Chapter 231: The Shadow’s Hunger

The imperial soldiers barely had time to recover from the first attack. Captain Wei’s body lay motionless on the road, his blood darkening the dust beneath him.

Around the wagons, the remaining soldiers struggled to reform their ranks, shouting orders over the terrified cries of the horses.

"Protect the shipment!"

"Don’t let them reach the wagons!"

"Archers, get to the ridge!"

The soldiers moved quickly, but fear had already spread through them. They had trained for bandits and enemy arrmies. But nothing had ever prepared them to fight a shadow.

Ru Yi stood in the middle of the road with her cloak moving gently with the wind. Around her feet, darkness crawled across the ground like living ink.

She stared at the soldiers. There were still dozens of them.

For a moment, she hesitated. These were people with families waiting for them to come back home. She sighed before speaking again.

"Run." That was the only warning she gave, her voice carrying clearly across the road.

Several soldiers looked at one another. The fear was evident on their faces, but they’d also been trained to defend Imperial property even to death

One of them raised his sword. "We defend the imperial shipment!"

Ru Yi closed her eyes. She wished they’d act very cowardly for once and save their lives. She really didn’t want to kill them.

They were just soldiers that had been ordered to transport weapons from one place to another. They were not necessarily responsible for how said weapons would be used. They didn’t have the power to make such decisions.

At the end, they would be the ones dying for nothing.

"Your lives are not worth these scraps of metal," Ru Yi said, looking at them in hope that they’d back down.

"We will fight to the very end!" The first soldier charged.

Ru Yi stepped aside in time, her shadow already moving before she did.

A black tendril rose from the earth and wrapped around the soldier’s wrist, twisting his sword from his hand. Another tendril caught his ankle and pulled him down.

He struck the ground hard. But he was alive.

Ru Yi released him. "Stay down, do not move."

Three more soldiers attacked and her shadow reacted instantly. It stretched across the road and caught them around their legs, throwing them into the dirt.

Ru Yi breathed heavily. She could control her insatiable shadow, she had to control. That was what she kept telling herself over and over again.

But then she smelled the blood.

One of the soldiers had been cut by another man’s sword during the confusion. A thin line of red ran down his arm.

Ru Yi’s shadow stopped moving and turned towards the victim. Her eyes immediately widened at what was coming next.

The tendril turned towards the man and was already moving before Ru Yi could control it. "No." She reached for it, but it was already too late.

The shadow struck the wounded soldier. It wasn’t deep, but it was deep enough to have the poor man screaming his lungs out.

Ru Yi immediately pulled the darkness away and the tendril recoiled. But something had already changed. The black mass around her feet seemed darker.

Thicker.

Hungry.

Ru Yi stared at it. "No more."

The shadow trembled. She could feel its growing hunger. It wanted more.

The Eclipse Relic had awakened something inside her long ago, something that did not understand mercy. Something that understood only hunger.

Another soldier charged and Ru Yi raised her hand. The shadow shot forward and caught him.

She tried to make it release him. But the moment it touched his bloodied armor, the darkness reacted.

It drank the blood which had the soldier screaming in pure agony. Ru Yi felt the sensation inside her own body.

Warmth.

Power.

And hunger.

The shadow released him and he collapsed onto the hard ground. His breathing was heavy and labored.

Ru Yi stared at her hands. Her fingers were trembling. "Enough. Control yourself."

Behind her, hoofbeats approached. Slow and measured. There were about hundreds of them riding in unison.

The imperial soldiers heard them too. One man looked toward the mountain pass. "Reinforcements? I think the royal army is here to help us."

Another soldier’s expression brightened. "Finally!" Then his smile dimmed considerably as he made out the man leading them. "General Sheng?"

The sound grew louder. A massive force emerged from the trees. Hundreds of riders appeared first, followed by rows of soldiers marching behind them.

At their center rode General Sheng. He wore black armor beneath a dark red cloak, his expression calm as he surveyed the battlefield.

Ru Yi turned toward him, tracing his gaze as he looked at the fallen soldiers. Then at the wagons. Finally he stopped at the darkness surrounding Ru Yi.

A smile slowly appeared on his face. "There she is."

He dismounted and the soldiers immediately bowed. "General."

General Sheng barely acknowledged them. He knew they thought he was there to help them. His eyes remained fixed on Ru Yi. "I knew you would understand eventually."

Ru Yi’s expression hardened. "I don’t understand anything. The shadow seems to be feeding on their blood. It hasn’t done that before."

General Sheng walked closer. "Oh...but you do understand." He gestured toward the shadows. "Look at what you’ve become."

Ru Yi looked down. The darkness was still moving. Slowly...Almost lazily...Searching for another drop of blood.

Ru Yi clenched her fist and the shadows withdrew slightly. "I told you I wouldn’t kill them."

General Sheng smiled. "And you haven’t." His gaze moved toward the injured soldiers scattered across the road. "Not yet."

Ru Yi glared at him.

General Sheng walked past one of his soldiers and stopped beside a wounded imperial guard. The man was still alive, but barely conscious.

General Sheng looked down at him. Then he looked back at Ru Yi. "Your shadow is learning."

Ru Yi said nothing.

"Every time it tastes spiritual energy mixed with blood, it becomes stronger and hungrier."

Ru Yi’s jaw tightened.

General Sheng smiled. "That’s the part you don’t understand." He pointed toward the battlefield. "The more you fight, the more it feeds. The more it feeds, the harder it becomes to control."

Ru Yi looked at the darkness. For the first time, she was afraid of it. Not because it could hurt her. But because she could feel how badly it wanted to hurt someone else.

Behind General Sheng, his thousand soldiers spread across the road. The imperial convoy was surrounded and the shipment had nowhere to go. ℴ

And Ru Yi stood between the wagons and an army that had come prepared to claim them.

General Sheng looked toward the sealed crates, then back at Ru Yi. "Now," he said quietly, "let’s see how hungry your shadow can become."