Moonless Night, Rising Wind-a Time to Change Course (Bonus Chapter)

"...he had to harvest yin to nourish yang, using women's vital yin to suppress the Evil Fire that ravaged him from within..."

The burly man stammered through his confession, every detail more sickening than the last.

"Every woman of suitable age in the villages within a hundred miles has been dragged into the Duke's Mansion. Once he tires of them, or... or they die because they can't withstand the Evil Fire,

they're thrown into the blood pool behind the mountain to feed the Soul Beasts..."

At those words, the air seemed to freeze.

The Marionette girl, who had been sitting on a Hovering Mechanism, stopped fiddling with the greatsword in her hands. She knew nothing of relations between men and women, but the words "played to death" and "thrown away" sent her core program's logic modules into violent conflict.

A dangerous light flashed within her red electronic core.

"Dottore, is this what humans are? He's worth less than scrap parts."

"He's not human. He's an animal." Banner Bro spat. He had crushed the riding crop in his hand to powder.

Jiang Hao drew a deep breath, pressed down the violence surging in his heart, and asked,

"Where's his lair? What are its defenses?"

"The Duke's Mansion is beside the volcanic crater beyond the valley... He uses the earthfire there to cultivate..."

The burly man pointed toward a distant peak where a dim red glow could just be seen.

"There are three hundred private soldiers in the mansion, all able-bodied men pressed into service.

And... and twelve stewards at the Soul Ancestor level, plus a sixty-thousand-year Evil Fire Fierce Tiger the duke keeps..."

"Sixty thousand years?" Banner Bro raised an eyebrow. "Perfect. I've never refined a Soul Beast that powerful."

Jiang Hao nodded and turned to the others. His gaze finally