Chapter 2 — The Awakening of Lin Xuan
The alley was silent now, but the air still reeked of blood and betrayal. Lin Xuan's chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, trembling limbs refusing to obey. Around him, the remnants of the servants' violence lay scattered: broken bones, overturned carts, and the faint, acrid scent of poison. He stared at Liu Yue—her young face streaked with tears, yet burning with a stubborn defiance he had always admired. Liu Yang, her brother, groaned weakly, poisoned and half-conscious, and his Martial Mother—her figure battered but unwavering—tried to shield him with a trembling arm.
Lin Xuan's vision blurred, the world tilting, as if the very air were too heavy for him to bear. Pain and helplessness surged like a tide, but amidst it, a strange calm began to seep in.
Then, a voice. Not spoken, not human.
[System Initialization Complete…]
[Host: Lin Xuan]
[Soul Merge: Mo Tianyin detected]
[Compatible vessel integrity: 92%]
[System functions: Activated]
[Mission 1: Survive and Save Target(s)]
[Target(s): Liu Yue, Liu Yang, Luo Shuang]
[Suggested Action: Immediate defensive and offensive cultivation recommended]
Lin Xuan froze. His vision, already hazy, sharpened unnaturally. The alley's shadows thickened, coiling around his body, yet they did not frighten him—they obeyed him, trembling in response to something deep within. The voice was not a whisper; it was a presence, ancient and cold, yet precise. It was not his, and yet it was him.
He tried to speak, but the words died on his lips. The system's interface flowed into his mind like blood, instructions etched in an instinctive clarity that bypassed thought. His hands clenched. The fire of his past life—the Demonic Sovereign—burned through him, merging with the mortal weakness of seventeen-year-old Lin Xuan.
[Mission Status: Critical]
[Immediate Threat: Servants pursuing the family]
[Recommended Action: Deploy combat protocols]
Lin Xuan's eyes—Black sclera blossomed across the white of his irises, a faint green hue rippling from the white irises. The world slowed around him. The servants who had not yet been defeated stumbled forward, unaware of the predator reborn in the alley's shadow.
He rose. Each movement was deliberate, precise, controlled. The muscles of his body flexed as if remembering techniques that had never belonged to them. Shadow tendrils curled around his arms and legs, responding to the surge of his demonic energy.
"Yue'er!" he called, his voice low but unyielding. "Behind me! Stay close!"
The girl's eyes widened, her fear mixing with relief. "Brother Lin…"
He didn't answer. Words were useless. Only action could save them now.
The first servant charged, a crude blade raised, face twisted in malice. Lin Xuan's hands moved almost unconsciously.
Severed Shadow Clone!
In an instant, multiple shadows of himself erupted around him. They moved, attacked, and absorbed the incoming strikes. The first servant never reached Liu Yue. Limbs shattered, a scream cut short, and the alley fell silent once more.
Another wave approached—three, then five. Lin Xuan didn't hesitate. His fists struck like hammers, precise and brutal. Each blow carried weight, as if the boy's entire life—and the fury of the Demonic Sovereign—were concentrated in a single strike. Bones cracked, qi flared, and the blood that sprayed was not just mortal—it carried echoes of centuries of cruelty, intelligence, and relentless calculation.
[Mission Update: 40% Complete]
[Targets Remaining: Liu Yue, Liu Yang, Luo Shuang]
[Immediate Action: Engage hostile forces, secure escape route]
The alley became a whirlwind of shadows and strikes. Lin Xuan moved with unnatural speed, dodging poisoned darts, countering blades, and devouring the qi of those who dared approach. Every strike reinforced his body; every breath seemed to circulate not just mortal strength, but the cold, calculating cunning of a demon reborn.
Liu Yang coughed, blood streaking his lips, his small form trembling. Luo Shuang tried to hold the two children together, but the alley was narrow, the enemies relentless. Lin Xuan noticed them, and for the first time in this life, he understood something he had never felt before: fear—not for himself, but for those he cared for. That ember… that ache, it was unfamiliar.
[Heart Signal Detected: Emotional anomaly—Attachment detected]
[Recommendation: Protect targets at all costs]
"Stay behind me!" Lin Xuan barked, voice like steel. Shadow tendrils flared, whipping, constricting, striking. One servant's head was crushed under a phantom shadow fist, another impaled by crystalline shards of energy spun from his bloodline resonance.
The system interface guided him. Not out of mercy, but out of calculation, strategy, survival. Mo Tianyin's essence whispered through every strike, every parry, every step. His body was young, weak by former standards, but the mind, the cunning, the techniques—they were all there.
[Target Liu Yue Location: Secured]
[Target Liu Yang Status: Critical – Poison Detected]
[Target Luo Shuang: Injured – Defensive Formation Suggested]
[Mission 1 Progress: 70%]
Lin Xuan's eyes swept the alley. The surviving servants were cornered, terrified, unable to anticipate the predator that had emerged from their cruelty. He moved silently, swiftly, and with ruthless precision. Shadows coiled and struck like whips. Bones shattered. Blood sprayed. Qi fractured.
And then, a moment of stillness.
Liu Yue, trembling, reached out to him. "Brother… Lin… you… you saved us…"
He looked at her, his chest tightening, a foreign warmth piercing through the cold precision of his mind. That ache—he had never felt it before, not as Mo Tianyin—was sharp, unbearable, and yet grounding. His lips curved ever so slightly.
"You're alive. That's enough," he said, voice low, carrying a weight older than his seventeen years.
[Mission Update: Targets Secured]
[Next Step: Evade remaining hostile forces, prepare higher power level]
Lin Xuan knew it would not be easy. The survivors would regroup. The world would hunt them. But for now… they lived. The alley, once a tomb, became a crucible, and within it, the boy who had been nothing, and the demon who had been everything, had merged into one.
He glanced at Liu Yue and Liu Yang, then Luo Shuang — His Martial Mother, and a promise formed in his mind. A vow sharper than any blade, colder than any winter wind:
> I will survive.
I will grow.
I will see the heavens themselves bend before me.
And with that thought, Lin Xuan took the first deliberate step into his reborn destiny, shadows trailing, system interface humming silently in his mind.
The alley was quiet again. The storm had passed. But the world beyond… was watching. And it would tremble.