10 10. Hunger

News spread far and wide of how an entire village disappeared overnight and fear began to spread to the neighboring villages akin to a vine creeping across a trellis.

Many sent people down to investigate the cause but the majority of the people who came back became unsound of mind as if they had experienced some great terror. Others who managed to come back did so with no concrete answers except that there was a lack of survivors. There was, however, some evidence that suggested one survivor: A tattered and filthy pair of children's clothes shed by a riverbed with small footprints leading to and out of the village.

This evidence befuddled the masses but at the same time it terrified them. The evidence was highly suggestive that it was a child who caused such a massacre. No human child could be capable of such a thing though.

Upon coming to this conclusion, the investigation was quickly closed and the ruins were blocked off as well as the mysterious forest that lay close to it. It quickly earned the name of the Cursed Ruins and became a feared place to be avoided at all costs. Travelers far and wide were warned to stay away and often were forced to prolong their route to avoid it.

Talk of the investigation seemed to disappear but unbeknownst to the common folk, there were still a few people who were searching to find the lost child for their own purposes.

7 years later...

In the midst of a marketplace, a youth in the prime of his life walked. Although he dressed in a way that otherwise wouldn't attract attention, his presence naturally demanded peoples eyes. With his high brows, straight nose, tall silhouette, and smooth gait, many eyes naturally found their way to him. Most unusual though was his hair. It was neat, long, and well kept but the color was so incredibly dark that it seemed somewhat blue. Almost as if there was no light reflecting off of it. It truly dragged the eye towards it whether one was willing or not.

He walked into an inn and placed a handful of gold coins on the table in front of the owner. "One room."

The owner was taken aback by Mao Yin's bearing and took a while to respond. Impatient, he reached over the counter with a black gloved hand and expressionlessly plucked a key off the rack.

"Thank you."

In his room, he dropped the bag that he had previously slung across his back and dropped himself into a chair with a sigh. A decapitated head rolled out from the bag and he nudged it away from himself with a foot. It's foggy eyes and mouth remained open in perpetual terror.

He poured himself a steaming cup of tea and leaned backwards with his eyes closed.

A misty figure appeared and sat across from Mao Yin with the head in its grasp. It opened its mouth and took a large bite out of it, catching one of the eyeballs in its mouth and pulling it out with a yank, slurping the attached nerve as if it were a noodle.

"Don't let your teeth scrape against the bone."

The figure let out a laugh with its dry voice. "I had thought that this was your favorite sound? You listen to it quite often either way."

Mao Yin refused to speak further and remained as he was with his eyes closed.

"Tsk, you were more obedient as a child. Remember when you used to call me grandpa?" The old demon cackled

Mao Yin refused to speak so the figure flicked his forehead. Some of the coagulated blood from the severed head came off on his forehead from the flick.

"Don't ignore me, child. Hunger claws at me. You know that the flesh of a human can only sate me for a short period of time."

Mao Yin sat up and wiped the blood from his forehead expressionlessly. "Don't fret; I stopped by the inn because I found someone new. I'll work on them so for the time being you'll have to settle with only eating meat."

The old demon let out a cynical sounding humph. "Be sure to corrupt them well this time. The previous time I wasn't able to eat my fill."

The corner of Mao Yin's mouth crept up in an imitation of a smile. "To live is to eat after all."

"I taught you well, my child. To live is to eat. Humans are merely a tunnel of emptiness in which food enters and leaves. Therefore, life is to consume; whether it's food or one another. In order to survive you must eat, and for those who fail their highest privilege is to become food for another." With that, he took another bite, tearing flesh from the head's cheek and chin, exposing the ivory bone underneath.

Mao Yin stood and made his way to the bed where he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to begin cultivating. "Don't worry. I will depart in the morning."