Merin stands at the lip of the vast tunnel, devil energy pouring upward like a black tide.

The pressure gnaws at his mind, whispers tugging at his soul, promising power even as they seek to hollow him out.

He tests the feeling carefully.

If he allows full conversion here, even returning to his true body later will not reverse it—he will remain a devil forever.

His eyes narrow.

This much corruption… it could only have been left behind by a fifth-stage cultivator.

Supremes vanish after ten to twenty thousand years in this world, but Merin has never believed they all die.

Beside him, Lou Yuan waits in silence.

Merin’s voice cuts through the suffocating dark.

“Are you sure we don’t have to step into the inner area to reach the portal?”

Lou Yuan nods firmly. “I am sure.”

Merin studies him, then turns toward the staircase carved into the tunnel wall.

He descends first, Lou Yuan following close behind.

It has been one month since they met again, one month since Merin learned Lou Yuan entered the Devil Abyss for the same reason—to reach the Battlefield realm.

Somewhere deep inside, a portal slumbers, waiting.

Their descent is long and quiet, the air thick with corruption.

Finally, a dark passage splits off the tunnel wall.

Lou Yuan gestures. “The end of that passage is the portal.”

Merin gives a short nod and steps in.

Days later, he halts, staring at a colossal ring of void stone etched with runes long faded.

At its heart yawns a small, round gap, empty and waiting.

Lou Yuan’s voice breaks the silence.

“We need high-level devil cores to power the portal.”

Merin’s gaze sharpens, cold as steel.

“You told me we wouldn’t need to enter the inner area.”

Lou Yuan only shrugs.

“Brother, to reach the portal, we didn’t. But to start it… We must. Six high-ranked devil cores to ignite the array.”

Merin’s face hardens.

Six devil lords.

Hunting them is not the problem.

The true danger lies in how much devil energy will claw at his soul with every battle.

And with every step, the bargain threatens to tip against him.

A few days later, Lou Yuan glances back on the long descent.

Yu Feng lags behind, each stride deliberate, as though every motion is a war.

Lou Yuan lowers his voice within, speaking to the devil bound in his ring.

“Will he be all right?”

The devil’s tone is calm, almost indifferent.

“Your senior brother has not completely fallen. But each step is a struggle against the devil in his heart.”

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Lou Yuan frowns. “Then there’s no way to help him?”

“None,” the devil replies. “Now, only he can help himself.”

Lou Yuan exhales slowly, eyes lingering on Yu Feng’s strained figure before he turns back to the stairs.

The devil’s voice coils again through his mind.

“But be wary. In the inner area, the devil energy will press harder. Its influence will surge.”

Lou Yuan nods once, the weight of warning settling heavily in his chest.

Behind him, Merin has already split his consciousness.

One part steers his body downward, steady and unyielding.

The other retreats into the illusion space, where black shadows gnaw endlessly at the walls.

There, he wrestles the inner devil, smothering it again and again with sheer force of will.

Even as he fights, his thoughts churn, deducing, searching, trying to weave a method that might erase the corruption at its root.

But the answers remain hidden.

He cannot yet trace how the devil’s energy touches the soul.

And without knowing that, no cure can exist.

The devil energy is like a virus burrowing into his soul, and he knows he must forge a firewall strong enough to block its invasion.

But such a defence demands full comprehension of the devil energy itself, and that path stretches long years, perhaps centuries, because this energy was born from a supreme cultivator’s hand.

Only a supreme could unravel it completely, and he is far from that peak.

Even if he dared dream of reaching it, he is not confident.

There is only one throne of supremacy, and the race for it has already begun.

He hasn’t even set foot on the starting line.

For now, only his illusion world stands between him and utter corruption.

The devil’s energy cannot wholly transform his soul so long as the illusion of space endures.

Then the way forward is clear—he must continue to strengthen it.

Yet even that road shows its own wall.

The illusion space has reached its current limit, stretched as far as his understanding allows.

To break through, he must deduce the next step.

Not now—not when danger looms too near.

His eyes narrow on the end of the staircase ahead, where darkness thickens and faint roars echo from afar.

The devil beasts are waiting.

The inner area lies more than ten thousand feet beneath the ground, yet the moment he steps within, he feels it has no difference from the surface world—save for one thing.

The laws here are utterly different.

Merin stills, stretches his senses, and the truth dawns sharp and cold.

This is no longer the Shenyuan continent.

He has crossed into a micro realm.

The supreme behind the devil energy embedded this realm within the world itself.

Whether that supreme carved it open with his own hand or dragged an existing fragment from the void and anchored it here, Merin cannot tell.

Both methods are so far beyond him that he can only marvel at the craft.

But marvelling changes nothing.

He walks forward, each step sinking deeper into a place that does not belong.

Minutes pass, and from the warped horizon emerges a beast.

Its presence is heavy, a Tao Lord realm devil beast.

Three heads snarl—lion, deer, and snake—resting on the body of a horse, its scorpion tail rattling with venom.

Its roar shakes the ground.

Merin doesn’t flinch. He steps forward as the beast charges, the earth trembling beneath its hooves.

Lou Yuan grips his staff tight, spirit crystal glowing, and calls out, “Brother, do you need my help?”

Merin’s eyes remain fixed on the monster. “No need.”

With that, the illusion space unfurls, swallowing the battlefield.

The air twists. The ground bends. Lou Yuan staggers, suddenly feeling as though the very rules around him have been rewritten. His strength falters, suppressed as if the world itself resists him.

“Devil!” he shouts inwardly, voice sharp in his mind, “What’s going on?”

The old voice answers with calm certainty. “This is a domain. Your senior brother has turned his Tao into a domain, bending the rules of the world within it. If his strength is high enough, he can make water burn like fire, fire flow like water, even reverse the passage of time inside his domain.”

Lou Yuan’s eyes widen, a spark of desire flashing deep within. “Then quickly—tell me how I can turn my Tao into a domain.”

The devil chuckles low. “You cannot. Not yet. To shape Tao into a domain, your Tao must first ascend to at least the Saint realm. Only then will you have the foundation to alter reality itself.”

Lou Yuan bites his lip, torn between awe and frustration, while ahead of him, Merin drives straight into the charging devil beast, illusion space tightening like a vice.

Lou Yuan asks, “Then how could his Tao reach the Saint realm before he even reaches the Saint realm?”

The devil answers, calm and measured, “Tao and cultivation realm are different. Even a mortal with no cultivation can possess a Tao.”

Lou Yuan blinks. “Oh!!”

The devil’s voice deepens, carrying weight. “Your senior brother suppresses his inner devil because of his Tao. The gap between his Tao and cultivation keeps the corruption at bay. But when his cultivation rises to catch up with his Tao, that balance will shatter. You should remind him. He will be a valuable ally on your path.”

Lou Yuan nods slowly, his gaze fixed on Merin.

Ahead, his senior brother’s fists blaze with destructive power, each punch radiating the aura of annihilation. The devil beast staggers, its monstrous vitality keeping it alive longer than most—but every strike of the Destruction Fist tears at that vitality, cutting it down piece by piece until finally, its three heads fall silent and its massive body crashes to the ground.

Merin stands tall, black aura curling faintly around him, then, without pause, he hunts down five more devil beasts. Each falls the same way, their cores ripped free by his hand.

With six cores collected, they return to the portal.

Merin sets them into the six round gaps carved into the void-stone ring.

Lou Yuan fiddles with the runes carved across its frame. The structure hums, the stone trembling, and with a deep groan of awakening, a swirling purple whirlpool blossoms into being within the ring.

They glance at each other.

And without another word, step into the portal together.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep