29 A Glutton For Blood

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

Qing Fang screamed with dread to the sky as black impurities flowed from his eyes, nose, ears, mouth and the wound on his skull!

It had a thick but liquidy viscosity as it flowed down Qing Fang's face, forming black tears mixed with blood that made him look terrifying, like a cursed spirit of pain.

As the foul-smelling impurities flowed down his skin, wherever they touched was melted into a bloody paste. The black that fell from Qing Fang's empty eye sockets melted nearly all of the skin on his face, revealing the muscles and bone beneath.

Right now, Qing Fang looked like a god of death as his empty eye sockets cried black tears and his skinless and lipless mouth was open in a terrifying screech.

Qing Fang jumped from the floor and grabbed at what remained of his scalp and hair, clutching and ripping at it with a vengeance! Scratching at his skull until his fingernails all fell out, his nailless fingers acted as bloody paintbrushes and decorated his skull in the most dreadful of patterns.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!" The scream had never once ceased, however, after time, Qing Fang's voice had regressed to croaky and dry wails that sounded like a fork on a chalkboard.

As his voice finally ran out and he silently screamed while scratching at his skull, Qing Fang's teeth began to fall out one by one. Some fell down his throat, others onto the floor and a few lodged themselves into the exposed muscles on his face.

With the skin on his face long melted and his teeth have fallen out, Qing Fang barely looked human anymore...

Falling to his knees while his organs melted inside his body due to the strange black impurities, Qing Fang screamed inside his mind.

'WHAT...! IS...! HAPPENING...! TO...! MEEEEEEE?!!'

Qing Fang knelt down and looked to be defeated, his white skull hung low. The pain was just too great... It was something that Qing Fang, who had a great deal of resistance to pain, had never thought could be felt.

It robbed him of his will to live and made him just want the pain to end, even if it cost him his life. Was this something a mere twenty-four-year-old boy should have to endure? Within the universe, he was but a child. Although he prided himself on his lack of morality, Qing Fang was but a child in the universe. Did he really have to shoulder such a burden? He could take it easy and just die, right?

However, as soon as this thought of weakness passed through what remained of his mind, Qing Fang awakened from his stupor! What was pain in the face of eternal life? Just a mere formality.

Was he really going to let his life end here?

"NO!!! I WILL NOT DIE HERE!!!" Qing Fang suddenly screamed aloud for the heavens to hear. His voice had turned into something demonic and guttural as it pierced through the air and made anybody who heard it from the neighbouring shacks shiver and take a breath of cold air.

The faceless Qing Fang stood up from the floor, with his divine sense to guide him.

He felt his incomplete dao body within the world of Laws beg for more blood. Maybe it would even sacrifice its physical body if it could have even one more drop... He will satiate it, whatever the cost. Everything could be sacrificed so long as he could live on.

Feeling the hunger of his infantile dao body transfer to himself, the eyes that had just renewed their resolve flashed with an even greater desire to satiate its lust for blood.

Taking a heavy step that crushed the floor into pieces, Qing Fang felt his bones collapse and crumble into pieces. However, before he could fall, he took another step! Crushing the floor even deeper, Qing Fang's bones in his other leg similarly crushed into hundreds of pieces.

His body was collapsing. If he didn't complete his dao body soon, he would die.

Falling to the floor with a deep grunt, Qing Fang reached out with his hands and tightly grasped what was left of the earth. Digging his bloodied fingers that were still missing nails deep into the stone that made up the earth, Qing Fang tenaciously clawed to advance; pulling himself toward the closest body, that of Meng Ai.

Feeling the bones in his arms that had turned as brittle as straw being crushed under the strength of his own arm, Qing Fang simply discarded it. Reaching out with his other arm, which was also his last functioning limb, Qing Fang taxed his body to its limits.

The faceless skull could not show the strain that Qing Fang was under right now. He desperately reached out, hoping to grab ahold of Meng Ai. Feeling as though his arm was about to snap, however, Qing Fang felt something small and thin in his grasp.

The faceless Qing Fang couldn't smile, but if he could, a vicious and greedy one would be carved onto it right now.

Tightening his grip around the small ankle of the little priestess, Qing Fang nearly crushed her petite and smooth legs. Then, using his arm before it collapsed, he struggled to try to pull himself on top of her.

Qing Fang scrambled with his one functioning limb to grip firmly onto the tiny body of Meng Ai and devour her flesh and blood. Literally hearing the smooth blood still flowing gently in her neck, Qing Fang salivated more black impurities as he pulled his skinless body with broken limbs onto the body of the young girl.

Having dragged himself along her body itself to try to reach the neck where he could hear the blood flow constantly playing itself in his mind, Qing Fang embodied the hunger of his dao body as he thrust himself toward her like a cultivator toward a heavenly treasure.

Although unable to reach her neck, Qing Fang placed his toothless maw onto the supple breast of Meng Ai, clenched his jaw and pulled it off by ripping the skin with brute strength! Unable to chew the breast with just his gums, he decided to spit it out onto the floor next to him. It landed onto the dirt, the milky-brown skin the same colour as the dirt.

Qing Fang then jerked his skinless and muscular neck, burying his skeletal head into the open wound where Meng Ai's right breast once was. Beneath what little muscle she had on the open wound, her small and brittle ribcage was just beneath, with her heart like a diamond in the rough.

Feeling the warm taste of iron flow down his throat, Qing Fang felt a euphoric feeling as a rush of strength swarmed his body like a midsummer's breeze and caused his veins to rupture then immediately repair themselves due to the sheer blood flow they suddenly experienced. The bone dust in each of Qing Fang's three broken limbs suddenly hardened to form bone and marrow once again.

Qing Fang could feel his dao body greedily absorbing all of the Law of Blood fragments that he ingested from Meng Ai, strengthening itself and turning more corporeal. However, its hunger only grew as its lust was partially satiated. As they say: never feed a starving man unless you are prepared to take him home.

Using his newly regenerated arms to tightly clutch Meng Ai's body, crushing the already partially-destroyed ribcage and exposing her internal organs, her skin was easily sliced open by his newly-regenerated nails that were abnormally sharp and hard.

As his teeth grew back, he had no trouble ripping into the hard tissue while the soft tissue felt non-existent beneath his brand-new teeth. Human teeth could never devour meat so easily...

Drinking all the blood he could smell while eating all of the organs contained within Meng Ai's ribcage, even the digestive system, Qing Fang grimaced suddenly as he felt the bone that had just regenerated spasm with a splitting pain.

However, it was nothing compared to what he had just gone through thus he managed to ignore it, burying himself in all the flesh the soft and small arms of Meng Ai had to offer. He tore through all of the flesh and swallowed it down into his stomach which seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

After transforming Meng Ai's small and pitiful body into an open carcass lacking all of the meat in its torso and on its limbs, leaving only pearly-white bone; Qing Fang only felt his mind slip away further from rationality than it already had. Not only that, his feast was far from over. He could feel it.

Moving onto the next body, the headless Wan'er, Qing Fang used his new nails to slice open its arteries, draining it in under ten seconds. This time, he did not bother eating the flesh as it was too consuming and quite disgusting. The only thing that made it edible was the delectable blood within it.

Drinking more and more blood, although he felt his body getting stronger and stronger as well as his dao body becoming more and more solid, the pain in his limbs and spine only got worse. It felt as though all of his vertebrae were being pulled apart and the cartilage was scraped out. However, after going through the pain of having his heart burst, this was a walk in the park.

With everybody he devoured, Qing Fang could feel himself falling deeper and deeper until he couldn't tell what was what anymore. Gluttony had taken over his mind and all he could do was try to appease it.

Immersing himself within the neck and cheeks of the old man, the only body that wasn't bones or shrivelled skin yet, whilst suffering splitting pain from all of his bones, Qing Fang was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the wooden sheet door of the shack being violently kicked down.

Looking up with eyes that pulsed with a bloody red light and flesh hanging from his mouth, Qing Fang's gaze landed on walking food.

"What is going on in here?!" The food said, it sounded concerned but also outraged, as though it had been attracted by the large ruckus just earlier.

Finding it somewhat hilarious how food could talk, Qing Fang turned his maw away from the old man's neck and onto it. His eyes shone with desire and a little playfulness as if he was a baby that acted on interest.

Then with a sudden burst of speed, Qing Fang arrived before the food.

"Wha-" It tried to speak again as it looked nearly vertically up just to gaze at Qing Fang, however, he didn't let it utter another word.

Impaling the food onto his arm, Qing Fang brought it, the food that could somehow walk and talk, into his embrace before draining it of all its loveliness. Feeling another round of blood glide down his ever-growing stomach as the food turned into something shrivelled, Qing Fang felt as though his being was full and complete.

As for his dao body? Qing Fang had momentarily forgotten how to peer into the world of Laws so he could check its condition. Not that he had even thought about it in the first place. All that encompassed his mind in this one moment was to feed.

However, at this point, he was full. The intense hunger that he was trying to feed was much quieter now and was practically gone.

However, Qing Fang still lusted for blood yet.

Turning his scarlet eyes to the last bit of food he could see within the shack, he gazed at it with immense gluttony. He drooled as if he had no control over his hunger nor the strength within his body. All of the experience and self-discipline that he had built up over the years seemed void at this point in time.

Qing Fang stared with his red eyes and looked at the food, seeing the fear within its eyes starting right back at him. As he was now, Qing Fang cared not for the food nor how it felt, he only cared about the delicacy running through its veins.

Approaching slowly while looking down at the food, Qing Fang saw it suddenly direct a glance toward the open door of the shack leading out into the empty streets. Seeing this, the animalistic Qing Fang laughed smugly before flashing and reappearing in between the food and the doorway.

"Kekekekekek." Dry guttural laughter came out through Qing Fang's serrated teeth while a set of white and thick-looking fangs decorated the large grin plastering his face as he stared at the food. The laughter was a grating baritone that caused the food to flinch back when it heard it.

"P-please...please..." Words that were not even registered by Qing Fang came from the pleading food. Tears streamed down its cheeks as it looked toward Qing Fang with eyes begging for mercy with all the enthusiasm it could muster.

Qing Fang felt no pity.

Arriving before the food, Qing Fang had to look down completely to even see it. Similarly, it looked up with those teary doe eyes, begging for mercy without rest. The food knew it could do nothing against Qing Fang. After witnessing the pure physical speed and balance that he seemed to instinctively display, it knew that trying to escape would only give Qing Fang a reason to eat it sooner.

Thus, it did what an animal would do if it could, it begged.

Falling down to one knee so his gaping maw, still filled with blood that covered rows of sharp canines which flooded his mouth, could even reach the low stature of the food; Qing Fang opened his arms to embrace the food. It was shivering violently and its little head looked down to the ground with eyes wide-open in fear.

The food quivered in fright as it had trouble standing. However, it had to keep still. Any sudden movements and it knew that Qing Fang would not hesitate to lunge toward it and feast on its flesh. It was taking all of its strength to just keep on its feet, but caring about anything else apart from keeping absolutely still.

Not only animals, humans too, had instinctual behaviour in even these kinds of situations. Keeping absolutely still would minimise one's presence and make the predator lower their guard. Once that happened, they can leap at the opportunity to escape from its clutches. Of course, the food in this case had absolutely zero chances of escaping due to the vast outclassing of strength as well as the intelligence of the predator, with it being something similar to human. Nevertheless, these instincts still held strong, even if the chance of survival was null.

Qing Fang's arms, which seemed to be getting bigger and paler by the second, tightly hugged the food; refusing to let go. He breathed in her scent as he blew his blood-covered breath toward her nostrils. Supposedly taking in the thick stench of blood and death that lingered on the long serpentine tongue of Qing Fang, the food started softly weeping as its shoulders shuddered incessantly.

Taking the long, pale clawed ring finger of his right hand, Qing Fang waved the weapon of murder about in the air mesmerisingly before moving it along the neck of the food gently and with care. Moving the hair out of the way to reveal the white-skinned neck that he so craved, Qing Fang's eyes shone with a sharp glint.

However, he suddenly frowned.

Within the immense splitting pain in his back, there was another feeling that had just surfaced. It felt strange, as though something was trying to...come out.

It was at this moment.

Two spears made from white bone suddenly pierced out of the back of Qing Fang, pointing to the sky. Blood spurted massively as it painted itself across the spears of bone. They were extremely long, each of them being over twice Qing Fang's current height, which was unknown.

With his eyes rolling back into his head as he lost his consciousness, the huge body of Qing Fang wearing what was left of the turquoise robes after he had destroyed the chest area of it; started to lowly fall with pitiful acceleration that soon increased.

The food's eyes widened substantially as it realised what was happening and tried to flee. The huge body belonging to Qing Fang cast a grand shadow over it. If stuck under there, if it didn't instantly die from having its chest crushed, it would be trapped until Qing Fang wakes up once more. If that happened, it would be eaten alive like that other food that barged in.

Knowing this, the food tried to lunge out of the way with all of its might. If it could just escape, then it would be free to leave without having to fear pursuit.

However, it was too late.

With a pathetic welp, the absolutely huge body of Qing Fang started to collapse on top of the food. As they fell, the food beneath him cried out for help painfully. However, no one would come. That walking food was definitely an anomaly that would dare to roam the slums at night. Another would not come.

"He...lp... m...e..." A small voice was all that could be heard from beneath the fallen behemoth as the spears of bone pointed majestically into the sky as if it was piercing the heavens in defiance.

Even unconscious, the body of Qing Fang was growing and getting paler. From time to time, the bone spears would twitch and jerk, folding in the middle at what seemed to be a joint.

Falling away into unconsciousness, Qing Fang's mind drifted back to a distinct memory within his mind...

*3,003/3,000 words*