He stood amid the aftermath of his transformation, chest rising and falling, purple mist leaking from the crown of his fractured skull.
His closed eyes turned toward the distant cavern, where the queen writhed around the cursed fruit.
Then they shifted back to Yīnluò, who had walked up beside him.
"I think it's time I fill you in on my thoughts—before I forget," he said, flexing his wings. "Remember when we talked about your Dao? I mentioned that each time your soul returns to your body, you experience a small boost in power."
He paused.
"Maybe that's not a side effect. Maybe that's the condition you need to advance."
SWISH—CRACKLE!
A purple flame burst to life in his palm. "You were awakened under the Bone Key sigil, right?"
He frowned slightly, surprised by the flame's color. He had meant to summon Azure Drip—yet something else had answered instead.
Cocking his arm back, he hurled the flame into the ground.
The earth exploded.
An enemy wyrm was blasted upward, stalled mid-motion as two controlled wyrms burst from below, dragging it screaming back underground.
"Maybe that's the key to perfecting your flames," he continued calmly. "To follow your Daoist nature. To unlock your path completely."
He lifted his hand, watching the poison flames writhe before cutting off the smoke leaking from his palm.
"I have two Daos. Or… I had two, it seems."
"One was granted by the Azure Pit. The other—I awakened on my own."
"The former gave me my Contract Authority and Azure Drip flames."
"When you break it down, it pushes me in one direction—to become a pyromaniac who thrives on binding others."
"So that's what I do. I find new ways to integrate those abilities. I create contracts demons can easily fall into. I incorporated flames into my demonic arts."
Another wyrm burst from the ground, lunging at him.
Qiren raised his left hand.
This time, Azure Flames answered.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled the built-up fog from his lungs into the fire.
Swish!
He drew his hidden dagger and lunged forward, stabbing the creature cleanly through the skull.
Nearby, Yīnluò's instincts flared. She snapped her brush-whip into motion, striking another attacker in reflexive defense. Qiren didn't even glance her way—he had given it to her, after all.
"The other Dao I possess lets me merge paths," he said. "I won't tell you what it is—not because I don't trust you, but because I can't trust that there won't be an enemy who can peer into your mind."
"So I'll stay secretive. But I'll tell you this—if your Dao advances under two conditions, death and revival… then I think I can help you shape its path."
She struck hard, driving her attacker back. "A path for my Dao?"
He nodded, finishing off his wyrm. "And this place—this situation—is perfect to begin."
"Your path has always been in front of you," he murmured. "The will to live. Ever since you told me your story, that's been the only constant."
"You never wanted to die. You hid. You feared the unknown. And every time you were pushed to the brink, your spirit clung to your bones and forced its way back."
"That's what your Dao means."
"To advance, you must remain between life and death. That is the Bone Key—to be stranded forever in an endless corridor, holding a key with limitless potential… but no doors to open."
He allowed two more wyrms to slip past his control into the tunnel.
"Because of that, I planned to gently nurture your spirit—killing and reviving you over time. I hoped you'd eventually revive without blood, through spiritual force alone."
His gaze sharpened.
"But that plan changes here."
"I want you to fight as if your life depends on it. Kill—or be killed. And if you die, I want you to move."
He twirled his stone knife, then tossed it to her.
"So long as your soul can understand what's happening, I want it to find its way back."
He surged forward, half-crouched, flying past the two wyrms he had lured.
His body flickered—turning into darkness for an instant, leaving them without a target as he disappeared.
Then—
Yīnluò leapt backward, slashing with her newly acquired dagger.
She hadn't even finished her first enemy when two more charged in.
"Haha… leaving me with such an impossible task," she laughed breathlessly. "How cruel, my lord."
An explosion caught her mid-step, hurling her into the cavern wall.
"Cough! Cough!"
Stone crumbled as she crashed through into another passage.
She groaned, pushing herself upright.
"That's fine."
She wiped blood from her mouth, ignoring the scorching flames eating at her pelt. "I'll just have to prove I'm truly a demon too."
Her lips curled upward.
One hand tightened around the whip, the other around the knife.
Flames crawled along both weapons.
Then she burst from the shattered wall.
"AAAAAAAA—!"
Yīnluò burst forward, body low, whip snapping in a blinding arc.
CRACK!
White flames lashed across the charging wyrm's flank.
The fire didn't burn.
It seared—
The wyrm shrieked as its muscles spasmed, its charge faltering for a split second as the pale flames disrupted the flow of its Qi and poison.
"Skrr—!!"
That was all she needed.
She twisted her wrist, yanking the whip back—not to restrain, but to pull herself in.
Her feet hit the ground hard as she lunged forward.
The dagger flashed.
SHHK—!
Steel punched into the wyrm's side, sliding between overlapping plates of its exoskeleton. Blackened blood sprayed as the blade sank deep, scraping bone before she ripped it free and stabbed again—lower, angling upward.
The wyrm thrashed, tail slamming into the cavern wall.
She was already gone.
Yīnluò ducked beneath the swing, rolled, and cracked the whip again.
White fire bloomed—
not scorching,
not consuming—
but interrupting.
The flames flared along its joints, locking muscles mid-motion, throwing its balance just enough.
She surged back in.
Stab.
Twist.
Rip.
The dagger carved into its side once more, widening the wound as poison leaked freely into the air.
"Hah… hah…"
Her breath burned in her chest.
Her legs shook as she leapt back—just as the mist pouring from the wyrm's wound detonated violently. Its flesh sizzled and cauterized as it spun, its tail slamming hard into her ribs.
"Hiss—!"
It exhaled a poison mist that sparkled with glowing embers.
She tried to retreat—but another wyrm uncloaked behind her, coiling around her arm.
The smoke thickened.
Her vision blurred.
The creature wrapped around her released its toxins directly into her face.
Dark stains bloomed where the fumes struck.
She clamped her mouth shut as the right side of her face grew heavy, her vision reddening. Her right eye swelled half-shut, blood seeping as poison flooded her nervous system at point-blank range.
Yet her focus locked onto the embers blistering across her skin.
These weren't royal guards—just common wyrms.
They couldn't actively generate toxin-infused flames, but they could spit fireballs, smoke, and burning embers.
And right now, all three were aimed at her.
Her eyes snapped to the third wyrm, orange heat building in its throat.
She knew what was coming.
Yīnluò screamed.
Her spine flared with brilliant white light, the heat alone forcing the creature behind her to uncoil—just moments before the third wyrm fired.
BOOOOM!
The blazing flame slammed into the dense mist.
She twisted free, using her former captor as a shield as the explosion engulfed them.
"Ahhhh—!"
Her dagger plunged into its back, slicing through flesh. She drove it upward, lifting the writhing body an inch off the ground as she charged through the blast.
—!!!
The wyrm that launched the attack reeled in shock as Yīnluò emerged from the smoke, mostly unscathed.
Her right side was purpled, veins blackened with poison.
She rammed the two wyrms together, then snapped her focus to the whip in her hand.
She remembered how Qiren had shaped it into different forms.
Leaping a meter into the air, her grip tightened.
"Combat Series—Iron Fan."
The weapon spread—but she didn't use it to deflect or disperse.
Not this time.
Primal instinct took over.
Her Dao flames surged, shaping into howling vestiges along the fan—and she released them all at once.
For the first time, her thoughts fell silent.
She listened to her soul.
A barrage of flaming skulls rained down, biting into flesh before sinking through the wounds, burning beneath the wyrms' skin from the inside out.
She landed hard.
For a heartbeat, she stood still—blood dripping from her dagger, white flames flickering weakly along the fan.
Then the fire ignited inside them.
Their internal organs blistered and melted, white flames consuming them from within.
"How did I…?" she muttered.
Her eyes sharpened.
The flames coiled tighter around her weapons.
She swung the fan again—but this time it scattered only fractured bursts of fire.
Incomplete.
She retreated a step, her breath steadying.
"I have to focus on what's in front of me…"
She inhaled deeply and faced the wyrm ahead.
"Come on," she whispered. "Kill me."
Another skitter echoed through the tunnel.
The creature snarled.
Yīnluò grinned, teeth bared.
"Good."
She raised the whip again.
"Come closer."
Her vision doubled for a heartbeat before snapping back—the poison finally asserting itself.
"Mystic Compass Strike!"
She swung with everything she had, sending a crescent arc burrowing toward the charging wyrm. The strike howled, almost splitting into skulls—
—but they failed to fully manifest.
The blow slammed into the wyrm, flinging it skidding across the stone.
"There it is again," Yīnluò murmured, watching the flames.
Siiiiizzz—
They clung to the wyrm's body as it burrowed into the floor.
The rock shifted above its burrow.
It circled in a visible pattern before sinking deeper.
Waiting.
Her grip tightened.
Her white flames shifted.
She poured her Qi and Negative Karma into them.
The ceiling cracked.
Two more wyrms crashed down as the one below surged upward.
She twisted mid-attack, the fan sweeping wide as all three lunged at once.
I need to push farther.
Their maws spewed gas on command. Two embers collided and started a chain reaction.
Hissss—KA-BOOOOM!
Argh!!!!!
Yīnluò blew her way out of the explosion cloud.
"Mystic Compass Strike—East to West!"
She swung with all her might, channeling the air itself after dispersing her flames.
"North to South—"
Pale imitations of Qiren's wind blades shot out as her Qi launched from the fan and bonded with the air currents, manifesting the cross gales she had just shaped.
Krrreee!!!
The wide arcs slashed through all three, sending them tumbling. Then—fwism!
The moment her Qi met the one she had been fighting earlier, the tiny flames on its exoskeleton flared back to life.
"Kraa! Skriiii!" it roared in pain.
She moved, rushing in before they could react.
"North to South!"