In a pavilion floating on a small lake, a naive looking girl had her gaze fixed on a young man standing opposite to her.
"You want me to-" the girl paused mid sentence unable to completely process the request the man had made.
"You want me to gouge out my eyes?" she said completely this time as the man had not corrected himself nor elaborated.
He merely stood there awaiting her reply.
If you looked from afar the man may have been invisible, he was dressed in a black cultivator robe seeming as it had been crafted from the night sky itself and had hair as dark as the feathers of a raven.
"No, no, I want you to gouge out your eyes and give them to me, such a special pair of eyes definitely can't go to waste." the young man replied with a smile on his face, as his hand slowly extended to her chin, raising it to have her match his gaze.
"I-I.""Since you have already seen my face, why would you need those pretty little eyes of yours, don't tell me you intend to look at other men." the man interjected, a tone of dissatisfaction present in his voice, the hand that held her chin fell and returned behind his back.
He began to turn around and leave before the girl screamed out.
"NO, I WOULD NEVER!" the girl spoke hysterically as she gazed at his almost hypnotically charming appearance, his hair was cut into something like a long wolf cut and his physique spoke volumes of the years of dedication and hard work he had put into shaping it.
But it was his eyes that truly captivated the attention of others a deep burning red that seemed to defy description, drawing one in with an otherworldly depth that hinted at hidden truths just beneath the surface.
"Your actions will tell me, either you value the power of the eyes or you value me." the man said with a deceptive smile.
The water surrounding the pavilion rippled violently as she quickly plucked out her eyes as silently as possible and with no hesitation, despite the bloody scene and some of the blood even falling on to the mans dark robe and disappearing his smile never faded.
she lifted her trembling hands which were carrying her eyes towards the man, she didn't grunt or scream or even complain about the pain.
The man smiled before brushing his fingers over where her eyes used to be, causing the bleeding to stop completely."Please don't be mad." the girl spoke, her voice trembling uncontrollably and her hands reaching out to him as if she had committed a great sin.
The man looked at the pair of eyes as he held them, one was emitting a unique golden hue and the other resembled the shine of the moon instead. A pair of eyes that were said to be able to see through the secrets of heaven and earth.
"How could I?" the man spoke as her eyes disappeared and entered his storage ring.He slowly pulled her into a soft embrace.
"After all I'm not one to hold grudges against the dead." he said as he tightened his hands around her.
The girl flinched as a dagger was slowly shoved into her heart. She had not even had the chance to speak before her life was snuffed out.
It was truly a shame that the owner of the Lunar Sun eyes had been so naive this time around, if she had not been so easily swayed no one could have obtained those eyes.
The conditions to obtain the eyes were simple, they must be handed over willingly and the prior holder of the eyes must be dead.Of course, if the girl knew about those two conditions, she might have been more hesitant to hand them over.
He slowly laid down the girls body, she had not offended him rather it was the heavens that let her be born with those eyes.
He hoped that in death she would chose to blame the heavens rather than him, of course if she did blame him he wouldn't care. He had already lost count of the amount of people he had laid to sleep.
"YOU MAGGOT!" a voice reverberated for what felt like miles.
The man quickly took flight, he had not been expecting the act to begin so quickly."STOP RUNNING!" a figure that was barely visible in the distance behind him exclaimed.
The man didn't respond and merely smirked before continuing to fly, the chase lasted for 3 hours before they arrived at the edge of a forest.
"What's the problem? Can't you see, she willingly handed me her eyes."
The chasing figure finally caught up to the man and revealed itself to be an old man.
"Thank you for saving me the trouble and flying all the way to this forest, void of witnesses."
The pursuer seemed to have lost his prior rage and urgency.The young man slowly landed on the ground and began to walk backwards slowly with his hand slightly raised above his head."
Stop with your posturing, you wanted the eyes as well, it's your fault you weren't persuasive enough to obtain them.
Not to mention you let me lead you here on purpose, otherwise with your speed you could have caught me immediately."The old man frowned at the comment."Since when does the Demonic Crow Feng Zhiming have the shamelessness to lecture others on morality."
They continued to walk deeper into the forest, the scene illuminated by the bright shine of the moon."I have never been a righteous man, but you actually recruited others to steal your granddaughter's eyes. Something about a woman not deserving a warrior's gift?"The old man smiled.
"Nonsense I'm merely disposing of the bastard who killed my granddaughter, who would suspect anything else. After all, dead men tell no tales."
Feng Zhiming stopped walking backwards and slowly extended his hand before opening it, revealing the eyes.The old man felt greed take a hold of him and walked closer to snatch them.
"Indeed, I was a fool for taking this deal, however."
As he spoke, two glowing eyes appeared within the darkness behind him.
"There are fools more foolish than even a fool." the silhouette with the glowing eyes spoke
Feng Zhiming smiled as the old man tried to walk backwards.
"Tha- That's a f-f-fourth order d-d-demon beast."
A wolf with silver hair that resonated with the moonlight stepped forward and revealed its teeth sharp enough to chew through iron like butter.
Feng Zhiming turned around and respectfully cupped his hands.
"Senior, I have brought you an actualized core ready for the taking, this fulfills our deal"
The old man tried to stand up and run, but was restrained by a mysterious force.
"Demonic crow, please help me, I will give you anything you want!"Desperation took a hold of the old man."
Leave and never return, puny human."
The demon beast replied as it slowly walked towards its dinner.Internally the beast knew that even if it wanted to eat Feng Zhiming it could easily catch up to him.
Feng Zhiming wasn't stupid either, he knew the beast didn't actually let him go yet, in fact it was likely that it would chase him after it was done with the old man.
"I CURSE YOU TO AN ETERNITY OF DESPAIR!" the old man spoke his last words.
Feng Zhiming immediately took flight, turning around just once to see the old man devoured by the demon beast, a truly stomach turning scene.
"Wishing me eternal life, quite a generous man."
After watching the stomach churning scene he carefully followed the wolf, he made sure to suppress his aura completely, becoming nearly undetectable even by the demon beast.
Slowly the beast started to show signs of weakness and fatigue and sat down, it closed its eyes.
As Feng Zhiming continued to watch, he knew the time was near.
"Even a mighty fourth order beast can be brought down by the right ingredient."
"CUNNING HUMANS AND THEIR DASTARDLY TRICKS!!!"
the wolf demon roared, shaking the entire forest.
The wolf trembled and vented its anger on the surroundings before convulsing and promptly dying.
"Haha."
Feng Zhiming laughed as he walked over to the body of the beast.
"Seems like there are fools greater than fools after all. Too arrogant to assume there are ways to die other than battle."
This was truly the banes of demon beasts, unversed in the intricacies of human tricks.Although he couldn't blame the wolf's intellect too much, who would have believed that he had somehow poisoned the old man he had tricked into being the wolf's meal.
From the very first meeting in the restaurant where he made the deal with the old man, he had planned for this very moment to come into fruition.He stuck his hand inside the wolf and gouged out a glowing orb.
"A gorgeous set of eyes and the core of a fourth order demon beast, the profit is pretty good this time."
The demonic crow name wasn't just an arbitrary title that Feng Zhiming had obtained, he had swindled and double-crossed an innumerable amount of people.
Thus the public took it upon themselves to recognize him as a malicious demonic crow.It was commonly known that if a crow entered your life it was a sign of bad things to come.
Feng Zhiming had naturally lived up to this reputation.He would have to hold on to the eyes until he gained some sort of method to implant them but the core could help him cultivate immediately.
"The moon sure is beautiful tonight." he was in a very good mood.The shine of the moon fell upon him illuminating the figurative and literal blood on his hands but he didn't care.
He was simply mesmerized by the sight, the sort of beauty one could only stand and admire. As he was about to return to his cave some sort of force acted on him.
"What the hell." he spoke as he attempted to move but seemed to almost lose all sense of self.
A white light surrounded him before he vanished.
As he slowly became aware, he could not see anything as it was pitch black, even his spiritual sense which acted as a sensory tool that could operate within a 50-meter radius of him was null and void.
"Kill the person next to you or die." A monotone voice sounded from somewhere unknowable.