Hungry.
Thirsting.
The tiger began to circle me.
Each step was slow, deliberate, almost calculated. Its paws pressed softly into the earth, yet every footfall echoed throughout the cave as though the mountain itself acknowledged its presence. It did not roar. It did not bare its fangs. It made no attempt to strike.
It watched.
It studied.
It analyzed.
Its glowing emerald eyes never once drifted from my own, as though every movement I made, every breath I drew, every slight contraction of muscle was being memorized. It was unlike any beast I had ever encountered.
No predator hunted like this.
No warrior measured an opponent with such patience.
It reminded me of an old philosopher, hidden beneath the body of an apex predator.
The silence became unbearable.
Every passing moment tightened around my chest like invisible chains. The cave itself seemed to hold its breath alongside me, waiting for something neither of us could yet understand.
Then...
It spoke.
"Do you know why you were led here?"
Its voice was strange.
It carried no hatred.
No joy.
No excitement.
It simply existed.
Each word reached my ears as though it had always been waiting to be spoken.
I frowned.
Confusion should have been the only thing I felt.
Instead...
Something else stirred.
Anger.
Not the anger of battle.
Not the anger of insult.
Something older.
Something buried so deeply within me that I could not remember ever feeling it before.
It rose from somewhere beneath my ribs, spreading through my veins like fire. Every breath became heavier, every heartbeat louder than the last.
I had no reason to feel this way.
Yet my body welcomed it.
"...To kill you."
The answer escaped my lips before I had fully considered it.
For a moment...
Nothing.
Then the cave exploded with laughter.
A deep, rolling sound burst from the tiger's chest, striking every wall before returning again and again in endless echoes. Dust drifted from the ceiling, tiny pebbles bouncing across the ground beneath my feet.
It was not mocking me.
It was genuinely amused.
"No."
The grin stretching across its face widened ever so slightly.
"To meet..."
"...Yourself."
Silence reclaimed the cave.
The words lingered.
The tiger before me was no ordinary beast. It was a Yaoguai, an ancient spirit that had rooted itself within this forest long before men began carving kingdoms into the earth. Seasons had passed over it. Dynasties had risen and fallen around it. Countless souls had wandered into these woods believing they were merely crossing another stretch of land.
None had understood what this place truly was.
The forest did not devour flesh.
It devoured certainty.
The Yaoguai did not feast upon blood.
It fed upon identity.
Upon masks.
Upon lies.
Upon the comforting stories people told themselves when they could no longer bear the truth.
Every traveler who entered these woods eventually surrendered something.
Not because they were forced to.
Because the forest patiently stripped away every excuse until all that remained was the person beneath.
Kings became tyrants.
Heroes became butchers.
Saints became hypocrites.
The tiger slowly dragged its tongue across one enormous canine before lifting its head once more.
"And you..."
Its eyes narrowed.
"What mask do you wear?"
Before I could answer, something changed.
A sharp crack echoed through the cavern.
Then another.
Bones.
They bent.
Snapped.
Reformed.
The tiger's body convulsed violently as muscles twisted beneath its skin. Tendons stretched beyond what should have been possible, flesh folding and reshaping around an entirely different frame. The cave filled with sounds no living creature should ever produce.
It was becoming something else.
No...
Someone else.
I blinked.
Standing before me...
Was myself.
Every scar.
Every strand of hair.
Every line carved across my face by years of war.
Even the way he stood mirrored my own, shoulders squared, feet planted with quiet confidence, as though he had spent a lifetime on battlefields.
It was perfect.
So perfect that, had I walked into this cave a moment later, even I might have believed he was the real one.
But there was one difference.
One thing that immediately drew my gaze.
Sky Piercer rested comfortably within his hand.
My hand instinctively reached toward my side.
Empty.
His smile slowly spread.
"You..."
His voice was mine.
"...Are nothing..."
The halberd rose effortlessly onto his shoulder.
"...Without..."
His grin widened until it bordered on grotesque.
"...Me."
The words settled over the cave like poison.
It wanted doubt.
It wanted hesitation.
It wanted me to question every battle I had ever won.
Every legend spoken in my name.
Every victory history had granted me.
Was I truly Lu Bu...
Or merely the man fortunate enough to hold Sky Piercer?
For the briefest of moments...
The question found its mark.
My fingers tightened.
My breathing slowed.
Then...
"No."
The realization came before the words themselves.
"You are mistaken."
The creature tilted its head.
"You never wished to become me."
I took a single step forward.
"You wished to become the version of me everyone else remembers."
The Demon.
The Ogre.
The God of War.
A weapon wearing the shape of a man.
The Yaoguai smiled.
But something else didn't.
The halberd trembled.
At first, barely noticeable.
Then violently.
The creature looked down in confusion as the steel began humming beneath its grip.
The sound deepened.
The cave shook.
Pebbles rolled across the ground. Ancient roots hanging from the ceiling twisted uneasily as if attempting to retreat from the weapon itself.
This had nothing to do with me.
Sky Piercer had not recognized its master.
It had recognized something far worse.
An imposter.
Deep within the halberd...
Something ancient stirred.
Hundun.
The name alone carried enough weight to make gods remember wars they wished forgotten.
It did not awaken in rage.
It did not awaken in wrath.
Those emotions belonged to lesser beings.
This...
Was disgust.
Absolute.
Primal.
The kind of revulsion that rejected imitation itself.
The steel groaned.
The air thickened until each breath felt like swallowing stone.
Even the Yaoguai's confident smile faltered for the smallest instant.
Yet it refused to release the weapon.
Instead, it tightened its grip.
Slowly...
Deliberately...
It raised Sky Piercer toward me.
Its stance mirrored mine perfectly.
Its eyes carried my resolve.
Its breathing matched my own.
Then it smiled once more.
"Show me..."
The words echoed throughout the cave.
"Show me..."
Its grip tightened around the shaft of the halberd.
"...Which one of us deserves this name."