Jin Yue's stomach dropped, his body twisting uncontrollably as he plunged through darkness. Wind tore past his ears, blinding him, throwing him around like a ragdoll. Rocks scraped against his arms and back, the world a spinning blur of shadows and pain.
It came crashing down, but it felt like his body was shattering before he hit the ground.
He let out a cry as his body hit the ground hard, breath knocked out of him and his bones certainly broken.
"He-help, please help me."
His voice echoed through the pit, but no answer came to him—only silence.
Jin Yue groaned and dragged himself across the cold dirt, small hands trembling as they dug into the soil to pull himself toward a nearby wall.
He could spot shadows moving around the dark cavern and hear noises that sounded like wild animals.
Hands to the wall, he kept limping through the darkness until his hand felt a hole in the stone.
It was a small cavern, smaller than the initial cave he found himself in when he was kidnapped, but it was still big enough that he or that strange woman could stand comfortably in—the perfect place to rest his bruised and broken body.
He tried to call out for help again, but his throat felt sore and dry.
He just whimpered, curling harder into himself as pain racked his body.
Tears ran down his cheeks, and he tried his best to silence his sobs, lest the shadows he saw come for him.
He just wanted to go home.
---
Jin Yue didn't know what to do. Time didn't pass by here, so he had no idea how long he had been trapped. All he knew was the dark—he started his day in the dark and fell asleep to the dark.
He didn't know how long he had been there—his mouth was dry, and it felt like his stomach was eating itself, so he was probably been here for some days now.
His body ached from every direction. His ribs screamed, his back throbbed, and even his legs felt like lead. Hunger and thirst clawed at him, sharper than any pain. He wanted to cry, but he swallowed it down, curling tighter against the cold ground, hoping that maybe, somehow, he could survive this long enough to see his home again.
In the dark, he heard a faint noise and spotted something moving from the corner of his eye.
A noise—one he hadn't really heard since he was thrown down here—and something moving in the dark.
Jin Yue gathered all his strength to push himself up, only to look into the eyes of the creature that was watching him.
It was a snake.
Its scales were black, and its eyes shone a purplish hue—it was basically the biggest snake he had ever seen.
The snake lunged at him, but he rolled aside, barely dodging the attack.
Jin Yue didn't want to die.
He wanted to make it home—to his mother, his father, and his older sister. He wanted to have his father carry him on his shoulders again, he wanted his mother to hold him in her arms, and he wanted to hear his sister sing to him one more time. He didn't want to die like this.
With newfound determination, he pushed himself out of the way just as the snake struck, hunger and thirst forgotten as the need to survive came first.
He tried to run away, but his body refused to listen to him. It was weak from days of starvation and thirst to actually do much.
But he had to take it out. He looked around in panic before locating a rock that looked big enough to kill the snake.
Getting ready to lunge again, but this time he was prepared.
Jin Yue screamed, grabbed the rock, and swung with all the strength his starved, shaking body had.
Once.
Twice.
Crack!
The hissing stopped, and the snake's body went still, but he didn't want to take any chances—he brought down the rock on the snake's head over and over again until it resembled ground bean paste more than an actual head.
The rock fell from his hands, and he fell to the ground next to the snake's dead body. Adrenaline leaving his body brought back the hunger and thirst he had so desperately tried to forget.
He was hungry. He didn't know how long he had been here or how long he would be left in this pit.
Jin Yue stared at the dead snake for a while before finally making up his mind. He needed to eat something before he died
He hung the snake upside down, watching black blood drip down to the floor until the snake ran dry.
He sank his teeth into the snake's flesh, gagging at the utterly bitter taste that filled his mouth.
He didn't want to finish it, but he knew he would die of hunger if he didn't eat something.
His vision blurred as he swallowed—the flesh burning its way down his throat. He tried walking over to the cave's wall to balance himself, but he fell to the ground before he could take a step forward.
His fingers were becoming numb. He dropped the snake as his hands trembled, fingers turning black, and his lungs felt like they were constricting.
Jin Yue cried as his body shook uncontrollably, weakness spreading through every limb. The cavern spun around him, shadows twisting and crawling at the edges of his vision, and the taste of blood and venom filled his mouth.
He had hung the snake to drain the blood out—so why was the poison still there? He tried to call for help, but his throat was quickly filling with blood.
"Oh, you poor thing," a familiar voice purred. "You must have gotten so hungry."
The Obsidian Maiden stepped into the cavern, her figure blending with the dark that surrounded them.
Her dark eyes lit up with amusement as she stared at the dying child in front of her.
"The animals here are very special, you know," she continued, crouching down next to him. "Every part of them contains deadly poison."
"It'll feel like you're burning alive. And as the poison spreads, so does the pain. In the end, you'll feel nothing but anguish until you drop dead."
Jin Yue choked on the blood that rapidly filled his lungs. His vision blurred, and he tried to grab anything close to him to anchor himself from the pain.
He didn't want to die.
He didn't want to die such a painful death.
"Do you wish to survive?" she asked softly, her voice sweet despite the situation.
He nodded frantically, grasping her robes with trembling fingers, trying to beg through the blood filling his lungs as tears flowed down his cheeks.
"Of course I'll help you," her voice was sickeningly sweet as she made him lie down on his back. "Start to absorb the poison into your lower dantian."
He stared blankly, not understanding what she was saying through the pain and haze in his mind.
"Do you not understand what I'm saying?"
She sighed, her smile falling from her face.
"Fine. I'll help you start."
She placed her fingers against his lower abdomen, her touch as light as a feather.
And pain exploded.
It felt like his body was being ripped apart, and the pain was concentrated in one single place.
Jin Yue let out a choked cry as the agony intensified, his back arching off the ground.
"Now, now," she murmured, her long hair falling over him like a curtain as she pushed him back down. "I thought you said you wanted to live. If you do, get into the proper position and copy what I'm doing."
He tried, but his limbs shook violently from the pain. He tried to let out a cry, but a hand was placed over his mouth, keeping it shut.
"Don't open your mouth," she snapped. "Doing that is a one-way ticket to the heavens."
He bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood, trying to match her breathing, her gestures, her stance.
The poison twisted inside him; he felt it make its way through his body and into his abdomen—then something shifted.
Her smile widened.
"Perfect. Oh! How perfect you are."
Jin Yue could barely breathe. His eyes had a red hue, and it felt like he was going to spill everything inside him even though there was nothing left.
"That, my wonderful disciple, is a special technique to make a quick dantian. It'll help you turn any poison into inner qi and store it there."
Her smile brightened as she caressed him, fingers dancing across his skin.
"Now that you have a dantian and the knowledge of how to absorb poison into it, you'll need to learn to survive on poisonous beasts and the Black Stream alone."
She stood and turned away, not sparing a second glance at his broken body.
"I'll be back for you in two weeks," she said, her voice echoing up toward the mouth of the pit. "Don't
disappoint me, child—or else."
She vanished, leaving Jin Yue alone in the darkness, the corpse of the snake beside him and a will of iron to survive.