The head rolled to the ground, tumbling until the wound's dark red blood plasma mixed with dust, congealing into black.
"Damn thing, what enormous strength!"
Xiang Fangsu gasped for breath as he put down his long knife, his right wrist shaking uncontrollably, the soreness making him recall the days when he couldn't recite his texts and was punished by the Master of Sectarian Study to copy the scriptures a hundred times over.
Ke Wenbin touched his lower back, drew a dagger and prodded the teeth of the severed head with the tip of the blade.
Clack.
The head clamped down fiercely on the blade's tip, its shriveled eyes shrouded in a gray mist – a wholly subconscious reaction.
Ke Wenbin struggled to wrench the dagger free and was greatly shocked.
"This is truly strange; the head's off, and yet it hasn't completely died?"
Xiang Fangsu wiped the black blood off his knife without sheathing it, instead gripping it upside-down under his arm.