Chapter 36: Sy the Inner Heart Demon!

  No one kly when it happened, but at some point, a sword appeared in An Jing’s hand.

  Holding that sword, he felt as if boundless power coursed through his body. Instinctively, he wao step forward and use that immense might to destroy, sughter, and obliterate all those people and things he hated, erasing them into nothingness.

  How satisfying that would have been, how thhly it would have let him unleash his truest impulses!

  Yet, right before he took that step, An Jing came to a halt.

  Because he suddenly recalled the dream he had as a child—of a sun that burhe entire world to ash.

  Because he suddenly realized that none of this was real, just an illusion. Even if he slew everything here, the world would remain unged.

  Because he wao cut something down.

  So, he cut it down!

  But what he cut down was not these empty phantoms; instead, he cut—

  【Sy the Inner Heart Demon!】

  Without aation, An Jing swung his sword and sshed—

  He struck straight into that hazy bck mist!

  Buzz!

  The crisp sword-light shattered the bck mist. But it did not stop there. His bde arced outward, drawing a ring as it swept across, severing the bck haze that enshe ht people ected to his mind. It sliced apart that ging darkness as easily as rotting wood!

  In an instant, those eight souls regained crity and no loruggled amid their Inner Heart Demons!

  “Not enough!”

  Having severed his Inner Heart Demon, An Jing’s gaze grew inparably lucid. He looked toward the entire Grand Rite, toward the other teams of young men and women likewise harassed by the Heavenly Demons.

  What he saw left him stunned, and thebroken.

  Unlike his own first group—where, with An Jing’s direct aid, no one died, and all escaped the Heavenly Demon’s disturbaher groups had suffered heavy casualties despite produg a few Heaven-Ordained Fate awakeners.

  During the “Know Your True Fate” phase, including Bai Qinghan, two people awakeheir Heaven-Ordained Fate while five perished midway, their bodies turning rigid and their souls dispersing.

  During the “Obtain Your Desire” phase, five awakeheir Heaven-Ordained Fate, but seventeen died when their skulls ruptured and their ans burst.

  Lastly, during the “Destroy What You Hate” phase, four people awakeheir Heaven-Ordained Fate, and nine died when their blood energy surged in reverse, their entire bodies bursting with blood.

  Thus, in total, eleven individuals awakeheir Heaven-Ordained Fate, thirty-one had perished in homage to Imperial Heaven, and sixty-six remained alive.

  Even though An Jing khat, because of the demonic beast flesh corrupting their bodies, these people were uo succeed in awakening a Heaven-Ordained Fate, he still found it hard to accept that so many faces, oniliar from their time together, had died so easily—and so miserably.

  So silently.

  “Damn you, Heavenly Demons!”

  Seething with rage, An Jing saw a few of his junior brothers and sisters still being dragged by pitch-bck demoniergy, pulled into the depths of the darkness.

  He could no longer restrain himself. With an angry shout, he drew his sword from its sheath!

  That strike flowed from him seamlessly. He thrust the sword forward, eling every bit of strength from the waist, shoulder, arm, and wrist into his grip on the hilt, guard, bde, and point!

  It was an atta which his entire body’s power ran unobstructed, flesh and spirit united, as though guided by gods!

  When An Jing unleashed that thrust, the Imperial Heaven Star Fiend Grand Rite’s formation respohe sword qi erupting from the earth veins shifted slightly; numerous rays of clear, dazzling sword light verged and transformed into a bzing sword of pure anger and killing i.

  That swht shot forward in a straight line, colliding with the deepest core of the bck mist. With a crisp crack, it shattered that core.

  Sword qi burst in all dires, annihiting the pitch-bck demoniergy.

  Those s that had been dragging the souls of the boys and girls, that demonic will urging them to sink into endless delusions—all were utterly destroyed by the surging sword wind, scattered like dust.

  【Strange…】

  As the demoniergy dissipated, the Heavenly Demon’s voice held a note of curiosity:

  【Why are you…able to and these sword is?】

  “Begone!”

  An Jing did not answer. He snarled, for a moment sensing some icy thoughts trying to invade his spirit and mind. But then the sword hilt within his spiritual sea gave a slight vibration, and its pure sword i swept those invasive thoughts away.

  While his own Inner Heart Demon could still disturb him—si sprang from his ow—aernal Heavenly Demon could not breach the Subduing Evil Sword Spirit.

  “An Jing.” After enduring the impact, the Sword Spirit spoke up. “I’m about to suppress the remnant Heavenly Demon souls within Hanging Fate Valley. I’ll need some time. You must hold off those people from Hanging Fate Manor so they don’t sense anything amiss.”

  At this point, the Sword Spirit let out a mog ugh. “Don’t worry; I’ve seen through the essence of this ritual formation. Sihey dared to harhe remnant power of my Subduing Evil sword and the Heavenly Demon’s power for their own be, let them taste the backsh of those same Heavenly Demons!”

  “No problem.”

  As the dim demoniergy scattered like smoke, An Jing exhaled slowly and lowered his sword.

  With the Sword Spirit’s words came a sudden influx of informatiarding the ‘Imperial Heaven Star Fiend Grand Rite,’ as well as the teiques and ritual methods to manipute the formation. “Thank you. I definitely won’t let them get what they want.”

  He spoke inwardly, solidifying the searing fury in his heart into the purest baleful i. He the to protect himself and the other young men and women from the Heavenly Demons’ intrusion upon their souls.

  At that moment, he felt a tremor in his spirit. A sort of burni rose from the depths of his soul, surging outward through body and mind. Then—

  —It resonated with the heavens!

  Buzz!

  Outside.

  The colossal bck mist hand looming from Hanging Fate Valley over the Grand Rite trembled. Slowly, it withdrew, its palm and fingers riven by razor-sharp wounds, sword qi rippling through them and f it back.

  “What is going on? How could the Heavenly Demon’s Hand be pushed back?!”

  Knitting his brow, the Medie Manor Lord—who had presided over more than thirty ceremonies—had never witnessed anything so bizarre.

  But very soon, he sahenomenon that made him abandon further thought and bee overjoyed.

  In the western quarter of the formation, the “Xingji” group was suddenly enveloped in brilliant starlight mixed with a scorg, baleful energy. That radiance bzed heavenward.

  At the ter of the ritual ptform, An Jing’s brows furrowed sharply, a crimson star h above him like burning blood light p down.

  Fmes of red blood glowed in streams, f a fming wheel behind his head.

  The wheel of fme revolved, revealing a totemic vision of unishment, swords raised, and judgments pronounced.

  Scorg blood and iron permeated the air, a killing i surging and r. As swords and sabers unleashed, it sshed lines of fierce, seemingly chaotic but profoundly mysterious blood markings into the space around them. The pitch-bck demonic fog could not e close—any attempt was shredded from a distance, forcibly repelled.

  “Incredible!”

  Seeing this fierd baleful Heaven-Ordained Fate phenomenon, the Medie Manor Lord nearly blurted, “This is terrifying!” But very quickly, he grew wild with delight. He clutched the jade dagger in his hand so hard his knuckles went white. “Arae! A Star Fiend Strae!”

  He could not have cared less about those who had died. Their only value y in being Great Blood Pills afterward.

  Only someone like An Jing, awakening this power they so desperately coveted, could fill him with such excitement.

  “Twe Fates! Our Heavenly Will Divi is destined freatness!”

  But after his initial surge of ecstasy, the Medie Manor Lord realized he could not quite dis the nature of this newly awakened Fate: “But what Fate is it exactly? Red Star, Blood Fiend… it even has a hint of Taibai essence?”

  “Could it be…【Red Star Guarding the Heart*】?!”

  (End of Chapter)

  *【荧惑守心】, literally means “Mars Guarding the Heart.” In a ese astronomy, it refers to an omen where Mars (荧惑) aligns with the Heart steltion (心宿, part of Scorpius). Su alig was traditionally seen as signaling political u or major ges, marking times of upheaval and transformation.