Hidden Rules

[Chang Sheng County · Late-Night Street]

The streetlights along the nighttime road had their glow kneaded into a blur by the Gray Fog.

The goateed old man looked at Chen Xing not far away. His split skull had transformed into pale-purple tentacles that writhed continuously like living snakes.

Sticky fluid dripped from the tentacles onto the bluestone pavement with a 'tap tap,' glinting with an eerie sheen in the firelight of Chen Xing's Bloodflame.

"Outsider, you have broken the rules of Chang Sheng County."

Not long after the goateed old man spoke, the surrounding townspeople slowly closed in around Chen Xing, their footsteps unnervingly synchronized.

Their joints cracked, their bodies twisted at angles that defied physical laws, and savage slits opened across their foreheads as flesh and tissue churned and tentacles emerged.

Two clusters of ghostly green light suddenly flared within their hollow eye sockets, like corpse fires in a graveyard.

Chen Xing, however, did not pay them much mind.

She suddenly tightened her grip on the Demonic Blade's hilt. The flame patterns on its sheath were ignited by her star energy, and orange-red firelight shone over her cold, striking profile.

"Rules?"

Chen Xing let out a scornful laugh. The instant the Demonic Blade left its sheath, a scorching blade wind swept outward, burning charred marks into the surroundings.

"Using lifespans as stakes and grinding living people into puppets without selves—filth like this deserves to be called rules?"

"..."

The vines on the goateed old man's head suddenly tensed, as though Chen Xing had struck upon something that should never have been said.

He stopped wasting words and abruptly swung his arm with a roar.

The next second, several tentacles shot toward Chen Xing like spears. Their tips were lined with barbs and gleamed with the luster of deadly poison.