On Eagle Ravine Mountain, beast after beast knelt on its forelegs toward Ji Hong at the summit, expressing submission.
Ji Hong staggered to his feet and stood atop Eagle Ravine Mountain, looking down over the demons covering its slopes.
Within a ten-mile radius of Eagle Ravine Mountain, Demon Beasts roared without end.
Ji Hong slowly turned and left, returning to his dwelling.
It was a cave dug into the summit.
Inside the cave, he panted heavily, none of the composure he had displayed outside remaining. His eyes were bloodshot as he crouched in a corner, leaning against the wall and tearing handful after handful of fur from his body.
Blood soon covered his entire body.
Wounds torn by his own hands covered him.
Almost imperceptibly, a tear fell from his eye. He raised his head like that and stared at the stone overhead, silent for a long time.
"Whether I'm human or demon..."
"Is for me to decide."
After a long while, Ji Hong's somewhat icy murmur sounded in the quiet cave.
He found another milky-white robe and draped it over himself.
Yet with his ape's build and appearance, it looked incongruous.
The refined Ji Hong of the past... would never return.
Looking at the stone wall before him, Ji Hong gathered energy at his fingertips and carved out a piece of stone as though using a carving knife.
He ground it very thin.
Stroke by stroke, he carved into the stone.
In the end...
It was an extremely complex expression.
Neither quite crying nor quite smiling.
Like a demon from the abyss.
He gouged several holes in the stone and wore it over his face like a mask. By the time he rose, neither joy nor sorrow showed.
Standing at the cave entrance, Ji Hong clasped his hands behind