Chapter 46: Demon Emperor Luo Ting Killed Her Part 1

Jiang Chen had once forgotten all about his childhood.

It wasn’t until he set foot on Clear Heart Island, gazing into that crystal-clear mirror spring, that the scenes sealed away by the sands of time came surging back like a tidal wave.

It turned out that before he ended up homeless on the streets, enduring the darkest cruelties the world had to offer, those first four or five innocent years of his life had been filled with his mother’s tender love.

“I should have remembered her. But I forgot… I forgot everything…”

His life wasn’t supposed to consist only of brutal beatings, cold lash marks, and the endless darkness of a prison cage. It wasn’t supposed to be day after day of enduring filth, fighting humans and livestock alike in endless pain and despair for scraps of rotten food mixed with dirt and sewage.

Someone had once steamed sweet cakes for him with care, fanned him on sweltering summer nights with a reed fan, and hummed soft lullabies to soothe him to sleep.

“But I was too young back then… I don’t remember any of it.”

He didn’t remember his mother’s face or voice. He didn’t remember the gentle fragrance of her body.

And he certainly didn’t remember witnessing, with his own eyes, her brutal murder.

“…It was Demon Emperor Luo Ting who killed her.”

Back then, Luo Ting wasn’t yet the sovereign of the Demon Court ruling over the Demon Bright.

At that time, he was merely the most trusted friend and fierce general under the previous Demon King, Su Zhen.

In those days, the leader of the Yao Clan could only be called “king”—no one dared to overstep and claim the title of “emperor.” Because the demon immortals already had an emperor.

The Immortal Emperor was their emperor.

After all, demon immortals were legitimate immortals too.

Even tracing back another millennium, before the human immortals monopolized the Unstained Immortal Realm and expelled all the demon immortals, the supreme position of “Immortal Emperor” had always rotated between human immortals and demon immortals.

But after the human immortals seized the Unstained Immortal Realm for themselves, the Immortal Emperor’s throne was firmly held by their lineage.

The demon immortals, exiled to the Mortal Realm, had no choice but to elect their own new leader—that was the origin of the “Demon King.”

Yet the Mortal Realm ultimately fell under the jurisdiction of the Human Emperor.

This was the law of the Heavenly Dao, irreversible. Thus, every generation of Demon King, in exchange for the Human Emperor’s permission for demon immortals to reside peacefully in the Mortal Realm, bowed subserviently, stayed in their lane, and kept their underlings strictly obedient—lest a single misstep lead to expulsion from the Mortal Realm once more.

From then on, the demon immortals lived quietly in the Mortal Realm for nearly a millennium, minding their own business.

Not all demon immortals were content with such a fate, however.

Especially the elder demon immortals who had personally witnessed the expulsion a thousand years prior.

Many never gave up secretly amassing power, hoping one day to reclaim their ancestral land, the Unstained Immortal Realm.

Among them was Su Zhen, once a general under the previous Demon King alongside Luo Ting.

He simply couldn’t stomach the “groveling subservience and utter weakness” of successive Demon Kings, nor accept that the Yao Clan endured such profound humiliation and hatred yet still chose to swallow their pride in the Mortal Realm.

Hundreds of years ago, Su Zhen joined forces with Luo Ting to assassinate the previous Demon King and successfully usurped the throne.

“For the next few centuries, Su Zhen and Luo Ting schemed together, wildly recruiting followers and resorting to any means necessary…”

Not only did the two incite hatred against human immortals among the younger generation of demon immortals, but they also scoured for long-lost forbidden dark arts at any cost—spreading lies, framing others, shifting blame, sowing discord, employing every overt and covert plot imaginable…

“They even eventually infiltrated the Abyss of the Three Realms to tamper with the Sealing Demon Great Seal.”

The Abyss of the Three Realms was the slumbering site of the Three Realms Stone, known as the foundation of the Three Realms.

This place was a rift in heaven and earth, perpetually shrouded in bone-eroding, soul-melting chaotic gales and the eternal fog of oblivion that corroded immortal essence and divine souls.

Space twisted chaotically within the chasm; one wrong step could mean eternal descent into the void. Its perils rivaled even the Ancient Divine Traces riddled with prohibitions today.

Only a rare few human or demon immortals at the Transformation Realm could even attempt entry.

At the abyss’s depths lay the Sealing Demon Great Seal, which had existed for ten millennia.

Su Zhen and Luo Ting knew full well that with demon immortal power alone, they couldn’t confront the deeply rooted Unstained Immortal Realm head-on.

Thus, they hatched this vicious scheme: loosen the grand formation and borrow the Demon Clan’s might to upheave the world and devastate the human immortals.

Then they could seize the chaos for profit and revive the Yao Clan.

…

It was an utterly perilous, mad plan—one misstep could backfire catastrophically, even leading to mutual destruction.

Yet Su Zhen and Luo Ting embraced it without hesitation, their resolve terrifyingly ruthless.

The ten-millennia-old Sealing Demon Great Seal was forged from ancient demonic god power, after all. Even as top powerhouses of their era, the duo could only budge it a fraction at a time, exhausting their demon power.

Su Zhen, however, was exceedingly patient about it.

He often laughed that “drip by drip wears away the stone.”

Since the plan was so protracted, he made a two-pronged pact with Luo Ting—

Luo Ting would research and gather other dark arts and secret techniques, while Su Zhen made repeated trips to the abyss over centuries to chip away at the Sealing Demon Great Seal, even if only by a hair’s breadth each time.

This dual approach would surely maximize their odds.

Over those centuries, whenever Su Zhen had a moment free, he headed to the Abyss of the Three Realms.

Time marched on; the elder demon immortals from a thousand years ago gradually passed away, and calls for vengeance within the demon immortal ranks grew ever fainter. Only Luo Ting refused to forget the old grudges—and he was grateful to always have Su Zhen, his like-minded ally, by his side.

But gradually, he keenly sensed a change—

Su Zhen had transformed.

Luo Ting couldn’t comprehend it.

The Su Zhen of old had despised human immortals even more than he did, with a vengeance burning hotter.

Why had he suddenly changed? He didn’t understand.

It was only later, after secretly defecting to Immortal Emperor Wu Fu, that he glimpsed the truth through the Haotian Mystic Mirror, which the former emperor used to monitor anomalies across the Three Realms.

…

Demon King Su Zhen was a once-in-a-millennium prodigy of the demon immortal world.

Outwardly handsome and outgoing, always smiling in a way that drew people close. But inwardly, his will was ironclad, willing to use any means for his goals, charging ahead once set on a path.

Luo Ting often sensed in him a rare… innocent cruelty, even by his own standards.

This was precisely why Luo Ting, who thought highly of himself, willingly served under Su Zhen for centuries as his right-hand man.

He truly believed Su Zhen was more naturally kingly—decisive, ruthless, single-minded.

Su Zhen had always been this way.

Who could have foreseen that, hundreds of years prior, deep in the Abyss of the Three Realms, he would encounter a special being?

It was at the abyss’s absolute depths—a swirl of Breath of Chaos enveloping the Sealing Demon Great Seal.

Legends held that at the end of the ancient war between gods and demons, the demonic god Cang Ming fell. His final strand of primal divine breath was forcibly extracted by the heavenly gods and refined into the Sealing Demon Great Seal, used to exile and imprison his Demon Clan followers who ravaged the world.

Yet under the Heavenly Dao’s rules, even gods weren’t omnipotent.

Thus, the gods’ seal would slowly dissipate over endless ages.

This seal, forged from a demonic god’s primal divine breath, was mighty enough to endure ten millennia unscathed.

But the gods of old hadn’t anticipated that, after millions of years, though the seal didn’t fade, the interplay of supreme god-demon power and endless time would gradually birth something new within the Breath of Chaos: a nascent, lonely… divine consciousness.

…

Su Zhen never imagined the Breath of Chaos could possess a consciousness.

That time, he was simply carrying out his usual “drip by drip” routine. As his demon power waned and fatigue set in, a low, laughter-tinged voice suddenly echoed in the pitch-black abyss:

“Your power… so sweet, so warm. Thank you, I’m full now.”

Su Zhen froze in horror, his demon power instantly coiling tight.

Yet even as a pinnacle demon immortal of the age, he was insignificant as dust before an ancient demonic god’s primal aura.

If the Breath of Chaos harbored malice, squashing him would be like crushing an ant—perhaps a mere thought could topple the Three Realms and reduce them to ash.

But the Breath of Chaos had no desire for apocalypse.

He was simply… too lonely.

Imprisoned at the abyss’s bottom for millions of years, Demon King Su Zhen was one of the rare few to reach this place—and persistently feed him such pure demon power, a true “good person.”

He just yearned for someone to talk to.

…

After the initial shock, Su Zhen quickly regained his composure.

Partly to preserve his life and escape safely; partly because he coveted the infinite, world-shaking power contained within the Breath of Chaos.

So he responded warmly, deftly maneuvering the conversation, and promised to visit often.

In the years that followed, they became “friends.”

Su Zhen visited frequently, regaling Him with tales of the world’s seasonal changes and amusing anecdotes from the various clans.

He brought exquisite Mortal Realm trinkets and fine Immortal Realm wines; taught the naive spirit the game of go, and played ancient qin melodies in the desolate abyss to fill it with clear tones.

Though the Breath of Chaos was born of an ancient demonic god’s consciousness and had existed for ten millennia…

Perhaps due to millions of years of isolation from the world…

His nature was like that of a newborn babe: innocent, kind, pure and untainted.

To someone as cunning as Su Zhen, He was transparent as water—easy to manipulate.

Over those years, Su Zhen indeed reaped many benefits from his “friend.”

With just a bit of his own demon power as bait, he easily obtained vast quantities of pure, overwhelming ancient demonic god power from the Breath of Chaos.

To Him, it was a drop in the bucket, but it let Su Zhen feel his own strength surging, a restless arrogance swelling in his heart.

The only issue: these infused demonic god powers seemed bound by some rule, automatically sealed beneath a sturdy layer.

Su Zhen knew full well what terrifying might unlocking that seal would unleash.

He tried repeatedly but couldn’t crack it.

No matter—he wasn’t in a hurry.

A century flew by, their “bond” growing ever “deeper.”

That year, Su Zhen’s birthday approached. By then, the Breath of Chaos had learned many Mortal Realm customs and wanted to give him a gift.