Lian Chang's Heart Demon

--- (POV – Lian Chang) ---

Lian Chang stood in the middle of the endless darkness with her arms crossed waiting for her trial to start. Out of all his main harem members she is the most realistic and has the highest battle sense. She quickly assessed the situation she was in, and realised in seconds that this was her trial location.

Since she didn't feel anyone around her and nothing seems to be happening, she deduced that the trial has not yet started.

Her surroundings started to go fuzzy before similar to Xuan Huo's trial the darkness formed a dimly lit room with cold iron bars on one side. She suddenly panicked as she somehow found herself chained to the wall without her knowing.

She tried to struggle free of them but it was no use as she felt the power she once had is now gone, leaving her at a mortal's strength. She didn't lose herself in panic however and quickly assessed the situation.

'This is likely a part of the trial. I clearly remember this room and the situation I am currently in. Master said a heart demon will try to take advantage of a person's darkest secrets and emotions. There is no use panicking as this current situation was made to be exactly like how it was back then, including my strength.

Although I don't want to live through this again, but since I have already survived it once, I can survive it again. Master told me many times during training "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". I am stronger than the last time I delt with this, even with my physical strength sealed, my mental resilience cannot be sealed.'

A female figure appears in front of her. Darkness surrounded the figure, preventing anyone from being able to tell who it was but she knew, as her memory of this event was carved into her soul, making her never able to forget.

She was about to cuss and retaliate but the figures arms blurred and in an instant a gag was placed in her mouth, preventing her from speaking solid words.

Systematically following that, her clothes started to get shredded leaving her naked and chained to the wall. Various tools started to appear in the room, made of congealed darkness.

Lian Chang steadied her mind, readying herself for what's about to happen. *Smack* a loud fleshy noise sounded out, as a large red lash mark appeared on her stomach with a few droplets of blood spilling out.

In the hand of her obvious torturer was a thin twig, seemingly shaped like a bamboo twig. It then disappeared and another sound followed by another red mark appeared on her body.

Lian Chang however was unmoved and stayed silent, without even the slightest movement of discomfort or pain. Angered, the figure started to barrage her perfect body, eventually covering her in blood and making her skin pure red.

The torture continued for what seemed like days and many different things were used to try to inflict pain upon Lian Chang. Boiling water was used to scar her face and blind her eyes, fire to scorch her white skin, many different bladed objects to shred her flesh, and the final thing was having her hair individually ripped off leaving her scalp weeping with blood and permanently damaged preventing it from ever regrowing.

The figure managed to make a creepy smile, as if satisfied with the damage it has caused and the pain her victim must be feeling. However, it did now turn out how the figure wanted as Lian Chang remained silent the entire time and rarely reacted to the pain. The only time there was a reaction was when the boiling water was poured onto her eyes, but even then it was short lived.

Angry the gag was removed and the figure turned to leave. Lian Chang however stopped it in its tracks. "Pathetic. Did you really thing this was enough to break me? I have already experienced this before, so did you really think this pathetic excuse for torture was enough to make me scream in pain and despair?

This is nothing but a dream within my head anyways, I already know that no matter what you do it will not be permanent and even if it was, I might even be grateful. I would then be able to experience masters care once again as he takes care of me like he did the first time."

The space around her shattered as the heart demon had clearly lost that battle. At first it thought it would be a sure-fire way to bring out her negative emotions but it never expected for it to not faze her at all.

Trying again a new scene unfolds before her and her clothes are returned to her. Unfortunately, the injuries still remained with her body still being deformed and ruined with clear healed scars all over her head and body.

She doesn't know her current scenery due to being blind but the voice speaking near her makes it easy to guess who she is with, and makes her heart flutter.

The voice was Fen Chang, who was speaking around her. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly realised nothing was coming out of her mouth making her unable to speak back and can only listen.

"Yan Yin, how dare this deformed cripple dare to show herself in public. Look at her, she is blind, scars all over her body and smells like shit. It's a disgrace for something so discussing like it to be allowed out in public."

Her heart stopped as her mind was unable to comprehend what he was saying. Another familiar voice spoke out, sparking a little hope within her that she might be misunderstanding the situation.

"Your right master, she can barely be called human anymore with these disgusting injuries. How dare she show this sight to you. Do you want me to dispose of her? We would be doing everyone justice to remove such a vile sight."

They continued to talk about how disgusting she was and how they plan to get rid of her. Her heart ached from being talked as such by her master but she quickly got over her moment of weakness and steeled herself to not be discouraged by their talk.

'How dare this fucking heart demon make me listen to such non-sense. This clearly isn't master as there is no way he would say such things to me. Such an obvious illusion to make me wallow in self-pity and sadness. When I finally meet face to face with my heart demon, I will not destroy it instantly. I will show it some pain first as revenge for making me hear this situation.'

"You hear me heart demon, fuck you and your stupid illusion. When we finally meet face to face, I will become your demon"

Although no words sounded out, the presence of the words caused a massive blow to the heart demon and the illusion broke once again. The surroundings turned black again and she was finally able to open her eyes and see.

All the injuries to her body where gone, and her normal clothes and massive sword on her back was their once again. Infront of her was a figure materialising, and speaking as it slowly gained shape in a voice filled with anger.

"Why? Why couldn't you just scream out in pain? Why couldn't you just let yourself get swallowed by regret, self-pity and let me take over you? WHY!?"

"Why you ask? Cause why should I let you take over me? Why should I let you get in the way of me being with master? You are nothing but a heart demon within me and are nothing more than a challenge to overcome. If I lose to you, then I would never be able to see master again, that's why.

Now let's finish this. Try what ever last resort you have to break down my mental defences but my will to stay my master's side is stronger than anything you can throw at me."

The heart demon finally finished forming its shape and revealed itself as her worst enemy. The heart demon took the shape of a beautiful girl with large breasts, luscious long blonde hair, perfect skin with no deformities and a skin tight dress highlighting her assets.

Her face carried an arrogant expression, filled with distain for others and a mightiness about herself. This woman that the heart demon turned into was the demon that haunted Lian Chang for most of her life before she met Fen Chang.

She was the disciple who tortured her before sending her back to her family and forcing her family to disown her and treat her like trash. Her name is Shi My and was a talented disciple of the Glistening Droplets Sect. Which is a powerful all woman sect with deep roots, and the dream for all female cultivators to go.

They first met when they where both 13, and at the time Shi My had not long been in the sect, but was already praised as a genius at the level of, level 8 stage 0 at only 13 years old, while Lian Chang was only a level 4 and from a small noble family.

One time they both met and Shi My was jealous of Lian Chang's looks and used her disciple status to kidnap her, torture her and pressure her family to make her life a living hell.

Since then, Lian Chang had many nightmares about her, until she met Fen Chang. She had dreamt many times about slaughtering her but she is still too weak to get revenge against a talented disciple of a big sect, even with Fen Changs help.

Though right now Lian Chang was happy, as she finally had an actual attempt at fighting and killing the person who caused her so much pain, even if it wasn't the real them.

There where no words spoken between them as each side had anger and killing intent directed towards the other, and at the same time they both rushed forward.

Lian Chang unsheathed the massive long sword on her back and slashed forward with destructive but controlled power. Shi My, similarly drew her sword but in comparison it was much smaller and had a long tassel on the bottom, showing she cares about the looks rather than strength.

Shi My dodged the incoming sword attack, and went for a slash at the opening that was created during Lian Changs attack. Lian Chang however, knew about the opening and was using it as a bait. Her massive sword sped up in an instant and quickly reached Shi My and collided with her sword.

The impact sent her flying a few meters before she steadied herself but Lian, was already charging forward with the sword in a single hand. The fight ensued with both using their nimble body's to dodge and counter attack.

Lian Chang however had the advantage as she used not only her sword but regularly used her legs and arms to catch Shi my off guard. Sensing herself losing. Shi My backed up and activated one of her martial skills.

She readied her sword and shouted out "Soaring Swallow Strike". A large amount of Qi burst out and formed around the sword. She leapt into the air as if she was flying and came crashing down towards Lian with deadly speed.

With barely enough time Lian countered with her own move the moment Shi My was within her sword range "Circling Crescent Moon". Her sword spun, infused with Qi and created a crescent moon shaped slash in front of her which Shi My was unable to avoid.

The two attacks collided blinding both of them, but with her somewhat tempered battle sense Lian Chang used her instincts to follow up with another attack before her opponent could react. "Piercing Overdrive"

Her feet covered in Qi as she dashed forward in a white light, with the Qi on her feet looking like rockets. Her sword thrust forward like an arrow, piercing directly through Shi My's chest.

The heart demon was about to speak once again, after being defeated but she didn't care and simply twisted her sword around shattering in instantly. After it was gone, she stood looking at the location the heart demon died and spoke out.

"Thank you. Thanks to your sacrifice I was finally able to gain a beginner understanding of the moves master gave me. Although it was anti-climactic the moves master gave me where too great for you to withstand. Next time I fight you, it will be the real you and you won't be let off so easily."

The remaining consciousness of the heart demon left lingering in the surroundings screeched out in anger, before the surroundings started to blur and Lian Chang was returned to the normal world.