After walking for about the time it took to burn an incense stick, Qin He saw a gorge ahead, thick with a foul, rank stench.
With flapping wings, black shapes were startled from the treetops from time to time. But even more numerous were the dark green eyes opening amid the branches.
They were a flock of monstrous birds resembling crows, known on Sin City's side as Green-eyed Cold Crows.
Creatures that lay somewhere between living beings and evil entities.
Or, more precisely, demonic creatures that had tenaciously survived in an environment of evil entities and developed a certain degree of resistance.
Nature selected the fittest; the adaptable survived. This held true everywhere under heaven.
If you could not beat them, you joined them. The Green-eyed Cold Crows were one such kind, and so they had inevitably been infected with the traits and aura of evil entities.
They... were edible.
In Sin City, anything edible was a resource.
Qin He slowly unstrung his bow and arrow, swung his quiver around to his front, then drew and fired with a series of "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."
Six arrows shot out in succession. The startled Green-eyed Cold Crows took flight in flocks, sending snowflakes and dead branches fluttering through the sky, swept up by the frigid wind and shrouding Qin He.
Qin He brushed the snow from himself and picked up four Green-eyed Cold Crow corpses beneath the trees.
Flocks of birds reacted with astonishing speed when startled. Of the six arrows, only four had struck their targets; the remaining two had missed.
Within a patch of black vines above the gorge, two oily green lights flickered on. Watching Qin He collect the Cold Crow corpses, their owner let out a sharp "Caw!" tinged with anger.
Meeting its gaze, Qin He grinned, made