novelraw Chapter 76 - 72: The Heart of Slaughter [II]
Chapter 76 - 72: The Heart of Slaughter [II]
"Are you certain?" the woman asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I’m certain," the man replied, though his voice was strained now from the pain of having his heart literally removed. "This is the only way to give him the strength he’ll need. The only way to ensure he can protect himself when the time comes."
He pressed the black heart against the baby’s chest.
The infant’s crying stopped immediately, replaced by shocked silence as the heart began sinking into the small body, merging with the child’s own undeveloped organ. Spiritual energy erupted in waves, wrapping around the baby in protective layers while the black heart integrated itself completely.
The man’s hands trembled as he worked, guiding the process with careful control despite clearly being in agony. "The heart will remain sealed until his cultivation reaches a sufficient level or until enough Slaughter Intent accumulates to trigger it naturally. When it awakens..." He paused, his blurred face turning toward where the woman presumably stood. "When it awakens, he’ll inherit everything. My comprehension of the Dao. My accumulated power. Everything I’ve learned about the Slaughter Path."
"And the hunters?" the woman asked quietly.
"Won’t be able to track him once the seal activates," the man replied. "The heart’s power will be completely dormant, undetectable to even the most sensitive divine tracking methods. As far as the Upper World is concerned, my son will simply... disappear."
He cradled the baby close one more time, the infant now calm and seemingly oblivious to what had just occurred.
"You need to be strong," the man whispered to the child. "Stronger than I was. Smarter than I was. When the time comes and your heart awakens, you’ll face challenges I can’t protect you from. But you’ll have the tools. You’ll have the power." His voice dropped even quieter. "You’ll have my heart, and everything that comes with it."
The baby made a small sound, one tiny hand reaching up to grasp weakly at the air.
The man caught that small hand gently with one finger. "The best we can do is send you somewhere they won’t think to look. Somewhere far from the Upper World’s reach. You’ll be safe there. Ordinary. Protected by your own obscurity until you’re ready."
"It’s time," the woman said, her voice heavy with sorrow. "The seal is reaching its peak. If we wait any longer—"
"I know." The man brought the baby up to his blurred face, pressing what might have been a kiss against the infant’s forehead. Then he spoke clearly, each word carrying weight that made the air itself vibrate:
"Remember, son. No matter what happens, no matter how long it takes or how far you travel or what name you carry—you’ll always be the son of—"
The scene shattered.
Long Chen felt himself being yanked backward violently, pulled away from the vision with such force that it felt like his soul was being torn from his body. The room disappeared. The man disappeared. The baby disappeared.
Everything went dark.
Long Chen’s eyes snapped open with a gasp that echoed through the empty expanse around him.
He was back in the blood sea. Or what remained of it.
The ocean of crimson had drained away to almost nothing, leaving only a thin film of red liquid covering the ground beneath his feet. The millions of soldiers that had been charging at him endlessly were gone—not retreating or dissolving slowly like they had when he killed them, but simply absent as if they’d never existed at all.
The Dao realm itself was coming apart at the seams. Cracks spread across the sky above, revealing glimpses of something beyond—the fortieth floor chamber, perhaps, or maybe just void. The battlefield beneath his feet trembled and buckled, sections of ground crumbling away into nothingness.
Long Chen looked down at his hands. The red patterns that had covered every inch of his skin were gone completely, burned away by whatever had awakened in his chest. In their place, over his heart, he felt the black mark pulsing with steady rhythm that matched his heartbeat perfectly.
’That vision... that was real. That wasn’t just the Dao showing me something symbolic. That was a memory.’
But whose memory? The baby’s? The man’s? The heart’s?
’The heart.’
Long Chen pressed his hand against his chest, feeling the power thrumming beneath his ribs. The black heart—the one the red-haired man had given up—was inside him now. Had always been inside him, since before Aiden Jus took possession of this body, sealed and waiting for the right conditions to awaken.
And those conditions had been met. Seven days of endless killing, absorbing Slaughter Intent until it reached critical mass, finally triggering the seal’s release.
He could feel it now—the two opposing forces coexisting inside him somehow despite their fundamental differences. The Slaughter Intent he’d comprehended through his week of mechanical slaughter, and this ancient power that had been sealed in Long Chen’s original heart, separate yet intertwined in ways he didn’t fully understand.
Before he could process any of this further, the remaining soldiers in the blood sea began changing.
Their half-rendered forms started dissolving, but not into ash like they’d done when he killed them. This was different. They were breaking apart into pure energy—crimson mist that poured from their bodies in thick streams, flowing through the air toward Long Chen with purpose and intelligence.
The mist crashed into his chest like a wave hitting rocks, pouring into his body through the black mark over his heart. Long Chen felt the energy flooding his meridians, saturating every cell, condensing around the awakened heart in layers that compressed and compressed until the pressure became almost unbearable.
His vision blurred. His consciousness wavered. But he forced himself to stay present, to endure whatever was happening because he understood instinctively that stopping it now would be dangerous.
A notification flared into existence before his eyes.
[CRITICAL AWAKENING IN PROGRESS]
[Analyzing unprecedented physiological change...]
[Classification: Connate Entity detected]
[Subtype: Born with the Slaughter Dao]
[Absorption rate: 27%... 43%... 68%...]
The numbers climbed rapidly as more crimson mist poured into him. The soldiers exploded into bloody vapor one after another, their essence drawn inexorably toward Long Chen’s chest as if his very existence had become a vortex pulling in all the death and violence that had filled this realm.
Long Chen’s body started changing in response to the influx of power.
His muscles compressed, became denser without losing flexibility. His bones strengthened, spiritual energy sinking into their structure and transforming them from within. His meridians expanded and reinforced themselves, creating channels capable of handling energy flow far beyond what his cultivation realm should permit.
But the most dramatic change was in his eyes.
The mismatched appearance solidified—one eye burning with the crimson fire of comprehended Slaughter Intent, while the other remained black as the void with silver patterns swirling like distant galaxies. But they weren’t just different colors anymore. Each eye carried different properties, different capabilities he could sense but didn’t yet know how to use properly.
[Absorption rate: 89%... 94%... 98%...]
The last soldier dissolved completely. The final stream of crimson mist flowed into Long Chen’s chest.
[100%]
[The Heart of Slaughter has awakened]
[Entity Classification: Connate Being]
[Definition: One born with innate connection to a fundamental Dao. Extremely rare. Cultivation potential: Immeasurable]
[Slaughter Intent comprehension advanced]
[Current Level: Second Stage]
Long Chen’s breath caught. Second stage Slaughter Intent. He’d jumped from having no Intent at all to second stage comprehension in one week, something that should have taken decades at minimum for normal cultivators.
But the notifications weren’t finished.
[Sword Intent detected]
[Synergy with Sword Aura detected]
[Natural progression achieved]
[Sword Intent: First Stage]
Long Chen stared at the notification in disbelief. Sword Intent. Not just Sword Aura anymore, but actual Intent—the next level of comprehension that represented fundamental understanding of the sword’s nature rather than just its use as a weapon.