Inside the Thorn Wall, in a temporarily carved meditation chamber, Tang Xiaoqi sat cross-legged. The Nirvana Crimson Flame Sword lay across his knees, crimson light flowing along the blade, faintly resonating with its master's will, conveying a trace of comfort. He attempted to circulate his cultivation to heal wounds and expel the internal organ churning and demonic energy erosion left from fighting his demonic marshal father. But his heart-mind simply could not achieve complete tranquility.
Aunt Su's tearful, blood-crying figure dispersing, his father's hollow, ice-cold gaze, the allied forces' rout... scene after scene played in his mind like a nightmare, repeatedly circling. That pain of loved ones destroying each other yet being powerless to reverse it suffocated far more than any physical wound.
He unconsciously reached into his chest, gripping that jade pendant he had worn since childhood at his chest. The pendant was warm and smooth to the touch. This was his mother, proof of Xuolan Manor's existence, and the source of his identity and power—the vessel of the purification source. Whenever his heart-mind was unsettled, touching this jade pendant always brought a trace of inexplicable peace.
However, this time, the moment his fingertips touched those mysterious patterns on the pendant's surface, an indescribable burning sensation suddenly came!
"Hiss—"
Xiao Qi jerked his hand back like he'd been shocked, staring at his palm in shock. That jade pendant was actually emitting a faint cyan-green light on its own, and the temperature was rising rapidly. Within just a few breaths, it had become scorching hot, like a red-hot branding iron pressed against his chest.
"What's happening?" Xiao Qi's heart was alarmed. This jade pendant had accompanied him for many years, with various mysterious properties, but never such violent spontaneous reaction.
Before he could think further, that scalding jade pendant suddenly blazed with cyan-green light! The light wasn't dazzling, yet carried a power that penetrated all things, reaching directly into the depths of his soul. Xiao Qi felt his sea of consciousness "BOOM" with a loud sound, as if some solid barrier had been forcibly broken through by that cyan-green light!
Then, not sound, not images, but a torrent of information—vast, chaotic, carrying the ancient vicissitudes of ages—forcefully flooded into his mind. These were... fragments of memory! Belonging to another person, a hundred-year-old complete memory that had been sealed away!
The intense nearly made his head explode. Xiao Qi groaned, clutching his head with both hands, his body curling up uncontrollably. The Nirvana Crimson Flame Sword on his knees "CLANG" fell to the ground, its spiritual light dim.
He felt himself falling into a boundless vortex. The boundaries of time became blurred; spatial perception completely chaotic. When that initial impact passed, fragments began reorganizing, transforming into clear, coherent scenes, carrying the immersive authenticity of true experience, thunderously unfolding before his "eyes"—
**The starting point of the memory was a hundred years ago, Xuolan Manor, that desperate night interwoven with blood and fire.**
What he saw was no longer the childhood terror fragments he remembered, but from a mature, resolute perspective—that was Father Xu Zhan's perspective!
Xuolan Manor was brightly lit, but not peaceful as usual. Instead, it carried a oppressive feeling of an impending storm. Manor Lord Xu Zhan, dressed in azure combat attire, stood atop the Star-Gazing Pavilion, brow furrowed, gazing into the churning black clouds in the distance. Within those clouds lurked an evil aura that made hearts tremble.
"Father..." In the memory, the young Xiao Qi (Xu Xiaoqi) was still a toddler, tightly held in his mother's arms, hiding in the reinforced main house filled with countless formations.
"Lord! The Shadow Serpent Pavilion's demon bastards have broken through the outer defenses! At most one incense stick's time, they'll attack!" A loyal servant drenched in blood stumbled in to report, his face full of resolve.
Xu Zhan turned. His features were more angular than Xiao Qi remembered, his gaze sharp as an eagle's, yet now filled with gravity and a trace of... undetectable sorrow. He quickly entered the main house, his gaze sweeping over his trembling wife and child, finally landing on his wife—Xiao Qi's mother's—pale yet firm face.
"Wan'er, take Xiao Qi and leave through the secret passage!" Xu Zhan's voice was low and urgent, carrying undeniable command.
"No! Brother Zhan, let's leave together!" Mother tightly gripped his arm, tears streaming down her face.
"Can't go." Xu Zhan shook his head, his eyes pained. "That demonic lord... its target is me, is 'it.'" His hand unconsciously pressed toward his own chest, where hung a jade pendant almost identical to Xiao Qi's, only with an older, more powerful aura!
"No time to explain!" Xu Zhan fiercely tore the jade pendant from his chest, then quickly took out another seemingly ordinary yet secretly profound cyan-colored jade pendant from his robes (the one Xiao Qi now wore). He used his fingertip to draw his heart's pure essence, mixed with his vast spiritual power and an indescribable source aura, rapidly carving mysterious runes onto both jade pieces.
"This 'Ancestral Jade' contains power too immense. Xiao Qi can't bear it. I must seal most of its source. This 'Child Jade' carries the seed and guidance; it will protect his growth..." Xu Zhan spoke at extreme speed, his movements even faster than shadows. As he carved, that Ancestral Jade's light rapidly dimmed, as if its essence was depleted, while Xiao Qi's Child Jade blazed with cyan-green light, something lifelike gestating within.
"The demonic lord's target is the purification source's—the World-Purifying Green Lotus's lotus seed! It wants to devour the seed, make up for its own source deficiency, achieve a perfect demonic body! Then no one can oppose it!" Xu Zhan's voice carried deep hatred and a trace of resolve. "I absolutely cannot let it succeed!"
Just then, BOOM! A massive explosion as the manor's main gate and protective formations were completely destroyed by terrifying power! Thick demonic energy surged in like a tide. Countless Shadow Serpent Pavilion demon cultivators' figures flickered within the demonic fog. Leading them were several silver-masked envoys with overwhelming auras!
"Go!" Xu Zhan fiercely shoved the carved Child Jade into Xiao Qi's swaddling clothes, then deeply glanced at his wife. That glance contained endless love, guilt, and reluctance. He shoved his wife and infant son toward the already opened secret passage entrance.
"Brother Zhan—!" Mother's mournful cry was cut off by the closing mechanism.
Memory shifted. Xu Zhan held his sword, standing atop a mountain of corpses and sea of blood. Manor disciples and servants were nearly all dead or wounded. He was covered in wounds, blood-dyed robes, yet still like an indomitable war god, firmly blocking before the main house.
Demonic fog churned. A terrifying existence cloaked in dense black fog,, with only two scarlet points of light like eyes—the demonic lord's true body—had descended!
"Surrender the lotus seed, and I'll grant you a whole corpse." The demonic lord's voice directly resounded in Xu Zhan's divine soul, full of temptation and pressure.
"Dream on!" Xu Zhan roared, sword pointing at the demonic lord.
An unequal battle erupted. Though Xu Zhan was powerful, he was far from a match for the demonic lord. He was quickly covered in wounds, his aura fading. But just when the demonic lord thought victory was assured, reaching to grab the seemingly dim Ancestral Jade on Xu Zhan's chest—
A light exploded in Xu Zhan's eyes—the light of madness intertwined with wisdom, like!
"You think... I was just waiting to die?" A bitter, mocking smile curved his lips.
The next instant, he not only didn't resist, but actively released his mental defenses, allowing the demonic lord's core demonic seed containing control and erosion to drill into his like! Simultaneously, he formed an ancient, complex hand seal. All remaining spiritual power, life force, even soul source within his body frantically poured into that Ancestral Jade on his chest!
"With my soul as guide, with my body as prison! SEAL!"
A soul-piercing roar. Xu Zhan's body was instantly covered with countless cyan-black demonic patterns—that was the manifestation of demonic seed erosion and control. But simultaneously, that Ancestral Jade erupted with final radiance. Not an attack, but forming an incomparably complex, incomparably solid soul seal, locking the demonic lord's core demonic seed that had been struck into his body, together with most of the lotus seed source sealed within the Ancestral Jade, within his own soul and body's depths!
He had actually chosen demonic transformation voluntarily, using himself as the prison, sealing the demonic lord's partial source and the purification source's core together! Thereby cutting off the demonic lord's possibility of immediately obtaining the complete lotus seed, also buying precious growth time for the true lotus seed inheritor—his son Xiao Qi!
The demonic lord clearly hadn't expected Xu Zhan's resolve. It let out a furious roar. It tried to forcibly seize the prize, yet discovered that soul seal was completely bound to Xu Zhan's life. If Xu Zhan's soul scattered, the sealed lotus seed source might also disperse, and its years of scheming would crumble!
"Fine! Fine, Xu Zhan! I shall let you live! Let you become my puppet! Watch your bloodline grow step by step into my most perfect vessel! When he matures, that will be the time for father and son together to be sacrificed!" The demonic lord's malicious, calculating voice echoed.
The final memory scene: Xu Zhan's eyes, before being completely devoured by demonic energy, in that final moment of clarity, filled with boundless pain, unwillingness, and... a deeply hidden hope. He gazed toward where the secret passage disappeared, lips moving slightly, two silently spoken words:
"Xiao Qi..."
**BOOM!**
All memory images receded like a tide.
In the meditation chamber, Tang Xiaoqi sharply opened his eyes. Cold sweat had soaked through his robes. He gasped heavily, chest heaving, his eyes filled with unprecedented shock, grief, anger, and... enlightenment!
So that's how it was!
The massacre at Xuolan Manor a hundred years ago was not simple demon cultivator slaughter!
Father's "being controlled" was actually his own chosen, heroic, resolute sacrifice! He used himself as the prison, sealing the demonic lord's source and the lotus seed's core, buying his son a hundred years!
The demonic lord's true goal was the World-Purifying Green Lotus's lotus seed! It let him grow because it wanted the lotus seed source to mature within him, then harvest it all together to achieve a perfect demonic body!
Aunt Su's cries could trigger Father's slight reaction, precisely because Father's soul was never truly annihilated. He had been enduring infinite pain and torment beneath that demonic armor, waiting... waiting for his son to come and complete this destined confrontation and redemption!
Xiao Qi trembled, gripping that jade pendant that still retained warmth against his chest. This was no longer merely an inheritance object. It carried Father's sacrifice, Mother's tears, Xuolan Manor's wronged souls, and... the hope and responsibility to end all this!
His eyes' confusion and pain completely vanished, replaced by rock-like resolve and burning flames of vengeance.
"Father... I understand your sacrifice now."
"Demonic lord... your scheming ends here!"