**Disclaimer: This chapter has violence/gore/torture.**

The wolf glared at BaiXue with hate-filled eyes. What does she have that gave her control over such a strong individual? He refused to believe that a meek looking woman like her was strong enough to gain the support of such a person.

Suddenly, he was kicked in the face and teeth flew out.

"Watch how you look at her." LongFei warned in a threatening voice.

"It's on this side of the mountains, isn't it?" BaiXue probed.

The wolf eyes widened in realisation. He had only been occupied with running away earlier that he had not noticed that he was back on the other side of the mountains where they came from.

LongFei broke the wolf's leg with a stomp impatiently. "She's asking you a question."

The wolf yelped and howled in pain then snarled at BaiXue with sworn vengeance in his eyes. Before he knew it, he was held down painfully by the neck and saw two fingers approaching one of his eyes. Instead of closing his eyes like he wanted, his fear made his eyes grow bigger and rounder in fear upon realising what LongFei was about to do. 

LongFei easily dug out the wolf's eyeball like it was nothing. He tossed the eyeball in front of the wolf carelessly and it rolled to a stop with its pupil facing the wolf. 

The wolf changed back to his human form to cover his now empty and bloody eye socket. Blood flowed between his fingers. He cried and wailed in pain while rolling about on the floor. He was a decently built man but was reduced to a sorry state now thanks to LongFei.

Not only was it painful, it was also the creepiest experience the wolf has ever experienced. Because the optical nerve was still intact, he was viewing two things at once. 

LongFei placed his foot on the man's untouched leg and said menacingly, "You haven't answered her."

"I'll never say it! It's our safe haven! You'll never find it and I'll never lead you to it!"

LongFei stepped down and broke his other leg as well. "Reveal it."

The man shouted out in pain.

"What's the point of protecting a village you'll never get to return to? If you reveal it, you'd live and will be free to relocate." BaiXue tried to reason with him.

"As if I'd fall for your trick. I know I'd die either way. Besides, there is no better place to live at! Torture me to death if you want, I'll not say anything! My brother will exact revenge for me! Even if your village has not experience a raid before, it will be raided by us sooner o-"

BaiXue kicked his face and he suffered another concussion except that it was far milder than when she attacked him in her rabbit form. He reminded her of her brother's death and it renewed her drive to find the culprits.

When he regained his senses, he found blood gathered in his mouth. He was kicked while he was talking so he had bit his tongue hard. He spat the blood onto the ground along with a small piece of his tongue.

"I'll fulfill your wish for a slow and painful death then." BaiXue said in a deathly cold tone.

Terror filled the man's eyes. He shook his head as LongFei held his hand up by the wrist. When he peeled the first nail off, the man started screaming and shouting in fear. His nails came off one at a time but he was still not giving up the location of his village.

LongFei went on to the fingers. He pushed back a finger until a pop could be heard. When the fingers and thumbs were all done in, LongFei proceeded on to crush his hands with his foot. The wolf was in so much pain that he was crippled by it. Tears and snot covered his face.

"Still not fessing up?" BaiXue asked.

The wolf spat blood in her direction which earned him a fracture to his ribs. LongFei was careful not to break it in case it gave him a fast death by puncturing his lungs. He proceeded on to do the same to the man's feet. 

At this point, BaiXue suddenly intervened and broke his jaw. Tears flowed uncontrollably from the man's eyes. He had tried to commit suicide and save himself from the torture by biting off his tongue but BaiXue was sharp enough to stop it. Now there was no way he could save himself.

Whenever the wolf passed out from the pain, LongFei would blow his cold fire on his legs until it woke the man up only to experience the pain from biting cold flames. There was frostbite and burn wounds. When there was no longer a bone left that was not shattered or fractured, the man was still adamant about not giving up the location of the village.

LongFei looked at BaiXue expecting her to give the instruction to finish the man off. 

However, BaiXue lightly coughed and used her gaze to indicate the only place on the man's body that was left untouched. "I think it'd be really painful and embarrassing for a man to have that crushed or broken."

Both men went frozen still. LongFei gulped in awkwardness while the other man tried to get away in spite of the pain he was in. He wanted to at least die with dignity. LongFei was a man himself so could not help but sympathize with the man. 

LongFei's face held discomfort as he raised his leg in preparation to crush it all in one go. He grimaced while the man wailed for the last time before passing out. LongFei finished the man off by crushing his skull into bits.

When he looked at BaiXue again, he noticed a small smile on her lips. His eyes widened in realisation, "You-"

"Payback." She said with a small smirk before turning to leave the gory and bloody scene.

You're really quite devious. You used another man's dignity just to poke fun at him. BaoBao also could not help but shiver a bit.

BaiXue did a mental shrug.

LongFei caught up to her and pouted a tiny bit. "You played me." Looking at her pleased expression, he thought to himself. But I won't mind if it pleases you. 

He then changed into a dragon to bring her back to FengJiao's village. Once BaiXue confirmed that the attack was another failed attempt, she blew the flute.

 

1 month passed by with two more attacks sent to the village. The third wave was made up of different bears. The fourth wave was made up of hyenas, bears, wolves, and baboons. 

BaiXue had done the same thing she did to the first wolf LongFei tortured. She even captured more of them each time which was made possible thanks to LongFei. She did not believe that none of them would fess up. However, she was eventually proven wrong. Every single one of them seemed to sincerely believe that there was no better place to live at. They all felt the same sentiments that they might as well die instead of living while giving up what they have now. 

It was their greed. In addition to the fact they were convinced that she would eventually get her retribution by having her village raided. The fact that her village could be targeted and not theirs gave them solace in their deaths. 

BaiXue decided to change her approach as she blew the flute for the fourth time.

 

The final attack came after more than a week. FenFang was finally annoyed and ordered for the strongest bandits to be dispatched to FengJiao's village. It took time to negotiate, bribe, and control them. In the end, she had to threaten to remove her protection over the village and reveal their surroundings to others before they heeded her orders. They had gotten full of themselves and forgotten that they were still at FenFang's mercy.

There were wolves, lions, tigers, jaguars, and bears. It was the largest wave that FenFang has sent because each of them brought their followers along. Although there were the same animals that raided BaiXue's, they were not the same people.

What luck. I still have to find their village to find those culprits. BaiXue thought to herself.

While flying above the group undetected, BaiXue observed them and identified the one she felt was the most prideful. She dropped down a note that was wrapped around a rock the size of her palm onto a lion's head.

The lion growled in annoyance and captured the others' attention. Everyone stopped to see what was wrong.

"What, you can't keep up? Is the pace too fast for you?" A tiger mocked him. BaiXue had ranked him the second most prideful in the group.

"You're asking for it." The lion challenged him and took a step towards the tiger.

"Hey, seriously, what was up?" The leader of the bears gruffly asked the lion.

"This." The lion looked towards the thing that hit him on the head. He turned into a human to pick it up and unraveled the paper.

"What's it about?" The tiger approached him to take a peek. However, the man crushed the paper in the tiger's face just before he could steal a look.

"You-"

The man stuffed the paper into the tiger's open mouth with a smirk. "Since you want it so much." He was happy that he got back at the tiger for his mocking earlier.

The tiger spat out the paper and jumped at the man to attack. The man changed into a lion as he dodged the attack.

"Enough! FenFang did not give us a lot of time and we need all of us to be in top condition!" The bear roared out as he finally had enough of their childish antics. The leader of the wolves were used to the lion's and tiger's antics so left it for the bear to handle.

"I'll let you off for now." The lion said to the tiger. Before the tiger could respond, he continued to order the section he was leading, "Let's go."

The tiger wanted to argue but everyone left him behind. He growled to himself and ended up running to catch up with them.

"He ignored your note." LongFei said with a dark look on his face. He was already entertaining thoughts about the different ways he could make the lion feel sorry for doing so. Torturing so many people recently biased his thinking towards creative torture methods.

"He tossed it on purpose. Otherwise the tiger would see it too." The note was now lying abandoned and forgotten on the ground. She told LongFei to go to the lake that was close to the village.

The sun sunk below the horizon and the full moon now hung high in the starless night sky. The lake that looks black in the night reflected the bright moon. It was eerily quiet. Not even the wind was blowing.

BaiXue peacefully sat on the branch of a tree close to the lake in her rabbit form with her eyes closed.

LongFei stared at her adoringly. He knew that she was cultivating again. She really doesn't waste a single moment. Every moment that he spent with her, he grew more attracted to her nature.

FengJiao outshines other women in the strength and looks departments. She was born to be loved. In comparison, BaiXue was obviously nowhere close to FengJiao's standard. Yet LongFei felt more drawn towards BaiXue. Her fighting spirit simply dazzles him and it made her shine brighter than anyone else in his eyes.

He has not noticed a small smile hanging on his lips while he gazed at the quiet BaiXue. Only BaoBao was busy studying him without letting BaiXue know.

BaoBao could not figure out how LongFei never got tired of staring at BaiXue and the meaning behind LongFei's smile now.

Argh... If only I could ask BaiXue about him without her giving me the stink-eye... BaoBao complained. He sulked as he thought back to his recent attempts to discuss about LongFei's dedication to her. Although her expression doesn't change, her eyes would show her disdain whenever BaoBao said anything related to loyalty, love, like, or even interest. BaoBao had not realised that he was wondering about human emotions far more than any typical system would.

Finally, some rustling was heard a distance away from the tree they are on. BaiXue opened her eyes, changed into her human form, and went to the source of the sound.