Silence once again reigned over the Ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect, but this time the quiet felt far heavier and more suffocating. The red mist that had briefly been swept away by the artificial dawn now rolled back in, denser and smelling of brine, as if the ruins were attempting to swallow back the secrets that had just been revealed.

  Zhi Xuan remained lying on the debris, the fingers of his left hand, which had returned to human form, trembling violently. The pain in his meridians slowly transformed into a cold emptiness. He could feel the remnants of the golden energy that had rebelled earlier now hidden deep within the Nine Heavens Bead, yet the echo of the man's words—three races in one body—continued to spin in his head like a never-ending curse.

  Ruo Xianxue stood beside him, her spiritual form appearing slightly dimmed after releasing the protection seal and that final attack. Her double eyes stared at the spot where the man in white robes had vanished, a cold glint of anger still radiating from them.

  "That astral being... how dare he trigger the release of the god within you," Ruo Xianxue hissed, her voice containing a warning tone Zhi Xuan had never heard before. She turned and looked at Zhi Xuan, who was beginning to try to stand up by leaning on the Heavenly Sword.

  "Great Saint..." Zhi Xuan whispered, his voice hoarse. He looked up, gazing at Ruo Xianxue with eyes that had returned to sapphire blue, though the red rings in his pupils remained as a permanent mark of the four hundred Slaughter Seals. "Why did all those memories attack me just from his words?"

  Ruo Xianxue fell silent for a moment. Her nine large tails sloped down, touching the ruined ground softly. She floated closer, her transparent hand seemingly wanting to touch Zhi Xuan's cheek but held back by the boundaries of their dimensions.

  "Because he was the first person to ever meet you, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue answered, her voice softening yet remaining as sharp as a razor. "He was only trying to pry into secrets that even he himself cannot bear. Forget it."

  Zhi Xuan coughed, spitting out a small clump of black blood that was immediately absorbed by the moss beneath him. He felt the presence of Ao Sheng and Xiao Die in his Sea of Consciousness still frozen, as if the authority of the man in white robes earlier had locked their consciousness in absolute silence. Only Ruo Xianxue, with her ancient majesty, was able to endure.

  "Three Ancient Races..." Zhi Xuan gripped the hilt of the Heavenly Sword until his knuckles turned white. "If what he said is true, then every step I take toward power is merely a step toward my own destruction. Demon, Heaven, and God... they can never coexist in a single mortal frame."

  "That is true for an ordinary human, but you long ago ceased to be an ordinary human since you chose to rise from the shattered Divine Wheel," Ruo Xianxue interrupted, her double eyes glinting with calculation. "The Heavenly Samsara Wheel is the strongest foundation in the Three Thousand Worlds. There will be no death or destruction that fails for you as long as that Wheel continues to turn."

  Zhi Xuan forced his legs to stand straight. Around him, the Blood Corpses that had briefly frozen now began to show signs of life again. Their hoarse growls began to sound from behind the mist, hungrier and more ferocious because they felt the upheaval of the powerful energy that had just occurred.

  He looked at his left hand. Although the clawed form had shrunk, he could feel that dark power now hiding just beneath the skin. He pulled back his robe slightly from the collar, his eyes widening as he discovered the Slaughter Seals that previously only resided on his chest now seemed to be contaminating the left side of his body.

  "This... What is happening to my body?" Zhi Xuan said parquely, trembling again with a pale face. "Why is half of my body turning black?"

  Zhi Xuan touched his left shoulder with his trembling right hand. Half of his body—the skin that used to be as white as marble—had now turned pitch black, as if black ink from the deepest hell had spilled and soaked into his pores. Red lines from the four hundred Slaughter Seals pulsed atop the surface of that blackened skin, appearing like demonic blood vessels pumping destruction.

  "What... What did that man do?" Zhi Xuan hissed harshly, still transfixed by his half-darkened body, as if night itself had entered him. "Why... I was not like this before!"

  Zhi Xuan gripped his left shoulder tightly, his nails still white from shock pressing into the skin that now felt cold and foreign. That black was not merely a color; it was a texture, a layer that felt harder than flesh yet more alive than steel. Every time he breathed, the red lines of the Slaughter Seals on the dark skin glowed, creating a terrifying contrast in the dimness of the Heavenly Light Sect ruins.

  "That man did nothing but lift the veil, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue's voice cut through the creeping panic. She floated around Zhi Xuan, her large tails sweeping away the blood mist that tried to approach. "His threatening presence caused the Demonic Seed within you to react defensively. Your body is not blackening because of his magic, but because the pure Killing Intent you forged has found its vessel."

  "Vessel?" Zhi Xuan looked up, his sapphire eyes flashing amidst his deathly pale face. "You call this rotting half of my body a vessel?"

  "That is not rot, that is transformation!" Ruo Xianxue barked, her voice thundering in Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness, forcing Ao Sheng and Xiao Die, who were beginning to wake up, to cower in fear again. "Four hundred Slaughter Seals are not a burden that a mortal frame can hold without change. You have transcended the limits of humanity, Zhi Xuan. Your left side now belongs entirely to the Heavenly-Blood Body Law. It is the part of you that will become a tombstone for your enemies."

  Zhi Xuan fell silent, his chest heaving with ragged breath. He closed his eyes, trying to feel the flow of energy within his body. His right side still felt warm, flowed by pure Spiritual Essence and the calmly rotating Heavenly Samsara Wheel. But his left side... it was a bottomless abyss. Cold, thirsty, and full of whispers to destroy everything that breathed.

  Suddenly, a hoarse growl from the darkness around him interrupted his thoughts. The Blood Corpses, which now numbered in the thousands, had completely surrounded him. They were no longer crawling slowly; they moved with a madness fueled by the scent of death emanating from Zhi Xuan's dark half.

  "They consider you one of them," Ruo Xianxue whispered, her smile now returning—a smile full of deadly guile. "Or perhaps, they see you as a new king they must challenge to gain freedom from this curse."

  Zhi Xuan reached back for his Heavenly Sword which was stabbed into the ground. As his right hand held the sword hilt, the sacred aura of the artifact resonated with his human right side. However, a strong surge came from his blackened left shoulder. Unconsciously, he released his grip and let his dark left hand reach for the blade of the Heavenly Sword.

  Zrtzzt!

  Reddish lightning exploded as the blackened left hand touched the steel of the heavenly artifact. Zhi Xuan felt no pain; instead, he felt a much deeper connection. The Heavenly Sword seemed to recognize the same darkness he had used to slash enemies all this time.

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  "If this is the vessel you mean," Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice no longer breaking. There was a newly born tone of authority, a coldness that surpassed his previous Killing Intent. "Then let this vessel hold more blood."

  He lunged. This time, his movement was no longer like a shadow, but like a tear in the fabric of reality. In a blink of an eye, he was in the middle of the crowd of Blood Corpses. His dark left hand moved with an absurd speed, swinging the Heavenly Sword in a vertical slash that split the ground for dozens of meters.

  Bumm!

  The energy explosion from that slash was no longer pure lightning, but lightning wrapped in thick black steam. Ten Blood Corpses were instantly destroyed, not only split apart, but their blood essence was immediately absorbed into the blackened left skin of Zhi Xuan. The lines of the Slaughter Seals on his body pulsed wildly, and in an instant, the four hundred and tenth Seal formed.

  Zhi Xuan felt the flow of that power—so raw, so honest. There was no longer any doubt about helping or killing. Every Blood Corpse he destroyed provided a sensation of satisfaction to his dark left side, while his right side remained watching with the calm of a hermit.

  "Hahaha! Look at him!" Ruo Xianxue laughed out loud, her nine tails fluttering with excitement. "A perfect duality! Heavenly Majesty and Demonic Destruction in one dance! Keep harvesting, my little shepherd! Let the entire Ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect witness the birth of a Demon that will shake the Heavens!"

  Zhi Xuan did not answer. He spun, his remaining robe now only covering part of his body, revealing half of his back which had also blackened with a complex weave of Slaughter Seals. He slashed, struck, and tore. The resurrected Blood Corpses seemed to become nothing but endless fuel for the machine of destruction now named Zhi Xuan.

  Every time his black hand touched an enemy, their blood did not have time to drip to the ground. Everything was absorbed, condensing Slaughter Seal after Slaughter Seal. Five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred and so on.

  In the midst of the massacre, within his Sea of Consciousness, Ao Sheng began to open his eyes. The little Golden Dragon trembled violently seeing the change in Zhi Xuan's body from the inside. "Senior... Senior is no longer the same," he whispered softly, small tears of dragon essence welling in the corners of his eyes. "He... he has truly become a Devil."

  "Not a Devil, Big Brother Golden Dragon," Xiao Die countered, her transparent wings now emitting a dim light to calm Ao Sheng. "He is still our Senior. Only he can bear the weight of all that is broken so that we can keep living."

  Zhi Xuan stopped for a moment, standing atop a pile of stiff flesh that was beginning to reunite. He looked toward the ceiling of the abyss covered in thick red mist. Beyond that, in the outside world, the moon might be shining brightly, but here, there was only darkness and himself.

  The horror that had earlier paralyzed his soul had now mutated into a terrifying calmness. He realized that his body was no longer just a frame, but an alchemical vessel where light and darkness were forced to merge in a furnace of pain.

  "Only me," Zhi Xuan whispered, his voice now carrying a low vibration that made the air around him tremble. "Only I can walk among these tombstones."

  He glanced at his right shoulder which was still human, a contrast so stark with his left side that had been touched by the Demonic Law. This duality was no longer a conflict, but a weapon. He sheathed the Heavenly Sword back onto his back with a slow and authoritative movement.

  "Senior, what are you going to do?" Ao Sheng's voice echoed in the Sea of Consciousness, full of sincere concern.

  Zhi Xuan did not answer with words. He only raised his blackened left hand toward the crowd of Blood Corpses that were starting to crawl forward in countless waves. He felt the Slaughter Seals on his left arm heat up, demanding a greater blood sacrifice than a mere sword slash.

  "Heavenly-Blood Body Law: Pull of the Ancient Hell," Zhi Xuan hissed.

  Instantly, the space in front of his left hand warped. A gravitational vortex of blood-red and pitch-black appeared, sucking in the briny mist around the valley. Blood corpses within a ten-fathom radius were trapped in an inescapable pull. The stiff bodies were destroyed, not by being slashed, but by the pressure of collapsing space.

  Maroon blood from thousands of Blood Corpses flew through the air, forming small rivers flowing toward Zhi Xuan's left hand. The black skin on his arm glowed brightly with wild red lines. Eight hundred. Nine hundred. One thousand Slaughter Seals.

  "Argh!" Zhi Xuan groaned as an explosion of new strength hit his marrow. One thousand Slaughter Seals was not an arbitrary number; it was the turning point where he reached the first stage of the Heavenly-Blood Body Law.

  The pillar pattern on his forehead no longer just glowed, but solidified and formed a pattern like a monument carrying the aura of slaughter on his forehead. The pattern was small and elongated on his forehead, yet he could feel his own body seemingly pressing down on the earth beneath him.

  The vibration from the small monument formed on Zhi Xuan's forehead sent a shockwave that flattened the remains of the ruins around him. Jade dust and bone ash flew, but strangely, the red mist in the valley seemed to be pulled forcibly, swirling to form a large cloak fluttering behind Zhi Xuan's back.

  "One thousand Seals... The First Pillar of Slaughter," Ruo Xianxue whispered, her double eyes radiating a nearly insane adoration. "You have reached this first stage, Zhi Xuan. You are no longer just harvesting blood; you have become a walking tombstone for this entire sect."

  Zhi Xuan panted, yet his breath now carried the sound of a heavy metallic hum. He looked at the palm of his blackened left hand. The red lines there were no longer moving wildly; they had settled beneath the surface of the dark skin like frozen lava. The power he felt was no longer mere bloodlust, but a Law.

  He clenched his fist, and instantly, the thousands of Blood Corpses that were previously crawling forward stopped at once. The soulless creatures trembled, their rotting heads bowed listlessly toward the ground. They no longer saw Zhi Xuan as prey, or even as an enemy. In their pupil-less eyes, Zhi Xuan was the Estuary of their Curse—an entity capable of swallowing their eternal suffering into the darkness of his left side.

  "It is enough," Zhi Xuan said hoarsely, feeling a heavy burden if he were to continue this. "I do not want this to ruin me now. The Three Plains Competition still waits; Zhu Qinglan will be disappointed in me."

  The name Zhu Qinglan spoken from his lips felt like a drop of pure water falling into a lava crater. For a moment, the red rings in his sapphire pupils trembled, providing a gap for his humanity to breathe again amidst the stifling scent of death. Zhi Xuan closed his eyes, forcing his will to suppress the surge of the Heavenly-Blood Body Law that was still roaring for an offering.

  "Qinglan," Zhi Xuan hissed, raising his hand and touching the snow jade in his silver hair tie. "Forgive me, I will be back soon."

  Zhi Xuan turned his palm, trying to dampen the wild pulse of the Slaughter Pillar on his forehead. The cold from the snow jade given by Zhu Qinglan slowly spread, becoming a thin anchor preventing his soul from drifting further into the ocean of cruelty. However, the transformation had occurred; his blackened half-body was a silent witness that this journey had changed him permanently.

  He walked slowly away from the pile of mummies he had created, passing thousands of Blood Corpses that were now prostrated stiffly as if worshiping a newly born god of death. Every step Zhi Xuan took on the blood-soaked ruined ground no longer made a sound, as if the earth itself was afraid to disturb the silence of the butcher.

  "Time is running out," Zhi Xuan murmured. His voice now possessed a double resonance—the clarity of a youth and the heavy echo of something ancient. He looked toward the core of the ruins, where he could feel the pulse of the Xuan-Huang Energy mentioned by the rats at the Imperial City gambling stall.

  The energy felt like the heartbeat of the earth, hidden far beneath the piles of karma and the curse of the Heavenly Light Sect. If he wanted to win the Three Plains Competition and protect what remained of his humanity, he needed that energy to balance the darkness within him.

  "Xuan-Huang Energy, can it make the Divine Furnace even stronger?" Zhi Xuan murmured, stopping for a moment to be sure. "If that is true, I can dampen the aura of slaughter around myself with the Law of Four Seasons."

  "Xuan-Huang Energy is the initial breath of the world," Ruo Xianxue replied, her figure now floating in front of Zhi Xuan, blocking his view of the deeper darkness. "It is the energy that existed when Heaven and Earth were separated. If you manage to plant it into the Divine Furnace, that furnace will become extremely powerful after being refined."

  Zhi Xuan nodded slowly. He stepped forward, piercing through the red mist that was growing thinner as if the mist itself feared to touch his dark half-body. He walked toward the center of the ruins, where a giant collapsed jade altar stood. Beneath that altar, the ground seemed to glow with a dim brownish-yellow color that carried an incredibly heavy weight.

  Every step toward that core made the Slaughter Pillar on his forehead pulse in protest. Pure Xuan-Huang Energy was a natural enemy to all forms of cruelty and blood. He felt his left half-body vibrate violently, as if the black skin wanted to peel away because it could not withstand the purity of the energy radiating from underground.

  "This is... very heavy," Zhi Xuan murmured, feeling a heavy weight hitting him as he approached that Energy. "It is as if thousands of catties are gripping my feet."