Feng did not immediately recognise the female's voice, although it did sound vaguely familiar. Brother Dai, however, had reacted immediately. His face darkened, and his qi immediately spiked, despite the vulnerable state he was in.

  The Young Master turned towards the newcomer, while Dai stepped forth towards them. It took Feng a moment to realise his Senior Brother was subtly trying to shield him.

  “Attend to your own matters, whore. This does not concern you.” Feng was momentarily taken aback by the disciple's venomous words. His senior was never the most eloquent when it came to speech, but the sheer vitriol in his tone was completely unexpected.

  The Young Master looked towards the female disciple, whom Brother Dai had already intercepted from coming closer. It was one of the two Split-headed Carnivore Core Disciples from earlier — the ones who had been guarding Lingyu. Senior Sister Shao, if he remembered correctly. She was the stronger of the pair, and far more liberal with her words besides.

  “Such rudeness, Dai.” The foreign Disciple clicked her tongue as she inched closer, uncaring of the male Disciple’s hostility. “What would your Young Master think, to see the Senior he looks up to acting in such a barbaric manner?”

  “Not another step, Shao, or I’ll cleave that head off your shoulders,” Brother Dai warned. He had already assumed a stance, his broken glaive poised in hand and ready to strike. The Senior’s qi was still unstable since he had just resurrected, but that did not fully discredit his threats as empty promises.

  The other disciple stopped, though not because she was cowed by his threats. If anything, she looked amused. With a mocking smile, Disciple Shao raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I have no intention of fighting you, Dai. But if you wish to continue where we left off on our dance earlier, who am I to refuse? I have yet to extract my satisfaction from you, after all.”

  Their qi rose in intensity, clashing against each other in breaking waves. For the first few seconds, it appeared as if they were evenly matched. That soon proved false, however, as Dai’s spiritual instability suddenly caused the strength of his qi to falter and fail, forcing him to give ground to the hungry tide of Shao's feral might. The female Disciple’s smile widened in excitement, showing vicious canines while Dai’s expression grew increasingly stoic.

  Feng did not miss the way his Senior’s grip tightened on his glaive. The Young Master stepped in.

  “Enough,” he commanded, his hand firmly grasping the weapon and lowering it, despite Dai’s resistance. “Dai, do not start a fight. Not here, not in your condition, and certainly not with a respected guest of the Sect.”

  “Young Master, you don’t understand, she—!”

  “And you.” Feng ignored his Senior’s protest and addressed the foreign Disciple, who was looking at him with half-hearted interest. “Do you have urgent business with the two of us? If not, I would ask that you leave for now. The Sect is currently dealing with a… situation.”

  As if emphasising his words, a large section of the Sparring Hall looming behind them suddenly collapsed, sending fiery debris raining down on the unfortunate disciples below.

  “Hmm.” The Senior Sister’s gaze was still fixated on Brother Dai, her eyes openly roaming over the disciple’s naked form with unabashed lust and appreciation. “That depends on him. As for your situation, Young Master, do you refer to the building burning behind you, or your blatant nudity? I was led to believe that both were planned mischiefs, and no accidents at all.”

  Feng frowned. This Core Disciple was usually bold. Even if he was of a foreign Sect from hers, there was still a minimum level of respect and deference expected from a Disciple when speaking to a Young Master.

  Oddly enough, her arrogance reminded him a little of Brother Dai. And the way her dark eyes roam solely across his Senior’s naked body with zero restraint and nary a hint of embarrassment at all… There was lust, yes; such a thing was to be expected when a cultivator of Dai’s advancement and looks stood bare for all to see. But hidden beneath that blatant desire, Feng thought that he saw a flicker of… longing?

  … Ah, so that’s how it was. Feng could empathise quite a bit with his Senior’s situation, then. He would have to navigate this conversation with considerably more caution.

  “I was mainly referring to the latter. This state of public undress in which my brother and I currently find ourselves is rather inconvenient, Senior Sister,” Feng said carefully. “Perhaps you should come back later after we address the predicament, as you have helpfully advised earlier.”

  “A dilemma to be sure, but not one, I think, that urgently needs to be addressed.” The female cultivator’s grin widened as Dai’s previous indifferent expression turned closer into a snarl. “The view is quite pleasant. It would be a shame to hide such heroic musculature from the world to appreciate, don’t you think?”

  “Take your perversion elsewhere, Shao.” Dai’s voice with tinged with qi, a sign of his wavering patience.

  “Ah, but Dai, was it not you who just told me earlier to direct all of my perversity towards you instead?” The female Disciple countered, placing a delicate finger to her lips in mock confusion. “I still remember the ferocity of your blows, how you promised me that you would take all of my frustrations and satisfy them in your juniors’ place…”

  The Disciple placed that finger teasingly between her flawless white teeth, her dark eyes never leaving Dai’s. Then, she bit off the tip of it viciously, severing the digit before swallowing it whole with visible relish. The Young Master was taken aback by the repulsively carnal display. “Or perhaps I should go back to those naive youths instead, satiating myself on their pitiful flesh and screams until you find back your manly side.”

  “Voracious whore!” Dai snarled. His qi flared up, preparing to erupt into violence. He raised his glaive—

  Which Feng promptly slapped aside. “Dai. Your Young Master commands you to stop.”

  Dai’s qi pulsed erratically for a moment, his dark eyes seeking Feng's. The Young Master did not back down from the disciple's hate-filled gaze. Eventually, Dai stepped back, before taking in a shuddering breath to stabilise himself. It took another three breaths before his muscles relaxed, and his expression turned neutral.

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  “That was unsightly of me,” he said, tone regretful. “Forgive me, Young Master. I lost control.”

  The lapse of restraint could be attributed to his recent resurrection, but even so, to see his Senior Brother lash out like that after mere verbal provocation…

  It appeared this woman was quite close to his Senior Brother’s heart indeed.

  “Ahh… why did you have to go and do that?” The female disciple sighed. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that man perked up and ready?”

  “I worry for Young Miss Lingyu if this is the example you set for her," Feng evenly rebuked. "Have the disciples of the Split-headed Carnivores fallen to such depths of depravity that they would openly speak of perversion in public?”

  At the Young Master’s scathing words, the disciple merely raised an eyebrow, utterly unashamed. “At least my perversion is honest, and not an impulse to be hidden behind veils of innocence and chastity. Besides…”

  She pointed to a large bush some ways away from her.

  “I am hardly the only one enjoying the delicious sights of nudity before me. Our Little Miss is beginning her first tasting of the lesser-known fruits of voyeurism. It would be a shame to cut her indulgence short.”

  ‘SISTER SHAO!” A very familiar — and embarrassed — voice shouted from behind the bush. “You did not need to tell him that!”

  Lingyu burst from the foliage, face flaming red as she beat against the senior female disciple ineffectively with her tiny fists. When the Young Miss turned and saw the Young Master looking at her — still fully displayed in all his naked glory — her blush doubled in intensity as she hastily covered her eyes.

  “B-Brother Hei! Don’t listen to her lies! I didn’t see anything!”

  “Do not judge her too harshly, Young Master.” The Senior Sister shrugged nonchalantly, though the teasing glint in her eyes gave away her delight. “The Young Miss's hunger is but a juvenile and undeveloped thing — all confused, directionless, and far too impotent to satisfy. Give her another decade to explore her palate first. Her voracity might match more to your standards then.”

  “SISTER SHAO! SHUT UP!”

  While the Senior Sister continued her teasing — and Lingyu her lamentations — a pair of Inner Disciples of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect came up to Brother Dai and Feng, presenting them with a pair of gold-rimmed robes and flasks of Spirit Wine.

  “Took you long enough,” Brother Dai grumbled as he snatched a pair. Feng took a drink from the wine and stabilised his qi. “Where did you two go to get these from? The Eight-Eyed Weaver herself?”

  “Apologies, Senior Brother. But the fires took priority.”

  Feng looked up to the tower as he accepted a fresh set of robes. The flames were still raging, but a barrier of black sand had been set up to stop them from spreading further. The shifting grains moved to consume the inferno, as if they had a mind of their own.

  “The sandbags were set up surprisingly quickly. I suppose Elder Jun is helping with the containment efforts as well?” Feng asked.

  “Huh, never thought that arrogant bastard would still have enough humility in him to actually help his Disciples rather than just exploit them all the time, but I guess it is HIS building that is on fire this time,” Brother Dai grunted.

  “Actually…” One of the Inner Disciples sheepishly said. “Elder Jun has already left the area, supposedly to file a complaint towards Internal Affairs for the crimes of Senior Brother’s action.”

  “Yep, that sounds more like him,” Dai sighed. “I take back anything good I said about that self-serving prick. Can’t believe I even once liked the man back when we first joined as Outer Disciples together.”

  “If Elder Jun is not assisting in the efforts, then how was the barricade set up so quickly?” Feng asked.

  As if to answer his question, the ground trembled as a monstrous figure strode into view.

  It was a thing straight out of a fever nightmare; a giant insectoid-like creature that bore humanoid skin and features. Its epidermis was of the same peach-coloured hue of a fair-skinned maiden, but riddled with bulky protrusions of uneven armoured plates that shifted unnervingly beneath its hide.

  Towering over five metres tall, its segmented body rippled with fleshy-red sinew and muscles. The creature’s rear end possessed a giant segmented tail whose tip was not that of a stinger, but a giant humanoid hand instead. In its ‘grip’ was a giant bucket of sand, easily several dozen tons in weight. Similarly, its two ‘pincers’ were shaped like human fingers, and held more buckets of black sand in their grasp. Its six heavily plated legs left deep gouges in the earth as it relentlessly trudged forth, pouring its cargo onto the barricades around the blazing tower.

  “T-that would be because of her, Young Master.” The Inner Disciple’s face paled at the sight of the unsettling, monstrously large human-insect hybrid. “The foreign Core Disciple is assisting us.”

  “Junior Jin always had a bleeding heart,” the other female disciple, Shao, called out as she held back the Young Miss at arm's length, who still hadn’t ceased trying to pummel her senior. “Be sure to have your people feed her well later. Transforming always makes her insatiably hungry, and she’s still a growing girl who needs her calories.”

  “Jin’s older than you are, whore,” Dai grunted as he turned to assess the flames. “She can take care of herself.”

  The Young Master looked towards the insectoid beast, who was working hard to contain the fire. Without her help, it was quite possible the inferno would have broken into the other nearby structures by now. He turned back towards the other Sister.

  “I'll personally handle it. Any favourites?” Feng called out. Brother Dai, who had been moving towards the stairway to get a better look at the tower, stumbled.

  Senior Sister Shao blinked in surprise at the Young Master’s offer, before grinning teasingly. “Liver. But don’t let your Fiancée hear that you let Jin take a bite out of you, else you'll never hear the end of it.”

  The older disciple looked down at Lingyu, who had paused in her futile attacks when she heard of Feng’s offer. The Young Miss was currently staring wide-eyed at him. Shao patted her head affectionately.

  “Maybe give the Little Miss some of your flesh later as well. You know how jealous us Split-headed Carnivores get when we see our favourite playmates sharing their meat with other hussies.”

  The Young Master turned away as Lingyu’s yelling began again. Brother Dai fell in step beside him after some hesitation. Seeing the Young Miss beside the other Core Disciple must have mollified his worries enough to follow after the Young Master rather than stay and keep watch of her.

  “And don’t go seducing my Junior away as well, Young Master!” He heard the female Disciple shout as he left, her words causing Feng to stumble briefly in embarrassment. “I don’t think even you will survive the appetite of three Carnivores in your harem!”

  Split-headed Carnivores Sect, Part 1

  The Split-headed Carnivores Sect is one of the Sects of the Four Mountain Sects Group. Their Yin-dominated monastery atop the glacial peaks of the Beast Fang Mountain holds a rather infamous reputation as a den that takes in young maiden cultivators and turns them into alluring, man-eating female disciples whose unearthly loveliness is matched only by their horrifying voraciousness.

  This, paradoxically, both draws and repels men from all over the Northern Provinces to visit their Sect. Such males are called Pilgrims by the Disciples and are always welcome to enter the monastery's doors. All too often, despite being warned multiple times, these enchanted males would willingly walk into the monster's jaws, usually after they were promised a night to remember by female cultivators of unsurpassed beauty.

  Whether or not the pilgrims actually enjoyed their night with the disciples is left unknown, but if their screams are any indication, it is quite likely many regretted their choices moments before being devoured.

  – Excerpt from A Citizen’s Guide to the Flesh-Grafted Empire

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