The Price of Cruelty and a New Underworld

“You lunatic…” Bai Chen ground out the words.

“Heheheh…” Yingluo’s laughter spilled forth, her hand covering her face, a boundless smile glinting through her fingers. “A lunatic, you call me a lunatic?” she purred. “It doesn’t matter what you say. Call me a lunatic, call me a pervert—I don’t care. But now, you must make your choice…”

“Yingluo, haven’t you tormented me enough?”

A sharp hiss escaped her lips.

“Ugh! N-no! Nooo!”

The young woman suddenly convulsed, indistinct whimpers tearing from her throat. A deep gash abruptly appeared on her pale arm.

Moments later, the flesh peeled back, exposing raw tissue as blood welled forth in crimson rivulets. She stared at the bone-deep wound on her own arm, a mournful cry escaping her lips.

The searing pain from the injury screamed through her nerves, only to swiftly give way to a chilling numbness as the wound’s sheer size overwhelmed her senses. Yet, even that dull ache faded.

Within two seconds of witnessing the horrific damage, the young woman’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed into unconsciousness.

“Yingluo, this is going too far!”

“Not at all,” Yingluo countered, a chilling lilt to her voice. “This arm of hers, it must have linked with yours, correct? So, tell me, which would be better: for you to sever the arm that she clung to, or for me to sever *her* arm that clung to yours?”

“……………….”

Bai Chen silently withdrew a gleaming, sharp dagger from his pocket. An ordinary blade would never suffice for such a task, but this was a Swiss Army knife—its keen edge promised efficiency. Even if a single strike proved insufficient, multiple blows would surely achieve the desired result.

His lips were pressed into a thin line, and a bead of cold sweat traced a path down his temple. While Bai Chen was not one to flinch from brutality, the thought of severing his own arm undeniably brought a wave of profound hesitation.

A sickening *crunch* echoed.

With that single, desperate strike, blood instantly surged forth. Bai Chen stifled a pained groan; the arm, predictably, did not sever.

‘It won’t sever,’ he thought, ‘not in one go. Perhaps five cuts will be needed…’

He flicked a glance at Yingluo from the corner of his eye. She remained motionless, her gaze fixed entirely on him. Noticing his palpable hesitation, Yingluo finally spoke.

“If you don’t hurry,” Yingluo purred, “this young woman will bleed to death from this wound, even if you don’t sever her arm entirely…”

A triumphant smile, a cruel twist of her lips, played across Yingluo’s face. Bai Chen felt his breath catch in his throat, utterly choked with fury. ‘How dare she treat human lives with such utter disdain!’

His mind, clouded by an overwhelming rage, began to swim. An inexplicable, potent aura surged within him, spreading uncontrollably from a profound core deep inside. It coursed through his entire being, eventually suffusing his very consciousness.

Around him, only an impenetrable chaos remained.

****

A soft groan escaped his lips.

He awoke once more, finding himself in the vast expanse of his own bed. A servant, who had just opened the door, gasped upon seeing Bai Chen stir, then hurried downstairs.

“Madam, the young master is awake!”

A sense of bewilderment washed over Bai Chen as he observed the growing crowd around him, the room suddenly filled with a cacophony of voices. He blinked hard, trying to clear the lingering haze from his mind.

His head still felt heavy, his thoughts sluggish. “What happened?” he managed to ask.

“Ah, young master, you wouldn’t believe it,” the servant exclaimed, “that day you were found covered in blood, collapsed right at our doorstep! It truly terrified me…”

“That’s enough,” an elegant woman interjected, cutting off the servant’s rambling. “What matters is that he’s returned…”

After several days of recuperation at home, Bai Chen returned to school. Yet, the events of that fateful day remained a complete blank in his memory.

He had intended to confront Yingluo, but her usual seat in class remained conspicuously empty. ‘What exactly happened that day…?’ he wondered, a persistent unease gnawing at him.

Yingluo’s body was still profoundly weak, though she could now move. She found herself unable to reconcile the events of that day. Bai Chen had transformed, as if possessed by an entirely different entity.

He had utterly dismissed her threats concerning the young woman, seemingly seeing through her entire ploy. His attacks had been unavoidable, defying all conventional understanding—a surge of power that, at first glance, resembled pure magic.

Even with this formidable display, Yingluo remained wary of his true identity, yet she yearned for further confirmation. Naturally, she wouldn’t seek it out herself; another encounter like that would surely lead to her demise. ‘No, absolutely not,’ she thought. ‘If I die, how will I ever claim Bai Chen?’

The sudden appearance of the flamboyant, ‘shamate’ youth and his swift defeat had all unfolded within Yingluo’s predictions. After all, this was Bai Chen they were talking about.

However, she hadn’t witnessed him employ that extraordinary ability. ‘Was his opponent simply too weak?’ she mused. ‘It seems I’ll need to find a far more formidable adversary next time.’

As she was deep in thought, a peculiar sound suddenly reached her ears. Yingluo craned her neck to look, and froze instantly.

Before her hovered a colossal black hole. The formidable, unassailable Bai Chen, whom everyone perceived as absolute, appeared utterly minuscule in its presence.

Yingluo watched, mesmerized, as Bai Chen’s form gradually dissolved into the swirling abyss. It wasn’t until the black hole was on the verge of vanishing that a sudden realization struck her.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she plunged into the void just before it winked out of existence.

****

A soft groan escaped her lips.

The blinding sunlight immediately assaulted Yingluo’s eyes, forcing her to squint. She surveyed the alien landscape around her. ‘This is… a wasteland?’

The desolate, lifeless environment stirred a flicker of panic within Yingluo. She scrambled to her feet, her eyes darting frantically in every direction. “A-Chen… A-Chen, are you here?”

……………….

Only the vast, empty sky echoed her desperate cries. Unwilling to concede defeat, she called out his name countless times more.

“Hm?” A sudden, sharp *shush* filled the air.

Her blade was still at her side. Years of relentless practice had honed Yingluo’s instincts to a razor’s edge. The instant she sensed an anomaly behind her, she executed a flawless sequence: drawing her sword, spinning, and thrusting—all in a single, fluid motion.

The gleaming blade now rested perilously against the neck of a man dressed entirely in black. His build was moderate, yet his presence felt strikingly out of place amidst the ruins. A voice, muffled by a black mask, suddenly emanated from him.

“Quite the agile young lady, aren’t you?”

“Do not call me ‘young lady’,” Yingluo retorted, her voice sharp. “I have a name. I am Yingluo.” With a subtle, menacing shift, she pressed the blade an inch deeper.

“Ah… Yingluo. A fine name indeed.” The man’s eyes abruptly flared with a vibrant purple hue.

Yingluo was instantly assailed by a wave of intense dizziness, her entire body growing weak, her limbs turning to jelly. Just before she could collapse, she plunged her sword into the ground, using it to brace herself.

She shook her head vigorously, and slowly, the dizzy spell began to recede. Her eyes, now blazing with fury, locked onto the man.

“What… what did you just do?”

The man registered a palpable shock. ‘She wasn’t affected by my Dizziness Art? How is that possible…?’

He gazed at the young woman before him, who possessed almost no discernible internal energy. ‘How could she have evaded my technique?’

Sweeping his own internal energy across Yingluo, he finally understood. ‘Ah, so that’s it… What an exceptional physique. A body many would kill for…’

“Hey! What are you laughing at?” Yingluo snapped, intensely uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze, especially with that cryptic smile still playing on his lips.

“Nothing at all. My name is Sha Yue,” he replied smoothly. “Tell me… would you be willing to join the Underworld?”

“The Underworld? You mean like the criminal syndicate?”

“Criminal syndicate?” Sha Yue echoed, a hint of curiosity in his tone.

“Well, they’re synonyms, aren’t they? So, yes, that must be it. And it sounds rather… cool.”

She considered her predicament: stranded in this unfamiliar place with no allies, and Bai Chen nowhere to be found. The Underworld, with its vast network and far-reaching influence, might prove an invaluable resource in her search. A faint smile touched Yingluo’s lips.

“Alright then~” Yingluo declared, sheathing her sword with a decisive flourish.

‘A-Chen…’ she mused, a chilling glint in her eyes. ‘You cannot escape me. I will find you, sever your limbs, and keep you by my side forever…’