The King's Mate - Part 2: Yaoshi

Chapter 12

Happy New Year!! 🎆🎉🥳🥂🎇
I thought it'd be nice to start the new year off with an extra chapter for good luck or something so here you go 😁😁

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The forest was quite a distance away from the city indeed, and while the outskirts faded into a barren wasteland with only sporadic buildings scattered across the landscape, it was almost like there was a visible border between the part of the outskirts that was still inhabited by intelligent creatures, and the outermost areas. Including the occasional building well outside the city borders, these last few rows of houses seemed to be rundown shells with no demons actually owning them.

Hua Cheng had only been standing here for a few moments, and he had already seen some wildlife slithering in and out of several of these buildings with no regard for the privacy of potential inhabitants. Not that it would be tolerable for anybody to live in these derelict ruins. Some of them didn't even have a roof anymore.

If he was honest, there weren't many things that could make Hua Cheng feel uneasy. However, when he saw some startlingly humanoid creature darting out from the bushes to run towards one of these abandoned buildings, even Hua Cheng felt a bit disconcerted. After all, this creature had moved incredibly fast, and on all fours, with its elbows and knees jutting out towards the side. He hadn't gotten a good look at that thing's face, but he was sure he'd seen an incredibly long tongue out of its mouth, which also had entirely too many teeth.

In retrospect, Hua Cheng felt like he was rather lucky that this thing didn't seem to be interested in him at all. He didn't doubt he would have been able to take it on when it came to a fight, but he truly didn't want to look at it longer than was absolutely necessary. He couldn't tell which animal that thing was supposed to represent anyway, and he'd rather forget he ever saw it to begin with.

Thus, he simply turned around, and made his way into the forest. Though the hunt didn't quite go as planned.

After all, his objective was to sustain himself on animal meat, instead of humans. However, behind almost every rustle that Hua Cheng decided to investigate was some sort of demon; either hiding, and scurrying off the moment Hua Cheng spotted it, or they were sleeping underneath some bushes, making them rustle every time a limb twitched.

Apparently, this forest was infested more with demons than with actual animals, and after having found so many of these creatures, Hua Cheng didn't expect to find any animals around here at all.

Still, there was nothing to be done about the issue, and so he just kept trying to hunt, no matter how annoyed he got.

Luckily, after having spent several hours in the forest already, he did indeed manage to find some real animals.

Hua Cheng had of course taken his trusty scimitar with him, for the sake of quick success. He hadn't expected his instincts would become so overwhelming that he'd end up using his claws to kill some game. It was a bloody mess, and once Hua Cheng had eaten his fill, he couldn't help but feel disgusted with himself. After all, meat was something that should be cooked or fried or smoked, or whatever. And he'd just eaten it raw, like some uncivilised, vulgar trash.

Not only his face, but also his hands and forearms were covered in blood and... stuff. It was vile. In fact, he felt so disgusted with himself, that he couldn't help but gag and heave for a few moments, until his stomach finally settled.

At least animal meat had done the trick, and his hunger was gone. He only hoped that it would stay this way, and that he wouldn't have to fall back on human meat after all at some point. Hua Cheng didn't even want to think of such a notion however, and got his dice out. The portal once again opened with no issues at all, so Hua Cheng just picked up the dice and walked through it, straight into his bathroom, where he cleaned himself up thoroughly.