By dawn, Li Shen had left the forest behind. The world opened into a wide stretch of rolling hills and broken stone outcroppings, the wind carrying whispers of distant voices — traders on hidden roads, outlaws at makeshift camps.
He moved like a ghost through knee-high grass, senses sharpened to a blade's edge. The stalker's soulfire still coiled inside him, a restless ember warming his blood. He could feel his Qi flowing steadier now — no longer a flickering candle but the spark of a forge.
Yet with each step, Ku Mo's hunger pressed at the back of his mind.
You tasted beast. Now taste man once more, the voice purred. The Codex wants cunning prey — prey that resists.
By midday, Li Shen found tracks — fresh bootprints, fire-pit ash, the faint smell of cheap wine and sweat. A small band of rogue cultivators, he guessed. Bandits too low for any righteous sect to claim — predators who fed on the weak and slipped away before retribution found them.
He crept closer, hidden among boulders. Beyond the rise, he saw them — five men huddled around a sputtering campfire. Their laughter was sharp and cruel, knives bouncing in half-open scabbards. A girl lay bound near the fire, her robes torn, silver crescent insignia half-ripped from her shoulder.
Li Shen's pulse quickened. Moon Sect. His mind flashed to the girl who'd given him the tonic. Yue Lan. Was it her? No — this one was younger, barely sixteen, with fear written across every bruise on her face.
The bandits argued over spoils — spirit stones, talismans, scraps of the girl's sect insignia. They had no idea death watched them from the shadows.
Ku Mo's laughter rattled inside Li Shen's skull. Will you run? Or will you claim what is yours?
Li Shen drew the stolen sword. The Codex coiled beneath his skin, the runes flickering like embers under his ribs.
He didn't speak. He stepped from the rocks — and became a blade in motion.
The first bandit never saw him — his head left his shoulders in a clean arc, landing in the fire with a hiss of seared hair.
The others shouted, scrambling for blades. One swung wild — Li Shen ducked under it, rammed his sword through the man's belly, and ripped it sideways in a crimson spray.
Another charged from behind — Li Shen pivoted, slammed an elbow into the man's throat, and crushed his windpipe. The last two broke and ran — but Li Shen was faster. He dropped one with a slash to the spine. The final bandit stumbled, tripped, turned just in time to see Li Shen's blade coming down.
Silence returned to the camp. Only the crackle of the fire and the girl's ragged breathing broke it.
Li Shen stood in the ruin he'd made — blood steaming on his hands, the Codex humming with power as fresh Qi trickled into his core. His wounds sealed with each heartbeat, each kill stitching him back together stronger than before.
He knelt by the girl. Her eyes were wide — terror and confusion battling in her gaze.
"Please…" she rasped. "Don't kill me…"
Li Shen's voice came low, hoarse from the Codex's constant whisper. "I won't."
He cut her bonds with a single stroke. She flinched from him, scooting backward through the dirt.
"I… I'm Mei… of the Outer Moon Pavilion…" She trembled, clutching the torn scrap of her sect badge. "You — you killed them all…"
Li Shen looked past her, eyes drifting to the distant horizon. Somewhere beyond these hills, the Moon Sect's inner lands lay hidden among mountain spires and moonlit lakes — places he could not yet reach, but would.
Mei's breath caught as she dared to meet his gaze. His eyes glowed faintly red in the shadow of the campfire.
"You… you're like the stories," she whispered. "A Blood Demon."
Li Shen almost laughed — but it came out as a hollow croak. Not yet, Ku Mo purred. But soon.
He turned his back to Mei, ignoring the way she shrank from him as if the darkness clung to his flesh. He took a spirit stone from the dead man's pouch, feeling its warmth in his palm. Not much — but enough for a few more steps along the Blood Path.
"Go," he told her, without looking back. "Tell them what you saw. Tell them I'm coming."
Mei's lips trembled. She stumbled to her feet, clutching her torn robes around her shoulders. She fled into the wind, half-sobbing, vanishing between the rocks.
Li Shen stood alone among the corpses, the Codex's runes flickering over his skin like embers drifting from a pyre.
Above, the sun broke through ragged clouds — a cold, indifferent eye peering down at a boy already half-god, half-monster.
He wiped the blood from his blade, turned toward the mountains — and walked on.
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⚡ End of Chapter Five
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