“Phew…” Damien let out a light sigh as he wiped the sweat off his brow.
He might’ve made it seem easy killing the pack leader like that but to forcefully grab its head and twist its neck was a much harder task than he expected.
First of all, he was weaker than the pack leader to begin with. It would be a miracle if he suddenly had the strength to pull such a move, and secondly, he was forced to slightly distort space to pull off his prior actions.
The latter was a bit troublesome since he was hiding his spatial affinity in case someone decided to dive into their backgrounds when they reached the meeting ground. Still, he believed that he had disguised it well enough to be unnoticeable.
Not to mention, using his aura suppression in such a way was a bit mentally tiring. To be exact, it was using his killing intent alone.
Usually, his killing intent was naturally incorporated into his aura whenever he released it, so he never bothered to isolate it.
But for the purpose of suppressing the pack leader with his most bestial aura, he had done so today. It wasn’t a particularly strenuous process, but it took more effort than simply releasing his entire aura.
In the end, though, it was worth it. His level had jumped all the way to 125, leaving him 1/4th of the way through 3rd class.
“B-benefactors!”
A trembling voice snapped Damien out of his thoughts. His gaze refocused on the little girl from before.
“Hm?”
Noticing his gaze, the girl couldn’t help but feel fear. She had seen how he effortlessly killed a beast that was stronger than she could ever imagine, and she had heard the terrifyingly cold words he had uttered before he had done so.
How could she not be scared? To her who grew up in such an isolated environment where beasts and humans had a mutual agreement for peace, he was akin to a demon from hell.
“Did you have something to say?” A much gentler voice came from behind her. When she turned around, she saw the woman from before looking at her with encouraging eyes.
With most of the attention during the previous fight being on Damien due to his domineering actions, Ruyue’s visage was like an angel to them. And since the corpses around her had been reduced to ash rather than gruesomely pummeled, this image was further enhanced.
“M-my friend! Brother Cheng is dying! Please, I beg of you! Please save him!”
Ruyue looked at the boy in the girl’s arms whose body had already gone limp before sighing lightly.
She took out a small pill from her spatial ring and threw it at the girl. “Just give him this. It should at least heal the worst of the damage. The rest can be healed naturally.”
“Thank you! Thank you!” The girl cried as the caught the pill as gently as possible. She held onto it as if it was a divine treasure, afraid of harming it as she carefully placed it in the boy’s mouth.
Her cries only became louder as she noticed the bloody scar on the boy’s chest begin to close.
As the girl continued to watch over her friend, Ruyue approached Damien.
“Conceal your aura again, idiot. You’re scaring the hell out of them.”
Damien raised his brow before realizing that his killing intent was leaking. As he ended up in thought after killing the pack leader, he had totally forgotten about it.
“No wonder she was staring at me like some kind of monster.” He said as he reeled it in.
“As if that’s the reason. Look at how brutally you killed those beasts in front of them. Obviously, they’d be scared of a brute like you.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Damien replied, feigning ignorance, “you should count yourself lucky they didn’t see how you were killing those things.”
Ruyue’s methods, while outwardly elegant, were just as ruthless as his own. The piercing cold of her iceflames would infect the beasts before the heat it also produced would melt them from the inside.
Damien shuddered just thinking about it. “These kids are lucky they’re too level to know they’re in the presence of a demoness.”
“Who are you calling a demoness, you damn fool!”
“You of course! Do you see anyone else around here so ruthless?” He replied while looking around in an exaggerated fashion.
“No, all I see around here is your ugly face. How sad that I have to spend so much time around it.”
“Hm? You’re staring at my face that much? I know I’m incredibly handsome but if you say it like that you’ll make me blush.”
As the two continued their normal squabbles, the boy who had just been fed a healing pill slowly opened his eyes.
Groggily looking around, his eyes widened in shock. “L-Ling’er?”
“Brother Cheng!” The girl yelled as she hugged the boy tightly. “I thought I’d never see you again!”
“M-me too. I’m…alive?”
“That’s right! Those esteemed cultivators over there saved you!”
Brother Cheng looked over at Damien and Ruyue who were still arguing before his gaze shifted to the beast corpses that littered the ground.
“T-they killed all of those beasts?!” He exclaimed.
“Shh! Don’t bother the esteemed cultivators! They are our benefactors!”
“R-right.” Brother Cheng nodded as he tried to stand up, although he still needed help from Ling’er to do so.
Noticing their movement, Damien and Ruyue also looked over.
“It looks like you guys are fine now,” Damien said as he looked at the other teens in the group.
“Right, then I guess it’s about time we take our leave.” Ruyue continued.
But before they could move, Ling’er spoke up. “W-wait! If you don’t mind, could you accompany us to the village so we can properly thank you?”
Damien and Ruyue looked at each other questioningly. Truthfully, neither of them cared about any receiving thanks or pleasantries like that.
Noticing that they were planning to reject, Brother Cheng also spoke up. “Please, I haven’t even had the chance to thank benefactors for saving my life. We would truly appreciate it if you came to our village.”
With the main two speaking their opinions, the other 8 also regained their ability to talk, expressing the same intention.
And seeing the pleading look in their eyes, Ruyue slightly caved. “I guess we do need a place to rest tonight.”
Damien was surprised by her willingness, but in the end, he just shrugged. Just like before when Ruyue chose to help the kids, he didn’t really care what they did.
“Truly thank you.” The girl said before her eyes widened. “That’s right! We haven’t even properly introduced ourselves yet! My name is Su Ling’er and this is Yan Cheng.”
The others also proceeded to introduce themselves.
“Mm. You can call me Xiao Li and this is my D-Dao companion, Zhen Fang.” Ruyue replied with a slight stutter.
And with introductions out of the way, the group began to walk back to the village they came from with Damien and Ruyue in tow, telling them about how they ended up in such a perilous situation.