Yang Qiu hugged her knees tightly and tried to shut out the world around her. They were fighting again. It had been happening almost every day lately. Her fellow captives—her so-called brothers and sisters in craft—turning against each other over the smallest things. She was used to it by now—their camaraderie had been taken from them by their captors along with everything else.

The demons took everything. The sect—destroyed. Their families—slaughtered. Their entire lives had been pulled out from beneath them, replaced by a dingy little hole for the sick amusement of their demonic captors. Yang Qiu didn’t know why the demons bothered keeping them alive, but it seemed to her that they took a perverse pleasure in breaking her and the other prisoners. Stripping away at who they were until there was nothing left.

They’d even taken her name.

“Xiao Chong!”

Yang Qiu grimaced as one of the nosier boys interrupted her meditation. She hated that nickname. Their warden had called her ‘little bug’ because she was the weakest of the prisoners, and the name had stuck.

She looked up at the boy, carefully schooling her expression so that she wouldn’t cause offense.

“Yes, Senior Brother?”

The boy smirked and tilted his head towards the fracas on the other side of the pit.

“Not going to join in? It’s turning into a free for all over there—at this point anyone could end up getting the prize.”

How quickly her fellow prisoners forgot themselves and acclimated to their new circumstances. Yang Qiu spared a glance at the fray. It really was a mess. It hadn’t gone as far as anyone using spiritual arts yet, but brothers and sisters alike were brawling like common mortals.

Over a qi crystal.

Not even a particularly large or valuable one. Even a cultivator as weak and talentless as Yang Qiu could obtain a crystal like that effortlessly back in the sect. But in the pit, it was life.

“No point. I’d get nothing out of it but a beating for my trouble. Besides, it’s not my turn.”

The boy—she’d forgotten his name, so she mentally dubbed him ‘Nosey’—scoffed.

“You’re still keeping track of that? And didn’t you give up your last turn to Sister Mo Luli?”

“Senior Sister’s Yin physique isn’t compatible with most crystals. Mine happened to suit her, so It was only fair that I surrender it so that she could cultivate more efficiently.”

“Tsk. Pathetic. Well, don’t blame me if you end up starving to death. I for one have no intention of dying here before the elders come to mount a rescue.”

Nosey ran off to take his chances in the fight, and Yang Qiu returned to her solitary meditation. The elders were dead. Nobody was coming for them. Nosey was a fool.

Perhaps Yang Qiu was a fool, too, for insisting on meditating when there wasn’t any qi to absorb. The pit was a qi vacuum, either by some quirk of nature or because of a formation designed to make it that way. The demons didn’t provide any food or water, either—just a single random qi crystal that was thrown into the pit at irregular intervals.

Originally, the older captives had agreed on a system of fair distribution. After all, those crystals were the only thing keeping them alive. Cultivators could sustain themselves with qi, but without external sources they’d be cannibalizing their own foundations to do it. Of course the proud brothers and sisters of Qin would rise up to join hands against their vile oppressors.

For about a week.

Things broke down pretty quickly once it became obvious that there weren’t enough crystals to keep them all going forever. It’s not like they’d waste away quickly—their system could have kept up for months—even years before any of them were at risk of death. But that was all it took.

Soon, instead of banding together to ensure the survival of the group, it became an argument over what was more important—over who was more important.

It seemed obvious enough to Yang Qiu. The stronger members would last longer without help, so the weaker prisoners should get extra rations. Objectively, that was the optimal way to keep them all alive for as long as possible.

The stronger disciples wouldn’t hear of it. They needed to keep their strength up to defend the weaker ones. Their techniques required a greater portion of qi to maintain. Why should they give up their rations for those who couldn’t even pull their own weight? They had an endless number of excuses—and the power to back up their sophistry by force.

Let the weak learn to stand on their own two feet, or else let them die. Yang Qiu knew that she was the first in line to be sacrificed for the sake of the others. She was Xiao Chong, the little bug, the least of them. She had no influence, no friends, and no strength to speak of. She was worthless.

Nobody ever said that she was being left to die, of course. Senior Sister Mo Luli had been quick to promise that she’d pay Yang Qiu back. And Yang Qiu had agreed, knowing full well that it was a lie. She knew her place. She was the weakest. If her death could keep her brothers and sisters alive for just a little longer, then so be it. Yang Qiu would accept without complaint.

She was a bigger fool than even Nosey.

“I told you it was pointless.”

Yang Qiu held Nosey’s head in her lap as she gently wiped the blood from his face with her sleeves—it was the best she could do without any water. He swatted at her hands and scowled.

“What do you know, Xiao Chong?! You’re the one who spent the entire time trying to cultivate nothing! How’s that going for you?”

“You may be surprised to learn that it’s actually gone quite poorly.”

He snorted.

“Shouldn’t have given up your ration, then.”

“I’m sure Senior Sister will return the favor.”

Nosey frowned and sat up.

“Why are you being so kind? You know she’s not going to give you anything in return, and neither am I? Do you think you can earn some kind of protection doing this? I’m not much stronger than you, and I doubt Mo Luli even remembers your face.”

Yang Qiu sighed.

“I’m just doing what I can to help. That’s all. None of us will survive this without the others.”

“Tsk. Tell them that.”

Nosey gestured with his chin at where the winners of the brawl—a group of inner disciple boys who’d banded together—lorded over their victims smugly, forcing them to watch as they eagerly devoured the qi within their prized crystal.

“I’m sure they have their reasons. In a way, they’ve proven their prowess—perhaps they deserve the extra power.”

Nosey grimaced at her, and she didn’t blame him. She didn’t even know why she was making excuses for them. Her Senior Brothers’ behavior was nothing short of degenerate.

“I cannot believe you, Xiao Chong. There’s such a thing as being too spineless, you know.”

Yang Qiu had no defense. Perhaps he was right, but she had her principles. Those, at least, the demons couldn’t take from her.

Yang Qiu’s stomach growled loudly. Her body was starting to waste away without anything to sustain it. She’d tried her best to cultivate off the leftover scraps of qi that her seniors failed to contain when they crushed their own crystals, but it wasn’t enough.

Nosey had even shared half of his own ration with her, but it had barely stemmed her hunger for more than a few hours.

The fighting had gotten worse. The last brawl had involved spiritual arts—a terrible waste of qi that had left the victim close to death. The morons had gotten so obsessed with hoarding power for themselves that they accelerated their own doom by wasting energy protecting it.

In her desperation, Yang Qiu had taken to trying to cultivate the dregs of qi left over from such attacks. It was weak and poorly formed. Cannibalizing her foundation and then rebuilding it from random scraps had left her horribly unbalanced. Qi flowed like sludge through her meridians, and she worried that it might start forming more impurities than it cleansed.

But she was alive, for now. And it was finally her turn to receive a ration...just as soon as one arrived. There was no way to predict when a new one would arrive, so all she could do was wait and pray.

A single ray of light indicated that it was finally time. The prisoners all flinched away from the light as the seal on their pit of a prison was cracked open just long enough for a crystal to drop through, landing serendipitously right in front of Yang Qiu.

“Oh! Xiao Chong, how lucky! Don’t waste any time, now, cultivate it quickly.”

Yang Qiu wordlessly moved to do as Nosey suggested, but she was stopped by a shrill voice.

“Wait!”

The source of the voice was an older girl, the same one that had taken her last ration—Mo Luli.

“Junior Sister, that crystal is Yin-aspected, is it not? My constitution doesn’t agree with the more common Yang-aligned stones, so why don’t you give it to me? I promise I’ll return the favor on my next ration.”

Yang Qiu blinked. The same person. The same excuse. It wasn’t even accurate—she was so drained of qi that she could practically already feel the Wood qi flowing into her. Yang Qiu could see the faces of her brothers and sisters watching like vultures. They all expected a fight.

“Of course, Senior Sister. Please, take this with my blessing.”

She handed it over without a second thought. The eager faces watching her all turned to scorn and hatred. Yang Qiu wilted under the disgusted glares of the people she was dying for. She told herself that she didn’t need their respect. It was fine that they didn’t understand.

She almost believed it.

“Stop!”

All eyes turned to face the speaker. Nosey took a confident step forward and crossed his arms.

“Senior Sister, don’t you owe our Junior already? Surely your greed has limits.”

Nosey’s words reignited the hungry spark in the crowd as Mo Luli turned to regard him with a cold gaze.

“And who are you, her boyfriend?”

Yang Qiu felt her panic rising as the atmosphere shifted.

“Nosey, what are you doing?!”

He ignored her urgent whispers and took another step forward.

“Can’t you see that she’s dying? Are you really so shameless that you would stoop to robbing someone too weak to even defend herself? Our great Emperor states—”

“Oh, shut up!”

Mo Luli began advancing on Nosey, sneering down her nose at him.

“You think I care? It’s fucking Xiao Chong. Everyone knows she’s going to die first. Why would I let even a single mote of qi be wasted on her? I’m frankly amazed that the pathetic little cockroach has managed to last this long, but if you’re going to make such a ridiculous fuss over it...”

The older girl raised her hand in Yang Qiu’s direction, her eyes cold as ice. Ah, so this was it then. Qiu had hoped that at least she’d meet her end peacefully. That she’d be able to hold on to her principles until the end. Alas, the demons had managed to take even that away from her.

Yang Qiu closed her eyes and held her head high. She felt the qi stirring in the air—no doubt more than the tiny little crystal she was dying over even contained. What a waste.

The qi was released, and Yang Qiu felt a blast of frost billow around her followed by something warm splashing on her face. Then...nothing. No pain? She blinked her eyes open to see what had happened.

Nosey stood between her and Mo Luli with a long shard of ice piercing through his chest. Mo Luli scowled.

“Tsk, moron.”

The crowd of vultures erupted into chaos. They’d been desperately waiting for the first blow to be struck, and once blood had been shed they reacted like a school of sharks. Mo Luli was quickly swarmed for her qi crystal, but Yang Qiu ignored them.

She rushed to catch Nosey before he could collapse, lowering him gently to his side on the floor.

“Nosey! Why did you do that? You idiot! You should have just left me be!”

The boy smiled weakly up at her.

“W-wasn’t...fair...”

“Of course it wasn’t! But it's not worth dying for!”

Nosey coughed, blood dribbling from his mouth.

“Then...don’t...”

Yang Qiu held her dying friend and sobbed. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Her fellow disciples—her brothers and sisters—were tearing each other apart while the only one who’d shown her even a sliver of humanity died her in arms. What was the point of it all? What was she even trying to sacrifice herself for?

“Hey...”

Nosey’s weak, gurgling voice snapped her from her reverie.

“N...name...”

She wiped the tears from her eyes and sniffled.

“Yang Qiu...my name is Yang Qiu...”

He chuckled, then erupted into a coughing fit and shook his head.

“I know. M-meant...mine...say it...please?”

Yang Qiu’s face went ashen.

“I—I don’t know...I forget. Tell me, quickly.”

The boy’s face fell, his final look of disappointment burning itself into Yang Qiu’s soul as the light faded from his eyes and his body went limp.

Something inside of her broke. Her tears ran dry and what little was left of her cultivation began to rampage painfully through her body. She was sorely tempted to just lie back and let it happen. It was better than she deserved, to be torn apart from within by her own qi. But something echoed in the back of her mind.

“Then...don’t...”

The boy who had died for her—whose name she’d never bothered to learn—had told her not to die. Not for them. Not for the ones who’d tossed her aside even when she’d been willing to lay down her life for their sake. Not for the ones who’d murdered him.

She hadn’t been able to fulfill his last request—she couldn’t fail him again.

Yang Qiu fought desperately against the heart demon trying to devour her from within. She tried to control her breathing, but every breath of air burned her lungs. Even when she forced herself to meditate through the pain, there was nothing to draw on. The pit was an empty void, and no matter how she reached, there was nothing she could use to fight back against her own traitorous qi.

She refused to stop trying. She reached out with every fiber of her being for something—anything—that might help stem the tide. Just when she began to think it might be hopeless, she felt a tiny flicker of something. It was weak at first, but she chased after it, grasping desperately at her last hope for survival.

Her soul found purchase on the faint source of mysterious power, and her deviating qi reacted instantly. All at once, the qi ravaging her body shifted into something else, and the source of power lit up within her senses as her qi wrapped hungry tendrils around it and pulled it into her.

A warm, comfortable feeling flooded her soul and soothed her aching body. In moments, her thirst and hunger vanished, the bone-deep weariness faded, and she felt better than she had in years. The power felt bottomless as she drew more and more of it into herself until her soul was filled to the brim—and then kept going.

Acting on its own, her qi formed a solid core and greedily absorbed all of the excess energy. When the stream of power abruptly stopped, Yang Qiu was assaulted by a dreadful sense of emptiness. How could that be it? She needed more!

Opening her eyes, Yang Qiu shrieked at the sight of the desiccated corpse in her arms. She threw it away from herself and stood up, covering her mouth in shock.

Was that Nosey? Had she done that? With a sinking feeling she realized what the mysterious source of power must have been. She had just consumed his soul. Didn’t that make her a demon?

She laughed mirthlessly. They had done the unthinkable. At last, the demons had robbed her of even her humanity.

Her laughing drew the attention of a couple of stragglers who’d tried to get away from the increasingly violent melee happening around them. She met the eyes of one of the two boys and saw the look of shock and terror in his eyes.

“What the fuck?! Is that Xiao Chong?”

More importantly, she could feel his soul. A hunger rose in her—the emptiness in her core demanding to be filled.

She lunged forward without thinking and grabbed him by the throat. How come he was so light? He struggled fruitlessly against her grip as she tilted her head and pondered how to separate him from the warm power of his soul.

As she did, the second man panicked and tried to hit her with some kind of flame art. She whipped around and threw the first man in front of it as a shield. As he expired, his soul came loose and she quickly drew it into herself.

The sublime power filled her soul for just a moment, but then the emptiness returned. She frowned.

“Weak. But if that’s all it takes to relieve them of their power...”

She eyed the idiot that had just murdered his brother-in-craft hungrily, but as he turned to flee, someone else caught her eye. Mo Luli, lying injured on the ground, bleeding heavily. She’d been among the first casualties of the bloody brawl.

“Well, well, well...hello, Senior Sister.”

Mo Luli’s eyes opened wide.

“Xiao Chong! Y-you’ve got to help me! I’m sorry for before, just—just get me away from all this!”

“Oh, of course, Senior Sister.”

She knelt down next to Mo Luli and stroked the girl’s bloodstained hair.

“Just one thing, first. You still owe me from before, remember?”

“Wait! I—urk!”

Yang Qiu wished that she could have said she took no pleasure in ending Mo Luli’s life, but Xiao Chong delighted in every moment as she crushed the throat of Nosey’s murderer. It was almost a disappointment when Mo Luli’s soul washed through her core, giving her more strength than she even knew what to do with.

A ray of light blasted her from the side, but barely tickled. Xiao Chong looked up at the source to see one of her senior brothers sneering down at her.

“So it’s come to this, has it? To think one of my own fellow disciples would resort to demonism. Monster.”

Xiao Chong shrugged. He was right. She was a monster. She couldn’t bring herself to care about that anymore. Not when such a bright and juicy soul was right in front of her.

She smiled, licked her lips, then leapt forward.

Light flooded the pit as the seal was opened, and the warden floated down—a horrible woman with emerald green hair and a corpse-like pallor, dressed in gaudy clothes that tried and failed to hide the fact that she was missing an arm.

Yu Meiren whistled appreciatively at the carnage surrounding Xiao Chong. She hadn’t spared any of her former brothers and sisters. Once she’d started, she hadn’t even been able to. The hunger for souls was too powerful, their allure too great. Even now, the emptiness in her core ached for the immense power radiating from the demon in front of her.

She knew on a deep, instinctual level that she wouldn’t survive the attempt.

“Oh my, it looks like we’ve got a successful one. Anything left in there?”

Yu Meiren snapped her fingers in front of Xiao Chong’s face, and she had to resist the urge to bite them.

“I’m here.”

“Ooh, still coherent, even. And smart enough not to take a shot at me. Sovereign Longyan will be very pleased. I’m surprised it was you that survived, though...”

Xiao Chong was surprised too. She thought the demons would take everything, and they had. Her life, her principles, her humanity—but through it all her mind was intact. Mostly. She couldn’t deny that something had twisted and broken inside of her, but that was fine.

She was still alive. And as long as his soul was within her, so was Nosey. Perhaps this was what he would have wanted...

“Now what?”

Yu Meiren cracked a grin.

“Now you get to meet your new master. Welcome to the Demonic Crimson Dragoneye Moons Sect, Junior Sister.”

Xiao Chong might have laughed if she could have felt anything. Or maybe cried. Oh well—they couldn’t be any worse than her last sect.