At the entrance of the forest, an elder brought five young men out four of which were covered in blood and another who was wrapped in the elder's outer robes. Elder Nishikawa, who had just arrived, looked at the group in confusion. “What happened?”

“You can say the punishment fits the bill.” The elder explained as he laid the four bloodied young me down. He had already shoved healing pills down the four male disciples' throats.

Elder Nishikawa inspected the wounds and furrowed her brow. “Who did this? This was not a demonic beast attack. And from the words carved all the way into their forehead bone, it says rapists?”

“Your disciple, Yuki, did it. But she had a good right to. They planned to….” The elder whispered into Elder Nishikawa’s ear.

Elder Nishikawa snorted and stood up. “Leave them be. Do not give them any more healing pills. They can heal naturally. Let the words carved into their foreheads be their punishment. They dared to have such plans!? Two of those girls are my disciples, and he still dared to have such thoughts!? He is lucky to be alive. They got off too lightly! With their manhoods gone, they should at least think twice before trying to commit such acts again.”

While Elder Nishikawa was fuming, Yuki was standing in the cave with Ai and Ami on lookout, washing the blood from her body. Nana was washing her clothes at the side. When Nana saw the large scar across Yuki’s stomach, she wondered what happened but did not dare to ask in case it was a traumatic experience. But for some reason, her eyes kept going towards Yuki as she rinsed her body free of blood before she would look away and blush.

Ai and Ami had made a few things while Yuki was out. This included a bucket which they carved out of rock. Ami was very good at using a thin layer of spiritual qi that she could wrap around her fist to extend past her body and onto any object she was holding. By doing this, she was able to make a few rock containers which they filled with water from a nearby pond.

Nana finished cleaning Yuki’s robes as best as she could and laid them down near the fire to dry. She then took off her outer robe for Yuki to wrap around her body. Once she did this, she walked over and began helping Yuki wash her hair, trying to get as much of the blood out as possible. “Some will still be left….” Nana said softly.

“Mmm… Thank you….” Yuki replied back very softly. She was grateful that she did not need to walk around covered in blood. But she was even more grateful that these three girls were so willing to help her out.

Once she was done washing, Yuki sat by the fire to dry off with Nana’s robes wrapped around her. They were slightly bigger than her own robes, which worked out perfectly to cover her body. Only when Nana gave the okay did Ai and Ami come and sit next to the fire staring at Yuki. Ai was the first to speak up and ask: “So? What really happened?”

“Punishment,” Yuki replied with a single word as she bit into her roasted meat.

“What kind of punishment would require you to be covered in blood!?” Ami did not understand. She saw the wound on the leopard Yuki had brought back. It was only a single strike. It would not have caused Yuki to be covered in blood.

“Mmm…. Kenji.” Yuki replied to explain better. Although her simple words only confused Ai and Ami more so they turned to Nana for some kind of translation.

Nana sighed and said: “She dished out punishment on Kenji.”

“What!? Is he still alive!?” Ai asked in a panic. She only relaxed when she saw Yuki nod her head. While she did not like Kenji’s actions, she still couldn’t easily rid herself of the family ties between them. If anyone were to kill him, she would rather it before herself than one of her friends. This way, she could only blame herself for killing him. It might sound strange to many, but this was just how she felt about the situation.

“Not a man….” Yuki stated before stuffing her face again with meat, confusing the two girls even more. Yuki did not elaborate anymore, and even Nana had no idea what she was talking about, so Ai and Ami could only try to make up their own assumptions. They would never think that Yuki would actually cut off the third leg of the four young men who dared to plan against them.

After getting dressed once more, Yuki went into full cultivation mode. No one bothered her and instead joined her in cultivating. The days quickly passed, and after a week, the cave the girls had been staying in looked much different than before. With a bit of hard work, Ami carved out a large stone bed and a large basin they could store water in. Nana and Yuki had moved a rock from higher up the mountain to the entrance to use as a door to keep the entrance closed off at night.

During the day, they hunted demonic beasts for meat and materials, which they were slowly making a large stockpile of. It was during the last week of the first month that things began to change. Nana and Yuki were out on hunting duty when they noticed something very strange. “Yuki is it just me, or are the demonic beasts we have been running into lately been a lot stronger.”

“No, you are right. The demonic beasts, as of late, have all been around rank three from the middle ring of the forest. I think there is something going on in the inner ring which is causing stronger demonic beasts to push the weaker ones from the middle ring to the outer ring.” Yuki pursed her lips. She could only assume this to be the reason why.

“We really shouldn’t be going too deep into the forest, but… I think if we do, we might come across something that will be useful to us. Do you want to check it out?” Yuki was willing to take the risk if it meant being able to grow stronger, even if it meant risking her life.

Nana did not even need to think as she answered: “I will follow you.”