"Here it is. The place with the delicious smell..."
Yuan Zhaoxian laughed maniacally while scattering blue ghost fire from his eyes.
That laughter was horrific, like scraping metal plates.
Inside his mouth, saw-like sharp teeth gleamed eerily, and his bright red throat was like an abyss whose depths couldn't be seen.
"Ugh..., uwaaaaah!"
The man who had wet himself at the bizarre sight charged forward impulsively.
An ordinary person would have lost their senses at the nightmarish sight before them.
However, these men had prowled the chaotic back alleys of Luoyang.
Though they weren't martial artists who could protect their minds with Inner Power, their fighting spirit forged in blood and violence was real.
"Die!"
The blade in his hand flashed.
Though there was no deception, it was a clean and fast strike that even he would admire.
"...!"
But the next moment he realized his wrist had been caught by the opponent.
For an instant, he thought how small and soft the opponent's palm was, without a single callus.
And it was colder than winter river water.
So cold that frost formed from his wrist.
"Uwaaaah...!"
He kicked at the opponent.
No, he tried to kick.
But the opponent's grip was much faster.
As if there were no bones or muscles.
More easily than crushing a cold dumpling.
Thud!
His hand holding the blade rolled on the ground, spraying blood.
"...Kyaaaah!"
The 'monster's' grip strength was so overwhelmingly powerful that his hand had been severed clean off.
As he fell backward clutching his spurting forearm, one of the thugs rushed in quickly.
He intended to firmly grip his blade with both hands and stab it into the monster's body with his full weight but...
Crack!
Sparks flew where the monster's palm met the blade.
"Ugh!"
From the impact like striking a stone wall, the thug lost his grip on the blade.
He tried to hastily retreat and look for another chance, but the monster catching both his wrists was much faster.
"Le-let go...!"
He screamed and struggled with all his might to escape the opponent's grip.
But no matter how much he struggled, the opponent's grip wouldn't budge.
It didn't even twitch.
And slowly began to squeeze.
"Uwaa, stop, stooop...!"
The action seemed almost regretful, as if the first crushing had been too quick, snapping the wrist too easily.
This time it was leisurely, as if wanting to see what would happen as force was gradually added.
There was no need to draw out demonic energy.
Just leisurely, unhurriedly, adding raw strength.
Soon came the sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing.
"Uwaaah! Uwaaaah!"
Even during this, the thug kicked wildly at the opponent, but it was no different from kicking a wall.
Rather, his broken ankle dangled loosely.
"Kyaaaah...!"
The sound of bones shattering to pieces and flesh being wrung out echoed through the alley along with screams.
Like squeezing juicy fruit pulp, a blood mist rose with the thick scent of blood.
"...Keurlrlrk."
The fallen thug twisted his whole body like a crushed insect in the filthy back alley.
His broken teeth mixed with blood flowed from his mouth from pain he had never imagined possible.
Though he would die from blood loss and terrible pain if left alone, the opponent had no intention of letting him go like that.
The thug felt both his ankles being grabbed.
The next moment his legs were torn off one at a time and rolled away.
Blood spraying from his legs that were practically pulled out drew long arcs on the alley walls.
This was neither martial arts nor fighting technique.
This was pure violence.
Toying with overwhelming physical strength.
"Uuh..."
The thug twitched for just a moment before going still.
"Hmm?"
A strange light flickered in Yuan Zhaoxian's eyes as he looked at the corpse.
Pale hands were rising from the darkness of the ground and pulling at the corpse.
Dozens of white hands, large and small.
Among them were children's hands, elderly hands, and women's hands.
The corpse sank into the thick darkness of the ground.
Even the blood he had scattered was all absorbed and sank away before anyone noticed.
Thump! Thump!
Yuan Zhaoxian felt his dantian pulsing strongly.
His vitality increased further and exhilaration surged.
"Hooh?"
Yuan Zhaoxian half-closed his eyes emanating blue ghost fire, enjoying that refreshing feeling.
"...Uh, uwaaah!"
Just then, one of the men who had been frozen stiff at the nightmarish sight began to run away without looking back.
The back alley was dark and full of obstacles.
Even when he tripped and rolled into a sewage pit, even when he caught on something and tore his clothes and skin, he kept running.
Even though his lungs felt like they would burst out his throat, he didn't stop.
But somehow the alley wouldn't end.
Even for a back alley, there wasn't a single person looking out.
Not a single light could be found in Luoyang's night streets.
The alley before his eyes spun round and round.
That's when there was a hand that thrust through and out of his stomach.
The hand gripping his intestines was stained with his blood, glistening even in the darkness.
"...!!"
He wanted to scream with all his might, but his diaphragm had already been torn away when his abdominal cavity was severely damaged.
On his knees, he desperately tried to gather his intestines.
"..."
Yuan Zhaoxian looked down at the man without saying a word.
Not even the slightest trace of humanity could be glimpsed in that gaze.
Thump-.
He raised his arm and thrust it into the man's back.
His piercing hand roughly tore through the man's torso again with a sound like ripping leather and stirred around.
With no need for demonic energy, using pure physical strength alone, it was far from clean.
And that roughness and messiness was exactly what he intended.
Yuan Zhaoxian casually pushed aside the corpse with its torn torso.
Thump-.
Like before, the fallen man's corpse was dragged down by white hands rising from the ground.
Without leaving a single drop of blood.
Thump-.
Yuan Zhaoxian's reason remained sharp, but his mind overflowed with madness, and his heart leaped with joy.
"This can't be...!"
Those incomprehensible mutterings came from the fourth man who had collapsed in a corner.
"This is a dream, it must be a dream."
This space was already eroded by demonic energy flowing from Yuan Zhaoxian - the Dark Scripture.
The third man who thought he was running through alleys hadn't actually managed to run even ten steps, and the man crouching beside him had long since had his spirit subdued.
This was the true aspect shown by Yuan Zhaoxian's, the Dark Scripture's demonic energy.
Compared to this, intimidating the servants in the morning had been mere child's play.
The demonic energy he, the Dark Scripture, was now fully emanating was enough on its own to destroy people's minds and twist their reason.
He hadn't even directly injected demonic energy into their heads.
Just by deliberately raising demonic energy, he had dominated the space.
Thump-.
It took only an instant to tear apart the body of the man whose spirit had been subdued.
His limbs, torn into several pieces, sank into the ground.
"Hmm...?"
Just then, he sensed the man whose wrist he had first twisted off escaping into another alley.
Though the man must have tried to escape as carefully as possible, this domain was already Yuan Zhaoxian's.
Yuan Zhaoxian let out a low laugh and lightly kicked the ground.
Dark Flow Transformation.
***
"Fuck, where is this? Where's the way out?!"
These back alleys had been as familiar as his own front yard, but not anymore.
The man clutched his wrist stump while going in circles in one place.
More precisely, he was just going round and round the complex alleys in a square pattern.
Though he had succeeded in escaping from that terrible place immediately, his spirit was already eroded by demonic energy.
"Is anyone there?! Is anyone there?!"
The man shouted while coughing up blood.
His unfocused eyes wandered through empty space.
What on earth had happened?
He couldn't understand.
Ghost? Monster? Death god?
Of course, like other people in Luoyang, he too had believed in some superstitions.
But that was only believing in invisible fate, gods, and fortune, not believing in monsters from scary stories used to frighten children.
Then what was that?
He shouted frantically.
"Why are you doing this to me?! Why?!"
Perhaps from losing too much blood, he felt dizzy and fell to his knees.
He wailed.
"...There are so many bad bastards in the world, why me?!"
For a moment he felt his whole body freeze.
Because he felt clear breath on his ear.
It was an ice-cold exhale mixed with intense sulfur and blood smells.
'It' whispered in his ear with a voice full of metallic sounds.
[You are just the beginning.]
Then it bit and swallowed the man whole.
***
"You, did you not devour them?"
At the old man's question, Yuan Zhaoxian slowly rubbed his stomach.
"...Come to think of it, I don't feel hungry anymore."
Overflowing meat juices.
The texture of raw meat.
Though he had just committed the repulsive act of cannibalism that went against heaven's principles.
He had no particular impression.
Just satisfaction at the slight feeling of fullness after escaping from the painful hunger.
"Devouring evil people is both the first and last requirement the Dark Scripture demands of its disciple."
Yuan Zhaoxian recalled.
'A scripture of defying heaven that will burn and devour all darkness in the mortal world in place of the indifferent and lazy heavens,' wasn't it?
"Moreover, the more evil people you devour, the more of the Dark Scripture's power you'll be able to understand."
Receive as much as you give, is it?
A rather reasonable system.
"But elder. That 'eating' doesn't seem to only mean me physically eating."
Yuan Zhaoxian recalled the corpses being dragged down into the ground by countless hands.
"That's right. Those hands are the hungry ghosts of the Dark Scripture. They will help with your 'meals' by exerting physical influence in the 'domain' you create using demonic energy."
Just then, vibrations began from the ceiling.
Stone dust fell and dust rose everywhere.
The beams of light coming through the ceiling gaps began to narrow.
"Time is running out."
"Is that so..."
The beam of light illuminating the old man gradually decreased, and his body melted into deep darkness.
"We'll meet again soon."
In the darkness, the old man's eyeballs blazed up as blue ghost fire.
"Until then, good hunting..."
Yuan Zhaoxian made a deep bow toward the old man.
Soon terrible darkness swallowed everything.