The Devouring of Light

Jin Xiu wrapped my eye in a silken ribbon, tied it neatly, and hung it from her waist as though it were nothing more than an ornament.
She loved to toy with it—rolling it between her fingers—while watching me dragged across the burning sand.

The task of dragging me fell to Jun Ye, for Gu Yi had gone mad.

He hadn’t lied.
After vomiting a mouthful of blood, Gu Yi’s mind shattered completely.
Sometimes, he would stumble into the stable at night, clutch me and sob like a broken child.
“Qiao Qiao… I wronged you. I wronged you!”
His red eyes glistened with tears as he pressed the willow-leaf dagger to his own neck.
“I hurt you—I’ll give you my life in return!”

Then Jun Ye would appear and lead him away.

The sun was a white blaze in the sky.
Bound beneath the horse, I baked under its wrath.
I had lost too much blood. My lips were cracked, my throat dry, and the sun above me spun until even my shadow broke apart.

Three shadows.
When I shifted my feet, they shifted too.
I giggled softly and tried to step into one—to hide, to cool my body from the heat.
But the shadow danced wherever I moved.

I found myself laughing with my own shadow.
Perhaps this was what madness felt like.

Bai Xi’s voice echoed faintly in my mind.
“Qiao Qiao, do you still refuse to yield? You’ve fallen this far, yet you won’t merge with me?”

I shook my head weakly.

“Bai Xi,” I whispered, “you and I are not the same. I don’t hate Jin Xiu. I don’t hate Qin An. I don’t even hate Gu Yi.
I just want a simple life, to finish this one quietly and, when I’m reborn, avoid you forever.
Even if I’m not a fox next time—if I’m a rat, a cockroach, anything—it’s fine.
At least then, it would be my life to control. Isn’t that enough?”

Bai Xi was silent for a long while.
Finally, she said, “This life, Qiao Qiao, is full of things beyond our control.”

At noon, the heat grew unbearable.
Jin Xiu ordered Jun Ye to move me—only to ensure I’d feel the full force of the sunlight.
The air shimmered. My head spun.
Colors bloomed before my remaining eye—fields of rainbow flowers dancing in the haze.

A white horse burst from the mirage, galloping straight toward me.
It stopped so suddenly that sand spiraled around us like golden smoke.

Was it an illusion?
Or was I dying, hallucinating before my final breath?

A man dismounted and grasped my shoulders.
“Qiao Qiao!”

The voice was so real it hurt.

I tried to rub my eyes to see better, then remembered—I only had one.

He looked me over, trembling with rage. “Who—who did this to you?!”

That voice… Zhao Xiao.
My husband.

Reality snapped back like lightning.
I shoved him away, trembling. “No… I’m not Qiao Qiao…”

“You are!” he cried, pulling me into his arms. “You’re my wife—my Qiao Qiao! How could I not know my own wife?”

The warmth of him—the smell, the heartbeat—dragged me from the edge of death.
Slowly, I raised my arms and embraced him back.
I didn’t speak, but he understood.

He whispered, “Qiao Qiao… I’m taking you home.”

He drew a dagger and began cutting the ropes around my hands and feet.
They were no ordinary ropes, but knife cords, embedded with thin blades.
Some had sunk into the bone.

His hands trembled, tears falling onto my wounds.
“Don’t be afraid. When we get home, I’ll find you a whole field of Zhenyu grass. It’ll heal everything—no scars, I promise.”

I nodded faintly.

Then—

A ragged voice screamed behind us, “Let her go! Let her go!”

Gu Yi.
He was thinner now, his skin yellow and stretched tight, eyes wild and bloodshot.
He lunged at Zhao Xiao like a mad dog.
“She’s mine—mine—!”

Zhao Xiao slammed him aside.
Gu Yi fell to the ground, howling. “Qiao Qiao! My head—my head hurts!”
He clutched his skull and writhed in the dust.

By then, the rope had come loose.
Zhao Xiao lifted me into his arms, climbed onto the horse, and looked back.

“What about him?” he asked softly. “Do you want me to kill him?”

I glanced at Gu Yi—mad, broken, bleeding—and felt… nothing.
“No,” I said. “Let’s go. I don’t want to see him again.”

A-Bao popped out of my sleeve, jumped onto Gu Yi’s shoulder, and waved a tiny paw at me.
It wouldn’t leave him. I understood.

Zhao Xiao whipped the reins.
But before the horse could move, a voice rasped behind us:

“Where do you think you’re taking our slave, stranger?”

Jun Ye.

We turned.
He stood in the sun, his pale eyes glinting.

Zhao Xiao spurred the horse, but the animal froze.
Its muscles quivered, then—its head rolled cleanly from its neck.

From the dunes, Jin Xiu appeared—serene, smiling.
“So, you were planning to leave?”

A chill shot down my spine. I threw myself in front of Zhao Xiao. “Run!”

He shook his head and held my hand tight.
“Where you are, I stay.”

Jin Xiu clapped softly.
“How touching—such love, such loyalty. Then I suppose I don’t mind adding one more body to the dragging.”

“No!”

I collapsed before her, kowtowing until my forehead split.
“I beg you—let him go. Do whatever you want to me, I’ll never resist again. Take my right eye too if you must—just let him live!”

Jin Xiu laughed, kicked me down, and ground her heel into my face.
“What I take,” she hissed, “I don’t need permission for.”

Zhao Xiao’s eyes turned red.
He was only a mortal man, but mortals bleed for those they love.
He charged, dagger in hand.

A flash of steel.
The world spun.

Zhao Xiao’s head hit the ground with a dull thud.
His body—still running—crashed forward and fell beside me.

His eyes were still open when I looked down at him.
And behind him, Jun Ye calmly wiped his blade.

Jin Xiu’s lips curled. “I didn’t tell you to kill him.”

Jun Ye knelt. “Princess, I will not allow anyone to harm you.”

Her voice turned cold. “And yet, when Bai Xi humiliated me, where were you?”

He lowered his head, shame flooding his face. “Forgive me, Princess… I was in seclusion…”

Dead.
Zhao Xiao was dead.

It took a long while for my mind to accept what my eye could see.
His head lay beside me.
I wanted to hold it, cradle it to my chest—but Jin Xiu’s boot pinned my hand to the ground.

“So,” she sneered, “you wish to die together?”

Then she called out, “Jun Ye.”

He lifted his foot and crushed Zhao Xiao’s skull.

Wind roared through the dunes, carrying the taste of blood.

And in that howling emptiness, I heard Bai Xi’s voice again.

“Qiao Qiao, I told you—there are many things in this world beyond our control.
If you’d accepted that sooner, you would’ve suffered less.”

Yes.
Beyond my control.

All I had wanted was to live as a normal being.
But I couldn’t even have that.

Then fine.
If heaven betrayed me, I would betray heaven.

“Bai Xi,” I whispered, “I want to merge.”

Her voice was soft. “Good.”

“Help me kill them. Leave no one alive.”

“As you wish.”

A storm of yellow sand swept across the sky.
Dark clouds gathered over the endless desert.

Beneath Jin Xiu’s feet, my body began to burn—hot as molten iron.
She stepped back, startled, as golden light poured from my wounds. Flesh knitted. Skin shone.
In moments, every mark, every scar was gone.

“What… what’s happening?” she gasped.

Jun Ye moved before her, his brown eyes glowing faint red as he growled like a beast.

And I was somewhere else.

The heat vanished. My body lightened.
I lay on a soft carpet of blue gentian grass that stretched to the horizon.

Bai Xi stood before me.
“You finally agreed to merge.”

I closed my eyes, listening to the wind.
“Is this… Mount Xuhe?”

“Yes. I know you’ve longed to return, so I made it for you. You’ll stay here now.”

She lay down beside me and smiled with her eyes closed.

After a while, I asked quietly, “Bai Xi… how does this merging work?”

“Simple.”
She sat up suddenly, straddled me, and whispered against my ear.
“I eat you.”

Her teeth sank into my shoulder.

Warm blood spread across my skin—yet there was no pain.

Of course.
I was nourishment.
To merge was to be devoured.

Bai Xi wiped her lips, smiling. “Do you understand now?”

Slowly, I nodded and lifted my gaze toward the horizon.

“So, if you devour someone,” I asked, “you gain their power?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Good.”

“In that case… why should you devour me—and not the other way around?”

She met my eyes, still smiling.

And then I understood.

I lunged.
We fell into the grass. I pinned her down and pressed my hand to her throat.
She didn’t struggle. Her dark eyes remained calm, unreadable.

My hand trembled as I lowered my face to her neck—and bit.

Hot, living blood filled my mouth, flowed down my throat like fire.
Strength surged through my body—wild, uncontrollable, divine.

It wasn’t enough.

I bit again.
Give it to me. All of it.

Bai Xi smiled faintly, her voice soft as a sigh.
“All right… it’s all yours.”

A breeze swept over the mountain.
The blue gentian flowers swayed like waves.

And when the wind passed, nothing remained—
save for a patch of grass stained crimson.

Bai Xi…
I whispered her name softly.
Thank you.