The bun-haired girl was shocked and angry at Arnin's ridiculous demand. She had to go and fight an Essence Manifest - Sky cultivator? She was barely able to fight against someone who was at Orb Birth - Heaven, let alone someone at Essence Manifest.
'This little demon is really pushing it. It seems that I may really die earlier than I want to.' She knew that she was no match for someone in Essence Manifest, even if that person was injured and tired. Of course, if all of her sisters were present and they were able to coordinate together against a single Essence Manifest cultivator, then it should be possible to fight one, but making a kill was still difficult.
Arnin looked at the bun-haired girl, and then back towards Jia. "Come on, go and attack this person. I want to see how long he could hold." Arninn didn't keep his voice down, allowing Jia and White to hear what he was saying.
"Don't act all high and mighty, little kid. Even if the both of you came at me together, I would win with ease." Jia was a prideful person, so hearing Arnin's words made him extremely annoyed.
Arnin ignored Jia and continued to stare at the bun-haired girl, waiting for her to make a move. Seeing that she was still hesitating, Arnin tightened his grip. "Uggh"
The painful moan of her sister reached the bun-haired girl's ears. Gritting her teeth, she walked towards Jia, her aura being released to the fullest.
Seeing this, Jia also stood straight, and looked at the bun-haired girl with cold, piercing eyes. He was angry with the fact that he would need to fight such a young girl. It was an insult to him that someone made such a weak person face him.
"You better watch out, little girl. I won't hold back." He wasn't reminding her out of goodwill. He was doing it in order to show Arnin that the latter was being overconfident in his own skills.
"Hurry and attack him, girl." Arnin ignored the taunts of Jia. It didn't really affect him since he could fight Jia and kill him if he needed, but he didn't want to waste too much energy. He would rather conduct a sneak attack, and kill him in an instant so that little energy would be wasted.
The bun haired girl walked forward. She didn't have a weapon on her since Arnin used her spear to create 'art' a little while ago. Right now, all she could depend on were her fists and legs.
As she slowly approached Jia, Arnin also made his way towards the woman laying on the ground. Jia of course noticed this, but he didn't do anything to stop him. He was confident that Arnin would not be able to help White, and even if the kid tried to help her, he would be able to stop him.
Just as Arnin reached White, the battle between Jia and the bun-haired girl began. Right from the beginning, the girl was at a disadvantage. It didn't matter how weak Jia was, he was still significantly stronger than the bun haired girl.
Arnin reached White and stood above her, looking directly at her face. The latter also looked at Arnin, not knowing what he truly wanted to do. "Little boy, if you can help me, I will owe you. I can make sure that this old man won't do anything to you."
Although she knew that helping her situation was near impossible, she still felt that if Arnin tried, then she could help him figure out a way to fix her up. But, that was only if Arnin agreed to help.
Arnin sat down right next to White with the unconscious girl laying beside him. "White, that's your name right? Well, here's the thing, you are useless to me. You are weak, injured, and also stupid. Tell me, should I help someone like that?" Arnin's words caused White to become furious, but she calmed herself down. Right now, the only person who could help her was Arnin.
"Little kid, trust me. I am the only person who can bring you of this mess." She continued to try to persuade him, but Arnin only smiled towards her.
"Oh little woman, do you really not understand anything? Let me repeat my words in a way you might understand. I don't need help." Arnin continued to smile and watch the battle in front of him.
Bun haired girl was losing, however she wasn't in any danger of dying since the old Jia was also extremely tired. Arnin knew that his moment to attack would come quite soon, however he had to make sure that the bun haired girl wouldn't die since he still had some plans for her.
"Little White, let me ask you a question." White looked at Arnin with her eyes brown furrowed. She felt displeased with the way Arnin referred to her, plus she didn't have any goodwill towards him since he would not help her. "Have you heard of anything new lately?"
"What do you mean?" She further scrunched up her eyebrows, not completely understanding what Arnin meant.
Arnin lifted his hand, and picked up the sword beside White. He brought it up in front of him, and began to inspect it. "Like, have you heard of anyone new making an appearance? Someone evil, someone good? Anyone?" Arnin continued to question her while gazing at the sword.
White saw Arnin pick up her sword, making her heart vigilant. 'What is this kid trying to do?'
"I have heard of a few things. I have been traveling alone, and have not encountered too many people, but I have heard a couple things. There seems to be a woman with the title 'Death Lore' roaming the battlefield. Another person named, 'Peasant Fu'..." She continued to list out the titles of many famous killers and people throughout the battlefield. Arnin firmly kept the names in his mind, however he continued to wait.
White spoke more and more and then suddenly, she remembered something. "Also, there was another person who recently rose to prominence, but of course, he is still considered a little weak. His title I think was… 'Demonic Joker'. Yeah, this person is supposedly the most evil out of the many famous people, and he also seems to be very young."
Arnin nodded his head, his crimson hair swaying. "Good. Now, can you tell me what you know about this so called most evil 'Demonic Joker'?"
"Well, he is extremely young, and kills people who are only in Orb Birth. His methods, however, are quite savage and ruthless. Every victim is brutally tortured before death, or is even occasion is left to suffer after being tortured. He supposedly has purple eyes and...red hai--" As she continued to speak, her eyes slowly widened.
Arnin's demonic purple eyes looked at her calmly, however this calm gaze caused the hairs on White's neck to rise. The infamous 'Demonic Joker' was extremely well known. Although everyone knew that he was still very weak, most tried to avoid him since he was so ruthless. Even the strongest had heard of his name.
"You really are a slow person." Arnin shook his head before lifting the blade and pointing it towards White's pale neck. "Now then, should I kill you or not?"
"N-no, please don't kill me. Don't kill me. I am strong. I can help you kill this Jia person. Please!" White begged, but she couldn't move so she simply stared at Arnin's neck. She couldn't see his menacing smile.
"Ahh!" Suddenly, a scream came from the surroundings. Arnin looked over and found that the bun haired girl was just hit on her arm extremely hard. A bruise instantly appeared, plus if one looked closely, they would notice that all of her fingers were in weird positions. She was heavily injured.
"Seems like it's time to interfere." Arnin smiled as he made his way towards Jia with White's sword in his hand. He was planning a sneak attack against Jia, but that didn't seem possible since the bun haired girl was just too weak.
Jia didn't notice Arnin walking towards him just yet as he glared at the girl in front of him. "Little girl, you are not strong enough to face me, but since you already tried, forget trying to leave this place alive." Jia was already pissed off because of White, and now he had to face a couple of children who kept taunting him. He wasn't the type who would take that lying down.
"Hey, since you are done playing with little girls, want to try to fight me?" Suddenly, Jia heard a voice on his on his left. He turned his head and saw Arnin walking over with a sword about the same size as his child like body being dragged beside him.
"Brat, do you really think you can face me? Especially with a blade that you can barely carry?" Jia found this humorous, however Arnin's gaze continued to remain calm.
"Whatever." Arnin ignored his taunts, and quickly sprinted towards Jia. The sword was actually quite easy to hold for Arnin.
Jia also prepared himself for the fight. He knew that Annie was most likely much stronger than the bun haired girl, so it would be a little more difficult to face him with his current strength, however he was still confident in his abilities. He continued to look down on Arnin since he was still a child, and also quite weak.
"Come! Let me show you what real strength is---" Just as he spoke, Arnin vanished from his sight. "ARG!" He felt a piercing pain shoot from his leg, so he quickly looked down.
To his horror, he found that his left leg was missing. He suddenly turned around with his face bright red. "I am going to kill you--" When he turned around and was about to hit Arnin with his staff, he felt another burst of pain rush from his arm. He looked over and saw his right arm falling onto the ground, blood rushing out of the wound.
Arnin gazed at Jia calmly. "You are actually quite slow and weak. If you were at your full strength, then I may have needed to put some effort into killing you, but now?" Arnin had a cold smile on his face. He then swung the large sword once again, chopping the remaining leg and arm off.
"AHHH!" The bun haired girl watched all of this happen with grimness. Although she had seen Arnin do worse, she never knew that he was actually this strong. She used to think that he could probably barely fight a Essence Manifest - Sky cultivator, but never dominate one.
'There is no way I can escape from him unless someone saves me, and that person needs to be much stronger than this demon, if not, then there is no way I can be saved.' She sighed internally as she thought about this. Arnin was just too freakishly strong. Only the stronger contestants could do anything to him, but why would they try to help her? She neither had anything worth giving to them, nor any sort of special status.
Jia quickly fell to the ground, blood gushing out from the four major wounds he just recieved. Although it seemed that Arnin killed Jia without spending much effort, in reality he had used a little more essence than he intended. The sudden speed increase forced him to use so much essence that he was on the brink of falling into Orb Birth - Earth.
'This is just great. Seems like I need to go on another massacre in order to get some more blood. When will I find a way to heal myself?' Arnin was getting irritated by the fact that his orb threads continuing to leak essence. He just needed to quickly find a way to heal them, and then he could fight as he pleased.
Arnin's calm gaze locked onto Jia as he lifted his sword and began to chop. "AH!!" The painful screams of Jia started off loud, but slowly turned into whimpers, and then… nothing.
White saw everything, and couldn't help but feel fear. Jia was dead. Plus, the death was not peaceful or quick. It looked extremely painful.
'This Demonic Joker won't let me go either. I need to find a way to survive this, or at least not go through the same pain as Jia.' White was extremely scared. Although Arnin had recently rose to prominence, his name was still somewhat scary to weaker cultivators.
Some weaker cultivators even made up a little saying or warning revolving around Arnin. 'When you see the Joker, run before he sees you. If the Joker wants your head, then give it to him yourself, do not let him take it himself.'
Basically, avoid the Joker, but if that's not possible, then commit suicide. This was what people would say. Arnin's ruthless methods were just too frightening. Plus, many were able to see the way he killed from afar, and this frightened them silly.
Blood began to pool around Jia rather quickly, however Arnin knew that this was not going to be nearly enough to increase his powers. He needed lots of blood. His gaze then landed on White.
When White saw Arnin look at her, she felt as though the world just ended. She did not want to die, but she also didn't want to be tortured to death. 'What should I do? He won't let me live, but I also can't leave. Damn this numbing!' She was crazily mumbling to herself as she saw the Death God like Arnin move towards her, slowly getting closer.
When Arnin finally reached her, his gaze locked onto her hair. "Please, can you le--" Just as she was about to finish speaking, Arnin grabbed her hair and began to drag her towards Jia's body.
"No, no, no! I don't want to be tortured. No, I don't want to die!" White screamed from the top of her lungs, but there was nothing that she could say which could stir Arnin to stop. His facial expression was calm and unchanging. Her every scream was like a small breeze to Arnin. Insignificant.
Arnin threw White on top of the badly tortured and bleeding Jia. He then lifted the blade and started to chop away. "AHHH!"
The bun haired girl watched this from afar. She then quickly looked away and squatted on the ground. Her hands were covering her ears as she closed her eyes. She tried to block out the scene and sound, however it was just as useless as the first time.
Half an hour passed. The screams stopped a long time ago, however Arnin was waiting for the blood to pool so that he could absorb as much as he could. The bun haired girl opened her eyes and looked at the scene. She couldn't help but vomit right away.
Skinned! The bodies were skinned like those of animals. She started to debate whether she should just kill herself and escape the hell she was currently in.
Arnin ignored everything, and sat down beside the pool of blood, beginning to cultivate with the Demon Cultivation Manual. He slowly absorbed the blood and turned it into usable essence.
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While Arnin was silently cultivating, he didn't know that a particular person was slowly making their way towards Lepidoptera Academy.