Instead, they made him unstoppable.
Back in the cave...
Az'rethul smiled. Lin Wei had accepted his blood essence.
He muttered something under his breath, but Lin Wei could hear it. It was about his soul—but he didn't understand what it meant.
Then, Az'rethul raised his hand. The air vibrated. His hand turned invisible—then reappeared, holding a ring.
Az'rethul reached into it and pulled out something… a fruit. But this wasn't any ordinary fruit. It was breathing. Lin Wei could hear it… feel it. A heartbeat.
"Help yourself," the Devil said.
Lin Wei hesitated. He looked at the fruit. Then looked at Az'rethul.
But Az'rethul didn't care. His eyes said, take it or don't.
The fruit pulsed in Lin Wei's hand like a living heart.
"Let the worst happen," I whispered
I took the first bite... then the second. The taste? I can't even describe it properly. It was juicy, crunchy, sweet beyond anything I've ever tasted—it was like eating a piece of heaven wrapped that is specially made for me. Before I knew it, I was devouring it like I'd been starving my whole life.
As I chewed, something changed.
It was like my body had been waiting for this. The fruit wasn't just food—it was alive. Every bite sent waves of energy crashing through me. My skin tingled. My bones hummed. My blood felt like it was boiling, but not in pain—like it was rewriting itself.
I looked up at the devil, his gaze still locked on me, watching.
"You really are something, Lin Wei," he said softly, that same strange smile curling on his lips. "Your fate... it's no longer yours alone."
I wanted to ask what he meant, but I couldn't speak. My throat burned, not from pain, but from something else—something rising inside me.
Then it hit me.
I dropped to my knees, hands clawing at the ground as i started feeling a pain within every part of my being.
In the real world, back outside the cave—His sleeping body was shaking violently.
The shell covering me—like an egg—began to crack, glowing with divine and demonic energy. Thunder roared from above, louder and louder. The sky itself seemed furious, lashing out with bolts of lightning one after the other. Each strike hit the shell protecting me, trying to destroy whatever was being born inside.
But instead of killing Lin wei, the lightning was feeding fastening his evolution without knowing.
The thunderstorm that was meant to erase him... was tempering him.
It was like every force of nature—the wind, the storm, even the laws of the world—was trying to fight him… and in doing so, they made him stronger. Every bolt of lightning didn't break him—it rebuilt him. His flesh melted and reformed. His bones shattered and fused back stronger. Even his blood was changing, turning into something ancient… something beyond any known bloodline.
He wasn't just evolving.
He was becoming something new.
Something not even the heavens had planned for.
And deep inside him… another bloodline stirred. A hidden one, long sealed, now awakened by the fusion of the Devil's Blood Essence and the Blood of Eden. Even he didn't know of it.
But it was powerful. Too powerful.
The thunder in the sky became purple, then black, then golden—changing with each strike, trying harder and harder to erase him. But it couldn't.
Inside the egg, He was nothing but glowing liquid, no longer a man—just potential. Raw, terrifying, divine potential. He was being reforged.
The rules of the world came down to kill him—but they were too late. All they did was fuel his rebirth.
Back in the cave, the devil laughed quietly. His voice was soft, but his smile held something deep. I was still suffering from the pain due to the fruit he gave me to eat.
This went on for hours before it finally stopped. I stood up, wiped the sweat from my face, and looked toward the devil, waiting for an explanation.
"I just cleansed your soul," he said calmly, his face showing nothing—like he was impossible to read.
"Why?" I asked, confused.
"It had to be done so that my blood can completely merge with yours," he replied.
Lin Wei didn't know if he was telling the truth, but he could feel something had left his body. He felt lighter, fresher—as if something dirty had been removed from inside him.
"Drop your blood on the chain," the devil said suddenly, snapping Lin Wei out of his thoughts.
Lin Wei looked at him with suspicion. He didn't want to do anything unless he understood the reason behind it. He still didn't trust this being completely.
The devil seemed to understand his hesitation and said calmly, "If I wanted to harm you, I wouldn't have bothered giving you my blood or cleansing your soul. Just do it. In return, I'll grant you one favor."
"Really?" Lin Wei asked, raising an eyebrow.
The devil nodded.
Lin Wei paused, thinking hard about what to ask. Then he suddenly remembered something.
"You're from the Devil Clan, right?" Lin Wei asked.
Az'rethul's gaze snapped toward him immediately. A chill ran through Lin Wei's body. But then the he smiled and nodded.
"I heard the ancient devil race had a treasure that could perfectly and automatically refine medicines and elixirs—one that only needed the right ingredients and a recipe. But it needed a strong source of fire first, right?"
Az'rethul looked slightly surprised.
"That's true," he said slowly. "We have a few treasures like that."
"A few?" Lin Wei repeated, surprised. That meant there were several of them out there. He quickly added, "I want one."
"Alright," the devil replied. "But the one I have is still in its lowest stage. It was only recently developed before I left for the War of the Gods. But it has great potential. The more you upgrade it, the more precious the elixirs it can create."
He waved his hand and summoned a small, old-looking furnace. It floated gently toward Lin Wei and landed in his hands. Lin Wei could tell it was a compressed treasure—its real size was likely much larger.
Then, just like the devil said, Lin Wei cut his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the chain.
Nothing happened.
He looked up at the devil, confused, but the devil only smiled.
Then Lin Wei remembered something important—something he had been meaning to ask someone about. The strange black metal he had been carrying. He had found many pieces of it in different shapes, along with a crystal that supposedly opened a portal to the God Realm. The City Lord of Baishi City once told him he'd look into it, but now maybe this devil could help.
First, Lin Wei pulled out the crystal. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.
Az'rethul glanced at it and replied casually, "Realm crystal." As if it wasn't anything special.
"What's so special about it?" he asked, smiling innocently. But Lin Wei knew better. This wasn't some harmless man. This was a god—an ancient one at that.
Yet strangely, Lin Wei didn't feel afraid standing before him. Maybe the devil was manipulating something... or maybe it was just his aura. He'd heard stories—normal people or even cultivators couldn't survive standing in front of gods. But here he was. Talking. Calmly.
"Do you have something that can help me open a realm?" Lin Wei asked.
"Why should I give it to you?" Az'rethul replied, still smiling.
"I just have a feeling you can help," Lin Wei said simply.
Az'rethul looked at him for a second, then said, "I don't give things freely. Just know that whenever I give something, I also take—just in other ways."
"But you gave me power already," Lin Wei replied. "What did you take from me then?"
The devil nodded slowly but didn't answer.
"You've got a strange way of helping people," Lin Wei muttered. "Feels more like doing business."
Az'rethul smirked. Then, without a word, he brought out a strange, ancient-looking tool full of holes and sent it floating toward Lin Wei.
"You know what to do," he said.
Looking at the tool, Lin Wei could tell it was made of some mysterious metal__ Strong, Heavy and very old. "So I place the crystals in the holes?"
Az'rethul nodded. "There are five holes. And in the middle, you'll need to use blood—powerful beast blood. Find the beast yourself."
Lin Wei nodded and then brought out the unknown black metal he had kept hidden for so long.
"What's of this?" he asked.
Az'rethul's face instantly changed.
He stared at it like he'd just seen the most precious treasure in the world.
"Where did you get that?" he asked, his voice suddenly serious and low.
"I found it," Lin Wei replied, keeping it vague.
Az'rethul's eyes narrowed. "I'll give you anything for it. Name your price."
Lin Wei could feel the desire pouring off him. The devil wanted it badly—more than anything he had seen so far.
Lin Wei smirked. "Then help me with something. You said I have a countdown—that something inside me could destroy me at any moment. Help me survive long enough to get my revenge."
Az'rethul stared for a moment, then sighed. He brought out another tool.
"This is a geographical mapping tool," he said. "It can give you a full view of any place you're in. It can follow your commands, track treasures—though it's not always accurate. It can't detect treasures more powerful than itself, but it will still give you the general layout or location."
This means that if you ever enter a God Realm in the future—which you're already seeking a way into—or any other special place, this will allow you to locate the position of any precious items within that area. It can map out the entire place, clearly labeling everything for you. With it, you'll be able to discover countless treasures, helping you grow stronger much faster. In short, having this will open up many more opportunities for you.
"Anything else you need?" he added.
"I need a storage ring," Lin Wei said. "A supreme one. Something that will never run out of space."
The devil didn't waste a second. He tossed him a ring.
"It's for cultivators," Lin Wei noted, trying to activate it but failing.
"You are already one," Az'rethul said simply.
Before Lin Wei could respond, he started vanishing from the hall, his body back in the wild is already calling out for him.
The devil's expression shifted. His eyes widened, and his hand shot out in panic but the chains were still bidding in a place that he can't struggle free from.
Key?
He shouted towards Lin Wei, meaning that he should throw the metal to him because he can see that lin Wei is vanishing
Key?" Lin Wei asked, puzzled by the devil's reaction.
Seeing Az'rethul's sudden desperation as he shouted for him to throw the metal while also calling it a key, and realizing he was beginning to vanish, Lin Wei instantly understood—this was far more valuable than he had imagined.
He was definitely not giving it up.
Az'rethul didn't answer. He looked furious. His aura exploded, shaking the space. It was like reality itself had cracked. The air turned thick—hard to breathe. This was his true power, the one he had been hiding all along and that's just 1% of his total power that is being released because up to 99% of his power is being sealed by the chains.
But Lin Wei's body was already disappearing.
He glanced at Az'rethul and smiled. The devil stared back, shocked.
He had been tricked.
Suddenly, the chain that held the devil to the chair began to crack. Lin Wei's eyes widened in surprise.
"I'll hunt you down before your countdown ends," Az'rethul said, his voice low and dangerous, eyes burning with rage. "No one takes what's mine and gets away with it."
Lin Wei vanished completely—but not before seeing the chains around the devil's throne start to crumble, one by one.