Zhi Xuan walked through the smoldering ruins, entering the territory of the Forest of Eternal Death. In this place, thick with Yin aura and the stench of demise, his Demonic Heart felt increasingly tranquil, as if he had finally found his true home.

  "The world desires a Devil..." Zhi Xuan murmured as he sheathed his sword. "Then it is this Devil who shall rewrite the laws of your heavens."

  Zhi Xuan sat cross-legged beneath an ancient tree that had been dead for thousands of years. He closed his eyes, allowing the remaining Heavenly Jade energy to wash through his meridians. On his forehead, the Mark of the Annihilator had stabilized; instead, the patterns of the slaughter pillars behind the mark now elongated, forming a sigil that crept across the side of his brow.

  The patterns of the slaughter pillars spread like the roots of a hellish tree, twisting across Zhi Xuan’s forehead to form beautiful yet horrific reddish-black tendrils. This was no longer just a shifting pattern caused by a bloodline curse; it was the consequence of a Dao Heart shrouded by Demonic Thoughts.

  He remained silent, staring ahead with eyes filled with ruby-red light. In the distance, at the split gate, Soul Transformation and Five Element cultivators arrived with murderous intent, drawn by the radiance of the Annihilator mark. The southern region was isolated, far from the center of Yao Gu, yet it was precisely this isolation that ensured no one could stop him.

  Spiritual dust from the destroyed gate still drifted in the air, dancing under the pale morning sun. Zhi Xuan sat in a suffocating silence, his soul-form seemingly merging with the darkness of the dead tree behind him. The slaughter pillar pattern throbbing at his temple beat in sync with the heartbeat of the earth beneath him.

  From the brightening horizon, ripples of spiritual essence approached like a tidal wave. Dozens of Five Element practitioners led the charge, riding flying swords and spiritual clouds, while behind them, three mid-stage Soul Transformation auras pressed down on the atmosphere with arrogant authority.

  "There! That Devil has not fled!" shouted a cultivator whose face was filled with greedy excitement. To them, Zhi Xuan’s exhausted appearance was nothing more than a heap of spiritual stones and high-grade medicinal pills waiting to be harvested.

  Zhi Xuan slowly lifted his eyelids. The ruby-red light filling his eyes no longer flickered wildly but was frozen in absolute stillness. He did not stand, nor did he draw his sword. He simply allowed his left hand to rest on his knee while his right hand formed a mudra.

  "You have come at the perfect time," Zhi Xuan’s voice was low, yet it traveled through the air like the vibration of distant thunder. "This forest hungers for fresh fertilizer, and my Demonic Heart craves entertainment."

  "Impudent!" A middle-aged Soul Transformation practitioner in deep blue robes stepped forward. He held a silver pagoda that radiated demon-suppressing light. "Gu Fengyan, you have slaughtered the envoys of the Kingdom of the Rising Sun and torn through the southern border. Today, under the Laws of Heaven, your soul shall be locked forever within the Demon-Restraining Pagoda!"

  Zhi Xuan curled the corner of his lip into a smile that made the low-level practitioners feel their meridians freeze instantly. "Laws of Heaven? Which Heaven? The Heaven I split yesterday, or the Heaven I shall swallow today?"

  Without warning, Zhi Xuan tapped a single forefinger onto the ground.

  DUM—!

  It wasn't a physical explosion that occurred, but a wave of extremely compressed Demonic Thoughts sweeping across the earth. The dead grass around the gate instantly transformed into black blades stabbing upward. The Five Element practitioners in the front lines had no time to dodge; their bodies were impaled from below, and more horrifyingly, their own shadows began to choke their necks.

  "What?! What kind of power is this?!"

  Zhi Xuan stood up slowly, his dark purple hair—now touching the forest floor—rustling as if it possessed a life of its own. The black tendrils on his forehead glowed brightly, sucking in every drop of fear wafting through the air.

  "You call this sorcery," Zhi Xuan said as he stepped forward. "But to me, this is honesty. The honesty that beneath your cultivation robes, there is only lust and fear, no different from wild beasts."

  He waved his hand, and his Heavenly Sword, now wreathed in red-black flames, glided out to hover beside him. Zhi Xuan did not grasp the hilt; the sword moved according to the will of his Demonic Thoughts, dancing through the crowd of cultivators like a hungry dragon amidst a flock of sheep.

  SRAK! SRUT!

  Every swing of the sword released Slaughter Sword Intent capable of tearing through any spiritual shield. Blood sprayed, dyeing the ruined gate a deep crimson. The Soul Transformation practitioners tried to attack simultaneously, unleashing their signature techniques—from fire rains to lightning storms—but all attacks were swallowed by the black hole surrounding Zhi Xuan’s body.

  Zhi Xuan appeared before the practitioner carrying the silver pagoda in the blink of an eye. He gripped the man's face with his palm.

  "Your pagoda is too small to contain my hell," Zhi Xuan whispered.

  CRAK!

  The silver pagoda shattered under the crush of Zhi Xuan’s energy, and at the same moment, he triggered the Slaughter Seal in his palm to crush the practitioner's head into a mist of blood. The Soul Transformation essence was immediately absorbed into the tendrils on Zhi Xuan's forehead, strengthening the slaughter pillar pattern as it began to creep toward his neck.

  The two remaining Soul Transformation practitioners trembled. Their courage crumbled as they saw their companion die as easily as turning a hand. They tried to pivot, intending to flee into the depths of the southern region, but Zhi Xuan allowed no life to leave as a witness.

  "The Forest of Eternal Death has opened its doors," Zhi Xuan said, raising his hand high toward the sky. "Enter, and become a part of my eternity."

  A crimson mist exploded from Zhi Xuan’s body, covering the entire area within a one-li radius. Within the mist, the sounds of screams and snapping bones echoed, but from the outside, the forest appeared silent, leaving only the shadow of a man with dark purple hair standing tall amidst the rain of blood he had created himself.

  Zhi Xuan took a long breath, inhaling the scent of death which, to him, now tasted sweeter than any medicinal aroma. He turned toward the depths of the Forest of Eternal Death, where true darkness awaited. He stepped into the forest, disappearing among the silent ancient trees, leaving the border gate as nothing more than a pile of ash and the bones of false heroes.

  Since that day, no one ever saw the figure named Gu Fengyan again. The entire Southern Region shook with a series of events involving the Ancient Devil Monument, the Dragon Lotus City, the Mist Valley, and the Mo Family. Every land the man named Gu Fengyan had crossed—every slaughter site and faction—carried a terrifying lingering aura.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "A-Wei, do not go out at night from now on when the moon is above the roof!" commanded a mother clutching her son, her face showing gravity and anxiety. "Devil Gu Fengyan... your father told me we must remain inside!"

  "Mother, what is Devil Gu Fengyan?" asked the innocent young boy, staring at his mother's worried face. "Uncle Hao said he is far from our village."

  "My son, that Devil does not walk with feet like a human," the mother whispered, her voice trembling as she pulled the wooden window shutters tight. "He is a red mist that sweeps the mountains. Your Uncle Hao is right; he may be far, but his sword-aura has split the southern skies all the way to the border."

  "Mother, don't be afraid!" the boy replied, hugging his mother tightly. "Wei will protect Mother from Devil Gu! Don't worry, Mother!"

  The mother smiled bitterly, stroking her son’s head with fingers that still shook. Outside, the night wind rustled, carrying a strange scent—not the fragrance of wet earth, but the sharp smell of metallic rust, as if the sky had just been rained upon by thousands of sword blades rusted by blood.

  "Did you hear that, Brother Li? The village at the foot of Dove Mountain vanished in a single night. No corpses, only a puddle of rotting black liquid left on the cracked earth."

  Two mortal men sat in a dim, old wine shop on the outskirts of a border town. The clay cups in their hands clinked, but the contents could not warm hearts gripped by fear.

  "Not just that," replied the man named Li in a whispering voice, his eyes glancing left and right as if the shop walls had ears. "The elders at the sect where my nephew serves... they have all closed their mountain gates. They say the aura in the southern sky has been tainted. Anyone who meditates under the moon will have their mind attacked by bloodthirsty Demonic Thoughts. They call him Gu Fengyan."

  "Madness! Absolute madness! How can a single human make an entire region tremble like this?"

  "Human?" Li laughed cynically, a laugh full of despair. "Don't be foolish. No human can split the protective formation of the Kingdom of the Rising Sun with a flick of a finger. He is a calamity released by the Heavens to punish us all. Some say his face has turned into the likeness of an ancient devil, with purple hair capable of ensnaring souls."

  At the top of a watchtower in the Cloud Sword Sect, two core disciples stood with pale faces, staring toward the Forest of Eternal Death, which was now permanently shrouded in red mist.

  "Senior Brother, is it true that Elder Ming from the Kingdom of the Rising Sun has fallen? He was a peak-stage Soul Transformation practitioner! How is it possible..."

  The older disciple sighed, his hand gripping his sword hilt until his knuckles turned white. "Not just fallen, Junior. The news I received from a secret envoy says his body was reduced to ash and his soul sucked away without a trace. Gu Fengyan does not just kill; he erases a person's existence from the wheel of reincarnation."

  "Then... what should we do? If he comes out of that forest and heads toward our sect?"

  "Pray," the Senior Brother answered shortly, his voice sounding hollow. "Pray that we are not part of the 'debt' he wishes to collect. The Sect Leader has ordered all spiritual light pillars to be extinguished. We must become silent, become dust, so that the Devil's red eyes do not glance our way."

  Meanwhile, in a bustling black market that had suddenly gone quiet, information brokers exchanged scrolls with trembling hands.

  "The price for information on Gu Fengyan’s location has risen tenfold!" cried a hooded man. "But not a single scout has returned alive after entering a ten-li radius from where he was last seen."

  "I don't care about the price!" shouted a wandering cultivator with feral eyes. "The great factions in the central region of Yao Gu have issued a bounty. Anyone who can provide the exact location of Gu Fengyan’s physical body will be given one Heavenly Dragon Pill and access to the Immortal Root Treasury!"

  "Heavenly Dragon Pill?" The merchant snorted. "Your life won't be enough to swallow that pill if you meet him. Remember my words: Gu Fengyan is no longer a mere fugitive. He has slaughtered thousands of cultivators; that is no longer something a common fugitive can do."

  In a distant medical pavilion, an old physician stared at the reddened night sky through a window. Beside him, a young assistant was mixing calming herbs.

  "Master, why is the color of the moon so bad tonight? It's as if the sky is weeping blood."

  The old physician closed his medical tome slowly, his gaze vacant. "The sky is not weeping, child. What you see is not moonlight, but the reflection of a killing intent so thick it can color the Heavens."

  "Is it because of Gu Fengyan?"

  "Call him with respect if you wish for a long life," the master whispered. "He is, perhaps, a Devil who has truly appeared in the Holy Plains of Yao Gu."

  "Listen, never mention that name by the riverside at dusk!" whispered an old fisherman, his hands shaking so violently that his wine cup spilled over the weathered wooden table. "The river water can turn to blood just from the vibration of your voice!"

  "But Uncle, haven't the Gods from the Heaven Sword Sect intervened?" asked a teenager with wide eyes, his face deathly pale under the dim oil lamp. "They say thousands of flying swords have been deployed toward the Forest of Eternal Death."

  "Gods?" The fisherman laughed bitterly, a sound like grinding gravestones. "The 'Gods' you speak of are now merely decorations on the tips of black thorns at the border. I saw it myself from a distance, boy. The exalted southern border protection formation was torn like wet paper before a single flick of his finger. No sword could touch his robes. Everything was destroyed before it could even get close."

  In another corner of the tavern, a traveler in tattered robes joined in, his voice hoarse with terror. "I just escaped from the Mo Family border. It's no longer a human settlement but a cursed land. The cold aura he left behind made medicinal herbs that had bloomed for hundreds of years instantly wither and blacken."

  "Is it true his hair turned dark purple and his eyes radiate hellfire?" asked a cloth merchant who had been listening with a shivering body.

  "More than that!" cried the traveler while gulping his remaining wine. "His hair isn't just hair; it's strands of darkness that ensnare every soul that gazes upon him. And on his forehead... the Mark of the Annihilator is no longer a curse, but a throne for Calamity. Anyone who sees that red glow will have their Dao Heart shatter instantly."

  Meanwhile, in the luxurious residence of a mortal nobleman, stifled sobs were heard.

  "Great Master, we must evacuate to the northern region! The Kingdom of the Rising Sun has lost its three great envoys! If even peak-stage Soul Transformation experts can have their essence sucked dry, what hope do we have, who are but mortal dust?"

  The nobleman remained silent, his trembling fingers holding the news scroll that had just arrived. "Where can we run? The entire southern sky has turned red. Rumors say he is a Devil who swallows everything. If he wants us dead, then the very ground we tread upon will betray us."

  At the top of a small sect's watchtower, two guard disciples whispered in the night mist. "Senior Brother, look toward the Forest of Eternal Death... isn't that red mist expanding?"

  "Don't point! Pull your hand back!" barked the senior, his face fierce with fear. "The Sect Leader has issued orders to destroy all sect nameplates and hide our spiritual energy pillars. We must pretend to be a poor mortal village. Gu Fengyan only hunts those with strong essence. If we appear weak and insignificant, perhaps... perhaps his shadow will pass us by without looking."

  "But what if he is bloodthirsty? Rumors in the black market say he uses the blood of practitioners to forge his Devil body!"

  "Shut up! If you keep talking, you'll be the one to call him here! Remember, every time you feel the hair on your neck stand up for no reason, it means he is watching the world from behind his red mist."

  Those voices continued to buzz across every corner of the southern region. From seedy wine shops to grand palace halls, the name Gu Fengyan had become a death mantra more feared than oppression from one's peers. On the other hand, in the distant Forest of Eternal Death, no one could be found—not even Zhi Xuan himself.

  Deep within the Nine Heavens Bead buried beneath the brush of the forest, Zhi Xuan sat cross-legged amidst six pillars surrounding him. Each pillar was once a place where Ancient Devils and Ancient Gods were sealed until they became part of what grew with Zhi Xuan. The first pillar was Ruo Xianxue, who had been the first to go free, leaving behind Zhan Xianwang, who still slumbered. As for the other four, they had vanished in the river of time, their souls unable to endure.

  Ruo Xianxue stood before Zhi Xuan, her double pupils of the Sun and Moon glowing as she stared coldly at him. "You truly intend to ruin the Dao Heart you hollowed out with doubt of Reincarnation, then forged with a sliver of understanding of the Heavenly Dao. Now, you hollow it further with the encroaching Demonic Thoughts. Zhi Xuan, you truly do not fear the vastness of Heaven and Earth."

  Zhi Xuan did not answer immediately. The silence created within the dimension of the Nine Heavens Bead felt thicker than the stillness of an ancient tomb. His dark purple hair draped over the silver floor, twitching like the remnants of a storm that had yet to subside. On his forehead, the reddish-black tendrils spreading from the slaughter pillar pattern pulsed slowly.

  After meditating for a long time—perhaps months or even years while he was bound within the Nine Heavens Bead as Ruo Xianxue herself controlled his body—he opened his eyes. They glowed with a cold sapphire light, yet still carried a faint, lingering crimson circle.

  "Great Saint," Zhi Xuan replied coldly; he felt the Heavenly Eye on his right had slightly regained control. "If it weren't for you stopping me, perhaps I would have truly become a demonic madness."