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Chapter 288: Hellish Punishment

What the hell did Master make me eat?! Jasmine had never felt so out of control of her own body before. Do monsters feel this urge to devour as well? If so, I can hardly blame them for mindlessly going after cultivators. It\'s maddening.

While Jasmine was trying to regain control, the last cultivator Stella had left alive for her to practice punching on wreathed himself in murky brown soul flames that matched his stained and ripped robe.

Jasmine unconsciously licked her lips. That Qi was far above her own level and smelled so enticing. What in the nine realms is wrong with me?

Unaware of her intentions, the man took his stance.

"I-I\'m so sorry," Jasmine reeled back her fist and directed all the Qi she could muster into this attack. I will knock him out in one punch to the chin so he doesn\'t suffer, and I won\'t have to run so many laps.

As promised, the man had his hands behind his back, leaving his face wide open. He even leaned down to give her a better shot. "Do your worst, little disciple."

Jasmine narrowed her eyes on the spot she planned to punch and took a deep breath. You can do this, Jasmine. You fought with Stella\'s clone hundreds of times, and this is no different. It\'s just real flesh this time instead of an illusion.

"Take this!" Jasmine shouted to hype herself up and twisted her body to deliver the hardest-hitting uppercut of her life straight to the man\'s chin.

There was a howl of pain followed by a thump.

"Wow, he defeated you with his chin alone," Stella burst out laughing, "Elaine told me about the appeal of a chiseled jawline, and I failed to see it before, but now I know what she was talking about!"

Jasmine pouted as she cradled her throbbing hand while lying on her butt in a pool of someone else\'s blood. Forget the chin, that felt like punching solid stone.

"That\'s five laps, Jasmine," Stella added after she calmed down from laughing.

"You\'re a demon!" Jasmine shouted back.

"Six laps."

"Wha"

"Seven laps."

Jasmine clamped her mouth shut and silently seethed. Clearly, her Master had become possessed by a heartless demon and wanted to watch two people suffer for entertainment! With a grunt, she pushed herself up and ignored the dampness of her clothes due to the blood. Her Master really would make her run a hundred laps of the mountain peak, which would take until tomorrow morning to finish if she didn\'t find a way to win.

I found fighting Stella\'s illusion with my fists easier than a sword because I had to run around, dodge, block, and punch back. Whereas this is a test of raw power against a living brick wall. A sword wouldn\'t have helped as I haven\'t yet learned how to externalize my Qi, so I can\'t empower weapons. It would just bounce off this man\'s skin. I also don\'t know any techniques, leaving me with one thing...

Jasmine looked down at her fists. They still hungered like before, but that intense feeling had dulled due to the pain and failure to even make the man blink with an attack she poured everything into.

Is the gap between a Qi Realm and Soul Fire cultivator really this vast, or is it because he is an earth Qi cultivator that focuses on defense? Jasmine wondered as she flexed her fingers, and as the pain faded a bit, she noticed something. Why is there some earth Qi in my fingers?

Jasmine recalled Stella\'s description of the Vampiric Touch fruit\'s capabilities. If I punch the shit out of someone enough, they will be weakened to my level. A small smile tugged at her lips as some hope of winning became clear. I thought the fruit only let me steal Qi from my opponent, but if I can force this earth Qi to protect my fingers, punching him shouldn\'t hurt as much.

It took far more effort than moving around her own untamed Qi or nature Qi, which she had become rather attuned to. But after some effort, the earth Qi had strengthened her fingers.

The earth cultivator seemed to sense what she had done as his eyes widened a little. "Interesting," He said gruffly, "I thought that punch took more Qi to defend than it should have. The idea you stole my Qi never occurred to me"

Jasmine swung her fist into another uppercut as he talked to hit the same spot on his chin, a tactic she had learned from her Master. Yet unlike her Master, who effortlessly cleaved people in half. Her feeble attack only silenced the man and caused her another round of pain.

"Ow, ow, ow." Jasmine wasn\'t thrown to her butt this time, and the pain wasn\'t crippling, but it was still bad enough to make her regret striking. This isn\'t working. Although it didn\'t hurt as much, the man didn\'t even flinch. What the hell am I supposed to do? I will have to run over a hundred laps at this rate before he reacts to my punch. Mom, save me...

"That\'s twelve laps now, Jasmine," Her Master happily reminded her. "If you don\'t want to run until you pass out today, try to use your head more than your fists."

Is she calling me stupid? Jasmine was about to retort but remembered to keep her mouth shut. Wait, maybe I am stupid. Am I missing something here? As mean as Master seems, she wouldn\'t give me an impossible challenge, nor does she want me to hurt myself like this.

Jasmine calmed down and looked her opponent up and down. Since the start of the \'fight,\' he hadn\'t moved a muscle, and his arms were behind his back. There was no time limit on the fight, only a limit on the number of attacks Jasmine could do before the cultivator won.

Think Jasmine, think! What is Master trying to teach me here? That using my fists is a bad idea? No, she wouldn\'t have given me a fruit that makes fighting with my hands better if that was the case. Jasmine glanced at her Master, sitting casually on the cage and playing with a dagger. Her expression and everything was hidden by a mask, but even if it looked like her Master wasn\'t paying attention, she knew that her Master had the whole cavern under her control.

If I had a dagger and could empower it with my Qi, I could poke a hole in the cultivator and have him bleed out until he fainted. Jasmine looked at her nails. If I think of my hand as a dagger, couldn\'t I drain him of his Qi instead of his blood and then knock him out with one punch? But punching him hurts and steals so little Qi each time... hold on, who said I have to punch him?

Stella had talked about punching, which was a very Stella thing to suggest. That was certainly the most violent option and would work if she was the stronger one here, but when faced with an immovable mountain, what else was there to do other than chip away at it slowly?

Jasmine stepped toward the cultivator but didn\'t curl her hand into a fist. Instead, she placed her palm on the man\'s chest near his heart and pressed down.

"What are you doing?" The man asked with a hint of concern.

"Just stand there and watch," Jasmine said. She closed her eyes and began pulling on the man\'s Qi through the power of the Vampiric Touch fruit. Earth Qi flowed into her body like a raging river, and she tried her best to hold onto and control some of it, but she leaked the rest into her surroundings.

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"This is impossible," the man muttered as his soul fire flickered like a dying flame. "How are you taking in so much of my Qi?!"

Jasmine barely heard the man as she was too busy directing the flow of the earth Qi through her body and expelling it into the surroundings; otherwise, she felt like she would explode. If my spirit roots were any less pure, this would indeed be impossible. Did Master foresee this, which is why she fed me a Spirit Root Improvement truffle daily?

"No! Stop!" The man stumbled back a step. "Get away from me! I spent years accumulating this Qi..."

"Don\'t take another step if you want to keep your head," Stella\'s cold voice echoed through the room, and Jasmine saw the dagger her Master had been playing with floating beside the cultivator\'s neck.

"This is cheating," the man protested, "How does this not count as an attack?"

Stella shrugged. "I wouldn\'t consider a palm on your chest as an attack. If you are so concerned, then make an effort to stop her? Flood her with Qi or have better control over your own."

"I can\'t," the man hissed through gritted teeth. "My spirit roots are too impure to flood her with Qi, and she somehow has greater control over mine!"

Stella laughed at his misfortune. "Your earth Qi is so murky it might as well be swamp water infested with heart demons. How many beast cores did you consume while forcing yourself to cultivate a Qi unsuited to you?"

"What?"

"Don\'t play dumb with me," Stella tilted her head, and her blonde hair fell across her mask. "There\'s a reason I picked you out of all the cultivators here to teach my Disciple a valuable lesson. You are the perfect example of someone who rushed their foundation for a quick boost in power and paid the price for it. Look, you are losing a battle over your own Qi to a little girl who is an entire realm below you right now."

"The fuck do you know?" The man spat to the side and glared at Stella.

"When was the last time you had a breakthrough despite gobbling down beast cores every week?" Stella snapped back, "A few years ago, I bet. Oh, and how is that injury to your left arm?"

"How did you kno"

Stella snorted, "When we fought, I noticed all the power behind your two-handed swings came from your right side."

"So?" The man grunted. Sweat dripped from his forehead onto Jasmine\'s arm as she kept draining his Qi. He didn\'t dare move as Stella\'s dagger floated a hairs-width away from his neck.

"Here\'s my theory." Stella crossed her legs and rested her chin on her palm. "You forcefully cultivated earth Qi because it\'s one of the stronger and easier affinities to cultivate, right? You then rocketed in cultivation with the help of beast cores, never bothering to train or hone your foundations. Always winning through brute strength alone. But then, after many decades, the heart demons consumed your soul. Your cultivation stagnated, and you reached a bottleneck." Stella traced a line through the air as if showing his life story, "Eventually, your rivals surpassed you and came back for revenge. You lost horribly and ran with your tail between your legs to Ashfallen City. Am I right?"

The room fell into silence, and Jasmine was speechless. To her, it had seemed like her Master was messing around and having fun while slaughtering these cultivators, but she had been paying such close attention to every detail?

"You\'re right," The man admitted as his head fell.

"Jasmine, did you hear all of that?" Stella asked. "This is a pathetic excuse of a cultivator and a fate all too many demonic cultivators reach. It\'s why they turn to horrible acts like using mortals as pill furnaces to try and create miracle pills that are pathetic versions of the Heart Demon Expelling truffle. They always looked for shortcuts in life and paid the price for them."

"I understand, Master," Jasmine nodded, "I won\'t slack off on training my foundation."

"Good." Stella clapped her hands once, "You can kill him now."

"Huh?" Jasmine glanced at her Master, wondering if she had heard wrong. The man also looked back in confusion.

"He has served his purpose and taught you many lessons. Now strangle him or rip out his eyes. Anything works," Stella hopped off the cage, "Don\'t forget a hundred laps are awaiting you if you slack off."

Jasmine ran through the rules of the duel that Stella had stated and realized something. The only way for the man to survive was if he survived 20 hits from her, but if she failed to down him in those hits, she had a day of hell ahead of her.

This man is evil, but I don\'t want to be the reason he died. Is that so wrong? Jasmine bit her lip as she debated what to do. Running a hundred laps may be hell, but I don\'t want to live with the fact I actually sent someone to hell. With some resignation, she withdrew her hand from draining the man of Qi as his soul flames had died out, and he could barely stand.

Pulling back her fist, Jasmine reduced the amount of Qi gathered and punched him in the chest. This time, it was the man who stumbled back and grunted in pain while Jasmine\'s fist felt rock solid, empowered by all the earth Qi she had absorbed.

Jasmine glanced at Stella, but her Master made no comment about her lack of lethal violence, so she went for another punch and then another. Always making sure to use just enough Qi to make it look like she was trying while not causing the man to pass out or fall, which would guarantee his death at Stella\'s blade.

Just bear with it. I am going to give you a chance at freedom. Jasmine thought as she let off two more punches. The man almost tripped over a corpse as he wiped blood from his broken nose. Only a few more to go...

"That\'s twenty hits," Stella said coldly.

Jasmine lowered her hand and eyed her Master cautiously. Stella hadn\'t said a word as she beat the man, so she wasn\'t sure if Stella had noticed she wasn\'t giving it her all. Who am I kidding? There\'s no way she didn\'t notice.

"Master, I..." Jasmine lowered her head.

"It seems you have made your choice," Stella said dismissively as she approached the man. "The question now is, will you come to regret it? Either way, a promise is a promise. Mister cultivator, you survived twenty hits from my Disciple, so I grant you freedom."

A portal rippled to life before the man.

"There you go, a rift to the surface. Good luck to you."

"R-Really?" The man asked, and Stella gave him a silent nod.

The man hauled his broken and bloodied body through the portal, and Jasmine\'s eyes widened as she finally recognized the other side. That\'s Red Vine Peak. Why would Stella send him there? No...wait...

Through the rift, Jasmine saw a black vine ending in a spike impale the man and lift him into the air. He coughed blood and hung there limply as his body began to dissolve.

"Master?!" Jasmine turned to Stella, "You said he would be free if he survived 20 hits? Why are you killing him?"

"Me?" Stella tilted her head, "What a strange thing to say. I am standing next to you without moving a finger? I only ever promised him freedom. I never said anything about protecting him from others who may want him dead."

"But..." Jasmine watched in horror as the man she had steeled herself to save was devoured before her eyes.

"If a meteor crushed him, or a monster suddenly appeared and was eating him. You wouldn\'t expect me to go save him, would you?"

Jasmine glared at Stella with tears rolling down her cheeks. "You never planned to let him live, did you?"

Stella took off her mask and ran a hand through her blonde hair. "No, I didn\'t, and you should have suspected that," Stella sighed, "I told him our names, mentioned the truffles, and worst of all, he used people as pill furnaces. Do you even know what those are, my sheltered Disciple? They create pills inside a person\'s stomach and use their Qi, body, and sometimes soul as ingredients."

Jasmine felt genuine rage through her Master-Disciple link.

Stella\'s face twisted into a scowl aimed at the chair the mortal man had been strapped to. "Why would I let scum like that live after he has served his purpose? I am more concerned with your naivety, my Disciple."

Jasmine lowered her head and balled her fists. I disappointed Master.

Stella clicked her tongue. " It looks like I need to double your training. But first, you need to absorb that Qi you stole and then think about your actions while running a hundred and two laps."

"Yes, Master," Jasmine answered dejectedly. Despite her effort, it looked like they had both gone to hell anyway.

***

Jasmine wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve as she huffed out clouds of cold air. It was already midday, and she had only run ten of her hundred laps. Yet she didn\'t feel that tired.

Thanks to the Qi I absorbed from the man, I ascended two stages in the Qi Realm and am now at the fourth stage overall. Jasmine remembered how excited she had been to tell Stella about her progress to the 2nd stage yesterday. To think I would double my progress in a single fight.

Jasmine ran near Ashlock and glanced at the bloodstained stone where the man she attempted to save had dissolved into a puddle. In hindsight, she realized how foolish it had been to try and deceive Stella, but a small part of her was still glad she wasn\'t the one who ended his life.

That aside, the fight had given her a lot to think about concerning her fighting style.

If I can somehow harness the power of the Vampiric Touch fruit as an affinity, wouldn\'t that work wonders once I reach the Soul Fire Realm and start manipulating plants with my Nature affinity? Rather than getting so close to the enemy to drain their Qi, what if I could achieve the same thing through a vine wrapped around their foot? Wouldn\'t that let me fight people far above my strength and be helpful to everyone?

Once her Master was less disappointed in her, Jasmine planned to ask if she could see how the pill was made. Thus far, she had laid awake at night debating on what other affinity to pick, but none had sounded good enough to her to half her cultivation speed as sitting still and absorbing the heaven\'s Qi was already a chore.

Jasmine had debated the basic elements like earth, water, wind, and even fire, but none fascinated her as much as this fighting style she now had in her mind. Maybe I should also ask Elaine what she thinks... after I have passed out and slept for a week from these laps around the mountain peak.

"Ugh!" Jasmine shouted in annoyance across the empty, silent mountain peak. All she had for company was her heavy breathing, clouds of breath, the rustling of the leaves, and the occasional bird chirping. Everyone was off doing work for the sect, leaving her all alone to endure her punishment. "This sucks."

Guilt aside, maybe she was starting to regret being so foolish after all.