation like she was nothing." He looked back toward the valley, hidden by distance now.
"We tell them Mei Xuefeng has a protector, and he's already stronger than anyone expected."
"Do you think anyone will believe us?" the burned girl whispered.
"They have to." The boy's hands were still shaking. "Because if they don't send enough people to kill him next time, no one's coming back alive."