Chapter 120: The Path to the Demons
"What?! Did I hear that correctly?"
Huang Quan looked up, his face a mask of shock and disbelief as he stared at Aizen, who wore that ever-present, slight smile. He fell into a stunned silence.
Standing before Aizen, he was perpetually gripped by a sense of suffocating oppression. For reasons he couldn't fathom, this seemingly mature teenager radiated an aura of unfathomable depth.
Especially the contempt hidden within those calm eyes—it was like a lion patrolling the territory of a pride that had submitted to him, or an eagle soaring at a great height, looking down upon the vast earth below. It all felt so natural, so inherently right. Huang Quan even had the illusion that within Aizen's youthful body resided a noble soul that had existed for centuries. Even being looked upon with such supreme disdain felt like a form of acknowledgment.
The gaze was sharp, the deterrence, absolute.
"You said you would help us break the Shrine Maiden's seal. Why?" Huang Quan's question was a raw, exhausted scream, laden with the fatigue of years of meticulous planning, the desperate ecstasy of seeing a glimmer of hope, and the burning ambition for a future he had long envisioned.
His eyes were full of suspicion, yet a sliver of expectation was hidden within their depths.
For some inexplicable reason, Aizen's gaze seemed to provide the answer itself. It conveyed that if he wished it, breaking the seal would be a trivial matter.
"Do you seek to understand my specific purpose?" Aizen's smile remained perfectly calm, as if releasing a monster that had once thrown the Five Great Nations into panic was nothing more than a passing whim. The fearsome reputation of this otherworldly entity was, to Aizen, as fragile as a small boat adrift on a stormy sea. "There is none. It is merely a matter of temporary interest."
"Impossible!" Huang Quan retorted loudly, his voice cracking. "If it was only a temporary interest, why did you radiate such ruthless killing intent before?!"
He couldn't believe a person's demeanor could shift so drastically. A cold, merciless countenance, a creepy and intimidating aura, and now this calm, elegant, and supremely confident composure—these two completely different temperaments existed within the same person.
It was horrifying.
"So, do I usually appear so cruel and ruthless?" Aizen's deep, penetrating gaze locked onto Huang Quan, making him feel a stark crisis of life and death. Under the pressure of that soul-piercing stare, Huang Quan didn't dare to speak further, shrinking back into a timid silence.
An invisible pressure from Aizen constantly suppressed him, making it difficult to even lift his head. More than that, there was an undeniable majesty in Aizen's eyes that commanded obedience.
And so, a simple, brutal choice was laid before Huang Quan.
A choice between life and death.
Obey, or die?
Huang Quan gritted his teeth, sweat pouring down his forehead. His mind was a whirlpool of indecision. With every passing second, he felt Aizen's killing intent grow stronger.
Should he obey the orders of this mysterious being and hand over the plan he had nurtured for years, or die a coward's death, never seeing the power he had dreamed of?
Standing at this crossroads of destiny, filled with bitterness and regret, Huang Quan helplessly made his choice.
"I... I agree!" he finally gasped.
His nostalgia for life and his longing for the future had, in the end, defeated his reason.
He let out a heavy, defeated sigh, submitting to Aizen's demand.
"You seem discontent," Aizen observed, his voice a soft, probing instrument. "Are you satisfied with who you are now? Do you not wish to control a more powerful force? To advance to a higher plane of existence?"
Each question landed like a heavy hammer, striking directly at Huang Quan's heart.
His faith began to crumble. His resolve began to waver.
"Or," Aizen continued, his eyes glinting, "do you truly believe that with your current strength, you are capable of breaking the Sprite's seal?"
These final words were the last straw that broke the camel's back, utterly shattering Huang Quan's long-held self-confidence.
He was right. What Aizen said was not wrong.
Was Huang Quan capable of breaking the Sprite's seal?
Absolutely not!
He had merely obtained a tiny fragment of the dark energy the Sprite had left behind. Even with that, his calculations showed it would take him three more years of optimal conditioning. Only then, when his mastery over this dark art reached perfection, would he potentially be able to break the Shrine Maiden's seal and release the monstrous Sprite.
"Even if I were to believe you," Huang Quan voiced the last doubt in his heart, "how can a teenager like you possibly help me break a seal of that magnitude?"
He did not doubt Aizen's power—he had felt that firsthand. But the youthful body he saw before him screamed one truth: impossibility.
If a young man, who merely looked slightly mature, truly possessed the strength to easily shatter the Shrine Maiden's seal, the news would send shockwaves through the entire shinobi world, causing every nation to tremble.
"The weak are always blinded by the 'false appearances' they see before them," Aizen stated, his perception as sharp as a blade. "The scenes their eyes perceive are often hindered by the limitations of their own hearts. You think that my youthful body cannot possess the power to break the seal. But what makes you so certain that my soul is as young as this vessel?"
He could read the thoughts in Huang Quan's eyes with a single glance.
"Just who is he?" Huang Quan thought, despair creeping in. "The panic he inspires far surpasses even what I feel facing the Master Sprite."
Aizen took a step forward. His eyes, calm and unrippled as an ancient well, pierced straight into the core of Huang Quan's being. He saw the deep-seated doubt and denial festering there.
"You still harbor doubts. You still deny. But for beings like us, trust is an unnecessary luxury."
With a mere thought from Aizen, the terrifying, near-solid pressure of his Reiatsu descended once more. Offering no resistance, Huang Quan felt his spine bow under the weight, and he collapsed to the ground in an undignified heap, gasping for air, a fatal sense of suffocation overwhelming him.
"You need only obey. Follow my commands. Do not disobey. Do not resist." Aizen's voice was absolute, leaving no room for argument. "Even if the Shrine Maiden's seal is powerful, I need only exert my Reiatsu to crush it. It is as simple as that."
He looked toward the horizon, his gaze fixed on a distant, unseen destination.
"Now, let us go. To the Land of Demons. Let us release this legendary monster, this 'Sprite'."
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