"Yin Meili!!!"
Xin Dongyang yelled in anger. How long had it been since he'd felt such tumultuous emotions? Perhaps back when he first took a life? Or maybe it was when he faced a Shedding Mortality expert while being a greenhorn unity realm cultivator? No... He felt almost nothing for either of those situations. At most, he only felt slight amusement at such, but now...
"What?" Yin Meili, who heard Xin Dongyang, asked in an annoyed voice while the serpent she created faded away.
"NOOO!!" Dongyang ran as fast as he could. "CROWNED WORM!" His voice was filled with such deep worry that did not even appear when he saw his bloodied half-brother on the cusp of reaching the nether world. Well, to be fair he was technically the one responsible for that...
Anyways!
Dongyang knelt before the remains of the crowned worm, trying to hold onto whatever was left of it, but it all crumbled apart under his touch.
"NO—! Hm? This..." As he was about to mourn for his fallen sand/moneybag, Dongyang noticed something. There were remnants of his Bleeding Flames, which meant that it was still alive to some extent. Soon, he saw an odd-looking black jewel with crimson flames flickering upon its surface.
"Oh!" The remains of the crowned insect were heartlessly flung away as Dongyang grabbed the jewel and sneakily threw it into his spatial ring (which he had snatched from a "friend"). Immediately after, he sneaked a wary glance at Yin Meili as if she would steal his treasure at any moment.
"I won't steal it, you bastard!"
Noticing this, Yin Meili shouted in annoyance.
"I always knew I could trust the magnanimous and graceful lady of the Yin family!" With a bright smile, Dongyang brought both magnanimity and the Yin family's name into his words in an attempt to slyly trap the young lady within her own words.
"O-of course, I would never do anything so disgraceful!"
Yin Meili fell for the trap, her lips slightly upturned and her cheeks taking on a slightly reddish hue.
...
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...
Resting upon his bed after completing the "cleanup" until late at night, Dongyang held the Crowned Worm's jewel as he lay down, smiling gleefully. "Hehe~ This should be more than enough for a month, right?"
Seeing this, one might think of Dongyang as a materialistic person, and they would be damn right! Xin Dongyang was someone who loved money, women, and food the most. He would gladly kill half his family if it meant he'd get all his desires fulfilled for the rest of his life. If there was one other thing that he enjoyed as much as his desires, it would be a good fight, but those came far and few in between. Moreover, while he liked good fights, he despised fights where he'd lose!
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To put it simply, Xin Dongyang cared for his desires and indulgence the most, and the rest was simply not important to him. This was also the reason why Xin Dongyang and Yin Meili did not get along.
...
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...
About a month ago...
Like he had done multiple times for the past month, Dongyang was sitting inside a "tavern-like" place that the western branch leader of the Profound Heavens Sect had provided for the young disciples to relax at.
This was a great place for the Western branch disciples to associate themselves with someone from the core branch of the Profound Heavens sect, the hegemon sect of the central continent. Xin Dongyang himself only visited this place for two reasons— Firstly, the food was truly divine, a luxury that Xin Dongyang hadn't had in a while.
The other reason was his "sworn brother" Wang Anyu. This guy liked alcohol "A LOT". However, as a loose cultivator and an outsider, he wouldn't have been able to feast on the mystical wines of the "tavern". So, Xin Dongyang invited him and visited with him quite often. This was a great way to familiarize and get to know the young cultivator. The only problem being...
"Beh!"
Xin Dongyang did not like alcohol, not just because it was bitter (though that did contribute a lot), but also because alcohol muddles one's mind, bringing them closer to a beast than a human. It was simply incomprehensible to him why anyone would drink such a thing that leaves them in a state so vulnerable.
"...You still act like that, huh?"
Wang Anyu, who saw him act like this yet another time, couldn't help but frown. "Why do you even try to drink then? It's not like it would taste different all of a sudden."
"Tsk tsk!" Dongyang simply waved his index finger dismissively at his sworn brother's words. "Such things are kind of ritualistic in nature, aren't they? Just like how friends must have a meal together!"
"Haa..." Wang Anyu sighed. "You take a sip and then let the rest of the wine go to waste."
"It doesn't go to waste~" Dongyang claimed proudly.
"Huh?"
"Well, you see..." Dongyang closed in towards Wang Anyu sitting opposite to him before continuing in a hushed tone, "...that lady over there drinks my leftover."
Looking towards the place Dongyang sneakily pointed at, Anyu found a pretty-looking young woman about 18 years of age who was staring at Dongyang with a mesmerized gaze.
"..." Wang Anyu felt a bit strange regarding this. Should he be worried for his friend who was being pursued by "such a woman," or should he be envious of him for being chased by "such a woman"? Truly an enigma.
Just as he stared at his friend with a complex expression, the door to the tavern opened up, and a young lady followed by an entourage entered the tavern.
Even Wang Anyu, who prided himself on his self-restraint as a sword cultivator, felt his will waver in front of the woman who seemed as beautiful as the mystical immortals. No, she was even more so than just that. Her silver hair and sapphire-like eyes that seemed to reflect the greatest of depths... She truly seemed divine amidst mortals.
"Huh?" Belatedly, Wang Anyu realized his friend was going towards the beauty. 'Ha... This guy just never stops, does he?'
He truly failed to understand how someone as frivolous as Dongyang could comprehend the profundities of Dao. And just as he expected a scene of seduction to begin, something unexpected happened.
"Oh, if it isn't Yin family's young(immature) lady!"
"Oh, that bark. You must be from the Xin family!"
"Huh? Could you please speak human? I don't quite understand snake tongue!"
They began a fight right away...
...
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...
It was well over 10 minutes before both fell silent.
"Hm? And who might this be?" Dongyang asked, glancing at the boy standing close to Yin Meili.
The boy with deep black hair smiled. "My name is Yin Huan, a pleasure to meet you. As our senior here, please do take care of me and my sister~" The boy, who seemed quite young, had a soft smile as he spoke.
"Uh... Yeah, sure."
Dongyang's unsure answer further surprised Wang Anyu as he stared at the scene from the sidelines.
...
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...
Reminiscing about the past and recalling bittersweet memories that now seemed to be intertwined with Yin Huan, Dongyang soon fell asleep cradling the black jewel in his arms.
--- Character sheet ---
Name: Xin Dongyang
Age: 23
Cultivation Base: Unity realm
Title(s): Blood Fiend, Maddened Blood, Bastard, Lesser Blood, Lecherous Bastard (by Yin Meili), Brother Xin(by Yin Huan) etc.
Likes: Women, food, sleep, fights, his brother, and money, etc.
Dislikes: Alcohol, naivety, Xin family, etc.
Born to the Xin Family patriarch and a nascent soul cultivator of limited talent, a boy who was treated as an illegitimate child despite there being no such thing among the main lineage of the family. Having lost her first son to the cruelty of the family's "cultivation of a true heir," Dongyang's mother raised him to be someone who would never be hurt by the world, sowing a deep distrust towards the world within him and moulding him into someone who could survive any ordeal despite not having anyone by his side. His mother died at quite a young age from the burden of having sired two of his father's children despite her meagre strength.