Blocking the Moon

The Lunar Song Tribe's main tribe was truly enormous, spanning 3,000 miles from end to end.

It was like a giant dome, and in fact, the tribe-protecting formation really did look like a giant glass dome, covering the entire tribe.

From afar, Ga Shu stared doubtfully.

"How are we supposed to break in exactly? Brute force?"

"Of course not, that would set off every defensive measure across the formation. No, we're going to block out the moon." Yaan replied matter of factly, as if he hadn't just said something absurd.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Yaan smiled as he stared at the formation.

"Lunar Song Tribe…a tribe named after the moon, and after song. Or rather, a tribe named after the formation that was built in this place eons ago by the tribe's founding ancestor."

Seeing that Ga Shu wasn't following, Yaan explained his findings properly.

"This formation is powered by the moon's lunar rays. It is charged during the night by absorbing energy from the lunar rays. The energy is channelled through vibrations, or songs, all throughout the glass dome. The energy gathered during the night is sufficient to last throughout the following day…but there is no further storage than that! A single night without moonlight will leave this tribe completely defenceless the following day!"

"How could that be?" Ga Shu asked with wide eyes. "What if there are clouds? Or a storm?"

"Formations are built with their environment in mind. There hasn't been a single cloud capable of blocking the lunar rays since this formation's creation. These lunar rays aren't so easy to block after all."

After calming down, Ga Shu asked the important question.

"So what are we going to do?"

"As I said, we will block out the moon. If we create a big cloud, there will be no more lunar rays to power the formation. If the formation goes down, the tribe is ours."

"This…will this really work?" Ga Shu asked doubtfully. He felt like this plan was simply too absurd to actually work…right?

"It's worth at least trying, isn't it?"

And so, the pair set about blocking out the moon.

Creating a huge cloud large enough to engulf this whole tribe turned out to be much more difficult than expected. So, instead of creating the cloud from scratch, Yaan and Ga Shu used air currents and shifted countless clouds from the surrounding regions to totally cover the tribe.

The tribesmen were shocked by the sudden appearance of never seen before clouds above their tribe, but they were more excited than anything. Even the tribe's immortals only thought it to be a strange coincidence, they did not consider something so ridiculous like someone moving the clouds to block out the moon in order to disable their formation…

When nightfall came, five hours into the moonless night, the formation finally went dark. Seeing this, Ga Shu's jaw dropped.

"I…I can't believe that actually worked…"

The two entered through the front entrance, concealed from others and also hidden from the formation's detection systems which were presently disabled.

They immediately flew inwards, heading towards the elite warrior sector. In the Lunar Song Tribe's elite warrior sector, all of the promising 5-Star Realm warriors of the tribe trained ceaselessly, day in and day out. This was also the place where the immortals usually resided.

On this day, the warriors were distracted from their usual training as the imperial court's central bell rang out chaotically. The bell chimes were normally elegant-sounding, but the chaos of the repeated overlaps of ringing caused the usual elegance to be lost.

But beyond the bell chimes, a cold chill lingered in the air. This chill carried a bloody intent along with it, and when others felt this chill, they immediately looked up into the sky.

The image of a child wearing a silk red robe entered their eyes, and without even needing to question it, everyone who saw this figure understood that 'it' was the source of that terrifying chill…

When Yaan saw that he had attracted everyone's attention, he finally made his appearance. He decided to act so brazenly like this simply because he wanted to draw the tribesmen towards him quickly, saving him time in hunting them all down.

"My name is…well, most people like to call me 'Red Demon' these days. Anyway, I am here for your lives."

Instantly, all hell broke lose. Yaan shot down from the sky and didn't hesitate in his actions, immediately running rampant and massacring every 5-Star Realm warrior that he could find. In fact, he killed everyone in this imperial sector, the 4-Star Realm and 5-Star Realm tribesmen alike.

He needed to kill…to slaughter!

And so Yaan killed, and he killed, losing himself in a sea of red…

Inevitably, the immortals showed up, three of the four in total. They showed enraged expressions, but when Ga Shu suddenly showed himself, they all looked shocked.

"How about we allow the juniors to fight it out amongst themselves, hmm?" Ga Shu suggested with a fearless smile.

These immortals were all older, stronger, and more experienced than Ga Shu, but Ga Shu was not afraid. Even if the others were stronger, they were all 7-Star Realm Immortals! Ga Shu felt confident that if he wanted to leave this place with his lord, they would not be able to stop him.

Besides, Ga Shu had been through too much, and at this point, his fear towards death had completely faded away. He only cared about serving his lord - no, his benefactor, who had granted him his last mortal wish of spending those blissful years with his wife by his side.

The three immortals looked down at the wreckage and destruction, at the murder and death of their most promising young warriors. Seeing the wanton devastation caused by Yaan in such a short period of time, they turned to Ga Shu in rage.

"There is one of you and three of us, what makes you think you can stop us?!"

Ga Shu sighed and shook his head.

"I can't. But can you do anything to him?" He nodded towards Yaan, watching as he slew yet another 5-Star Realm elite.

"We can…we can release the beasts, the astral spirits, the-"

"Do as you wish." Ga Shu nodded. "I just don't want to see any immortal level entities or powers interfering with my lord's battle."

Hearing an immortal refer to a mortal as his 'lord' made these immortals show serious expressions. They had all suspected it at some point, but now they were almost certain…the Red Demon must definitely possess a seriously powerful backer!

Naturally, Yaan had anticipated this misunderstanding. Since it worked in his favour, neither he nor Ga Shu had any intention of correcting them.

"Damnit all!" The Third Immortal King, the man who had been toyed with the most by Yaan, almost lost his mind. In a fit of rage, he suddenly released every ferocious defence upon this hateful child that he had at his immediate disposal.

Yaan quickly turned, his expression becoming serious as he saw the incoming wave of Rank 6 beasts, astral spirits, and other strange creatures. This horrifying scene caused his eyes to light up with slaughterous joy.

He had been planning this for three long years, and finally, his plan was about to come to fruition…

Yaan suddenly stopped. He ignored the chaos and focussed inwards on his Sea of Consciousness. Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Slaughter Aura that he had been gathering and accumulating for three long years, actually underwent a very strong, very interesting change.

During the constant battles within his Sea of Consciousness, it was inevitable that the Slaughter Aura would end up slaughtering countless Psyche Power avatars.

What Yaan did not expect, was that after a large amount of Slaughter Aura gathered within his mind and slaughtered so many of his psyche avatars, it underwent a change.

It transformed into a seed of slaughter power, or as Rui called it, 'Slaughter Essence'.

Slaughter Essence was the very same power that was born within his Qi back on the Southern Continent, forming the Variant Slaughter Qi. Slaughter Essence was the same power that entered his soul, causing his soul to transform into a Variant Slaughter Spirit Soul - which Yaan had decided to simply call a Slaughter Soul.

Slaughter Essence was the same residual power that he fought against in his Sea of Consciousness back then, building up the strength of his Psyche Power, before returning all of the Slaughter Essence to his soul.

Yaan finally understood slaughter now, or at least, he understood a certain essence of slaughter.

Two years ago, a Slaughter Essence seed was born from the dense accumulation of Slaughter Aura in his Sea of Consciousness. Over the past two years, he had nourished and grown this seed, transforming it into a full-fledged Slaughter Essence. It wasn't nearly as powerful as the Slaughter Essence in his Slaughter Soul, but it was a similar type of entity.

He grew the Slaughter Essence by feeding it more and more Slaughter Aura, but also by fighting it constantly, allowing it to devour his wisdom from his Sea of Consciousness. As the Slaughter Essence consumed the fabric of his sea, Yaan came to understand slaughter on an even deeper level.

When Yaan comprehended this essence of slaughter, he finally came to understand the Fiend Transformation Technique and the Fiend Foundation.

They both involved Slaughter Essence…

The Fiend Transformation Technique transformed the body, but it also transformed the Dantian and the Dantian walls. It made the Dantian walls into a membrane which converted Slaughter Aura into Slaughter Energy. Then, within the Dantian, the Slaughter Energy was naturally turned into a more stable state - Qi.

The Fiend Foundation functioned on the principle of the Dantian containing the smallest trace of Slaughter Essence, and that alone was enough to completely change the course of a talentless human's life.

And now, in the midst of this chaotic battle, Yaan was going to create his own change.

Using a giant illusory hand, imbued with Slaughterous Soul Force - which he had decided to simply call 'Slaughter Force', - he grasped the Slaughter Essence within his Sea of Consciousness. He tore this essence out, with much greater ease compared to the first time that he had done this in the past.

The illusory hand directly dragged the Slaughter Essence through his body at its fastest possible speed. Everything it touched nearly died along the way, including many of Yaan's cells and portions of his vitality…

Once it reached his chest, he slammed the Slaughter Essence into his Vital Core.

He controlled his Slaughter Soul on the inside, preventing the new Slaughter Essence from coming in and fusing with his soul. Such a fusion would cause his soul cultivation to improve, but it would be a temporary gain, forsaking the long term benefits.

At the same time, the illusory hand tightly grasped tightly his Vital Core. This hand forced the Slaughter Essence to dig deeper into the core, until it reached the core's inner region.

The new Slaughter Essence rapidly spread out. Under the restrictions from inside and out, the only thing it could do was attach itself to the inside of his Vital Qi Core, plastering around the inner perimeter and latching onto the inner surface.

On the outside, the Vital Qi Core remained the same.

On the inside, it no longer resembled a Vital Qi Core, as it had been remoulded by the Slaughter Essence!

But Yaan was not yet done.

Just as the Slaughter Essence was taking its hold within his Vital Qi Core, he used yet another illusory hand to grasp at his entire Dantian…

RIP!

A grating sound echoed through Yaan's body and mind as he tore the faint trace of Slaughter Essence out from his own Dantian walls!

This was the portion of the Fiend Foundation that allowed the Dantian to refine Qi from Slaughter Aura. Yaan no longer needed this ability, and in fact, it was actively hindering his current cultivation progress!

Right now, this trace of Slaughter Essence would be of much greater use if it was moved to the boundary between the two layers of his new dual-layered core!

Bang!

Yaan let out a muffled grunt as he forcefully slammed the extracted Slaughter Essence into his Vital Qi Core. It travelled through the core and soon reached the inside, where the new Slaughter Essence was taking hold. The trace of Slaughter Essence extracted from his Dantian weaved its way into the empty spaces within this layer, forming the boundary between the two layers of his core…

All of this took a while to explain, but it happened in an instant.

Yaan had planned this for a long time. He knew exactly what he was going to do beforehand, so he wasted very little time when he finally acted.

Just as the newly formed dual core was beginning to set, the scores of fiendish creatures in the outside world finally reached him. Yaan opened his eyes and grinned evilly, not hiding the burning slaughterous light from his gaze.

The dual-layered core had been formed, but for his core to truly stabilise, it needed to be fed with a continual stream of high level, powerful Slaughter Aura. The internal region of the core needed to be filled with Slaughter Force, the Variant Soul Force which might even be unique to Yaan in this world!

Soul Force was typically something temporary, it was created by the soul and used in an instant during soul attacks, but it could also be turned into a stable power. It was entirely possible to create a dense region of Soul Force within a completely enclosed space!

Yaan needed to fill the inside of his dual-layered core with Slaughter Force, because only by doing this would the dual-layered core reach completion and fully stabilise its internal environment.

Even then, there was a chance that all of these efforts would result in a catastrophic failure…

But when was anything in life a guaranteed success? It was too late to back down now, the enemies were already upon him.

WOMP!

A swarm of 6-Star Realm astral spirits enveloped Yaan entirely, completely burying him beneath a sheet of darkness. Seeing this, the First and Second Immortal Kings relaxed. They even laughed as they glanced at the Third King, teasing him for his incompetence.

"This child caused you such a headache? All it took was a dozen 6-Star Realm astral spirits and he-"

BANG!

The astral spirits were blown back, but that was not all; each had been penetrated by a sword imbued with the power of slaughter!

Yaan was now able to combine his sword arts with the illusory attacks that were filled with Slaughter Force. He even managed to massacre a dozen 6-Star Realm astral spirits instantly using this move, shocking the First and Second Immortal Kings up above.

The Third King was not surprised, whilst Ga Shu thought this much was only normal.

Freed from the now-slain astral spirits, Yaan felt their powerful Slaughter Auras flowing into him. His eyes shone brightly, because, for the first time ever, the Slaughter Aura was not attracted to his Dantian as a whole, but specifically to his dual-layered core!

After removing the Slaughter Essence from the membrane of his Dantian, his Dantian could no longer convert Slaughter Aura into Slaughter Energy…but that was exactly what he wanted. Yaan didn't want Slaughter Energy or Slaughter Qi, he wanted Slaughter Force!

He would love to stop and observe this new internal absorption and conversion process for a moment, but unfortunately, he didn't have that luxury. Beasts were charging at him, from the ground, from the skies, from each and every direction.

He lashed out crazily, slaughtering every living being around him using any means necessary.

A giant six legged rat was killed using the Agile Illusion Art's 1st step.

A strange ogre-esque creature was killed using the Agile Illusion Art's 2nd step.

Other beasts were simply culled using the abyssal blood sword.

Sometimes, Yaan launched Slaughter Force-infused attacks, imbuing slaughter into his illusions and killing in this concealed manner.

Bodies and dismembered limbs stacked up around him as rivers of blood vaporised into a crimson fog. As Yaan stood within this murky fog of blood, he found himself gasping for breath.

Every opponent sent to attack him was a Rank 6 powerhouse, he really wasn't being given a break here…

A smile spread across Yaan's lips.

As another four beasts approached from all four sides, he suddenly looked up and burst out with a wave of crazed laughter.

"Hahaha! It worked! It actually worked!"

To the Lunar Song Tribe Immortals, his words were mere crazed ramblings.

To Ga Shu, it was a gesture that his lord had finally achieved the breakthrough that he had been so diligently searching for.

And for Rui…it was frankly a shock.

"A dual-layered core…" She muttered. "It's an incredible concept, but its use is far too niche. He might really be the first person to ever achieve such a thing!"

But Yaan's gains went far beyond just this…

The moment he formed the dual-layered core, he finally comprehended the dao of slaughter to the immortal stage!

Yaan had been waiting for this for a long time. His hope was that after he comprehended slaughter to this degree, he would stop feeling these bloodthirsty desires!

But…

The opposite of what he had hoped for, became his truth and reality. His dao of slaughter only caused the insane blood-thirst emanating from his soul to amplify his killing intent even further!

Although others could see that Yaan's slaughterous aura had risen to a whole new level, they were unable to deduce the truth behind his true level of dao comprehension. After all, they were not familiar with the dao of slaughter.

As dense wave after wave of Slaughter Aura swept through Yaan's Dantian like a breeze, those waves were unhindered until they reached his dual-layered core. Upon colliding with the external Vital Qi portion of his core, the waves of Slaughter Aura continued to storm through the outer layer like it was nothing…

It was only when the Slaughter Aura reached the central membrane that a change took place.

The Slaughter Aura, at the membrane between the solid Vital Qi Core's shell and the hollow region within which contained his Slaughter Soul, converted the absorbed Slaughter Aura into Slaughter Energy. This was just like what his Dantian had done in the past after he formed the Fiend Foundation.

However, the final result was now very different. The moment the Slaughter Energy passed through the membrane and entered the hollowed out space, seeping into the region occupied by the Slaughter Soul, it was rapidly refined into Slaughter Force!

This Slaughter Force served two purposes; filling the inside of this hollow core with the perfect environment for the Slaughter Soul, and being absorbed into the Slaughter Soul itself, helping the soul to finally grow stronger!

Yaan's original intention was to slaughter his own Vital Qi to develop his Slaughter Force, but now, things had changed. He had already experimented with slaughtering a portion of his Vital Qi, but he had also killed multiple Rank 6 beings…

Refining the Slaughter Aura from other living beings provided a benefit so much more substantial that it was simply incomparable!

And so, Yaan continued to kill.

Four immortals watched from above as a lone, red-robed child, killed viciously, savagely, growing more adept with his moves, whilst developing new methods and footwork techniques as he went. They watched as he killed, they watched as he improved.

They realised that they were watching the rise of a true monster. It wasn't just his strength that unnerved them, it was more so his absurd speed of improvement, especially when it came to comprehension and battle adaptation…

Eventually, Yaan was beyond exhausted, whilst the Lunar Song tribe also no longer felt like wasting all of their Rank 6 weapons just for their enemy to harvest as his nourishment.

When Ga Shu carried Yaan away, nobody obstructed him, but the three immortals all watched the pair's departure with solemn expressions.

From today on, the name 'Red Demon' would forever be engraved in their minds.