"How could you know I contracted Vermilion Bird?"
If anyone knew about Vermilion Bird after having seen it, it could only be Sect Master Xiong and that woman.
Sect Master Xiong was surrounded by elders and wouldn't have had the time or ability to act from behind.
That left only the woman.
"Could it be that you are one of her people?" Bai Ran asked with a smile, looking at Liu Yingying.
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Liu Yingying exclaimed, surprised that her identity had been guessed.
This Bai Ran, just as her master had said, was truly disgusting.
Liu Yingying gripped her sword, glaring fiercely at Bai Ran. "If you obediently hand over Vermilion Bird, I won't kill you."
Bai Ran glanced at her and casually sat down. "Little Zhu, did you hear that? Someone has their sights set on you."
Vermilion Bird heard everything within the space, its fiery temper already hard to suppress.
"Master! Let me out! I want to peck her bald!"
Bai Ran waved her sleeve, and a small fiery red bird hopped out.
"Damn it! I'll burn you to ashes!" Vermilion Bird suddenly pounced towards Liu Yingying.
Liu Yingying, caught off guard, was injured on the arm by the suddenly appearing Vermilion Bird.
"Ah! What kind of beast is this!" She wildly hacked at Vermilion Bird.
Beast? Ignorant human! How dare she call me a beast!
Vermilion Bird was enraged.
"I am the mighty Vermilion Bird! Open your dog eyes and see clearly!"
What! This little chick was actually the legendary Vermilion Bird?
How was that possible!
As she stood in disbelief, Vermilion Bird suddenly transformed into its true form, a giant fiery red phoenix spreading its wings.
Its tail feathers burned with raging flames, blindingly brilliant. Its beautiful form and magnificent plumage all proclaimed the nobility of the divine beast before her.
It was truly Vermilion Bird!
Liu Yingying's eyes lit up, and her expression turned sinister.
Contracted beasts were limited by their master's strength. This meant that although Vermilion Bird appeared powerful now, it was actually only at the first stage of Nascent Soul cultivation for a human.
With her own strength at the fourth stage of Nascent Soul, capturing Vermilion Bird and then killing that wench would be a matter of minutes.
Thinking this, Liu Yingying confidently raised her sword again.
"I want Vermilion Bird, and I want your life too!"
She charged towards Bai Ran, her sword aimed at Bai Ran's neck.
But the next second, her body froze in place!
"What's happening!" Liu Yingying cried out in panic, looking at her own body.
Why couldn't she move suddenly!
But if she had calmed down and looked closely, she would have seen several thin silver needles deeply embedded in her joints.
Liu Yingying looked up, her eyes meeting Bai Ran's. Bai Ran was leisurely holding a teacup, watching her as if it were a show.
"It's you! It was your trick!" Liu Yingying shouted.
Bai Ran raised an eyebrow, stood up, and walked towards her, a faint smile never leaving her face.
"Have you ever heard a saying?"
"When you draw your sword against an enemy, you must be prepared for retaliation."
A faint red glow emanated from Bai Ran's eyes, making her already stunning face even more captivating and alluring.
Red! Red eyes!
A demoness! She's a demoness!
Looking at Bai Ran and Vermilion Bird drawing closer, while she herself couldn't move, Liu Yingying finally began to feel fear.
"I'm telling you! I am from the foremost sect of the Middle Realm! You can't kill me!"
She trembled as she shouted at Bai Ran.
Bai Ran waved her hand, setting up a soundproof barrier.
"Since you are from the foremost sect, I will certainly entertain you well."
She offered a smile, and several bottles of newly refined poison pills appeared in her hand.
How thoughtful. It was just in time to have someone to test her medicine on.
"No... Don't!"
"Help! Help! I don't want to die!"
Upon seeing the bottles of pills, Liu Yingying understood Bai Ran's intention.
She used all her strength to shout in terror, but Bai Ran forcefully pried open her jaw and fed her a poison pill.
Within a single breath, Liu Yingying's entire body seeped out horrifying blood, which flowed down, drowning her into a blood-soaked figure.
"Ahhhh!"
"It hurts! It hurts so much!"
Bai Ran coldly observed her reaction, noting the symptoms of the poison.
Seeing that the poison was taking effect, Bai Ran flicked her finger, and an antidote pill flew into Liu Yingying's screaming mouth.
The pill dissolved instantly in her mouth, and Liu Yingying didn't even have time to spit it out.
Bai Ran, holding more poison pills with great interest, looked at Liu Yingying, who was trembling like a sieve.
"Don't rush to die."
"There are plenty more."
Liu Yingying's jaw trembled with fear, and she became increasingly frantic.
"Ahhh!"
...
An hour later, Bai Ran removed the barrier.
She looked at Liu Yingying, who lay motionless before her, her body riddled with wounds and oozing pus.
Indeed, perhaps due to her cultivation level, people from the Middle Realm had stronger physiques than those from the lower realms.
She remembered the assassin she had thrown into her spatial dimension earlier. After swallowing just one poison pill and without receiving the antidote, she had died without a doubt.
"Kill... kill me..."
Liu Yingying's face was disfigured, and her voice was as hoarse as that of an eighty-year-old woman.
Her body had been ravaged by dozens of toxins, her dantian crippled, rendering her unable to cultivate further. In the future, she would also suffer from severe after-effects.
It could be said that even if Liu Yingying were reborn as an immortal, she could not be healed. She was already a cripple.
Vermilion Bird opened its mouth, intending to spew fire and burn her to death, but Bai Ran stopped it.
"She cannot die yet."
Bai Ran looked down at Liu Yingying, who was crawling on the ground like a stray dog, and spoke.
The next morning.
The foremost sect of the Middle Realm, Purple Cloud Sect.
"Ahhhh!" a woman's scream pierced the sky, waking the disciples from their sweet dreams.
"What is it?"
"What happened?"
The disciples of the Purple Cloud Sect gathered, confused by the woman's terrified expression.
"Someone... someone's dead!"
Following the woman's gaze, they saw a corpse that was no longer recognizable as human lying in front of a courtyard gate.
"Oh my heavens!"
"Someone's dead!"
"How could this happen?"
The courtyard gate was suddenly opened, and Zhi Rou, annoyed by the noise, called out.
"What are you shouting about! It's so noisy this early in the morning!"
Zhi Rou's appearance silenced the gathered disciples.
"Ah! What is that!" She looked down and saw the corpse.
"How dare you put a corpse in front of my courtyard!"
Zhi Rou, already furious from being woken up, was now shocked by the mysterious corpse.
"No, Senior Sister, the corpse has been here since early this morning."
"Yes, we didn't deliberately put it here!"
...
Zhi Rou finally took a proper look at the unrecognizable corpse.
Upon seeing it, she froze.
Liu Yingying?
This was Liu Yingying's corpse! She was dead?
"Bai Ran..." Zhi Rou gritted her teeth, veins bulging on her forehead.
That damned wench!