Secluded far from the main compounds of the Beheaded Phoenix Monastery, a few hours before the Young Master visits the Sparring Halls…

  ~~~

  The weather was nice.

  Disciple Shao closed her eyes and smiled as she basked in the day’s warmth. The sun-drenched rock she chose to lie on was perfect — A slab of flat stone, secluded far from the main pathways of the foreign Sect and with not a shade in sight. It allowed her to peacefully enjoy the first rays of the rosy dawn as they warmed her blood and energised her body with Yang qi.

  The auroral waves of Jade Clouds above might prevent most of the sunlight from passing through, but even then, those diluted rays were still filled with celestial heat. Shao cycled the Sun’s energy within her body, allowing its warmth to seep into the freezing depths of her Yin-aligned Dantian. The cold-blooded Saurian Spirit within reacted to the Yang energy, causing her qi reserves to rise steadily as it woke.

  She did not necessarily need Yang Qi to awaken the beast, but achieving a semblance of Yin-Yang duality helps make the Hunger easier to bear. She would soon need all the control and power she could muster. If her assumptions were right, her next meal should be arriving in the morning, and that man would be no easy prey to bring down. Not like those weaklings she glutted herself on during the night before.

  She might even lose if she were not careful, but that just made the hunt all the more exciting. Anticipation pooled within the depths of her body, causing her to let out a mournful sigh. Just the thought of tasting his flesh again… Ah, she could barely wait.

  But patience, patience… No sense in getting riled up before the main event. There was still a chance the coward might not show up, after all. Like all those previous times she visited.

  “Hmm? Hey, look. Is that…?”

  Shao’s sharp hearing picked up some voices from a distance. Her forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air for the newcomer’s qi.

  Three of them, all Shaping Realm. Mere Inner Disciples, she realised with disappointment.

  “What is a female cultivator doing here?”

  “You speak as if our Sect is completely devoid of female disciples, Junior. But I must admit, I don’t ever recall someone like her around before...”

  “I would be insulted if you did and never told me! By the blackened Gods, do you see her, Brother? What a woman…”

  Shao smiled. She had abandoned her Sect’s jacket so that she might better soak in the Sun’s warmth. Her arms and shoulders were bare, and her body was clad only in the tight-fitting black suit of the Split-headed Carnivores Sect.

  Dai was taking an awfully long time to find her. Perhaps she could sate herself on another meal in the meantime?

  The disciple stretched her body on the stone slab provocatively, fully aware of the males’ gaze on her form even as her eyes remained closed. Her sinuous body flexed and twisted, showing slender muscles and supple curves.

  “... Emperor’s breath… I have been blessed this day…”

  She could practically taste their lust from her spot. A beautiful woman, all alone and vulnerable in a secluded corner of the monastery, within a Sect filled with male cultivators? She was practically begging to be taken advantage of. Shao could barely contain her laughter when one of them started walking confidently towards her.

  Of the other two, however, one of them seemed to take a step back.

  “Wait… I know her! Dammit, Junior, wait!”

  “Do not try to stop me! You might be too cowardly to approach a woman, Senior Brother, but today, this Junior will be the Master, and show you–!”

  “No, you idiot! Look at that jacket! She’s one of them! The foreign Man-eaters!”

  “I… Ah, AHH!”

  Shao sighed. Well, so much for her fun. The trio of disciples took off running, their lust rapidly devolving into pure terror. She supposed the teeth-rimmed overcoat she left hanging on a nearby tree branch was too obvious. Tales of her voracious jaunts around the Sect must have spread by now. She had hardly been subtle about them, not when indiscretion had been the whole point of her hunts.

  Shao could think of no better way than to draw that oaf out from his seclusion.

  Still, she could not say she enjoyed the twist of waiting for her prey to arrive, rather than simply hunting for them. Patience, patience… Dai was lucky that she was such an understanding woman, willing to compromise herself for his sake.

  Idly, the disciple noted that the sunlight always felt warmer within the Beheaded Phoenix Sect than her home monastery of the Split-headed Carnivores. Most would simply attribute that to the influence of the Sect’s primarily Yang-aligned Corpus, but Shao was not so sure. There were times when the Jade Clouds here almost felt… weaker.

  An interesting theory took hold, but one she quickly discarded. The politics of this place held little interest to her, save for when they concerned her supply of willing men-flesh and playmates. Or when they concerned him. And speaking of which…

  She bolted up from her lying posture, slitted lilac eyes darkening with excitement as her flickering tongue finally tasted that distinct scent she had been searching for all morning. The Saurian beast within her stirred to life, as if responding to her qi’s sudden fluctuations.

  It took another minute before the man arrived. The heroic figure of that male cultivator was greeted by the sitting silhouette of Shao, utterly laid-back and unconcerned.

  In the male disciple’s hand was a titanic glaive, taller than even he was. More than that, his blazing qi spoke of his true danger.

  Tempering Realm, Ninth Step.

  “I would ask that you cease your tormenting of my juniors, Shao.”

  The female cultivator had to resist shivering at the sound of his deep reverberations. How long has it been since she heard his voice?

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  “Oh? Not even a hello any more? And with such a menacing aura…” Shao lightly teased. “Truly, the manners of the Beheaded Phoenix Sects have fallen far if their most valued Core Disciple greets their esteemed guest with such naked threats and—”

  “Shut your whore mouth. I did not come here for games.”

  Ah, were they skipping the foreplay, then? Maybe she should test him a little more.

  “... Of course not. You are far too boring for that. So were your juniors, too, of course. But unlike you, at least a few of them were man enough to come to my bed and—! ARGH!”

  She saw him move, but allowed his strike to land upon her shoulder. It was a woman’s prerogative to let the male take the initiative, after all.

  That did not mean the blazing slash did not hurt. Her left arm bounced off somewhere in the clearing, the glaive having cleaved the limb clean off. Black bile spilt only briefly from her stump, the wound already half-cauterised by the searing fire blade. Shao looked up, her breathing heavy as she beheld the furious, beautiful gaze of Core Disciple Dai staring down upon her.

  “... The next swing will take off more than an arm. Cease your depraved actions. This is not a request.”

  “Haa… Haa… My, my. A lesser woman might think you were acting out of jealousy, Dai.” She cocked her head at him and smiled. “Still… I like this side of you. Oh, I think I like it quite a lot…”

  “Enough,” he barked. “Will you stop or not?”

  The blade of his glaive glowed menacingly once more, and the residue of black blood on it fizzled and vaporised. Shao was unfazed.

  “And if I don’t?” she teased, savouring the anger in his eyes. “You can’t kill me, you know. The Split-headed Carnivores might become a little miffed at losing one of their most promising Core Disciples, especially on a diplomatic trip to your trusted Sect.”

  “I’ll burn your eyes out and remove all your limbs. Then I would throw you in a cell for you to rot until your Sect delegation collects you when they leave.”

  “Haa… Promises, promises… Give me a second… Guarhg!”

  Shao’s left arm regrew from the half-sealed stump, bursting forth in an explosion of sticky embryonic fluid and black blood. She experimentally flexed her new arm a few times.

  “There we go… Regrowing parts is such a pain… And what of my Lady? Do you think she would stand idly by as you imprison one of her personal handmaidens?”

  “Young Mistress Lianshi would understand once I explain to her what you have been doing.”

  Shao laughed. She lunged to her feet, swift as quicksilver, moving intimately close to the male disciple. Her mouth whispered next to his ear:

  “Oh, Dai… If you believe that, then why haven’t you told her already? It’s not as if she doesn’t know you. That lousy Fiancé of hers has definitely introduced you to her before. You are his favourite Senior ‘Brother’, after all.”

  The disciple named Dai did not respond. Shao chuckled one more, before leaning against his body. She took a deep breath, basking in the scent of smoke and ash that sent tingles all over her body.

  “I see… So you do still care for me… even if it's only a little…”

  He stepped away. “You are delusional if you think that’s the reason I–”

  “I’ll stop, by the way.”

  Dai glared at Shao, who smiled winningly back at him.

  “Quite frankly, your juniors taste awful. Nothing like what you were like. The piece of you that you gave me that day… haunts me still…”

  The Beast was fully awake now. That wound she incurred previously triggered its wraith, but the smell of the Core Disciple now brought forth its Hunger. Her mouth watered as secondary canines emerged from her gums. Delicate nails were turned into razor-sharp claws as her fingers flexed in anticipation, and her eyes darkened into violet pools.

  “Will you not show me that side of you again?” She breathed. “So full of passion, so full of rage… before that bitch took you from me… Did that Phoenix whore ever satisfy you, like I did? Hei Xingyu, so chaste and innocent. The prodigy Young Miss of the Sect… Look how your fires have died, after she left you…”

  Dai took further steps back, not out of fear, but in preparation. He readied his glaive warningly.

  “I was never yours. And if you agree to stop going after my Juniors, there is nothing left for us to discuss.”

  “I’ll stop, of course…” Shao giggled as her body began to twitch erratically. “I achieved what I wanted. You are here, after all. Even after you ignored me all those times I visited, secluding yourself in that Temple, h-hh-hiding yoURSELf aWAY from MeEeee…”

  She allowed the Beast to take hold of her soul. Limbs elongated, jaws unhinged, and her beautiful form slowly morphed into something unspeakably nightmarish as the flesh between her skin seemed to swell.

  [Arts of the Split-Headed Carnivores — False Primaeval Glory]

  It was a sight that would have sent a mortal, or even a cultivator, into stark terror. Dai did not react, his expression stony and unaffected.

  Where once the male disciple once stood taller than the female, Shao’s final form now towered over Dai. Any trace of her former beauty was gone. In its place was a grotesque creature that defied comprehension. Its qi rose.

  Tempering Realm, Eight Step.

  Even hunched over, it was over fifteen feet tall, with eight grasping limbs supporting its enormous frame. Each appendage was a parody of a human leg — composed of a thigh, knee, and feet — with their pale skin wrapped in black armoured plates that shagged with thick growths of dark hair.

  The body was swollen with freakish, green knots of muscles, littered with countless sensory organs — nose, ears, and eyes — that lay protected beneath flaps of armoured scutes. Worse were the scythe-like bone arms that arced outwards from its body, their sharpness matching Dai’s razor glaive.

  Instead of a face, a trio of long, hollow tubes was affixed along the length of its elongated skull, their hollow passages lined with helical grooves.

  When it spoke, it did so from a hundred mouths, all speaking together in horrific disharmony.

  “W-w-wEll… SHall we DANcE… Dai? IT’S… BEEEN–…! Ha… So very long since we shared a moment together…”

  Dai tightened his grip on his weapon. “Do you think to intimidate me in your transformed state?”

  “This? Haha… The proper appearance… helps set the mood, Dai…”

  “You have your duties. As do I. Wasting time like this achieves nothing.”

  Even as he said that, he had already resigned himself to battle. The disciple readied his qi, the three Dantian within his soul roared like a furnace, cycling qi as they primed for war.

  “You don’t really have a choice in this matter. You are here. I am here. And there’s no one else around. My hunger will not be denied.”

  “... You will find yourself disappointed.”

  “I shall be the judge of that. Shall we begin?”

  The man said nothing. Instead, he shifted into his stance, his expression cold and unyielding. It was a suitably heroic pose: the stalwart warrior facing against the hideous monster.

  “... That’s a good look on you. Now, how shall we proceed? Ah, yes… This tarnished, spurned mistress of the Split-headed Carnivores greets the cast-out successor of the Beheaded Phoenix…”

  The Beast Fang Mountain, Part 1

  Standing upon the highest summit amongst the Four Mountains of the 103rd Outer Province is the frost-covered monastery of the Split-headed Carnivores. In spring or winter, snowflakes drifted down upon the glacial mountain, covering the stone palaces and towers in a blanket of shimmering snow. The air is rich in Yin qi, and the purifying pools of the mountain are reputed to possess unsurpassed purity.

  Saturated with such an overabundance of Yin energy, the environment has become uniquely suited for female cultivators to advance. The Split-headed Carnivores is hence primarily composed of female disciples — an exact contrast to the male-dominated monastery of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect.

  The Sect is lauded for being the home of both picturesque snowy landscapes and women of unearthly beauty. Often reputed as being the crowning jewel of natural splendour within all the Northern Provinces, mortals and cultivators alike both flocked to the base of the mountain to pay tribute to the magnificence of the Sect.

  Yet beneath this veneer of loveliness lies a hunger that yearns terribly for meat and flesh. Though the doors of the Sect will always be open to any men who wish to feast their eyes upon the monastery’s legendary beauties, the wise will seek only to gaze at such splendour from afar, and not take one step past those ice-covered gates.

  – Excerpt from A Citizen’s Guide to the Flesh-Grafted Empire