Ch 8: The Power That Commands Heaven

Ye Tian's gaze fell upon the ranks of the Justice Army soldiers, their yellow uniforms smeared with the blood of his people, their faces pale with dread as they felt the crushing weight of his presence settle over them.

His eyes, cold and unfeeling, seemed to strip away the last of their courage, leaving them defenseless before him.

He took a slow, deliberate step forward, a faint smirk curling on his lips as he surveyed the so-called

'Justice' that had dared to stand against him.

"Mere Golden Immortals and True Essence Immortals…" he murmured, his voice a low, mocking tone that carried through the air like a ghostly echo.

"And they think they are competent enough to stand against me." His smirk widened as he continued, his voice laced with a scornful amusement.

"I've been playing low for too long, it guess."

One of the soldiers flinched, his knees threatening to buckle beneath him as he waited, paralyzed, for the death he was sure was coming.

The fear in his eyes was mirrored in the faces of the other soldiers around him, each of them frozen, trapped under the gaze of the Absolute Demon.

But to the soldier's astonishment, Ye Tian simply walked past him, his expression unreadable as he moved deeper into the broken city.

The soldier's breath hitched in his throat as he watched the demon's dark figure pass him by, sparing him a fate he had believed inevitable.

Ye Tian's gaze shifted to the broken civilians scattered across the city.

Without a flicker of emotion, he continued his march, moving through the streets as he reached out with cold precision, ending each life in silence. It didn't matter if they were young or old, strong or weak.

His hands worked with mechanical efficiency, each movement devoid of hesitation as he took life after life.

The soldiers watched, paralyzed by horror and helpless to intervene as he drained the city of life.

With each death, the streets grew quieter, the cries faded into silence, and the flicker of resistance dimmed to nothing.

At first, his lips held a faint smirk, a satisfaction born from the carnage, but as he moved through the masses, that smirk began to fade.

His eyes grew distant, his face an impassive mask as he returned to the very point from where he had begun the massacre.

Finally, there was silence. He stood alone at the city's heart, surrounded by a sea of the dead, his expression unreadable as he lifted his gaze to the darkened sky.

And then, slowly, he raised his hands to the heavens, the gesture filled with an almost ritualistic solemnity as he closed his eyes.

His body began to levitate, rising off the blood-stained ground until he hovered in the center of the broken city, a dark silhouette against the night sky.

The air around him grew thick, dense, as his aura expanded, an unending well of power that seemed to darken the very fabric of reality.

Black energy swirled around him, a shadowy miasma that clung to his form, twisting and spiraling into a dense mass that blocked out the light.

The atmosphere grew heavy, suffocating, as if the weight of the cosmos itself pressed down on the world.

As his aura deepened, thickened, the very sky seemed to respond to his power, turning darker still.

The clouds began to churn, twisting and roiling as if they, too, feared the presence of the being that now floated beneath them.

And then, out of the darkness, ethereal forms began to appear.

They gathered slowly, shimmering as they emerged, forming a circle around Ye Tian as they knelt before him, their ghostly figures flickering like flames.

It was the souls of the very civilians he had just killed.

Though he had been the one to take their lives, they showed no anger, no resentment.

Instead, there was a calm acceptance, a deep, reverent gratitude that shone in their ethereal eyes as they looked upon him.

The soldiers watched, their horror mounting as they took in the sight. The souls of the dead were kneeling before the one who had killed them, their faces filled with gratitude rather than fear or hate.

Hovering in the midst of the kneeling souls, Ye Tian's eyes softened, his cold gaze shifting to one of quiet compassion.

He regarded the souls with a gentleness that seemed at odds with the blood that still stained his hands, and, in that moment, he looked less like a demon and more like a sage, a being who bore the weight of the world's suffering.

"You have borne the burden of my name, the title of demon, in a world that sought to break you..." he said, his voice filled with a somber grace.

"I wish for you to know peace now, to know a life without that weight, to become one with nature itself. Though it grieves me to part with you, I wish you all… Nirvana."

As his words filled the air, a strange silence fell over the city, a silence so profound it seemed to echo through the heavens themselves.

Then, the heavens began to tremble.

The sky shuddered, as if recoiling from the power that filled the air. It was a power it recognized, a power it had once feared, and even now, it quaked under the force of that memory.

For a moment, the heavens seemed to hesitate, as if wrestling with the knowledge that Ye Tian had returned.

To deny his words, to ignore his command, would mean risking destruction on a scale that even the heavens themselves feared.

And so, it had no choice but to answer.

The clouds above began to part, swirling as a golden energy emerged from the heart of the sky, radiating with a divine brilliance that bathed the world in light.

Rays of golden light fell from the sky, pure and radiant, casting a glow over the city below.

The Justice Army soldiers stumbled back, shielding their eyes from the overwhelming brightness.

But Ye Tian and the souls remained, bathed in the holy light as they waited.

The golden light descended upon the spirits of the civilians, illuminating them with a gentle warmth.

The sins and burdens they had carried in life faded away in that moment, washed clean by the divine light, until all that remained were souls of pure, untainted energy.

The spirits began to shimmer, their forms breaking apart as they dissolved into the light.

One by one, they ascended, leaving the mortal world behind, achieving nirvana with nothing but a sentence from the man who had taken their lives.

As they faded, their voices filled the air, their final words echoing like a solemn vow:

"If we ever have a chance to live once more, to serve again, we would gladly offer our lives to the Absolute Demon."

Ye Tian's lips curved into a faint smile, a shadow of the warmth he had once felt for those who followed him.

He watched as they crumbled into nothingness, his eyes lingering on the last wisps of light until they, too, disappeared.

The Justice Army soldiers stood paralyzed, their minds spinning, their bodies trembling as they tried to process the reality before them.

This was no ordinary cultivator, no mere demon.

This was a being whose very words had summoned the heavens, a being powerful enough to command salvation for the souls he had taken.

And in that moment, the soldiers felt their arrogance, their confidence, crumble to ash. They were nothing more than insects before him, barely worthy of his notice, yet helpless to escape his shadow.

They realized, with a chilling certainty, that they had underestimated the Absolute Demon, that they had dared to challenge a power far beyond their comprehension.

For the first time, they understood the depth of their mistake, the weight of their folly.

Their ruler, the one they had believed held ultimate power, was nothing more than a servant, a lackey of the heavens. And here before them was a being who had defied those same heavens with nothing more than his will.

One thought consumed them, filling their minds as they stared into the abyss of Ye Tian's power...

They were fucked...