A sickening crunching sound filled up the small clearing, it was subdued and dull yet so noticeable that it seemed to blot out everything else. Bones pulling themselves back together, flesh stitching itself into a single whole again, ruptured organs patching themselves with a gurgling sound. Ying Feixu gorged herself on Huang Ying's blood, her crimson eyes never once leaving his pitch-black pupils as she dug her teeth into his wrist. Huang Ying acted as if he couldn't even feel her teeth puncture his veins and her tongue lapping up his blood, he simply showed that oh-so-twisted grin of his.

"Yes, that's what I was hoping for, that's the eyes I wanted to see. Stand, Ying Feixu, grab your weapons once more."

Song Yi still stood at the edge of the clearing, observing the two. She knew that a shiver should be running down her spine right now, Huang Ying had shown that much madness after all. But she just couldn't feel it, at this point, it just felt normal, as if this was how it was supposed to be. But perhaps that was just to be expected, he was the one who accepted even her after all, he was the man twisted enough to pick up broken people and twist them even further. They wouldn't get the salvation they needed, but they would get the carnage and chaos they desired, he truly was a devil.

Ying Fexiu removed her teeth from Huang Ying's wrist when she felt that her wounds had healed. In fact, she felt like she was bursting with more power than ever before, it felt like she was burning deep within. Her once mangled hands opened up, frozen pillars lifting up the two daggers she had dropped and returning them to her grasp. She clutched them tightly, her gaze still not leaving Huang Ying's eyes.

"Ying Feixu, that is the name I chose, and I chose it for you. You are the Hero, and I am the one who ruins heroes. And you, above all others, I will ruin, Huang Ying. That is my hatred."

Ying Feixu, Hero Ruin, it was a name she had specifically chosen to forever mark herself with the hatred she felt for Huang Ying after he dropped her down to the earth. Now she reiterated it, seared it even deeper into herself, be it for her own sake or for Huang Ying's sake, for the sake of that twisted grin as vast and empty as his eyes.

"Good. Come then, show me that you can kill me."

Kill and ruin, there was a subtle distinction between them, but a distinction nonetheless. He stepped back as he spoke, spreading his arms wide in a welcoming gesture, blood still dripping from his wrist and the other wounds on his body. Compared to the fully healed Ying Feixu he looked far more pitiful, but those who had seen him before knew that a moment of hesitation or sympathy here would lead to their death.

Ying Feixu grasped her two daggers tightly. They were her claws, weapons born from her own body. They were warm to the touch, comfortable and secure to her yet deadly to anyone else. Just now she had sunk her fangs into his flesh, now she would plunge her claws into his flesh without hesitation, that would be the first step that pushed him to ruin.

Her knees bent slightly, blue arcs crackling around her legs for a second before they sank into her flesh, fused with her muscles. The wind gathered around her, supported her. Lightning was fast, but it was rigid, the flexibility of the wind would help her with more intricate movements. The earth beneath her feet started to smoke and sizzle, a scorched black patch slowly spreading out around her as she gathered the heat. One move, that was all she was going to do, all she was going to need. And for that move, she would bring out everything she had, that was her determination, her hatred.

It felt like an eternity as she gathered her power, but barely a second had passed between her bending her knees and shooting forward. Fire exploded beneath her and pushed away the earth, lightning crackling in her muscles to give her charge the extra power it needed. And the wind kept her steady, guided her like a tunnel and helped her twist her body wherever needed. So she arrived behind Huang Ying despite charging from the front, her twin daggers already descending.

She felt the earth rise beneath her, struggling against her. Huang Ying hadn't turned his head, but he was definitely aware of her, his senses were even sharper than her own after all. But he wasn't the only one who could use the earth, she was the prized child of a great beast, a carefully reared successor meant to rule the world. So she fought against his earth with her own, she didn't bother vying for control, she just pushed back enough to destabilize his control over the earth.

In the process, she also removed the earthen shield that covered his body, that quietly roiling defence that would deflect whatever hit him. She did the same for the wind that served as the second layer of defence, stripping away his defences until he was left with nothing but his own body, nothing but himself. But even that she would turn against him, all to push him to ruin.

Her daggers sank into his unguarded flesh, he wasn't specialized in speed so he could forget about dodging when she went all out like this. But then again, he was Huang Ying so whether or not he had even bothered trying to dodge was a question they couldn't answer confidently. Her daggers rent his flesh, one glittering with a light blue light while the other gleamed with a dark blue one.

Her daggers were her claws, but she was young so they were short, and right now they had stabbed into the back of his shoulders so they were far too short to cause any lethal damage. So she compensated, she would use his own body to compensate for her shortcomings. The dagger gleaming with the dark blue light poured its Qi into Huang Ying's body, it resonated with the water that was naturally present in just about all living bodies, attracted it. And then the other dagger froze it, simple as that. But the water kept moving even while frozen, tearing a grim path through flesh, bones, and veins alike.

"Ah, yes, now we're feeling death again. See, it wasn't that hard, was it?"

She had done what she could, she unleashed everything she had at her disposal to dig directly into Huang Ying. But even so, he still did not give her even a grunt of pain? She clutched her daggers with more force and pushed them down as much as she could, shattering his shoulder blades as she sank her weapons as far as possible into his body. But his head still turned slightly, that twisted and bloody curve seemingly forever etched onto his face.

He looked a bit happy, that was the first thing she noticed. When he spoke of death, he was happy. Why was that? When she fell to the earth and first felt the sensation of death, it was cold. It was like a clammy hand caressing the back of her neck, staining her with cold sweat and mud as it tried to strangle her. Did he enjoy that horrid sensation, or did death just feel different to him? Was it liberating, comforting, or maybe peaceful?

"I'm happy, Ying Feixu. Your fangs haven't dulled, your determination hasn't been ground to dust by peace. If my body was a bit weaker, I would have died right away there, removing my defences like that was marvellous, truly marvellous. Not an ounce of hesitation, you did everything you could to ensure death. But you forgot to use your metal, crystal, and devouring. Eat me from inside, turn the iron in my blood against me, pierce my heart with crystals since you're already so close. Give all you have, only then can you die satisfied."

He was praising her, he was definitely praising her. But as always, the direction of his praise was extremely macabre. And just as soon as he finished delivering his praise, he launched his counter-attack, his retaliation.

The earth beneath them split open into a small ravine, both of them falling straight down. Ying Feixu was connected to Huang Ying through her daggers so the only way she could escape from the ravine was by bringing him along with her, which would inevitably slow her down quite heavily. But there was never any room for escape, Huang Ying was not the type of person to allow that.

Eyes opened up in the darkness around them as they fell into the ravine, the earth continuing to open up beneath them. Crimson eyes dotted the darkness around them, grinning malevolently as they gazed upon the descending people. Ying Feixu couldn't see them, but she was sure that the lamprey-like maws were also spread through the darkness, twisted in a grin much like Huang Ying's.

She manoeuvred her Qi to defend, but the grinning maws and eyes blocked out everything else as they descended upon her. She had punctured Huang Ying but failed to kill him, so he feasted on her. That was the horror of his fighting style, that was what made him dangerous when he went all out.

She felt the maws bite into her as they continued to descend, flesh tearing and blood splattering as new wounds were opened, as energy was stolen. But he clearly wasn't planning on killing her, the all-encompassing law of devouring fading after it had stolen just enough to heal the wounds her attack had inflicted on him.

And as the law of devouring faded, Ying Feixu's feet touched solid ground again, albeit somewhat unsteadily since she had just gotten through the assault. An uneven cavern spread out around her, it looked almost as if something had burrowed through the ground here and then curled up for a bit before moving on. A bit of water flowed along the ground, a small underground river continuing through the darkness. But the gentle trickling of the river was quickly blocked out by the voice of the man who she had just tried to ruin, the man who had retaliated almost as viciously.

"You did good, Ying Feixu. Keep growing like that and your daggers may just pierce my throat. This... You can consider this my reward, or perhaps gratitude for the fact that you didn't let your determination dull."