Cultivation Online

“While I don’t know what happened to them, it looks like they’re aiming for your blood,” Yuan said when he noticed that both Lev and Purple were staring daggers at the crimson crystal in his grasp, looking like predators instinctively watching its prey.

“Can demon blood make other demons go crazy?” he then asked.

“Not literally,” she shook her head.

“Perhaps it’s because of what you’ve done to it. Anyway, let’s try this…”

Yuan put the crimson crystal into his spatial ring and waited to see the results.

Lev and Purple immediately calmed down, but it took several minutes before they fully returned to their normal self.

“W-What the hell is this?!” Purple exclaimed in shock when she woke up and saw that she was being restrained by Supreme Ruler Dena.

“Kill me if you want because I won’t beg for my life! The Supreme Ruler will definitely avenge me!” she shouted while trying to act tough, but her terrified expression betrayed her.

“Uh… why am I suddenly being choked like this?” Lev asked in a puzzled tone.

Yuan raised an eyebrow and asked them, “You don’t remember what just happened? That both of you tried to steal Dena’s blood from me?”

“What?! I definitely have no recollection of doing anything like that!” Lev immediately replied, sounding genuinely shocked by Yuan’s accusation.

“I remember watching you drink her blood, and the next thing I know, I was being choked by you!”

“The same with me…” Purple muttered.

“I thought you had turned Forsaken for a second and was prepared to kill you, you know?” Yuan lied with a straight face, messing with them.

However, neither of them commented on it, as it was only normal—even the right thing to do when one turns Forsaken.

“Anyway, the two of you should distance yourselves from me for the time being since I will be consuming that blood soon,” Yuan said a moment later.

They silently nodded and flew far away, until they were tens of thousands of miles away from Yuan.

Once they were gone, Yuan retrieved the crimson crystal again and quickly consumed it.

‘Refined Life Essence…?’

Yuan wondered how it differed from Blood Essence, but before he could dwell on the thought, a sudden sensation washed over him, forcing him to clear his mind and focus on it instead.

A sharp, searing pain erupted in his chest, as though a blade were being driven into his heart again and again. With each passing second, the agony only intensified, and the pain focused in a single point, magnifying the torment severalfold.

Supreme Ruler Dena noticed the agony contorting Yuan’s face and swallowed nervously. If he were to die from consuming her blood… she had no idea how she would respond.

“AH!” Yuan suddenly released a deafening roar, his voice erupting with such force that the very earth beneath him and the sky above split apart.

A few moments later, Supreme Ruler Dena’s brows furrowed. Without warning, she grabbed Yuan by his clothes and pulled them open, exposing his upper body.

Then, her eyes narrowed as her gaze fixed on the center of his chest.

A thin slit had appeared there, slowly spreading open, as though something beneath his skin was forcing its way out, tearing him apart from within.

Soon, Supreme Ruler Dena saw a crystal-like object emerge from the hole. It appeared colorless at first, but when sunlight touched it, the crystal gleamed with majestic prismatic colors.

“This… is a core…?” Supreme Ruler Dena muttered at its resemblance to a demon’s core.

However, Yuan’s transformation did not end there. His skin turned ghostly pale, as though his blood had been drained, and his hair became silver. His once-brown eyes now gleamed like the crimson crystals he’d consumed. But most surprisingly of all, two black, symmetrical horns emerged from the top of his head.

[Demonic Awakening]

[Rank: ???]

[Description: Abandon your humanity and unleash unimaginable terror upon the world! While in Demonic Awakening, your regeneration abilities will be improved significantly, and you will acquire the ability to use ‘Blood Manipulation’! When using Chaotic Essence in this form, its power will increase by 100,000%]

Supreme Ruler Dena’s jaw dropped at Yuan’s transformation, and despite her shock, she did not fail to notice the strange, unfamiliar emotion stirring within her.

She had always admired Tian Chenyu, but only as an equal and never in a romantic way. But now, with Yuan’s aura and even his scent completely changed, her heart began to race, and her blood—usually under perfect control—grew restless, heating against her will as she gazed at his current form, looking like a young maiden experiencing love at first sight.

Supreme Ruler Dena rubbed her eyes and tried to regain control over her blood, but each attempt only made her blood burn hotter, the complete opposite of her intention.

The Yuan right now radiated an unfathomably dreadful aura so potent that even Lev and Purple felt it from afar, as though they were sensing a being of unimaginable viciousness.

Not realizing it was Yuan, they trembled uncontrollably in fear, much like how Lev once shook before Supreme Ruler Dena before she suppressed her presence, only several times worse.

Yuan lowered his head, staring in disbelief at the star-shaped crystal embedded in the center of his chest.

In the past, Tian Chenyu had often wondered if consuming too many demon cores would eventually turn him into a demon, but in the end, he’d only managed to acquire their regeneration ability.

One might expect Yuan to loathe this transformation, given his former hatred for demons, yet to his surprise he felt no disgust at all. If anything, what he felt most was the immense energy surging within him.