"And the twins father... why did you kill him?" asked Han Xin struggling to hide the confusion in his eyes.
Xiang Yu's laughter turned bitter. "Why," he said. "If I didn't they would have died. That bastard killed their mother and almost killed them so yes... I ripped his heart out and made him watch as I crushed it." The whip remained silent gently snaking around Xiang Yu's arms.
Han Xin's footsteps crunched on the forest floor as he approached the young man. The air thickened with tension as his guilt gnawed at him. He had seen the darkness in this half-demon and the sinister aura that clung to him like a shadow but the young man hadn't harmed the innocent.
Han Xin's duty was to protect the innocent and punish demons, yet this young man was a paradox. "Why do you hunt demons?" Han Xin's voice cut through the silence, but Xiang Yu's glare remained unyielding.
He clenched his fists, veins throbbing, sweat dripping down his forehead onto the ground. He didn't want to say it. Why should he answer to him? His lips remained sealed, defiance etched into every line of his face.
Han Xin retracted the whip and its golden links released the young man, leaving seared marks. Before Xiang Yu could get up he focused his energy, freezing him in place. Xiang Yu's eyes widened when he realised he was trapped. He tried to move his hands and feet but his muscles wouldn't obey him.
"You... what are you going to do?" he asked slightly panicked. The forest seemed to hold its breath as Han Xin knelt beside the young man. He helped him sit up, guiding him to lean against a weathered tree trunk.
"Why do you hunt your own kind?" he asked again but Xiang Yu was too busy imagining all sorts of revenge scenarios in his head to answer.
Han Xin didn't force him to speak. His hands glowed with healing energy. The half-demon's wounds both physical and emotional were etched across his skin. Just from a mere touch, he could feel the hurt and pain in him. It was a miracle that his heart hadn't completely blackened and gone on a killing spree against the innocent.
"I apologise," he murmured, his voice carrying the weight of regret. "I misjudged you before. I thought you were the demon we were hunting down."
Xiang Yu's crimson eyes flickered open, surprise mingling with the sensation coursing through his body. One word that he could use to describe this weirdo would be 'crazy'.
He beat him up for no reason and now he was apologising to him. Soon all the curses in his mind were pressed at the back of his head as he was overwhelmed by the healing energy seeping into his body. The sensation was so intense it bordered on divine. He had absorbed demon cores countless times and tasted their power, but this... this was different. It was as if the forest itself whispered secrets into his veins, knitting his bone and sealing wounds.
"Why?" Xiang Yu asked his voice raw and vulnerable.
Han Xin hesitated for a moment, his gaze distant. "I hurt you so it's only right that I take responsibility.
Xiang Yu closed his eyes again his thoughts in a jumbled mess. He had been struck down plenty of times before but no one cared to take responsibility for the shit they had done to him. None of them did except for this person.
"What do you want from me? You aren't letting go of me so you must want something," he said and for a while Han Xin couldn't come up with the right words. This person was dealt with a bad hand from birth and should have been rotten to the core yet he had a good heart. This rarity was quite intriguing to him.
"I only want to talk to you," he said and Xiang Yu scoffed. He wanted to mock him but the words wouldn't come to him. That's because the cracks in his half blood demon core began to mend. The power he felt surpassed anything he had known, eclipsing even the demon cores. He felt the power in his body surge like it had been given a boost. The flow of energy in his body was suddenly cut off and the hands holding his arms retreated. Xiang Yu opened his eyes and he was met with the brightly lit sky.
It was a signal in the sky calling for assistance. Han Xin's expression tightened. "Stay here," he ordered as he got up. "I will be back."
Xiang Yu didn't even have the chance to demand that he release him from the spell when Han Xin vanished, leaving him leaning against the tree.
Xiang Yu struggled to move his limbs. He would crawl away like a worm if he had to. Just as his finger finally moved showing signs that the spell was wearing off his half-demon blood pulsed sensing something sinister approaching him. He looked around vigilantly but the forest was as still as death. A breeze tinged with the scent of roses suddenly blew by and Xiang Yu turned his gaze sharply in that direction.
A pair of long slender legs emerged from the shadows. A female demon, dressed in green appeared, her sword dragging along the ground.
"Damn that freaking immortal," he murmured under his breath trying to frantically move his hand and grab his sword but all his efforts were futile.
Her smile was evil and her aura suffocating she crouched before him. Xiang Yu recognised her. She was the one his father had sitting on his lap that day. It was one of his favourite concubines but why was she here? His father had other demons to do his dirty work so why would she be here personally? His jaw clenched tightly his eyes glinting a fierce light.
She didn't want to be here as well. She would rather be in the Demon King's arms making out with him. But plenty of demons had been slaughtered in the human realm over the past few years.
At first, the lord didn't care about it but the number of demons dying kept growing. What finally made him take action was when one of his high-ranking assassins got killed and his core ripped out of his body.