Even though Lan Xiaohui has not cultivated [Finality Moon, Liminality Flower] to a point where she can use it offensively — so far, only possessing the ability to aid her movement — the two remaining wolves are not a threat to her, neither are the four second rank beasts — dark-red-furred hyenas — capable of doing anything. All second rank creatures are almost entirely suppressed by her aura and domain.

For the next nine floors, the third rank beasts mostly remain at the same level of the four wolves, but the entourage that comes with it increases to a limit of twenty. Later on, even the number of the third rank beasts increases to eight, but numbers are meaningless against Lan Xiaohui.

They were, in the end, merely Foundation Establishment beasts, and Wu Yulan and Lan Xiaohui had slaughtered thousands of them while practicing their swordsmanship. Unless more than fifty appeared, they would not be able to even touch the edge of Lan Xiaohui’s dress.

Especially now that she understands how this Pagoda works.

Lan Xiaohui’s movement is precise, restrained, and, in a way that even I can appreciate, beautiful. With each step she takes, she ascends and descends like a fairy too graceful for this world, amidst discharges of purple lightning. Yet, it is not this motion itself that I find so elegant and beautiful, but the meaning behind it. Each step she takes is a step toward inflicting savage violence and might; someone else might call her brutal, but in my estimation, this is the pinnacle of beauty.

Unrestrained violence; hatred with no heart; wrath with no emotion. In stillness, Lan Xiaohui is art; in motion, she is death.

She is like that heavenly lightning that struck me. More a force of nature than an entity with motives or morals. In those moments, I see her as nothing other than a concept of purity — not even an avatar, only a concept.

On the fortieth floor, something odd happens. Rather than continuing the sequence of a large number of third and second rank beasts, there is only a single flash of light and a singular enemy.

The four-tailed fox that appears before Lan Xiaohui is at the early stage of Core Formation, and Lan Xiaohui now knows not to underestimate this creature. Once they reach the Core Formation realm, demonic beasts can use their energy to perform crude, brute-force attacks. And this opponent is neither suppressed by Lan Xiaohui’s aura nor her domain.

Still, the result is much the same. In the past two months, Lan Xiaohui and Wu Yulan have dispatched a large number of fourth rank demonic beasts, of all stages, and even here, Lan Xiaohui does not have to use her energy to kill her opponent.

While weaving through the blasts of dark fire energy that the fox unleashes, Lan Xiaohui manages to thrust my vessel into the fox’s throat and end its life.

On the forty-first floor, two foxes appear, and I find it rather curious that the intensity of the challenge has relented to this degree. Normally, when new opponents appear of a higher rank, they would be trailed by beasts of the lower rank.

On the forty-second floor, four foxes appear — identical to each other in both appearance and cultivation — and I begin to suspect that the intensity is about to sharply increase.

On the forty-third floor, eight foxes appear and I am certain now that the sequence is geometric. Next floor, there should be sixteen foxes, then thirty-two, then sixty-four; the situation will quickly devolve into impossible odds.

Even so, against eight foxes of the early Core Formation realm, Lan Xiaohui does not need to use her sword energy or sword intent to deal with them. Her Liminality Steps are more than enough to strike quickly, and with her comprehension of her martial arts, even though she is incapable of using offensive techniques, she is able to, much like the foxes, wield the energy and principles of [Finality Moon, Liminality Flower] to perform devastating attacks.

Even though she doesn’t use energy, her sword strikes are as heavy as mountains, yet her motions are as light and graceful as a breeze.

On the forty-forth floor, I am surprised once more. The sequence breaks, and instead of sixteen foxes, there are nine. However, one of them is in the mid stage of Core Formation now.

On the forty-fifth floor, Lan Xiaohui encounters ten foxes — two of the mid stage, and still eight of the early stage.

It is not until Lan Xiaohui reaches the forty-eighth stage that she is forced to use her sword energy. At the late stage of Core Formation, not only do demonic beasts improve their intelligence vastly, but they also possess incredibly tough bodies. Their control over their energy also increases dramatically, now able to compress it and shape it.

On the forty-eighth floor, one late stage Core Formation fox was Lan Xiaohui’s opponent, in addition to eight mid stage, and another eight early stage Core Formation four-tailed foxes.

This challenge is far more savage and difficult than if the geometric sequence simply continued. At the very least, if there were one thousand early stage foxes, not all of them could attack Lan Xiaohui at once, allowing her to deal with opponents immediately close to her. It would exhaust her, but the threat was not that far greater than facing only eight or ten foxes.

However, this was completely different. The group standing before her was great enough to pose a threat, while small enough to attack her effectively.

The moment the battle begins, three lances of compressed dark fire energy appear above Lan Xiaohui and descend, piercing the ground where she stood a moment ago. However, even using Liminality Steps to escape the sudden attack with energy is not enough to completely save Lan Xiaohui from her predicament, as she dodges into the waiting arms of eight mid stage foxes blasting at her with walls of rippling dark fire that encroach her position from all sides.

Lan Xiaohui leaps into the air, to avoid the encirclement, and the eight early stage foxes leap into the air at the same time, their claws descending on my owner with murderous intent and the power of advanced body cultivators.

— Heartless Blood Lily: Storm Cleaver!

A burst of black energy emits from Lan Xiaohui, like a cloud that conceals countless swords, and the pressure of her sword energy manages to slow down the eight incoming attacks.

Then a pulse collapses the cloud of energy, forming a ring around her as thin as a sheet of paper, while a golden halo appears behind her back. She sweeps my vessel horizontally and blood erupts into the air as five of the foxes die immediately upon impact and the other three are heavily wounded.

Still, two of the foxes manage to strike Lan Xiaohui, and while she parries one blow, the other fox scores a deep gash into her thigh with enough power to send her plummeting back to the ground — like a fairy that had its wings obliterated.

Even in the void of this space, the glass-like, slightly reflective floor caves under the impact when Lan Xiaohui slams into the ground.

Lan Xiaohui wastes no time; her [Emptiness Prana] consumes large amounts of air to stabilize her internal and external injuries, and she uses Liminality Steps again to close the distance and appear in the ranks of the mid stage foxes.

— Heartless Blood Lily: Autumn-Severing Petals!

She sweeps my vessel into the ranks of the foxes, and the energy shrouding my vessel concentrates into the shape of flower petals that scatter into the group and then explode, releasing the refined sword energy. Dozens of limbs fly into the air, followed by showers of blood. Holes appear in the bodies of the dead foxes, but also in the floor.

Howls, yelps, and grunts also echo in the empty world, amidst more lances of energy forming in the air above Lan Xiaohui, but just like the sounds, these lances fall on deaf ears and empty air.

Lan Xiaohui’s next destination is at the side of the late stage fox, and my vessel pierces into its side, skewering the lungs and heart. Its body is tough enough to not allow me to penetrate completely through, but that is only a small achievement — it still suffers a fatal wound that kills it on the spot.

Pausing briefly to catch her breath, and to wince at the pain spreading from her thigh — a deep, serious wound — Lan Xiaohui allows the remaining three early stage foxes to live a moment longer before she deals with them too.

Floor forty-nine.