“I did not choose anyone.” Liu Lan replied. 

“Then why are you trying to save him?” Ying still wasn’t going to leave without getting what she wants but she was curious to hear why this famous princess wanted to save this pervert. 

“I cannot share why, but I'm willing to trade in exchange for his life.” Liu slightly bowed her head as an assortment of items came from her storage ring. 

  Ying looked over the goods and was secretly impressed. You couldn’t find pills like these for cheap. Bone Washing pills, Blood Refining pills, Skin Cleansing pills, and more that would cost her a small fortune if she tried to pay for them in the sect. It’s too bad that she’s certain that Fu Kang’s secrets and mystic flame are worth more. None of this was tempting enough. It wasn’t like she was going to give up Fu Kang even if she had better items to trade. She just   would’ve took them and ran off with him before getting what she wanted.  

“Got anything else?” Ying asked, unimpressed. 

  The shock on their faces was not hidden in the least. Liu Lan believed that this much would be enough to shock any regular cultivator in the Qi Gatherer stage. The average cultivator could grow in leaps and bounds if they took these pills and diligently cultivated. It isn’t too much to say that Lan’s pills were life changing for the untalented! 

  But Ying’s talent wasn’t horrible anymore! Ever since she got her sword, cultivation has become easier for her as time went on. She no longer struggled to get resources to break through, the impurities in her body were slowly filtered out because of her sword, and the quality of her qi was becoming purer. The longer she held onto her sword, the more her strength would rise. Anything those pills could do, her sword would eventually do even better. 

“Ex-Excuse me?” Liu Lan was shocked that she refused her offer. 

  The pills she bargained with were made by herself! She knew they weren’t perfect in quality but they definitely weren’t something that could be refused! They were excellent quality pills that the average pill refiner would struggle to make. Even Elder Ru has praised her for her refining abilities, the top alchemist within the Golden Serpent Sect. Ying’s rejection felt like it was spitting on all the hard work that Liu Lan has put into pill refining for the past several months. 

“Those pills are trash. What else do you have to offer?” Ying didn’t care about the pride of little miss princess. All she cared about was what she could gain from her. 

“Senior, please don’t joke... All of these pills are excellent grade, one level below perfect. There is no one that would not find a use for them.” She softly spat with her damaged pride. 

“If I said they are trash, they are trash. Now hurry up and show what else you have on you.” Her words directly stabbed at the young lady’s pride. The royal princess didn’t even hide the pissed off look on her face. 

‘Oh, this is gonna be bad...’ Fu Kang thought. 

  If Liu Lan wasn’t here right now, he could use his Cube to escape this Violent Senior but he couldn’t reveal his secret while she was here! If they were alone, he could think of something to distract the senior choking him and then make his escape. Maybe he could turn this situation into an advantage for himself.  But first, he would have to get rid of Liu Lan. 

“Fairy Liu! I’ll be fine! Just go!” He spoke through choked breaths. 

“I won’t leave you here to die! You’re the only one that can-” She quickly shut her mouth after realizing what she was about to say. 

“How could I call myself the Greatest Under the Heavens Kang, if I couldn’t handle a situation like this? Trust in me. I’ll be fine.” In Liu Lan’s eyes, he suddenly became a lot more handsome and manly after saying such things.  

  Ying punched him in the gut after hearing the sappy line. He coughed up blood from her beast-like strength. What was he trying to do, paint her as the bad guy? Is she the evil cultivator who’s separating the two lovers for evil purposes? She just wanted his stuff! It was his own fault that he wasn’t strong enough to protect it. 

“I... I can’t...” Liu struggled to say. 

“Liu! Go! You’re just a burden if you stay any longer!” Fu said harshly with blood sliding down his lips. 

  Ying could tell she was devastated from what he told her. 

“Fine...! You better be alright after this!” She turned around with a single tear falling down her eye and ran off into the distance. 

“I’d love to stay Senior Martial Sister, but that was my que to leave! See ya!” Fu Kang suddenly vanished from her hand. 

  She quickly looked around her surrounding for any signs of him. How did he just disappear right in front of her!? It wasn’t a teleportation spell from a talisman! It wasn’t a martial art because she didn’t sense any qi coming off him when he did it. What just happened?! Where did her free mystic flame disappear to!? 

“KANG! GET BACK HERE!!!” Ying fed her sword a spirit stone to enhance her connection with the qi around them. 

  She used it to search her surroundings for any signs of Kang but there was no sign of him anywhere! This didn’t make any sense. It didn’t make any sense and it made her extremely mad. Her ticket to owning a mystic flame of her own just poofed right out of the air. Her sword fueled the anger surging through her. Fire slowly began to erupt on parts of her body.  

  Her sword told her to feed it her storage ring if she wanted to get Kang. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” She asked. 

  Her sword had a feeling that it knew where Kang went. It thinks that he escaped into a Void World. Ying had no idea what a Void World was but her sword couldn’t exactly explain it either. He said it was a different world inside of a cultivator but what did that mean?! It tried to explain some more but all this was only making Ying even more angry. 

“Whatever! Take the stupid ring!” Ying released all the items inside her storage ring on the ground and tossed her ring into the mouth hidden behind her sword’s eye. 

  The sword slowly started to transform as it took in the essence of the storage ring. Purple and black symbols formed over the body of the blade. The large metal blade used the strange qi around it to compress itself into a smaller form. It was a light and thin type of blade that looked like it would boast of quickness and beauty rather than strength and evilness. Ying took a few light swings with it, testing to see how her handling has changed. 

  The blade may have become smaller but it seemed even heavier than before! The strange energy flowing through her blade was also flowing through Ying herself! She didn’t understand what type of qi this was but it was not anything remotely similar to fire qi. With a single swing of her sword, she felt like she could cut anywhere she laid her eyes on. Distance was no longer an issue for her. If there was an enemy standing 10 meters away from her, she would still be able to decapitate them in one slice.  

  The power of the void is what her sword explained to her. So, this was void qi? The type of qi that made storage rings possible. It was unfamiliar to Ying. Something she’s never experienced before. She was usually bathed in fire qi but now she was filled with this void qi thanks to her sword. It wasn’t uncomfortable though. Instead of the blazing fire qi, the void qi was not something that burned. It took concentration, precision, and control to fully use. She took a few more swings to get used to her new power but her sword reminded her that they only had 10 minutes before it wore off.  

“And I don’t have another storage ring on me... Alright, let’s find that Kang bastard.” Ying concentrated her fury and qi into her void sword. 

  With a sword strike that cuts through space itself, she sliced herself a way to Kang. Her sword explained that she was only reopening the rift left behind by Kang and she needed to head through there to get Kang. She wasn’t skilled enough to make rifts on her own. Void qi was new to her after all. 

“I’ll show you skilled damn it!” Ying executed the moves of her Giant Blade Manual given by Jing for her sword. The Giant Blade Manual was an unranked sword art that taught Ying how to use her greatsword. 

  The rift leading to Kang began to expand as each powerful slash of her blade opened it further. A downward slice that looked strong enough to split oceans, a straight thrust that could pierce through any defense, and a dragon-cleaving strike from the side that would put kill into any flying lizard. A perfect demonstration of some of the techniques within her Sword Art. Now that she opened the rift far enough that she could go inside of it, a satisfied smirk appeared on her face. 

“Your secrets will be mine!” She walked through the rift with her blade.