'What the hell is that supposed to mean…?' Sensing the hostility in Jun Li's thoughts, the bloody figure of the Immortal drew back slightly. 'You think I care what you want from me? I'm sure you would have preferred it if I killed everyone here and drank their blood or some shit. Not interested…!'

  At Jun Li's sentiment, the Immortal began to laugh gently. "Hahaha! Oh my, I suppose this makes sense…" Bringing a hand to his chin, the Immortal spent a moment in silence. "I can understand where that… concept of my nature comes from…"

  "To so quickly associate blood with matters such as bloodshed, violence, and predation… it is natural, you are so young after all." He spoke lightly, his demeanour so mild and sanguine that even Jun Li felt her tension start to slip. "But no… I have no great love of violence."

  "Blood may be shed, that is acceptable, but for it to be spilled… that is… a dreadful thing indeed." Suddenly, the lightness of his demeanour vanished, and he loomed forward, looking Jun Li in the eye.

  His arms lengthened, drooping until his fingers pressed into the ground like the feet of a cauldron, his shoulders widened, distorting and flattening his torso into a gaunt, inverted triangle, and his head slid forward, distending towards Jun Li's face.

  "Do you understand what I am saying?" No longer resembling a human, the shapeless thing spoke into Jun Li, its voice running through her blood and echoing through her body. "I won't blame you for fighting. It is the nature of this world, the nature of Cultivation."

  "But I have spent a great deal of effort safeguarding the lives of those I come across… To have you so carelessly kill and maim these children with our body spits in the face of my efforts…" The Immortal's distended face looked into Jun Li's frozen eyes.

  Under his gaze, Jun Li's vascular system came undone, every single artery, vein, and capillary tearing itself free from her muscle and bone and curling like a woven mass of dying insects. "Permanently harming another… reduces one's value as a human. Perhaps if you were a mere beast, I could forgive this nature of yours. But I have no such intention."

  "The more carelessly you kill, the more painful my workload will become in the end." Listening to these words, Jun Li's spite boiled over, even as her veins withered and her organs filled with blood, her unmoving gaze bore back into the immortal's inhuman eyes. 'You're saying you'll suffer if I kill more? If that's the case, you couldn't have given me better motivation…!'

  At the searing potency of Jun Li's malice, even the Immortal was taken aback, and slowly relented, drawing back until his form had returned to that of a human.

  "Oh dear." He cast a worried look at Jun Li, covering his mouth with a knuckle. "You really do seem to hate me."

  "Hmm… I'd hate to leave our relationship like this, but we really should move on to more tangible matters. I can't drag out this instant of manifestation forever." Fixing the clothing that was part of his body, the Immortal swept his sleeves out. "The name I am most known by is Tanxueshe."

  "But, perhaps you should call me something more unassuming, something that won't draw Heaven's gaze, even when spoken with intent." Smiling to himself, as if amused by his own thought, the Immortal spoke. "...Call me Junzi."

  At those words, Jun Li's eyebrow would have twitched if she could move. '...Although there's nothing noble or gentlemanly about you.'

  Ignoring the sentiment he could feel from Jun Li, Junzi spoke. "Now that we've been introduced in a proper and courteous manner, let us set aside our misgivings and work together."

  "You may be surprised to hear this, but we have almost entirely the same memories." Junzi opened candidly, attempting to foster an ounce of goodwill between him and Jun Li. "Despite this, we have different origins, different souls, and thus different perceptions and understandings even of our own experiences."

  "My ability to intuit and extrapolate the memories you consider as 'inherited' is far beyond yours…" His eyes narrowed. "Even so… I am certain you have been turning a blind eye to them, our most valuable memories."

  '...' Sensing Jun Li's thoughts slow and dull, he knew he was correct. "Despite your willingness to inflict cruelty on others, you hesitate to turn the knife on yourself…?" He scoffed. "If you pride yourself as a Cultivator, shouldn't you take any advantage available, even if it is vile, dangerous, and painful?"

  '...I'll take whatever advantage I need, whenever I need it.' Jun Li projected empty confidence. "Well, you know that's not how this works. The last time you took an advantage 'when you needed it,' you had to sacrifice the solidity of your foundation. That will take quite some effort to repair."

  After a moment of silence, Junzi shrugged. "Well, no matter. The matter of your foundation isn't too significant, truly. But the ignorance you retain with regard to your own anatomy is just unforgivable."

  "I hope you don't think I've meaningfully harmed you with my gaze earlier." He slowly walked around Jun Li. "Likewise, this won't meaningfully harm you either."

  Raising a hand, Junzi braced one finger against another and gently flicked the air. When he did, a few feet away, the flesh to the left of Jun Li's throat burst open, a chunk of her vascular system tearing free and splattering against the ground, carotid and all.

  Jun Li felt no pain whatsoever. In this moment, only the perception of light and sound was permitted, and only blood moved freely. The pain would come later.

  "I do resent allowing our blood to part so easily, but without at least this much, I feel you wouldn't understand." Even as he spoke, blood poured from Jun Li's throat, immediately dyeing her grey robe red and forming a constant flow that poured down her body.

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  "How best to put this…?" Junzi contemplated for a moment. "...Our blood is more diverse and plentiful than that of others."

  "The breath and blood are the two pillars of human vigor, or so they say. It is a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly." Walking around to Jun Li's front, Junzi slowly stepped away, keeping out of the pooling blood that formed a circle around her body, the volume of spilled blood growing obscene.

  "It could be considered a stroke of mixed luck that we live in this world, defined by the greater Vedic path of Cultivation, possessed of great emphasis on Qi and physicality. It certainly suits our nature well, even if our experience is troublingly incompatible."

  "As for something more mundane like bleeding to death… well, I don't think even I could do that to you. Not that it's in my nature." As he continued to walk away from the spreading border of blood, Junzi's body of blood fell, splashing against the ground like an errant wave, before rising once more into human form. "Oh my. We appear to be running out of time."

  "I will offer a gift, a recommendation and an opening for a question." As he spoke, he quickly strode through the blood, raising it from the ground with a gesture of the hand and grabbing it like a cloth.

  "For a gift, I will offer you a technique I've developed, one that uses Qi over Spiritual Energy, one created to allow you to utilise your blood more actively, rather than just passively..." Balling up the blood in his hand like a thin blanket, he casually began pushing it back into Jun Li's torn throat. "It took a great deal of effort and consultation to develop that technique, so I hope you will accept it."

  "Now, for my recommendation… I would advise against using the blood I am currently occupying for yourself; it's simply an inefficient use of resources. You should refine it using a Cuckoo-Star reduction of an Enveloping-aspected Medicinal Plant, ideally some manner of root or grain, and then give that to your young companion."

  His 'recommendation' would have been unintelligible to anyone but Jun Li, as it relied on the joint understanding they both had regarding the alchemical techniques and methodologies present in their memories.

  "And, because of that… I can engrave my technique into your body only once you've obtained the second drop of Earth Dragon Blood." Bunching up the last of the blood in his hand, Junzi gently pressed it back into Jun Li's throat. Now, even her clothes were spotless, and not a drop of blood could be seen on her body.

  "Now, go ahead and ask a question, I've got just enough time to answer almost anything." Looking at this man, Jun Li felt disarmed. It was as if all her misgivings and malice simply flowed off of him tracelessly, leaving her animosity deflated and her grudges unsatisfied.

  When offered the choice of one question, Jun Li could not ignore the nagging question that had plagued her more heavily with each word that Junzi spoke. "What is… the Banquet? I remember that word very strongly."

  "Ah." He pulled back, with a hand to the back of his head. "Well, that is a bit complicated, but I can give you the abridged version."

  Clearing his throat, he spoke. "The Banquet was the method I used to become Immortal. There, I consumed four billion, two-hundred and thirty-eight million, eight-hundred and fifty-eight thousand, three hundred and five humans."

  "Nobody died, of course. And they all retain their freedom, autonomy and individuality." He smiled casually as if the absurdity of his words was lost on him.

  "It's a pretty good deal, isn't it? I became immortal without killing anyone. In fact, I've effectively made four billion people immortal alongside me. They never even needed to suffer through the wretched bureaucracy and punishments of Diyu."

  "...And where are these people now?" Jun Li spoke slowly, having deep difficulty understanding what Junzi truly meant.

  "Many of them were lost when my soul was broken, but I'm confident I can reclaim them eventually." He paused. "...The rest are here." He made no gesture when he spoke, simply matching Jun Li's gaze.

  "They are in our souls, and our blood, living out their lives rather peacefully." He chuckled, remembering something. "Or… not, actually, there are many who still quite enjoy conflict."

  "Maybe if your soul gets stronger, you'll be able to understand what I mean." Hearing those words, Jun Li was unable to identify Junzi's true nature. Perhaps he was insane? Perhaps there truly were a billion people in their presence, and Jun Li simply could not perceive them.

  Despite him claiming that they possessed the same memories, Jun Li felt that the man before her was a very different being from what she had remembered.

  Junzi's body faltered, sloughing down in viscous lumps, before he pulled himself back together. "It seems our time here is at an end. Thank you for listening to me at the very least, despite the misfortune you've suffered from my association."

  "Now then…" Stepping back, Junzi sat down and adopted a lotus position. Within moments, his body began to crystallise, slowly forming a great chunk of solid blood.

  "I am sorry for how terribly I've derailed your life from its natural course." Speaking his final words here, the crystallisation of the blood that composed his temporary body reached his head, instantly severing any semblance of life or spirit from the blood, reducing it to a mere 'thing.'

  Jun Li was left at a loss. The object of her resentment had spoken so courteously to her that she felt unable to level any further malice towards him, even with the bizarre act of 'consuming four billion humans' that he claimed to have performed.

  He was such an outlandish and inhuman being that Jun Li struggled to rationalise feeling any way towards him.

  And then time resumed.

  A dozen meters away, the body of the mutant beast erupted into a bloodless explosion of gore, the force of its instantaneous exanguination overcoming the flimsy bonds of its flesh and bone, sending its corpse scattering in all directions.

  All around Jun Li, displaced air crashed back into place with a deafening roar, filling the vacuum left by Junzi's movements in the frozen time and tearing Jun Li's body through the air.

  From the gaping wound in her throat, blood sprayed out of Jun Li in volumes that would have killed a normal person instantly, and her vascular system, torn and displaced from Junzi's gaze, screamed in agony as it bled ceaselessly into her muscles and organs.

  Patches of her skin instantly bloomed dark red as bruising took place, and the whites of her eyes turned bright red as she suffered a subconjunctival haemorrhage of the greatest intensity possible.

  Thrown to the ground by the force of the air vacuum closing around her, Jun Li instantly became a horribly contorted mess of bruised, bloody flesh, trembling and convulsing in pain as she let out slow, agonised breaths.

  Were she physically able, Jun Li would have stood up and torn the head off the peacefully sitting statue of blood that now loomed over her. "Fuck… that piece of shit…!"