novelraw Chapter 98 : Corrupted by the Desire Demon – Lu Changyuan
Chapter 98 : Corrupted by the Desire Demon – Lu Changyuan
Chapter 98: Corrupted by the Desire Demon – Lu Changyuan
Xiao Qingfeng, as a cultivator of the Dawning Sun Stage, practiced the Transformative Life Dao—one of the paths symbolizing the Authority of “Life.”
To be reborn from a drop of blood, to revive the withered—it was nothing out of reach for him.
Yet Xiao Qingfeng chose to sever his own life.
In order to curse Lu Changyuan, he abandoned everything. The consequence of that choice was unimaginably dreadful.
Lu Changyuan had not even had time to form an effective defense.
His cultivation had not yet reached the Fifth Realm. He had not comprehended his own Dao, nor was he one who cultivated the body to be impervious.
Almost at the instant Xiao Qingfeng exploded, a hair-thin yet ink-deep black line abruptly branded itself upon Lu Changyuan’s skin.
In the next breath, that black line came alive, spreading at a terrifying speed—covering his entire body in the blink of an eye.
If only the Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique were still here.
That thought flashed across Lu Changyuan’s mind.
He felt every inch of his skin bound tightly by invisible ropes—ever tightening, as though to strangle him.
His throat felt filled with molten lead, breath trapped in his chest.
The suffocating pressure came in waves, accompanied by the crushing agony of his organs being ground apart.
“How are you?” Mei Zhao Zhao’s voice came from afar, laden with obvious worry as she rushed toward him.
Lu Changyuan struggled to lift one hand, spreading his fingers slightly to signal her to stop.
“Cough!”
He bent sharply, vomiting a mouthful of thick, black-tinged blood onto the dark ground.
“Don’t come closer.”
Mei Zhao Zhao froze midair, hesitating, at a loss.
Tear!
A gruesome sound of flesh ripping echoed from within Lu Changyuan’s body, followed by a muffled bang, as though something tightly connected had been violently torn apart.
Lu Changyuan groaned, kneeling on one knee with his sword for support, staring down at his chest in disbelief.
At some point, a bowl-sized hollow had appeared there—completely empty within.
“Lu Langjun!” Mei Zhao Zhao’s voice rose sharply, quivering with fear.
“Don’t shout. I won’t die.”
The Dao of the Nether Lord was death itself. Lu Changyuan temporarily bore the Lord of the Nether’s authority; within the Nether Kingdom, he could not die. Xiao Qingfeng had seen this—and thus chose the despair of self-destruction.
But why would he sacrifice himself just to severely wound Lu Changyuan?
Lu Changyuan slowly stood. The wind passing through his chest felt cool and hollow.
A mere fatal wound.
In truth, not too fatal—for cultivators, even lacking a heart was not necessarily fatal. Moreover, the nether energy had already begun to regenerate his flesh.
【You are about to die】
The cold prompt resounded again in his mind.
Xiao Qingfeng is already gone. How could I still die?
“Shriek!”
A piercing, soul-rending cry exploded without warning!
Lu Changyuan turned sharply—the sound came from the birdcage that had fallen during his earlier battle with Xiao Qingfeng.
At some point, the cage had toppled. The black cloth covering it had fallen aside. Inside—it was now empty.
Wind!
Without warning, a shrill, deathly wind of the Nether Kingdom rose to a storm, converging in the sky.
Lu Changyuan and Mei Zhao Zhao looked up together. There, above the gray heavens of the Nether Kingdom, spread the wings of a red-feathered bird—its plumage dyed as if in blood.
Creak... Creak...
The eerie crunching of chewing echoed clearly in their ears.
It was clearly a bird feeding—yet the sound provoked in both Lu Changyuan and Mei Zhao Zhao a primal, unsettling hunger deep within.
Suppressing the strange sensation, Lu Changyuan narrowed his eyes. He finally saw what the red bird was eating—
A bright red, still-beating heart.
My heart?
“What is that?”
Mei Zhao Zhao’s voice trembled. The aura radiating from the red bird filled her with instinctive terror and revulsion.
Lu Changyuan’s face grew grave. He spoke each word with weight: “Desire Demon.”
The earlier strangeness he sensed in the room had not been an illusion.
What Su Youwan had sealed within the birdcage—those emotions made manifest—were the most susceptible to corruption by a Desire Demon.
If one truly practiced the Supreme Dao, they should have killed the bird. But Su Youwan had not.
And now, the inevitable had come.
Lu Changyuan’s mind snapped into clarity. He demanded coldly, “Was it you who made Xiao Qingfeng self-destruct?”
Xiao Qingfeng’s last frenzied state—eyes blood-red, mind deranged—had been anything but normal.
He had chosen the Transformative Life Dao to survive; how could he willingly destroy himself?
The only explanation was that he had been controlled.
Indeed, after his fall from the Jade Radiance Stage and four centuries of torment, his Dao heart had long been fractured. Once he fell to the Dawning Sun Stage, the lurking Desire Demon had found the perfect opportunity to take him over.
The red bird leisurely finished devouring Lu Changyuan’s heart, letting out a shrill, ecstatic cry.
The wind surged.
Its vast body contracted, condensing into a fist-sized crimson shadow that shot straight toward Lu Changyuan.
He raised his sword, ready to meet it.
Bang!
A deafening blast rang in his ears—louder than anything he had ever heard.
At the same moment, his left eye burst apart with a wet pop, scarlet blood streaming down his face.
Lu Changyuan realized with horror that half of his body had gone numb.
【You have been corrupted by the Desire Demon】
In an instant, the bird reached him.
But it did not harm Lu Changyuan—instead, it dove into his body, burying itself in the hollow of his chest where his heart should have been.
“Lu Langjun!”
Lu Changyuan collapsed to the ground, clutching the edges of his hollowed chest with all his strength. His five fingers turned pale from the effort as he tried to wrench out the red bird occupying the place where his heart should have been.
It did not move an inch.
That bird seemed as though it was his heart—an eerie, seamless fit.
In the next instant, the scarlet hue swallowed his remaining right eye completely, and a torrent of demonic energy burst forth from within him!
The gray sky above was replaced by a thick, inky blackness, as though the entire Nether Kingdom was being forcibly transformed into a demon realm by the demonic energy surging from Lu Changyuan’s body.
Heavenly Mountain.
The sky, once clear as jade, suddenly darkened.
A bone-chilling wind rose, sweeping across everything.
The voice of the White Domain Dao Sect’s master echoed through the whole mountain: “All disciples, seal your caves! Cultivators of the Fifth Realm and above—come to the mountain’s peak!”
With a chorus of responses—“Yes!”—
The disciples of the Dao Sect turned into streams of light, rushing toward the summit.
Jiang Jiayi narrowed her eyes, then turned to Xia Lianxue. “I have to go.”
Xia Lianxue also lifted her head toward the heavens. “What’s happening?”
“Not sure. Likely something to do with the Desire Demon.”
The white-robed young fairy nodded, watching as Jiang Jiayi transformed into a red streak of light and shot toward the mountaintop.
Qiu Yuehan walked over. “Junior Sister? You’re not going to help?”
Xia Lianxue shook her head. “My injuries haven’t fully healed. Besides, with Jiang Jiayi and the Sect Master there, one more or one less of me won’t make much difference.”
Though she said this calmly, Xia Lianxue was ready to act at any moment. She simply felt it unnecessary to intervene in the Dao Sect’s internal affairs right now.
Qiu Yuehan set down her sword, a faint trace of worry flitting across her otherwise cool features.
A strange unease had just rippled through her heart. She instinctively reached to touch the demonic mark on her body.
'That old monster won’t be in trouble, right?'
No, of course not. He was far too strong—far too calculating.
Xia Lianxue suddenly pressed a hand to her own chest as well, feeling a sharp pain.
She looked dazed for a moment, then whispered softly, “Young Master?”
Qiu Yuehan’s expression did not change. “He’ll be fine.”
“Mm.”
Xia Lianxue had always believed that Lu Changyuan possessed the strength to defy heaven itself—that he could tread unharmed even through the most perilous places.
It was irrational, but she simply believed it.
The white-robed fairy spoke gently, changing the topic: “Since Senior Sister is connected with the Spirit Clan, you should return to them for a while soon.”
Qiu Yuehan gave a vague “Alright,” but her mind was entirely on that old monster, barely hearing Xia Lianxue’s words.
~~~~~~~~
In an instant, Jiang Jiayi arrived at the mountain’s peak.
The snow-covered summit was already filled with several elders waiting. Without further orders from the Sect Master, none dared to enter the main hall.
“Vice Sect Master, what has happened?”
Jiang Jiayi waved her hand, frowning slightly. The situation did seem overly grave.
“I’ll go ask her myself.”
Within a few breaths, the innate sword body turned into crimson light and entered the rear hall.
Unlike before, the graceful figure within no longer reclined but stood tall and straight—her back facing outward.
Moreover, the three-foot-six sword had already left its sheath and was tightly held in the Dao Sect Master’s hand.
Seeing this, Jiang Jiayi’s brows furrowed.
'Something major has happened.'
“What’s going on?”
The Dao Sect Master, now wearing a gilded mask, spoke calmly: “The Desire Demon is trying to descend. We had foreseen this possibility—the incident at the Jade Palace was likely its test.”
Jiang Jiayi’s voice turned icy. “Its 'main body' wants to come down?”
“I fought it once—only saw half of it.”
“That’s troublesome.”
If it were merely a split incarnation of the Desire Demon descending—
That would be a minor issue; the Dao Sect Master could slay it with a single strike.
Even if its full body descended, it would not be too difficult—the Dao Sect Master could still repel it from this place.
But half of it?
Where was the 'other' half?
The Dao Sect Master’s tone grew cold. “I keep constant watch over the mortal realm. There shouldn’t be any cultivator capable of bearing the other half of the Desire Demon’s form.”
For the Desire Demon to descend bypassing Heavenly Mountain, it would need to find a mortal cultivator, lure them into corruption, devour their will, and use their body as a vessel to smuggle itself into the human world.
Yet the Desire Demon’s rank was far too high, its power overwhelming. Even a Jade Radiance cultivator should be incapable of containing half its essence.
Just think—
When Su Wu Xiang fell into demonic corruption, the Desire Demon’s power that came through was barely one percent of its full strength.
Most of the time, those who “fell into demonhood” were devoured by the Desire Demon—
Not possessed by it.
“If it truly descends, the consequences will be catastrophic,” Jiang Jiayi said gravely. “So you’re gathering your disciples—to purge demons across the world?”
The Dao Sect Master said nothing, only stared fixedly at the heavens.
“If it really smuggled half its body down here, even if we have to turn the world upside down—we’ll find it.”
Jiang Jiayi followed her gaze skyward. “But if it truly found someone capable of bearing half its form, that must have been planned for years—every detail prepared. It won’t be easy to find.”
The Dao Sect Master spoke softly, “But that is also an opportunity.”
Jiang Jiayi snapped her head around. “What are you planning?!”
A command token was thrown into her hands.
The Dao Sect Master lifted her sword and soared into the sky. “It has only half its body beyond the heavens—this is the best time to strike it down. I leave the Sect Master’s Command to you. If things go awry, begin the demon purge immediately.”
“You’re insane!”
The Dao Sect Master did not look back.
The three-foot-six sword erupted with boundless sword energy, slicing apart the clouds above.
Profound laws unfolded layer upon layer from the blade.
Two cold words escaped the Dao Sect Master’s lips—
“Taiyi!”
Heaven split into Yin and Yang—Taiyi reappeared.
The Dao Sect Master, with her sword in hand, charged into the outer heavens.