In a dungeon of Xie Mo Mountain.
Poisonous snakes and insects crawled everywhere, piles of white bones littered the ground, and a strong smell of blood permeated the air.
Here, a man in a large red python robe was bound by iron chains on his hands and feet.
The man's eye sockets were sunken, and his messy beard was stained with either blood or black mud.
The robe he wore was torn and tattered from bites.
With his meridians severed, he slumped on the ground, gazing at two or three oversized poisonous insects devouring each other at his feet.
Having not had a drop of water, he had no idea how many times he had fainted from hunger or woken up.
The persistence at the limit of human endurance seemed to be broken through again and again on him.
The only lingering thought that kept him from closing his eyes and enduring this far was the scene that frequently appeared in his mind.
"Gu... Gu Qianying... what... are you... doing...? Are you... thinking of me?"
"Gu... Qianying... I miss you so much."
He licked his dry, cracked lips, his voice hoarse.
Too weak, his expression was somewhat dazed, and the beautiful face of the person he longed for seemed to appear before his eyes.
With great effort, he raised his arm, trying to touch "her" face.
"Little... Yingzi... may I call you that?"
Ouyang Qinglin's lips curved into a faint smile.
The pain from the bites of snakes and insects seemed to disappear, and he felt no pain.
"As expected, as soon as I dream of you, I don't feel pain anymore. How wonderful."
Even though the scene before him was a hallucination, like a dream, he was unwilling to wake up.
Caressing the imagined face, the smile on Ouyang Qinglin's lips never faded.
"I wonder... how long I can hold on... If... I could see you one last time, how wonderful that would be."
Although unwilling to wake himself up, he knew very well, with his reason, where he was trapped.
What to do? I... am so unwilling... I really want to see you, are you... alright? Do you... miss me? Little Yingzi... I miss... miss you so much."
Of the two snakes devouring each other before him, one had already been killed and swallowed by the other, and it was slowly crawling towards him.
Looking at the red snake with its forked tongue getting closer and closer, Ouyang Qinglin remained indifferent, his gaze devoid of any ripple.
His throat was so sore he could barely speak, yet he still spoke word by word, leaning towards the "face" he imagined.
"Little... Little Yingzi... you once... said that if we met before you came, you would fall in love with me... Is that true, right? You didn't lie to me, did you?"
The poisonous snake was only a finger's breadth away from him.
Above his head, the dungeon door was suddenly pushed open.
The dim sunlight stung Ouyang Qinglin's eyes, and he instinctively raised his hand to shield them.
A figure descended gracefully.
Whether intentionally or deliberately, it was unclear.
As the person's foot landed, they kicked away the poisonous snake that was about to crawl onto Ouyang Qinglin's hand.
The red snake hit the opposite wall, rolled to the ground, writhed a few times, and then lay still.
"Your Majesty the Evil Emperor, eat this!"
A familiar voice sounded in Ouyang Qinglin's ears.
Lowering his arm and adjusting to the sliver of sunlight from above, he looked up to see the person's appearance.
"Duan Xifeng? Is... is that you?"
Duan Xifeng, with a blank expression, dumped everything on the tray in front of Ouyang Qinglin, repeating his earlier words: "Your Majesty the Evil Emperor, eat this!"
His voice was devoid of warmth.
Looking at the rolling eyeballs before him, Ouyang Qinglin's stomach churned. He hadn't eaten anything, yet he felt like vomiting.
"Duan... Duan Xifeng... it's me... I... am Ouyang Qinglin, we are both Gu Qianying's friends... Gu... Qianying... have you forgotten her?"
The name "Gu Qianying" once again appeared in Duan Xifeng's mind.
A scene seemed to emerge in his mind, very blurry.
However, another cold voice drilled into his mind.
"Do as I say! You are my dog, loyal only to me!"
Duan Xifeng closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his gaze was exceptionally firm: "Eat this!"
Just as he was about to stuff the bloody eyeballs into Ouyang Qinglin's mouth, Ouyang Qinglin gasped out a name with great difficulty.
"She said... her childhood... name was... Duan... Xingyue."
The blurry scene in his mind suddenly became exceptionally clear with these words.
His head throbbed.
The bloody eyeballs he was holding fell to the ground and rolled away.
Duan Xifeng clutched his head with both hands and squatted on the ground, appearing to be in great discomfort.
"Duan... Xifeng... Duan Xifeng... what... what's wrong with you?"
Ouyang Qinglin crawled towards Duan Xifeng.
His legs scraped against the ground, and the blood from the chains on his ankles had dried, the bloodstains on the chains coagulated.
He raised his emaciated arm, trying to touch Duan Xifeng's hand, but as soon as he reached out.
Duan Xifeng suddenly lowered his hands and stared at him blankly.
For a moment, his vacant eyes were clear.
Ouyang Qinglin looked at him, only to see him suddenly turn, pick up the bloody eyeballs that had rolled to various corners, and put them directly into his own mouth.
"Duan Xifeng! What are you doing!"
Ouyang Qinglin looked at Duan Xifeng in disbelief.
"Ugh..."
Finding it difficult to swallow, Duan Xifeng spat out all the bloody eyeballs he hadn't chewed or swallowed.
Blood stained his mouth and lips.
Duan Xifeng remained silent.
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve; some of the bloody eyeballs he spat out remained intact, while others were broken.
He stood up, tidied his clothes, and put the bloody eyeballs on the ground back into the tray he had brought.
Turning around, he grabbed a rope that had been thrown down from above and was about to leave when Ouyang Qinglin, lying on the ground, urgently called out, "Duan Xifeng, you..."
Before he could finish his words, a wine pouch fell before him.
Ouyang Qinglin's heart leaped, his pupils contracting.
He watched Duan Xifeng use his Qinggong to ascend and disappear into the distance, then looked down at the wine pouch before him, remaining silent.
Some things he had already understood.
Emerging from the dungeon, carrying the tray he had brought, Duan Xifeng returned to report to the Evil Emperor.
Still in the hall, Bai Shengjun and the Evil Emperor, who had not yet left, looked at the bloody eyeballs on the tray, which exuded a bloody smell.
They appeared to have been gnawed.
Both Bai Shengjun and the Evil Emperor were satisfied.
"To train this person into an Shadow Demon, eating raw human flesh is the first step."
The Evil Emperor walked up to Duan Xifeng and, with a palm strike, pulverized the bloody eyeballs on the tray into powder.
Duan Xifeng knelt on the ground with a blank expression, his demeanor vacant.
"Open your mouth!"
The Evil Emperor commanded.
Duan Xifeng obeyed and opened his mouth.
With a flick of his finger, the Evil Emperor swept all the powder from the tray into Duan Xifeng's mouth.
"All good stuff, a reward for you, hahaha..."
He endured the urge to vomit, his stomach churning, but showed no abnormality on his face.
This behavior was observed by Bai Shengjun, who stood beside him.
"Alright, you may leave!"
Bai Shengjun stepped forward.
Duan Xifeng nodded expressionlessly.
"Yes."
Duan Xifeng's expression remained vacant.
After leaving the grand hall, he returned to the small room where he lived with several strangely looking men.
As he entered, the men were teasing someone else.
He lay down expressionlessly, closed his eyes, and turned his back to the others.
After an unknown amount of time, the other men in the room left, arm in arm with others.
Only Duan Xifeng remained, listening to the silence in the room.
He, who had been closing his eyes, suddenly opened them.
There was a different look in his vacant eyes.
"Ugh... ugh..."
He curled up and used his fingers to dig into his mouth, trying to vomit the contents of his stomach.
After digging for a long time, he was unable to vomit.
After a considerable while, he gave up his futile efforts.
He rolled off the bed and, from under the bed, retrieved a dagger and hid it on his person.
At that moment, there was a movement outside the door, and Duan Xifeng immediately returned to the bed, continuing to lie with his eyes closed.