Amitabha! Amitabha! Dejiu earnestly prayed for the first time. Move, Dejiu! Move!

  The daimon broke apart the rising Pillarshard enough for it to fit through. Raggedly breathing, Dejiu studied the ferocious-looking being in front of him. Oh, fuck. Damn. I-I have to fight this thing? It looked like a wingless bird twisted and corrupted in such a way to adapt the few stories he had heard about the Seventh Hell’s landscape.

  The creature loomed over Dejiu, a twisted daimon with a form as unnatural as its movements were relentless. Like a large bird that grew a pair of mishappened arms — if they could even be called that — was thick and compact, stretching and contracting in unpredictable spurts, each extension bringing jagged talons flashing toward him.

  “Fight. Kill. Daimon.” The woman’s voice urged violently in his head.

  “I know, I know you wench!” Dejiu yelled with the cadence and word choice unbefitting a temple monk. “I wanted to run! So hold your tongu—”

  Rolling away from a cutting swipe of an abnormally long limb, Dejiu gathered himself and studied his foe. Its body is covered in solid coarse feathers, appearing almost petrified in parts, while others bled a sickly, dark ichor. Above its grotesque torso, a head devoid of features save for a narrow slit for an eye that glowed with a faint, haunting yellow light, like the dull embers of a dying fire.

  The daimon paused and cocked its head as though it was confused about Dejiu’s ability to move, but continued its assault.

  Dejiu threw himself to the side, rolling to dodge a swipe as the daimon's limb shot toward him again, short and stout but deceptively fast.

  “Agh!” Dejiu cried. The talon shallowly nicked his back. He looked down below him to find his blood dripping into the snow, steaming as it did so.

  I-I can’t keep this up. I have to attack. He thought, ignoring the pangs from his back.

  Although he knew he had to attack the daimon, it was much easier said than done. He didn’t know the first thing about combat and using prana in battle, he barely even knew how to cultivate!

  But just as he lamented his prowess, the ominous woman in his head… or wherever she was spoke once more. “Duck. Stab. Kill.”

  She wanted to kill me by making me turn back from the prefecture! Now she wants to help? Dejiu frowned.

  In the next second, the wingless bird-like daimon hipped and hopped toward him and thrust its lengthy talon-ended limb once more. However, this time, Dejiu reluctantly listened to the malign voice and ducked clumsily on all fours. Snow stuck to his hands and feet, but he immediately followed with a weak thrust into the daimon’s legs, miraculously drawing blood. The daimon lurched back in response and cocked its head at the wound dealt from the bladed end of Dejiu’s polearm.

  In a high-pitched screech, the daimon engaged again despite its weakened leg.

  “Kill. Upwards. Stab.” The woman said just as Dejiu lifted himself.

  Oddly entrusting his entire being to the woman’s voice, his monk’s spade clanged against the risen stone as he shifted his weight, sweeping it upward just in time to meet the creature’s next attack. With an awkward and untrained movement, he plunged the crescent blade into its torso, twisting with all his strength.

  The daimon shuddered, its limbs convulsing as a dark essence began leaking from its wounds. A monotone voice sounded in his head.

  [You have slain an Impure Daimon: Hollow Talon]

  “You shut up too!” Dejiu snapped, though whether it was directed at the two voices in his head or the lifeless daimon before him, even he wasn’t sure. He wanted to quiet his nerves. But his momentary triumph was short-lived as the next creature stumbled out.

  “Carrion. Take. Feed.” The woman laughed, seemingly pleased with the kill.

  His gaze darted to the lifeless body of the Hollow Talon, its misshapen form sprawled out, black ichor pooling beneath it. The thought twisted his stomach, but he couldn't deny the possibility. He could almost feel the lingering energy pulsing within the carcass — a Hell Shard.

  His fingers clenched around the handle of his monk’s spade, the cold bite of the weapon grounding him for a moment. Absorb the Hell Shard? Is that what she wants?

  Without another thought, he rushed toward the corpse before the next daimon could crawl out.

  Dejiu could see prana, albeit at the most basic level. Cutting apart the flesh covering the area with the most concentrated and dense prana, he inhaled sharply before sinking his hand inside the wound. He dug and rummaged around the bloody mess before grabbing a hold of the Hell Shard and absorbing it.

  [You have acquired a Hell Shard (Impure)]

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Acclimating to the influx of foreign prana, of the hell element much less, Dejiu steadied himself once more.

  “Good boy. Kill more! Take more!” The woman flooded his mind again.

  Dejiu winced at the sudden remark and clutched his temple. Gah! Is she getting more coherent with her words? Why? The Hell Shard?

  But he couldn’t forget where he stood as the next daimon… another Hollow Talon broke free from the evergrowing Pillarshard.

  Inspecting his status before the next fight, he frowned.

  [Prana Core: Mid Initiate]

  [Prana: 13/29]

  I’m this low!? And that’s after absorbing a Hell Shard! God, by the Great Lotus Venerable! He pleaded, shaking his head at the Pillarshard.

  At least this is an Impure Pillarshard. It’s the only saving grace of this situation. Only creatures of the Seventh Hell can emerge from this Pillarshard, those of the Impure level or equivalent to an Initiate Stage Seeker. As for how strong these Impure daimons could be… Dejiu didn’t want to think of it right now. But that was for later if they do appear.

  Besides, he had something he needed to do before the daimon was upon him.

  “...Hey, miss? Mistress? Lady? Who are you?” He reluctantly asked. He still feared she was going to kill him from the inside or something.

  “...”

  “Hello?” His fear waned and frustration replaced it. “You’re the one who damned me here you wen—”

  “I am called Bing Xin, my little monk. Enough dawdling around, that old bird’s spawn is coming for your head.”

  …And just like the woman—Bing Xin said, Dejiu steadied himself. Yep. Still a little jittery.

  But his nervous face grimaced and contorted at the sight of his new enemy. “Um. Miss Bing Xin? What do I do? This…uh. This wingless bird is much bigger than the last one. ”

  But the mysterious Bing Xin didn’t respond and his panic rose.

  “Hello? Hey!? Miss!?” Dejiu stammered out. “I’m sorry I called you a wench earlier! Hey, Miss are you still there? The daimon is coming!”

  “When the right arm thrusts forward, duck then run around it. Go inside the Pillarshard, don’t fight. You’ll die.” She finally said.

  Dejiu opened his mouth to curse her madness again, just as the daimon’s long limb extended forward, aimed right between his eyes. Instinct took over, and he dropped into a low crouch, narrowly avoiding the attack.

  “Go inside? Go inside!? Why would I ever go inside that hellish–”

  “Jump right!”

  The coarse stone-like feathers on the daimon’s torso fired where Dejiu stood just a second ago like a flurry of arrows.

  He looked back in shock. He just jumped from imminent death!

  “I’m going inside!” Dejiu belted his change of mind as he ran around the daimon. He dodged the storm of feathers with all he had. His prana was depleting rapidly despite how little he knew of using it for techniques and fighting, but miraculously he continued evading most of the feathers.

  “Kreuk!” He gasped out in response to the sharp pain on the side of his right arm and leg.

  “A little more!” The woman continued, almost gleeful despite his woes.

  “I know!” He spat.

  Dejiu gritted his teeth as he staggered, clutching his injured arm. The sharp pain radiated from the fresh wound, blood seeping through his robes and staining the fabric dark. The daimon turned and scattered its stone-like feathers in another deadly barrage. Dejiu dove to the side, feeling the feathers slice through the air mere inches from him, the whistling sound filling his ears. Each dodge drained him further, his prana flickering like a candle in a storm, almost ready to sputter out.

  He managed a few more steps, dodging the daimon’s talon, each movement becoming harder as his muscles weakened. His vision blurred, the weight of his prana growing unbearable, threatening to crush him from within. But the Pillarshard’s entrance was now just a few feet away, radiating a chilling energy that made his skin crawl.

  With a final, reckless burst of speed, Dejiu flung himself through the Pillarshard’s jagged opening, tumbling onto the cold, shadowed ground within. The daimon let out an enraged screech from behind, halting at the threshold, unable—or perhaps unwilling—to follow him in.

  Huh? Why can’t it come in? Dejiu thought. There was nothing to stop it. But as he turned and looked around the Pillarshard’s interior, he was even more confused. Shouldn’t a Pillarshard be… crawling in daimons?

  “It’s because of that progenitor of these fledgling birds.” The woman answered, confirming her ability to hear his thoughts.“The fat one won’t follow because of the progenitor’s will . As for how vacant this is? Most of his spawn die — too weak to endure even the weakest of Hells. Most surviving ones are injured and weak.”

  “That… is considered weak?” Dejiu cried out. He still clutched his wounded limbs. “But never mind that. Who’re you? And why can I hear you?”

  “I’ve already told you, my little monk. I am called Bing Xin.”

  “My ass! Your name doesn’t explain any of this!”

  “Ho… then the best answer I can give is no answer at all. Summon your Seekers Accord and find your Attributes.”

  Dejiu frowned but still did as she told.

  [Attribute[s]: Doomed Entwinement — Shattered Innocence]

  [Attribute Description: Doomed Entwinement — This pitiful herald of blood is forsaken to be ever entwined with such twisted beings, the everlonging daimons of rebirth. However, this bond comes with the same indescribable yearning for what has been lost in exchange.]

  [Attribute Description: Shattered Innocence — You cried the throes of struggle before you cried the tears of adolescence. An echo of innocence stolen and replaced by blood and steel.]

  Immediately, it clicked. Dejiu’s eyes widened and he felt the sudden urge to vomit for not noticing something he should’ve known the moment a voice other than the Seekers Accord appeared in his head.

  “You… you are a daimon?”

  “Indeed, my little monk. I am called Bing Xin an everlonging daimon of rebirth.”