The world changes the moment Demon Merin enters the Fire Abyss.
The air burns.
The ground glows like molten metal.
Flames rise in towering waves—not ordinary fire, but fierce hellfire, capable of melting Dao artefacts and incinerating the soul of a Saint.
Yet when Demon Merin walks forward, the flame parts—not in respect, but in recognition of a predator.
The heat presses against him, testing—seeking weakness.
He offers none.
His Saint body holds firm.
He continues deeper.
Every step sinks into red-hot stone, sparks scattering in his wake. The sky above churns like burning ink, lightning made of flame cracking the horizon.
His Dao stirs.
The Devouring Maw forms behind him—no longer icy, but blazing with crimson fire.
Its presence warps the air, drawing the fierce flame toward it in spiralling currents.
Slowly, Demon Merin sits cross-legged on a floating slab of dark, smouldering rock.
The devouring begins.
The maw opens—wide enough to swallow mountains—and fire streams into it, roaring like a dying world.
As the flame enters his Dao, it fractures into law.
*Heat.
Combustion.
Destruction.
Burst.
Eruption.
Renewal.*
Layer by layer, concept by concept, Demon Merin dissects the fire.
Time blurs.
*Days pass.
Weeks burn away.
Months vanish into smoke.*
His Dao changes.
Where once cold gnawed at its edges, now scorching flame wraps around its core—balancing, threatening, transforming.
The maw trembles.
Runes of fire branch across it like living veins.
Pressure builds—violent, unstoppable.
Then—
A spark.
A spark becomes a flare.
A flare becomes a star of raging flame compressed inside the maw's throat.
And then—it fires.
A beam of condensed flame—thin as a needle yet powerful enough to erase mountains—erupts forward.
The air doesn't ripple—it detonates.
Space collapses, folding and shattering before stabilising again.
Silence returns.
Only the faint scent of charred space remains.
Demon Merin opens his eyes.
A new Saint Art exists:
Bloodfire Ray.
It pairs perfectly with Ice Beam—two extremes aligned, not clashing but complementing.
His Dao hums—stronger, denser, closer to blooming.
He rises.
Without hesitation, he leaves the Fire Abyss and finds a silent, secluded expanse of scorched earth—no living thing nearby, no consciousness to witness what comes next.
He sits cross-legged.
His eyes close.
Behind him, his Dao materialises—vast, oppressive, instinctively devouring even the light around it.
A pressure descends.
Reality trembles.
Two tendrils extend from the Dao—one formed of absolute ice, the other of blood-red flame.
They coil outward, and the world around him begins to change.
Space freezes to the north.
Space burns to the south.
A perfect equilibrium forms—two extremes, neither dominating, each reinforcing the other.
They begin to rotate—slow at first, then steadily faster—until finally they halt:
*Ice fixed at the North.
Fire fixed in the South.*
Demon Merin opens his eyes, voice barely above a whisper:
"I understand… how this demi-plane was made."
In his mind, a vision crystallises.
A giant—unimaginably vast—stands in the void.
On one hand, ice pours out.
From the other, fire.
The two forces spread across emptiness, forming the northern Frozen Fierce Land and the southern Fire Abyss. Then, using the Transformation Dao, the giant shapes the chaotic extremes into structure, matter, and law—slowly weaving it into the stabilised world that now exists.
As the vision fades, the ice and fire around Demon Merin dissolve—blending back into the surrounding world.
His senses spread—deeper, farther—until they brush against something hidden beneath space itself.
The core foundation of the demi-world.
In that instant, countless strands of information surge into him.
Too much.
Too deep.
His consciousness freezes.
---
Inside the Dream Space, Real Merin immediately notices the disruption.
He halts his comprehension of soul structures and turns his attention to the Dream Mirror Seal.
Under its protection, he releases his consciousness outward—touching the overwhelming flow of information Demon Merin is absorbing.
The moment contact is made—
—his own consciousness freezes.
For a heartbeat, there is nothing.
Then the virtual engine in his Illusion-World core activates—processing, interpreting, sorting the impossible flood of data.
Slowly, awareness returns.
And Merin understands.
"This is… the framework of a world."
Not theory.
Not fragments.
A complete structural blueprint—the deepest secret any creator could seek.
His breath trembles—not from fear, but from the weight of what this means.
His life goal is to create a true world.
He had formed worlds in his dream space before—but they were illusions, self-contained systems incapable of withstanding Chaotic Energy, and thus not real.
But this… this is the missing foundation.
"This information… completes the path."
His Dao responds.
The Virtual-Realisation Dao surges—past stability, past refinement—approaching the Flowering Stage.
And as it ascends, another truth becomes clear:
When his Dao flowers fully…
Demon Merin will no longer be needed.
The countdown begins.
Two wills.
One soul.
One future.
Only one can remain.
---
Jun Tian and his group descend upon the desert—silent, focused, murderous intent held tightly beneath their calm expressions. Sandstorms howl around them, but they move as if the world parts in submission.
They land near the ridge where the trail ends.
Jun Tian narrows his eyes.
"He was here."
The others nod. Their divine sense sweeps outward, but the ridge responds with silence—deep, ancient, ominous silence.
One of them speaks, voice tense:
"Yu Feng… or the one controlling the array… is likely still within the demi-plane."
Jun Tian clenches his jaw.
"Then we wait. He must emerge eventually."
The group settles, concealing themselves in shifting layers of sand and formation seals—like vipers waiting at a burrow entrance.
---
Far to the north, under a sky filled with falling snow and hard winter wind, Gu Silan walks out of the Frozen Abyss.
Her hair is now a deep crimson. Her presence was cold enough to freeze breath. Her blood runs with silent fury, her eyes holding the weight of someone who has died once—and chosen to live for vengeance.
She does not hesitate.
She turns south.
Toward the sect.
Toward her daughter.
Toward the ones who wronged her.
Each step she takes—the air freezes and cracks beneath her feet.
---
But halfway through her journey, two figures descend from the sky—blocking her path.
Both wear the robes of the Zou Clan.
Both radiate the pressure of the Great Tao realm cultivators.
And both stare at her with arrogance—as if the outcome has already been decided.
One folds his arms.
"Gu Silan," he says coldly, "you will come with us. Immediately."
She lifts her gaze—not angry, not flustered.
Just calm.
Her cultivation flares.
Great Tao Realm.
Their expressions shatter.
"That's impossible—!"
She answers with a voice like frozen steel:
"No."
They stiffen.
"I am going," she continues, "to the sect."
Fear flashes behind their eyes. They exchange a brief look. Then—rashly—they act.
One charges first, lightning erupting from his body.
"I'LL TAKE HER HEAD!"
The second follows, wind blades screaming toward her, sharp enough to tear mountains.
Gu Silan lifts her hand.
A faint crimson glow spreads beneath her skin.
The temperature drops in an instant.
Wind freezes mid-motion.
Lightning stiffens—encased in frost.
A massive ice wall rises between her and her attackers, and the world goes silent.
She speaks softly—with no effort, no emotion:
"Leave."
The lightning cultivator growls, raises his fist—
—and his arm freezes solid.
The wind cultivator tries to retreat—
—but his legs lock in place, frost crawling upward.
The two elders tremble—not from cold—
—but from the understanding:
This is no longer the girl they discarded.
That truth hangs in the air—heavy, undeniable.
The two elders step back, eyes trembling, yet pride refuses to let them retreat. Their breaths grow heavier… their killing intent sharper.
Without exchanging a word, they reach the same decision.
Their bodies flare with power.
One explodes into a roaring lightning giant—skin cracking with blue arcs, footsteps shaking the earth.
The other twists and expands into a wolf-headed humanoid, muscles bulging beneath silver fur, wings of pure wind unfurling from his back, slicing the air with storm-like pressure.
They roar in unison and charge.
---
Gu Silan stands still.
Her aura sinks—cold, quiet.
She doesn't counter.
She defends.
The lightning giant's fist crashes toward her—thunder howling.
She raises a palm.
An ice barrier forms instantly.
It shatters under the impact—but absorbs most of the force.
Wind blades cut toward her, sharp enough to skin mountains. She flicks her fingers, and freezing air spins into a vortex, deflecting the blows.
Even weakened, her control is precise.
Measured.
Patient.
The elders grow frustrated.
"Why aren't you fighting back!?" the wolf snarls.
She says nothing.
She only watches.
As if waiting.
As if testing something.
Then—her energy shifts.
A pulse of freezing aura bursts outward, and crimson lines appear beneath her skin—like frozen veins glowing through glass.
Cracks form across the snow beneath her feet.
Her voice is soft, but carries like thunder in winter air:
"…Enough."
Her body begins to change.
Ice spreads across her flesh, forming faint scales.
Her hair lifts—frozen crimson in the wind.
A metallic helm forms over her face, sharp and elegant like a dragon's visage carved from winter steel.
Her eyes glow like blood behind ice.
She has entered her Dao Form.
The lightning giant hesitates—but too late.
She moves.
Not fast.
Not explosive.
Just… inevitable.
A step—space freezes.
A gesture—lightning condenses into frost, falling harmlessly like frozen sparks.
A motion of her wrist—and the wind wolf's wings freeze solid, shattering into icy feathers scattered across the snow.
Within breaths—the battle ends.
Two Great Tao cultivators crash to the ground, unconscious, their Dao forms reverting, frost spreading across their skin like a seal of judgment—not death, but humiliation.
Gu Silan stands above them.
Breathing steady.
Expression unreadable behind her helm.
She lowers her hand, and the frost surrounding them thickens—locking their qi, sealing their Dao, preventing escape.
Only then does she approach.
She lifts one elder over her shoulder, then the other—effortless.
And without looking back, she walks.
Step by step toward the Spiritual Transformation Sect.
Not sneaking.
Not hiding.
Not trembling.
But returning—openly, visibly—
As a storm.
As a consequence.
As the debt they refused to acknowledge.
And the mountain that once oppressed her…
Will soon feel what it means
To fear one of its own.