The stone gates to the Feast Chamber creaked open with a scream.
Yi Zhen stood shackled in chains blackened by curses, dragged by two red-masked guards whose eyes glowed with gleeful anticipation. They led him to a circular altar carved from the bones of ancient cultivators.
Above, the ceiling pulsed like a beating heart.
Across from him lay Lei Shen, the Demon Emperor, a grotesque titan sprawled across a throne of ash and molten jade. Lightning forked across his skin. His mouth—wide, eternal—grinned with divine hunger.
> "You survived my crucible," Lei Shen rumbled. "Good. The stronger the spirit, the sweeter the marrow."
Yi Zhen said nothing. His head hung low. His Qi flickered faintly—corrupted, bruised.
A low chuckle spread through the gathered demons, cloaked in shadow and rot. The Scarlet Tomb Sect's elders stood behind the altar, hands raised in ritual, ready to sacrifice him.
Then Yi Zhen moved.
Not his body.
His tongue.
> "Before you eat me," he rasped, voice dry as dust, "let me speak my final words."
The demons laughed again. Lei Shen cocked his head.
> "You want to beg?"
Yi Zhen lifted his head. His eyes—no longer clouded—glowed a haunting crimson.
> "I want to thank you."
A hush fell.
> "You broke my bones. Shattered my core. Fed me poison and rage. You carved the weakness out of me. So… thank you."
> "Because now—now I can become what I was always meant to be."
The shadows shifted.
> "You think this is gratitude?" Lei Shen growled.
Yi Zhen smiled. But not with warmth.
With venom.
> "No. This is a eulogy."
Before the first elder could react, the ground ruptured.
From Yi Zhen's body exploded a surge of black-crimson Qi, corrupted but alive—vibrating with fury and intent. Chains snapped like twigs.
> "YOU DARE—" Lei Shen roared.
Yi Zhen's right hand lashed out, palm glowing with a twisting rune—one he had carved into his flesh during his time in the furnace. The Inverse Seal of Binding.
> "Burn in the name of what you made me."
He slammed his hand into the altar.
A detonation followed.
The entire chamber shattered, and with it, the wall separating the underground world from the mountain above. The Demon Emperor Lei Shen was blasted through the opening like a comet of shrieking lightning and black flame.
He smashed into the snowy cliffs of the Dead Spine Mountains.
And from the smoke—
Yi Zhen walked out.
His robes torn, his skin pale and cracked from demonic overuse, but his body radiated an unnatural calm. Qi coiled around him like serpents of blood and fire, licking the sky.
He cracked his neck.
Laughed.
Then whispered:
> "Let the battle begin."
And smiled.
That twisted, dead smile of someone who had nothing left but vengeance.
---
Author's Note – Terry
This chapter marks a turning point. Yi Zhen is no longer prey. No longer a student of the Dao. He's something new, something terrifying—a warrior forged in flame and hatred, with nothing to lose.
Now begins the war between him and the Demon Emperor Lei Shen.
And this time…
Yi Zhen isn't fighting to survive.
He's fighting to burn it all down.