The Thrill of Slaughter

At the stroke of midnight, within the graveyard...

Bai Junyi stood fully clothed beside the coffin of Kuina, holding a longsword he had taken from the burial goods. Though it was not the Wado Ichimonji that had originally belonged to her, it was nonetheless a rare and finely crafted blade. He gazed at Kuina, whose clothes were now as neat as they had been in life, and offered a gentle smile.

After a long moment, Bai Junyi slowly lowered his head and kissed Kuina's petite, cherry-colored lips once more. As he drew her slightly chilled tongue into his mouth, his eyes closed tightly, greedily savoring her scent as if to carve this very moment deep into his own soul.

A long time passed before their lips parted. Bai Junyi carefully smoothed the messy strands of hair on Kuina's forehead and whispered, "Remember, Kuina, my name is..." He paused here, a look of pathological attachment flickering in his eyes.

"Bai Ina. My name is Bai Ina. I will carry the talent and knowledge inherited from you, inherit your dream, and together with you, become the strongest swordsman in this world." Bai... Bai Ina gently stroked Kuina's delicate face, his expression filled with love: "Kuina, you must rest well here."

"From today on, you are my wife. Whether you admit it or not, Kuina, you are my wife—the wife I love most in this life, the wife of Bai Ina."

As he spoke, Bai Ina slowly slid the coffin lid shut.

Yet, he did not notice that the moment the coffin closed, Kuina's tightly shut eyes flickered ever so slightly...

Filling the soil back in bit by bit and tidying up the surrounding traces to ensure nothing looked different than before, Bai Ina turned and walked away, slowly disappearing under the cover of the pitch-black night...

The graveyard returned to silence, yet in the darkness, a faint, rhythmic heartbeat seemed to echo...

At the Frost Moon Village docks, a dim oil lamp hung from a pillar at the end of the pier.

Under the glow of the lamp, four young men dressed in naval uniforms huddled together, playing a game of Old Maid.

"Damn it, it's getting colder and colder at night!" one of the youths with a crew cut complained.

The sailor beside him shook his head with a bitter smile: "Just endure it. No matter how cold it is, you have to bear it. If that little bastard gets away, Master Kudri will kill all four of us."

"Yeah, what a cursed little brat. If it weren't for him, I'd be home holding my wife and sleeping by now."

"Oh? You have a wife? Just say it's your right hand; nobody's going to laugh at you..."

"Hahahaha—"

"..."

The group continued to banter back and forth.

"Is Master Kudri... being a bit too excessive?" the youngest boy among them asked in a low voice.

"..."

The scene went silent instantly. The eyes of the others snapped toward the boy's face. The crew-cut youth stepped forward, clamped a hand over the boy's mouth, looked left and right, and then cursed angrily: "You idiot, don't drag us down with you if you're looking for death! You just joined the navy, you don't know yet—Master Kudri isn't someone easy to get along with."

The boy pulled away the youth's hand, his expression somewhat conflicted: "But he's just a nine-year-old child who doesn't know anything yet."

"So what?" the older sailor sneered: "You should know that if it weren't for us in the navy, this place would have been ravaged by pirates countless times over. What's the harm in killing a little bastard? Especially one who has no father or mother, a brat that no one would even look for if he died."

"Alright, enough with the 'buts.' Anyway, I don't believe that brat has the guts to run away. Even if he doesn't run, we don't need to lift a finger, so just play your cards in peace. Once the relief shift comes tomorrow morning, you can go home and hold your 'right-hand wife'."

"Exactly, exactly, hahahaha—"

Clap, clap, clap—

Just then, the sound of footsteps approaching from afar reached the ears of the sailors.

"Who, who's there!!!"

The men simultaneously drew their standard-issue naval longswords and looked warily toward the source of the sound.

From the direction they were watching, a small figure emerged from the distance, gradually stepping into the light of the oil lamp.

The moment they saw the face of the figure, looks of surprise flashed across their faces, but their tense bodies relaxed.

"Oh, look who it is!" the older sailor said with a sneer, though he didn't move, instead watching with a playful expression as Bai Ina's petite frame drew near. He waited until the boy was right in front of him before scoffing: "Heh, talk about someone who doesn't know when to quit. If you hadn't come here, you might have lived another day. Why not cherish it? And..."

The older sailor's gaze dropped to the longsword held at Bai Ina's waist, and he burst into laughter: "Hahahaha... you even brought a broken sword... haha, are you here to amuse us?"

"Hahaha—"

The others laughed along upon hearing this.

Bai Ina's expression remained unchanged, his gaze as flat and waveless as ever as he stared at the sailors before him. That look, as if he were staring at dead men, sent a chill through the older sailor, and his laughter gradually faded.

But in an instant, a sense of humiliation welled up in his heart. His playful face flushed red, and he sneered at Bai Ina: "Forget it, brat, go on your way. Don't blame me after you're dead; if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for seeking your own death and ruining Master Kudri's plans."

As the words fell, his hand gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist, a grim smile on his face as he prepared to cut Bai Ina down.

Click—

Clatter—

But at that moment, the unexpected happened. The standard-issue longsword, not yet fully drawn, was blocked by a sudden hilt, emitting a clatter as it slid back into its scabbard. The older sailor looked toward the hilt that had blocked his draw.

He saw Bai Ina holding his own sword hilt with a reverse grip, the blade drawn halfway. His body was tilted slightly forward. If the older sailor could have seen the expression on Bai Ina's lowered head at that moment, he would surely have been struck with terror.

For on that porcelain-doll face, murderous intent was now rampant, and an evil aura was rising.

Snap—

In the blink of an eye, Bai Ina took a small step back, his reverse-held sword fully unsheathed.

"One Sword Style—Draw Sword Technique—Iai Slash!"

The cold voice rang in the older sailor's ears—the last sound he would ever hear in this life. The longsword in Bai Ina's hand slashed horizontally in an instant, carving a crescent arc through the empty air before him.

Slish—

As the longsword slid into its scabbard, Bai Ina did not even glance at the older marine, walking straight past him toward the remaining three.

Everything had transpired in the blink of an eye, so fast that the three marines behind him had not even realized what had occurred.

"Hahaha, what's wrong? Did you spend too much time with your right-hand wife last night and drain yourself dry? You're so scared by a kid's feint that you can't even move?"

The buzz-cut marine saw Bai Ina walk past the older man and, after a momentary daze, began to jeer with a mocking laugh.

But the scene that followed caused his breath, and that of the other two marines, to hitch in unison.

Under the dim light of the oil lamp, a thin line of blood slowly appeared across the older marine's neck, and in an instant, blood soaked through his collar.

The next moment—

The older marine's head rolled off, coming to a stop right at Bai Ina's feet. Deprived of the blockage of the head, blood erupted from the headless corpse, painting a crimson backdrop behind Bai Ina.

Thud—

The headless body fell straight down into the pool of blood it had created, splashing gore in every direction.

The splattered blood landed on Bai Ina's delicate, youthful face. Under the dim light, he looked like a bloodthirsty sprite beneath the setting sun...

"W-what? This..."

The remaining three marines stared, dumbstruck, at the shocking scene before them, their brains momentarily short-circuiting.

They could not believe it... they could not believe that their teammate, a well-trained marine soldier, had been so cleanly dispatched in a single strike. Perhaps if it had been someone else, they might have believed it, but the one who had killed their comrade was merely a nine-year-old child. Beyond the shock, they felt an overwhelming sense of terror toward Bai Ina.

Bai Ina casually wiped the blood from his cheek, his gaze shifting to his shoes, now soaked in the pool of blood, and then to the head at his feet.

At this moment, he felt no fear... nor the nausea of killing for the first time. There was only a fanaticism for power and the thrill of his first kill welling up from within.

Slowly withdrawing his gaze, Bai Ina looked once more at the remaining three marines: "Now then—it's your turn!"

The bone-chilling voice reached the ears of the remaining three, making their bodies tremble slightly, yet it also jolted them out of their stupor.

Endless terror surged into their hearts. Under the icy, bloodthirsty gaze of Bai Ina's eyes, they instinctively stepped back... having witnessed the gruesome death of their teammate, they could not help but be haunted by the shadow of it. Seeing that they were about to meet the same fate, and unwilling to die, they steeled their hearts and decided to fight for their lives!

"All together! No matter how strong he is, he's just a nine-year-old brat!" the buzz-cut youth roared. His muscles bulged, and throwing caution to the wind, he charged at Bai Ina, brandishing his longsword. The other young marine followed closely, and the boy who had previously spoken up for Bai Ina hesitated for a moment before charging as well.

Bai Ina's expression remained unchanged. Without haste, he ducked, letting the buzz-cut youth's sword whistle past his hair. After dodging the strike, Bai Ina did not stop; he stepped back, narrowly avoiding a slash from the other marine's side, and his own longsword flashed from its scabbard.

"One Sword Style—Fang Thrust!"

Gripping the sword with both hands, he thrust it out like a dragon. In the blink of an eye, it pierced the heart of the buzz-cut youth, who hadn't even had time to retract his blade, the tip emerging from his back with bits of heart tissue attached.

But he did not stop there. Stepping back again, he withdrew the longsword, still slick with warm blood, and in the same motion, swung it horizontally at the other marine.

The buzz-cut marine collapsed to the ground, while a line of blood appeared on the neck of the second marine. Blood gushed from his mouth, preventing him from speaking a single word. He, too, collapsed like the first, twitching a few times before falling deathly still.

Everything happened so quickly that the marine boy who had lagged behind due to hesitation was paralyzed with terror, his charge coming to a dead halt. He stared in horror at the figure of Bai Junyi, which, though small, radiated a terrifying aura.

Bai Ina did not even glance at the two corpses, turning instead to walk unhurriedly toward the last marine boy.

Tap, tap, tap, tap—

The crisp sound of footsteps felt as if they were trampling on the boy's heart, making it difficult for him to even breathe. He collapsed onto the ground, lacking the courage to even crawl away.

Bai Ina walked up to the marine boy, looking down at him from above, and suddenly raised his longsword—

Swish, swish—

The blade cut through the air, and blood sprayed.

"Aaaaaah..."

The marine boy's shrill scream pierced the night. Bai Junyi stepped right over him and continued walking toward the pier.

However... the marine boy behind him was not dead; one arm and one leg lay on the ground, accompanied by a pool of blood.

Bai Ina paused his stride, his cold voice cutting through the boy's screams: "Tell Kudri that I... Bai Ina will return one day! That day will be the day he meets his end." With that, he jumped off the pier and landed directly onto a small, five-meter-long sailboat.

But no sooner had he stood steady than his body trembled, and he stumbled several times. Under the moonlight, his face turned deathly pale.

Although Bai Ina had inherited Kuina's talent for swordsmanship, her understanding of the blade, and even the instincts honed through long years of practice, he could not inherit her physical stamina. This meant he could not execute many of the techniques in Kuina's memories, and those few strikes he had just performed had exhausted his entire reserve of strength. Right now, anyone could have cut him down.

The small boat slowly drifted away from the shore. Bai Ina leaned against the mast, watching the island where he had lived for four years gradually fade into the distance.

After Bai Ina's boat vanished into the darkness, two figures stood silently on the edge of the pier, watching the direction in which he had departed.

"You really can't underestimate the brats these days, Dragon..." The speaker was a man with a massive head, a purple afro, and bizarre clothing.

Standing beside him was a man wearing a hooded cloak.

"The tides of the era are rising, destined to forge generation after generation of heroes. It is just hard to say whether such extreme behavior is a good thing or a bad one..."

The man called Dragon murmured.

The man with the deep purple afro smiled: "Everyone has their own opportunities; it cannot be forced. But Bai Ina... hehe, what an interesting name!"

"..."

The two did not continue their conversation, their figures gradually fading into the darkness. The marine boy, still screaming on the ground, remained completely unaware of their presence...