Reader's Note:
I deeply apologize for stopping publication for the entire month. This was due to unavoidable circumstances that forced me to pause temporarily. But what matters is that I have returned to publishing.
Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen: The Mine
Volume One: The Nature of the Devil Never Changes
Arc: The Great Guerrilla War
Less than an hour passed before Scarlet King arrived at the mine, using the spatial formation to exit the sect and then heading north through the Death Forest.
Scarlet King descended in front of the mine, which clearly looked like any ordinary mine from the outside.
"Hah… strange. It looks like a normal mine, but I heard it is filled with poison because of a primordial poison cave beneath it. Fortunately, I have the Poison Pearl, which will absorb all the poison. And even without it, my body possesses strong resistance to poison."
Scarlet King entered the mine and felt nothing. But immediately, he found a green primal stone in front of him.
Scarlet King picked it up, sat down, and examined it while thinking:
(This primal stone is extremely pure… ten times stronger than an ordinary primal stone.)
Scarlet King held the stone and literally ate it. The stone shattered into pieces inside his mouth, the sound of it striking his teeth like chewing ice. This was a faster way to absorb the stone's qi, since it was so pure and there was no issue of polluted qi.
Scarlet King advanced deeper and began seeing half-decomposed corpses. The bodies were scattered near the walls. Some were still clutching their throats, as if death had suffocated inside their lungs before it could escape. Others had already become skeletons.
But Scarlet King ignored them and continued on his way.
Then he began to feel the air was poisoned. Due to his limitless experience in nearly everything, he easily recognized that the poison was airborne—but light, and he could handle it with his body alone.
Scarlet King pressed forward. The deeper he went, the more green and blue primal stones he found embedded in the ceiling, walls, and floor of the mine. Scarlet King either devoured them or collected them for later use.
Suddenly, Scarlet King sensed movement around him. He spun quickly, drew his dagger, and stabbed something in the air.
It was a zombie corpse.
"Hah… a zombie? Does the poison turn corpses into zombies? But…"
Scarlet King noticed no blood flowed from the zombie corpse.
"It seems the poison causes hallucinations… or the corpse is drained of blood."
Immediately, Scarlet King remembered the corpses he had encountered at the start of the path. He turned quickly and spotted three corpses moving strangely.
He thought:
(They are zombies too. It seems this cave is full of zombies.)
Scarlet King moved. A blue electric flash appeared over his hand, and the Imperial Scales Dagger began materializing in his grip.
Then he moved at terrifying speed, passing through the zombies.
Nothing happened to the zombies—except they turned and looked at Scarlet King.
But suddenly, their hands fell.
Then their feet.
Then their heads.
Scarlet King stood watching as green blood began pouring from their bodies. He shrugged coldly and continued deeper into the mine.
After several minutes of walking, the poison grew stronger, the air heavier, the place more silent.
Suddenly, another zombie appeared before Scarlet King, its body massive and featureless.
Scarlet King drew the Imperial Scales Daggers, but suddenly, the zombie slipped past him.
Before he could grasp what had happened, the world was spinning before his eyes.
Scarlet King's head fell to the ground.
[At the black hole's location]
The system screen was visible to the Yin and Yang Guards as they watched the events unfold. They showed no reaction when Scarlet King's head was severed. Lin Yuan, however, was horrified.
"Oh, by the heavens! Is he dead?!"
Yang Guard replied:
"Master will not die so easily. If killing him were simple, existence would not have suffered so much in dealing with him."
Lin Yuan asked, tense and shocked by the guards' coldness:
"What do you mean?! His head was cut off!"
Yin Guard laughed lightly, as if the matter meant nothing at all:
"Let me tell you something. In one of his lives, Master was struck by an attack powerful enough to destroy all the Mortal Dimensions with ease. That blow came from an immortal being, and Master was still mortal. And what happened? Master's body was completely destroyed, and he was banished into nothingness. But minutes later, that immortal's head was severed."
[In the mine]
Even after his head fell, Scarlet King's eyes moved slightly.
The head began melting and merging with the ground, while his body trembled violently. Then a new head emerged from the severed place, along with a surge of blood.
The cloth and military cap reformed immediately.
The zombie stared without any clear understanding. Its consciousness was too weak to grasp why Scarlet King had not died.
Scarlet King turned and looked at the zombie with no expression:
"And did you expect cutting off my head to be enough to kill me? If that were enough, I would never have become the terror of existence."
Scarlet King raised his arm and thrust it forward, the energy cannon emerging. He placed his other hand behind his back, and the cannon began rotating internally, forming a blue qi sphere.
The sphere shot toward the zombie with force, but the zombie leapt over it and charged at Scarlet King.
Suddenly, mist appeared before it, and from within it, a black crystalline sword shot out, piercing its head in seconds.
Then the sword moved, completing the cut through the zombie's body until it fell split in two. The place filled with green blood, which the hard ground drank in.
"Dealing only with force does not always mean victory. You have a mind—use it to remove annoyances faster."
Scarlet King turned and continued deeper into the mine, muttering quietly:
"I need a long-range weapon… a gun, perhaps, like the ones on Earth."
Suddenly, Scarlet King heard a voice inside his mind:
(Master, it seems the new transformation has begun forming its own consciousness.)
Scarlet King thought to himself as he pressed on, the path growing darker with every step:
(Good. This happened with Titan King as well. When I did not use the transformation, one of my severed spiritual fragments moved and entered Titan King, making it conscious, with its own will and independent thought. But it is still me. The same thing is happening with the black hole—it will become like Titan King, with its own consciousness and thinking.)
Scarlet King smiled faintly.
It was a cold, light smile, carrying no clear emotion or expression.
It was merely…
a smile.
"It seems the matter of different transformations will prove useful in this life."
[Elsewhere, far away… the Thousand Flowers Sect]
Two beautiful women stood.
The first was Qing Mang, the sect master.
The second was Ling Lan.
The name the disciples had spread was wrong. They had misheard it amid the noise of the talent test, and from that day on, the mistake spread through the sect as though it were truth. "Ming Ling" was incorrect. The real name was Ling Lan, the greatest female talent in the First Dimension.
They were watching a boy with long black hair, wearing the sect's white robes and a blue band around his forehead with white edges. His face was simple, but filled with determination and resolve. He was training in one of the sect's techniques, called:
"Flower Rending."
The boy drew his sword from its sheath, moved it in a circular motion, then thrust it forward. Thousands of sharp pink flowers burst forth, tearing through the ground violently, as if carving into it.
Qing Mang began clapping gently as she descended beside the boy, who was exhausted and sweating from using the technique:
"Fang Chen, you are truly a talented boy. You were able to use a technique that is extremely difficult even for the inner female disciples of the sect! You are the only male in the sect participating in the Four Sects' Bloody War. We want you to obtain a rank that honors the sect's name."
Fang Chen spoke with a simple laugh:
"Hoho, thank you, Sect Master, for such praise. Do not worry. This humble disciple will honor the sect and take first place."
Inside Fang Chen's mind, a storm was raging, far from reality:
(I must do what the great concepts commanded me… try to eliminate Scarlet King. Big brother, I have grown stronger now, but I must not underestimate you either.)
Fang Chen's expression held a tense yet confident smile, a faint bead of sweat at the side of his face as he imagined defeating Scarlet King and fulfilling what the great concepts had asked of him.
And he began to recall certain memories.
Fang Chen opened his eyes and found himself in a black, dark space, with no clear light except his white soul. He began remembering how he had died.
It had been in a simple wooden house on Earth.
Fang Chen stood in terror, collapsing to the ground, trembling violently:
"B-Big brother! You are insane!"
Scarlet King stood before Fang Chen coldly, a chilling smile on his face:
"Very well. I am insane, and you are stupid. You made a deal with a gang to kill me and our parents just to take my wife? I would not care if our symbolic parents were unimportant, but they were part of my plan to hide temporarily, and you ruined my plan."
Scarlet King advanced suddenly, opened his mouth in a horrifying way, and bit into Fang Chen's shoulder. Then he tore it off with force and swallowed it directly.
"Very well. Your atonement will be getting eaten alive!"
Fang Chen screamed in terror from the pain and fear, clutching his shoulder:
"Brother, please, mercy!!"
Scarlet King did not listen to Fang Chen's weak pleas.
Fang Chen returned to reality, staring into the darkness and thinking:
(Well… it seems I am bound for nothingness.)
And then, suddenly, the darkness cleared and light appeared.
Twenty-two figures stood beside one another. They were clearly female—their bodies completely white, yet curved. Each one had eyes of a different color: orange-brown, green, black-white, red, and others.
The concept with the orange-brown eyes spoke:
"Fang Chen… it is good that you are here again."
Fang Chen tensed and asked, pointing at himself:
"Forgive me, do you know me, miss…?"
The concept spoke:
"The Wheel of Rebirth. I am the Concept of the Wheel of Rebirth. You can distinguish concepts by the color of their eyes. Green is Perseverance. Black with a white dot in the center is Chaos. Complete black is Darkness. And so on."
The Wheel of Rebirth continued:
"And this is not the first time we have met, Fang Chen. But now, I have a special mission. If you carry it out, you will obtain anything you desire."
Fang Chen asked curiously:
"What is the mission? But also… I am dead. How can I help you?"
The Wheel of Rebirth raised her hand, and bronze energy surged from it, striking Fang Chen directly in the forehead:
"I am the Wheel of Rebirth. I will rebirth you into a powerful sect, and your mission is to stop your brother, [Information Deleted], by any method, and for as long as possible."
Fang Chen nodded, accepting the mission.
Then the Concept of Perseverance stepped forward and stood before Fang Chen. She pressed her hand against his heart:
"This is a gift to aid you. The Hope of Perseverance."
Back in reality, Fang Chen pressed his hand to his heart:
"Big brother… when we meet, I will be the victor. And I will not be your meal."
Qing Mang asked in confusion:
"Who are you talking to?"
Fang Chen laughed and replied:
"Oh, well, it seems I have started babbling from too much training."
Fang Chen thought to himself:
(I must keep the matter of my big brother silent for now.)