Chapter 103: First Steps on the Demonic Path (Final) |
Zhou Hanchan's figure vanished, reappearing in front of Su Chen in the blink of an eye. She stared at him in silence.
"Hanchan… where have you been all these years?"
Su Chen forced a smile, his voice filled with concern.
Yet Zhou Hanchan did not answer. She continued to gaze at him motionlessly, like a lifeless puppet. The stillness sent chills down the spine and made the scalp tingle.
Su Chen murmured, "For the past hundred years, I searched for you everywhere, but I never found any trace. I thought Zhou Hao had taken your life…"
At last, Zhou Hanchan spoke. Her face remained utterly expressionless.
"You are not my brother… You don't need to keep pretending anymore. Though you resemble him closely, you are not Zhou Chen. The real Zhou Chen died during the outer sect trial. From that day onward, the one who returned was never him again… you have simply been wearing his skin.
"My brother was just an ordinary outer disciple. He had no grand ambitions, no iron will, and he certainly didn't know so many profound cultivation methods. All he ever remembered was what I liked. All he ever wanted was for both of us to survive in the outer sect.
"Who exactly are you?"
"I am Zhou Chen… and Zhou Chen is me."
Zhou Hanchan's aura suddenly exploded outward. Quasi-Saint realm power surged unrestrained. The sky darkened. The sun was obscured. Day and night lost their light.
Su Chen's body was hurled backward. Mountain ranges shattered in his wake.
"You are not Zhou Chen! I will kill you myself… and avenge my brother!"
Her tone was cold—unmelting ice and snow. She had noticed long ago. Ever since her brother returned from the outer sect trial, he had changed. Though he still cared for her, doted on her…
There had always been an invisible barrier. Beneath that familiar skin, another person had been desperately trying to play the role of Zhou Chen.
Zhou Hanchan had refused to believe it at first. She tested him again and again. From his favorite foods to daily habits, to the moment she began cultivating…
This "brother" had become better—stronger, more outstanding. He had become the sacred land's celebrated true disciple, admired by all.
"But what I wanted… was the brother who protected me with everything he had, the one who lived and breathed for our survival together!"
People vanished like snuffed candles. After their parents died, countless disciples inside the sect had coveted the inheritance their parents left behind. Countless others had cast greedy eyes on the young, graceful Zhou Hanchan.
In a sect steeped in darkness, Zhou Chen had raised her step by painful step. Every day had been a struggle. Their only wish had been to survive—together—even if it meant lying broken and bleeding in some forgotten corner, Zhou Chen would still shield her with his own body.
Su Chen rose from the rubble, drenched in blood. Looking at Zhou Hanchan's cold, emotionless face, a trace of daze flickered through him.
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He was Zhou Chen. But Zhou Chen… was ultimately not him. Zhou Chen could have abandoned the martial path for Zhou Hanchan. Su Chen could not.
He grinned, blood staining his teeth.
"Little Chan'er… From now on, I won't hold back. Show me everything you've learned in these hundred years!"
A hundred lifetimes of reincarnation... Am I myself… or someone else?
Su Chen had never imagined that the final step would come at the hands of this life's little sister.
Zhou Hanchan's face remained blank.
"I will kill you with my own hands… and then I will find whatever trace of my brother remains."
Words were useless now.
Su Chen fully unleashed the Primordial Taotie Physique. The ferocious beast of the ancient era manifested in the world, opening its blood-drenched maw as though it would devour heaven and earth itself.
Though gravely wounded and without his saint artifact, Su Chen's strength remained horrifying.
Zhou Hanchan had disappeared for a hundred years—no one knew where she had gone. Yet the divine physique phenomenon that now surrounded her was incomparably noble, as though a true deity from the Primordial Era had awakened. Her power was in no way inferior to Su Chen at his peak—perhaps even stronger.
Blood flowed from Su Chen's mouth. He refused to yield. Countless cultivation methods surged through his mind, linking together like meridians.
Heaven and earth trembled. Winds howled, and clouds surged. Boundless phenomena rolled outward in majestic waves.
This was the phenomenon of becoming a Saint!
Zhou Hanchan raised her pale hand.
Twelve demonic pavilions materialized out of thin air, ancient and oppressive, descending toward Su Chen with crushing weight.
A colossal pressure slammed into him. Excruciating pain tore through his mind. An ancient soul imprint flared to life inside his sea of consciousness, blazing with blinding light, trying to force him to abandon all resistance.
"The Sun-Devouring Soul Tether!"
Su Chen clenched his teeth against the agony. Shock rippled through him. Even after Zhou Hao's death, the soul tether in his mind had not vanished…
An overwhelming, suffocating aura pressed down from point-blank range, intent on suppressing him completely.
"This much… and you think you can make me bow to fate? What a joke!"
Su Chen's teeth ground together audibly. Zhou Hao's final words echoed in his ears. A bitter, desolate smile curved his bloodstained lips. The already gloomy sky darkened further, as though the heavens themselves were furious.
In that moment, Su Chen caught a glimpse of an incomprehensibly massive face hovering above the Western Regions, looking down upon everything.
The firmament itself was a cage. All living beings were merely marionettes on strings. Neither he nor Zhou Hao had ever truly been free. From the very beginning, everything had been a meticulously staged performance.
Countless runes suddenly blazed into existence around Su Chen's body—brilliant, flickering like countless candle flames. They converged in his palm, forming a sword.
It was not a saint artifact. It was the accumulation of nine lifetimes.
"I am Zhou Chen. Zhou Chen is me. Even if this is fate… fate must still be seized by my own hand!"
Su Chen swung the sword.
The sword light cleaved through all twelve demonic pavilions and slashed toward Zhou Hanchan.
The strike was too fast—impossibly fast.
Zhou Hanchan had no time to react.
Su Chen's consciousness suddenly went dark.
In his final moment of awareness, that unparalleled sword passed within a hair's breadth of Zhou Hanchan and continued skyward—straight toward an incomprehensibly vast figure clad in white robes, countless demonic patterns flowing across them like rivers of stars.
Zhou Hanchan stood frozen.
Gentle spiritual rain began to fall from the sky, pattering against her skin.
Was it rain… or tears? She could no longer tell.
Before her lay a single pill.
"Swallow it. Become a Saint."
…
Su Chen opened his eyes. He had returned once more to the Reverse Fate Space.
"So that's how it was… Those old bastards really were ruthless enough."
His mind gradually cleared. The Sun-Devouring Sacred Land… the Primordial Remnant Clan… Zhou Hao… Zhou Chen. From the very start, they had all been pawns.
Zhou Hao—the Sacred Lord himself—never even possessed the master imprint of the Sun-Devouring soul tether. That was why he had relied on Slave Seal Pills to control others. In the end, the man had been nothing more than another unfortunate puppet!
Su Chen gave a wry laugh. Who could have imagined that the master of a sacred land, a peak Saint, was himself enslaved? And in the end, he died under the very soul tether he thought he controlled.
Su Chen had no idea what the shadowy existence behind it all hoped to achieve by orchestrating such an elaborate game—at such enormous cost.
But one thing was certain: that existence had a purpose. And that purpose… most likely centered on Zhou Hanchan.
No one would go to such lengths purely for entertainment. No one would spend centuries setting up such a grand play just to watch a good show.