The Yong Kingdom was a long-established power. In its heyday, it once ventured north to contend with the Jing Kingdom. Alas, it ultimately failed and was forced to retreat.

The heroic ruler who led the Yong Kingdom to its zenith tragically perished in battle on Jing soil. This directly led to the kingdom’s decline.

This heroic ruler of Yong Kingdom was in his prime when he personally led the campaign. Although he had named a crown prince in advance, he had not delegated much power.

Therefore, an even more dire event occurred.

He fell on the battlefield, and then the crown prince met his demise in the Eastern Palace.

Immediately following this was the “Three Princes’ Rebellion.” The entire nation was plunged into disarray, with the three princes each occupying a territory and warring against one another. During this chaos, Zhuang Chengqian, the southern frontier general, seized the opportunity to carve out his own domain, establishing the Zhuang Kingdom in the Qichang Mountains.

The Yong Kingdom should have been a behemoth, encompassing the Qichang Mountains and the three thousand *li* of land belonging to the Zhuang Kingdom. Given enough time to unify the northwest of the Western Regions, it could have once again contended with the great powers of the world.

Regrettably, due to the Three Princes’ Rebellion and Zhuang Chengqian’s betrayal, this grand ambition was destroyed.

Later, the Three Princes’ Rebellion subsided, and the Yong Kingdom was once again unified. However, due to unfavorable international circumstances, it was never able to reclaim the lands of the Zhuang Kingdom.

Times have changed, and the Yong Kingdom is no longer what it once was. However, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. It still retains a degree of prestige in the northwest of the Western Regions.

Now, the Zhuang Kingdom has been established for over three hundred years. Its foundation is secure, and its lands are difficult to change.

Aside from occasionally provoking some border incidents, the Yong Kingdom can mostly only watch helplessly. After all, neither the Jing Kingdom, which the Zhuang Kingdom leaned on heavily, nor the Jing Kingdom, which interrupted Yong Kingdom’s ambitions, would want to see a hegemonic Yong Kingdom emerge.

***

Lingbei Prefecture, Canglin County, a small, picturesque mountain.

A group of talented disciples from the Azure Flame Sword Sect were resting here.

The senior disciple, Situ Jian, was recounting *jianghu* “secrets,” speaking with great eloquence and a flair for the dramatic.

“Do you know what a… Human Fiend is?”

His junior brothers and sisters listened with rapt attention.

Situ Jian cast a sidelong glance at the prettiest junior sister, noticing the paleness of her face and the mixture of fear and anticipation in her eyes. This spurred him on even more.

“Look at the character for ‘Fiend’ (*魔*).”

Situ Jian drew his sword and carved the character into the earth with smooth and refined movements. His voice was low and resonant.

“It is ‘ghost wearing hemp,’ which is a ghost that takes lives! And a Fiend amongst men is even more wicked and depraved, a ghost amongst ghosts!”

“Speaking of the Nine Great Human Fiends…”

Situ Jian paused in his narration, then asked, “Do you know who the Ninth Human Fiend is?”

“I know!” The junior sister said timidly, “The Heart-Swallowing Fiend, Xiong Wen, was killed by Zhu Weiwo.”

Situ Jian frowned. As a Yong Kingdom cultivator, he naturally harbored no affection for Zhu Weiwo, a Zhuang Kingdom prodigy whose reputation had even spread to the Yong Kingdom. But he couldn’t really call it disapproval, and it wasn’t his place to be unconvinced.

“Xiong Wen is nothing,” Situ Jian scoffed. “He doesn’t deserve the title at all!”

The junior sister fidgeted with the hem of her dress. “But I heard… he eats hearts…”

The words “eats hearts” caused all the junior brothers and sisters present, who had rarely seen blood, to become nervous.

“He wasn’t evil enough, nor strong enough. His death at the hands of Zhu Weiwo is nothing to speak of.” Situ Jian said casually, then changed the subject. “The Ninth Human Fiend I’m talking about isn’t him, but… the Heart-Hating Fiend!”

“Heart-Hating Fiend?” A junior brother couldn’t help but ask, “Does he eat hearts too?”

Situ Jian glared at him in displeasure. How boorish. As the senior disciple of the Azure Flame Sword Sect, how could he have the time to answer the questions of a mere man? He ought to wait for the junior sisters to ask!

But the question had already been asked, and the junior sisters were now looking at him expectantly.

Favoritism was only right, but he shouldn’t be too obvious about it.

Situ Jian reluctantly replied, “He doesn’t eat hearts.”

“But!” Situ Jian changed his tone. “He first asks a person a question, then digs out their heart to judge whether the answer is true or false. In a way, he’s much more wicked than Xiong Wen. Because Xiong Wen loves to eat hearts, killing and extracting a heart is at least somewhat rational. The Heart-Hating Fiend, however, simply wants to torture people.”

The junior brothers and sisters all gasped, trembling at the thought of such a terrible being.

Situ Jian subtly moved closer to the junior sister, pleased with their inexperienced trepidation. This was the effect he wanted. But a glance from the corner of his eye suddenly revealed that one person hadn’t moved at all.

Who was so fearless?

Situ Jian glanced over casually, only to be jolted with surprise.

He didn’t recognize this person at all!

An unknown person had appeared among the junior brothers and sisters who were sitting on the ground listening to the story, and he hadn’t noticed!

Furthermore, before he noticed this person, none of the shivering junior brothers and sisters had noticed either.

“Who are you?!” Situ Jian tightened his grip on his longsword and shouted sharply.

“Don’t be nervous, keep telling the story,” the person said.

“I asked you who you are!” Situ Jian yelled.

How could he not be nervous? Sword *qi* erupted from his longsword, and the sect’s secret sword techniques were activated from within. But none of this gave him any confidence.

The junior brothers and sisters stood up behind him, tense and confused, but full of youthful vigor, drawing their swords to stand against the intruder… But this still couldn’t give him courage.

He tried to see the person’s face clearly. The person’s face was clearly visible, but he kept ignoring all other details, only seeing those blood-red eyes!

“Who am I?”

The person with the blood-red eyes seemed to be asking himself.

But he quickly found the answer, revealing eight even teeth as he smiled, “Weren’t you just talking about me?”

*Clang!*

The smile had a ferocious, bloody aura.

Behind him, someone was so frightened that they dropped their sword, which fell to the ground.

“Don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous, it’s nothing much.”

The Heart-Hating Fiend seemed to be comforting them, but as he slowly stood up, everyone’s fear reached a breaking point.

“Die, Human Fiend!”

A junior brother thrust his sword forward.

The longsword shot forward, like a blue flame igniting, the sword tip being the flame’s point.

Situ Jian didn’t know why, but his mind seemed to clear at this moment, free from fear and tension. He even had the leisure to judge his junior brother’s sword style.

This sword was called “Farewell for Ten *Li*.”

His master said that when practiced to a high level, the azure flame would burn for ten *li*.

The junior brother’s stance was very good, but his angle wasn’t skilled enough. If it were him…

As Situ Jian’s mind wandered involuntarily, he saw a hand suddenly appear in his vision, directly crushing his junior brother’s head.

Red and white matter splattered, some of it even landing on his face. It was warm.

Next, he seemed to hear screams, but they weren’t very clear.

He wasn’t sure if the lovely junior sisters had screamed, or if the brave junior brothers had cursed.

Only one sentence would he probably never forget –

“I want to ask you a question.”

It seemed that the person with the blood-red eyes had asked this, “Am I trash?”

Situ Jian felt very confused.

That should have been the Heart-Hating Fiend’s question, but… who was he asking?