Sword

Her eyes were wide and blood shot. A leg was completely shattered: it dangled from the knee, a bloody sack of skin and crushed bone.

The loud inn had gone silent. Only the pig innkeeper released a frightened squeal and suddenly dipped behind the counter.

Zero watched lady Su as she shakily held the door for support. Her bloodied form smelt exactly like the dead field. Zero did not know whether to approach her or not. He was still not sure if he had been set up by the old man Bao. He did not want to trust them blindly.

He took a sip of the wine, watched the lady fall and groan.

"Help me, Pig!" Her voice was coarse and angry. She sounded like she had swallowed a bucket of nails. The animal let out another screech behind the counter.

"Argghh! " She groaned in pain and spat a mouthful of blood and phlegm, looking at man that was staring at her in the eye.

"What are you looking at?! Find a healer...now!" Zero's brows raised. In such a state, she was ordering and not pleading.

The inn soon got over her and everyone returned to what they were doing. It was not long till her voice was drowned by the cackles and brawls of the customers.

Piggy had come out from behind the counter and was crawling on the grimy floor, huge and sweaty body pushing people aside. He stopped next to the groaning woman.

"Nilan?" His voice was tentative, unsure. Lady Su opened her eyes to see the animal directly above her. Its mouth was open in shock and saliva was dropping down. "Get away from me!"

The pig instantly tried to rise but fell back to the ground, slipping on the oily prints left by his crawling. "Nilan! It is you! Oh it is you! You'd never believe who I saw today, Nilan! Ahh! A happy reuni—"

"Piggy, shut up! Healer. Now." Lady Su hissed, bloodshot eyes intense. The animal nodded heavily and rose again, slowly this time. It immediately dashed out the inn doors, into the cold night in search of a healer.

Lady Su, or Nilan as the pig had called her, let out a sigh.

Her mind wandered. What had happened back there...

She was confident in her abilities; always had been. She was a fourth level golden core. But in her case, the fourth level was like an equivalent to the seventh. She was a prodigy and everyone knew that. A natural in the arts of yin cultivation.

Shadow beast control was a new practice. Not many yin cultivators dared to use such mad methods. However, she had quickly mastered how to control her own energy to match the hell denizen's. For weeks now, she had repeated the same procedures as per her orders.

Find vagabonds on the dead field, ambush, collect yang energy and yin corpse. Easy.

At least until that cloaked person...

She did not see their face, it was so hard to see anything with the storm. She knew they were two. She had attacked the smaller looking one as they were way behind their partner. She thought it would be a mundane task. She was already growing bored of the repetitive activity.

She had never expected it to backfire. For some reason the shadowbeast had lost control, sending her merged energy into a frenzy and almost maiming her.

If not for her lifesaving flying tailsman, she'd have been dead.

A sigh left her lips and she spat another mouthful of blood. Sensing someone's stare, she gazed about, alert.

The inn was full of crazed felons and strays. In her state, everyone was a danger to her.

In the corner, she noticed a cloaked person. Was it the same one? No. Except two rugged travelers had suddenly had a hefty amount of spirit stones to purchase talismans of protection, there was no way they survived the dead field's collapse.

Lady Su could not see this hooded person's face but it was clear they were looking in her direction. She grunted and spat another mouthful of blood. All these godforsaken peasants.

Piggy came barging through the doors with a man that looked mad walking directly behind him.The latter was shouting some incantations and was covered head to toe in Buddhist prayer beads. His head was not shaven though; his knee length beard and hair merged together so he resembled one big ball of hair and beads.

"Amitābha...humm."

Piggy oinked and came up to Lady Su to raise her.

"Argh..." She groaned softly. Her blood had pooled on the floorboards. The hairy monk spat in it, dipped a hand in and raised it to his forehead to draw an inscription.

"Come, senior. This way! Sister Daiyu will be so happy..." Piggy's voice trailed off as he and the chanting monk headed up the stairs with a wailing Lady Su.

Zero took a sip from his cup. Daiyu knew lady Su then...

He poured himself another drink. Her appearance here was odd. River's End was weeks away. Almost a month or so at least. For her to be here, she had either left the city around the same time he did, or used one of those fancy flying talismans. He doubted the latter as they were extremely expensive and rare so far from the capital.

His suspicions grew. If Lady Su had left the city just about the same time he did, why had he been the one sent to deliver those terms to the prince?

Sure he was not a comrade of theirs. But setting him up; a young boy with no ill will towards them, was just downright cruel.

He was no fool. At first he did not want to believe it at first, but truly, old Bao had been the one to put him in such dire straits. The old man had killed the prince. Ironic.

He vividly remembered the torn parchments with inscriptions at the scene of the prince's death. He remembered finding it oddly familiar. Now he knew.

The boy chugged down another helping of wine and then rose suddenly. He was smiling softly, albeit inebriated.

He looked over the hall, seeing these people grope and bash themselves under the influence of alcohol. He raised his good hand to wipe his mouth and let out a belch. He laughed.

Zero had set his sights on something shiny in the corner, a sword. The owner of this weapon was in a gathering of noble looking men. Of all the groups, they looked the most put together.

He came up to their table, standing over them with a wide smile. He bowed respectfully.

The men looked confused.

"May I have your sword?" Zero's speech was slurred but his voice was calm. Gentle, even. As though he was cooing a child.

"Who are you? Get out of here, idiot! "

"He must be one of those local povels. Can't say I haven't seen my fair share of them in these parts." This was said by the second man. He had a thin beard and a black headpiece with a green jade gem. Imperial. Green jades were the outer courts colours.

"If not for the bounty over that demon we're searching for, I'd never be caught in a place like this!" He laughed and spat to the side, eyes on the hooded peasant that dared approach them.

Zero, of course, was not in his right senses. He pulled off his hood revealing a sliver buzz of hair and shimmery hollowed eyes. The smile on his face grew. "You're looking for me, then?"

The men immediately drew their swords, all five of them. They were too slow. Zero's eyes had darkened, holding them in place. Petrifying them. He grabbed the first man's sword, unsheathed it and in one hefty blow, took off his arm and laughed.

The blood splattered and the unknowing inn customers carried on. Only one of the harlots saw this happen. She let out a high pitched scream, alerting everyone. Zero laughed.

He opened his mouth, let the hell wind flow out. These people were too noisy anyways.

The hungry eye pulsed inside of him, consuming every soul in the vicinity. None of them were higher than the golden core stage except the imperial men. Those ones could not be digested and only tiny pieces of their spirits ripped.

The entire gathering cried aloud as the mad boy drank from them.

Zero who was laughing had suddenly regained himself. A frown grew on his face as he came through. He remembered admiring the nobleman's sword from afar...

But after that?

The horrible wails of the customers struck him and he immediately withdrew the eye's powers in shock.

What...

He looked about. Every single one of them had become emanciated. Their eyes were open and their mouths were agape. All their corpses had turned grey.

Zero dropped the sword he did not know he was holding. The silence was loud.