Xiao Chen moved silently, the bottle hidden within his sleeve.
The Xiao estate was quiet at this hour, but one room was still lit. Her room.
Xiao Yu sat at a low table, sipping tea in the soft glow of a single lamp. She looked up when she heard the door creak.
"Chen? Why are you awake?" Her voice was warm, like always. She was the only one who ever spoke to him like that.
He said nothing. He only walked in, his bare feet making no sound on the wooden floor.
"you got bullied again didn't you"
"Its nothing."
She took the kettle that steamed a fragrant scent
"Drink. And have a moon cake. They are fresh."
He reached for the teapot, lifting it casually as if to pour himself a drink. But instead, he uncorked the bottle with a flick of his thumb. The faint smell of the poison mixed with the fragrance of tea leaves.
He tilted it in. A single drop. Then another.
She didn't notice.
The whispers in his head grew louder.
"Offer water to guide the fire… Offer thorns to guide growth…"
He poured himself tea, filling her cup as well.
" thanks" he said, raising his cup.
"Dont mention it" she replied, and poured herself a cup.
The effect was slow. First, her hand trembled. Then her breath hitched. She coughed, softly at first, then violently, her face twisting in confusion and pain.
"Ch… Chen… what… did you—"
He only watched.
His heart was steady. His gaze unblinking. He wanted to see it — the life leave her eyes, the illusion of warmth and love torn apart.
Her fingers clawed at her throat as her body rejected the toxin, but the poison was weak — enough to suffocate, not to kill.
She collapsed forward, gasping for air, her teacup rolling across the floor.
Xiao Chen closed his eyes, listening to the wet, choking sounds.
And then it came.
The surge.
A pale green energy seeped from her body — not blood, not Dou Qi, but something deeper. Malice. Despair. Betrayal.
It coiled around him like a serpent, then plunged into his meridians, flowing straight into his dantian.
He gasped as his core, once an empty void, ignited.
The energy rotted everything it touched, yet it felt right. It condensed into a single, writhing seed — dark and alive.
The seed of the Daoist Canon of the Heavenly Demon.
His veins burned. His body trembled. But his mind… was calm.
The whispers became a chorus. A hundred thousand voices chanting in unison:
"The dark, also known as heaven… Appearing to witness suffering and achieve enlightenment… Yin and yang to speak to heaven and earth…"
Xiao Chen exhaled slowly.
He had finally stepped onto the path.
The path of the Heavenly Demon.
...
The gates of the Xiao estate slammed shut behind him.
Xiao Chen lay in the dirt, his face pressed to the cold ground. His arms were useless lumps. His legs were nothing but shattered sticks beneath torn flesh.
Pain.
It came in waves, sharp and relentless, until his vision blurred and his breath came out in shallow, ragged gasps.
He didn't cry for them. He didn't call for anyone.
But he cried. From pain so deep it made his mind shake.
Then, in the pit of his dantian, the seed pulsed.
A slow, steady thrum.
Pale green Dou Qi surged out, crawling through his veins like icy fire, seeping into every broken limb.
His right shoulder was first.
With a sickening pop, it snapped back into its socket, his arm jerking upward like a puppet on strings.
Then his left arm.
The Dou Qi invaded the fracture, forcing the shattered bone shards to grind against each other, scraping and groaning as they shifted back into place. Flesh followed, pulling tight as the fibers writhed and slid over each other, knitting themselves back together with unnatural precision.
His leg moved next.
The twisted limb whipped clockwise with a violent crack, spinning into proper alignment. The pain was blinding — his vision went white as the muscles tightened, coiling around the reformed bones like living ropes.
His other leg followed with another horrifying snap.
Every joint, every fracture, jerked and twisted violently as his body was dragged back to its original shape by the Raksha Rebirth.
Xiao Chen screamed.
Not for mercy.
Just because the pain tore through every nerve like fire.
Minutes passed like hours. The process didn't stop until his limbs were whole again — not just functional, but as they were before.
When it was over, he collapsed against the dirt, drenched in sweat, his breath ragged.
He dragged his body away, the frame contorting as it knitted itself back to shape.
His karma with the Xiao Clan had long been severed.