The Heroine Must Die

A few of them shifted uneasily.

“Brother…”

“Move!” the leader barked. “Three of you—go for the kids. Make her hesitate!”

Lauren’s eyes turned cold.

“Three.”

The instant the word left her mouth— The Foundation Establishment cultivators surrounding her lunged forward. And the other three shot toward the flying boat.

“You chose the road to hell instead of heaven.”

Lauren’s Gintama Sword flashed.

In less than a breath, icy-white sword light swept across the circle of Foundation Establishment cultivators surrounding her.

Thin lines appeared across their throats. Then the cold spread.

Her sword carried a freezing attribute—where it cut, frost followed. The wounds sealed instantly in ice, locking blood and sound inside.

Not a single scream escaped.

Below, the three men who had rushed toward the flying boat noticed nothing. They were too focused on the “easy targets.”

“Behave yourselves if you don’t want to die,” one of them sneered. “Hand over your valuables and we won’t hurt you.”

Briar stepped in front of Wayne, small body rigid.

“Don’t come closer,” it warned. “I don’t have spirit stones. You’ll be ate for free.”

The three men stared. “…What nonsense is this brat saying?”

Above them—

The bodies with frozen throats tipped backward and fell. One after another. Like dumplings dropped into boiling water, they tumbled down the mountainside.

Wayne looked up and shouted, “Miss Lauren!”

Lauren had already returned, hovering above the flying boat, arms folded, expression calm.

She didn’t move. She was watching. Let Briar handle this. Call it nourishment.

The three men finally noticed her. Their faces changed. “Why are you here? They—”

“Dead,” Lauren said lightly. “You’ll join them soon.”

Rage replaced fear.

“Grab the kids!” the leader roared.

Their logic was simple: she was strong. If they seized the weaker ones, she’d hesitate.

Unfortunately for them—

The most ruthless one here wasn’t the woman in the sky. It was the “weakest.”

Red vines burst from Briar’s hands. They were beautiful.

Glossy. Almost delicate. And saturated with the scent of death.

The vines wrapped around the three men before they could react.

Their bodies locked in place. Their expressions shifted—From ferocity…To confusion…To bliss.

Smiles crept onto their faces. Their flesh withered visibly. Skin shrank tight against bone.

In seconds, they were nothing but dried husks. Still smiling.

Lauren swooped down and picked Wayne up, covering his eyes with her hand.

Wayne pushed her hand away stubbornly. “Miss Lauren, I’m a man. I’m not scared.”

She blinked. He was only six. She had been worried he’d have nightmares—especially since Briar had done the killing.

They were close. If he associated his friend with horror, that would be a mess.

But Wayne’s small face was serious. So she let her hand fall.

The three corpses, now skeletons wrapped in clothing, were casually tossed off the flying boat by Briar.

It dusted off its hands.

“Sigh. I didn’t even get to touch the bodies.” Lauren immediately steered the flying boat down into the ravine.

She found one of the skeletons, crouched, and removed the storage bag.

With a flick of divine sense, she erased the previous owner’s imprint and checked inside.

A pile of trash. A few thousand low-grade spirit stones. Barely ten mid-grade ones.

Pathetic.

She tossed the bag to Briar. “Yours.”

Briar blinked at the contents, confused.

“You killed them,” Lauren said calmly. “Their belongings are your spoils. Use the spirit stones to buy the meat you like.”

Realization dawned.

…So this was looting corpses? It had killed many people before. It had never taken a single thing from them.

Before Lauren could say anything else, Briar hurried off to loot the other two skeletons.

When it opened the bags— Its eyes lit up.

Lauren watched that look carefully. She didn’t like it.

“Briar. Come here.”

Briar trotted over obediently.

“Wayne, you too.”

Wayne climbed onto a nearby rock and sat upright, hands on his knees like a miniature gentleman.

Lauren looked at Briar seriously.

“You suddenly have a lot of spirit stones. Do you think earning them is easy?”

Briar hesitated. Then nodded shyly.

“With your abilities,” Lauren continued evenly, “you could slaughter most beings in this cultivation world. I can count on one hand the number of people who could fight you head-on.”

Briar’s shoulders stiffened.

“So,” Lauren asked quietly, “would you start killing for spirit stones?”

Briar’s face turned pale. It shook its head violently. “No! No!”

It understood perfectly well what that would lead to. Humans individually weren’t terrifying.

But together? They were viciously clever. They always had countermeasures.

Poisons that withered all plant life on contact. Liquids that burned through vines and roots. It had nearly died to such things before.

If it went on a killing spree for wealth— It wouldn’t be long before the entire cultivation world hunted it down again.

Greed was a trap.

Lauren’s voice softened slightly.

“Good. Remember that. Killing for survival is one thing. Killing for greed is another.”

Briar nodded repeatedly, clutching its storage bags.

It suddenly felt that the spirit stones inside were a little heavier than before.

“Then why,” Lauren asked evenly, “do you think the truly powerful in this world don’t just slaughter everyone and take all the spirit stones for themselves?”

Briar hesitated. It thought of her master—an Immortal Venerable who could probably flatten half the continent if he felt like it.

“Because… the Immortal Venerable doesn’t lack spirit stones?”

Lauren stared at it.

“…That’s not the point.” She crouched down so they were eye level.

“In this world, there’s an invisible constraint. Call it karma. The stronger you are, the heavier it weighs.”

Her gaze sharpened slightly.

“You were powerful once. Strong enough that countless cultivators feared you. And yet you ended up frozen in the Icefield Secret Realm for tens of thousands of years. Nearly dead.”

Briar’s fingers tightened on the storage bags.

“That was karma,” Lauren continued. “You sowed certain seeds. You reaped the consequences.”

She paused, then softened her tone.

“But Heaven isn’t completely merciless. Your slaughter back then wasn’t mindless—it was survival. So you were left a sliver of hope.”

Her voice turned serious again.

“You must cherish that. Don’t ever go back to indiscriminate killing.”

Briar glanced nervously at the skeletons scattered across the ravine.

“Then… what about just now? I killed them and…”

“It’s fine,” Lauren said calmly. “They chose to rob and kill first. They sowed the cause. You merely became the effect.”

Briar let out a shaky breath.

“Then how do I know… when it’s right to eat them?”

Lauren almost laughed. “It depends on the situation. Briar, you have a long road ahead of you. You’ll learn.”

She tapped the storage bag lightly.

“For now, remember this: you do not kill or rob just because you lack spirit stones.”

Briar nodded rapidly. “I wouldn’t dare. I wouldn’t.”

Judging by its timid reaction, the tens of thousands of years it had spent hunted and frozen had left a deep scar.

Or maybe she was overthinking it.

Lauren turned to Wayne and patted his shoulder. “Wayne, do you understand?”

He nodded seriously. “When I grow strong, I won’t kill without reason.”

Lauren smiled faintly. “I’m not worried about you. You’re still weak. Even if you had bad thoughts, you wouldn’t have the courage.”

Wayne: “…”

“When you grow older and stronger,” she continued, “you’ll understand these things on your own.”

She stood and brushed the dust from her dress.

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