The days following his first kill were an exercise in restraint.
Lin Feng went about his duties as he always had. Sweeping floors, emptying chamber pots, fetching water from the well at dawn. He kept his head bowed and his eyes downcast, the perfect picture of submission. But inside, everything had changed.
The beast's power pulsed through his body like a second heartbeat. It wasn't much. The corrupted wolf had been weak, barely a step above a normal animal. But it was *his*. Power that he'd earned, that no one could take away.
And gods above, was it intoxicating.
"You're distracted today."
Lin Feng looked up from the floor he was mopping. Elder Sun stood in the doorway of the cultivation hall, his arms folded into his sleeves, watching with those cold, calculating eyes.
"Forgive me, Elder." Lin Feng bent his head again. "I slept poorly."
"The beast's death has unsettled everyone." Sun crossed the room, his footsteps silent despite his age. "Seventeen years I've protected this village. Never once has a divine beast died without my involvement." He stopped directly in front of Lin Feng. "And yet that wolf... something consumed it from within. Drained every drop of essence from its corpse."
Lin Feng's hands tightened on the mop handle. He kept his breathing steady, his expression blank. Years of abuse had taught him how to mask his emotions, how to become invisible.
"Do you know what could do such a thing?" Sun asked.
"No, Elder."
The cultivator studied him for a long moment. Lin Feng felt the weight of that gaze like a physical pressure, searching for cracks in his facade. But he'd spent eighteen years building this mask. It wouldn't break now.
"No," Sun finally agreed. "I don't suppose you would."
He turned and walked away.
Lin Feng waited until the elder's footsteps faded before he allowed himself to breathe again.
---
That night, he returned to the place where he'd killed the wolf.
The body was gone. The villagers had burned it that morning, afraid of contamination. But Lin Feng wasn't interested in the corpse. He was interested in himself.
He sat in the darkness behind the goat pens, cross-legged in the dirt, and turned his attention inward.
The Devourer's Scripture had taught him the basics of the consuming technique, but it had said nothing about what came after. Now, with stolen power flowing through his veins, Lin Feng needed to understand exactly what he'd become.
His meditation was clumsy at first. He'd never cultivated before, never could, so the mental techniques came slowly. But eventually, after hours of patient effort, he found it.
A core.
Not a proper core, not like the golden spheres that cultivators formed at the Foundation stage. This was something darker, something hungry. It sat in the center of his dantian like a black hole, absorbing everything around it.
*The beast core*, Lin Feng realized. *I didn't just consume its power. I consumed its core.*
He probed deeper, fascinated despite himself. The wolf's core had fused with his own empty dantian, filling a void that had existed since birth. Where once there had been nothing, now there was potential.
It wasn't cultivation. It was something else entirely.
And it wanted more.
*Feed me*, the core seemed to whisper. *Grow me. Make me strong.*
Lin Feng opened his eyes.
The hunger that had been a low simmer since the wolf's death roared to life. His mouth watered. His hands shook. Every instinct screamed at him to hunt, to kill, to feed.
He grabbed the sides of his head, forcing the urges down.
*Control yourself. You are not a beast. You are the one who eats beasts.*
It took him nearly an hour to calm the hunger. By the time he could think clearly again, the moon had risen high overhead.
"This is the cost," he murmured to the empty night. "The transformation the ghost spoke of."
Every beast he consumed would leave its mark on his soul. The wolf's hunger was now his own, a permanent addition to his psyche. If he wasn't careful, it would consume him long before he consumed anything else.
Lin Feng stood and brushed the dirt from his trousers.
He would need to be stronger. Faster. He would need to master this power before it mastered him.
And for that, he would need more prey.
---
The next morning brought an opportunity he hadn't expected.
"A caravan?" Wei Chen's voice carried across the cultivation hall, loud with excitement. "From where?"
Elder Sun's response was calmer, but Lin Feng could hear it clearly from where he pretended to sweep near the doorway. "From the Eastern Districts. They're carrying trade goods to the provincial capital, but their route passes through the wastelands. They've hired our village as a waypoint."
"Will there be cultivators? Real ones, not..." Wei Chen trailed off, but Lin Feng could imagine the contemptuous gesture he'd made toward the elder.
"Two guards, both at the Foundation stage." If Sun was offended by the implication, he didn't show it. "And the caravan master is said to have reached Core Formation in his youth, though age has weakened him considerably."
Core Formation. Lin Feng's newly acquired instincts stirred at the words. A Core Formation cultivator was leagues above anything he'd faced, but the hunger didn't care about odds. It only cared about power.
*Not yet*, he told himself firmly. *I can barely control a wolf's essence. A cultivator's power would destroy me.*
But the caravan itself was interesting.
Trade caravans often employed hunters to thin out the beast populations along their routes. If Lin Feng could join them, even as a servant, he'd have access to far more prey than his isolated village could offer.
He filed the thought away for later.
---
The caravan arrived three days later, a procession of wagons and pack animals that seemed impossibly luxurious to Lin Feng's village-bred eyes. Silk banners, iron-bound chests, guards in gleaming armor. It was like something from the stories his mother used to tell.
The entire village turned out to greet them, and Lin Feng used the chaos to observe from the shadows.
The caravan master was exactly as Sun had described: an old man with the bearing of a warrior, diminished but not defeated by time. His guards flanked him constantly, their cultivation bases thrumming with power that Lin Feng could somehow *feel* now. Foundation stage, both of them, their cores bright and golden compared to the dark hunger in his own chest.
But it was the third figure that caught Lin Feng's attention.
She was young, perhaps his age or a year or two older, with features too refined for a common merchant and robes too plain for a noble. She walked behind the caravan master like a shadow, her eyes constantly scanning, assessing.
Eyes that, for one brief moment, locked onto Lin Feng's.
He froze.
The girl tilted her head slightly, as if seeing something that confused her. Then the crowd shifted, breaking their line of sight, and when Lin Feng looked again, she was gone.
*Who was that?*
The question nagged at him as he helped unload supplies from the wagons. He was given the heaviest loads, of course. Crates of preserved meat and barrels of water that would have crushed a normal man. But the wolf's stolen strength made them manageable, and he was careful to pretend effort where none was needed.
*She saw something. Something about me.*
It was a risk. The hunger in his core wasn't visible to normal eyes, but a cultivator might sense it if they looked closely enough. If the girl was a cultivator...
"You're Lin Feng, aren't you?"
He spun, nearly dropping the crate in his arms.
The girl stood behind him, having appeared from nowhere. Up close, she was even more striking. Sharp cheekbones, pale skin, and eyes that held far too much intelligence for someone her age.
"Who's asking?"
"Someone curious." She circled him slowly, studying him the way a buyer studies a horse. "The village elder mentioned a cripple. Shattered meridians, unable to cultivate. He said you were harmless."
"Elder Sun is wise."
"Elder Sun is a fool who couldn't sense a wolf's corpse being drained of essence three hundred yards from his meditation chamber." She stopped directly in front of him, close enough that he could smell the incense clinging to her robes. "What are you, Lin Feng?"
The hunger surged, responding to the challenge in her voice. Lin Feng forced it down.
"A cripple. A servant. Nobody worth your attention."
"Liars usually make eye contact when they speak." She smiled, sharp and knowing. "You haven't looked at me once since I started talking. You're afraid I'll see something."
Lin Feng raised his eyes.
For a long moment, they simply stared at each other. The girl's expression shifted from triumph to confusion to what looked like genuine fear.
"That's... impossible," she whispered. "You have a core. But it's not... it's *wrong*. What kind of technique could—"
"Miss Mei!"
The caravan master's voice cut through the air. The girl, Mei, stepped back, her composure cracking.
"We'll speak again," she said, quietly enough that only Lin Feng could hear. "Tonight. Behind the cultivation hall. Come alone, or don't come at all."
She disappeared into the crowd as quickly as she'd come.
Lin Feng stood there, heart pounding, the crate forgotten in his arms.
The girl knew. Or she suspected, at least. One conversation with Elder Sun and the whole village would turn against him.
He should run. Leave tonight, disappear into the wastelands, take his chances with the beasts.
But the hunger had other ideas.
*She could be useful*, it whispered. *She has knowledge. Connections. Power.*
*And if she turns on me?*
*Then we consume her too.*
Lin Feng shook his head violently, disturbing the dark thoughts. He wasn't a monster. He refused to become one.
But as he carried his load to the storage shed, he couldn't stop thinking about the way Mei had looked at him.
Not with contempt. With *interest*.
---
The meeting spot behind the cultivation hall was empty when Lin Feng arrived that night.
He'd almost convinced himself not to come. The risk was enormous, and a cultivator who knew his secret was a threat he couldn't afford. But something had driven him here anyway. Curiosity, maybe. Or the hunger's influence, pushing him toward confrontation.
He waited in the shadows for nearly an hour before Mei appeared.
She looked different in the moonlight. Younger somehow. The sharp edges of her afternoon persona had softened, and she just looked tired.
"You came," she said.
"You doubted I would?"
"Most people run from things they don't understand." She sat on a fallen log, not bothering to check it for dirt. "I've spent my life chasing forbidden knowledge. I know the signs of a man who's found some."
Lin Feng remained standing, keeping the shadows between them. "What do you want?"
"To understand." Her eyes found his in the darkness. "Your core isn't natural. It's not cultivated qi, it's something older. Something *hungry*. I've read about techniques like this, but I never thought..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Where did you find the scripture?"
The question hit Lin Feng like a fist. "How did you—"
"There are only three texts in existence that teach consumption techniques. One was destroyed a thousand years ago. One is locked in the Jade Emperor's personal vault." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "And one was supposedly lost when its last practitioner died ten thousand years ago. The Devourer's Scripture."
Lin Feng said nothing. His silence was answer enough.
Mei's face went pale. "Gods above. It's real. It actually exists." She stood, taking a step toward him. "Do you have any idea what you've found? The power to consume divine beasts, to steal their essence, to *become* them. It's the only cultivation path that doesn't require the heavens' blessing. It's why the gods fear it."
"The gods abandoned us. They don't care what we do."
"You're wrong." Her voice was intense, urgent. "They watch. They always watch. And when they see someone walking the Devourer's Path..." She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to.
Lin Feng felt cold. "Then I should stop. Before they notice."
"It's too late for that." Mei's eyes held something that looked like pity. "The moment you consumed that wolf, you started a countdown. The heavens will send someone. A champion, a beast, an army. Something to stop you before you grow too strong."
"How long?"
"Months, if you're lucky. Weeks, if you're not." She reached out, stopping just short of touching him. "But there is another option."
"And what's that?"
Mei smiled, and this time, it reached her eyes.
"Grow faster than they can react."
---
Lin Feng stared at the girl who was offering to help him challenge the gods.
"Why?" The word came out rougher than he intended. "You don't know me. You have nothing to gain from this."
"You're wrong about that." Mei's expression hardened into something fierce. "I'm a healer's daughter. My mother practiced forbidden soul medicine, techniques the sects outlawed generations ago. When they found out, they killed her. Killed my father. Would have killed me, if I hadn't run."
Her hands clenched at her sides.
"The cultivation world took everything from me. The gods took even more when they abandoned us." She met his eyes. "If you can make them pay, if you can become strong enough to storm the heavens themselves, then I want to be part of it."
Lin Feng studied her for a long moment. The hunger in his core stirred, sensing opportunity.
*She's useful*, it whispered. *Knowledge. Connections. And if she betrays us...*
*Enough*, he told it firmly. *This is my decision, not yours.*
The hunger subsided, but not entirely. It never did, anymore.
"If I accept your help," Lin Feng said slowly, "you become a target too. The heavens won't distinguish between us."
"I'm already a target. At least this way, I might survive long enough to matter."
He extended his hand.
After a moment's hesitation, she took it.
"Then we have an agreement," Lin Feng said. "Teach me what you know, and I'll share what power I can."
Mei's grip was surprisingly strong for someone so slender.
"Partners, then. Until the heavens fall."
"Until the heavens fall."
Lin Feng didn't know if he believed it. But standing there in the moonlight, with the first ally he'd ever had, he felt something he hadn't felt in years. Something small and fragile that he didn't want to examine too closely.
And behind it, always behind it now, the hunger.
Waiting to be fed.
