Deep inside the Demonic Trial Grounds, violet hellfire spiraled like a living vortex. At the center stood three slumbering weapons—each radiating an ancient will so immense that calling them "weapons" was an insult. They were predators, not tools.
Lin Xuan stepped forward.Not arrogant. Not afraid.Just focused—like a cornered beast with nothing left to lose, and therefore capable of anything.
Luo Li and Yao Xi stood to his left and right—one like dawn, one like midnight.They did not speak.Some moments can only be faced alone.
When Lin Xuan crossed into the domain of the three demon weapons, the air froze.His lungs locked. His heart clenched.Darkness swallowed his mind.
The world turned into a sea of blood.
Visions from eras long lost crashed into him—wars, betrayals, screams across collapsing heavens. Every memory was a blade meant to tear apart the soul.
The first weapon, a black blade shaped like a devouring beast, roared:
"Power kneels only to power. Feed me slaughter, and I will obey."
The second, a bone spear with serrated fangs, whispered coldly:
"No heart. No weakness. Break all bonds—past and future—and you are worthy."
The third sword did not shout.It murmured.
"Destruction is not corruption. It is release. When the world kneels to you, there is no pain left to suffer."
They were not testing his strength.They were dissecting his heart.
Then the visions turned personal—Age five: pushed off a cliff.Age seven: thrown into the dark cell.Age ten: sentenced to death on the altar.
Every humiliation became fuel for rage.
The quiet sword pressed deeper:
"There is no forgiveness. There is no healing. Justice is not mercy. Justice is repayment."
Lin Xuan's fingers shook.Hate burned—hot enough to consume everything.
But through the storm, he saw—
Luo Li looking back at him through light.Yao Xi reaching for him through darkness.
Neither spoke.Both believed his choice mattered.
He closed his eyes.
"I will not be what they expect me to be.""My fate is mine alone."
The illusion shattered.
Power surged from all three weapons at once, violent enough to pulp any mortal body.Lin Xuan did not retreat.
He reached out—not for the strongest blade,not for the coldest spear,but for the quietest sword.
The most dangerous one.
The instant he gripped it, demonic energy flooded into him like a collapsing ocean. His meridians should have burst. His bones should have shattered.
They didn't.
He forced the power down—inch by inch—until the sword trembled not with rage, but with recognition.
The Demon Sword of the Rift… submitted.
Bloodlit markings wrapped his arm and chest, searing a new brand of power into his body.
Luo Li whispered:"You rejected demonic corruption… but accepted demonic strength."
Yao Xi smirked faintly:"You're the most dangerous kind of man… one who fears neither light nor shadow."
Lin Xuan raised the sword.His voice was calm enough to chill the air.
"I won't reject the darkness.I just refuse to belong to it."
A new power awakened—and the world felt it.
The moment the demon sword accepted Lin Xuan, the Trial Ground began to shake—not in completion, but in awakening.
Crimson runes ignited under their feet, forming a colossal array that swallowed every trace of light. Luo Li's expression tightened.
"This isn't the end. The Demon Weapon Trial was never meant to let someone walk away alive. It was meant to—"
Yao Xi finished for her, voice disturbingly cheerful:
"—let the weapon pick a fresh corpse to possess."
Lin Xuan barely had time to stabilize the power raging inside him when the demon sword gave a warning scream.Bloodflames surged across the hall, reality melted into heat—and silhouettes emerged from the darkness.
They were not alive.But they remembered living.
The Lost—prodigies who once entered this trial and failed. They glimpsed the will of the demon weapons… but were too weak to withstand it. Their souls burned out, leaving only instinct and suffering.
Their mouths twisted into frozen laughter or sobbing.Not living.Not dead.Just endless agony.
Luo Li's knuckles turned white around her staff."They were supposed to be the next pillars of the world… every one of them…"
Yao Xi didn't waver."Potential means nothing. Survival is the only achievement that counts."
The Lost surged forward as one—too fast to block, too many to escape.
The air imploded.
The first wave hit.
Lin Xuan did not retreat.The demon sword howled through the air, carving a rift of pure darkness that erased bodies instantly.
But the Lost reformed.Bloodflame rebuilt what the blade had destroyed.
"They can't be killed," Luo Li whispered.
Yao Xi laughed softly:"This place has only two exits—die, or become one of them."
Veins stood out on Lin Xuan's forehead—not from fear—but fury.
Rage was not his weakness.Rage was his fuel.
The Lost charged again.
Instead of running, Lin Xuan forced every ounce of unstable power inside him into a single technique.Not stabilizing it—weaponizing it.
"Riftblade — Annihilation."
Space cracked.The Lost dissolved into ash, scattering like sand caught in a storm.
This time… they did not return.
Luo Li stared, breath caught in her throat."You forced the demon weapon's power to break the rules of the trial… that could have killed you!"
Yao Xi's smile widened."Killed him? He just killed the trial instead."
Lin Xuan sheathed the sword.His breathing was heavy, but his eyes were steady.
"This place plays by rules to control me.""I break rules to control it."
Not arrogance.A declaration.
But the trial was not finished.
Three pillars of light erupted from the shattered altar and coalesced into three colossal beasts—dragon, tiger, phoenix.Their gazes held hunger—the hunger of executioners.
Luo Li froze."This is the judgment left by the ancient Demon Realm's supreme arbiters!"
Yao Xi's voice dropped to awe."You didn't bind a demon weapon. You bound the King of Demon Weapons."
The demon sword shrieked—"Kill!""Devour!""Yield!"
If he obeyed, he would gain strength beyond imagination instantly.And fall forever into the abyss.
His body trembled, breath ragged, blood dripping from clenched teeth.Darkness whispered:
"You've suffered enough. Destroy everything, and nothing can hurt you anymore."
Light whispered too—faint, yet real:Luo Li carrying his broken body.Yao Xi taking a blow meant for him.
Not chains.Choices.
Lin Xuan forced air into his lungs, every word scraping out of a bleeding throat:
"I don't surrender.""I take control."
Then he charged straight into the three demon beasts.
The three demon beasts attacked at once—dragon, tiger, phoenix.Not battle.Execution.
Luo Li tried to rush in, only to be thrown back by the barrier, coughing blood.Yao Xi unleashed her full demonic aura, darkness raging like a hurricane—yet the wall still held.
"They're separating us," Luo Li rasped."So he dies alone."
Yao Xi wasn't afraid of danger—but for the first time, she was afraid of losing him.
At the center of the arena, Lin Xuan was crushed under the unimaginable.
The dragon's claws shattered bone.The tiger tore his shoulder open.The phoenix pierced straight through his chest.
Any other cultivator would already be dead.
But Lin Xuan didn't fall.
His hand never released the sword.
The weapon screamed in frenzy:
"Submit! Submit! I will grant you power—enough to destroy everything!"
Blood dripped from Lin Xuan's lips as he answered—broken, breathless:
"Power isn't given.""It's taken."
He grabbed the phoenix's wing-blade still lodged in his chest and used it—pulled the phoenix toward him, holding it in place.
The beast fought wildly, bloodfire scorching his flesh, but he did not loosen his grip.
The tiger lunged.Lin Xuan didn't dodge. He slammed into the beast head-on, locking it in place with the phoenix.
And when the dragon descended—
Lin Xuan roared every shred of rage and life into the demon sword:
"Riftblade — Suppression!!"
The strike detonated.
Not darkness—the absence of existence itself.
Space split open.The three demon beasts dissolved—body, mind, and will—erased in a silence that even sound could not enter.
The Trial Ground shook once—then fell quiet.
The demonic array shattered.The barrier fell.
Luo Li and Yao Xi rushed to him.
Lin Xuan dropped to one knee—shoulder mangled, chest impaled, breath nearly gone.
Luo Li held him up, whispering, voice trembling:
"You did it… the trial is over…"
Yao Xi looked at him with expression too tangled to read:
"You could have surrendered. You chose the hardest path. What were you trying to prove?"
Lin Xuan's eyes opened—faint, fading, but unwavering:
"That fate… is not law.""That I am not… the monster they decide I am."
He collapsed.
The demon sword hit the ground.
A crimson flare burst from within it—a roar of metal and sovereignty shaking the entire Trial Ground.
The Demon Sword of the Rift… acknowledged its master.
A new inscription surfaced across the floor:
—One who rules their own fate shall be King of Demons.—A King of Demons is not a demon.
Luo Li froze.Yao Xi went silent.
They finally understood.
Lin Xuan didn't reject the darkness.He refused to be owned by it.
Two thoughts echoed—unspoken but absolute:
Luo Li:"I will guard his light so he is never alone."
Yao Xi:"I will guard his shadow so he is never devoured."
The sword dimmed.The Trial Ground collapsed.A portal opened.
Luo Li and Yao Xi lifted Lin Xuan and stepped into the light.
Darkness swallowed the three.
A new world of fate awaited on the other side.