Kill Her with His Own Hands

The cursed Black-Beast Demon lunged at one of the smaller members of its kind. Its speed far surpassed anything seen from an ordinary Black-Beast Demon — before the smaller creature could react, its limbs were already seized.

Speed was only part of it. The cursed demon's strength was incomparably greater as well. Seething with aggression and volcanic rage, it simply tore the smaller Black-Beast Demon apart with its bare hands.

**Rrrriiiip—**

Flesh rent, bones shattered. The small Black-Beast Demon was wrenched into two halves. Black blood soaked the ground in every direction.

**Gurk... gurk... gurk—**

The remaining Black-Beast Demons panicked. Several bolted. The cursed demon's gaze swept across them, and its sharp black claws crossed in a lethal slash.

Black claw-arcs grazed the wall beside it, hurtling in an X-pattern after one of the slower fleeing demons.

**Slash!!**

The moment those arcs connected, the fleeing demon's stride froze mid-step. A clear X-shaped fissure split across its body, and it crumbled apart along those lines, falling to pieces.

The cursed Black-Beast Demon was in a state of frenzied violence. Even as the others scattered in every direction, it had no intention of letting a single one escape.

It killed without pause. Whatever agony filled its eyes seemed to find only the faintest relief in slaughter.

**CRACK!!**

Pale, desolate moonlight bathed the rooftop. A massive Black-Beast Demon was hurled into the water tank beside Zhang Lulu, its body exploding into bloody ruin on impact. Viscous fluid oozed slowly down the tank's sides — ghastly under the moonlight.

**ROOOAAAR!!**

When the last of them was dead, the cursed Black-Beast Demon threw its head back and howled into the night. The sound carried for several city blocks, reaching clearly to every corner of Shengang, and sent every late-night wanderer stumbling to the ground in fright.

Beside the water tank, Zhang Lulu had gone completely still.

This entire bloodbath had unfolded right before her eyes — severed limbs scattered everywhere, blood soaking every surface. She could already picture what her own end would look like.

She couldn't move. She couldn't even arrange the Star Trails she knew best, let alone trace out a complete Star Chart. The cursed Black-Beast Demon standing before her — coated head to toe in the blood of its own kin — was simply too overwhelming. Too powerful for even the faintest spark of resistance to kindle within her.

After its howl faded, the cursed demon turned to face her. Its expression, half-rotted and drenched in black blood, could only be described by one word: agony.

Agony consumed nearly every trace of emotion on its face, leaving only hatred and savagery in its eyes.

Zhang Lulu didn't dare meet that monster's gaze. Her legs turned to water beneath her.

When the cursed demon moved toward her, it lacked the decisiveness it had shown with its kin. Its steps were slow — halting — as though something inside it was tearing against the movement. It would lift one foot, then pull it back.

Zhang Lulu's mind had gone blank. She had no idea why the cursed demon was holding back. With its power, killing her would be effortless.

"What's wrong?" A voice drifted across the empty rooftop, eerily calm. "Can't bring yourself to do it?"

Zhang Lulu snapped her head to the side. There, in the cold moonlight, stood a figure wearing half a mask, perched at the edge of the rooftop.

*When had he appeared?*

*Or had he always been there — watching in silence the entire time, invisible until he chose to speak?*

"You've genuinely surprised me," the masked figure said, his tone edged with mockery. "Tempering a cursed beast-demon is no simple matter. It requires not only a body strong enough as a foundation, but a soul saturated with hatred and resentment. Who would have thought that someone from such a prestigious academy could harbor this much? You'd be perfectly suited for the Black Church — as one of our killing slaves. And don't even dream of running. The souls enslaved by the Black Church are beyond the redemption of even the Parthenon's people."

**Gurk—gurk—GURK!!**

The cursed demon shrieked with fury, but an invisible chain bound its soul — its other end held by the half-masked man. No matter how much rage burned in it, that chain would not let it strike at him.

Zhang Lulu stood frozen, unable to make sense of a single word.

"Your transformation was, originally, something I found quite pleasing — I might even have shown a little mercy." The half-masked man's lips curved into a skin-crawling smile. His eyes regarded Zhang Lulu the way one regards livestock. He spoke slowly. "But you ran. You killed so many of your own kind. As punishment..." He gave the order with deliberate calm: "Tear her apart. Children love to rip things — and in my eyes, you're no different from a newborn. This girl is your toy. Shred her however you like."

The color drained entirely from Zhang Lulu's face.

Every word out of that man's mouth made her tremble from the inside out.

**"ROAARRR!!"**

The cursed demon erupted in rage, directing its roar at the masked figure.

"You dare roar at me? Are you tired of living?!"

The half-masked man drew a black whip from inside his coat — thick as a forearm — and cracked it at the cursed demon. The creature couldn't even dodge.

**CRACK!!**

The lash landed across its back, splitting a ragged, bleeding furrow through its flesh.

"Go. Kill her."

Its eyes flared red. The cursed Black-Beast Demon stepped forward, closing in on Zhang Lulu.

The cursed aura and fetid, overwhelming stench crashed into her all at once. Zhang Lulu collapsed to the ground, her face streaked with terrified tears.

"I told you — I would make you wish you were dead!!" the half-masked man snarled, his face contorted with cruelty.

The cursed demon drew closer. Its claws were almost raised.

Yet its arm was trembling. That half-rotted face twisted with even deeper anguish.

At last, its claws raked inward — across its own shoulder. The savage talons sank deep into its own flesh, as though it were trying to wrench its own arms from their sockets. A sound of maddened agony tore itself from somewhere deep in its throat.

"You cannot defy me. Kill her, and your pain will ease — greatly. The more sins an enslaved soul accumulates, the stronger its Black-Beast Demon becomes, and the better it can endure the torment of soul-slavery. Do it now — kill her!!"

The half-masked man was howling.

Yu'ang howled — and laughed — in the same breath.

Killing this girl would be child's play for him. But that was never the point.

What he wanted — what he had been savoring all along — was to watch Xu Zhaoting, now trapped in the body of a cursed Black-Beast Demon, kill her with his own hands.