"See?" Jiang Dao's voice was flat, devoid of emotion. "I told you. An ant's bite."
He towered over his foe, a fifteen-foot titan of muscle and rage. His hand, glowing like superheated gold, pinned the frail figure to the ground. A shimmering lattice of crimson energy—his Fiery Poison Qi—crawled across his skin, forming what looked like dark, metallic scales. A distorted aura of heat warped the air around him, deflecting the desperate struggles of the man he held captive.
A ragged scream tore from the smaller man's throat. His chest was a ruin, a gaping hole where Jiang Dao's fist had torn through. Searing poison coursed through his organs, extinguishing the black flames that had once wreathed his body. He fought, he thrashed, but against the mountain of a man holding him down, it was nothing.
"What… what are you?" the man shrieked, his voice thin with horror and disbelief.
"Why does everyone ask that?" Jiang Dao's tone was chilling. "I'm a man. Just a man."
The terrifying, poison-laced energy crept from his palm, slithering over the man's body like a shroud of violet heat. It enveloped him completely.
"No!" The scream turned into a gurgle of pure agony. "You're at the peak… Annihilation-Grade! The Spirit Child Palace will hunt you down for this! I'll be back! I'll—"
WHOOSH.
Eerie black flames erupted from within, consuming him from the inside out. The fire leaped onto Jiang Dao's arm, and he recoiled with a frown, pulling his hand back and flooding his limb with internal energy to snuff out the unnatural blaze.
On the ground, the man's shrieks faded as his body crumbled to ash, vanishing into the dirt in seconds.
He's dead.
But then, Jiang Dao felt it. A flicker. A wisp of strange, intangible energy peels itself away from the ashes and darts into the darkness.
He's not dead.
The memory of the woman in white flashed in his mind—the one he'd killed, only for her to reappear. He wondered if this old sorcerer used the same trick.
Without a sound, Jiang Dao began to suppress his own power. The immense Yang energy within him coiled inward, his towering frame shrinking back to its normal size as his wounds sealed. He cloaked his presence, melting into the shadows, and began to follow the ghostly trail. If his spirit hadn't recently broken past the limits of a normal human, he never would have sensed it. Now, he had to see where it would lead.
He moved through the night like a phantom, a whisper in the dark. Time stretched, the chase silent and unseen.
The sun bled through the morning mist, illuminating a deep, primeval forest thick with damp, decaying leaves. Jiang Dao came to a halt, his presence completely submerged in the fog and the ancient stillness of the woods. He peered forward.
Dozens of yards away stood a skeletal ruin, a building so dilapidated it seemed to have been abandoned for centuries. Cracked walls wept with moss, and its great doors lay splintered on the ground. A palpable, sinister energy pulsed from within, a coldness that had nothing to do with the morning chill. Through the thick fog, he could see an array of eerie green lanterns, each painted with a single, stark character: [Mourning].
From the courtyard came the faint, lilting sound of children singing and playing. The words were gibberish, their voices disturbingly light, an innocent sound that felt deeply, horribly wrong.
Jiang Dao's eyes narrowed. The Spirit Child Palace? Were those the infamous Spirit Children in the courtyard?
His heart pounded, not with fear, but with a hunter's greed. To him, each Spirit Child was a priceless treasure, a key to augmenting his power. From the sounds of it, there were at least a half-dozen of them inside.
This was either their headquarters or a major outpost. Either way, he had hit the motherlode. Perfectly concealing his aura, he slipped forward.
The courtyard was a scene from a nightmare. Amidst the rubble and overgrown weeds, six grotesque children with indigo-blue skin and eyes that wept black blood were at play. They were kicking a severed head like a plaything, its hollow thud on the packed earth punctuated by their chilling, joyous laughter.
Nearby lay the headless corpse of a woodcutter, his blood a fresh stain on the ground. His companion was still alive, paralyzed by a fear so profound it had stolen his voice. He had simply been cutting wood, gotten lost in the sudden fog, and wandered into this hellscape. Now, he could only watch as these demonic children played with his friend's head, their laughter echoing like the shrieks of ghosts.
Suddenly, the invisible wisp of energy Jiang Dao had been following shot into the courtyard and drilled into the back of one of the Spirit Children.
The child froze mid-kick. A look of agony twisted its small face as it clutched its stomach. The belly began to swell, bloating at an unnatural rate like a balloon being rapidly inflated. Within seconds, it was stretched as taut as a nine-month pregnancy.
TCHK!
With a sickening tear, a withered, skeletal hand clawed its way out, ripping the stomach open. A figure, slick with blood and amniotic filth, pulled itself free from the child's ruined body.
It was the Left Protector.
He was weak, his hair plastered to his pale face, his body shaking. He staggered to his feet, his voice a venomous rasp. "Damn you, Jiang Dao! You destroyed my Yin Body, but the Spirit Child Palace will have its revenge! I will kill your family, turn them all into Spirit Children, and damn their souls for eternity!"
The other five children stopped their game and stared blankly. The Left Protector, swaying on his feet, turned to stumble toward a room deeper in the ruins to recover.
But then he stopped.
CRUNCH.
A single, heavy footstep on the leaf-strewn ground.
The Left Protector's head snapped around, his eyes turning to ice. A figure was emerging from the white fog, its steps slow, deliberate, and powerful.
A hoarse voice cut through the silence. "Left Protector. I have to thank you. I never would have found this place on my own."
The Protector's face went slack with shock, which quickly curdled into pure, unadulterated terror. He scrambled backward. "Jiang… Jiang Dao?"
A horrifying grin spread across Jiang Dao's face as he stepped fully into view. "Who else? I really do owe you one."
"Kill him!" the Left Protector shrieked.
The five remaining Spirit Children unleashed piercing cries, their eyes bleeding freely as they launched themselves at Jiang Dao.
Jiang Dao's grin widened into a predator's snarl. With a guttural roar, his body swelled, erupting back into the ten-foot-tall juggernaut of his Adamantine State. He didn't wait. He lunged, his hand plunging straight through the chest of the nearest child, obliterating it in a shower of gore. A single, brutal kick turned the second into a red mist.
He clapped his hands together, and his fiery poison aura flared, creating an invisible cage that snagged the final three. The air compressed, crushing them from all sides. Their agonized screams were cut short as they imploded, their remains instantly incinerated.
It was over in seconds.
To the weeping woodcutter huddled on the ground, it was as if a god of war had descended. "Immortal… Adamantine Immortal, help me!" he cried.
The Left Protector, his face a mask of terror, turned and fled deeper into the ruins.
"Hahaha!" Jiang Dao's laughter boomed as he gave chase.
"The formation! Activate it!" the Protector screamed over his shoulder.
The very ground trembled. Yin energy, cold and foul, belched from the earth as nearly twenty heavy stone coffins burst from below. They spun into a dizzying vortex, a barricade of enchanted stone meant to trap him.
"Junk," Jiang Dao growled. He swept his arm, and the wave of pure force shattered the first line of coffins. But as they exploded, more erupted from the ground to take their place. He smashed another set, and again, they were instantly replaced.
Fury ignited in his eyes. "Let's see how many you've got!"
He stomped, cracking the earth beneath him, and charged. He became a living meteor of heat and fury, smashing through the endless wall of stone without slowing. The coffins exploded in his wake like firecrackers. In a flash, he was through the barrier and bearing down on the Left Protector.
The man had no fight left in him. "No, please!"
BOOM!
The shockwave from Jiang Dao's attack distorted the air itself. The Left Protector was flung through the air like a rag doll, his body shredding apart before he even hit the far wall. He collapsed in a heap, half his torso simply gone, yet somehow, he was still breathing, moaning in a pool of his own blood.
Jiang Dao strode over, the triumphant grin returning to his face. He bent down and lifted the broken man by his neck.
"So," he said, his voice a low rumble. "Compared to your little black fire trick, which one of us is more fun?"
"Cough… spare… spare me…" the Protector choked, blood dribbling from his lips.
"Heh. Maybe," Jiang Dao mused. "But that depends on how helpful you are. Let's talk. Tell me everything about the Spirit Child Palace. How many strongholds? How many 'evil spirits' like yourself?"
The Protector trembled violently. "The Palace… we suffered a great defeat recently. Only… only two strongholds are left. Besides the Palace Master, there's the Right Protector and three Dharma Kings. Everyone else… they're all dead."
"That's it?" Jiang Dao's eyes narrowed.
"Yes… The Palace Master stole a sacred artifact from Hengzhou City. The major powers hunted us down. We lost almost everyone. We only have about a dozen Spirit Children left."
"What about your Master's power level? And the others?"
"The Palace Master… he's Nightmare-Grade. Something else entirely… a nightmare made flesh, nearly impossible to kill. The Right Protector and the Dharma Kings are like me—Annihilation-Grade, but mid-level."
So, killable, Jiang Dao thought. A plan was already forming in his mind. He could wipe out the entire leadership. And maybe, just maybe, he could even handle the Master.
"This sacred artifact," Jiang Dao said. "Where is it? Is it really that powerful?"
"The Master is… refining it. I don't know what it can do."
"And the others? The Right Protector and the Kings?"
"They're guarding him. With everyone hunting us, he can't risk returning to a stronghold. He's in hiding while he merges with the artifact."
"Where?"
"I don't know! I swear, I don't know! Please!"
Jiang Dao's grin tightened. "You don't know? How does he contact you when he needs you?"
"The… the Spirit Jade Pendant…"
"Where is it?"
"In the room…"
Jiang Dao dragged the mangled man into the nearby room and, after a moment of tearing the place apart, found a black, discus-sized jade pendant. "How does it work?"
"You… you just need to channel Yin power into it…"
Jiang Dao frowned. Yin power. He didn't have that. "One more thing. You died out there. I saw it. How did you come back?"
"It's a technique only we evil spirits possess," the man explained hurriedly. "What you destroyed was my Yin Body. My soul can use a Spirit Child as a vessel to reincarnate… to be born again."
"So you're an evil spirit."
"Y-yes…"
"And the Palace Master?"
"He and the Right Protector are both spirits. The three Dharma Kings… they were originally Spirit Exterminators, humans who hunt our kind."
"Good," Jiang Dao breathed, his smile growing wider and more genuine. "Very good."
This place wasn't a den of monsters. It was a treasure trove. A blessed land. If he could hunt down and consume the power of every last one of them… the thought was intoxicating. The potential gains were better than any legendary medicine.
He looked down at the broken man in his grip, feigning a dilemma. "You know, this is a problem. I want to keep you alive… but I'm worried you won't be obedient. And I want to kill you… But that seems like such a waste. Tell me, what should I do?"
"No, don't kill me! I'll cooperate! We can cooperate!" the Left Protector cried, his voice shrill with desperation.
Jiang Dao leaned in close, his voice a menacing whisper.
"How do we cooperate?"