In that very instant, a subtle tremor rippled through the blood pool — like the first heartbeat of a newly conceived life.Beneath the skin forged through cruel refinements, Liu Chen stirred — ever so slightly — for the first time.
His consciousness remained bound by layer upon layer of formation seals, yet from the deepest recesses of his soul, a frail flame flickered to life.It was not resistance.It was not mere instinct to survive.It was a sensation.
He could feel himself.Feel that this body was no longer the shattered, decaying shell once sealed beneath ice.
Every tendon, every bone, every joint, every pulse — it was as if he had been reborn.Yet this was no pure rebirth.
It was something altogether different.
Something new.
A power slowly stirred from deep within his marrow.
It was not spiritual qi.It flowed like black waters coursing backward through his bones.Each swirl carried a bloody mirage.Each pulse numbed the mind with chilling cold.
Liu Chen could not comprehend it.
But he knew — it was his.
Dark.Cold.Destructive.And yet, inseparable from his being.
He could not control it.
But it coursed through his nerves, through his blood vessels — as if it had always been there, from the moment of his birth.
A faint black light welled up from his palm.Before it could dissipate, it morphed into a bloody shadow sprawling across the ground.Though it lasted but a breath, in that moment of trance, Liu Chen saw himself standing atop a sea of corpses — countless shattered souls kneeling at his feet — as if he alone reigned supreme.
A bestial roar erupted from within his body.
The Demon Seed was awakening within his spine.
The external flow of demonic qi had not ceased — but now, it was no longer merely tempering him.It was being absorbed.
By the blood.By the marrow.By the soul.
On the edge of the blood pool, Su Jinglan's eyes flickered.
From childhood, she had cultivated the orthodox demonic arts of the Heavenly Gate Hall.She had personally sacrificed thirty-seven lives to comprehend the path of slaughter.She had bathed in the blood of anguished souls to temper her body.She had endured twelve nights staring into the Seven-Faced Demon Mirror to extinguish her mortal heart.
She believed she understood every form of darkness the demonic path could offer.
But now, witnessing the flow of true demonic qi within Liu Chen — she realized how wrong she had been.
This was no mere blood qi.
No simple demonic aura fueled by life force and rage.
No matter how fierce blood qi might burn, it always fed upon life — surging in moments of fury, then ebbing into stillness.
But true demonic qi was different.
It needed no life to exist.
In fact — the closer it drew to death, the stronger it became.
It was not born of the body.Not of blood.Not even of soul.
It was born of pure destruction.
Of annihilation.
Of eternal hatred condensed into tangible form.
True demonic qi did not merely kill.
It erased.
Leaving behind no blood.No corpses.Only emptiness.
Su Jinglan lifted her gaze to Liu Chen, who now hovered amid a cocoon of deep red and dark purple light.His muscles stretched and contracted in unnatural rhythms, as if some sealed spirit deep beneath the underworld was screaming through his very veins.
"This is no ordinary demonic vessel,"she whispered, her voice as hollow as a well buried under a thousand years of ice.
"This... is a True Demon Body — one that has transcended humanity."
Across the blood pool, the ancestor of the Heavenly Gate Hall burst into laughter.
His laughter rolled like shattered bells echoing through a ghost-choked tomb — releasing centuries of obsession buried in the darkness.
He lifted his head.Spread his arms wide — as if to embrace the churning blood pool before him.The runes beneath his feet blazed with wild light, resonating with each peal of laughter.Blood qi surged like a tidal wave.
The entire forbidden cavern now resembled the heart of hell itself.
"Hahaha... Hahaha...At last!At long last!"
Every wrinkle on the ancestor's face stretched taut.Each strand of his white hair fluttered wildly in the demonic winds.His usually cold and sinister gaze now gleamed with unrestrained ecstasy — like a starving beast finally sinking its fangs into the prey it had pursued for millennia.
"Three hundred and eighty years!"he cried."Three hundred and eighty years, I have waited for this moment!"
"For the sake of a worthy vessel, I severed three strands of my core essence!I shattered my own soul embryo!I hid myself within the deepest abyss of the Underworld!I let myself be imprisoned beneath the cursed depths of the Heavenly Gate Hall!"
"All for this one chance!"
He whispered, voice hoarse with mania.
He stepped forward.
The hidden seals hanging in the air cracked apart like shattered glass — revealing the true forbidden formation that had long veiled his soul body.
A shadowy figure emerged — blurred, yet so suffocating that the blood pool itself boiled and howled like a thousand anguished spirits.
"This body..."
"This bloodline that can fuse with true demonic qi..."
"This physique tempered through triple refinements..."
"This soul, docile and unresisting..."
"It is... perfect."
"The vessel I have awaited."
"One final step.Just one final step — to merge my soul into this body — and I shall break free!""Break the chains that have shackled me!Shatter the barriers that for centuries I could not cross!"
His voice trembled — half laughter, half tears.
He stood still for a long moment.
Inhaling deeply — as if to etch Liu Chen's scent into his very bones.
And then he spoke again — low, heavy, as if the voice of ancient demons from decayed eras echoed through his chest:
"Boy... from this moment forth, you shall be but a memory."
"From this day onward — in this body — it shall be I who reside!"
"I — Ma Xuan Ye!"
He fell silent.
But he did not move immediately.
His eyes — those abyssal, fathomless eyes — grew darker still.
He remained still before the blood pool, divine sense sweeping out in every direction — searching every inch of the thirty-mile forbidden zone surrounding them.
Every hidden rune.Every subtle flow of energy.Every fluctuation of the formations.
He missed nothing.
"Not even the slightest misstep can be allowed,"Ma Xuan Ye muttered."Before the soul merge... even a wisp of disturbance could invite disaster. I will not allow it."
He turned, his hand weaving complex seals faster than the eye could see.
Chains of glowing runes descended from the heavens, binding the space tighter, locking it down completely.
Each time a seal fell into place, the ground trembled faintly, and the very air grew colder.
When he finished, he thrust his hand toward Liu Chen's dantian — divine sense slithering in like a venomous snake, probing every acupoint, every meridian, every thread of demonic qi.
Even the usually neglected heart palace and soul sea were thoroughly inspected.
Satisfied that no hidden flaws, no lingering spirits, no infections remained, the ancestor finally nodded slowly.
"Good.No obstacles remain."
He turned back toward the blood pool.
Gazing long at the Demon Seed — now nearly fused into Liu Chen's marrow.
Within his heart, emotions churned — longing, obsession, a mad hunger built over centuries of waiting.
"I have waited... far, far too long."