Day 71 – The Severance Hall
The Severance Hall was a crypt of black iron. Chains hung from the ceiling like dead vines. In the center: a guillotine of demon bone, its blade etched with 1,000 screaming faces.
Monk Xie—the executioner—wore a mask of flayed human skin. His voice was a whisper through the holes.
"Fingers are tools. We remove the weak. Replace with demon bone. Ten cuts. Ten rebirths."
Wuya stood barefoot on a blood-stained grate. The bowl-claw whip coiled around his waist like a living serpent, crimson veins pulsing. His eyes were permanently crimson slits now—Starving Wolf qi fused with his soul.
The Ten Cuts
Cut 1: Left Pinky
Chained to the finger block—a slab of petrified monk hands.
The guillotine fell.
SHNK.
Pinky severed clean. Blood jetted.
Wuya did not flinch.
They cauterized with molten mercury—sizzle.
A demon bone graft—black, porous—was hammered into the stump.
CRUNCH.
Nerves screamed. The graft fused.
New pinky: black claw, retractable.
Cut 2–4: Ring, Middle, Index (Left)
Three drops of the blade.
SHNK-SHNK-SHNK.
Three fingers gone.
Wuya counted:
"One for Lan's braid. Two for Hua's ribbon. Three for Mother's lullaby."
Mercury cauterized.
Three demon grafts hammered in.
His left hand was now a black claw gauntlet, fingers curling like spider legs.
Cut 5–8: Right Hand
Same ritual.
SHNK-SHNK-SHNK-SHNK.
Wuya's voice was stone:
"Four for Father's hammer. Five for the gold tooth. Six for Ma Gou. Seven for Huo Shan."
Right hand reborn—mirror image, black demon claws.
The bowl-claw whip extended from his left palm, ten feet, tipped with the original porcelain shard—now black-red crystal.
Cut 9–10: Thumbs
The final cuts.
SHNK-SHNK.
Thumbs severed at the base.
Wuya smiled.
"Eight for the wolves. Nine for the Alpha King. Ten… for Zhao Heng."
Double demon grafts—thick, curved talons.
The guillotine blade cracked under the pressure of his new grip.
The Rebirth Forge
They submerged his hands in a vat of demon blood—harvested from the Alpha King.
GLUG-GLUG.
The grafts drank.
Black veins crawled up his forearms.
The bowl-claw whip surged—fifteen feet, segmented, barbed.
It moved on its own, coiling around a nearby monk's neck—STRANGLE.
The monk choked, eyes bulging.
Wuya yanked—head torn free, spine dangling.
"It learns," Wuya said. "It hungers."
The Single-Digit Kill
Test Arena: a Qi Condensation novice, Lu Kang, armed with a steel saber.
"Kill him with one finger," Monk Xie commanded.
Lu Kang charged—Crimson Moon Slash.
Wuya raised his right index claw.
CLANG.
The saber shattered on contact.
Wuya tapped Lu Kang's forehead.
Bowl-claw whip shot from the claw—PIERCE.
Through the skull. Out the back.
Brain matter sucked into the whip like noodles.
Lu Kang dropped, a hollow husk.
Wuya retracted the whip—now veined with gray matter.
He carved a new tally into his throat:
十一 – Eleven.
The Bowl-Claw Evolves
Night 75.
In his cell, Wuya spoke to the whip:
"You are my sisters. My parents. My hate."
The whip responded—coiled around his torso, porcelain shard pressing against his heart.
It injected demonic qi.
Wuya's chest split open—ribs parted like gates.
The shard embedded in his sternum.
THUMP-THUMP.
The whip now pulsed with his heartbeat.
He was no longer human.
He was Iron Corpse Demon.
End of Chapter 7