The days after the tribulation blurred into haze.
His body healed slowly, abyssal tendrils knitting burnt flesh together, though scars remained etched across his skin like black lightning. Every movement ached. Every breath reminded him of how close he had come to annihilation.
But weakness was a teacher. And the lesson was clear: brute force would not save him forever.
He needed a path.
He sat within a ruined cave, trophies scattered around him—Gu worms pried from the corpses of the Gu Masters he had slain. Rank 1s, mostly. A few Rank 2s. Pathetic compared to what the clans guarded, but precious to him.
He picked one up: a blade Gu, its silver carapace gleaming faintly. Once, he had seen such things as treasures beyond reach. Now, he only saw tools.
The abyss pulsed in his veins. Feed it to us. We devour. We grow.
"No." His voice was cold, firm. "I won't just throw everything into the dark. There has to be structure. A system."
The abyss growled, restless.
So he tested.
He pressed the blade Gu to his palm. Tendrils slithered from his skin, wrapping the struggling worm. Instead of devouring it, he guided the abyss, restraining its hunger. The tendrils seeped into the Gu's carapace, merging, reshaping.
The Gu writhed. Its silver sheen dulled, overtaken by black veins crawling across its body. When the process ended, it no longer looked like a Gu at all—it was a shard of living obsidian, jagged and pulsing faintly with abyssal essence.
He focused. The shard dissolved into his armor. A moment later, his claws elongated, edges glinting with unnatural sharpness.
A strike against stone split it cleanly in two.
His lips curved. "Abyssal Blade Gu… no. Not Gu anymore. Something new."
One by one, he experimented.
A fire Gu was consumed and reborn as Abyssflame, black fire that burned both flesh and soul.
A defensive Gu twisted into Abyss Carapace, living armor that repaired itself in battle.
A swarm Gu became Abyss Spawn, tiny wriggling creatures that obeyed his will as scouts.
Each one felt alive, not separate but extensions of him—like the abyss itself was weaving them into his being.
But there was a cost. Every fusion left him weaker for hours, drained of willpower. Every failure risked losing the Gu entirely. Twice, he nearly lost control as the abyss tried to devour everything without balance.
Still, progress was undeniable.
He was no longer just borrowing strength. He was forging a path. A cultivation system parallel to Gu, born from abyss and will.
He gazed at his hand, shadows flickering across his fingers. "Gu Masters cultivate through essence, Gu worms, paths of heaven. Fang Yuan cultivates through schemes, wisdom, and defiance. And me…"
The abyss pulsed proudly. Through hunger. Through the void.
He shook his head. "No. Through me. My will guides this abyss, not the other way around."
The shadows recoiled, then settled, submitting to his determination.
For the first time, he felt it—not just raw power, but direction. A path only he could walk.
He whispered its name into the silence.
"The Abyss Path."
Far away, rumors spread further. Some said the demon had begun wielding strange Gu no one had ever seen before. Others claimed he had the ability to twist Gu into abominations.
Scholars speculated darkly: had he created a new cultivation path?
For the clans, this was no longer just a nuisance. It was heresy. A threat to the very foundation of Gu cultivation itself.
And so, fear turned to obsession. Clans, demonic sects, and even wandering immortals began to whisper the same words:
"The Abyssal Demon cannot be allowed to live."