Ruo Xianxue snorted coldly, her graceful footsteps making no sound upon the void of the dimensional floor. Her robes, the color of absolute darkness, fluttered as her nine shadowy tails radiated an aura that clashed with the lingering crimson haze within the Nine Heavens Bead.

  "Stopping you?" Ruo Xianxue narrowed her eyes, staring intently at the red vortex still swirling in the depths of Zhi Xuan’s sapphire pupils. "I did not stop you out of mercy, Zhi Xuan. I stopped you because this body you inhabit is the only vessel left for me to remain tethered to this world. If you allow those Demonic Thoughts to burn your Dao Heart to ash, this body will explode, and I refuse to return to being an isolated soul within that cursed pillar."

  Zhi Xuan slowly stood up. Every movement felt heavy, as if his joints were made of rusted primordial metal. He stared at his left palm; the lines of his hand appeared darker now, carrying the remnants of the energy he had devoured from the hundreds of Heavenly Jade pieces and the essence of the Soul Transformation experts.

  "You speak as if I had a choice then," Zhi Xuan whispered, his voice returning to its low human tone, though the vibration of the demonic aura still lingered in the background. "This world presses down, these Heavens demand, and those factions are hungry for my head. If I had not let the Devil take over, I would have died then, dragging Ao Sheng, Xiao Die, and you along with me."

  Ruo Xianxue walked closer until the distance between them was only an arm's length. The cold aura radiating from the Great Saint met the heat of the slaughter still wafting from Zhi Xuan’s frame, creating ripples of energy that made the air inside the Nine Heavens Bead hiss.

  "Death is a small matter, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue said as she raised a slender finger, pointing directly at Zhi Xuan’s heart. "But becoming a puppet of your own rage is a disgrace for a practitioner. You forcibly swallowed thousands of Heavenly Jade pieces. And your mad meditation made me want to tear you apart myself."

  Zhi Xuan remained silent, his eyes fixed on the void of his inner horizon. He could feel his meridians pulsing—no longer with the warm throb of life, but with a wild, sharp flow like thousands of jade needles seeking an exit.

  "How long have I been in this mad slumber?" Zhi Xuan asked, his voice parau.

  "Five autumns have passed in the outside world," Ruo Xianxue answered calmly. "Five years in which your name has turned into a curse feared by every practitioner in the Southern Region. You have become a ghost haunting their dreams, but to me, you are merely a child who nearly drowned in the lake of his own power."

  Zhi Xuan exhaled, a puff of purplish vapor escaping his lips. Five years. To him, it had been but a blink of an eye amidst an ocean of red mist that had blinded his inner self. He moved his divine sense, summoning the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron that still resided in the corner of his mind. The cauldron hummed lowly, and in an instant, two figures shot out with faces filled with both anxiety and overwhelming relief.

  "Senior!" Xiao Die shrieked, her shimmering multi-colored wings flapping rapidly as she flew around Zhi Xuan. Her inner tears nearly fell seeing her senior finally awake from the darkness.

  Ao Sheng stood a bit further back, but his golden eyes watched Zhi Xuan with a respect now mingled with deep fear. He bowed his head low. "Welcome back, Senior."

  "Raise your head, Ao Sheng," Zhi Xuan said flatly, a thin smile touching his lips. "Xiao Die, stop crying."

  Zhi Xuan swept his gaze across the dimension of the Nine Heavens Bead. The thick aura of death from the Forest of Eternal Death in the outside world seeped in faintly, casting a gray hue over the silver floor where he stood. Five years in the mortal world, but for Zhi Xuan’s inner self, it was a time spent stitching back the fragments of his Dao Heart, torn by demonic madness.

  Zhi Xuan closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the flow of spiritual essence that was now far calmer yet possessed a terrifying density. Thanks to the thousands of Heavenly Jade pieces he had swallowed so crudely, his once-cracked meridians had been reforged, becoming as sturdy as channels of heavenly steel capable of containing an energy storm without breaking.

  "Remember, you carry the blood of the Ancient Heavens, and also the Ancient Devils," Ruo Xianxue warned before she sank into the darkness and returned to Zhi Xuan’s Sea of Consciousness. "Leave this Nine Heavens Bead. This is no place for you to hide like a child."

  Zhi Xuan was stunned for a moment by Ruo Xianxue’s sharp words. They acted as a whip of fire across his consciousness—a reminder that he was not born to crawl under the shadows of fear, but to stand tall atop the ruins of destiny.

  "Hiding?" Zhi Xuan murmured, a cold, thin smile curving his lips. "I was never hiding. I was merely sharpening my fangs behind the curtain of night."

  With a single jolt of his inner will, Zhi Xuan triggered the resonance of the Nine Heavens Bead. The silver space around him began to vibrate violently, fading like an ink painting washed away by water, until finally, his consciousness was pulled back into his physical body, which had been frozen for five autumns.

  WUSH—!

  In the outside world, in the heart of the dark Forest of Eternal Death, an ancient tree that had been dead for millennia suddenly exploded into ash. Zhi Xuan’s figure emerged from the void, standing upright on the blackened earth. The forest wind carrying the Yin aura instantly bowed, pushed back by the surge of spiritual essence overflowing from his body.

  The scenery around him had changed. This forest, once filled only with gray fog, was now permanently shrouded in a crimson mist—the manifestation of Zhi Xuan’s killing intent from five years ago that had never faded. Zhi Xuan raised his head, looking at the sky blocked by the dense branches of dead trees.

  His dark purple hair hung down to the ground, moving like strands of cursed silk. He could feel that although he had meditated for five years, the Mark of the Annihilator on his forehead still throbbed, acting as a beacon of his location to every eye hungry for his blood.

  "Five years..." Zhi Xuan whispered. "This Mark of the Annihilator... I must erase it. The disgusting blood that forms this seal feels like a stain upon my slaughter pillars."

  He took a slow breath and sat cross-legged on the ground, forming a mudra. He pulled the Nine Heavens Bead from its burial place beneath the brush; the bead shot back into his Sea of Consciousness, merging with his inner self. There, his Divine Spirit, which had previously seemed disturbed, was now calm, seated upon the Heavenly Samsara Wheel.

  Ao Sheng and Xiao Die reappeared on the grass under the shade of the Demon Tree of Life. The sky above his Sea of Consciousness, once blood-red, faded back into a nebula of orange as the red circles in his eyes vanished. However, he knew the cracks in his Dao Heart were not something that could be patched simply with Heavenly Jade.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Zhi Xuan walked slowly across his Sea of Consciousness, glancing briefly at the chaos pearl still sealing the Kun Peng fetus at the bottom before turning to Ruo Xianxue, who sat on a branch of the Devil Tree of Life. "Great Saint, how do I erase this karmic curse? If this does not vanish, the evil energy will only thicken more than it did before I reached Soul Transformation. My body is stronger now as my Slaughter Seals increase. But my Dao Heart will remain like this unless I annihilate the Mark of the Annihilator and seek enlightenment."

  Zhi Xuan waved his hand and brought out the Ruthless Heavenly Banner; the gray silk remained the same, housing his shadow soldiers. "And I have delayed the use of the Nirvana Ancient Puppet technique. Now, I have enough Night Petal Root Fruit to create dozens of them. But still, my primary goal is to erase this karmic curse."

  Ruo Xianxue, leaning against the branch, merely glanced at the Ruthless Heavenly Banner with a look of disdain, as if the high-tier treasure were nothing more than a scrap of old cloth. She stroked a lock of her night-black hair and laughed softly—a laugh that mocked those who tried to defy the laws of cause and effect.

  "A karmic curse is not a mud stain you can wash away with pond water, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue said, her voice chilling. "The Mark of the Annihilator is the manifestation of the resentment of thousands of lives you cut down, rooted in a bloodline hungry for slaughter. If you want to erase it, you cannot just use inner strength. You must find a balance capable of dampening that flame of resentment before it truly devours your soul."

  Zhi Xuan narrowed his eyes at the banner in his hand, which vibrated slightly from the resonance of death energy. "A balance? You mean I must perform virtuous deeds to cover the mountain of corpses I’ve built?"

  "Don't be naive," Ruo Xianxue hissed as she jumped down from the branch, landing gracefully in front of him. "Mortal kindness means nothing before the karmic laws of a Soul Transformation practitioner."

  "I studied the Heavenly Devouring Chalice you possess while you meditated," Ruo Xianxue continued. She waved her hand and pulled out the Chalice, which contained the Soul Lantern. "This Soul Lantern is not the solution. It is this stone jar itself, forged by a Great Emperor. It doesn't just radiate Extreme Yang resonance; I found it can serve as a vessel."

  "A vessel?" Zhi Xuan asked incredulously, frowning. "If it were the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron, I might believe you, as Ao Sheng and Xiao Die use it for cultivation. But the Heavenly Devouring Chalice? It’s just a place to store the Soul Lantern. I know it's an artifact from the Great Emperor’s Tomb, but..."

  Zhi Xuan stopped himself, ordering Xiao Die and Ao Sheng to enter the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron floating nearby. Once he was sure only he and Ruo Xianxue remained, he continued. "What exactly did you find in that artifact? Before this, you didn't even have a way to erase this mark."

  Ruo Xianxue spun the Heavenly Devouring Chalice between her fingers, creating ripples of golden light that seemed to suck the thickness from the air. The Sun and Moon within her double pupils glowed dimly, as if reading a secret language carved into the ancient stone surface.

  "Your cauldron is merely a vessel for refining the body and essence, Zhi Xuan. It forges what is visible," Ruo Xianxue spoke with ancient authority. "But this Heavenly Devouring Chalice... it is an artifact created to devour. The Great Emperor did not create it just to store antiques like your foolish lantern."

  She stopped the chalice’s rotation and thrust it toward Zhi Xuan’s face. In the depths of the seemingly empty stone jar, Zhi Xuan saw something he had never noticed before: a vortex that felt like burning karmic fire, yet also devoured every ray of Divine Sense that tried to probe it.

  "The Mark of the Annihilator on your forehead glows because it is fed by the hatred you release when you slaughter," Ruo Xianxue explained with a cryptic smile. "You can erase the mark, but not the karma. You will still bear the karma of slaughter, but the mark will be removed from your brow."

  Zhi Xuan stared into the vortex within the chalice. The aura emanating from it felt so primordial, as if it came from the time before Heaven and Earth were separated. He realized that he had only ever used the artifact as a storage unit, never truly understanding the essence of Hunger that was the core nature of the Great Emperor’s treasure.

  "You mean I should transfer this mark into the vessel?" Zhi Xuan asked, touching his throbbing forehead. "If the mark moves, won't the karma still follow me like an inseparable shadow?"

  Ruo Xianxue nodded slowly. "Karma is the Heavens' record of your existence; it cannot be erased unless you can turn the wheel of reincarnation itself. However, the Mark of the Annihilator is a beacon, a chain linking your soul to your pursuers. By making it part of the Heavenly Devouring Chalice, you are merely hiding yourself from the sight of the great factions."

  "The karma of slaughter remains mine, but the pursuit will end," Zhi Xuan murmured, feeling a mix of surprise and caution. "Did you really find this within the chalice? What if you are wrong and it fails?"

  Ruo Xianxue laughed softly, the sound like silver bells in a graveyard. "Fail?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I am a Great Saint who has seen the rise and fall of thousands of emperors, living to reject the Heavenly Dao. If you doubt me, keep that disgusting mark on your head and let the world keep knocking on your door with their swords."

  Zhi Xuan went silent. He looked at his reflection in his inner waters. The Mark of the Annihilator vibrated as if sensing a threat from the chalice. Its red aura tried to rebel, but was suppressed by the sapphire glow of Zhi Xuan’s Heavenly Eye as he regained full consciousness.

  "Do it," Zhi Xuan hissed. He steeled his heart, casting aside all doubt. "If this is the way to vanish from the reach of the factions' hounds, then let this vessel hold my curse."

  Ruo Xianxue wasted no time. She held the Heavenly Devouring Chalice directly in front of Zhi Xuan’s forehead, mere hairsbreadths away. "Steady your mind, Zhi Xuan. This process will not pamper your body or soul. You will feel as if the skin of your forehead is being peeled away from the inside."

  Instantly, Ruo Xianxue triggered an ancient mantra Zhi Xuan had never heard. The language was heavy, carrying vibrations that made the pillars within the Nine Heavens Bead shake. From within the Heavenly Devouring Chalice, an incredibly powerful spiritual pull emerged—it didn't suck air, it sucked the mark itself.

  "Ugh...!" Zhi Xuan groaned, collapsing to his knees within his Sea of Consciousness.

  He felt the mark on his forehead heat up to boiling point. The red roots creeping toward his temples began to churn, trying to grip his bone to avoid being uprooted. But the chalice was an artifact of the Great Emperor; its authority sat above any mortal bloodline curse.

  Inch by inch, the blood-red light that had been one with Zhi Xuan’s inner skin began to be pulled out. It elongated, forming strands of red thread dripping with an aura of hatred, slowly moving toward the mouth of the stone chalice. Each inch pulled out made Zhi Xuan feel as if his inner nerves were being forcibly yanked. Cold sweat drenched his physical body in the outside world, while inside, his Divine Spirit radiated a blinding light, trying to fill the void left by the curse.

  "Almost... just a bit more!" Ruo Xianxue cried, her face serious, her concentration entirely on controlling the wild energy flow.

  With one final jolt that nearly extinguished Zhi Xuan’s consciousness, the last of the crimson glow from the Mark of the Annihilator tore completely from his forehead. The light shot into the chalice and was instantly swallowed by the darkness within. Ruo Xianxue immediately sealed the mouth of the vessel.

  Silence. Zhi Xuan panted, his chest heaving. He slowly raised his head and touched his forehead with trembling fingers. The skin felt smooth again. The creeping slaughter pillar pattern was now present without the burden of the mark. The red beacon that had announced his presence to the world for five years was finally extinguished.

  "Is it... done?" Zhi Xuan asked hoarsely.

  Ruo Xianxue weighed the chalice, which now had a faint red tint along its rim. "The mark is trapped here. As long as this chalice remains within your isolated inner self, no Soul Transformation or even Weaver Transformation practitioner in the Southern Region can track you through the path of blood karma."

  Zhi Xuan stood up unsteadily. He felt his mental burden lighten drastically, as if a mountain he had been carrying had been moved into a small box. Though he knew the karma of a thousand lives still clung to his destiny, he was no longer a moving target in the dark.

  He turned to Ruo Xianxue, who was leaning back casually as if she had just done something trivial. "Thank you, Great Saint."

  "Save your thanks for when you actually reach Weaver Transformation," Ruo Xianxue replied, closing her eyes. "Now, you have a 'vessel' to hide your sins, and you have the Night Petal Root Fruit. Will you continue to linger in this forest of corpses, or will you start building that puppet army you promised?"

  Zhi Xuan clenched his fist. The sapphire aura in his eyes shone with a new clarity. The mark was gone, but the intent in his heart was sharper than ever. "The requirements are met. Why not fight to survive? I will leave this forest first and find a remote place further south, away from cultivators—even if the name Gu Fengyan continues to spread."