Cold. Hunger. Fear. Death. These were all principles that Hua became familiar with ever since she was a mere pup. At that time, her name was simply “Fourteen.” With bars holding all of the huli jing in a cage, their only world would be the world inflicted upon them. “I would like to remind all of you that I do not enjoy this,” the man would say. “I just have a business to run.”
Sir Zheng Qiang was someone who didn’t enjoy his work. As the screams from the other levels reverberated through the castle, he would return with the stench of gibs and a deep sigh. “I need more of your blood. I apologize, my dear little foxes.” He would use a long spear-like syringe to reach one of the cages to extract a vial of blood. The fox being stabbed would cry in pain as the doctor removed his spear and placed the blood into a jar.
“Big issue with your blood is that, like human blood, it ends up hardening and being unusable,” the torturer would tell them. “I’ve already done plenty of experiments, such as observing how mosquitoes manage to keep the blood in a liquid form. Sadly, doing any sort of corruption or watering ends up ruining the nature of the blood. As a result, you will all have to stay here in this hellish basement.”
Over the years, Fourteen managed to piece more and more details together. Sir Zheng Qiang was a torturer. He would be given men and women who could never “crack.” As a result, Fourteen would sometimes hear him be addressed as “the knife.” The methods were simple. Inflict pain terrifying and horrific enough to bring people near death, then use the blood of the huli jing to revive the victim for more. An endless cycle that relied on fox blood to repeat over and over again.
But the worst part wasn’t these periods of torture. The screams were unbearable, but they were still distant in nature. The worst part about Zheng Qiang was when he had nobody to torture. With this “off time,” he had plenty more time to began something else: experimenting.
With his spear syringe, he would administer a tranquilizer to a random fox of choice. Everyone would be too terrified to intervene, as Zheng Qiang had plenty of methods to “reprimand resistance.” With this unconscious fox, he would transfer them to a new cage where he would commit his experiments right there and in front of the other foxes.
“Huli jing are known for their strange behavior and biology. For this reason, I must decode their abilities in depth,” he wrote in his journal. “I shall see what makes their bodies function, why they function like that, and what else can be done.” One of his first experiments was less of an experiment, and more of a dissection.
In her human form, the huli jing was being cut right open as each one of her limbs were stuck in chains. Her tail was being restrained as well. These chains weren’t there to stop resistance, since the foxes had lost any sense of hope or defiance a long time ago. “I just want you to remain still,” Zheng Qiang said as the girl screamed and cried.
With each stroke of his scalpel, the huli jing would slowly heal. “Interesting,” the torturer said. “But what is your maximum for healing?” The other foxes watched as he continued to cut and dice against the girl’s body, turning her into an open work of screaming art. “Please! Please kill me!” she cried. But the scientist ignored her demands and kept cutting away.
It went on for days, as the doctor was more focused on his work than his hunger and the fox continued to heal. But eventually, she stopped. Her body had become emaciated as her bones seemed to pop in her skin. With her chest open and parts of her intestines plopping out of her frame, the scientist made his conclusion. “It seems that their regeneration has a correlation with their satiation. If they starve, then they will be unable to regenerate. This makes perfect sense.” He then threw the body into an incinerator, burning the thing into a crisp.
Fourteen remembered that smell. The smell of burning flesh. It became the kind of smell that she could always remember by a simple reminder. Even the cooking of food could remind her of this smell. But there would be more that this scientist would do. “I still have a long way to go before I fully understand your kind.”
Fourteen remembered her fear when she felt the syringe press into her skin. She was still a young girl when it happened. But unlike the last couple of foxes, she was brought into a separate and quiet room with a bed and furniture. “Are huli jing capable of reading and writing?” Zheng Qiang wrote into his notebook. Perhaps this girl was just one of the lucky foxes.
This would be an ongoing experiment that would take place outside of his other gruesome works. Zheng Qiang would teach the girl calligraphy, math, science, and many of the principles of the world through textbooks and calm teaching. It was strange. It was as if the man was composed of three different people. The man present to torture people. The man present to experiment on the huli jing. And the far gentler man who taught the world to Fourteen.
“Fourteen,” Zheng Qiang said. “I wish to reward you for your good conduct and ability in learning. How about I reward you with a name?” he proposed. Fourteen, now being a little older, looked at her master expectantly. “A name?” she thought. “But isn’t Fourteen a good enough name?”
“People aren’t given numbers for names,” Zheng Qiang stated. “If you were fortunate enough to be born as a human, then you would’ve had a normal name. Do you have one that you would like to use?” All of these words made messes in the fox girl’s head. From the fact that she was nothing but an object since she wasn’t human, to the idea of a normal name.
“You showed me a book,” Fourteen stated. “It was a beautiful book with flowers and plants which dazzled and stood strong as even the harshest of winters couldn’t take all of them.” As a result, she gave her answer. “Hua. The character for flower. I want to be like a flower,” she said. The doctor wrote it down on a piece of paper and showed it to her. “A beautiful name.”
Hua continued to learn more and more, learning how to write her name and how to write whole paragraphs. It was as if she was a noblewoman being taught the ways of the pen. It made her forget all about her years of torment and fear. Then one day, as Zheng Qiang left her room, something accidentally dropped from his body: a set of keys.
Hua picked them up and stared at them. Right here in front of her was the chance to escape. “But why?” she thought to herself. Here she was, wearing a red dress offered by Zheng Qiang. Her stomach was full from good meals of meat and vegetables. Her body finally felt warm from the heating in the walls and room. She no longer felt the cold or hunger. Hua didn’t have the innate fear of death in this room. But if she returned to that cold world around her, then all of those nightmares would return to haunt her once more.
But there was something else. If she stayed in this room, she would have a comfortable life under the care of a man who had somehow become like a father. “But if I stay,” she thought to herself, “I’ll never be able to see those flowers.” In the end, she took her chance.
The dungeon was like a maze, but she continued to push through. Even as the cold stone reminded her of repulsive days as a captive, she continued to push through. Even as the stench of death and the screaming of suffering reverberated around her, she continued to push through. In the end, she pushed through and threw herself through a door. Perhaps she would now see a sunny and blue world beholding beauty and life.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Landing outside, she saw none of it. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw nothing but gray and dark. The green grass she had read about was nothing but a dead field of nothingness. There wasn’t a single living flower as the gray sky continued to float above her. Not even the sun was visible from this angle. Hua was promised a beautiful world, and received nothing but an extension of the cage she was once trapped in.
“My experiment was a success,” Zheng Qiang said as he looked from above. “When given the opportunity to escape, even when given a comfortable life, she decided to venture forth without even a map to guide her. Perhaps it is because, in the end, the only real differentiation the huli jing have from humans is the mere ability to transform and heal.” He left a final sentence. “Thank you Hua. For everything you taught me.”
Suddenly, from behind, a sword pierced into his skull. Zheng Qiang’s body slumped to the ground as the perpetrator panted. He was a human prisoner who managed to escape from his chains. “This is what you get for what you’ve done.” He spat on the torturer’s corpse and set his sights to destroying the entire castle.
Hua, who was miles away at this point, watched as the castle exploded into stone and rubble. It was as if her entire world was being destroyed with one swift move. Though she didn’t know who did it or why, she just knew that there was no going back. She could only look forward.
But now here she was: sitting in another dungeon as a result of her own foolishness. Hua had gotten older, but in the end, she was the same stupid pup who was trapped in a cage. With chains around her hands, legs, and even tails, she was reminded of the cold and fear that this world inflicted.
Slowly, footsteps came from the darkness as a door opened. Before her was a fat dumpling-like lord who smelled horrid, like a putrid mix of puss, sweat, and shit. If she could make comparisons, it was like smelling a dead body. “I am Lord Luo. I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” he spewed.
There was something even stranger about this man other than his smell and inhuman look. It was as if his own speech and behavior was inhuman, as if he were a mere lump of flesh under the control of unknown forces or spirits. “I want a strong heir who will be capable of winning my battles,” he said.
Hua scampered back, her eyes filling with fear as she came face to face with evil itself. “You sick bastard! What are you talking about?” The creature began to laugh as he blathered on. “My wife was unable to bear a child, since her womb was weak. I had to do a lot to punish her!” He said this with a smile as he picked up a blade.
He struck the air with his blade, simulating what had happened. “I punished her womb! I continued to punish it as blood spewed and flowed from her body! As the red flowed from her legs, tears flowed from her eyes!” This was no man, but a monster wearing human flesh. Hua stammered as she backed herself against the wall.
“Since then,” the monster added, “I’ve been ensuring that I have plenty of heirs. My men have been ordered to deliver me plenty of fertile women that I must inseminate. From there, I plant my heir inside and like a beautiful parasite, they eat their way out of the women! This is great, you see! I need strong heirs!”
“What in the hell are you?” Hua screamed. Then it dawned on her. All of the things she had seen and learned from Xiaojun. Perhaps this man used to be a nice and genuine lord. But now that the four beasts have been freed, this man has been possessed by the clutches of evil. “How did this happen? Who did this to you?” Hua muttered.
The beast stood still. Suddenly, he slapped himself as his eyes filled with genuine life. His face, as if returning to its usual self, looked more human as if the demon in him was momentarily expunged. “Girl! The keys! Here!” Quickly, he tossed them to her, his mind and body at war with itself. “You must get yourself far from here, do you understand?” Hua did as instructed and removed her chains. “How did this happen?” she asked.
The man slammed himself into the wall, falling to the ground. “I was visited by a strange and terrifying apparition! One covered in chains as its emaciated body was covered in scars and inhuman horns and needles! He said that I was the perfect candidate for his return! Not because I was a man of sin, but because I was a man of virtue!”
He tipped forward, his arm clawing for the girl as his other arm restrained himself. Hua scampered to her feet as she began to run. “Get far away from here!” the lord cried. “Run before it’s too late!” Hua ran without thought as escape became her only focus. It was just like when she escaped from Zheng Qiang, only she was now older and less naive about the world.
The entire fortress was like a labyrinth of stone and blood as the stench was just as horrible as the smell that came from the possessed lord. It was as if the demon not only converted the lord, but also the entire fortress into a monument of evil and sin. Some of the hallways and passages contorted and curved as if the dark magic of the new world forced them to distort.
Hua turned and opened a random door to the side, using the lord’s keys to unlock it. But upon opening it, she was met with a horrid and graphic surprise. Lined against both of the walls were chained women, or at least what was left of them. Hua gagged as she looked at their mangled bodies. Parts of their faces and bodies looked eaten from the inside as the skin caved inward, since no bone was there to hold them up and no muscle present to provide substance. Though the manner and severity differed, what was common was the large gaping hole present in the stomach and womb area. It was as if something had exploded from inside.
Hua ran out of there as fast as she could, The demonic lord didn’t give a single lie about his own disgusting crimes against any woman who was within his grasp. “Where are you little girl?” the possessed lord echoed. He wasn’t close enough to be in sight, but his presence meant one thing: he had overthrown the little goodness remaining in the lord’s soul.
Making a turn, the wall suddenly transitioned from stone to wood as if the two buildings had made a strange and incoherent marriage into each other. Moving through, she realized that the dungeon had interconnected into the palace. Looking from a window, she saw that the hallway had seemingly crashed into the elegant building, as if the supernatural forces at hand changed the once elegant fortress into a sickening cacophony.
Even the walls and floor began to darken as root-like shadows molded into the brown eastern wood. The castle, in itself, was becoming infested with evil and sin. But as Hua attempted to leave the throne room, she opened the door only to find armored soldiers. “Humans! Thank the heavens!” Hua cried. “Your lord’s become possessed! Please help me!”
The soldiers, wearing eastern Jiaguonese armor and wielding polearms, marched forward and surrounded the girl. “Wait, what are you doing?” Hua asked. “Did you not hear me? Your lord has become a complete monster! You have to go stop him!” But the soldiers kept her captive. “There are things happening that we cannot explain,” one of the soldiers finally said. “But if I want to see my wife and son, I must comply with the lord’s orders.”
Their weapons shook as their morals battled themselves. “The lord is now capable of doing things we cannot even believe to be true. As our families were forced to move into the fortress due to the danger of living in the villages, he has every one of our families hostage,” he added. “If sparing you were an option, I would take it. But if I spare you, then he would kill every single one of us.”
Then, emerging from the dungeon, was the possessed lord. With puss and blood emitting from his pores and wounds, the sickening beast stepped forward, unbuckling his belt as he stared at Hua with a stare only a monster could emulate. “You will make me a glorious heir,” he said. “Your fox blood will allow me to create a true warrior befitting of my might and rule.” A tear fell from Hua’s eye as she wished for the warm and safe room that the old Zheng Qiang had made for her. “Please…” she prayed in her mind, “please save me…”
Then it happened. The window shattered as a figure dashed through. With glass exploding into the room, all eyes turned to a set of jingling armor as an emotionless warrior stood before all of them. Hua recognized him immediately. Though he had never told her his name, she could always remember him.
“Who are you?” the possessed lord bellowed. “Who are you to disturb my ritual of creating a new heir?” The warrior said nothing as he held his guandao ready. “My name is Zhao Xiaojun,” he said, “and I am here to rid the world of the four beasts.” Everyone readied for battle. “That means I am here to rid the world of you.” Hua held her breath. This would be a battle between demon and man.