‘Oh? What is this? Is someone forcefully interfering with me from the outside?’

Lute was cultivating in the empty space of his inner self, it was an inner world under is control, there was nothing that should be able to change without his consent. It was a vast void of nothingness, except for the twinkling of starlight.

As for Lute, he was cultivating absentmindedly, floating around without a care in the world. This entire time, he never encountered a single inner demon because of this belief, how could a heart demon form in a world under his absolute control?

But now, it was no longer an empty void, the stench of blood permeated the void; the metallic taste filled his mouth. And finally the world flashed a scarlet red, blinding Lute momentarily.

When his vision returned, Lute’s inner self was completely changed, instead of a vast void full of starlight and silence. It was instead a world of carnage and bloodshed. The ground was skeletons, flesh, and sinew, the sky was raining blood. The air was permeated with the smell of rotting flesh.

Surveying his surroundings, Lute began walking forward, sifting through this world of carnage, this much wasn’t enough to faze him in the slightest.

Walking past a mound of corpses, Lute stopped moving, as if he was paralyzed. In front of him, memories of his past were playing out.

The mental shock and change in Lute was enough for Isla to wake up from her slumber. Peering out from Lute’s body, she immediately realized that she was dragged into his inner world as well.

‘So this was one of the trials…. A test of the heart, bringing painful memories back to the surface, amplifying them.’

Isla quietly manifested her spiritual form in Lute’s inner world, floating behind him, not saying a word; she intended to see his memories of the past that shaped who Lute was.

What Lute was seeing now was himself when he was eleven years old, still a whelp in the eyes of any adult, at the edge of his village’s territory peering in.

What he saw, his father standing in front of his mother and sister who were collapsed onto the ground cradling each other attempting to protect them.

In the next instant, the leader of the bandits, rogue cultivators who made their living selling off woman and children as slaves struck Lutes father down.

Stabbing him, he fell down to the ground dead. But that wasn’t the end, grabbing Lute’s sister from his mother, he had instructed his men to force her eyes open and made her stare in horror as he desecrated Lutes fathers’ corpse, mutilating it, pissing on it, and splitting open the body.

Finishing this, he had proceeded to tear apart the woman’s clothes and threw them into the back of an iron cage within a wagon used for carrying slaves, all women and children were naked and trembling in fear within the cage. While all men, age fifteen and older were slaughtered and ravaged in the same manner as Lute’s father, and then all the corpses were stacked upon his body, left to rot.

All of this Lute wasn’t able to stop, at the age of eleven, he was returning from the forests, but he was paralyzed in fear upon seeing this. He had hid, until they left, sobbing uncontrollably for hours, until finally, it was as if a crystal ball that represented Lute, had cracked, then finally shattered.

At the mere age of eleven, he witnessed the destruction of his village, and was forced to bury the bodies of the mutilated men. While events such as this happened throughout the continent, and was considered normal in the cultivation world, it didn’t mean that it hurt any less.

Compared to the Lute who was eleven, trembling in a repeated looping replay of this memory. It was different for the Lute who was witnessing his memories, his true body, not an illusion. Although he couldn’t change the past, at least he could in his inner world, even if just a little, he would vent out his anger here and now.

Lute walked forward, every step he took seemed to make his inner world tremble, within his own body, he considered himself a True Immortal, he had absolute control, and his power was infinite. That was how firm his belief was, that he wouldn’t let anyone or anything mess with his inner self because they wanted to.

With every slow and methodical step he took, a natural disaster would appear, earthquakes erupted, a monsoon of raining blood formed, lakes of blood would form tsunamis. Tornadoes of flesh and bones formed. The center of all this was Lute as he altered the landscape in this land of carnage and bloodshed.

Finally, he appeared behind the memory of his younger self who kept witnessing this trauma in a never ending loop, this time, Lute leaned down, whispering gently into his ear, “This time, I’ll take care of it, you already persevered through this suffering enough.”

With that said, Lute lightly struck the younger illusion of himself on the back of the neck, knocking him unconscious. With a wave of his hand, a golden light flashed upon him, Lute wished dreams of happiness upon the illusion of himself.

But then Lute’s gaze turned to his old village, and it was anything but gentle and softhearted. They weren’t cold murderous eyes that he normally had; instead, they had changed color and were a deep crimson red, just like his hair, not a shred of the clear sky blue from before. They were the eyes of a demon god, preparing to destroy and torture all life.

Just as the repeating loop of his father was about to be killed again, Lute took action. This time, Lute instantaneously appeared in front of him by teleporting. He grabbed the sword of the bandit leader with his bare hand.

“Who are you, do you want to die!”

“You, you are?”

There were two replies Lute received, one from the bandit, and one from Lute’s fathers’ illusion. Ignoring the bandit, Lute turned to his father, “I’m just a wandering demon, and it’d be best if you closed your eyes and plugged your ears.

Naturally, after resonating with the Spiritual God Blood on such a fundamental level, Lute was unrecognizable to anyone that knew him previously from before he met Isla, none of his old features remained. Not even his family would know who he was.

With that warning, Lutes father turned and grabbed Lute’s mother and sister, fleeing to their house. Feelings of gratitude were in his heart, even if the traveler proclaimed himself as a demon. With such an opportunity, he would follow the instructions to the letter.

Following Lute’s father as an example, everyone else in the village did the same, until finally; it was only Lute and the bandits, all of which were in the Nascent Qi early stage, but the strongest being the leader, almost a half-step into the eighth level.

“You’re really looking to die kid, you try to obstruct me from my profit, and you will be ripped apart.”

Lute looked at his opponents, a total of twelve in all. If he was alone he might not have attempted to fight all twelve head on, and instead resort to guerilla warfare, but this was his inner world, if there was any place he had absolute power, then it was here.

With a snap of his fingers, he and all the bandits’ teleported, returning to the fields of blood, skeletons, and flesh, in the distance the natural disasters Lute was causing had amplified nearly a hundred fold, causing mass destruction.

As for the bandits, they all had blank faces, unable to comprehend just what had happened. But soon their faces were filled with horror. With another snap of his fingers, Lute had shattered all of their weapons; all of their armor fell apart.

One by one, twelve spires of bones, and flesh raised from the ground, all of them shot out strands of flesh that grappled and pulled the bandits who were powerless, until they were embedded in the spires incapable of moving.

Unable to do anything, some of them fell unconscious due to the terror, and other pissed their pants. A vile stench filling the already horrible atmosphere of rotting flesh, Lute didn’t even show the slightest signs of pity.

He knew these were all illusions, and that he shouldn’t torture them as that would make him the exact same type of person as these vile creatures.

However, he wasn’t going to let these illusions live, if the heart demons wanted him to submit in terror, shatter his Martial Heart, and kill him, then he would give them a show.

Starting from the left, Lute would point at one of the twelve, in an instant, they would spontaneously explode, their remains splashing on those closest to them. Then he would point to someone at the right, and the same thing would happen, until finally after alternating sides, it was only the leader who was left.

The leader had started foaming at the mouth, already going insane and incapable of understanding human speech, he was forever incapable of living on his own, not even able to eat without aid.

Despite not being able to comprehend speech, it didn’t stop Lute from handing down his judgement, “Oh for you, who have sinned, let my wrath fall upon you.”

With a wave of his arm, the entire inner world of Lute shook, blood colored clouds formed and lightning that was also blood colored fell down, striking the bandit leader, completely disintegrating him to ashes.

“That was only a taste of what is to come, I’ll be sure to pay you a visit in the material plane.” Lute said hatefully, his voice filled with rage, because after all, in the end these were only illusions.

As the ashes dispersed, Lute teleported to his old village, and made mound after mound of platinum coins appear, he wished a true dragon into existence that would protect his village for eternity, and then he disappeared.

Appearing once again in the blood colored plains of flesh, Lute narrowed his eyes, staring at seemingly nothing, “I know you are there, show yourself demon who contaminated my void with this world of flesh and bone.”

A blobbing mass slowly started to come from the air and seeped out of the ground until it formed into a giant mass of darkness, seeming to suck all light into it.

Its raspy voice seemed to cause everything in the surrounding area to tremble. “This is rare, there aren’t many who can realize my existence within their world, normally they pass the tribulation but fail to encounter me.”

“This is my inner world, nothing escapes my sight, and naturally it was child’s play to realize who was behind the endless loop of my memories.” Lute said in a voice that didn’t seem angry, but was filled with his will to kill this mass of darkness.

“I am afraid you can’t extinguish me with a snap of your fingers so easily, as just like you, I have a degree of control within this world, and after all, I am bred from your self-doubt.”

The mass of darkness then began to vibrate, spreading its will to the inner world of Lute. Almost at once, the scenarios changed, this time, it wasn’t the past, but possible futures that Lute had no way of denying could happen.

In one, his sister was being raped every night by a different noble of the mortal world. In another, his mother was being beaten and whipped for not scrubbing the floors of a mansion properly. They were sleeping with pigs and cows during the night; they were emaciated, and teetering on the edge of death every day. Finally, there was an image of their corpses being thrown into a trash mound to be eaten by rats and wild dogs after being worked to death.

Lute quietly stared at all of these scenarios, he had indeed thought that all of these things had possibly already happened, or were going to happen. His rage was silently building; he didn’t need anyone to tell him that these were possible futures.

With a quiet wave of his hand, the scenarios disappeared and instead, images of his mother and sister living a happy life in the middle of nowhere, far from human society appeared. With Lute protecting them, this was his ideal hope that kept all of the self-doubt at bay.

The mass of darkness, the heart demon appeared once again upon seeing this image, “You are very stubborn, even with them most definitely having the highest chance of being dead after all these years, you still stubbornly hold on to that hope. If that’s the case, have you thought about what they will think of their only son, and brother who became a murderer, you are nothing like they remember, you who were always happy and talkative, are nothing like this anymore.”

After such a statement, a final image appeared, this time; it was Lute covered in blood, with his current appearance of red eyes, crimson hair, scars all over his body, and corpses of men behind him, with a decapitated head in his hand, from ripping it off by brute force.

His sister and mother were staring at him with eyes full of terror, calling him a demon, and the closer he approached them, the more fear they had until finally, rather than seeing their long lost son and brother who saved them, they chose suicide instead, choosing death over meeting a demon.

Lute’s heart actually quivered slightly upon this this image, he had never thought about what his sister and mother would think of the current him, who had killed people, and did indeed appear as a demon due to his Slaughter Aura, and changed appearance.

The heart demon jumped upon the opportunity, Lute was an adversary it never dealt with before, his heart was the strongest it had seen in centuries, but, every Martial Heart had its weakness, and it found Lutes’.

“Yes, this is what will happen, you cannot protect your family, if you attempt to, they would choose death instead of knowing that they raised a demon. The mere sight of you makes them tremble in fear, you are worse than the bandits that killed your father. You know nothing but killing, how can someone who lives like this give and receive love.”

‘My family would see me as a demon, a demon worse than Father’s murderer? They would choose death over looking at me?’

Disparaging thoughts were now running rampant through Lutes’ mind, his eyes glazed over, with every single thought that he had filled with doubt. He lost a portion of his absolute power within his inner world.

This was the true reason a heart demon was so dangerous, and a concept that Lute misunderstood. He didn’t have absolute power in his inner world when a heart demon was present; instead it was a game of territory or tug of war. Whoever had more territory had more power.

Lute was currently losing this territory by the second, his power shrinking rapidly, and it was visible to Toros on the outside, he could feel Lute wavering, but, he couldn’t do anything to help Lute, if he failed, he failed.

By the second, the mass of darkness that was the Heart Demon was growing in size and power, it was starting to gain complete control of Lutes inner world, with a final push, it would be able to devour Lute’s soul, extinguishing his life. All that was left was to extinguish the tiny remaining shred of willpower Lute had, they were two flickering lights, on the cusp of extinguishing.

One tiny light within Lute was something he had in the back of his mind. Almost unknown, deep in his subconscious, it was a thought he had from the first moment he began cultivation, ‘Would it be wrong for me to become a demon? If I had to become a demon to protect what was close to me, could I?’

The other light was Isla, she was a part of Lutes soul, merged with it, being able to feel Lute’s erratic emotions and crumbling willpower, she was waiting for the right chance to interfere. The special ability of a heart demon was being able to read the thoughts of self-doubt within cultivators Martial Hearts, but others couldn’t, so she had to wait, to find out what Lutes last remaining doubt was.

The heart demons last statement was enough though; Isla now understood Lute’s past, and what that last flickering light was. Would he be able to give up his humanity to protect what he loved, could he do unspeakable things to protect what he cherished?

Long ago, when she faced her own heart demons, Isla had encountered a similar scenario. And her answer, she would forego humanity; she would become a demon to protect what she valued. But, for Lute, in the end he was facing a trial far above what he should; he was still considered a child, not even an adult yet, what he was experiencing was beyond the measure of his abilities, at this rate he would die, and she would die as collateral.

Normally it was forbidden, and also impossible to interfere with an individual’s trial of the Martial Heart. But being merged with Lutes soul, Isla could interfere. She hadn’t at the start, because she could influence Lute negatively, ruining him, regressing his cultivation if she wasn’t careful. So it was safer to go unnoticed.

But now, not only was her life at risk, so she had no choice to interfere, but now that the trial which was on a level Lute shouldn’t have dealt with for at least a decade in the future, he wouldn’t be able to survive on his own now, not without her help. She was earnestly surprised he had lasted for so long on his own already.

But now… now that things had progressed the way they did, not only was she forced to interfere, but it also wouldn’t damage Lute’s Martial Heart and cultivation if she interfered, because the final thought that Lute had lingering in his mind, it was easily something she could use to strengthen his Martial Heart instead of damaging it. If it was any other lingering thought of doubt, she might’ve not been able to meddle with this trial safely.

Time was of the essence, Lute had lost virtually all the territory of his inner world to the heart demon, his last line of defense was about to flicker out. The resolve to become something vile in order to protect what he cherished, he didn’t know if he could do it.

The heart demon, which had swelled in size and was more than five times the size of a mass of darkness that it was previously, it felt that it was time. It began to slide forward, and as it was about to envelope Lute, it suddenly recoiled in pain, as if it was burned.

A divine light erupted from Lute, and in front of the heart demon, it was dumbfounded, a woman had appeared, wearing a black Qipao adorned with gold trimmings. Pale white skin, black hair and eyes, and an aura of arrogance, it was none other than Isla.

“Impossible, there is no way that anyone can interfere with this, and even if you could, you’ll only damage his Martial Heart.” The heart demon erupted in anger, attempting to use the territory it gained, it summoned calamities upon Isla.

Countless lightning bolts bombarded her, but nothing happened, she simply reflected them off of her index finger as she floated about nonchalantly.

Pointing her finger at the heart demon, it instantly was sliced into multiple pieces, then with a flick of her finger, it began to float in the air, shrinking by the second until it was sealed in a bubble of divine light, unable to speak or move, and especially unable to comprehend what just occurred.

Isla portrayed a look full of disdain, “Silence trash, you are not worthy to even prostrate yourself before a Divine. You call yourself a demon? I’m afraid you have yet to see a true demon.”

Not giving further attention to the heart demon, Isla then turned to Lute, who was in an extremely haggard state, his eyes glazed over, almost on the brink of succumbing to unconsciousness that would lead to death had the heart demon been able to devour him.

Placing her palm upon Lute’s chest, Isla used some of her soul strength to bring Lute back from the brink of unconsciousness, there was no doubt she would have to sleep again after this, and let the Origin Soul Needle replenish her soul strength, but it was better than dying.

Divine light enveloped Lute and he regained clarity; Isla had suppressed the thoughts that were ravaging his mind. Forcing himself to stay upright despite being void of energy, Lute was shocked when he saw Isla, he hadn’t known she as able to interfere with this.

“M…master what did you do?”

“Stupid, stupid, you are so weak! My first and last disciple can’t even kill a blob of nothingness! At this rate you’re going to kill the both of us with your petty strength. And here you thought yourself invincible! Pfft, you are so weak I could kill you with my pinkie finger alone.”

Lute cringed underneath Isla’s words –especially because he knew she was right about her ability to kill him with ease- but he would never know that she was lying, because he indeed shouldn’t have been given a trial of this level. It was beyond his abilities. The fact he survived so long without her aid was astounding.

“Thanks to you, I have to hibernate and replenish my soul strength again! Probably for a month, so don’t kill yourself during that time. And as for that petty resolve of yours, you listen carefully; there is nothing you can’t do. If you must become a demon to protect someone, then become a demon. You are forgetting the fact that you can just hide this from them, don’t let them know what you’ve become, protect from the shadows. Let your family live in the light and happiness that is ignorance, while you deal with the true problems within the world of darkness.”

Under Isla’s words, Lute came once more into clarity. Yes, why should he show his mother and sister the world of cruelty he was involved in? If they could live in blissful ignorance, then that would be for the best. Even if he ended up never meeting them again, never being able to talk to them face to face, that was enough, it wouldn’t be so bad being a demon then, as long as they were alive and unaware, he could protect them from the shadows while they lived freely in the light. He would be the shadow to their light.

With this newfound resolve, the heart demon practically lost all of its power at once; Lute once again was the master of his inner world. Isla was growing more and more transparent, her “Existence” and the connection between her and Lute was weakening by the second.

“I shall sleep for a month at the minimum because of this little stunt you pulled. Don’t ever let something as weak as those pieces of shit manipulate you again. Or you’ll meet something far worse, and that is me.” Isla said icily, as her last words before fading, falling into a state of unconsciousness within Lute’s soul.

When she faded, Lute looked at the heart demon, it was no longer sealed by the bubble of divine light, but it was now incredibly small, and weak, trembling in fear because of the invincible existence it just met.

“Who… who was that? There is no such existence that should be able to interfere with a heart demon and its prey.”

Lute looked at the heart demon in pity, but he was also upset with himself, he thought his Martial Heart would never be swayed, and yet this weak mass of darkness had almost killed him. Clearly not only did his body need tempering, but so did his Martial Heart. Isla had strengthened his resolve somewhat, but he still had a long path to trek.

“That,” Lute said, “Is my Master, she is an invincible existence on a planet as weak as this, for she has achieved the Divine Path, and comes from the Divine Realm. It should be expected that you could do nothing in the face of her invincible might.”

The heart demon trembled in fear, “That’s cheating; you rely on the power of others!”

Bloodlust emanated from Lute, “Do you think that I am happy either, when she returns I’ve got hell to pay because I failed at killing you without her help.”

Lute took a step forward, approaching the heart demon, “Speaking of Hell, let me show you my new resolve, forged from the teachings of my Master, which has successfully strengthened my Martial Heart.”

Lute stopped moving and raised his right arm towards the sky, “I shall embrace hell and become a demon, I will forego humanity if I need to in order to protect what I must, I shall forever protect my family from the shadows, they will never know of the actions I shall take to protect them. To protect what I cherish, I will do anything, even if it means becoming a taboo existence, all to let them live in blissful ignorance.”

At the end of his declaration, the entire inner world of Lute shook, he released his Slaughter Aura at a new level of strength, eclipsing what it previously was capable of. Lute’s warped and twisted inner world of carnage and bloodshed created by the heart demon, all the flesh, bones, blood, calamities, negativity, bloodlust, everything disappeared, and formed a ball of energy. Everything that was impure, evil and tainted, it formed a stream of energy, and entered Lutes forehead.

The world once again changed back to the endless void, full of starlight, all that was left was the heart demon who was powerless and Lute. Lute had absorbed all of the impure, tainted evil energy that the heart demon had produced within him, attempting to corrupt him, devour him and extinguish his existence. Instead of being devoured by this, Lute was the one that devoured it instead, increasing the strength of his Slaughter Aura.

Lute’s Martial Heart grew firmer, stronger than before; he accepted all his flaws, self-doubt, characteristics, and hopes. Everything that made up the current him, Lute didn’t try to suppress or discard any of it, he accepted that he would change in the future and it was inevitable. If he had to become someone that was considered a demon in the eyes of the world in order to accomplish his goals, then he would do that. There was no reason not to, his family didn’t even need to know if he was alive, but as long as he could achieve his end goals, then it didn’t matter what he became in the end.

While at first, this sounded like he was becoming what he despised most, which was a human full of greed, guile, and cunning who did anything to achieve their goals, Lute decided to look at it differently. If he obtained what he wanted by sacrificing his humanity and not involving people who truly were innocent, then maybe, just maybe, he could feel slightly at ease with his decision. Because in the end, even if he gave up his humanity and became a demon in the eyes of others, he couldn’t run away from the traits that made him a human such as greed, they weren’t so easily discarded.

With this final thought, Lute released his Slaughter Aura at its new level of strength. The heart demon trembled in fear. Its final thought as Lute created lightning to disintegrate it was, ‘Did I, who is a monster, just aid in creating something infinitely worse? Will a calamity now occur wherever this “Thing” walks?’