Volume One: The Devil's Nature Never Changes
Arc: The Inheritance of the Immortal Shrine
Scarlet King sat down and held the Primordial Chaos Manual.
He then placed a Sacred Primordial Stone on top of the book.
The stone immediately shattered, and the book began absorbing the Sacred Qi, which was as white as milk.
The book opened at once.
Chaotic-looking talismans began emerging from its pages and entering Scarlet King's head.
Inside his internal world, those talismans began appearing and transforming into inscriptions.
The inscriptions started merging with the walls of the internal world while simultaneously fusing with the Core Aperture.
This was a preparation process meant to allow Scarlet King's body to withstand Primordial Chaos.
The fundamental purpose of the Primordial Chaos Manual was to transform weapons into Chaos Weapons, which stood at the very summit of all weapon types.
If there were an Immortal-Quality weapon at the Ruler Realm, then a Chaos Weapon of the same Ruler Realm and Immortal Quality would be several times stronger than the ordinary weapon.
The reason was simple.
The first weapon used Ruler Qi.
The second used Primordial Chaos Energy.
Primordial Chaos was the strongest, purest, and oldest energy in existence and nothingness.
It had first appeared after the collision between Light and Darkness.
Naturally, someone might ask:
Why not use the Primordial Chaos Manual directly on one's own body?
It was possible.
But it was extraordinarily dangerous.
More importantly, it was almost impossible for a body capable of enduring the power of Primordial Chaos to exist.
Primordial Chaos would shatter the body and break down every existential particle within it—
assuming the person could even absorb it in the first place.
Primordial Chaos Energy submitted to no one.
Scarlet King, however, now possessed the Soul of Darkness.
Because of that, he could subjugate Primordial Chaos and absorb it.
If he were inside the Dimensions and needed Primordial Chaos Energy, then because he still did not possess the Multiple Energy Pathways Manual, he could only use Primordial Chaos Energy by itself.
Ti Yuan Energy and Ling Li were exceptions.
They were not cultivation energies, but specialized energies belonging to the body and soul.
They were twins—
two sides of the same coin.
Scarlet King could generate Primordial Chaos by combining the Darkness Energy contained within his fragment with Light Energy from the Path of Light.
Because of that, he would need to cultivate the Path of Light in the coming period.
However, he would need to inject both energies into a purple Primordial Stone or something of a higher grade, as such stones contained energy capable of enduring the fusion.
In that way, he could generate a sufficient amount of Primordial Chaos Energy.
However, it would not possess the same purity as the Primordial Chaos found outside the Dimensions.
That was because what he possessed was the Path of Light—
not Light itself.
Scarlet King, on the other hand, possessed an actual fragment of Darkness.
That meant he held a portion of Darkness's true power, but he did not possess the true power of Light.
Because of that, he would have to rely on less pure Light Energy.
That would create an imbalance.
To compensate, he would need to reduce the purity of his Darkness Energy until the Primordial Chaos Energy created through the fusion became balanced.
It would not be completely pure.
But it would be enough.
True, pure Primordial Chaos existed outside the Dimensions.
However, Scarlet King's speed was infinite, while the expansion speed of the First Dimension was First-Degree Immeasurable.
That meant he could not leave the Dimension unless he first ascended to the Second Dimension and then descended back into the First.
And that was extremely difficult—
not because of ascending, but because of descending.
Once he ascended, he would gain qualitative, existential, and quantitative superiority over the entirety of the First Dimension and everything within it.
That would allow him to surpass the Dimension's speed and temporal expansion and escape into the Primordial Chaos.
But the outside was extraordinarily dangerous.
Even so—
it was worth it.
Impure Primordial Chaos would moderately increase Scarlet King's strength.
Pure Primordial Chaos, however, would increase it tremendously.
Ling Hui watched from a distance as darkness began surrounding Scarlet King.
From beneath his body, black energy with pure white edges began emerging, wrapping around Scarlet King and merging with him.
When Ling Hui focused more carefully, he noticed something.
(Wait… Isn't that Primordial Chaos Energy!? This madman intends to use that energy!?)
(But… that actually makes sense considering how insane he is. He doesn't care about his body or anything else as long as he becomes stronger.)
(But why does he want to become stronger?)
(After reading the History of the Rebirth Conflict, the Rebirth Devil was always increasing his strength at an insane rate regardless of the cost.)
(There was even an old quote in the book spoken by that devil himself: "As long as you possess enough strength and knowledge to crush your allies and enemies at the same time, what benefit is there in keeping your allies beside you? Was that not a useful idea?")
(But why does he want that power?)
To Scarlet King, the existence of allies meant dividing benefits and profits.
If one became powerful enough to crush one's allies alongside one's enemies, then there was no benefit in keeping those allies around to share the rewards.
The energy began entering Scarlet King's body.
More specifically—
it entered his cultivation energy pathways, his Core Aperture, and his internal world.
Within the energy pathways, Primordial Chaos began surrounding the ordinary Qi and breaking it apart.
It then moved through the pathways and entered the Core Aperture, surrounding the ordinary Qi there and destroying it.
This continued until all ordinary Qi within the Core Aperture had been eliminated.
Afterward, the Primordial Chaos moved toward the internal world.
This time, however, it did not surround the Qi.
Instead, the Primordial Chaos surged forward until it reached the branch of the Tree of Dimensions and forced it to absorb Primordial Chaos Energy.
After that, Primordial Chaos became the primary energy of the internal world because it was superior to ordinary Qi.
The world itself began expelling its ordinary Qi into the Core Aperture.
There, the Primordial Chaos destroyed it.
And with that—
Scarlet King became a user of Primordial Chaos Energy.
Although this was not the first time he had experienced absorbing or using it, every experience he had with Primordial Chaos differed in both method and result.
However, the Primordial Chaos Energy inside him was unstable.
Scarlet King simply entered his internal world through an incarnation of himself.
The world was still being supplied with every Path and every form of energy Scarlet King had cultivated so far.
But he stopped and looked around.
The tree had grown half a meter because of the Primordial Chaos Energy.
Scarlet King also noticed that the world was slowly expanding.
It was a slow expansion—
but one clearly visible to the eye.
As for the sea…
It had become so absurdly chaotic that it was almost ridiculous.
"If someone entered this sea, they would be erased from existence."
The chaos suddenly became even more unstable, spreading across Scarlet King's internal existence and throughout the internal world.
Scarlet King said:
"I have bad memories of being imprisoned within Primordial Unity."
He immediately summoned the Soul of Darkness.
Its presence was so overwhelmingly powerful that the Sea of Chaos seemed like an atomic particle compared to the Primordial Origin World.
The sea instantly calmed.
The Soul had effortlessly subjugated the Primordial Chaos.
The relationship between a source and that which emanated from it could not be severed.
Scarlet King returned his incarnation to its task of continuously supplying energy.
Then he left the internal world.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked around.
He felt an enormous flow of energy throughout his body, accompanied by a strange sense of lightness.
It felt completely different from ordinary Qi flowing through his cultivation pathways.
Ling Hui asked:
"Did you… really master Primordial Chaos cultivation!?"
Scarlet King looked at him sharply, his pupil contracting as his eye widened.
"What business is it of yours?"
Ling Hui fell silent.
Scarlet King then took out the key to the Sealed World.
The moment he opened the gateway, he raised his hand.
"Hegemon's Touch."
All the enormous treasures were immediately lifted and transported into the Sealed World.
Ling Hui did not object this time.
The trial had already ended.
Ling Hui then snapped his fingers.
A gateway opened.
"This gateway will return you to where you came from."
He said this while turning away.
Scarlet King spoke as his form began changing.
"Have you ever heard the saying: never turn your back on the Rebirth Devil?"
Ling Hui remained silent for several seconds.
Then he turned around.
Before him was a black hole with its mouth wide open.
Within a single second—
it devoured Ling Hui and disappeared into Scarlet King's body.
Scarlet King said:
"Good. That will increase my strength a little as well."
Scarlet King returned to his normal form.
"Thank you, Ling Hui. You were a delicious meal."
"And remember—never trust the Rebirth Devil."
Scarlet King turned around and entered the gateway without the slightest sign of regret or hesitation.