Fate was fickle, and life was full of hardships and suffering.
All manner of trials were the wellspring that drove people to grow stronger, supporting them as they strove to better themselves and climbed toward the summit with reckless devotion, hoping to make up for the regrets in their hearts.
Yet some suffering cut so deeply into the bones that it became an obsession, an inner demon.
Cultivators who wrested their fate from heaven, especially demonic cultivators who walked the razor's edge, were more easily infected by such obsessive inner demons, tormented day and night yet unable to erase them.
Ruan Meizhen was one such person.
Zhao Changfeng's memories from before his transmigration were hazy, leaving him no way to know whether he harbored any unresolved obsessions. He had no time to dwell on it now, either. He was making every moment count as he circulated the Blood Shadow Art according to Ruan Meizhen's instructions.
"Junior Brother Zhao, what can I do to help?"
With hope rekindled, Ruan Meizhen turned toward Zhao Changfeng. They were so close that her breath brushed his face as he concentrated on cultivating.
Both her dantians were nearly depleted, she had no spirit stones to use, and Zhang Mu could arrive at any moment.
Having resolved to attempt another breakthrough to the Primordial Spirit Realm, her desire to survive might now have surpassed even Zhao Changfeng's. She wanted to work alongside him.
"Don't talk. Close your eyes and play dead. Preferably without breathing or a heartbeat."
Zhao Changfeng spoke in a low voice.
"All right."
Ruan Meizhen had never been so obedient.
Once Zhao Changfeng gave his answer, she gathered the faint power she had just drawn from the spiritual qi of heaven and earth and cast a spell as he instructed.
Her breathing soon ceased, and her heart quickly stopped beating.
They did not have to wait long before a faint rustling came from the distance.
Zhang Mu had returned.
"Senior Sister Ruan? Junior Brother Zhao?"
Zhang Mu called out, seemingly checking their condition cautiously to see whether either would stir.
One reason he had not rushed back at top speed was that he had to beware of a Demon Spirit creeping up in the night and slipping unexpectedly into his mind.
After all, he was alone now. If a Demon Spirit invaded him, there would be no one to help.
Another reason was that Ruan Meizhen had not been completely dead when he left. Her cultivation was a level above his, so he had slowed his pace to be safe.
"Senior Sister Ruan?"
Zhang Mu called a few more times. Only after a long silence did he finally approach.
He stopped a full ten meters away from them, secretly circulating the Corpse Demon Art he had painstakingly cultivated to sense the aura of the living.
Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen still lay where they had been, holding hands. Zhao Changfeng's exposed skin was blackish-green, yet Ruan Meizhen's flesh had actually returned to its snowy whiteness.
The sight was somewhat abnormal and left him puzzled, making him observe and probe even more carefully.
A moment later, he discovered that Ruan Meizhen had neither breath nor heartbeat. She seemed to have died before Zhao Changfeng.
"The poison must have seeped into her internal organs, so the color no longer shows on the surface. She's finally dead."
Zhang Mu took this explanation for granted and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
After pondering for several seconds, he approached Zhao Changfeng first.
Zhang Mu no longer hesitated.
He immediately lowered his palm slowly over Zhao Changfeng's chest, intending to shatter his still-beating heart first, then collect his corpse qi the instant his life was snuffed out.
"You're a tough one to kill, brat."
Zhang Mu muttered as he focused on his task.
Ruan Meizhen was already lifeless. How could Zhao Changfeng, who had only just entered the Yuanqi Stage and was gravely poisoned, possibly struggle against him?
A tiny vortex visible to the naked eye emerged clearly in his palm, wreathed in gray-white corpse light. In another instant, it would penetrate Zhao Changfeng's chest.
Disaster struck without warning!
With his eyes tightly shut, Zhao Changfeng released Ruan Meizhen's hand like lightning and threw his arms wide, giving Zhang Mu an enormous bear hug.
He immediately slammed Zhang Mu hard onto the sand.
Before Zhang Mu could react, he felt two masses of light, mingled blood-red and blackish-green, seep into his body through his back like two ghosts.
"Blood Shadow Possession!"
"Blood Shadow Art!"
"No! There's also the Ten Thousand Poisons Art!"
Zhang Mu instantly began screaming.
He felt two shadowy forms rampaging violently through his body!
The blood-red light was only moderately powerful, but wherever the blackish-green light passed, his flesh instantly went numb and began to rot!
"Ruan Meizhen!"
"You vicious bitch! This is your Ten Thousand Poisons Art!"
Zhang Mu was certain this was Ruan Meizhen's vicious trick, not something Zhao Changfeng could have accomplished.
"Senior Brother Zhang, I was only worth fifty spirit stones?"
Zhao Changfeng bared his teeth in a strange, unceasing grin. While the poison numbed Zhang Mu's limbs, he hammered his fists into him as though forging iron.
Crack!
The bones in Zhang Mu's chest and face shattered one after another.
Zhao Changfeng felt an indescribable exhilaration.
His sea of spiritual qi seemed to boil in concert with the Blood Shadow Art. Thick, deep-red spiritual power flowed through his fists, making them as ferocious and forceful as red-hot iron hammers.
"This feels great! I should've entered the Yuanqi Stage ages ago and practiced killing techniques like this!"
Carried away by his pounding blows, Zhao Changfeng wore a cruel expression of pleasure at the slaughter. The radiant grin on his lips looked ready to devour someone.
"What did I ever do to you? The first time we met, you wanted to buy my corpse to refine your corpse qi?"
"I'll pound you to pulp!"
The urge to slaughter rose unstoppably in his heart, and Zhao Changfeng no longer restrained himself.
Like a bloodthirsty demon god from the Unordered Zone, he battered Zhang Mu into a puddle of bloody pulp with vast, overwhelming punches.
"Tsk, tsk! Your Ten Thousand Poisons Art really is extraordinary, senior sister. Without your poison, killing him wouldn't have been so easy."
Zhao Changfeng praised her repeatedly, looking almost deranged.
Beside him, Ruan Meizhen stared in a daze.
Zhang Mu's cultivation was a level above Zhao Changfeng's, yet Zhao Changfeng's sneak attack had poisoned and paralyzed him. After that, he had been powerless to fight back.
First, Zhao Changfeng's sky-high killing intent had stunned her. Then she wondered how the deadly poison she had inflicted on him had become his weapon for grievously injuring Zhang Mu.
Zhang Mu was already dead, and his death had been gruesome beyond description, yet Zhao Changfeng seemed unsatisfied and continued his assault.
"Enough! He's long since dead!"
Ruan Meizhen called out weakly, trying to awaken Zhao Changfeng, whom she believed had succumbed to cultivation deviation.
"Yes, he's thoroughly dead."
Zhao Changfeng finally stopped. His face held a radiant smile of utter satisfaction. Where was any sign of demonic possession?
He's just a lunatic. He's actually enjoying the slaughter.
Ruan Meizhen frowned, silently confirming that someone like Zhao Changfeng was born for the bloody competition within a great demonic sect.
"Blood Shadow Art! Blood Shadow Art! It really is extraordinary!"
Zhao Changfeng shook his blood-dripping hands, marveling endlessly.
The extraordinary poisons Ruan Meizhen had injected into him had actually been suppressed and restrained by the small cauldron inside his body all along, but he still needed someone to help him relieve and channel them.
He had already realized that the small cauldron could display such wondrous abilities because the powerful obsessive inner demon arising within it had generated a strange force, enabling the Azure Small Cauldron to achieve this.
To manifest its wonders, the cauldron needed power to sustain it, and Ruan Meizhen's obsessive inner demon was its source of power.
As long as Ruan Meizhen did not die, as long as her obsessive inner demon continued poisoning her soul, the small cauldron could keep drawing that strange force from it for his use.
There are plenty of demonic cultivators in this cruel world. Surely many have unresolved obsessions and inner demons like Ruan Meizhen. If...
Having vented all his poison and bloodlust, Zhao Changfeng's skin quietly returned to its normal color. His thoughts began to branch out, and his eyes gradually brightened.
Whoosh!
Ruan Meizhen suddenly rose into the air and flew like a bird toward Zhang Mu's blackish-green corpse, intending to take his spirit stones and replenish her depleted dantians.
"Wait, senior sister!"
Zhao Changfeng grinned and raised his hand, shooting out a deep-red blood shadow that struck Ruan Meizhen's airborne body with perfect accuracy.
His strike sent Ruan Meizhen plunging headfirst beside the dead Zhang Mu.
Zhang Mu's mangled corpse lay three meters in front of her, but it no longer resembled a human being. Even she found the sight nauseating.
She had already spotted three cloth bags, one of which was hers, but she simply could not reach them.
"You're still so impatient, senior sister."
Zhao Changfeng spoke with a chuckle.
First, he kicked Ruan Meizhen, who had landed face-first in the sand, out of the way. Then he stripped the cloth bags from Zhang Mu, took out two spirit stones, and sat down on the spot to restore his fighting strength as quickly as possible.
Kill savagely, plunder, then immediately use the seized spiritual materials to rebuild his power and prepare to welcome the next wave of "guests."
He performed this sequence not only smoothly, but cleanly and decisively, as though it were so deeply ingrained that it had become instinct.
Just as he had killed seven people in succession a few days earlier, and just as he had effortlessly snuffed out Zhang Mu moments ago, it seemed he had done similar things countless times.
"Lingxiao Sect! These disciples of so-called righteous sects!"
Ruan Meizhen wiped the sand from her face and neck, coldly watching Zhao Changfeng cultivate with the spirit stones. Suddenly, she realized their positions had been reversed.
Before today, she could handle Zhao Changfeng however she pleased, deciding his life or death on a whim.
Now, both her dantians were completely depleted. She had no spiritual power or blood vitality left to use.
With only the thin spiritual qi of heaven and earth in the Sola Desert, she could not gather enough spiritual power quickly enough to keep suppressing Zhao Changfeng until even breathing was difficult for him.
But why had Zhao Changfeng survived such deadly poison?
Why had he been able to draw out the remaining poison in her body a second time?
How had he learned the secret buried deepest in her heart?
What sort of person was this disciple of the Lingxiao Sect?
Why did he seem even more addicted to slaughter than the people of the Crippled Demon Sect?
Can Zhao Changfeng really help me break through the shackles of my cultivation? Can he let me reach the Primordial Spirit Realm on my next attempt?
Ruan Meizhen sighed inwardly. The many questions in her heart remained unanswered, tormenting her unbearably.
A moment later, rustling footsteps unexpectedly sounded again.
"This is bad..."
Ruan Meizhen's nerves tightened once more. Intense unwillingness surged in her ample chest as she looked despairingly toward the sound.
"I'd already decided to die. Why did you have to give me hope again?"
Boundless resentment clogged her chest. She looked at Zhao Changfeng with hatred, then spat angrily, "If you'd given me spirit stones earlier, the two of us might still have had a sliver of hope!"
Zhao Changfeng frowned and said gravely, "Let's see first."
Poisoned from the outset, Zhang Mu had been utterly powerless to fight back and had died far too quickly, leaving him somewhat unsatisfied.
The experience of pounding Zhang Mu to death had given him confidence. Now, another unknown strange force was available within the small cauldron in his dantian.
He wanted to test its strength.
I tested that strange force just now. It can be used for the Blood Shadow Art.
Although the Yuanqi Stage has different minor stages, the gap in fighting strength isn't heaven and earth. The chances of killing someone above my stage are extremely high.
Zhao Changfeng pondered inwardly. The urge to slaughter gradually rose in his heart, and he prepared for another fight.