Longevity: Comprehending the Heart Method

Still-warm fresh blood trickled down the chillingly sharp Sword Blade, dripping onto the ground.

Song Qingxing closed in on the figure step by step, placing his bloodstained sword against her long, slender neck. The slightest pressure was all it would take to end her life.

"Quickly, kill her! Kill her! Sever all these burdens, achieve Ascension, and enjoy eternal life!" The voice in his mind grew more and more frenzied, assailing Song Qingxing in relentless waves.

Song Qingxing’s eyes glinted scarlet, veins bulged on his forehead, and he snorted heavy breaths. Yet, a look of struggle once again surfaced on his face.

In that instant, it was as if another Divine Soul had appeared within him, fighting for control of his body.

"Quickly, do it!"

The voice in his mind grew ever more urgent and frenzied...

In the sealed meditation chamber, Song Qingxing was completely submerged in a black mist. It seeped in from everywhere, relentlessly invading his flesh and corrupting his Divine Soul.

Anyone who witnessed this would have been terrified, for these were the signs of one falling to demonhood. Once this Demonic Qi was fully absorbed, not even the Daluo Immortals could save him!

Song Qingxing gritted his teeth, using his last shred of consciousness to mount a final resistance. Blood began to seep from the corners of his eyes and his nostrils.

The Demon Refining Array laid out in the cave abode activated on its own, sealing the Space and beginning to refine the Demonic Qi within.

But this Demonic Qi did not originate from the outside, so the Demon Refining Array had minimal effect.

In just a quarter of an hour, blood began to trickle from the corners of Song Qingxing’s mouth and from his ears. His final sliver of consciousness was about to be lost.

Just as all seemed lost, the Traceless Sword resting across Song Qingxing’s lap suddenly trembled. Then, with a SHIING, it slid three inches out of its sheath, releasing a piercing, cold light.

Song Qingxing felt a sharp pain lance through his mind, as if something had been severed.

Within a strange Space, Song Qingxing jolted awake, the scarlet in his eyes rapidly receding.

"How can this be!"

Kill her, quickly, kill her!" The voice in his mind became unbearably shrill, like the wail of a Fierce Ghost.

But Song Qingxing was fully lucid now. How could he be deluded by it again?

He slowly loosened his grip, and the Long Sword fell to the ground with a clear CLANG.

The instant the Long Sword landed, Song Qingxi’s figure vanished. The "corpses" on the ground faded away, and the surrounding scenery began to disappear, piece by piece.

In the end, only a pitch-black, empty Space was left.

"I was so close. This is impossible! Impossible!" the frenzied voice shrieked in his mind, full of disbelief.

"Whatever you are, show yourself!" Song Qingxing demanded with a slight frown, his voice cold.

"Heh heh heh... you ask what I am? I am you!"

The eerie voice sounded again, but this time it wasn’t in Song Qingxing’s mind. It came from in front of him, from the mouth of a figure identical to him in both appearance and dress.

"A Heart Demon?" Song Qingxing’s brow furrowed. The greatest fear for a Cultivator breaking through in seclusion was the birth of a Heart Demon. The slightest misstep would mean the annihilation of both body and soul.

"A Heart Demon? Heh heh heh... How laughable. You are me, and I am you. From the moment you were born, we have been completely intertwined, one and the same."

The other Song Qingxing spoke, a bizarre smile on his face.

His words were like a key, instantly unlocking a memory long sealed in the depths of Song Qingxing’s mind.

When life first begins, consciousness is largely in a state of Chaos, retaining only the most primitive instincts.

Things like breathing, for instance, or seeking nourishment.

During this period, a being generally lacks self-awareness and memory, because their Divine Soul is still too weak, and their True Spirit has yet to reach Perfection.

Thus, most people only retain fragments of memories from before the age of three, unable to recall most things clearly. Even when Song Changsheng first crossed over, his Divine Soul was in a state of Chaos. He remained muddled for several years, and Xia Yunxue and her husband treated it as an illness, seeking medical help for him everywhere.

If this is the case after birth, it is even more so in the womb; virtually no memories are formed at that stage.

But Song Qingxing was an exception. His True Spirit was at Perfection from the very beginning, his mind lucid. As such, he could clearly remember his own gestation and birth.

Of course, these were not pleasant memories. Moreover, though he was conscious, he understood nothing and could only act on instinct.

Several months passed this way. Then, during his birth, an accident occurred: an inexplicable wisp of black energy rushed into his mind, entangling itself with his Divine Soul.

At the time, Song Qingxing understood nothing, and the black energy had no apparent effect on him. So, over the years, he had gradually sealed that memory away.

Only now did he realize with a jolt that the so-called black energy was likely a wisp of Demonic Qi adrift in the world. By some coincidence, it had invaded his mind and had been slowly eroding his Divine Soul all these years.

In that instant, everything became clear.

It was because of the Demonic Qi’s corrosion that his personality had gradually grown so extreme. That was why he was so unnaturally bloodthirsty, his actions so savage.

He still remembered the first time he descended from the mountain; he had slaughtered nearly every living creature he met on the road, and his methods had been exceptionally bloody and cruel.