A metallic bell tolled through the skies — slow, heavy, echoing with a chill like a death knell.
Immediately afterward, tendrils of black mist began to seep from the tiny gaps between the runes etched onto the iron cages.
The mist did not rise; it fell — droplet by droplet — soaking into the tops of the cages, seeping through the bars like poison leeching into the veins of every captive inside.
The first to succumb was an old man.His entire body convulsed violently, his eyes bulging, his mouth opening in an inhuman shriek.Black veins surged beneath his skin, writhing like parasitic worms, twisting through his marrow.Within mere breaths, he collapsed and exploded into a thick, dark mist of blood and gore.
The stench that followed was vile — the reek of scorched flesh, of blood, of something far darker that twisted the stomach and clawed at the mind.
The second cage.
A young woman, barely more than a girl, had the black mist enter her eyes.Her pupils immediately turned crimson, and with a wet pop, her eyes burst, blood streaking down her cheeks as she screamed like a mad beast.She threw herself against the bars again and again, until there was nothing left of her but a heap of shredded flesh.
Laughter echoed from the high platform above.
"Better reaction than previous batches — the demonic qi has invaded their souls."
"Still useless if they can't retain their minds."
"Add three parts beast blood. Force it into the pure demonic qi and test again."
In every cage, hell unfurled.
Some victims were cooked alive from within — bones exploding one by one.Others froze so utterly that their blood crystallized in their veins, their tendons snapping with sickening cracks.
A small child, barely six years old, crumbled into a pile of decaying flesh the moment a wisp of demonic qi touched him, leaving behind only a tiny, trembling skeleton clinging to his mother's corpse.
Liu Chen did not scream.
He sat still, his eyes dark and silent as a bottomless abyss, reflecting each death without flinching.
The demonic qi poured into his cage, cold — impossibly cold — but his body showed no reaction.
On the high platform, the woman in blue robes frowned slightly.
"No reaction from Cage Eight?"
The black-robed man at her side folded his arms and sneered."Maybe his mind already collapsed. Sometimes, when will and spirit break entirely, the body seals itself."
"No," the woman said, narrowing her eyes."He's still breathing. Calmly."
"Perhaps his body is simply too numb — too dull to respond?"
"Or perhaps it's because he's the only survivor of the Northern Wastes massacre," she muttered.
The woman fell silent for a moment, then flicked her sleeve."Increase the dosage threefold. I want to know the limits of a mortal's endurance."
Suddenly, Liu Chen felt the very air around him thicken.
The pure demonic qi grew denser, heavier — like a swamp of darkness trying to drown his soul.His blood vessels burned.His heart pounded against his ribs.His lungs felt shredded with each breath.His ears rang, and his vision blurred.
Yet Liu Chen did not scream.
He clenched his teeth until blood filled his mouth, gripping the iron bars until his knuckles split.His veins trembled on the verge of rupture.
At that moment, a spear of demonic qi stabbed into his mind.
In a flash, an image appeared:
A battlefield.Seas of fire.Mountains of corpses.Atop the highest pile of dead, a lone figure clad in blood-red robes stood, laughing amidst an endless horde of wailing spirits.
The vision shattered.
Liu Chen's eyes snapped open, sweat pouring from his body, yet his gaze was darker, deeper, colder.
On the high platform, the three figures turned sharply.
"Cage Eight is still alive."
"Triple-strength pure demonic qi... and he survived?"
"Impossible..."
The woman in blue stepped forward, her eyes sharp as blades."What exactly is he?"
A heavy silence weighed down the heavens.
In the bloodstained, death-soaked cage, a hoarse voice rasped from Liu Chen's throat — unclear whether he spoke to himself or to the heavens above:
"I... will not die."
The woman in blue snorted coldly.She waved her sleeve, summoning a thread of pale blue silk into her palm.The thread dissolved into a string of floating runes — glowing symbols heavy with demonic power.
She pointed lightly.
The runes shattered into countless icy sparks, each droplet infused with pure demonic essence.
"If he's still enduring even now... then..."
Before she could finish, the ground beneath Cage Eight trembled.
Dust clinging to the iron bars rose into the air, spiraling like smoke.
A faint, almost inaudible sound echoed — like the dying breath of a feral beast.
Inside the frigid cage, the heavy demonic qi suddenly stirred.
The black mist — once heavy and vicious — began to flow in reverse.
The gray-robed cultivator who was about to step forward froze.
He saw it clearly:The tendrils of black mist, instead of resisting, were drawn toward Liu Chen — not attacking, but submitting, slithering eagerly into his body as if returning home.
"What... what is this?" he croaked, his voice dry as if scorched.
Even the woman in blue blanched.Her outstretched hand faltered.The rune array in midair shattered before it could even ignite.
The iron bars of the cage trembled, buzzing with a deep, ominous hum.
The engraved sigils on the bars cracked and splintered, unable to contain the twisting, reversed flows of power.
Liu Chen still sat there.
His body drenched in blood, his breath faint.His eyes were glazed, spiritless — but at the center of his forehead, a faint blood-red mark flickered, like an ember refusing to die.
Weak — yet unbearably intense.
He closed his eyes.
He let the corrupt, poisonous demonic qi drill into his body.His skin split.His muscles tore.His tendons boiled.
Yet he made no sound.
Until, at last, his breath hitched.His body slumped limp against the freezing iron floor.
And in that moment, the entire tide of demonic qi vanished, utterly absorbed — leaving not even a trace.
The black-robed man gasped."Is he still alive?"
The woman in blue gazed down coldly, her voice low after a long pause:
"Still breathing. Barely.""A mortal body, no spirit root, yet somehow able to temporarily fuse with pure demonic qi. Even if it's coincidence... he is worth bringing back for study."
"You intend to keep him?"
"He can't be killed in his current state. Besides, the 'other thing' has not fully awakened yet."
At her command, the gray-robed man pulled a scroll from his sleeve and crushed it.
A teleportation array ignited in midair, surrounding the iron cage in crimson light.It enveloped Liu Chen's broken body and lifted the entire prison from the bloodstained snow.
Before the light vanished, the woman in blue issued a final order:
"Take him to the Heavenly Gate Hall. Confine him within the Seventh Layered Illusion Seal. No one — not even our own sect members — is to approach him without permission."
"As you command."
The light collapsed.
The iron cage disappeared into the void, leaving behind only shattered chains and broken pillars embedded in the frozen wasteland — silent witnesses to an aborted experiment.