Ying Feixu was bent over by the water, too large to be a puddle but too small to be called a pond. pitch-black hair and sharp crimson eyes were reflected in the water, distorted by the occasional ripple that arose when the blood running down her face fell into the water. Her face was a bit twisted, her expression skewed. But was it due to the ripples or was that actually the face she was putting on right now.

"Pathetic. You're pathetic. Again and again, you're nothing but weak. A pathetic hollow thing that can't even imitate."

She could hear her own voice, the gnashing of her teeth as she looked at her twisted reflection, cursed it. She had only been here for a handful of moments so the scenes of the previous massacre were still vivid in her mind, the blood that had splashed her was still warm and wet. She gazed into the water, now murky with misty threads of blood, each one twirling around her reflection like chains.

"Dammit!"

The water exploded upwards as she cursed, her Qi running wild. She... had been afraid. When they faced the sea of people hunting for Huang Ying's bounty, when she faced the towering aura birthed from their gathering. Her heart had thumped and her fingers had quivered, she didn't want to admit it, but she had been afraid as she stood there.

Why was she afraid? She lived to kill, she was a twisted being who existed just to kill him. He was the chains that had dragged her down to the earth, he was the spear that brought her out of her promised spot in the sky and nailed her to the ground. She lived to kill him, fear was not something she should be able to feel.

But he had stood in front of her. Twisted and disturbed, a skewed grin drenched in more blood than the world had to offer. He held his spear and promised them one thing, just a single thing, today would not be the day that they died. And she had felt safe. At that moment, she felt as safe as she did back when she was still in her egg, before he had pushed her down to the dirt.

It was nauseating. She hadn't even been able to make a single move against him, launch a single sneak attack in hopes of killing him. She had simply moved with the rest of the group and guarded his back, killed those who aimed for his life. Worst of all was that this wasn't even the first time, she had fought with him and helped him several times already, guarding his back, looking at him from behind.

Sure, she had attacked him once or twice from the back, and each time she had been countered violently. But how many chances had she actually wasted? How many attacks would never find their mark because she couldn't launch them?

But worst of all, the thing she could forgive the least, was how hollow she was. She couldn't even put up a paltry imitation, couldn't fake the slightest depth. It was pathetic, wretched even, unbecoming of the exalted blood that flowed in her veins.

"Eh? Aren't you the one who ran around with the bounty target? Was my breakfast laced with sprinkled luck?"

A voice reached Ying Feixu as she cursed, glaring daggers at the reflections she saw in the drops of water that were falling down around her. A thousand hers, a thousand pathetic targets to curse. Her gaze slid past the hateful reflection and landed on the source of the voice, a slightly dishevelled man who was just breaking through the dense shrubbery that grew around the water.

He didn't look like he had been in a fight, more like he had been trampled into the dirt and dust. He was probably one of the people that had been trying to cash in on Huang Ying's bounty but ended up getting swept away by the horde of people. A pitiful man who had been pushed down and trampled, a pitiful man who mistook misfortune for fortune. The man placed his hand on the sword at his waist, his brown eyes gleaming slightly as he leaned forward.

"If I take you hostage, do you thi...Ghuk!?"

The man's feet had barely left the ground when his words were suddenly halted by a pained groan. A metallic black wing covered in red veins had burst out from Ying Feixu's back and latched onto the man, each feather digging into his flesh like jagged teeth. The wing was pulled back and the man was brought along, coming face to face with the blood-drenched Ying Feixu.

"My mood's as shit as can be right now, so thank you for offering yourself."

Her voice was as cold as the winds of the Frozen Sky, the blood running down her body starting to steam and evaporate as her Qi started to seep out. The man was restrained by the one wing so he had no way to escape Ying Feixu's arm as she stretched it out, a small crystal claw forming at the tip of her finger and slicing open the man's stomach.

"Liver comes first... Mother made it very clear that it was the best part."

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She dug her hand into the open wound as she muttered to herself, digging into the memories her mother had left within her. Her hand rummaged through the man's organs until she felt the liver, clenching her hand around it and pulling it out. The liver she extracted was rather dark and looked a little dried, almost scarred.

"Tch, of course you're an alcoholic."

The law of devouring surged out from her hand and sank into the liver, quickly eating away at most of it. But she didn't allow the law to eat it all, she wanted to experience what her mother had in the past. So she left a small handful of flesh and put it in her mouth, chewing it for a bit before she swallowed it with a slight grimace.

"Disgusting. What a waste you are."

Ying Feixu gnashed her teeth slightly, the slimy yet gnarled texture of the liver still lingered in her mouth, stuck between her teeth. The man trembled, a silent scream trying to escape his mouth. He wished that he could die, but for better or for worse, his cultivation allowed him to survive lethal things a bit longer than most others. So he had the misfortune of being alive as Ying Feixu kept talking to herself.

"Next was... Kidneys."

Her hand plunged back into the man's abdomen and rummaged through his organs, pushing them aside without regards for his suffering. She located his kidneys and pulled them out, blood spraying through the air as she pulled her hand back and started chewing on the kidneys. But rotten men would only produce rotten things, her expression remaining a grimace.

"Disgusting, it's all just disgusting. Let's hope your heart has at least retained a shred of that memorized taste."

Ying Feixu herself didn't really know why she was talking, it wasn't something befitting of a Demonic beast. A true beast would just tear the man apart to get to the good bits, scarfing them down ravenously without regard for anything else. But she took her time, one by one she plucked them, talking all the while, to both him and herself.

She licked her lips after she swallowed the kidneys, a few crimson drops slowly making their way down her chin. She plunged her hand back into the man's abdomen, quickly locating his heart and curling her fingers around it. She could feel it thump, a weak and panicked rhythm. Was this how her heart had beaten when she faced the horde, had she made the same sound inside as this man? Her grimace contorted further as the thought struck her.

"Disgusting, disgusting, why is it all so disgusting. Tell me, wastrel, do you think I'm weak?"

She felt pathetic. Why was she asking him? Why was she seeking approval, comfort, from a thing like this man? Disgusting, right now the taste in her mouth was more disgusting than even the taste of his fetid liver.

"Yes, yes I do think you're weak. Heh, what a sad sight."

The one that answered her question wasn't the pitiful man in her grasp, no, that familiar and almost disdainful chuckle came from behind. Ying Feixu's hand clenched unintentionally, crushing the poor man's heart and finally ending his misery. Her head turned and her gaze slid over, landing on the two youths forcing their way through the dense shrubbery.

Pitch-black hair and a lopsided grin tinged with insanity. But above all those eyes, those damned eyes. As black as his hair, as black as the night sky. In those eyes, she could get lost, her soul could get sucked right into them, forever lost. Those eyes were the entrance to the abyss, the eternally deep darkness that could swallow all. He wasn't hollow, he was deep and all-encompassing, that was what it meant to be the abyss.

"Do you want to know why you're weak, Ying Feixu? Well, do you?"

Huang Ying ignored Ying Feixu's vicious glare and kept walking towards her, he didn't even glance at the hapless victim hanging limply in front of her. Song Yi glanced at him for a short second but then also retracted her gaze, be it coincidence or fate, the three most twisted individuals of their group had been the ones to gather first.

Ying Feixu glared at Huang Ying, she was sitting while he was standing so she had to raise her gaze to meet his eyes. He had stopped right in front of her and tilted his head downwards, staring straight into her crimson pupils while maintaining his expression.

"You're weak because you're weak. A piddly handful of failures and you grumble, a thing or two don't go your way and you get angry. Your mind is as fragile as glass, every setback or failure flares up your emotions and cracks your confidence. What's the point in grumbling and questioning yourself? Is that the extent of your determination, is it so weak that something as pathetic as failure can break it?"

She wanted to kill him, he knew that exceedingly well. Her first words had been a declaration of hatred towards the man that brought her down. She had tracked him down for that very purpose, asked him to train her for that very purpose, followed him around for that very purpose. That was her determination, born when her egg cracked. Was that determination really as weak as the egg she came from?

"Stand up, Feixu. You will never take my head sitting around like that, you'll never even scratch my skin if you look so pathetic. So stand up and stop questioning yourself, determination has no room or time for something as small as self-doubt."

Huang Ying's reached out as he spoke up, offering his hand. He hadn't noticed it himself, but Song Yi had. He had a habit, a habit of reaching his hand out to broken things. Her, Chen Hong, Ying Feixu, the lion that tried to kill him, the bandit abandoned by his companions, and now Ying Feixu again. Some people collected shiny things, weapons, trinkets, art, but Huang Ying seemed to collect broken things, battered people with more determination than life.

Ying Feixu looked at that hand he held out. Looking at it she felt the same she did when she looked at his back as they faced the horde of people. Safety, a touch of comfort, ease. The disgusting taste filled her mouth again, that uncomfortable taste she couldn't quite place her finger on. She pulled her arm out from the dead man's abdomen and swatted away Huang Ying's arm, standing up on her own to face him.

"Fight me. Right here and now, fight me, Huang Ying."

Her Qi flared up as she spoke, her robe fluttering in the raging energy. She needed to fight, she needed to wash away that disgusting taste and reaffirm her own determination, she had to try and kill him. And faced with her flaring energy, Huang Ying simply showed that grin of his, that twisted grin that spilt so much blood.