"Demon! Who are you?"
"How dare you attack in Black Rose Sect territory!"
"You're seeking death!" Cultivatior grin intensely.
....
Zu Ren stood among the corpses,his laughter echoing like thunder in the silence.
"Hahaha! My Spiritual Essence has reached Peak Grade!" His voice carried a devilish edge.
Blood soaked his robes and face. In his hand, he clutched a child's skull.
"Look what you've done slaughtering an entire village, even a newborn, just to create a Spiritual Ji Worm!"
"Your demonic path Will ends here by the righteous Black Rose Sect!"
The sect disciples encircled him cutting off all escape routes from Zu Ren.
Lady Xi Lan struck first,her Earth Frog Ji Beast roaring as massive boulders tore from the ground and hurtled toward him. Sharp rock spears followed in a deadly rain.
Zu Ren's eyes gleamed. He weaved through the assault, sliding beneath a boulder mid-flight.
The gap closed instantly.
Xi Lan drew her sword in a flash, but Zu Ren caught her wrist. The blade clattered away. His fist crushed her throat with a sickening crack. Her body flew backward like discarded paper.
"Junior Xi Lan!"
The disciples' screams tore through the air.
Cultivator unleashed a storm of spiritual swords, each blade humming with murderous intent as they shot toward Zu Ren.
Twenty minutes passed like melting ice.
Cold wind swept through the battlefield, indifferent to the carnage below. hawk spread their wings and soared toward the horizon.
Zu Ren stood before the last cultivator, his gaze cold and unsatisfied.
The man's eyes locked with his. After witnessing that glacial stare, only one word escaped his lips.
"Demon..."
Zu Ren looking at Lifeless Ice Cold corpse of Cultivator and fell in long pause and Zu Ren Murmured in his mind : Human lives,
*******
The mountain river churned with crystalline waters, each ripple carrying whispers of fate. Blood dissolved into crimson threads before being swept away by the indifferent current.
Zu Ren stood bare-chested in the shallows, methodically scrubbing away the blood of slaughter from his skin.
The village smoldered a collection of broken bodies and shattered dreams.The weak had been culled, as was the way of this world. Strength determined everything; the rest was merely sentiment.
"Hmmm, how did it feel? Fighting them while using the Purifying Ji Beast for spiritual cleansing?"
Morrigan materialized before him, her ethereal form flickering like a candle flame in wind. Her laughter rang out-sharp, crystalline, tinged with madness. The great spirit devil's smile carried no warmth, only the cold amusement of a predator.
Zu Ren pulled the black long robe over his shoulders, the fabric looted from the village settling against his skin like a second shadow. His expression remained placid as mountain stone.
"Disappointing." The word fell from his lips with finality.
"Seriously? Why is that?" Morri tilted her head, genuine curiosity mingling with her perpetual mockery.
"They were weak. Pitiful. Techniques without understanding." Zu Ren's eyes grew distant, "In my eyes, they were nothing but low rats scurrying beneath the feet. Not even worthy of being called proper."
The assessment was brutal, clinical. This was the cold logic of the cultivation world—where one's worth was measured in Power, in dominance, in the ability to seize fate by the throat.
Zu Ren's gaze sharpened, studying the spirit devil's translucent form. Something was wrong. Morri's outline wavered, less substantial than before.
"Morri, why didn't you devour the cultivators? Their spiritual essence should have been a feast for you" His tone carried genuine inquiry rather than accusation. "Is there a problem?"
The great spirit devil's smile grew bitter. She sighed a sound carrying eons of existence, of sacrifices made in shadows.
"Zu Ren..." Her voice lost its mocking edge, becoming almost contemplative. "Saving that girl Akai Ren from the Kings Spear in the forest required me to teleportation magic. The expenditure was...considerable. Then I used a portion of my spiritual essence to help you, to forge your cultivation body into something capable of cultivation."
She gestured at herself with a spectral hand, watching it fade slightly even as she moved.
"My spiritual essence drains bit by bit with each passing moment I maintain this form before you. I'm transforming back regressing to my original state." The words carried weight, inevitability. "A Ji Spirit. Nothing more."
The admission hung in the air like a death sentence.
"For the time being, I can only speak with you within your mind. I must rest within your red Ocean, conserving what little power remains."
Zu Ren's expression shifted just barely. A flicker of something that might have been respect, or perhaps. He inclined his head slowly, a gesture of acknowledgment between beings who understood the price of power.
No words were needed. In this world, everything required sacrifice. Strength was never given freely; it was purchased with blood, sacrifice, and the dissolution of one's very being.
Silence descended like a burial shroud.
Zu Ren moved with deliberate steps toward a massive boulder nestled against an ancient tree. The tree was impossibly vast, its trunk wide as a small mountain, its canopy blocking out the sun entirely. In its shadow, the world grew cold and dark.
Perfect.
He settled onto the stone, back against rough bark, face hidden from the light above. His breathing slowed, entering the meditative rhythm of cultivation. Within his chest, he felt Morri's presence settle deeper, burrowing into his heart core like a seed planted in fertile soil.
Around him, the mountain maintained its eternal indifference. The river flowed. The wind whispered through leaves. The ashes of the village cooled.