Deep, ragged breaths ran through Yu Chen as he stood over the dead cultivator, looking around at the pirates fleeing in all directions. They shouldn’t have bothered. The few merchants who’d survived the attack watched in silence as he leapt forward, hunting them down one by one. In short order, every pirate aboard had met the same fate.

  Yu Chen should have felt elation at his victory, but instead he was left with an empty feeling.

  Death surrounded him everywhere he looked. The very air he breathed was tinged with iron from the blood of the dead men strewn across the deck around him. Gutted merchantmen littered the floor, victims of the dead pirates who lay among them with their chests caved in and their skulls crushed. Some of them were still on fire, and the stench of cooked flesh drifted from the burning pyres that had been created from their bodies.

  He blinked, as something that shouldn’t be there suddenly appeared.

  A black qi from their corpses, an oily, misanthropic thing that stank of death. No, Yu Chen realized, the feeling it gave wasn’t hatred for humanity but of life itself, that which was antithetical to its very being.

  It was the first time Yu Chen had encountered something like this. Of course, he’d seen aspected energy before, but to see it originate so naturally, from a clear and visible source… It was unprecedented. Energy didn’t just form spontaneously, out of nothing.

  A thought struck him, his perspective twisting to fit a new understanding of reality.

  The energy hadn’t formed entirely by itself, had it? It had a catalyst, the death of an obscene number of cultivators had necessary for the energy to appear.

  But it went against everything he knew. Spiritual Energy was created by natural phenomena, physical things like earth and water. They were things he could grasp and hold in his hand.

  Death wasn’t such a thing, but it hardly mattered, Yu Chen realized. It wasn’t something, but rather the absence of something, and that absence was more real, and more natural than any other.

  You could try to rationalize with it, but in the end words and rationalization mattered not at all.

  In the end, it was all that was left.

  It roared before him, a bonfire of energy formed from the corpses of the dead. What was it exactly? Perhaps the detritus, the imperfections left behind when something finer and more subtle than this world escaped its grasp. If death wasn’t a natural phenomena, then nothing was. Yu Chen thought as he watched the mass of black energy churn and boil. It raged impotently, fighting to expand, to consume, but it couldn’t, held back by some strange laws of nature Yu Chen knew nothing about.

  But he could feel their presence, and he was thankful they existed. Because he could feel the Death qi as well, and the potential within it that fought to escape. Enough to consume the entire world in the blink of an eye if it ever escaped the reins.

  Just imagine, the thought crossed his mind. With enough death -

  Yu Chen cut the thought off, shuddering as it passed through him, but despite his best efforts it squirmed to the front. He was unable to prevent himself from realizing the truth.

  As long as one has death one could generate endless death qi, and if one could cultivate it…

  Was this the secret behind the so-called demonic techniques? In truth, death was not nearly as cheap for cultivators as it appeared. Death qi might appear from time to time, but it wasn’t a common occurrence for dozens of cultivators to die at once. Cultivators avoided pitched battles when given the chance, preferring not to risk themselves unless need be.

  He couldn’t help but think back to the Reavers and the destruction they’d left behind them. Even the weakest of cultivators possessed many times the energy of a mortal, but at a certain point quantity began to outweigh quality. If the slaughter of a few dozen cultivators generated this much death qi, how much could you produce by torching a city full of millions of mortals…

  Yu Chen shuddered, growing sick at the thought, but his thoughts trailed off as the death qi danced entrancingly before him. It filled his vision, flickering with the dark promise of power, and he felt a desire well up within him to embrace it.

  Demonic cultivators might seek out this sort of energy, but really, what was wrong with cultivating it? He’d absorbed all sorts of other natural energies and death was a natural phenomenon, after all. His dantian twisted, cramping in anticipation as some deep, primal part of him hungered for it.

  The arguments came easy, worming their way into his mind. In truth, Demonic cultivation was about how one cultivated, not about what one cultivated. Yu Chen had no desire to go about killing just to do so, even if death came, well, came so easy. He cast a glance across the deck, his gaze running over the dead merchantmen and the pirates alike.

  The truth was that sometimes… Sometimes, people deserved death. Simply by killing these pirates he’d made the river a little bit safer, and he’d even managed to save a few lives along the way…

  The remaining merchantmen began moving, avoiding the strange boy who was staring at the black energy with intensity in his eyes, but it dissipated before long, whatever phenomenon had caused its creation having finally passed. With it went the strange hold it held over Yu Chen, and he blinked, snapping out of it.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  What was that? He wondered, looking around in confusion. He’d been cultivating for a while now, but he’d never felt such temptation. For some reason he’d felt drawn to the death qi, and he couldn’t help but feel as though there was an unusual connection between them.

  Yu Chen shook his head, shoving the thoughts away as he saw a merchant bend down, picking up a small piece of bone radiating with power. He snapped into motion, snatching the item from the merchant’s fingers. He frowned, giving him a disapproving look before dashing across the deck to pick up the powerful items that had been sent flying when his spatial pouch exploded. He was in the midst of grabbing up a fiery lotus when he twisted around, sensing a powerful aura approaching.

  A smile crossed his face as he saw a familiar sight from an unfamiliar perspective, watching as the figurehead of a sleeping lady split the river in half as it crashed through a wave, sending yellow drops of water spraying high into the sky. Serbo au Serbo stood at the prow, radiating an intense aura as he cast a hawk-eyed gaze across the two ships lashed together.

  A smile crossed the barbarian’s face, although it was far too wide and showed entirely too many teeth, a look of pride as he took in Yu Chen’s bloodied form and saw he was still alive.

  Serbo au Serbo leapt from the ship with effortless grace, crossing the vast gulf of the river in a single bound to land nearby.

  “You still live, yes?” Serbo said as he stood up and looked Yu Chen in the eye. He approached, raising an arm to clasp Yu Chen on the shoulder, but paused in midair as he stared in confusion at all the items in Yu Chen held in his hands.

  “Eh? Why you carry so many treasures, Yushen?” He said, the words sounding funny in his broken common.

  Yu Chen was taken aback by the strange greeting, casting a quick glance down towards the items he held clutched in his arms. “Er, my spatial pouch broke.” He said, looking down towards his hip where the pouch had once hung.

  “What’s wrong with ring?” Serbo said, speaking slowly as he stared at Yu Chen’s hand.

  “Uh, what ring?” Yu Chen said, not knowing what to say.

  Serbo au Serbo muttered something under his breath in that guttural language of his before, strolling forward and pushing a hard finger into the ring on Yu Chen’s hand.

  “This ring!”

  Yu Chen looked at the ring he’d nearly forgotten about. He’d picked it up many months ago, but he’d never figured out what strange magic it held. Filled with consternation he looked towards the other boy’s hand, and to his surprise saw he wore one just like his. Thinking back, Cang Wuji had worn a strange ring, and Yan Ziqi wore one as well -

  He let out a small groan as his stupidity crashed over him. Every elder he’d ever seen had worn rings, sometimes more than he could count. Even those stupid pirates had talked about a ring while they’d bickered in the air. How had he missed it?

  No one had ever even mentioned it! They went on and on about flying around on swords, and breathing fire, but he’d never once heard anyone say, oh yea, cultivators carry stuff around in their rings!

  Yu Chen focused on the artifact in his hand, sending a thin thread of qi inside it, much as he did when utilizing his spiritual pouch. To his amazement a massive space opened up in his mind’s eye, entirely empty aside from a jade scroll and some stockpiled rations.

  This entire time…

  Well, no use in crying about it. He quickly willed the items in his hands to disappear, sending them inside of the ring with a wave of his hand. The fire lotuses he still carried, his favorite bit of soul cleansing jade, a handful of pills and a collection of ancient, but incredibly powerful bones, made up the bulk of his collection. There were also the spirit stones, and some spirit meat and herbs he’d gathered along the way.

  Of course, he'd only grabbed the most expensive things, and had to go around, sheepishly collecting the rest of his wealth.

  He looked around, but if any of the merchant's crew were watching what was in his pockets they didn’t show it, studiously avoiding his gaze. After watching what happened to the pirates, they seemed scared to talk to him at all and went to work, cleaning up the deck. They threw the pirates overboard unceremoniously, feeding whatever spirit beasts lurked in the water, while they gathered their own dead and took them below deck.

  By now the lady had arrived, and Sun Yuan threw out ropes that Serbo grabbed, lashing their boats together. Once they were close enough Yan Ziqi jumped across, naturally taking control of the crew as he directed them to begin fixing up the ship, using his expertise as an artificer.

  Yu Chen didn’t say anything, making his way to the quarterdeck where a merchant lay, half unconscious in a pool of blood.

  He was moaning, his face tight with pain. It was the same merchant the pirate had run through as he set his sights on Yu Chen, and he appeared to be the last remaining Foundation Establishment expert aboard, among those alive. Perhaps he could tell them what happened.

  Yu Chen kneeled beside the man, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was the work of half a thought to summon a pill, causing it to appear directly in his hand. Yu Chen stifled his amusement at the sight, his face growing serious as he fed the pill to the man. The regeneration pill began its work in short order, and the merchantman's brow unclenched as he relaxed, breathing more easily.

  He waited patiently beside the man, watching in interest as the crew went about their work restoring the ship. Yan Ziqi was a natural leader, at least in these small settings, quickly able to take command of the listless crew and make them work more efficiently. Perhaps it was a product of his time in the workshop, where he’d been in charge of the others.

  A short while later the man’s eyes blinked open, looking around blurrily as he tried to push himself up.

  “What..” He began saying before jerking in shock, suddenly remembering the circumstances. “The pirates, what about!”

  “Dead.” Yu Chen said, speaking simply. It was a single word, but it contained too much. The experience from earlier refused to leave him so easily.

  “They are all dead. I’m sorry, we were too late to save most of your crew.” He said, bowing his head down low.

  Yu Chen was a person who’d never particularly cared about titles like righteous, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a good person. He was just pragmatic, and more inclined to believe there were truths on both sides. That didn’t make him ok with the deaths of innocents.

  “Ah…” The merchant said, letting out a low hiss of pain, and Yu Chen could tell it wasn’t because of his wounds. “It’s a shame,” The merchant said, staring into the distance. “But on the river, we celebrate the living, not the dead.”

  Yu Chen didn’t look up right away, thinking about the merchant’s words. It was different from the life he recalled as a mortal, where one often wasn’t celebrated until they were dead.

  “I hate to ask more of you,” The merchant said, looking around the ship. “Would you be willing to accompany us to the Auction Ship?”

  Yu Chen gave the man a bemused smile.

  “How about we start with your name?”

  The merchant’s face colored. “Sorr-” He cut off with a cough, before speaking again. “Liang Hu. My father is expecting this shipment, and he’s waiting for me aboard the Auction.”

  Yu Chen looked up in surprise, but the merchant hurried to speak, continuing before he could say anything.

  “We could use the help, and he would be more than willing to compensate you of course.” Liang Hu said, shooting the boy a hopeful look.

  Yu Chen thought for a short second before giving him a nod

  “I’ll talk it over with my friends.”