Volume One: The Devil's Nature Never Changes
Arc: The Strategic Sect War
The competition ended, and the winners were announced.
Among them were Gu Yue, Lin Yuan, Ikalat, and several others.
Beneath a dark sky, green grass covered the earth as a river surged forward with tremendous force.
Cicadas filled the air with their chirping, fluttering around the river before settling upon yellow flowers and blades of green grass.
The river flowed with a strangely tranquil force.
It stretched beyond the end—
into everything within every time and every place.
There was a body inside the river.
It struggled desperately against the current.
Struggled to preserve its life.
To gain just one more second of existence.
To breathe instead of suffocating.
Then—
a hand reached into the water and pulled the boy out.
The one who emerged from the river was Fang Chen.
Standing before him was his elder brother, Scarlet King, in his human form.
Scarlet King pulled him from the river and stared at him for several seconds.
Then he leaned toward Fang Chen's ear and whispered:
"Continue."
"For the road ahead…"
Scarlet King's expression changed.
Something resembling a smiling, laughing mask appeared across his face as he continued:
"Will be interesting."
Fang Chen thought in shock:
(B-Big Brother?)
(Wait… no.)
(That isn't him.)
Fang Chen realized that this was merely a manifestation of Scarlet King—
an image brought into existence by his fear and desire.
It was not the real Scarlet King.
Yet it possessed everything about Scarlet King across all of his lives.
The river had manifested this form based on what Fang Chen feared most, while preserving Scarlet King's natural appearance and behavior.
After all, this river had recorded an incalculable number of Existential Eras.
Scarlet King suddenly grabbed Fang Chen by the throat.
Then, with all his strength, he hurled him forward—
sending him along with the river's current.
Fang Chen immediately began swimming downstream as fast as he could.
Behind him, the manifestation of Scarlet King spoke.
"I am reborn, therefore I exist."
"Everyone swims with the current."
"I have always walked against it."
He turned and looked toward the place where Fang Chen had disappeared.
"I asked for affection and mercy many times."
"Sometimes, I received them."
"And afterward, I did the opposite to others."
"But that does not erase the fact that I was once weak."
"Nor does it erase the fact that my emotions were real."
"I suffered greatly."
"And eventually, I lost the meaning behind what I felt toward existence."
"I used to look from the Hell of Return toward the Paradise of Rest."
Several cicadas landed upon his hand.
Scarlet King continued staring at them as he spoke.
"I was called a demonic being blinded by his goal."
"Someone who could never be trusted in any way."
"Someone whose limits could never be known."
"And that title will remain behind me until Rebirth itself comes to an end."
"Quite simply…"
"I am reborn, therefore I exist."
"Throughout all of my lives, I had only one desire."
"I have no mouth, and I must scream."
"But eventually, even the feeling behind the scream faded."
"And the familiar became natural."
He removed the mask.
The face beneath it was completely rigid.
"Just as killing is familiar and natural within my world, everything eventually became familiar to me with terrifying precision."
"And now, nothing remains within my heart except perseverance."
"And nothing remains upon my face except emptiness."
He pulled a knife out of nothingness.
Then he began gouging out his own eyes.
The blade entered through the narrow gap between the eye and the side of the eyelid.
He pushed it inward with force.
The first eye came free.
Blood poured from the empty socket like a river—
nothing more than the body's natural physical response.
Then he continued.
He removed the other eye as well.
Both eyes fell to the ground.
Within seconds—
they decomposed.
[Outside the River — First Dimension, Inside a Rented House]
Scarlet King stood beneath the rain.
He wore a loose black robe over white inner clothing.
A faint smile rested on his face as he gazed outward from beneath a bamboo umbrella.
The world was deeply gray.
The pleasant scent of rainwater and wet earth filled the air.
Scarlet King calmly spoke as he closed his eyes.
"Drinking green tea beneath the rain and gray clouds is beautiful, isn't it?"
"Sometimes, burning yourself away does far more harm than good."
"In the end, self-destruction offers no worthwhile benefit."
"It gives you only a momentary advantage…"
"followed by complete destruction and tremendous loss."
Scarlet King was extremely calm in the way he dealt with others.
Even when his words made him appear angry or irritated, the truth was that he was remarkably simple to deal with.
He treated each person in whatever manner was most appropriate for them.
Not because he was genuinely angry.
Not because he was genuinely irritated.
He simply displayed the emotions most suitable for that person so they would think and act in ways beneficial to Scarlet King.
He possessed genuine emotions.
But those emotions were causally severed from his decisions.
Whenever he sat alone, he became so quiet that the beating of his right heart could be heard.
And whenever there was nothing for him to do, he would most likely stare at the sky—
especially beneath the rain, with an umbrella above him.
Scarlet King did not hate life.
He did not hate beauty.
Nor did he hate comfort.
He simply did not glorify them.
And he did not place them above his goal.
In the distance, Lin Yuan stood watching Scarlet King while leaning diagonally against a wooden pillar.
Without turning toward him, Scarlet King spoke from afar.
"I suppose this makes quite a significant difference compared to my former self."
His voice rose slightly.
"Lin Yuan."
Lin Yuan immediately looked toward him.
Scarlet King continued:
"We need to adjust the plan slightly."
"Some unwanted guests have entered the Dimension."