Chapter 97
The Human Path Demonic Form would hit a comparable number in under a day.
Watching him do absolutely nothing to her, Celeste’s brows pulled together.
She had no idea what he wanted, she wiped the tears off her cheeks and tried to work out her next move.
Witch Poison had been eating through her for years and her internal organs were wrecked, standing on her own was an extravagance, martial strength, she had none.
Her odds of getting out of his barrier sat at exactly zero.
So she accepted it, she wasn’t going to burn any more of herself agonizing over escape routes from a demon lord.
Maybe this is just my fate, bedridden or chairbound all year, a stone tied around her grandfather’s neck, and every single day, the Witch Poison chewing on her from the inside.
Living hurt, dying would be a rest.
Except, Celeste’s mouth pushed out in a pout, dying like this was too suffocating, too humiliating, killed by a demon lord in a bed? She’d rather go off a cliff, or drown, or choke on her own dinner, than end stripped bare at the very last.
"Hey, demon lord!"
"What is it you actually want?"
"We’ll talk after you wash yourself clean," Soren said, sparing a sliver of attention.
Celeste stared, was there one copper coin’s worth of connection between that answer and her question?
Then her brain caught up to what he’d said and her small fair face went scarlet.
She clenched her jaw and bit down hard on her tongue, then yelped as tears flooded back out.
It hurts too much! I can’t make myself bite harder!
Soren watched with half a smile and said nothing, Celeste caught the disdain on his face, and the open mockery made her glare at him.
"Demon lord, just kill me." Tough words, her body was more honest, she hadn’t stopped shaking since he walked in.
"Kill you?"
"It won’t be that easy."
"I’ll kill you once I’m tired of using you."
"And I won’t stop at you, I’ll butcher your grandfather and every last soul in this mountain village." She amused him, so he leaned into it.
Celeste took every word at face value, her expression cycled through seven or eight things in one second.
The man in front of her was a real demon lord, his tone was so cold and casual that not believing him was impossible.
She started to whimper, voice catching. "You..."
"What is wrong with you?"
"You’re so fierce, so cruel."
"Isn’t killing me enough?"
"Why do the villagers have to die too? They haven’t done anything!"
Soren smiled, and it wasn’t a nice one. "What did you expect?"
"What did you think a demon lord was?"
Celeste’s face crumpled. "I thought a demon lord..."
She hadn’t actually thought it through.
"How about..."
"You don’t kill the villagers."
"And you don’t kill my grandfather."
"Just kill me."
"Okay?"
Soren sneered. "No."
Her mouth twisted.
So infuriating, of course there was no negotiating with a demon lord, watching her cheeks puff out and her chest heave, Soren smiled faintly and let it lie.
Inside his mind, on the reverse side of the Six Paths Form Diagram.
The Dao Lord of the Human Path stood in her tattered divine dress while Soren’s demonic energy came at her like a river of fire.
It flooded her all at once, scattering her divine power as it drove through muscle, bone, membrane, organ.
The Human Path Demonic Form activated.
Her divine dress broke apart inch by inch into motes of light and went out.
Dark specks of demonic energy gathered across her skin, weaving into a demonic dress thin as gossamer.
Clank, one of the Heretical Iron Chains binding her snapped clean through.
That one chain going let her breathe properly for the first time, most of the old agony drained out of her.
Soren poured in more.
Time went by, Celeste said a few things now and then, none worth much, roughly a day passed.
The demonic attire on the Human Path Demonic Form thickened and sharpened.
Everything about her had changed.
Crimson eyeshadow, a bewitching touch of it, set against long eyes clear as autumn water, one look was enough to take hold of a soul.
Ten Heretical Iron Chains had bound her at the start, five were gone now.
One across her chest, so she could breathe.
Two at her thighs, so she could shift her posture.
Two at her ankles, so she could finally move inside that cramped space.
Five chains down, the rescue was going well.
One day, fifty-five points of conversion degree.
More than enough.
Past fifty, a Demonic Form’s abilities sat at Ancestor Realm level.
Soren could use the Human Path Demonic Form now to close wounds fast, on himself or anyone else, according to the Strategy Encyclopedia, regrowing Celeste’s ruined organs was well within reach.
Before that, though, he had to clear the Witch Poison out of her with the devouring power of the Heavenly Dao Demonic Form.
The Heavenly Dao Demonic Form converted whatever he devoured into whatever kind of energy he needed, then sent it where it belonged.
Devour medicinal efficacy, it becomes demonic energy in his dantian, devour soul power, it goes straight to his soul.
Devour toxins, they go to his body, tempering muscle and bone.
No amount of lethal poison could poison him, it only made him harder to kill.
Soren ended his cultivation and opened his eyes, his crimson pupils held a cold, hungry shine.
Nobody could really blame Celeste for wetting herself.
Soren’s features were handsome enough, but he’d never been one for putting expressions on his face.
Most of the time he was ice, even when he smiled it came out a smirk or a sneer, and paired with those crimson demon eyes glinting in the dark, a person could get looked at once and shake for a week.
He’d devoured the blood essence of a Lower-Tier Spirit Ancestor of the Ice Heaven Alluring Fox clan, so his presence carried a heavy, bewitching pull.
The demonic pressure underneath was worse.
Anyone who didn’t know him found their legs going soft one step closer.
Soren dropped out of the air and walked over, Celeste stared at him in pure terror.
Demonic energy tore off him in a gale that shredded her dress into white scraps, and they came down through the room like snow.