Volume One: "The Nature of the Devil Does Not Change"
Titan King pulled the sword out, reassembled it into his arm, then grabbed the wolf and lifted it overhead with both hands. He pulled to the right with his right hand and to the left with his left—until, seconds later, the wolf's body tore into two halves.
Its intestines splattered across Titan King's screen, and blood burst out like a fountain… yet the wolf still didn't die.
Titan King spoke in his distorted, reversed voice:
".ssenkraD fo dniM eht fo esuaceb si siht ,mmH .....?tey deid t'nsah llits eH"
The System translated immediately for Ikalat and Lin Yuan.
System:
Reverse-speech translation: "He still hasn't died yet?….. Hmm, this is because of the Mind of Darkness."
Titan King grabbed the half that still had the wolf's head and began crushing it—until the eyes popped out of their sockets, the jaw bent unnaturally, and the head slammed into the ground, its nose shattering—until finally…
"Khh!"
The skull cracked at last.
Titan King instantly grabbed the wolf's brain and split it into two. He took the right half, then spoke coldly, his screen showing:
">:("
".tifeneb eguh a em evig lliw dnim detelpmoc siht dna ,rewop lanoitidda emos niag ll'I ,tsal tA .trap tfel eht ssessop I dna ,ssenkraD fo dniM eht fo trap thgir ehT"
System:
Reverse-speech translation: "The right part of the Mind of Darkness, and I possess the left part. At last, I'll gain some additional power, and this completed mind will give me a huge benefit."
Mist spread around Titan King, and Scarlet King returned to his human form as everyone stared at him.
Suddenly, Scarlet King placed his hand on the right side of his head—then the sword shot out violently, cracking bone, slicing flesh, and tearing open the right side of his skull. Chunks flew into the air, and blood spilled from Scarlet King's brain. His military cap fell to the ground.
Yet Scarlet King's face didn't change at all—no expression, no breath—like a moving corpse that only walked toward its goal. He felt no pain. Only warm red liquid streamed from his head, a contradiction against the coldness of his body.
Everyone stared in shock.
Scarlet King looked at them with a mocking smile and said:
"You're wondering why I didn't die? Because of the left part of the Mind of Darkness. As long as it exists, it preserves my awareness and soul—and that's the same reason the wolf didn't die until now."
He set the right brain piece back into place, picked up his military cap, and put it on again, hiding the damage as best he could.
But the area near his temple was still completely destroyed—obvious to the eye.
Lin Yuan spoke in fear:
"You… devil! How can someone do that to himself?!"
Ikalat looked at him with cold sarcasm and said:
"Oh. First time you haven't been thinking about marriage."
Scarlet King replied coldly, spreading his hands in the air:
"I'm ready to sacrifice myself—and the world—for my goal. In the end, I have nothing left to cling to except my goal… and I don't even know whether it truly exists, or if it's just a stupid joke my mind invented."
Scarlet King moved—then a huge violet gate opened in the sky.
One of the disciples, holding his broken arm, said:
"It's definitely made by the Heavenly Moon Sect."
Everyone sat down and began recovering, while Scarlet King watched the gate.
He walked to the wolf's corpse, pulled out the Sealed World Talisman, opened a large gate, and started throwing the Lightning Wolf's organs and body parts into it. He said calmly:
"Body parts of a fifth-rank beast are considered a treasure—resources and food."
Suddenly, qi exploded out of Scarlet King's body. A mythic black aura burst from him, tearing the surrounding space, bending and warping the area itself. Everyone's eyes widened in shock.
Ikalat spoke as sweat poured down his face:
"Hah… he broke through to the Qi Refining Realm, Level Five. Damn it—he's a real monster!"
Scarlet King laughed, thinking with a devilish smile:
(Hahaha… all of this is because of the Mind of Darkness. I'm strong now—but I'm still extremely weak compared to those above me, because I haven't stabilized my realm.)
The violet gate suddenly cracked—then fully opened.
Around fifty experts entered: some at the Qi Refining Realm, others at the Qi Condensation Realm, and some at the Path Beginning Realm.
Four of them were at Path Beginning Realm, Level Five—the highest among them.
The girl shouted:
"Father!!"
She ran to her father as he descended from the sky and pulled her into his arms.
Immediately, Scarlet King shoved Lin Yuan forward and shouted loudly:
"Masters! If not for this young man, we would never have survived! He saved us from a savage pack of Lightning Wolves!"
"Power Stones + rating, please"