Volume One: The Nature of the Devil Never Changes
Arc: The Great Guerrilla War
Scarlet King shot forward at devastating speed.
His blade drove straight into the first centipede's eye with merciless force.
Then—
He twisted his waist and delivered a crushing kick to its chest.
Its scales buckled inward.
Its massive torso trembled as though a mountain had slammed into it.
The centipede crashed into the earth, shattering the ground beneath its body.
Scarlet King descended after it.
He raised his fist—
And unleashed a tyrannical punch directly into its face.
The head collapsed inward, reduced to a ruined mass.
He lifted the Ming Hao daggers.
He vanished.
Only a fleeting black flash remained—
And in the next instant,
The centipede's body fragmented into countless perfect cubes.
But—
Another centipede emerged from behind him.
It lunged.
Its jaws snapped shut—
And swallowed half of his body.
The remaining half remained outside its mouth.
Its fangs tightened.
Scarlet King felt the pressure.
Sweat formed along his brow.
But this pain—
Was insignificant.
Memories flickered through his mind:
(Physical pain does not surpass the pain of loneliness…
Nor hunger…
Nor the agony of endless repetition.
Pain nurtures despair.
But…
There is no despair in my dictionary.
There is only undying perseverance.)
Reality did not care about philosophy.
Warmth spilled down his thigh.
He realized—
His abdomen was gone.
His intestines had fallen into the centipede's mouth.
He raised both daggers.
With savage precision—
He drove them into the creature's eyes.
The centipede shrieked violently.
It spat him out.
Scarlet King crashed into the ground with overwhelming force.
The centipede roared, distorting the surrounding space with its scream.
The blood centipede appeared.
It lunged at the void centipede.
Its jaws clamped onto its neck.
It began devouring it.
The void centipede resisted fiercely—
But the blood centipede lacked the strength to end it quickly.
Then—
The final centipede emerged.
It struck the blood centipede from behind.
In a flash—
Tian Sha Gongzhu appeared.
Her blood-forged sword gleamed.
Two strikes.
Two heads severed.
Space ruptured.
Reality split.
A blank white page appeared in the wake of her blade.
She turned toward Scarlet King.
He was kneeling.
Still.
Unmoving.
She rushed to his side and knelt beside him.
"Are you still alive?"
No answer.
Blood streamed from his eyes.
From his nose.
From his mouth.
The internal damage was catastrophic.
His organs shredded.
His meridians torn.
Yet—
He refused to die.
Refused to lose progress.
Refused to awaken once more in an unknown body, in an unknown world.
Through sheer will—
Through legendary perseverance—
He remained alive.
But his body—
Burned.
Torn.
His abdomen open.
He could not move.
Immediately—
Tian Sha Gongzhu activated the Pearl's power.
She laid him down.
The healing began.
Her consciousness entered his Core Aperture.
And there—
She saw them.
Three Dao ropes.
Each engraved with circular sigils.
Within them flowed the symbol of a running river.
Primary Dao restraints.
Her thoughts froze.
(Three ropes…
Three primary Dao Paths…
He hasn't even reached Qi Condensation.
He hasn't entered Beginning of Path.
And these are not secondary paths…
They are core ones.)
Ordinarily—
Upon reaching the Beginning of Path, a cultivator may choose only one primary Dao.
After reaching the End of Path, one may refine twenty-two secondary paths.
Beyond that, countless minor branches.
But more paths mean greater complexity.
A collision between them—
Means death.
A primary path must be constantly nourished.
Through action.
Through catalyst.
Through alignment.
Within his fading consciousness—
Scarlet King thought:
(Dao Paths divide into three thousand noble paths…
And conceptual paths born from pure concepts.
The more users a noble path gains, the stronger the Dao itself becomes.
The more someone refines a conceptual path, the stronger its associated concept grows.
If its users multiply wildly…
It could replace one of the Twenty-Two Grand Concepts.)
His three paths:
Dao of Perseverance.
Dao of Rebirth.
Dao of Benefit.
Tian Sha Gongzhu asked quietly,
"How do you possess three primary paths? That's impossible."
He answered calmly,
"You know that I know you know I am the Rebirth Devil… so there is no need to pretend."
He raised a finger weakly.
"I refined these paths since the dawn of existence."
"Repeating them across lifetimes turned them into instinct."
"The Concepts can only restrain them… until I reach the Beginning of Path."
He inhaled slowly.
"But they must be nourished."
"Rebirth feeds on death."
"Benefit feeds on manipulation and exploitation."
"Perseverance feeds on never stopping."
He looked at her.
"Do you understand?"
She nodded.
Not completely.
But enough.
The healing intensified.
Burned flesh reformed.
Skin regenerated.
Organs reconstructed.
Intestines restored.
But—
Suddenly—
Tian Sha Gongzhu was blasted backward.
Two enormous eyes manifested in the void.
Their pupils rotated like spinning wheels.
A cold feminine voice echoed:
"Oh… [Information Deleted]…"
"So you truly exist."
"I thought Heaven's Will was hallucinating."
"But it seems you have been reborn once more."
Scarlet King clenched his teeth.
"Wheel of Rebirth…"
He rose with difficulty, clutching his still-damaged abdomen.
"So… Heaven's Will informed you."
The eyes rotated slowly.
"Yes."
"But killing you now is pointless."
"You will simply be reborn."
"And return to trouble me again."
A pause.
"I will spare you this time."
"But Heaven's Will is preparing a delightful surprise."
"And I…"
"I will increase the number of Primordial Chaos Golems guarding the fragments of Ghairamengi darkness."
A cold laugh echoed across the void.
"When you reach the Eleventh Dimension…"
"Will you have the strength to defeat a Primordial Chaos Golem?"
"To reclaim the remaining fragments?"
"Will you destroy me?"
"Or will you fail again…"
"As you have countless times before?"
"And in the end…"
"You should thank me."
"Every time you die, I grow stronger."
"Every time you use Dao Paths to increase your strength…"
"We—the Concepts—grow stronger as well."
[Eleventh Dimension — Primordial Chaos]
A colossal golem sat upon a throne formed from fractured void-stone.
Behind it—
Countless others stood in silence.
The first golem smiled.
A terrifying smile.
A smile devoid of humanity.
A smile that did not belong to anything living.