Chapter 357 - A Devouring Shadow and a Dying Curse

Chapter 357: Chapter 357 - A Devouring Shadow and a Dying Curse

Su Bai put the mirror away and stood beside the tree.

The prisoner watched the movement with an attention that had become almost wary.

Ning Shuang stepped closer, glancing once toward the unconscious men before lowering her voice. Their captive had stopped trying to gather Qi openly, but the uneven circulation inside him had never become completely still.

"Will you kill him?"

Su Bai looked down at the bound figure.

"Leaving him here to recover would be dangerous. He already knows who helped restrain him."

Ning Shuang nodded.

The prisoner’s eyes shifted toward her, carrying a brief promise that made the meaning of Su Bai’s words clear enough.

If he regained his strength, the people in this clearing would be among the first he sought.

Ning Shuang had understood that risk when she arranged his capture. She drew a slow breath and reached toward her weapon.

"Let me do it, then."

Su Bai turned toward her.

"You have already helped enough," she said. "My hands have had blood on them for a long time. Brother Su does not need to carry this as well."

Her tone was matter-of-fact, but she avoided his eyes after speaking.

Su Bai watched the fingers resting against her weapon and remembered the quiet satisfaction with which she had described turning the group against the prisoner.

She could speak openly about schemes and threats. Offering to take the killing upon herself seemed to have unsettled her more.

He smiled gently.

"You offered to help me. There is nothing dirty about that."

Ning Shuang looked up.

"Keep your blade away from people who have done you no harm," he continued. "You do not need to decide what your hands are worth from the place that raised you."

For a moment, she could only stare at him.

The words reached something she usually kept far beneath the composure she showed others. She had expected him to accept the offer, refuse it, or tell her that he had killed before.

The warmth gathering in her chest left her uncertain what expression to wear.

Before she could find an answer, Su Bai’s attention returned to the captive.

"We should deal with his remaining strength first."

He moved Ning Shuang slightly farther from the tree with a gesture.

"I have seen what he can do when he has enough power to use his preparations. Stay clear until I know whether something else responds."

The prisoner watched him with renewed suspicion.

Su Bai raised one hand, and a dark distortion gathered above it. The surrounding Qi shifted toward the shape as pressure spread through the clearing.

Ning Shuang’s eyes narrowed, but she remained where he had indicated. Beneath the tree, the prisoner went completely still.

The Starving Wraith’s Devouring Maw opened.

Its presence descended slowly over the borrowed body.

Su Bai controlled the pull carefully, directing it toward the Qi reserves that remained within the unsettled Dantian and meridians. The chains stayed in place, and the flesh beneath them suffered no new wound. What changed was the power moving inside it.

The prisoner’s breathing caught.

A stream of Qi tore free of his control and rose toward the Maw. More followed as Su Bai extended the pull along the routes he had already examined.

The man tried to resist, but his wounded circulation faltered almost immediately. His face lost what little color had returned since the mirror’s punishment.

Su Bai felt the stolen reserves enter his own circulation.

They amounted to far less than the man must once have commanded, although enough remained to justify removing them before doing anything further.

He kept his spiritual sense on the formation markings while the Maw continued drawing. A few of the strained flows weakened as their available Qi disappeared. The prisoner’s fingers shook against the chains.

"That technique..."

His voice was barely audible.

Su Bai looked at him.

The man was staring at the dark opening above his body with an expression entirely different from the fear he had shown the mirror.

Recognition had become tangled with disbelief. He tried to lean away despite the tree behind him, then looked up at Su Bai as though seeing another face beneath the familiar one.

"So you are one of them."

Su Bai’s hand remained steady.

"One of whom?"

The prisoner gave a dry, broken laugh.

"I should have known."

The Maw devoured the remaining Qi from him. His resistance collapsed, and his head sagged briefly before he forced it up again.

He looked from the technique to Su Bai, then toward Ning Shuang. Whatever conclusion had formed in his mind seemed to worsen with every glance.

"This was arranged too?"

Su Bai said nothing.

The prisoner’s laugh became louder.

"I escaped, and you were waiting here. Of course you were."

Ning Shuang looked toward Su Bai, but his expression gave her no explanation.

He had expected defiance, perhaps another attempt to bargain once the man realized his remaining reserves were being taken.

The certainty behind these accusations was considerably more troubling.

Su Bai tilted his head.

"Who do you think sent me?"

The man bared bloodstained teeth.

"Do you enjoy making people ask?"

Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.

The prisoner’s next laugh broke into a cough.

"Those bastards promised a way back. Prepared bodies, protection, a chance to recover..."

He dragged in another breath.

"And when one piece becomes inconvenient, another arrives to swallow it."

Su Bai watched him closely.

The man seemed to believe what he was saying, but belief did not make his explanation reliable.

Fear had driven him toward a conclusion that might be built from only part of what he knew.

Su Bai would have preferred to ask about every word. The prisoner was already speaking again, his anger turning inward as though the clearing had become crowded with people only he could see.

"I followed the instructions."

His voice shook.

"I did what they wanted."

The prisoner’s body had become almost limp beneath the chains, but his eyes remained fixed on the Maw. Hatred slowly gathered through the despair.

Su Bai felt it sharpen before the man spoke.

"Hungry Ghost."

The words left a faint chill across his thoughts.

Ning Shuang’s gaze moved toward him immediately.

The prisoner lifted his head.

"And those other bastards... You will not have everything."

A different force stirred beneath the emptied circulation.

Su Bai’s attention snapped toward it.

The Maw had drawn away the Qi the man could readily command, but something else was beginning to burn within the body.

Remaining vitality gathered around a fierce concentration of will. The dormant markings flickered faintly as the prisoner forced his last means of payment toward whatever he intended to invoke.

"In my next life," he rasped, "I will remember every one of you."

Su Bai’s fingers tightened.

The man stared straight at him.

"I offer what remains of my lifespan to curse—"

For the briefest moment, Su Bai felt an absurd flicker of interest.

A curse directed at him had once been an opportunity worth examining.

The thought arrived with the ease of an old habit, followed immediately by his awareness of Ning Shuang standing nearby. She had no Reversal to receive whatever the dying man might unleash.

Su Bai had already acted before the prisoner finished the word.

Fine needles left his body without a gesture.

True Needle Intent settled on the unstable junction where the gathering vitality crossed into the forming invocation.

The first needle entered before that connection could close. Another followed through the exposed weakness beneath it, cutting the circulation that supported the attempt. The flickering light across the prisoner’s skin faltered and vanished.

His eyes widened.

The last words caught in his throat.

For an instant, he seemed unable to understand why the power had stopped answering him.

He stared at Su Bai, then lowered his gaze toward the almost invisible point where a needle had entered his chest. His mouth moved again, but the invocation had already broken. The remaining force scattered through the failing body.

Su Bai withdrew the Maw.

The prisoner sagged against the chains as the last breath left his mouth.

Ning Shuang stayed back, watching the body with the same caution he had shown when approaching it.

The forest remained quiet around them. Nothing spread from the interrupted curse.

Su Bai did not lower his hand.

The Dark Mark stirred.

At the same moment, he felt a faint movement inside the dead man’s head. Something gathered beneath the forehead, drawing away from the flesh as the receiving formation began to change.

Su Bai followed it with spiritual sense, his expression becoming still.

The soul was moving.