Amarathia

GORE. Wondering if I should stop putting in these warnings since like 5 other chapters have slight gore, but I swear this is the last time for a long while...

Qin Yan received a burst of points now and then after returning to the garden. It made him highly suspicious that Wangzi actually…er, ‘played’ with the eggplant before realizing it was an empty shell, which was unpleasant to think about, but the longer Wangzi took, the better. The poison would get worse, and eventually even the stupid evil Lord would have no choice but to seclude in order to purify it out of his veins. 

While Wangzi was occupied with that, then with getting revenge on Qin Yan for c*ckblocking him, Qin Yan's own intentions should be quite clear...his plan was that when Song Heqing showed up to water today he would tell him about what happened with Wangzi. It was the perfect time for the boy to sneakily escape. 

So, Qin Yan waited. 

Yet…Song Heqing did not appear.

Qin Yan waited and waited, but there was no sign of him. He never skipped watering.

Then Qin Yan saw it.

A limp figure was being dragged down the hallway at the other end of the courtyard towards the interrogation room, their hands tied by rope so tightly the fingertips were purple. Their head was hanging down as though unconscious. Whip marks and lumpy bruises covered their arms and legs, red streaks showing through his clothing, making it clear that not an inch of his body had been spared. 

It was Song Heqing.

“He’s not dead,” thought Qin Yan, numbly. “He can’t be. He’s alive…he’s all right.”

Lin Hui’an walked to the entrance of the interrogation room, stood in front of Song Heqing, then put out a hand to lift his chin. She had an extremely disappointed expression until she kicked him into the interrogation room.

“You dare commit such a crime," her words seemed to echo into Qin Yan's eardrums, "until the Lord feels like punishing you again…I'll make sure you remember your mistake.”

Her venomous gaze slide across the stones of the courtyard, directly towards Qin Yan, and she flashed a meaningful smile. In the next moment, the double doors to the interrogation room slammed shut.

The vines of the eggplant began to shudder, convulsing over the ground as if they had been stung. Wangzi… didn't clear out the poison yet? He went after Song Heqing first? Purposefully not coming to seek revenge, privately torturing Song Heqing…

“Why?”

Qin Yan could not reason anymore. He transformed back into a human form, and in the next second dashed in front of the guard near interrogation room. The man did not have time to scream before Qin Yan finished him, taking his robe to cover his body. He kicked open the doors.

Inside, Song Heqing was hung up on the wall by a rope, eyes opened only a slit, but widened when he saw Qin Yan. He opened his mouth as though to speak, but only coughed, and there was blood on the corner of his lips.

Qin Yan recalled Wangzi's words; "I shall cut off their hands and pluck out their tongue, then see what they can tell you."

He shuddered. Was his tongue really gone? Song Heqing couldn’t talk to him anymore? 

Qin Yan could hear himself yelling and there was ringing in his ears. His vision turned red. The last string of restraint, sanity, and mercy in him broke. He did not care anymore what happened. He only cared about Song Heqing and the guilt of what he’d caused him to suffer through. Vines grew out of his shoulders, thrusting into the skin of the nearby servants. For once it was not to feed, but to tear them apart.

They did scream. They screamed a lot until he was annoyed by the noise and let them die.

Lin Hui’an shouted at the top of her lungs and lifted her thorn whip to strike at Qin Yan.

“Stop it, beast!”

She was able to fend off the first two vines that struck at her. She creased her brow, panicked, but nevertheless had a sort of calculative calm.

“This is your fault! All of it happened because you disobeyed the Great Lord. Demon, are you really that surprised to find that your favored boy would take the blame? Are you too demented to realize-”

“Shut up!”

Qin Yan rammed into her body so hard she spit out bile.

Vines curled and twisted to fill the entirety of the room, and Lin Hui’an was trapped against the wall, unable to move a finger.

Lin Hui’an had widened eyes as though finally realizing what peril she was in. She said, “Lunatic! Just take that brat and go. Die by Lord Wangzi! And you waste Song Heqing, you ruined everything, for this...this worthless de-”

Qin Yan did not want to hear her talk anymore.

This time he used his own hand, not a vine, to personally dig into the mouth of Lin Hui’an and rip out her tongue. He squished the red-pink piece of flesh in between his fingers before throwing it to the side like a used piece of gum. Her eyes bulged out at him, the spidery veins within them seeming to rupture from fear, but no matter what she was unable to escape. 

What she said wasn’t so wrong.

It’s his fault, anyway. 

But he never wanted to be trapped here forever, in the walls of this estate with the screams of others surrounding him, living near the perverted Wangzi. He put up with it for what reasons? The points that barely ticked up? The novelty of reincarnation, being in a fantasy world? These demonic sect people weren’t like humans, they’re just twisted, warped, pathetic creatures. 'You are what you eat' they say, and he was becoming just like them.

Qin Yan smiled. He’ll rip her apart.

He began to tear into Lin Hui'an.

"I never asked to be reincarnated."

Qin Yan ripped out her stomach as her body writhed and convulsed.

"I never asked to become a monster."

Qin Yan plucked out her heart. She was long a corpse by now.

"I never wanted Song Heqing to get hurt in my place."

As gunk pooled over the vines on the floor, Qin Yan looked at the strewn mess of the Stewardess Lin Hui’an. He felt the instinctual urge to suck the demonic energy from it. He did. Now, his loss of power from destroying his clonal body was also recovered. It seemed that, despite Lin Hui'an's ability to fight, her level of demonic cultivation was quite powerful...

Ah, had he blackened fully? Black character arc complete. He chuckled.

The ropes binding Song Heqing wrists had been broken by vines a while ago, and the boy managed to keep on his feet, but his complexion was pallid. He did not look at Lin Hui’an’s corpse very long.

“Why were they torturing you?” asked Qin Yan, but right after, answered his own question, “I know. It’s my fault. Did Wangzi rip out your tongue?”

“…”

“Did he? Did he really rip it out? Why aren’t you saying anything?!”

Song Heqing quickly shook his head and wiped the blood off his lips. His voice was a little hoarse.

“It’s not what Lin Hui’an said…she lied. This has nothing to do with you. I broke into the treasury and stole back Starlight on Obsidian, my parent’s heirloom sword, but I was too indecisive and got caught.”

A double-edged sword black like night was indeed gripped in his arms. It’d been propped against the wall of the interrogation room when Qin Yan came inside, and Lin Hui’an probably intended to use it as a means of taunting and demoralizing Song Heqing by putting exactly what he wanted but could not have in his face. 

"So that was it…Song Heqing stole it…" 

Obviously Song Heqing lied. How could his current situation have nothing to do with Qin Yan? It was precisely because he was trying to get in contact with Qin Yan that he was caught. But because of Qin Yan’s scattered rationality, he believed Song Heqing's words fully and let out a heavy sigh.

“Why were you so impatient? Now that you've stolen it Wangzi won't let you go. I can't defeat him, neither can you.”

There was a slight barrage of frustration and anger, but Song Heqing kept a solemn expression as he replied, 

“You hate it here, right? Let’s leave.”

Qin Yan froze, and seemed to process the words. 

“…leave?”

Song Heqing’s bright eyes locked with Qin Yan's, then he reached out a hand and clasped onto his. Qin Yan looked at his own greyish hand. It was covered in the slick blood of Lin Hui’an, unknown substances packed under the fingernails. He unconsciously tried to pull it back, but Song Heqing...wouldn’t let go.

For some reason, Song Heqing’s hand seemed to glow, and Qin Yan felt a freezing energy crawl up his arm. He tensed at first, but then found that it was somehow soothing, just like the water poured over his roots. It was water Qi, no, ice, similar to the Blue Lady's tomb. 

Song Heqing said, “Please consider it. You can’t keep on the demonic way much longer. Besides, both of us have already angered Wangzi. It’s impossible to stay unless you become his…” he could not finish speaking the last part, it really angered him too much. 

The blood of Lin Hui’an had seeped through the all the stones of the floor. Qin Yan sighed lightly, then averted his eyes. Song Heqing was right. Regardless of the consequences, he needed to leave here. He felt quite tired, anyway, looking at the corpse of Lin Hui’an.

If Song Heqing was still going to trust him after what he'd seen then he couldn't disappoint his expectations.

“…let’s go. We have to hurry.”

The face of Song Heqing lit up, far from removing his hand from Qin Yan’s, he intertwined his fingers in his, a faint smile pulling on his lips.

Hand in hand, they ran towards the main gate.