The sludge-like darkness swiftly receded back into Huang Ying's body, leaving behind not even a single drop of blood. Huang Ying's gaze remained still and chilly as he went over Langye's memories, the wind in the small clearing tossing and turning somewhat chaotically. His gaze turned leftward, deeper into the forest, once he finished sifting through all the memories.

"Just three hours ago, huh? Li Jun, you should be able to find them, take me to them."

Huang Ying pat Hei Ya and Hong Yi on the head and started walking without even waiting for a response from Li Jun. It had only been three hours since the group was last here to make sure that Langye was still bleeding properly, they couldn't have gotten far with their speed.

Huang Ying's thoughts were quickly proven correct, Li Jun guiding them to the first tracks shortly after leaving the clearing, just as the sun was starting to set. Once they found the tracks, they didn't even really need Li Jun to guide them any longer. Hei Ya was easily able to pick up the scent of those that had left the tracks, his gaze growing sharper as he quickly started to maneuver through the forest and uncovering more tracks. With Hei Ya tracking them by scent and Li Jun searching with whatever means he used, it didn't take long for Huang Ying to get so close to the culprits that he could already hear them talking.

"Has Senior Sister Moyun sent out any more news on how we should proceed? If we dilly dally too much and allow Xing Dong to put his plan into motion first then we'll be at quite the disadvantage."

"Nothing much, she says we just have to keep hanging up more pieces of bait for now, draw out some more of the beasts to clear the path. I think we might have to hang up a few more pieces close to that woman in the south, the other directions should have enough for now. And even if they don't, the other groups can handle it, stop throwing so much shit on us."

Huang Ying would be able to recognize the voice of the first speaker even if he hadn't devoured Langye's memories, it belonged to the male youth from the Burning Cloud faction that stopped Huang Ying when he first wanted to enter his cabin. The other voice belonged to a female youth he had seen but didn't know the name of.

He did, however, know who the two were talking about, they were talking about the two students who led the first-years of each faction. It was the actions of these two factions that resulted in Langye's demise, their need for 'bait' to carry out their plans, their arrogant belief that all who enter the academy should follow and obey them. Huang Ying tapped Hong Yi and Hei Ya on the head, casually walking towards the voices.

"Come, you two must be getting hungry."

Hei Ya and Hong Yi seemed somewhat uneasy as they moved forward, but they couldn't afford to lag behind, not with Huang Ying walking casually in front of them. Huang Ying walked forward and crossed the last few meters between him and the voices, passing through a dense portion of the forest that had been hiding a man-made clearing that was about 500 meters in diameter.

The people that had been talking were sitting around a campfire and roasting pieces of meat that still had some scales or feathers attached to them. The group consisted of 15 people and they had surrounded the campfire and the overturned logs they were sitting on with a light brown powder. Langye had some memories about powder like this, it was the dried feces of strong Demonic beasts and it would deter weaker Demonic beasts from getting close.

Huang Ying's casual entrance immediately caught the attention of the 15 people, who swiftly stood up and placed their hands on their weapons with wary looks. The round-faced and freckled male youth who stopped Huang Ying when he entered his cabin was also the first one to recognize him, his eyes opening wide as the corners of his lips started to arch up.

"It's you?! How great, wonderful! We were just thinking about hanging up some more bait and then you come walking along! Senior Sister, we should take him and hang him up right by that bi...!"

The youth turned to the woman he had been talking to, the leader of this group, but his expression turned pale as paper and his voice was cut short when he saw her. The blonde-haired and blue-eyed beauty who always wore a dignified expression was currently clutching at her throat with a panicked and horrified expression, blood gushing out from between her fingers.

The woman had reached the 6th Mortal Step, the strongest one in the group, but from the looks of it, she was unable to withstand a single attack. Even worse, none of them had seen what sort of attack Huang Ying had launched. Huang Ying's gaze had never even landed on the round-faced man as he spoke, his disdainful and cold gaze was focused right on the woman clutching her throat.

"You're a woman yourself and yet you allowed these dogs of yours to defile Langye like that? Pathetic and tiny, that's all that you lot are. I was wrong when I called you all guppies, you are less than even that. Maybe Song Yi was right, this world is stagnating and rotting, otherwise, there is no way that people like you would be around."

The things Huang Ying had seen in Langye's memories reminded him of what he had seen the bandits do to the villagers after they capture them, it was depraved and vile. The blonde-haired woman didn't have the chance to respond, collapsing to the ground while continuing to clutch at her bleeding throat.

Huang Ying wasn't facing Demonic beasts this time, he was facing humans and their squishy bodies. Demonic beasts might not be too affected by Huang Ying trying to use his elements against them, but a single blade of wind was more than capable of slicing the throat of these people. But he didn't kill them all right away despite knowing that he could. Right now he was far angrier than he showed, and he wanted to give vent to all that anger. He reached down with his left arm and pat Hei Ya on the head, pointing at the blonde-haired woman.

"Go."

The black wolf couldn't help but glance at the 14 people standing beside the woman, who had yet to die from blood loss. He cast a glance at Huang Ying, and seeing his assuring expression decided to walk forward, Hong Yi excitedly hopping around on top of his head. The round-faced man quickly understood what Huang Ying was planning, taking a step forward with a strong stance.

"Stop! How dare y...AHHH!"

His voice twisted into a horrified scream before he got to finish his sentence, the earth beneath his feet had moved to the side for a short moment so that his feet fell into the hole. The hole then closed up on his feet again, a crunching sound coming from the earth as both his feet were completely shattered. Even worse was that it hadn't just happened to him, the other 13 people still remaining had also gotten their feet crushed, all of them falling face-first onto the ground as a result. Huang Ying started to walk forward after the remaining 14 people lost their ability to walk, looking down at every single one of them.

"You couldn't even react to that? I've killed Demonic beasts weaker than you that were able to react faster than you are. Look at the lot of you, you pathetic Burning Cloud people. You take such great pride in that you managed to enter the academy through your own strength, but you still squirm around and hide behind others. You don't dare go for those stronger than you and instead try to go for those close to them, you only attack others while you outnumber them. You're pathetic, every last one of you. You, your Burning Cloud faction, the pathetic Silver Cloud faction that you consider your rivals, worthless and pathetic the whole lot of you. I couldn't be bothered with you at first, but since you've taken it this far then there's no point in keeping you or your pathetic factions around."

Huang Ying's words were vicious and sharp, his gaze devoid of even a shred of mercy. By the time he finished his words, Hei Ya had reached the blonde-haired woman, who wore a despairing expression while still clutching her throat in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Hei Ya cast one last look at Huang Ying before opening his maw and biting down on the woman's face, sinking his teeth as deeply into her head as he could.

Hong Yi also hopped down from his head and landed on the woman, pecking at the woman's neck with her sharp beak. They were both Demonic beasts, even the most harmless-looking one of them was born to devour flesh. While Hei Ya and Hong Yi started eating away the woman, Huang Ying pointed at the 11 men in the group of 14.

"You don't deserve those things."

The earth beneath the men started to rumble as Huang Ying finished his words, earthen pillars as thick as a fist rapidly rising up. The pillars smashed directly into the crotches of the 11 people, eliciting shrill screeches from some of them while others vomited or outright fainted from the pain. The men were too busy resisting the pain, so this time it was one of the remaining women that spoke up, her words quickly cut off by Huang Ying.

"This... This is too cruel, how can a man be capable of some..."

"Too cruel? Did you think that when they were taking turns on her? When they nailed her to the tree or covered her in cuts to ensure that she bled? And let me tell you, I've seen what humans are capable of, both the good and the bad, we are capable of far more than just this."

He walked over to the woman and kicked her face after he finished talking, shattering her lower jaw so that she wouldn't be able to keep talking. His law of devouring had allowed him to see the memories of quite a few people, he knew just how deep the ocean of depravity was.

Huang Ying's gaze then started to move between the three women in the group, the index finger on his right hand flicking upwards. The three women then felt the earth beneath their abdomens rise up, a sharp earthen spike rising up and stabbing into their flesh. Huang Ying was far from how he was when he first entered the academy, he had properly entered the 6th Mortal Step and had thus greatly increased his control over his elements.

The earthen spike stabbed into the abdomen of the three women, but they didn't grow so large that they fully pierced through their bodies. They started to splinter off after entering the flesh of the women, spreading out like roots and branches as they dug their way through the women's bodies. The women squirmed and twisted in pain but were unable to even grunt or scream, the earthen spikes had already pierced into their lungs and robbed them of their breath. Huang Ying simply turned his gaze away after a short moment, using his chin to gesture at the women while speaking.

"These next."

Hei Ya and Hong Yi both raised their heads when Huang Ying spoke, blood dripping from their faces. Hong Yi hopped over to Hei Ya, who lowered his body slightly so that she could jump onto his back, the two then left the chewed up corpse of the blonde-woman and headed over to the three other women. Huang Ying stepped away from the women and started walking towards the round-faced youth, who managed to squeeze out a few words from behind his grit teeth.

"No... This... We don't... We don't deserve... This is cruel... This shouldn't... Shouldn't have...."

His words were somewhat disjointed and his gaze was flickering all around, it seemed like the reality of the situation had caught up with him and the fear and panic was starting to tear at his mind. Huang Ying crouched down in front of the youth and grabbed onto his hair to raise his head slightly.

"Don't deserve this? This shouldn't have happened? You know, I think people are a lot like mountains, with the things they hold dear serving as the pieces of the foundation and base. With each piece removed, the mountain becomes a bit more unstable and has the risk of collapsing with a loud crash. I have exceptionally few of these pieces so each one is treasured greatly. You have torn away one such piece, so you really don't have the right to complain now that the mountain is collapsing down on you."

The round-faced youth was forced to look straight at Huang Ying while he spoke, his face turning pale from fright when he looked at Huang Ying's eyes. Both his pupils had shrunk a little, two extra crimson pupils appearing in each eye, floating around aimlessly as they seemed to grin at the world in front of them. The youth opened his mouth in a stuttering manner, but all his words caught in his throat, his soul nearly leaving his body. And before he managed to build up the courage to say anything, Huang Ying drew his finger across the youth's throat and continued talking.

"Did you know that you actually have to be surprisingly careful when you cut someone's throat? The cut has to be nice and shallow, that way it only cuts the artery and causes the person to bleed out. The process is surprisingly painless, the loss of blood quickly causes you to lose all sensation. If you accidentally use too much force and cut too deep then you pierce the person's airways and suddenly they're not bleeding to death but suffocating instead, a process that is far more painful."

Huang Ying drew his finger across the youth's throat a few times as he talked, a small blade of wind appearing at his finger deep and cutting a bit deeper each time. When his finger traced the youth's throat for the fifth time, a soft sucking sound was heard and the youth's airway was cut open, his mouth opening even wider as he instinctively tried to suck in air.

But it was already too late, his death was set in stone. Huang Ying let go of the youth's hair and stood up, his gaze landing on the remaining people. He wasn't one for cruelty or the like, he preferred a thrilling battle. But these people had done something that they shouldn't have, so now he would show them cruelty.