Fate and destiny, two forces that guide the path of the living. While the second can change just as quickly as one makes a choice, the first tends to be harder to change. For example let’s observe the two below, the man’s fate is to die from something he underestimated (which admittedly is also the fate of most demonic cultivators), the girl’s is to have her heart ripped out of her chest resulting in the creation of a cultivator. Were it any other choice, the man’s destiny would result in him being the first demonic cultivator to ascend and burn the world along with all who had opposed him to not but ash upon the cosmic winds. Unfortunately for him he chose the wrong house to try to start his journey thus completely and irreversibly changing his destiny.

  Deng Ling could almost feel the power as he neared the door; truly he had the most fortuitous encounter with a hidden master that not only decided to take him on as a student but to also gift him a technique that will aid/jumpstart his cultivation. To add even further to his fortune, he found not only someone to use his new technique on but also a location so full of chi that it might as well be alive. Already visions of what he will accomplish and the revenges he will take danced in his mind, oh how low he will bring down those who doubted his...

  “Please” A small pained whisper interrupted his internal monologue, turning his sight away from the door that contained the path to his ascension, down to a little beggar child that will be the first step of his journey to be a cultivator. It is dressed in nothing but rags and mug, even the hair he used to drag it could easily be mistaken for tree roots with how filthy it is. Truly it should be thanking him for giving it a true purpose instead clogging up the world of its betters with its filth. Disregarding the sacrifice, he turned back to the door and reached out towards the handle. With a firm grasp and his destiny in his eyes, he pulled open the door... a quick check of the door and the surroundings to verify nothing important had seen his mistake he pushed open the door to reveal an empty box of a room with no windows or additional doors save the one he opened.

  After dragging the sacrifice inside and closing the door he throws the to-be-sacrifice to the middle of the room, walking around it until the only entrance is directly behind it, so if any dared to intruded, they would not be able to attack his unprotected back. Straightening his back, he took position to ready the technique his new master taught him. As he pulled back his right hand, he pooled what few scraps of chi that his body had into his fingers, a few seconds wait and [Phoenix’s Rebirth]. Faster than a mortal’s eye could track, his hand plunged into the girl’s chest and just as quickly pulled her heart out along with a fountain of blood.

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  Raising his prize into the air, he felt a grin spread across his face as the second part of the technique started and the heart was slowly consumed by blue fire. Before he could truly savor the taste of victory, the sound of a squeaking door opening cut through the silence. He only froze for a second before slowly turning around, where there was once a plain wall now contained a wooden door. A wooden door that was slowly being opened by inhumanly long wooden fingers that were gripping the middle of the door. He could only stare in shock and then horror as the inhuman monstrosity crookedly walked out of the shadow and into the lit room. It was as if some cruel god decided to take the human form and stretch it out by replacing what broke with mangled wood and metal. It as only when it was almost looming over him that he sprang into action.

  Dropping his prize he reused his one and only technique in a bid to save his skin. His aim is true and pierced into the chest of the abomination resulting in its death. The dead abomination slowly slumped forward on his arm as Deng Ling tried to get his racing heart back under control. He had just managed to recenter himself when what could only be described as a bear trap latched onto the arm still in the thing’s chest. Just as quickly its two spindly hands grabbed his shoulders, and he was forced to stare into is blank wooden face devoid of any features except for two blood-red hungry eyes. All he could do was watch as the blank face split open with cracks of wood and bone to reveal a maw of splintered wood and twisted metal spiraling down into....

  Zou Xiaolian could only lie in her blood as sickening sounds of bone being broken and meat being torn sounded around her; however, her focus is not on what is happening just a few feet from her but instead on the floating box that is in front of her.

  The Dungeon has heard your cries for help.

  Do you wish to accepts its help?

  Yes   No

  Such a simple question and yet after all this time something actually answered her prayers for help: maybe it was just a hallucination brought upon by the blood loss, maybe it was just her imagination trying to give her comfort in her final moments. Whatever the case, she decided to answer the strange floating box.

  “Yes” her voice is barely a whisper, but no sooner has the word left her lips does a sudden feeling of liquid fire being poured directly into her being. The darkness that has been steadily consuming her vision is suddenly and violently thrown back and new life fills her lungs, but the stress of the day would not allow her to remain awake, and as she falls into the realm of dreams, she hears someone say “Well isn’t zis intairesteng.”