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The other Elders of the White Mist Sect struggled just as fiercely as their forr Sect Master. Blood stread from their wounds and frost coated their limbs, yet they refused to abandon their sect. They fought to the bitter end. Maria watched in quiet surprise and discovered their sincerity. Despite their earlier hostility, they truly loved and protected their ho.
"Open the formation! Now! Now! NOW!"
The Glacial Mountain Immortal kept smashing the White Mist Immortal’s face, but the Rakshasa refused to yield. He punched back relentlessly. Demonic flas licked across the frost armor before they vanished.
"Fool! He actually believes he can hurt the Glacial Mountain Immortal!"
"He’s finished!"
"Kill him, Master!"
The soldiers roared and cheered for their leader, yet the master held back. He needed the Rakshasa alive to open the formation.
"No... never... I will give my life for those children..." the White Mist Immortal rasped. "You people from the Murim Alliance betrayed . You forced to betray my friend. And when I did it to protect the rest of the disciples, you brought an army to destroy us...! You’re too cruel, too senseless! Don’t you see? You’re walking the path of demons..."
"Hah, there is no such path," the Glacial Mountain Immortal sneered. "Good or evil, none of that matters! Only strength counts in this world. History belongs to the victors. We can paint ourselves however we like. You and your children will die, and we’ll simply claim you were demons sacrificing citizens to craft powerful pills!"
"What...?" The White Mist Immortal’s eyes blazed with fury. "We would never do that! You think they’ll believe you?!"
"They’ll believe whatever we tell them," the Immortal laughed. "What’s wrong? This is Murim! Haven’t you realized yet? It has always been this way, you stupid fool!"
He kept slapping the Rakshasa. Maria nodded to herself.
She had seen enough.
"Well done. You’ve proven your sincerity to ," Maria said. She channeled her power and healed the Rakshasa and the other Elders in an instant.
Her presence crashed over the battlefield like a tidal wave. The cultivators froze as space and reality seed to twist around her.
"W-Who... who is she?!"
"Damn it, it’s her!"
"But weren’t the vampires supposed to—"
"Lady Vesperine was handling her!"
Panic spread among the soldiers. The Glacial Mountain Immortal whirled toward Maria in disbelief.
"Y-You?! What are you doing here?! Shouldn’t you be fighting the vampires?!" he scread.
"So that was your plan," Maria mused. "First of all..."
She opened her palms. Ghostly Flas erupted in dark red and black light. She clapped once. A shockwave of blazing fire swept across the hundreds of Frost Martial Beasts and incinerated them instantly.
As they burned, they rose again as her Undead—special Frost-Ki Undead brimming with power. Nightmare energy poured into them, transforming them into Frozen Nightmare Beasts that grew monstrously strong.
"W-What’s happening?!"
"That woman...!"
"She turned our beasts into Undead?!"
"Go. Tear them apart!" Maria commanded without rcy. The hundreds of Undead charged back at their forr masters, fangs and claws ripping through flesh.
Within seconds, a massacre unfolded before the Glacial Mountain Immortal, the second-in-command of his sect.
"Y-You monster...!"
He roared and froze everything around him. His Martial Soul manifested, a gigantic Qilin of ice crystals that charged at Maria with a massive unicorn-like horn.
Maria stood unmoving.
"{Fake Martial Soul}!"
RUMBLE!
The Skeletal Goddess appeared. Her enormous claws flashed with starlight and punched straight through the Qilin, shattering it into countless ice shards.
"AAAAAGHH!"
The Immortal staggered and vomited blood. One of his Dantians cracked, and several ridians nearly ruptured.
Maria turned to the Elders with a faint smile.
"Watch closely. This is the second form of the Ghostly Fist School."
She surged forward. The Glacial Mountain Immortal scread and summoned his Immortal Artifacts: a blue jewel that beca a roaring frost dragon, a glacial spear overflowing with freezing Ki, and a shield of cursed black ice.
He attacked desperately, trying to freeze her solid. Maria brushed the ice from her skin and caught the spear with her bare hands.
Her Fake Martial Soul flared with Phantasmal Ki and hamred him with a barrage of spectral fists.
As he fell, convulsing in agony and despair, Maria’s soul surged from her body and pulsed like a living heart.
"T-That’s...!"
The White Mist Immortal’s eyes widened. He recognized traces of his own Martial Arts within hers.
"{Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Second Form – Sword Soul Heart}"
SLAAASH!
Maria brought her hand down in a devastating karate chop. Her soul manifested as a blade and cleaved through the evil Immortal, slicing his chest open and splitting his body in half in a brutal, agonizing death.
"GAAAAHHHH!"
BOOOM!
His corpse exploded into pieces and crashed into the forest below. The surviving mbers of his sect scread in horror at their master’s grueso end and tried to flee.
"Hey! Co back! I’ll let one of you escape, okay? You there—run."
Maria laughed as her Void Aura pinned everyone in place except one terrified cultivator. She wanted a witness to spread word of her terror.
When the last scream faded, every attacker had beco her Undead.
Not a single soul survived her wrath.
"Ugh... Uguhhh..."
The Glacial Mountain Immortal’s spirit wailed like a child. His new Rakshasa form looked smaller and frailer than the White Mist Immortal’s, with pale blue skin and frost horns.
"Co now, it’s not so bad," Maria chuckled, glancing at the other Rakshasa.
This ti the harvest was rich. Every mber of the attacking force transford into Frost Rakshasa; their Blood Arts fused with powerful Frost Ki.
"Heh... Hahahaha!" The White Mist Immortal burst into laughter. "Now you’re beneath ! An even uglier, weaker Rakshasa! Pathetic vermin! Hahahaha!"
"How could this happen to eee..." the ghostly voice of the Glacial Mountain Immortal sobbed.
With the battle settled, Maria returned to the sect and spoke briefly with the Elders.
"You did well. You’ve earned my respect," she said.
"We only did what we had to," the Third Elder sighed.
"Yes... you weren’t here, and your Undead didn’t respond..." the Fourth Elder added.
"The formation was strong enough," Maria explained with a sigh. "You didn’t need to fight outside. You could have waited safely inside."
"R-Really?!" the White Mist Immortal groaned. "Damn it..."
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