Wei tumbled toward the ground, slamming against the sharp rocks and landing awkwardly. His limbs were entangled with the bloodied ribbon still wrapped around his wrists, yet he made no effort to set himself upright.

“Ah…”

A small, pitiful, and defeated groan was all Wei could muster as Ailun’s body thumped to the ground beside him soon after. Immediately, Wei diverted his gaze, turning his back on his little brother and Meihua's corpse.

Meihua was dead. Wei killed his own brother with these very hands.

Wei let out an anguished and animalistic moan, pressing the back of his hands against his shut eyes, which were riddled with tears as they streamed down his face. “Agh… I—” he stammered, “I… I…”

I can’t.

Those were the only words His Highness wanted to say, and Wei couldn’t even do that.

Because for someone who had fallen from such a dazzling height, Wei realized he couldn’t do a lot of things.

No matter how strong he was, he couldn’t save his people. No matter how loyal he was, it didn’t mean whoever he protected wouldn’t leave him in the dust, with no regard or care for him.

No matter how much he loved both Ailun and Meihua, he couldn’t save either of them. No matter how strong Wei was, no matter how many worshippers he had, no matter how many soldiers he killed before returning to Meihua in complete tears every day, Wei still couldn’t do anything.

In the end, Wei became nothing more than a stray dog kicked to the curb, tail tucked, and clinging onto memories of the generosity he once experienced.

And no one would even bother to throw him a scrap.

Daji sneered above him, her lips curled over her stained-red teeth and her fox eyes were slanted and menacing, full of malice and raging fire. Nine white tails flickered behind her slowly as if Daji were deeply entertained by the sight before her, and she lifted a slim paw to humorously shove and pull on Wei.

She batted him with his foot, and he accepted it. Peijin meant it when she wrote him as a, "stupid mutt."

How could any of this be fair? It wasn’t. It definitely wasn’t. But Wei was only a boy, freshly eighteen, and one who thought that the world was righteous as long as he worked hard enough. And he could always work hard enough—who was going to stop him?

The horrible reality of the world and people around him sank in.

“I thought I could change something,” Wei cried softly, Daji’s paw knocking him around on the ground as he clung onto the ribbon firmly, holding it against his chest in a feeble effort to protect it like it was his only thing left.

Protect if from what? Why did he even care? There was blood on his hands. There had always been blood on Wei’s hands. Wei was no saint, and he was no pinnacle of morality—how many families had he torn apart as he slaughtered their sons and daughters on the battlefield?

But, this was Ailun’s blood on his hands. With his own two hands, whether or not he was manipulated, Wei murdered his baby brother. That was the undeniable, indisputable truth.

Ailun and Meihua were dead, and it only made sense for Wei to be next.

His piercing headache only became worse and worse as it brought a fresh set of tears to his reddened eyes; it was accompanied by the bright flashing images of Peijin’s face and the face of a young blond girl who had endlessly clung onto Ailun.

The thought brought another rush of hot tears to his eyes as he cried even harder, Daji’s grin only growing into a horrific sneer.

How could Amelia ever handle the news that This Highness had killed her dearest friend, and his own little brother? There would be no body to take back—Ailun was nothing but a completely mutilated, erupted head and a small, limp body.

His blood on Wei’s hands. Wei’s. Wei's only. Ailun's blood on Wei's hands.

Fairness? Fairness?! Was this how he was supposed to be repaid for all he had done?! Was this all people ever wanted from him? And now, after he had lost it all, the rest of his days would be spent in the heavenly court.

What a sick, twisted, cruel joke—and the undeniable truth. Just like how Ailun's blood was on Wei's hands, and Meihua was only leftover scraps of meat and skin behind him.

“I’m really sorry, Peijin. I hope that your end is better than mine,” Wei prayed under his breath before grabbing the hilt of his sword.

Suddenly, Daji burst out laughing, cackling and howling with sheer pleasure.

“And here I thought you were the darling of the heavens!” She cried, her intonation rising and falling with each word like the shrill calls of a fox, “Dream on.

“You think it’s your fault, Your Highness? You’re wrong,” Daji spat, lowering her face so she was level with Wei’s dead and cold eyes. “The world has failed you. There is no justice or salvation, and you, with all your foolish thoughts, never recognized that.

“Do you think your people would’ve left you otherwise? Do you think they would’ve stabbed you in the heart thousands of times until you were nothing more than a puddle of flesh that stuck to the bottom of their shoes as they walked away?! Are you really that much of a fool?!

“The only one who has ever wronged you are all of the people you ever believed in,” Daji finished, her voice jeering and eyes slitted.

Anger flared in Wei’s heart, beginning as a small seed before it became a roaring fire in his chest. He grit his teeth to hold back his words back as his hands trembled violently.

Normally, His Highness would have never reacted so strongly to provocative words—it clashed the Four Books and Five Classics, which he preached to everyone around him.* Lead a good life, become a strong leader, cultivate a moral and righteous character...

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

But with Gang, Ailun, and Meihua gone, weren’t his people to blame? Wasn't there some truth in Daji’s words, even if she was a cruel and unforgiving beast?

With a growing shout, Wei stood up and lifted his sword, swinging it toward Daji’s head, his emotions bursting and overflowing out from his ruined body.

Wei tumbled forward, his blow missing as he landed on all fours again, clutching the ribbon like a crazed man.

Blood splattered all around him.

Wei slowly lifted his lowered eyelashes, bringing a hand up to his chest.

It wasn’t his blood.

Daji let out a wretched scream as Meihua’s black sword suddenly tightened, digging right through all of Daji’s fur and skin. The spiritual weapon seemed to have one last eruptive burst of energy as it cut into her large body, causing blood to spray out.

Reeling back, Daji clawed at her own body, trying to get the sword to loosen as it returned to its original light pink color and slowly fell off of her—the black energy that once possessed the blade began seeping into Daji’s body instead.

Without warning, Daji’s entire body began to twist as mysterious black forms pushed out of her body. Inky vomit erupted from her mouth as her eyes widened, bloodshot and trembling.

“Wei, you fucker!” Daji roared, latching her tails onto the nearby trees in a feeble attempt to steady herself. Her claws dug into the ground, but more and more black figures erupted from her face and resembled the tails of a snake.

“You fucking dog! You were married to a demon this entire time?! Ha ha ha, to think that even someone like His Highness would do such a thing!” Daji’s screams became more and more frantic as figures resembling serpents grew off of her body.

In futile, desperate attempts, Daji lit herself on fire in an attempt to stop the overflow of demonic energy. Her demonic energy was clashing with someone else's—Wei stared in utter disbelief.

Meihua? A demon? Never.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll really fucking kill you this time, Wei! You would let your wife die just to kill me?! I never took you to be that kind of man, Wei, you fucking womanizer! You’re just as twisted as the rest of us are!”

Daji’s physical form alternated between her countless disguises. Suddenly, she was a beautiful woman with long white flowing hair; a seductive concubine; a small and tattered fox.

With a heinous bellow, she returned to the massive demonic fox and shrunk her paw, sticking it straight down her throat and into her stomach. The sight was horrific as Daji fished around her body, desperately trying to fish out Meihua's demonic core.

Finally, she pulled out Meihua’s decapitated head and spine and threw it onto the ground.

Both Wei and Daji immediately noticed her piercing red eyes, and the black slits for her pupils.

Wei froze, no longer trembling. Nothing moved except for the steady stream of tears down his face. Finally, he understood.

Earlier, the serpent eye that was so easily crushed was a fake. The real one? Meihua had consumed it.

“Meihua,” Wei whispered under his breath, clutching his sword until his knuckles were white, “you stupid, stupid, stubborn woman.”

Consuming a demon’s core, in this case the serpent eye, was a way to absorb all of their demonic energy. If it was powerful enough, it would turn that person, or divinity, into a demon, though not without massive complications.

Demons never worked together. They were just as bad with people or divinities as they were with each other, and any attempt to murder another was always taken. Consuming another demon’s core would still assimilate all their power, however, that energy would fight against and try to overtake their demonic consumer.

As a solution, anyone who ever consumed a demonic core would go into isolation for days, weeks, or months, until the assimilation was complete.

For Meihua, a divinity, to have hidden as many signs of her transformation as she did was an impossible feat. It would have been completely grueling—one of the most painful experiences.

“You’re such a dummy, Meihua,” Wei faintly muttered, wiping his tears again as he turned away from Meihua’s corpse and jumped backward, his heart filled with tumultuous emotions ranging from frustration, anger, pity, spite, admiration, and undying sorrow.

"I wish I could have spent the rest of eternity with you.”

Wei never heard Meihua’s fleeting confession to Peijin and thus, he could only come to one misguided conclusion: Meihua did this to save her people.

Typically, martyrdom would evoke feelings of honor.

But, Wei only felt a growing spite for the very people Meihua died to save.

That included himself, and a deep self-loathing seeped all through Wei’s being.

As the serpent’s demonic energy flowed throughout Daji’s body, her white fur coat turned gray and black; she made a last ditch effort to transform her body, making it bigger and bigger as her limbs became contorted and bloated.

“This will be the last thing you ever see!” Daji roared, her face burlish and completely disproportionate. “Don’t forget that you’re still being persecuted! How do you think it’ll look now to the heavenly officials after you killed your own brother?! Ha!”

Her teeth were terrifyingly massive, one of her eyes was double the size of the other, and her lower jaw hung awkwardly from her mouth as she lunged straight toward Wei.

Filled with fresh anger, Wei’s eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed as he stood up, bringing his sword across his bloody body to defend himself, when suddenly two arms slammed into his back and lifted him into the air.

“Who told you to go running off like that?!” Peijin barked, straining to lift Wei’s heavy body onto the soaring Zhige. She slipped from the side of the sword and awkwardly fell, shouting as she fell onto Zhige’s hilt. “Where’s—”

Peijin immediately stopped speaking when she saw the ribbon in Wei’s hands. Doing her best to disguise it, she sneaked a peek back toward the corrupted and growing Daji—immediately piecing it together. She replied to him firmly.

“We’re heading back to the other temple in Anyang. The one with your parents. Citizens are trying to burn it down right now along with all of your other temples."

Wei's wide, lonely back faced her. Faced with this knowledge, he had no reaction anymore. Nothing but a foreign emptiness flowed through him.

“Peijin,” Wei began.

Peijin cut him off. “Whatever you’re worrying about, stop.”

Wei only repeated himself. “Peijin.”

“What?”

“Did you know this would happen?”

Peijin paused for a moment before trying to fill the silence with her awkward shuffling, standing up on the sword and guiding Zhige.

“No,” she finally replied.

“Then, Peijin, what are all these memories I keep getting?”

Zhige suddenly plummeted straight down before catching itself above the river. Wei’s stained robes whipped in the air, and he held the bloodied ribbon with a tight grip, gently stroking it with his thumb before he began to weep.

Peijin responded with nothing but complete silence. She lifted her hand and amateurly placed it on his shoulder.