Xiao Yin Yu’s mouth suddenly felt dry as Yin Long’s seductive whisper crept into her ears. Swordsman. What a simple word. It slid off the tongue so easily, so alluringly. Yet it was anything but easy to follow through on it, Yin Yu was well aware of that, she lacked something rather crucial after all. She knew that the words Yin Long spoke were only what she wanted to hear, they were born from nothing more than her own desire for strength. But even so, she couldn’t cast them aside. She desired that strength, that beautiful blade Yin Long had carved into her mind. And once that desire blossomed, she couldn’t get rid of it, that was the curse of desire.

"That’s impossible. You know that just as well as I, it was one of the first thing Hongzai told me and the real you."

She couldn’t cast the words aside, but she still tried to deflect them with the truth she had been fed, that was the only way she knew how to keep the desire at bay. This was the Netherworld, this was the worst place for her desires to be prodded and awakened, especially ones that couldn’t be achieved.

While talking, she heard a quiet whistle so she threw herself to the side, dodging the spear that was piercing towards her. The man with two daggers had read her trajectory and was waiting for her as she hopped aside, taking advantage of her lack of focus to sneak there without her notice. But as his daggers moved, so too did Yin Long’s wooden sword. It tapped against the side of one dagger and pushed it into the other, sparks scattering as they crashed and pushed each other aside. But even as he deflected the attack, his gaze was always on Yin Yu, that casual yet confident expression on his face dragged straight from the depths of her mind.

"People call many things impossible, yet very few things really are. You know that, and that’s why I’m saying it right now. You remember them, don’t you, Dear Yu, the four things needed for a Swordsman?"

He spoke lowly, quietly and slowly, but his voice couldn’t be drowned out even by the sound of Yin Yu’s weapon clashing with the spear that repeatedly aimed for her chest. She tried to focus on the woman in front of her, but the voice kept tugging at her mind, dredging up her desires. It was just what she wanted to hear, that was all it was, and that was why it was all the more dangerous down here, especially when the one who whispered it was the person she was trying to find.

Remember them? Of course she remembered them, she had memorised them the moment Hongzai mentioned them. Energy, Understanding, Heart, and Soul, four things needed to become a true Swordsman. Energy was the simplest, the law of swords, it was the foundation of all Swordsmen. Understanding was the complete understanding of the emotion you wanted to imbue into your sword, you need to had an intimate relationship with it. Heart was the memories tied to that emotion, the source that tied you to it, the reason it was carved into your soul so strongly. And the soul was you, the one who wielded the weapon, it was your willingness to bare yourself and show your memories by using your sword to carve them into the world.

Four things. Would they be considered simple if you looked at them from an outside perspective? And perhaps that might be true, individually at least. Yin Yu had the soul, she was willing to lay bare her most painful memories for all to see if she could become stronger by doing so. Yin Yu obviously had the heart, or at least part of it, she had an excellent memory so while she couldn’t remember everything she remembered most things. But Understanding and Energy, did she have those? She didn’t have the law of swords so the Energy was cut out right there, the most foundational thing was missing. And then there was understanding, oh-so closely tied to the heart. To understand the emotion you wanted to carve into the world, you needed an emotion of such strength that you could understand. But did she have that? Quite frankly, she didn’t think so. She would describe her life as rather average, even the moments of sorrow or joy didn’t seem grand enough to carve into the world, not deep enough to understand.

So it was hard for her. The foundation wasn’t there and the heart wasn’t full enough so there wasn’t anything to understand, she lacked two and a half out of four things. Hongzai had probably seen that very same thing on her face, most people who had backgrounds like hers were like that after all, they led good lives. But, would desire care about something like that? And above all, would the rule-breaking Yin Long she knew care one whit about stupid things like that?

"Your thoughts are written on your face, Dear Yu, I don’t even need to read you to understand them."

A dull sound followed his voice as he deflected one dagger and dodged the other, destabilising his opponents stance with the same downward arch of his blade that deflected the dagger. He used the opening to step back, closer to Yin Yu. He bumped shoulders with her and then stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her as he overlaid his arms with hers, his warm breath hitting her ears as he helped her wield the sword.

"Aren’t they just pointlessly small things, those fears? I am a sword, the greatest sword in existence, so if you need the law of swords then just use me. And don’t think about not having the depth of memories needed, all that matters is your emotions. Is there a difference in pain? No, a rich man used to eating five meals a day suddenly starving after not eating for two days feels the same pain as a poor man used to eating one meal a day starving after not eating for five. The magnitude should be different, but they suffer the same pain."

There was a trace of moisture on Yin Yu’s ear thanks to Yin Long’s warm breath, her body wriggling slightly as she tried to break free from the sudden embrace. But even though she wanted to escape, her body didn’t put much strength into her actions. Her subconscious knew that this was what she wanted, what she desired, that was exactly why Yin Long had done it.

Her veins felt warm as Yin Long held her, guiding her arms as she swung her sword against the two people. But she could feel that the warmth wasn’t blood, it was energy, a type of energy she hadn’t used before. But it was still familiar, she had felt it many times when Yin Long swung his sword, when he cut the world. There was no time for her to even try to understand what this being born from her desires was doing to her, his voice crept into her ears again as he helped her raise her sword so that she could bring it down upon the world.

"Pain is pain, it doesn’t need to be big to cut the world, even a crying peasant has enough pain to cut the world. So just think back, remember those days you consider dark. That sinking feeling you had in your stomach as you ran through the city in the rain, remember it. The pounding of your heart when you finally reached the back-alley where he lived. Do you remember how cold the rain felt when you saw the blood scattered about, the tufts of fur strewn about? It was just a dog, but it was dear to you wasn’t it? It was just a street dog so it would obviously fight with other dogs for scraps of food, sometimes it would win and sometimes it would lose, that’s just life. You knew that, but you still felt sad when you saw it lying there, didn’t you? Remember it, the rigid sensation at the tip of your fingers as you touched it, the way it was colder than the rain. Remember it all, pour it out like tears for the world to see. And then… Cut."

—

"You’re falling behind, Goldie. You’ve got the fangs, you’ve got the claws, use them if you don’t want to fall to the wayside."

The meat in Jin Wang’s mouth tasted a bit sour as the familiar voice crept into his ears. He spat out the furred wing that was caught between his teeth, his mane and the fur around his mouth stained red as he raised his head. The dirt around him was wet with blood, a handful of broken bodies scattered around him like broken building blocks. These were the eternal Hunting Grounds so there was no shortage of beasts to hunt here in pursuit of strength, the growing graveyard around him was testament to that.

But the meat was sour and bitter whenever he chewed on it, the blood that ran down his throat tasted like mud. He couldn’t feel any sense of accomplishment or growth from the kills, it was the same even when he killed a beast that should be stronger than him. The reason behind it was painfully simple, the graveyard that was amassing around the man ahead of him was more than twice his own, maybe even close to thrice as big.

Black eyes that merged into the approaching night and silver hair that shone like the moon, untainted by even a drop of blood as he stood there surrounded by death. The ashen sword in his grasp still dripped with blood, each drop running down the length of the blade signifying another life cut short, another target hunted. Clean cuts that went through scales, flesh, and bones in the same manner, nothing was able to even make his blade hop slightly as he swung it, nothing was able to block him. That was an alpha, THE alpha. But the difference shouldn’t be this big. Granted, this alpha that had revealed himself clearly wasn’t his own alpha, it was some sort of twisted version of him, but he was still based on Jin Wang’s own alpha.

So why was the difference so big? Sure, Jin Wang was rather arrogant thanks to his bloodline, conceited even. But he hadn’t slacked that much in his training, he was making sure to at least keep somewhat of a pace with his alpha, that was what it meant to be part of a pack after all. So why was he falling so far behind in this hunt of theirs, why could he not keep pace with his alpha and was slowly falling behind? In fact, had the alpha not purposefully stopped several times then he would have already left Jin Wang’s sight twice already. It was bitter, the uselessness. He couldn’t do anything when his alpha died, and now he couldn’t even keep pace with a twisted version that wasn’t even the real alpha.

"Giiii."

A droning sound caught Jin Wang’s attention as he was glaring at the graveyard around his alpha, his teeth revealing themselves as he growled quietly. His head turned and he saw it again, the six-legged turtle with a furry tail and three malformed horns on its horse-like head. It was a grotesque and deformed beast, but if it had one thing going for it then it would be its defence. Jin Wang had clashed with it three times already, but his fangs and claws weren’t able to get through its shell so there was nothing he could do when it decided to hide.

He opened his mouth wide and unleashed his power, his maw seemingly turning into a black hole that sucked up all the scattered body parts around him, crushing and swallowing them as he drew in the turtle. It would hide again once it was drawn in, at that time he could leave it behind again and chase after his alpha. But the voice that made everything taste bitter reached him again just as he drew in the turtle-beast.

"If you’re not going to use your weapons then at least stop wasting time."

A soft sound followed the voice as an ashen blade ran through the shell, piercing through the head that had retracted into it. The sturdy defence that Jin Wang’s teeth couldn’t even dent, it wasn’t able to stop the alpha’s blade for even a single second. It may be a twisted version of his alpha, but this fact seemed to ring true even for it, his alpha had fangs and claws that could cut through anything if he so desired it.

The gaze that looked down at him as the blade was pulled out of the beast was regal with a touch of coldness to it. The alpha was a bit disappointed, Jin Wang could tell that. He had failed to live up to the expectations so the twisted alpha was disappointed, it was a fact that was accompanied by a strange sense of bitterness even though it wasn’t the real alpha. The fake alpha turned without even sparing the fallen turtle another glance, his arm swiping out to gesture towards the lands that spread out in the distance, beneath the plateau they were on right now.

"Look at that, Goldie. Can you feel the life lurking within that wilderness? That’s where we’ll have a proper hunt, a good hunt. Don’t fall behind this time, a pack can’t exist with just a lone alpha."

In the distance stood a forest so gargantuan that it stretched beyond the horizon, filled with trees that looked as if they were constantly burning. They were quite a distance away from it, but that alone wasn’t enough to dampen the sense of danger Jin Wang got from it. That forest was filled with danger, there were things living in there that could probably eat him in one bite. But even so, he could see a city rise up within the forest, humans had carved a place for themselves even in a place as deadly as that. Aye, if there was anywhere they could hunt properly to grow stronger to find the others then it would probably be in there.