A faint sob slipped through the wall of mist, drifting upon the biting cold wind.
Ling Shan paused.
"Who's there?"
His voice was low. One hand moved instinctively to the hilt of his sword.
The mist ahead stirred slowly, as if it possessed a breath of its own. Then a small figure stepped through it.
A little girl.
Petite. Long hair falling loose, veiling half her face. Her clothes were dull and damp at the hem, as though she had just walked through rain…..or tears.
She passed by him without meeting his gaze.
"Wait."
Ling Shan called out. The girl stopped, though she did not turn immediately. Beside him, his horse pawed nervously at the ground, a low unease rumbling in its throat.
"Were you crying?" he asked.
The girl slowly turned. Her eyes were swollen red, as if she had not slept for many nights. Yet beneath that exhaustion, something hard flickered.
"My mother is ill…" Her voice was so faint it nearly dissolved into the mist. "Can you… help us?"
Ling Shan studied her in silence.
"What illness?"
Her small fingers tightened around the edge of her sleeve.
"A corrupt official came to our village. He said the taxes would be raised. We have nothing left to eat. My mother resisted… so he ordered his men to beat her."
Her voice trembled….but no tears fell anymore. It was as though she had cried until none remained.
Akin's presence within Ling Shan fell silent at once.
(Another official…)
"Where is he?"
The girl pointed toward the far end of the village, where a larger house stood apart from the rest. Dim light seeped through its windows.
"He's staying there… No one dares go near."
Another gust of cold wind swept past. A faint metallic scent drifted through the air.
Ling Shan narrowed his eyes.
Ling Shan narrowed his eyes.
"Take me to your mother."
The girl hesitated for only a breath before nodding and turning to lead the way. With each step deeper into the narrow alley, the mist thickened, as if deliberately sealing them away from the sight of the outside world.
His horse refused to follow. It stood rigid behind him, a low warning rumbling in its throat.
Ling Shan glanced back at it for a moment, then exhaled softly.
"Wait here."
He looped the reins around a rotting wooden post by the roadside and followed the girl inside.
The alley grew tighter and tighter, until their two shadows were nearly swallowed whole by the dim blue haze.
Then….
The crying he had heard before rose again. But not from ahead. It came from all directions. Ling Shan stopped abruptly. The girl walking before him… stopped as well.
Her small shoulders trembled. When she spoke again, her voice was no longer the same.
"Will you… truly help my mother?"
It had deepened, lower, sliding downward in an unnatural register.
Behind him, the mist slowly closed over the path they had taken. In that instant, Ling Shan understood. This village was not silent merely from fear.
It was waiting.
And whatever it had been waiting for… might have just found a new offering.
At the abandoned shrine in the heart of the village, he tied his horse beneath a bamboo tree before the crumbling temple. The roof tiles were cracked and broken. Incense sticks had long since burned down to blackened ash.
This…
was where it had begun.
A memory flashed across his mind, A woman in red. Eyes resolute, yet shadowed with fear. Her name was Yue Hong.
In the past, Ling Shan had used her.
She had been an outer disciple of the demonic sect, yet she had never killed anyone. She had hidden herself in Baihu Village to gather intelligence for her sect. But her heart had been too gentle to become a true demon.
And Ling Shan… had known that.
He approached her. Pretended to protect the villagers from a forbidden ritual. Pretended to sympathize. Pretended to trust her, so that she would lead him closer to the sect leader.
On the night of the assassination, the leader of the demonic sect was pierced through the heart in the center of the ritual cave.
Before dying, he laughed.
"Did you truly think… that using the heart of a pure demon as your blade would carry no retribution?"
After that, everything collapsed.
The sect members descended into madness. Some ignited the forbidden ritual before fleeing. Black mist erupted from the altar, and screams echoed against the cliffs.
Yue Hong was exposed for bringing an enemy into the cave. She was dragged onto the altar.
And in the chaos…
Ling Shan chose the mission. Instead of saving her, he lunged toward the sect leader to ensure the kill.
Blood sprayed. The altar trembled. The curse shattered outward in violent waves.
Yue Hong fell within the heart of the ritual, "The heart of a pure demon", sacrificed… without intention.
In the present, Ling Shan dropped to his knees before the abandoned shrine, his breathing growing heavy without his realizing it.
(I… was the one who pushed her toward death.)
From within the shadows of the shrine, a faint voice drifted out.
"At last… you have returned."
Ling Shan drew his sword almost instantly.
A figure stepped from behind one of the pillars, ,a man cloaked in gray. His face was deathly pale, his eyes burning with resentment.
"The righteous general," he sneered. "Do you remember me?"
A flash of memory… The right hand of the demonic sect leader. The one who survived that night.
"You…" Ling Shan's voice was low.
The man raised his hand, revealing a scorched sigil branded black into his palm.
"The curse is not yet complete," he said with a cold smile. "The heart of the innocent demon was sacrificed… but the one who led her there has not yet paid."
Suddenly, a sharp agony tore through Ling Shan's left chest, as if something were clawing at his heart from within.
He collapsed, clutching at his chest. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
"You were poisoned that very night," the man continued calmly. "A toxin fused with the curse. It will slowly transform your heart… into a demon's heart."
The wind around them began to swirl unnaturally. Dead leaves lifted from the ground.
"When that day comes," his voice turned glacial, "the noble general's heart will become the true offering."
Ling Shan's eyes trembled.
The image of Yue Hong falling upon the altar surged back into his mind. The blood of the innocent. The screams of villagers. So many lives lost in the chaos he had ignited….
All because he chose "victory" over "life."
He forced himself to stand, though his legs shook.
"If the curse seeks a demon's heart…" He raised his head, his gaze sharp as steel. "It will not take it from me."
The man burst into laughter.
"Do you think you can escape? The more you kill, the faster your heart will darken."
Those words cut like a blade driven deep into his mind. Within him, Akin understood at last. This was no ordinary curse. It was a karmic bond.
The more he used his blade, the closer his heart would draw to becoming a demon. And when it reached that final threshold, it would turn into the "The heart of a pure demon" the most perfect offering of all.
Another violent gust of wind tore through the shrine. The cloaked man retreated into the shadows.
"It won't be long before we meet again… General Ling Shan."
His figure dissolved into the gray mist, leaving only silence behind.
Ling Shan stood alone in the abandoned shrine, his hand clenched tightly around his sword. Blood still traced the corner of his mouth.
His heart pounded painfully in his chest, yet his gaze had grown steadier than before.
(I will not kill again…)
Not merely to atone for Yue Hong.
But to prevent this heart from becoming the very sacrifice born of the curse he himself had set in motion.
And yet… In the deepest recess of his chest, something dark had already begun to stir.
(But Yue Hong… she was not the woman in red I saw… Then who was that woman?)
Slowly, Ling Shan forced his weakened body upright and began making his way back toward the home he once knew.
Without warning, rain began to fall.
It washed over the charred remains of the village, thinning the dust, the ash, and the lingering demonic residue in the air. Ling Shan lifted his face to the sky.
"Blood rain…?"
He raised a hand to touch the falling drops.
His entire body was soon drenched, soaked in crimson rain that resembled fresh-spilled blood.
Then he looked ahead.
There…not far away… stood the woman in red he had just recalled. Her hair and robes billowed wildly in the storm.
"You… You are the one who brought down this blood rain, aren't you?"
Akin's voice within Ling Shan spoke to the red-clad figure. She stood still, her gaze fixed upon him. She gave no answer. And then, slowly, she began to fade into the rain.
The downpour ceased.
Sunlight broke through the clouds, pouring down in bright, early-morning radiance.
Ling Shan lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the glare. When he looked forward again… She was gone. He remained there, staring into the empty space before him…