Qiren held his breath as he peered from beneath the stiff, bony wing draped over him. Through the gaps in the feathers, he spotted a crouching silhouette on the other side of the shrubs—another vulture-like demon, nearly three feet tall, with a wide, jagged wingspan.
It inspected the scattered berries suspiciously, just like the last one. Then its gaze narrowed at the disturbance among the branches. It stepped closer, pushing its hooked beak through the leaves—
—And froze.
One of its comrades lay inside the bush, limp and mangled.
Its throat puffed, ready to screech for attention—
When the corpse suddenly lifted.
!!!?
The bird recoiled—SWISH!
Thick strands of black hair shot out, binding its wings and clamping its beak shut.
Qiren struck instantly.
His eyes flared crimson as he snatched up a stone. "Argh!" He hurled himself onto the creature, bringing the rock down with all his strength.
Craakk!!
The stone smashed into its skull.
Sckreee—!
The vulture tried to scream, but the writhing hair muffled its beak.
Craakk! Craakk!!
Qiren beat it again and again. Blood splattered across the leaves, filling the bush with the sharp, metallic reek of it.
Flutter! Rustle!
The demonic vulture jerked violently—its talons slashed upward, kicking him off.
Qiren tumbled out of the shrub and spilled halfway into the open. Pain flared across his chest where fresh claw marks burned hot.
He glimpsed the exposed sky—moonlight, open air—danger—and scrambled back into cover before any circling shadows could notice.
Damn bird…!! I'll rip out all your feathers!
His anger boiled over.
Caw!!
The vulture writhed—the Qi binding it was nearly gone. Its wings tore free.
It crouched, ready to leap into the air and scream for the flock—
Qiren lunged onto its back.
"Die!!"
He wrapped his hair around its throat manually this time, pulling tight. His small weight—insignificant alone—was enough to keep it grounded when paired with his grip.
His toes dug into the wing membrane.
Sckreeee!!
It thrashed, desperate to break free—but he clung like a rabid beast. His toenails ripped long gashes through its wings, ruining any hope of flight.
His jaws opened—both of them.
He bit down.
Flesh parted beneath his teeth as he chewed through the thick sinew of its neck. Hot blood flooded his mouth, iron and rot burning down his throat. He tore and swallowed, ripping the creature apart piece by piece until its strength finally gave out.
Thump.
But he didn't stop.
His mouths kept tearing until he felt it—the soul rising.
Only then did he pull back.
He inhaled sharply and devoured the wisping mist, then swallowed the orb of condensed ectoplasm beneath it.
Negative Karma: 19.4↑
Refinement Qi: 0.9↑
Fear: 3↑
Pain: 0.2↑
A cool rush spiraled through Qiren's aperture and spirit core. Euphoria washed across his meridians, knitting torn flesh, mending bruised muscle, soothing the raw sting of wounds.
Qiren exhaled shakily and wiped the blood from his mouths.
"Half a unit of Qi again…" he murmured. "But why did my fear jump, and pain barely move? And why show an arrow if the value didn't rise?"
He visualized the inner scroll hovering in his mind—
Applicable Curses & Blessings
Unnamed Bad Luck Spirit Curse (14/16 Cursed Berry fragments)
23 Despair
3 Hope
30 Years of Life Experience
Fear: 3↑
Pain: 0.2↑
(Certain emotions, conditions, knowledge, experiences, spirits, blessings, or curses may be transferred to others.)
Rituals
Bad Luck Cleansing (Incomplete) — a flawed counterfeit ritual, but functional for someone with latent spiritual affinity.
Imparting Rite (Incomplete) — a technique discovered by the demon Qìrén Vhal'Zerath: infusing miasma into objects to embed curses or soul effects.
Emotional Balance
23 Despair | 3 Hope | Fear: 3 | Pain: 0.2
Physical Attributes
Strength: 7↓
Speed: 8
Agility: 12↓
Negative Karma: 19.4↑
Refinement Qi: 0.9↑
Knowledge & Experiences:
—Medical Knowledge…
Exorcised Spirits (Unsealed/Fragmented):
1 — Bad Luck Spirit
Current Lifespan
7 Years, 5 Days, 8↑ Hours
Qiren tapped his knee thoughtfully.
"Did I… imbue that pain into one of my strikes?"
He flexed his hand slowly.
"Hah… interesting. If my excess went into the attack, I won't complain."
His grin widened.
"If I gather enough pain, I could weaponize it. Even if it can't kill outright, forcing a creature to feel a hundred injuries' worth of agony at once… that could freeze it. Or stop its heart."
Scenarios flickered behind his eyes—a vulture swooping at him, only for him to flick a pebble loaded with the accumulated torment of an entire massacre.
No matter how tough a creature was, its nerves couldn't ignore that.
Useful.
Very useful.
A new flutter of wings approached through the trees.
A slow smirk spread across his face.
Oh? Another patient arriving at my lonely little clinic… I wonder if it will mind helping me test a few things.
He slid beneath the corpses in the shrub, arranging them as cover.
Caw. Caw. Caw.
...
... ...
... ... ...
By the time the fourth vulture stopped twitching, Qiren's arms were soaked up to the elbows.
He crouched within the bush, the dead arranged around him like a grotesque nest. His breaths came slow and steady—mind clear, vision sharp.
"…maybe I need one more soul," he murmured, wiping gore from his cheek. "That should push my pain stat close to a single digit."
He checked his inner scroll.
Negative Karma: 21.7↑
Refinement Qi: 2.1↑
Fear: 4.1↑
Pain: 0.9↑
His deductions were confirmed.
Devouring a soul always granted 0.5–0.9 units of Qi, and exactly 1 unit of Negative Karma.
The fear was variable.
"That one that screamed the longest added almost a full point…" he whispered. "So it depends on how much I terrify them first. Lovely."
He pushed aside a limp wing and leaned back.
Four vultures lay gutted in a ring around him, their insides still warm.
He had opened each one carefully, digging through their husks.
And he found it.
Nestled deep within their chests—floating beneath the ribcage—was the same shifting Taijitu he carried inside himself. A dual-colored node of spirit and will.
Just like the one the demon infant had torn out during his first moments in this world.
"I remember…" Qiren muttered. "It ate the injured one's soul first. Only then did it dig into the chest to take this."
Now that he'd tasted souls himself—how they fueled his Qi, altered his emotions, strengthened his core—he finally understood why that first demon hadn't run.
But something still didn't add up.
Why rip out the Taijitu if eating the soul was the real prize?
To test it, Qiren clawed into the fourth vulture's chest and tore free its aperture and spirit core—the spiritual Taijitu.
He held the pulsing teardrops in his palm.
Nothing happened.
He waited… then gathered the other six, placing all four sets together.
And something finally shifted.
His Negative Karma ticked upward—0.1… then 0.2… then another 0.1.A faint drizzle of Qi—barely 0.1—seeped into his system.
"…That's it?"
He squeezed the Taijitu. It dimmed, but nothing more.
He tried draining Qi—nothing.
Tried draining karma—nothing.
He even tossed one into his mouth and swallowed it whole.
Still nothing.
Only the incidental trickle of energy remained:
+0.1… +0.2 Negative Karma
+0.1 Qi
Scraps.
He stared at the small pile of pulsing Taijitu fragments.
"So that's it…"
He wiped his hands on the feathers and let out a slow breath.
"It seems demons really are creatures of sin. Negative karma benefits them in the long run… trophies and wicked acts fuel their cultivation. If these cores hold something special, I can't access it. Instead, plundering them only proves your worth—rewarded in Qi and karma."
He stared at his blood-coated fingers, the black aura curling lazily around them.
A cold wind rustled the leaves.
Qiren sat among the corpses, surrounded by cursed fruits and the dim glow of Taijitu pieces, feeling the truth settle deep into his bones:
To survive in this world…
He would need to embrace exactly what the realm demanded.
And become a demon worth fearing.