The Author's Draft

Chapter 77 - 73: The Heart of Slaughter [III]

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.

And he’d achieved it without even trying, simply as a natural byproduct of his Sword Aura protecting his consciousness during the Slaughter Intent comprehension. The two had interacted, pushed each other higher, resulted in a breakthrough he hadn’t been actively pursuing.

The Dao realm around him shuddered violently. The cracks in the sky widened, spreading faster as reality recognized that the test was complete and the space no longer needed to exist.

Long Chen felt the pull of transition, the sensation of being drawn back to the fortieth floor chamber. But before the transfer completed, one final notification appeared:

[Warning: The awakened heart carries memories not belonging to host]

[Fragments of previous owner’s consciousness detected]

[Integration ongoing]

[Recommend caution when accessing inherited knowledge]

’Previous owner’s consciousness,’ Long Chen thought, his mind immediately going to the vision he’d witnessed. The red-haired man giving up his heart. ’That was him. The original owner of this heart. And his memories are inside it.’

The vision had cut off before the man could finish his sentence. Before Long Chen could hear the name that would identify who exactly had sealed their heart inside this body.

’Who was he? What was he running from? And why—’

The Dao realm collapsed entirely.

Light swallowed everything.

Long Chen’s feet touched solid stone.

The transition was jarring—one moment dissolving reality, the next moment standing in the fortieth floor chamber with Yan Shou staring at him like he’d just witnessed something impossible.

The guardian’s eyes were wide, his mouth slightly open in an expression of shock that seemed completely at odds with his normally composed demeanor. His hand rested on the hilt of his black blade, knuckles white from gripping too tightly, and his spiritual pressure fluctuated wildly as if he couldn’t quite control it.

"You..." Yan Shou’s voice came out rough, strained. "What in the name of—" He cut himself off, shaking his head sharply. "No. That’s not possible. What you just did is not possible."

Long Chen looked down at himself. His robes were destroyed, torn and bloodstained from a week of combat. The black mark over his heart was visible through the shredded fabric, pulsing with faint light. His hands were steady despite everything that had happened, and when he clenched them into fists, he felt power respond immediately—Slaughter Intent and Sword Intent both coiling through his meridians like living things waiting to be unleashed.

He looked back up at Yan Shou and realized something that made his stomach drop.

Azazel was gone.

The demon’s presence in his mind—that constant weight he’d grown accustomed to since forming the Equal Life Contract—was absent. Not severed or blocked, just... elsewhere. Back in his soul, presumably, no longer manifesting in the chamber.

"Guardian Yan Shou," Long Chen said carefully, testing how his voice sounded. It came out different than before—layered, as if two people were speaking simultaneously. He cleared his throat and tried again. Better. Almost normal. "What happened? How long was I in there?"

"One day," Yan Shou replied automatically, still staring at Long Chen like he was seeing a ghost. "In the real world, only one day passed. But inside the Dao realm..." He trailed off, then seemed to force himself back to composure through sheer will. "You were inside for a full month subjective time. Thirty days of—" He stopped again, his expression shifting to something between awe and confusion. "You comprehended second stage Slaughter Intent in thirty days."

The way he said it made clear exactly how insane that accomplishment was.

"Most cultivators who dedicate themselves to the Slaughter Path take decades to reach first stage Intent," Yan Shou continued, his voice gaining strength as he fell back on lecture mode to process what he’d witnessed. "The talented ones might achieve it in ten years with proper guidance. The truly exceptional prodigies occasionally manage it in five years. But second stage?" He laughed, though the sound held no humor. "I’ve been cultivating the Slaughter Line for three thousand years, and I only reached third stage Intent eight hundred years ago. Do you understand what that means? What you just accomplished?"

Long Chen didn’t know what to say to that, so he stayed quiet.

Yan Shou ran a hand through his hair, clearly struggling to process everything. "And that’s not even addressing whatever that awakening was. That black mark on your chest, those eyes, the aura you’re radiating..." He shook his head firmly. "I’ve never seen anything like it. Not in three millennia of testing candidates."

"About that," Long Chen started, but Yan Shou cut him off with a sharp gesture.

"Don’t." The guardian’s voice was firm. "Don’t ask me to explain what’s happening with your heart. I saw the vision too—the projection was visible on the screen while you experienced it—but I don’t have answers for you."

"You saw?" Long Chen’s surprise was genuine.

"The Dao realm is monitored," Yan Shou explained. "I witnessed everything. The endless killing, the patterns spreading across your skin, your consciousness fading into pure instinct." His expression grew more serious. "And then the seal breaking. The heart awakening. The memory projection of a man giving up his own heart to seal inside an infant."

He moved closer to Long Chen, his gaze intense. "I don’t know who that man was. The formations blocking his face from view were beyond my ability to analyze—Upper World techniques, probably, designed specifically to prevent identification. But based on what I witnessed, based on the power radiating from him and the level of skill required to perform that kind of heart transplant seal..." Yan Shou paused. "He was someone important. Extremely important. And he went to extraordinary lengths to hide your origin."

"My origin," Long Chen repeated quietly.

"The heart inside you isn’t yours," Yan Shou stated bluntly. "It belonged to someone else originally. Someone connected to the Slaughter Dao so deeply that their heart itself became a Connate Entity. And they sealed it inside you for reasons I can only speculate about."

He stepped back, creating distance again. "Whatever you are, whatever you’re becoming—it’s beyond my knowledge. The heart is yours now, integrated completely with your body. But the consciousness fragments it carries, the memories locked inside it..." Yan Shou shook his head. "Those aren’t mine to interpret or explain. You’ll have to discover those truths yourself."

Long Chen absorbed this information silently. Yan Shou didn’t know who the red-haired man was, couldn’t identify what bloodline or technique had been used, had no answers about why the original Long Chen had been chosen for this.

But the guardian had confirmed something important: this wasn’t just a cultivation technique or bloodline inheritance. This was something far more personal, more deliberate. Someone had sealed their heart—their very essence—inside this body for a specific purpose.