Oscar stood above the snake, knife in hand, and Xiao Wu was slightly apart, looking a little sick. But then, she had never e to terms with hunting spirit beasts. They always looked like this whenever one of them killed a spirit beast.

  "Must we hunt and kill spirit beasts?" Xiao Wu asked silently, her voice a bare whisper. When Tang Yin put her hand on her shoulder, her brother standing close to them.

  "There are ways." Tang Yin said. "So we don't o kill, but they are...not desirable to many, nor well known." She expined, and Xiao Wu's rge eyes looked at her.

  "But why don't people take those possibilities instead of killing?"

  "The weak are prey to the strong; this is the w of survival." Tang San interrupted them, his voice is soft yet firm. "The alternatives exist, but only very few are willing to take their ces with them or know of them existing at all. Then again. If this snake was strohan us, do you think it would let food slip out of the side of its mouth? That we would be spared?"

  Xiao Wu did not say anything else but lowered her head all along, her plexion still someale.Tang Yin, too, remained silent. She agreed with her brother but still, she herself knew. She would never be able to kill for power like this if she khere was another way. Her gaze flickered to Tang Sa, twenty-four moonlight bridges for a brief sed. Zhao Wuji pulled out a short bde from his belt and ha to Oscar.

  "We should get started. Thrust uhis point from us b to pierce its brain immediately, and this spirit ring will be yours." Zhao Wuji ordered.

  Oscar excitedly took the short bde. This thousand-year spirit beast before him was his ce; his hands trembled in the excitement at the prospect of gaining his third spirit ring. Tang Yin decided at that moment to get Xiao Wu out of there; the girl aling even more, looking like she was ill. Nodding briefly at her brother, she grabbed Xiao Wu's hand and tried walking away, but they didn't get far. When Oscar was about to thrust the knife, suddenly, a hoarse, strict shout abruptly echoed.

  "STOP!"

  Immediately following, two people walked out of the forest, appearing before everyone.One was an older, strict-looking woman, and one was young, appearing in her upper teens. Both women looked simir yet different; the older woman was maybe sixty-seventy years old, and her hair was white aly bed back. Her eyes were bright, full of life and mustering them with mild i. In her right hand was a staff with a snake head t over her. Spirit rings floated around her and moved rhythmically. There was no obvious use of a spirit ability, but she was obviously having hers running and activated.

  Tang Yin's eyes fshed to her staff. That had to be it. ting the spirit rings, she gritted her teeth at six rings.

  Damn.

  The girl was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. Her hair was cut short, and her brown eyes focused on the bound Phoenix Tail Crest Serpent. She also held a snake-headed sti her hand, but it was much smaller, and around her were only two hundred years of spirit rings.

  Zhao Wuji growled and released his own spirit rings. Seven. The two adults focused on each other, their eyes fixated oher. The tension in the groups was rising when suddenly a rustle came from the bushes. The rustle interrupted the tension and drew so much attention that all the attention shifted to the potential hreat. A pair of hands rose, pale and obviously small. A quirky voice saying. "Don't stop on my at; I would have loved to see a bit of Mayhem." A bell-like, clear voice said, followed by a young girl. A girl that looked like a doll.

  "It makes things so much more exg. No?" Behind her, a few men from Spirit Hall followed. The elderly woman flinched, and so did Zhao Wuji, while Xiao Wu paled. Her hand dug into Tang Yins, who, a sed ter, was pletely petrified.

  "I am Lucil; you call me Lily," she told her. "E un paciere*." Then she did a mock bow, and Tang Yin gasped. She wrestled her fato expressionless while internally, she was both panicked and shell shocked. Tang San, who had beeively rexed before that, moved in front of the two of them. He, too, had reized the nguage.

  After all, the only person he knew who occasionally said things like that.

  *italian for "It's an honor" in this text "It's an honor to meet you."