10 A Meal with Savages

Duan Jian was in a small, wooden room with two strangers he had just met. When the fat Bao Bo and the skinny Bao Bai moved to the side, they revealed a shocking scenery behind them.

Looking outside from the open door, Duan Jian saw trees as far as he could see. The bladder-brown leaves on the trees made it seem like it was autumn.

The rustling leaves were cracking under the slightest blow from the wind. Somehow the air smelled burned and blasted, carrying a putrefying stench. He had to hold back his gag-reflex.

The forest seemed empty of life on the first glance. There was neither man nor beast to be seen. He couldn't imagine that someone lived in this desolate and lonesome place.

Under the staring trees, a lizard creeping through the thicket could be occasionally seen. Casket-black crows called out in their horrible voices, scratching against his ears.

It was a spine-chilling place.

The fat Bao Bo was the first to walk out the door and into the forest where the grim reaper walked before and decimated life. He was shortly followed by Bao Bai who seemed more like a skeleton from a graveyard and more fitting to this environment.

With the both of them walking first, Duan Jian hopped onto his shaky knees and followed them.

On their way towards dinner, Duan Jian kept being on guard. He observed everything that happened around him; be it triveous or not. What caught his attention the most were the trees.

Their barks looked like bubbled soup had been frozen on its surface. Some of those trees had a caving hole on them as if someone tried to tear their beating hearts out, leaving them to their silent and dead state now.

With the never-stopping cry of ravens, it was truly a forest to be avoided.

It was the sensations that let you know you were about to die here: Your skin feels like thousand bugs crawl under it. Your tongue is sticking to the abyss of your mouth. It's like a there is a grim reaper clutching your throat, pressing the dry air out from your lungs. Even your eyes feel like they melted, blurring all surroundings. Every step you take feels like an eternity, every second like a century. It makes your teeth rattle and your body tremble. The forest is your enemy. Nothing would make you forget this; it will fill up your dreams.

Walking even further into the hair-raising forest, Duan Jian's veins started to freeze over. Every step they took further in, his heart-strings were pulled tightly, raising his heart to his throat. Now he could also hear the chomping noise of someone wolfing down on food.

At last they arrived at their destination. In front of them was a large wooden table laid with broken porcelain tea cups and other table ware in addition to some burnt meat.

At one end of the table sat a blue-haired, beautiful teenage girl. She was engrossed in her task of wolfing down the food on the table.

One thing after another went into her craving mouth. Her reaper-red eyes and black eye bags accented her gaze of insanity. Duan Jian could even see a smear of blood on her lips.

"We are here, little one. You can take a seat and eat whatever you want, you know," said Bao Bo.

He was the first to leave Duan Jian's side. He pulled a wooden chair back and took a seat. The wooden chair lowered itself in pain and was near its bursting-point. It could be described as a miracle that the chair had not given in to its misery yet and kept fighting on.

The second one to leave him was Bao Bai. He said, "You like meat, or not?" and left him.

Duan Jian stood motionless in front of the table and looked at the three of them chewing and chomping down on the red meat, working in a swift manner.

Duan Jian was feeling hungry too, so he took an empty seat and clutched a piece of fried meat. Not thinking from where this meat is, he shut his eyes and tore a bite out of it.

A metallic taste of blood assaulted his mouth along with an ashen bitterness. 'Raw! This meat is raw and burnt at the same time! Who cooked that?!' he screamed in his mind, not willing to offend those savages.

Because he had an empty stomach and craved for food, he forced the joyless meat down his dry throat. Every bite he took he could taste the lifelessness again and again, slowly filling his stomach.

Across the table, Bao Bai's glacial eyes kept staring at him coldly. A smirk was on his razor-sharp lips. He licked his lips, opened his mouth, and spoke in a voice as lonely as a tomb, "You enjoy it, or not?"

Duan Jian ran a shudder down his spine, his face turned as pale as a winter's moon. He swallowed the bloody meat in his mouth, forced a grin, and replied, "It tastes fresh."

The bone-skinny Bao Bai cracked a smile; it stretched from one ear to another, showing his insanely sharp teeth. His tundra-cold eyes lit up and stared down at him.

Duan Jian could only avoid that and grabbed his half-broken tea cup to flush down the bad taste in his mouth. Taking a small sip from the cup, a plain taste gushed through his mouth. It was plain water. It seemed like everything from this dinner was either plain and joyless or nauseating.

Remembering that he still hasn't told them his name, he introduced himself, "I'm sorry that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Duan Jian. I'm a pursuer of the Throne of the Moon God. And I have no cultivation to speak of anymore."

His introduction left the blue-haired girl motionless. Her reddened eyes contracted to the size of a needle. With a gaping mouth and food still inside it, she glared at Duan Jian as if she finally found her lifelong prey.