The clearing was suffocatingly still. No birds sang, no insects stirred, not even the wind dared to rustle the leaves. At the center of the silence loomed the black crystal cocoon, veins of crimson light crawling across its surface like living scars.
The Azure Sky Blades stood in formation, their presence sharp and unyielding.
Feng Xueya, the leader, clad in robes of midnight blue, her sword humming with an intent so sharp it seemed to slice the silence itself. Her gaze was calm, yet deep within burned a hunger for battle.
Liang Chao, the silent killer, tall and thin as a shadow, his twin blades coated with faint violet poison qi.
Mo Shuren, a bald giant wielding a crimson halberd, his qi boiling like a furnace, every breath exhaling smoke.
Han Yuer, the youngest, a woman with silver hair and eyes like cold mirrors, her affinity for frost able to freeze rivers with a whisper.
Wei Zhan, scarred from countless wars, his spear carried the aura of storms, lightning coiling faintly around its shaft.
Tian Rou, the mystic, her fan woven of phoenix feathers, each movement conjuring illusory flames and shifting mirages.
Six blades. Six killing stars sent by the Sect Master himself.
The cocoon pulsed again.
Boom.
A wave of oppressive qi surged out, pressing against their chests. Even these seasoned killers flinched, their protective auras trembling. The crimson cracks spread wider, light spilling like blood.
Mo Shuren gritted his teeth. "The thing inside… it feels like a beast. No—worse than a beast. It reeks of chaos."
Liang Chao whispered, almost reverently, "It isn't human."
Feng Xueya raised her hand, silencing them. Her eyes narrowed as the cocoon trembled violently, dust falling from the blackened trees around them. She had seen many foes, faced demons, slaughtered cultivators across realms—but this pressure was different. This was the pressure of something that should not exist.
Crack.
The first fracture tore across the cocoon's surface. A shriek echoed in the forest—not from any throat, but from the crystal itself, like the wail of ancient spirits. Han Yuer's frost qi spread instinctively, coating the ground in white, but it did nothing to quell the suffocating heat rising from within.
Crack. Crack.
The crystal split open further. A claw—black, scaled, and veined with molten crimson—forced its way out. The air warped around it, space itself groaning.
Mo Shuren's halberd trembled in his hands. "What… what kind of monster is this?!"
Another claw emerged, then the shadow of wings, vast and oppressive, pressing against the limits of the cocoon.
The Blades' formation tightened. Wei Zhan slammed his spear into the ground, lightning crackling across the clearing. "If it awakens fully, we may not walk out alive."
Feng Xueya's lips curved into a cold smile, though her knuckles were white around her sword hilt. "Then we strike before it awakens."
But just as she spoke, the cocoon shattered in a thunderclap.
A tidal wave of qi erupted, crimson and black, swirling like a storm that sought to devour the world. The ground split open, trees dissolved into ash, and the very sky dimmed as though afraid to gaze upon what had emerged.
From the ruins of the cocoon, a figure rose.
He was tall, his form draped in shadowed scales that shimmered with chaotic light. Wings spread behind him, vast and jagged, blotting out what little light remained. His hair, dark as midnight, spilled like a river of ink, his eyes burning with vertical pupils of molten gold and abyssal red. A tail, tipped with a blade-like edge, coiled behind him, and every breath he exhaled carried the scent of blood and ruin.
He was no longer half-demon, nor half-dragon.
He was something new.
The first Primordial Chaos Demon Dragon.
The six Blades froze. For the first time in their lives, veterans of countless battles, they felt their cultivation falter under raw instinctive terror.
The figure's gaze swept across them, calm and cold. His voice, when it came, was low, layered with an echo like two beings speaking as one.
"Three years… you disturbed my slumber."
His hand lifted, and the scythe embedded beside the cocoon ripped free, flying into his grasp. The blade howled, resonating with him as though it had always belonged to him.
Feng Xueya's composure cracked. For the first time in decades, she felt her throat tighten.
"Azure Sky Blades," she commanded, her voice cutting through the fear. "Form the Heaven-Slaying Array!"
The six hunters moved as one, weapons glowing, killing intent soaring into the heavens.
And the being born from chaos… smiled.