C787 Break the Inner Demon!

Yu Yuan's Mindscape was violently disturbed by the words of the Ghost King, Dhoreus!

Boom!

Heartfelt voices detonated in Yu Yuan's mind like divine thunder, inflicting excruciating pain upon him.

"You were meant to die!"

"You are a blight upon the Everlands!

"You have succumbed to wickedness and bear the weight of your sins!"

Dhoreus's words echoed as thunderous convictions within his heart, with his remnant soul and spiritual sense forging them into divine lightning that exploded within his soul.

The three souls of heaven, earth, and man were all caught in the upheaval, trembling uncontrollably under the relentless assault of the divine lightning!

Crack!

More bolts of lightning, capable of rending the heavens, streaked through, as if intent on splitting his skull.

The agony in his soul was exponentially greater than any physical torment he had suffered during his practice of the Evil Body Refining technique.

His Mindscape felt as if it were on the brink of annihilation, his soul teetering on the edge of destruction!

Yu Yuan's eyes were suffused with blood, and bursts of crimson light erupted from them.

Each speck of blood was the crystallized essence of his energy, spirit, and remnant soul.

Within the River Styx of the Underworld, the towering soul projection of Dhoreus was etched with ruthless coldness. He watched Yu Yuan with an icy glare reserved for the most heinous of sinners, silent now.

He knew his objective had been met.

Yu Yuan, who had never before faced the onslaught of an inner demon, was now haunted by the agonizing memories of his past life. The tales of Hong Qi had morphed into inner demons, ambushing Yu Yuan as he attempted to forge his Lunar Spirit!

Using the past to obliterate the present, this was one of Dhoreus's most cunning and deadly strategies.

Yu Yuan, grappling with the severe pain in his mind, swiftly realized the truth behind the Root of the Lunar Meridian's words.

He had only just begun to communicate with the will of the Root of the Lunar Meridian, making progress in condensing his Lunar Spirit, when Dhoreus had entered through the River Styx.

Moreover, Dhoreus had disclosed the identity of Hong Qi from his past life.

From this revelation, Yu Yuan understood that Dhoreus indeed had the power to peer into the Root of the Lunar Meridian and could project himself through any stretch of the River Styx.

It was no surprise, then, that the Root of the Lunar Meridian harbored such dread of Dhoreus. The pact they had struck hinged on one crucial condition: the death of Dhoreus.

If the Root of the Lunar Meridian regarded him as a toxin, what did that imply about his own existence in the Everlands? Was he also a poison?

This troubling thought gave rise to a tempest of Yin Qi within his Mindscape.

The massive storm swirled with his self-doubt and self-negation.

A myriad of disordered thoughts coalesced within, intensifying the tumultuous chaos.

"The inner demon is wreaking havoc!"

Yu Yuan abruptly came to the realization that a few words from the Ghost King, Dhoreus, had stirred his inner demon!

The Divine Thunder and lightning that rent the heavens and earth, including the current storm of Yin Qi, were all manifestations of his own power!

It was not the sorcery of Dhoreus, nor his power, that had seeped into Yu Yuan's mind.

For cultivators, progression often comes with the awakening of inner demons, leading to many unforeseen consequences.

Such as the shattering of the soul!

In his previous state, the soul's refinement had not been an issue, so the inner demon had remained dormant, never surfacing.

Now, as he embarked on refining his soul in the pursuit of the Lunar Spirit, the formation of an inner demon ensued.

Boom!

Yet another Divine Thunder, born of his thoughts, exploded within the earthly soul.

At that moment, Yu Yuan saw the meticulously refined remnant souls shatter under the Divine Thunder, transforming into strands of spiritual sense.

The painstakingly gathered remnant souls were dispersing.

"The Sacred Heart is compromised, I'm on the verge of losing all progress!"

His face paled as he exerted every effort to steady his mind and rectify the chaos.

But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how he attempted to regather the remnant souls with Wraithbinding, they continued to disperse into numerous strands of spiritual sense.

The spiritual sense, with each rising thought, transformed into Divine Thunder and lightning, further empowering the storm of shadow energy.

Fear gripped him as he realized that if this continued, he would rapidly regress.

He would fall back to the early stages of Subtlety, his spiritual sense would vanish, and if he fell to the Veil Breaking stage, his soul might shatter completely, leading to a tragic death—bypassing the regression altogether.

He had never anticipated that a mere projection of words from Dhoreus could obliterate his Mindscape.

Was this to be his end? Was there no solution? What could he do?

In that moment, Yu Yuan was consumed by anxiety. He was acutely aware of the gravity of his predicament. As his soul quivered, he was besieged by a splitting headache and the harrowing sense that his very essence might be extinguished by the relentless assault of his inner demon.

Inner demon, inner demon, you arose from me, you were born of my power!

He came to the stark realization that in this dire situation, no one could come to his aid.

Now, even if the Root of the Lunar Meridian had banished Dhoreus and taken his place, it wouldn't resolve the turmoil wrought by his inner demon.

If he failed to conquer this inner demon, his journey of cultivation would come to an abrupt end today.

Having lived two lives, he faced the prospect of ruin in an instant!

"When I was Hong Qi, I devoted the first half of my life to the meticulous study of pills, seeking the pathways of cultivation. Knowing my life was drawing to a close and my days were numbered, I desperately sought the art of the poison pill, becoming obsessively extreme, and inadvertently causing the deaths of many."

"Indeed, those sins originated from me; they were my doing."

"I have erred, I have walked the path of evil, that was me, that was who I truly was!"

Memories flooded his mind as he introspected, scrutinizing the actions of his former self, Hong Qi, at the twilight of his life.

"There are countless paths in the Dao. The righteous path is the Dao, the devil's path is also the Dao, and so is the evil path!"

Numerous cultivators have faced invasions by inner demons as their earthly souls transformed into Lunar Spirits, overcoming all adversities.

Could a bloodstained magnate of the devil's path, capable of condensing the Lunar Spirit, or a magnate of the evil path, who razed cities and built his cultivation on the souls and bones of the living, not also achieve enlightenment?

The Way of Heaven is indifferent, devoid of distinctions between righteousness and wickedness, valuing only self-recognition.

A multitude of thoughts germinated in Yu Yuan's mind. He scrutinized himself from an outsider's perspective, viewing his past self through the eyes of his current incarnation.

As he methodically sorted through his thoughts, he found tranquility. He ceased to doubt himself, to deny his nature, and instead... he embraced it.

Good or bad, virtuous or wicked, the benevolence of his past life and the corruption of its end were all facets of his being. He opened his heart to accept his duality, the sins he had wrought, and the once frenzied extremes of his past.

When he stopped obsessing over right and wrong and ceased doubting himself, he was astonished to discover that the chaotic psionic power within the sudden storm of Yin Qi had become apathetic. An epiphany struck him. Fresh thoughts emerged in his mind, prompting him to objectively reassess himself, Zhong Chichen's scheming, and the betrayal of his hand-chosen disciple.

Remarkably, the forming divine lightning bolts, one after another, began to vanish. The Mindscape, which had been on the brink of collapse due to Dhoreus's words, started to regain its tranquility. Although the earthly soul had suffered damage and the remnant soul had shattered, as long as the will of the Root of the Lunar Meridian remained, the abundant Yin Qi could still reconvene.

The Way of Heaven was unscathed, and the origins of the three souls remained intact. Sensing the regained stability and serenity of the Mindscape, he grasped yet another principle. On the path of cultivation, every past experience could potentially give rise to an inner demon—including those from past lives.

An inner demon can erupt at any moment. The more one evades, denies, and suppresses it, the more formidable it becomes when it finally bursts forth. Take this instance: without Dhoreus revealing his past identity as Hong Qi and provoking his inner demon, he might have smoothly forged a Lunar Spirit. Instead, his self-doubt, guilt, and self-loathing regarding Hong Qi's tormented end would inevitably evolve into a far more fearsome inner demon in the future.

This could happen in the Spirit Walk Realm, the Solar Spirit Realm, or even the Unbound Realm. When the inner demon eventually explodes, its might could be tenfold or a hundredfold more devastating than now. He might not have the chance to introspect or react before being utterly obliterated by the force unleashed by the inner demon.

"I should actually be grateful to Dhoreus!" With this realization, his eyes opened, devoid of any trace of blood, clear and unfettered.

His gaze transformed, becoming as luminous and reflective as a mirror, crystal clear and transparent. It was as though the very image of the Ghost King Dhoreus had been etched into the depths of his mind.

​