An insignificant gesture of care

After the Naling entered his body, a layer of black flame covered Xiao Yan's right hand. He reached out and swiftly seized the butterfly-shaped purple flame. Though the Heavenly Flame burned fiercely, it could do him no harm under the protection of the Nine Nether Flame.

Once he had seized the essence of the Netherworld Poison Flame, Xiao Yan swallowed it without the slightest hesitation.

In Yao Lao's calculations, the greatest danger in devouring the Netherworld Poison Flame lay in its potent poison. That was why he had refined the Hundred Solutions Pill to counter those toxins. His plan had been thorough, and under normal circumstances, nothing should have gone wrong.

What he had not known at the time, however, was that the Netherworld Poison Flame contained an extremely unusual neurotoxin. It induced hallucinations that eroded the devourer's willpower, and an unyielding will was the most crucial requirement for devouring a Heavenly Flame. Without it, no amount of preparation would help.

The neurotoxins previously scattered throughout the Heavenly Poison Swamp had already drawn Xiao Yan into an illusion. This time, he had swallowed the Netherworld Poison Flame directly, and the effects unleashed by its neurotoxin would be thousands, even tens of thousands of times stronger! This was also why so few people could control the Netherworld Poison Flame. Its potent poison meant little to those with formidable strength, but that bizarre neurotoxin was utterly lethal.

Not only did it induce hallucinations, it also affected a person's thoughts. No matter how clearheaded they had originally been, this enhanced neurotoxin would make their thinking sluggish. Illusions that once seemed riddled with flaws would become seamless under its influence, leaving them trapped within those illusions forever.

At that very moment, the Netherworld Poison Flame's neurotoxin had begun to take effect. The searing heat seemed to ease, and Xiao Yan discovered, to his surprise, that he had opened his eyes without realizing it. Yet what stood before him was no longer the forest of black trees destroyed by the Demon Fury Fire Lotus, but a vast courtyard.

This place had left an indelible mark on Xiao Yan's memories, for it was his home.

It was not the Xiao Clan now led by Xiao Zhan, but the Xiao Clan of his previous life. The two clans, however, were fundamentally different.

His father in that previous life had forced his children to cultivate when they were only a few years old. If their progress failed to satisfy him, he would kill them mercilessly. Their bodies would then be taken somewhere unknown, disappearing without a trace.

Xiao Yan had been his father's third child-or, more precisely, his third surviving child. The others had all lacked a talent for cultivation and been killed by their father, who called them failures.

What now appeared before Xiao Yan was the empty courtyard that had once given him countless painful memories. Only now, that empty courtyard had become a pool of viscous blood.

Corpse after corpse rotted in the blood. The blood flowed swiftly toward the altar at the very center of the courtyard, eventually forming a sinister Blood Formation. Above the formation, a man with a mouth full of fangs hovered over the blood, his arms spread wide as he reveled in the power surging within him.

Xiao Yan understood at once. This was the scene of his father attempting to sacrifice the entire Xiao Clan in a blood ritual to achieve a breakthrough. It had been the hardest battle of Xiao Yan's youth in his previous life-not merely because that man was powerful, but because his identity set him apart from any ordinary opponent. The one Xiao Yan had to fight was his father, and the nightmare of his childhood.

Now, that bloody scene had manifested before Xiao Yan once again. The man amid the sea of blood suddenly opened his eyes and turned his gaze toward him. "My child! You've finally returned! Come! Cast your body into the Blood Pool and become part of its energy!"

"Tch, so it's you... I thought I'd forgotten that ugly face of yours. I didn't expect to remember it so clearly." Xiao Yan drew the Xuan Heavy Ruler from his back and said flatly, "If you want someone to go in, go in yourself. I won't be joining you."

"You belong to our Xiao Clan! You're my son! Sacrificing yourself for your father is worthwhile!" The man laughed wildly within the Blood Pool. "As long as I can break through to that realm, I can unite all of Wutan City! Then you'll be our Xiao Clan's greatest hero, and our descendants will remember you forever!"

"Tch, if you need such a pathetic method just to break through to Dou Ling, this is as far as you'll ever go." Xiao Yan slowly stepped into the blood. "Still, it's not so bad that you've shown up again. At least this way, I get to kill you one more time."

"Bastard! Have you forgotten?! I'm your father! Do you intend to kill your own father?" the man roared.

"Of course I haven't forgotten. But you might not know that this whole patricide business is already on its second playthrough for me." Xiao Yan chuckled. "Since I killed you once hundreds of years ago, this time won't be any different. Though I doubt it'll take nearly as much effort as last time."

After a brutal fight, the man collapsed into the endless blood. He seemed to want to say something, but upon seeing Xiao Yan's impassive expression, he swallowed the words he had already prepared.

"A man must be ruthless-that was what you taught me, Father." Xiao Yan raised the heavy ruler and brought it down viciously toward his head, just like the trembling youth who had gripped a broad saber all those years ago and committed that unforgivable act. "Accept this insignificant gesture of care."

After the heavy ruler fell, the scene before him changed again. This time, two figures who bore some resemblance to him appeared. At the sight of them, Xiao Yan sighed. He slowly turned his head to look at his two elder brothers and said, "Looks like I'll have to kill you two again as well..."

Within that unfathomably deep pit, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged at the bottom, utterly motionless. Wisps of purple flame drifted out around him, eventually turning into countless pale-purple threads of energy that swiftly enveloped his body. From a distance, it looked as though a giant cocoon had been buried underground.

The Netherworld Poison Flame's intelligence was clearly far greater than expected. It had not revealed its true form because of the Demon Fury Fire Lotus; rather, it had deliberately exposed its essence so Xiao Yan would devour it. In fact, its previous hosts had all experienced the same thing. While devouring the Heavenly Flame, they had lost themselves in illusions, allowing it to take control.

Just like Xiao Yan now, imprisoned in the days of his youth.