Hua sat outside for a deep breath. It had been a long time since they had been attacked, and this was one of the few times she could count for peace. “And to think that I used to kill people for their blood,” she thought. “Now I can’t even think about it.”
“Such is the way of nature,” a voice responded. “Things change, yet remain the same.”
It was Dao, and of course she was casually sitting upside down from a tree branch. She was imitating the bats that casually slept next to her. “Purpose is what drives a life into a life, rather than a mere vessel of existence.”
Hua couldn’t argue with that. Speaking with the wisewoman, she sat down on the ground and closed her eyes. “I wonder what my purpose is here. We’re going to besiege the Beast of Lust’s fortress soon, but I’m just an extra nurse right now. Surely there’s more for me, right?”
“Perhaps there is,” Dao responded.
“But I wouldn’t mind just helping people out. Even when Xiaojun would use me as an easy source of healing, I found some pleasure in relieving his pain. Even when he bit me like an animal, I was still more than happy to help him. Do you know what this means?”
“That is not for me to decide,” she responded. “But perhaps you can ask him when he returns.”
“When he returns?” Hua screamed. Surprised by the wisewoman, she sprinted back to the tent to find an empty bed. As expected, Xiaojun’s few belongings were gone. “He left! By the heavens, Xiaojun is gone!” she yelped.
Xiaojun had left many hours ago, while everyone was busy with her errands. “Dao, I cannot let them risk their brittle lives for my mission,” he had told the wisewoman. “I have to face the Beast of Lust myself, even if it means risking my life.”
“Your decision,” Dao yawned. “But you should know that attacking the monsters at their gate would be foolish.” But Xiaojun remained determined. “I know. That is why I will find the secret entrance to their fortress. Once I sneak inside, they will be nothing.”
“Well. Good luck.”
Now Xiaojun was silently walking towards the dark castle in the distance. Shadows caked the landscape as he got closer to the damned place. For every step he took, the world seemed to resemble the diyu. Perhaps the Beast of Lust wished to bring the depths of hell to the surface of life.
He saw the gates creep open as spider people crawled right outside. Unlike the usual monstrous beings, these elite troops were armored at their shoulders and chest—just like how an actual soldier would wear his armor.
Seeing them on the road, Xiaojun quietly hid behind a group of rocks. “I cannot allow them to see me so easily. That would put my mission in jeopardy.” He waited for them to pass his position before finally sneaking by.
Even though he was never a proponent for stealth, there were many reasons for it. For one, fighting against the pure numbers would be a difficult one. Though it was possible to slaughter each and every one of them, it was also possible for them to catch him in an exhausted state. The risk wasn’t necessary.
The next—and frankly the bigger fear—was the Blood God. He was a strong match for Xiaojun, at least by how the last fight went. If he harnessed the blood of all the spider people, then he would be truly unstoppable.
Finally, the biggest threat was the Beast of Lust itself. The manifestation of an ancient god would be a being that Xiaojun had never truly faced. Not even the Blood God could be compared to such a titanic being. There was nothing that he could expect.
“That’s why I need to find a side entrance,” Xiaojun thought. Sneaking around the distant castle, he searched for any indication of an entrance. “Many castles have hidden entrances and exits. Since the Beast of Lust only occupied an existing fortress, the local demons might not know the existence of such a place.”
Thinking the way a military engineer would, he searched for the potential passage on a nearby cliff. After climbing the impossible side with his superhuman strength, he looked to find a strange pool of blood. “It must’ve been water before the Beast of Lust arrived.”
Hands suddenly clamored out like the limbs of the dead yearning for life. It was clear that they were grabbing anything that unfortunately entered its grip. “The pool is alive,” Xiaojun calmly reasoned. Then, looking to the side, he noticed a decently sized grate. This was the passage he was looking for.
Xiaojun started by getting a bundle of gunpowder, surrounding it with a handful of pellets, and then lighting the fuse to create a homemade bomb. He then tossed the bomb into the pit and watched the pool voraciously consume it. After a second, the bomb exploded and the pool had died. All hands went dead with silence.
He tossed the grate out and waded through the pit of corpses. Even inside the tunnel, the blood was about waist-high and his movement was marred by the red molasses. But this could not stop his mission. “Humanity is counting on me. Rina is counting on me. Hua is counting on me.” Thus, he carried on.
It was a complete underground maze. Being many miles long, he knew that this trek alone could nearly cost him his life. As his glowing guandao served as the only light source, his vision was cut short to only a few feet. Anything could be lying in the darkness. Even the Beast of Lust itself.
There was suddenly a fork in his path. Left or right. One could lead him to the fortress, while the other could lead him to certain death. “Xiaojun,” his blade Huanglong said, “I sense a great evil coming from the left. Perhaps this means you must go right.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“No. This means I have to go left,” Xiaojun responded.
He moved to the left and kept his blade close. It was only a few feet when he noticed a pair of glowing eyes in the distance. “Is this the source of great evil?” he asked Huanglong.
“No. That’s just one source.”
Countless eyes appeared like a cursed starry night. They were attracted to Xiaojun like a mob of moths attracted to a glowing flame. In such a fashion, this would be their doom.
It began with a roar, and the eyes descended upon the warrior. For a moment, Xiaojun’s shining blade was stifled by their presence. But after a flash, it was brought back in a brighter form. “Ha. You aren’t the same spider people that serve the Beast of Lust.”
These were humans who managed to survive the Beast of Lust’s attack by hiding in the tunnels. But as starvation creept in, they resorted to drinking from the growing pool of blood. Time went on, and these humans became nothing but bloodthirsty beasts.
One of them lunged for Xiaojun, only for the warrior to grab him by the neck and throw him against the wall. “You are less like monsters, and more like primitive animals. I think I may have some use for fools like you.”
He grabbed some of his rations and placed them on his guandao. Turning his walk into a sprint, he used the food to bait the monsters into following him. Thus, he easily recruited an army of animals to his disposal.
Finally reaching the end of the tunnels, he kicked open a door to reveal the interior of the keep. Black webs lined the walls, floors, and ceilings as Xiaojun quickly understood the situation: this was where the spider people were born. He didn’t need any more thinking to throw the rations onto the ground before him.
As predicted, the cannibals went right for the feast. No thought other than blatant hunger crossed their minds, just as it did for those who surrendered to lust. In this way, perhaps the Beast of Lust did control these monsters.
The question of allegiance was quickly solved when the group was suddenly spattered by black webs. They shook like distressed monkeys as a dark arachnid descended from the ceiling and bundled them into different sacks. It was like a mother stuffing meat into dumplings, though cannibals would make up this meat.
Xiaojun took his chance and threw the arachnid to the ground. Although the monster was the size of an elephant, he tossed the beast like it was a mere ant. When the arachnid hit the ground, Xiaojun finished it with the mere swipe of his blade.
“Envoy! It is the Envoy!” the demons hissed. Countless arachnids swarmed the walls like a living carpet of ants. Xiaojun moved through the corridors, but there was no end in sight. These demons had truly infested the keep as a breeding ground.
Moving to the next hallway, he found it covered in writhing villagers who were plastered onto the walls like insects. Since their arms and legs had been severed, they wriggled like worthless worms that begged for death. “Please… please… they’re eating me…”
The villager’s stomach burst as countless little spiders spewed from the inside. Xiaojun quickly stomped on each one as he mercy killed anyone else on that wall. “That’s how the Beast of Lust has so many numbers,” he understood. “Countless soldiers can be born by feasting on one man.”
He continued sprinting through the endless hallways as the arachnids continued to assail him. Blood covered his armor as he continued to push through. “Kill him! We must kill him!”
Arachnids would leap towards him while others would spew their black webbing instead. But the warrior remained unscathed as he merely slashed the beasts before ripping the black scum off of his body. He would continue his battle.
“Kill them! Kill them all!”
Xiaojun continued pushing through as he heard the voice reverberate in his mind. “I know you hear me, Envoy! Let yourself succumb to your hate! These are agents of the Beast of Lust! They are connected to all your suffering!”
His head felt a sharp pain as he continued navigating through the infested keep. “You’ve spilled so much blood. With my help, you can spill so much more. There is no way you can claim victory while you fight in this feeble human form.”
“Silence!” Xiaojun yelled. “I know what you are! You are not the voice of reason, but the voice of the Beast of Hate! You wish to corrupt me with your temptations!”
“Corrupt? No! I mean to empower you!” the voice retorted. “There are countless beasts in this fortress, and there are even more outside! You already know that you don’t stand a chance against the Blood God. What makes you think that you can stand a chance against the Beast of Lust?”
“Enough!”
He cleared his mind as he quickly lit a torch and threw it to the ground. Just like how he burned the cursed forest, he began to burn this hallowed ground. “I will not rely on your power. I will fight out of necessity to my mission, and not out of rage.”
The fire exponentially grew as it caught onto the arachnids as well. They screamed and scampered for exits, but the flames would quickly catch them. Although the stone was untouched, the webbed empire quickly went out. Now it was time for Xiaojun—the Demon Warrior—to move on.
He walked along the corridors with his glowing weapon in hand. Just like in Lord Luo’s fortress, this castle had changed since the possession of a demon. Hallways were artificially conjoined as if the buildings had merged together, while the windows would simply plug themselves with stone.
Entering another room, Xiaojun found himself in the castle library. Since he was outside of the spiders’ birthing area, this empire of books and pages was away from the fire’s reach. There, next to a crowned skeleton, Xiaojun found the only evidence of this castle’s past: a set of pages.
“It could provide clues to the Beast of Lust.” After making sure he was safe to read, he quickly picked it up and skimmed the pages. This was the past’s final gasp of air.
“People say that monsters are beings that come from another world, but I have learned that monsters are people that we once knew as family, friends, or even enemies. I—Lord Huang—am now hiding in the castle library while the rest of my family tries to escape through the tunnels. May the heavens protect their souls.
It all began when my dearest servant, Eunuch Cheng, had come down with a severe illness. It was said that his body had become incredibly swollen, notably his stomach and legs. Our doctors said that he had a deficiency in yang energy, but I don’t think they knew what was happening either. In any case, we prescribed our best medicine and prayed for his recovery. It did not happen.
One day, he disappeared. We searched the whole province for him, but we didn’t find him. It strangely coincided with a whole village going missing as well, but the two events did not seem to correlate at this time. I was such a fool.”
The next set of words were horribly mushed; a disappointing condition since it was just about to explain the transformation of Eunuch Cheng into the Beast of Lust. But at the very least, the documents explained what had happened to the fortress.
“Large spiders infested the compound while the demon’s minions sealed off the entrances and exits of the city. Their countless numbers were no match for our spears and crossbows, let alone our walls. The fortress fell to the arms of darkness in the blink of an eye. All of man can fall just as well.”
There was one final paragraph. “I have no hope for my survival, but I can only hope for man’s survival. Word has traveled about the prophecy of the Envoy of Man. He is a warrior who has surpassed the limitations of humanity, and is willing to fight against the demons of today. So long as he exists, humanity may have hope.”
Xiaojun was interrupted with the gurgling flow of blood by his feet. He dropped the documents and readied his weapon. If he hoped to fight against the Beast of Lust, he knew he had to fight another godly being first. “I am ready.”