Weiyang stared blankly at the man before her, momentarily at a loss for words. All her words were refuted. Who was the Inner Demon, and who was the real person?
The scene has changed this time.
Everything around slowly dissipated, gradually forming a vast ocean with surging, turbulent waves.
Li Chen gazed silently at the boundless sea, lost in thought, in quiet contemplation.
The Inner Demons no longer dared to utter a sound.
After a long while, Li Chen finally spoke, "You are my Inner Demon, but not me. You do not represent me."
"It's time to end this."
In an instant, the waves became even more turbulent.
It rose up, tilting the sky.
The world fell silent once again.
In the darkness, a cloud of Black Mist floated in the void, seemingly awaiting death. After a few seconds, it grew smaller and smaller until it finally dissipated like flames.
On the altar.
Li Chen opened his eyes and felt that the power within his body had not increased at all, which meant that his mental state had not been broken. Although this ritual had indeed brought him into contact with his Inner Demons, those Inner Demons could not damage his mental state.
Therefore, there is no possibility of improvement.
But when Li Chen looked up, he was stunned.
The high priest's corpse knelt before Li Chen... He remained silent, placing his hand on the dust-covered red dress and brushing away the dust.
"Is he/she dead...?"
Li Chen hadn't expected that the ritual to initiate the Heart Sacrifice would result in death, requiring a life to activate it. Why didn't she tell him? She should have known that if this was the case, he might as well break through this so-called state of mind himself.
His mindset remains unbroken, and he has indirectly caused her death...
"Have I not overcome my Inner Demons yet?"
"Is this all an illusion?"
But the facts were already laid bare before them. The guards around them closed their eyes, not daring to look directly into Li Chen's deep gaze, their bodies trembling slightly.
The Emperor... was somewhat angry.
Li Chen calmly stood up and looked at the old body lying on the ground. The blood array on the ground had dissipated, and the flowing blood had dried.
Was he sad?
It was indeed a little sad, but why couldn't he feel that sadness rising against the tide, as if the person who died in front of him wasn't his own relative?
What's wrong with him...? A suppressed emotion struggled deep within him, as if trying to amplify it, but it was still surrounded by an inexplicable force, ultimately turning into indifference and extreme calm.
The mocking voice of the Eldritch God echoed in his mind, "Li Chen, you have dissolved into Forbidden, your emotions will eventually dissipate, you are now a freak, neither human nor ghost."
"Emotions are nothing but a dispensable thing to you. Forbidden will annihilate everything. Don't you want to control Forbidden?"
"Now that a mere ant-like scoundrel has died, why can't you stand by and watch?"
"What? This strange person is your mother, and you're saddened by that?"
"Isn't this the Forbidden you wanted? Isn't this the future you wanted? Isn't this the freedom you wanted?"
"Pfft, hahaha." The mocking laughter of the Eldritch God kept swirling in Li Chen's mind, as if He were standing right in front of Li Chen, laughing at his cowardice and his sorrow.
Li Chen closed his eyes... Perhaps unknowingly, he had already become a monster born from that Forbidden, but the dissipation of emotions truly made him feel regretful and pained.
If a person loses their emotions, doesn't that mean they lose their humanity?
So what am I now?
Forbidden?
Or is it a trick?
It seems to be none of those three. He hovers in the center, neither a monster, nor a human, nor Forbidden. So what is he?
Suddenly, Li Chen opened his eyes, and in an instant, it was as if he could see through everything.
"You're right, Eldritch God. What is dissolved into the Forbidden will eventually dissipate into the Forbidden... But human nature is inherently good. If I have no emotions, why would I feel that sadness?"
"That's human nature... Perhaps my emotions have dissipated, but they're just sealed away by myself in some unknown place. You're nothing more than a mad dog, powerless and furious, ready to deliver the fatal blow when its master is injured, the final straw that breaks the camel's back."
"That's what a fool is."
Li Chen knelt down and wiped the blood off the High Priest's face, then gently straightened the red dress, just as the High Priest had done for him when he was a child.
But his eyes grew increasingly silent and hesitant...
Perhaps this is the price of becoming Forbidden.
At this moment, a guard squatted down, took out an ancient, worn-out notebook from his robes, and carefully handed it to Li Chen.
"Your Majesty, this was passed on to you by the High Priest."
Li Chen accepted it.
Two large characters were written on it.
[Trajectory]
After hesitating for a few seconds, Li Chen turned to the first page.
The handwriting above is very neat.
The beginning of an absurd era.
In 2025, everything in the world will still be peaceful.
At that time, the world was still functioning normally. Suddenly one day, an unknown meteorite landed on this planet. I was a researcher and was sent to investigate the cause and effect. As a result, I was the only one out of the ten people in the team who survived.
That was when I witnessed the most bizarre scene of my life.
The meteorite was like a Black Water, and you could clearly see what was inside. However, when we used special tools to illuminate the meteorite, we were surprised to find that there was an infant wrapped in the center.
The most incredible thing was that the baby didn't die in the shockwave. It was as if some magical force protected him perfectly. At that time, our whole team wanted to dig him out.
Having witnessed such a bizarre scene, our movements were being closely watched by both researchers like ourselves and major world powers.
However, I had selfish motives at the time. I was a researcher in Great Xia, but my heart was in the United States. I was eager to achieve quick success and wanted to become famous overnight through this incident.
But just as we took action, something terrible happened.
The Black Water slowly merged into the ground like a pool of water. While we were still in a daze, the surrounding trees began to transform into monsters. Animals and the land itself were all slowly Mutation.
Those monsters instantly killed all my teammates.
I was only focused on escaping, but a strange voice kept echoing in my mind, telling me to take the baby on the ground and bring it into the sight of the Human Race.
At that moment, all I wanted was to survive.
They obeyed the voice's command, picked up the baby, and fled to the nearest city.
Indeed, no monsters attacked me along the way.
I was arrested by an armed force as soon as I entered the city limits, and the baby was taken away and disappeared. At that time, I thought my identity as a researcher would protect me and allow me to leave. At least I didn't want to get involved in this strange thing.
But the reality was not as simple as I imagined.
The outside world also became increasingly terrifying in an instant.