Hmmm? The girl with spider legs coming out of her back looked at the description, her eyes flashing slightly before pocketing the information. “I will do this one.”

“You? Are you sure? If you are caught….” The man seemed slightly worried as the looked at the beautiful face in front of him that seemed devoid of emotion.

“Don’t worry. I will be fine.” The spider girl replied before stepping into the shadow and disappearing. 

The man couldn’t help but feel that something bad was going to happen. If something did happen to their princess, it would be his head…. But he still could not go against her wishes. If she wished to take on the target, he could only let her do so.

- - -

At the center of the outer sect at the portal to the mystic realm, many disciples all sat watching the happenings inside the mystic realm on large projected images that floated in the air with sour looks on their faces. All of them had been killed by other disciples. While this was a friendly competition, and these kinds of things were normal, many couldn’t get over the fact that they had been ejected from the mystic realm on the first day.

Elder Nishikawa was watching her own disciples on three smaller projections. Like the sect master, she had the right to intervene in what was going on. But she would not do it unless it was necessary. Luckily the system was set up in a way to block any images that should not be seen. It would only focus on battles that were going on within the realm. This was done to allow privacy for those daring enough to strip down to bathe. Which normally no one would have the guts to do. But she felt her disciples…. If they met up, they would be able to deal with whatever was happening, so she knew they might just risk it.

If this was the case, she would put a black fog around the two to protect them. Whether the sect master liked it or not, she did not care. She only wanted her two disciples to have the privacy they needed. It was not just Elder Nishikawa that had such worries. Many of the female elders had some worries for their female disciples, but since the start of the sect, no girls were exposed during bathing. 

The sect master looked over the disgruntled disciples and smiled as he said: “If you feel like you have been wronged, then you are mistaken. Each of you has died in a sense to another within the mystic realm. While you are still alive now, if this was a mystic realm without such protections, then you would all be dead. Each and every one of you would have died, and no one would have been able to bring you back to life. You should be thinking about how to improve yourselves instead of complaining about how you could have won if that person did not sneak attacked me. It was just your own lack of ability that allowed you to be sneak attacked.”

The sect mater’s words made the muttering around the stage die down. No one could argue when what was said was true. Seeing how everyone went into deep thought, the sect master nodded his head in approval. This mystic realm had always been something to make the newcomers think about their cultivation paths. Only when they experience death once would they understand their weaknesses.

- - -

“Now then, let’s test how far I can go before the mystic realm sends you out, yeah?” Yuki was currently pinning a female disciple to the ground with her foot after she had been ambushed. She reached out and held the girl’s arm out with her hand while using her sword to slice into her pinky. The girl’s fear filled eyes water up as she suddenly let out a pained scream: “Ahhh!!!!!!!! Please just kill me!”

“Tch! I only cut in a little bit, and you are already begging to be killed!” Yuki did not understand why these girls were so weak. She wondered how they were expected to survive in a world of cultivation. After tapping her chin for a second, she looked down at the girl and said: “I will let you go the easy way if you answer my questions, okay?”

The girl quickly nodded her head. She did not say no to Yuki, who seemed like some kind of demon. Yuki smiled and patted her on the head as she asked: “Why did you start cultivating if you can not even take this much pain?”

“Does one need a reason to start cul-cultivating? Lo-Longer life, riches, eternal youth. Any girl would lo-love any of these things.” The girl replied shakingly. 

“I see. But…. Now as you are under my mercy here. As a young girl of a ripe age for the picking, let me ask you this. If I was a man with insidious thoughts, what would happen to you at this moment?” Yuki asked coldly as she put her hand on the girl’s thigh and moved it upwards, causing the girl to cry out in shock.

Tears flooded from her eyes as she shook her head and cried out: “Please don’t!”

“See…” Yuki let the girl go and stood up. “If I was a man or a woman who did not care about morals and all that, I would not have stopped. If you want to be a cultivator, you need to be ready for anything.” 

The girl shook as she realized Yuki was showing her the true reality of being a cultivator. Without proper strength, she might not be able to survive and would be at the mercy of the strong…. “Thank you for…” She did not even get to finish her words when her vision spun, and she found herself sitting in the outer sect.

The girl looked up to see Elder Nishikawa staring at her with a smile. “Take the lesson my disciple as taught you today and use it to strive to become stronger.”

“Yes, Elder Nishikawa!”