Bian Chunchou suddenly recalled the look in Senior Brother Shi's eyes before he left that day. "Was Senior Brother Shi seriously injured?"
Zhi Lianshan shook his head. "No. He was parasitized by a Demon Seed."
Defense Breached
Wen Xu was all too familiar with the words "Demon Seed." On the way back after he had first gone to the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect to observe the Five Sects Assembly, he had been attacked by a Demon Seed. Had his Destiny Pattern not blocked the Demon Seed's attempt to possess him, he might have long since been eroded away by demonic energy.
At the time, he had only been at Qi Refining. The instant he faced the Demon Seed, he had almost no power to resist. Even now, Wen Xu clearly remembered the feeling of being submerged in black water, of having his Dao Heart eaten away. It was also because of the Demon Seed's invasion that he had first sensed clues about his origins. The power of a Demon Seed could stir up a person's most agonizing, unbearable past—the memories they found hardest to face.
Zhi Lianshan had happened to be aboard the returning flying ship as well. No one understood better than him how perilous things had been on that ship. And precisely because he had witnessed the granduncle master seize a Demon Seed barehanded, he spoke without the slightest hesitation now.
"A Demon Seed? Has it completely parasitized him already?" The moment Gu Wufang heard those two words, his head began to pound. Once that thing latched on, it could not be shaken off—unless one possessed a flawless Dao Heart. But in this world, no cultivator had a Dao Heart that was utterly pure.
Besides, that disciple surnamed Shi had endured a difficult path of growth. He had been