1 The Third Eye Awakens!

Black clouds were closing in quickly from the far horizon.

Though Ling Feng couldn't see them, the distant crack of thunder, closer now, forced him to tap his white cane faster against the narrow path ahead. His quickened pace was dangerous in his current state, he knew. It had only been three months since he'd lost his eyesight. But there was nothing he could do. The weather was already turning for the worst and there was still some way to go before he reached his destination. Right now, he could only hope that this path out of the city hadn't changed much since he'd last taken it.

As Ling Feng continued to navigate his way forward, the rapping of his cane and the grumbling of the approaching storm soon became a companionless duet. The lonesome dissonance triggered unease in him. It coiled around his insides and churned in his stomach. Fortunately, the path beneath his feet changed, and the crunch of grass rose to greet his ears before the feeling could deepen.

Ling Feng paused for a moment to calm his heart. Then he smiled and stepped into that small, beautiful grove he could only see in flashes of memory.

"Brother Feng, you're finally here!"

Suddenly, a lovely girl wearing a pale blue dress jumped into his arms.

Ling Feng wanted to hold the girl like this forever, to indulge in the warmth of her presence. But the thunder growling at his back compelled him to move away from her.

"Come, Lin'er," Ling Feng said, hand grazing the side of one of the oaks in the grove. "After this last round of treatment, you'll no longer be attacked by yin Qi every night of the full moon. You'll be cured at last, free to pursue whatever your heart desires."

"Thank you, Brother Feng! Thank you so much!"

Her face alight with the sweetest smile, Su Lin grabbed Ling Feng's arm and said, "Here, let me help you sit down."

Ling Feng let Su Lin guide him to a position beneath the shade of the tree he had just touched. Afterward Su Lin removed her dress and moved into a lotus position, her back facing his front. Then she quietly waited for him to finish pulling out a bag of golden acupuncture needles from his robes.

When Ling Feng was ready, he raised a hand and coaxed his fingers along the length of Su Lin's back. His hands moved with practiced maturity, completely unhindered by his recent disability. He quickly inserted his needles into the vital acupoints and began to process the three-yin Qi.

Su Lin felt nothing as the energy flowed out of her. It was a treatment unshared by Ling Feng. Like an untamed horse, the Qi fought against his control. Blue veins stuck out of his forehead and sweat clung to his brow. The pain of treating Su Lin was no small matter. He had been unprepared in his first bout with the Qi and had lost his eyesight as punishment.

He was a different person now. The pain could no longer move him from his purpose.

A chilling focus settled over his mind, he slowly pulled the needles out of Su Lin's body. With each removal came the dissipation of the Qi. Until finally, there was nothing left.

"Okay, Lin'er," he said, fifteen minutes later, voice cracking with exhaustion. "It's done... you can move now."

Su Lin opened her eyes and locked Ling Feng's.

"Did you really cure my Three-Yin Terminal Veins?" she asked through a whisper, seemingly afraid of the answer.

Ling Feng smiled.

"Yes," he said, giving a word of reassurance. "You're cured now. And when you wake up tomorrow, you will be the most beautiful and healthy bride-to-be."

"Ling Feng, thank you," Su Lin replied, but with a voice that was suddenly more than a little cold. This time she hadn't even bothered to address Ling Feng as "Brother Feng" as she had usually done before. But the youth, whose mind was still weary from giving the treatment and heavy with thoughts of tomorrow, missed the alarming change in her tone.

"Lin'er, you know there's no need to be polite with me. Now, let's go back... there's much to prepare!"

With a gentle laugh, Ling Feng raised his hand to graze Su Lin's cheek. He had expected her to dip her head to greet his touch. But she didn't and not even the weariness clouding Ling Feng's mind could make him miss the coldness of this act.

Ling Feng's heart tightened as his hand hung abandoned in the air.

"Lin'er, what's wrong?" A frown spread clear across his features.

Su Lin made no effort to answer. Instead, she looked behind her toward the dense woods beyond. Faint torch flames, noticeable only by the footsteps that accompanied them, had begun to draw near.

Before Ling Feng could realize the sound of approaching footsteps, Su Lin threw her dress back on. Afterward, she ripped a jagged tear in the fabric and forced herself into his embrace.

"Ling Feng, stop trying to rape me, you beast," she howled with all the breath in her lungs. "Someone, help me!"

Ling Feng froze, as if fixed in mud.

"Lin'er, what are you doing?" he asked, hoping Su Lin would give him an answer that would ease his confusion. "What's the meaning of this?"

A middle-aged man, a handsome youth, and a crowd of servants advanced into the grove before could Su Lin could explain her actions.

"Ling Feng, what the hell are you doing!"

The middle-aged man, startled by the sight before him, rushed forward like an arrow. He pulled Su Lin away with one hand and sent Ling Feng flying with the other.

Ling Feng tumbled through the air and crashed into a nearby tree.

Ling Feng barely had time to regain his senses before the middle-aged man was upon him once more. The man grabbed his chin and jerked it upward so that their gazes met.

Ling Feng's eyes widened in horror as recognition arrived. It was the city lord of Kaiyang City, Su Shixiong, Su Lin's father.

Su Lin dashed into her father's arms, sobbing. "Dad, Ling Feng... he... he isn't human!"

Before Su Shixiong could respond, the handsome youth who had come with him took a step forward and said, "Uncle Su, you've seen it with your own eyes now! This Ling Feng was never a good person. He was only pretending to take care of Cousin Su Lin out of the kindness of his heart. This has been his true intention all along!"

After saying this, the youth named Chen Huang aimed the spearpoint of his words at Ling Feng.

"You, damn blind boy, are a toad lusting after a swan's flesh. Had you taken a piss and gazed at your reflection, you would've realized that you could never be joined to my cousin!"

Chen Huang was working hard to make a great show of his disaffections. But in the end, it was all a charade, the result of his and Su Lin's secret conspirations. It was why Su Lin had convinced Ling Feng to treat her all the way out here in this secluded grove, and why he'd made sure Su Shixiong had arrived only after she'd been cured.

While Ling Feng was still too dazed to grasp the situation, Chen Huang began to pummel his fists into him. Ling Feng was slow to react at first, then he faced Chen Huang with expressionless regard. There was no physical pain the youth could give him that could rival the pain of betrayal.

Su Lin had been lying to him from the start, using him.

He clenched his fists tight and bellowed, "SU LIN!!!"

Ling Feng's anger caused Su Lin to retreat further into her father's arms.

"You and I were engaged," she cried. "Fooling me into coming out here, a beast is more human than you!"

"Hahahahahaha..."

Ling Feng looked up to the heavens and laughed. It was absurd that after a whole year of giving everything he'd possessed, including the light in his eyes, this was how he was to be repaid.

"You beast!"

Su Shixiong's beard shook against his anger.

"Strike him... Strike him down now!"

Ling Feng quickly disappeared beneath a huddle of pounding fists and elbows.

When the beating was over, Su Shixiong bent over Ling Feng's limp body and yelled, "Bastard, you can forget about marrying my daughter. I want you and your grandfather gone by the morning. If I ever see your faces in this city again, I will show you no mercy!"

The bloodied Ling Feng looked past Su Shixiong to the place where Su Lin was standing.

"Su Lin," he growled, "if you don't kill me now, I will make sure you die a dog's death!"

Su Shixiong's face twisted. "You are courting death."

Chen Huang, seeing an opportunity, approached Su Shixiong with a fearsome smile. "Uncle Su, let me handle this scouring. You need to take Su Lin home."

Su Shixiong snorted coldly. He was no fool. There was something off about this entire situation. He could feel it. In all likelihood Ling Feng was completely innocent. But in the end the boy was nothing to him. A blind wandering doctor had never truly had any prospects of becoming his son-in-law.

Chen Huang, on the other hand, was different. He was the son of the richest businessman in the city – the perfect suitor for his daughter. So despite knowing that Ling Feng had probably been wronged, Su Shixiong flung his sleeves and began to lead his distraught daughter away, choosing to turn a blind eye in an instant.

Once Su Lin and her father were out of sight, Chen Huang stepped onto Ling Feng's chest and grinned. "Now that those two are gone, Ling Feng, let me tell you a secret" he said, leaning in close. "The woman you've worked so hard to cure has been my plaything this entire time! Hahaha..."

Tears of blood began to run down Ling Feng's face.

This was not how things were supposed to have ended. He should've been getting ready to marry a charming wife. But now, this was not to be.

His dreams had been brutally dashed to pieces.

"Crack!"

In this moment of utmost despair, the rain finally tore free of the prison of dark clouds blanketing the night sky.

Chen Huang lifted his head and grinned. A bit of rain wasn't going to stop him.

"Continue," he roared. "Don't stop hitting him! A damn blind person dares to rob my woman!"

Ling Feng tried to defend himself by randomly swinging the only weapon left to him: one of his acupuncture needles. But this act merely served to anger Chen Huang further.

"Damnit, you dare defend yourself?"

Chen Huang immediately turned to one of his servants and said, "Break his fingers. Let's see how he heals anyone else without the use of his hands!"

With a nod, the vicious-looking servant clutched an iron rod and swung.

As the savage blow approached his body, something inside grabbed a hold of Ling Feng.

"Just you wait, bitch!" he yelled. "Even if I turn into a malicious ghost, I will slaughter all of Su. Not even the chickens and dogs will be spared!"

Then, almost without thinking, he stabbed the golden needle in his bloodied hand into the crown of his head, right into the Hundred Convergences Acupoint sitting above it.

"Crack!"

Lightning struck a tree that was close by, nearly setting it ablaze, drawing everyone's attention away upon the moment of his act.

Chen Huang cursed heaven for its bad weather before smiling and saying, "Ling Feng, it seems even the Heavens want us to stop wasting time and kill you already!"

"Ahhhh!"

Suddenly, Chen Huang was alarmed by a terrible cry. Then more followed, giving him no room or time to react. One after another, shrill screams interweaved into the sounds of the rumbling thunder and pounding rain.

Cold fear crept down Chen Huang's throat, knotting in his stomach. The youth closed his eyes, hoping that this was merely his head buzzing with some nightmarish dream. But when he opened them again, he was greeted by a scene of unequalled carnage and Ling Feng's fearsome visage. A vertical pupil enveloped in scarlet had opened open above the youth's forehead, and underneath it, a pair of eyes like pools of blood dispersed a terrifying aura.

As all but one of his servants remained alive and upright, Chen Huang's legs buckled.

"You... w-what monster are you?!" he said, falling to his knees.

Ling Feng took one look at Chen Huang then threw himself into the air and pushed the final servant breathing to the ground. He ripped a clawed hand into the servant's neck and allowed the blood to stain his face. The crimson liquid trailed down Ling Feng's cheeks like tears. Chen Huang watched in suffocating silence, knowing that no number of words would save him from sharing a similar fate.

After finishing off the servant, Ling Feng leapt forward like an untamed beast and tackled Chen Huang.

"Damn you! Damn you!" Ling Feng repeated, the words a snarl as he began to tear the skin from Chen Huang's flesh.

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