Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 30 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 30 – Yin Xue

With a snap of inrushing energy, the soul art and his hodgepodge cultivation method he had created slid into place, merging the wisps of immortal energy into his being. From raging agony – a familiar presence, after losing so much of himself – came blessed relief. His body and soul merged, external energies pouring into him. He could feel muscle, sinew and bone renewing themselves, filling him out and strengthening his form.

The absence of pain was a drug that nearly overtook Yin Xue’s senses, but it was one that he pushed aside with a force of will. Instead, he focused on the pulsing of the monster within and churned the soul art, triggering the next step.

Threads that had bound the remnant soul twisted and swept within, wrapping the creature tight. One, then another of the threads snapped, as their frayed and damaged ends split apart. Yet, with his attention focused now upon the monster, Yin Xue could reweave new threads, binding the monster even as the broken threads fragmented, dispersing into his body and leaving sharp edged ends of chi within him. Those would have to be dealt with, eventually, but in the meantime.

“You think you can beat me?” The Cai king laughed, maniacally. His eyes were bloodshot and red, the massive muscled soul flexing and straining against the threads. It tore at the bindings, managing to free one arm that then reached backward, to pull further at the bindings. “You are nothing! I swatted you away with a single hand in the real world.”

“And yet, you are at my mercy,” Yin Xue growled, pushing down on the threads. They pulsed, drawing strength from the remnant soul. Unfortunately, a connection went both ways, and the spirit drew back as well, pulling on the other side of the connection.

“Who’s at whose mercy?” A harsh laugh rose from the shade, one filled with mockery and anger. “You think you know how to consume? All that I am is hunger, the sweet moment when one devours, when true dominance is established. What are you, little demon?”

“Not a demon,” Yin Xue growled back, spiritual sweat beading his forehead. He could feel the other, tearing forth his energy, portions of his existence to empower itself. The remnant was right – he was not able to win, not in a pure battle of consumption like this.

No. he needed something, something more.

“True, so true. Not demon, not human, something in-between. A thief, that is what you are.” Another cackling, insane laugh. “A very tasty thief.”

Yin Xue took further hold of the threads, wrapped them around himself and anchored his feet in the ground of his physical body. He tied it together, refusing to move, and felt the strain as meridians and muscles twitched. In the real world, his body spasmed, blood vessels deep within and on the surface bursting.

“Fight well, little one. Fight, because the struggle is so tasty…” Now Yin Xue’s experienced another form of horror. Realisation that they were connected physically and spiritually, such that he could sense the shade’s growing excitement.

Revulsion threw new energy into Yin Xue’s efforts, and for the first time, he managed to detach portions of the other. Soul remnants came flying free, but the momentary victory saw more energy of his own torn from him as he lost track.

That energy, it slipped through the soul art, was torn apart; some of it returning to the demon as poison, as unaspected energy that had to be reintegrated. Most, however, Yin Xue kept – the dao of the other, that of consumption and greed and hunger neverending.

He tore portions of it free, the immortal parts and integrated it into his body, strengthening it.

“False dragon. Hah! You have climbed far, for a broken prodigy. Unable to focus, to grow without sacrifice. Giving and giving, never understanding that one should TAKE!”

Once more, energy surged upwards. Tore at his control; but Yin Xue had sensed the difference then. He knew he could not win, not in a fight of direct strength. But the other wanted it all, and was unheeding of what it consumed. So, Yin Xue fed it – the detritus of his recent merging, the mortal waste and parts that he had no need of.

“What is this? Jealousy? Such a petty emotion, so small. Like you…” How it could speak and eat at the same time was a mystery of the soul realm. It’s voice resounded through the spiritual space the pair fought within, connected by the threads of the soul art – and yet, it never stopped consuming.

At the same time, energy flowed back, small threads that reached outwards and sunk deep into the other. Tugging forth energy, but carefully. The Soul Art allowed him to do that, to pick at what he desired to consume, leaving the rest to be stuffed back into the shades mouth.

A dao of endless greed was too much, but that dao had been built upon the experiences, the understanding of the king that had created it for himself. A king that had once wanted the best for his people, who had served them nobly. Who built a massive empire, out of the bodies of those he had slain, but also raised his people high with cultivation arts.

An army that had been feared, multiple armies and servants beneath him. They had waged war against multiple kingdoms, and yet they had won. A king that had seen how the heavens had scorned those beneath, and whose initial ambition was to see them brought low.

That dao, the arrogant belief that it would be better if he had been the one in charge, that was a dao that Yin Xue could accept. It fit with his own marred and tarnished dao of nobility, his initial understanding of the world.

One, and then the other, they tore at one another. Consuming parts of each other, the demon cackling and commenting on the parts that Yin Xue offered him. The mortal failings, the anger and fears, the pain and the suffering he had experienced to journey so far. The petty jealousies and the months and years of stagnation.

“Eat it all, and choke on it,” Yin Xue hissed, as he tore those feelings free. Not all of them, for to dissolve all such things would be a repudiation of his own path. One that he would not dismiss, not as he built anew his dao and understanding.

Dragged forth the truth of the king that had once ruled a kingdom, burnished it with an understanding of a failed cultivator. Combined the frustration of the shade with his own, as they both raged against a world that had sought to block their path.

In the physical realm, wounds expanded and blew apart. Blood formed and poured down robes, numerous wounds clustered about his body as Yin Xue struggled on. At the same time, a deep glow would form over the surface of these wounds, a golden shine that would replace the bleeding red with a darker shade, scars of a battle won.

Immortal skin, gifted to mortal body, as wounds were ripped free. Almost, Yin Xue could thank the creature for its actions made it simpler, made the merging process faster and smoother. Almost, he might thank it – but the cultivator had no time for such things.

He struggled still, with the weakening demon. Though it consumed him as quickly as it could, what it supped upon was not strength but mortal failings. At the same time, Yin Xue snuck behind it and robbed it of its immortal buttresses, gifted it to himself and replaced the walls that had been torn down. Where the demon grew weaker, he grew stronger.

“What are you doing to me?” Now, the shade understood. It never stopped eating, but now it felt it. The way it faded, as the other consumed him. “You cannot win! I am the king of Cai! The herald of the thousand realms below, the bringer of shadow and flame. How can you do this, you useless, petty mortal?”

For all its protestations, it faded. Its consumption, never ending but once more, it was fed the wrong thing.

Yet, it was not that straightforward. Not everything he took would he accept. That unending greed? It was not for him. That arrogance that had driven the Cai king to take on multiple Nascent Soul cultivators at the same time, daring them to beat him? Yin Xue had no use for that.

He knew all too well the price of arrogance. Had paid it, over and over again.

False dragon they had named him, a prodigy that was shown to be tin beneath the golden external coat. Discarded, offered the barest of consideration as his rivals in the sect shone on. Danced through a privilege life of gifts and acceptances, trained by true prodigies of the sword and the social circle, allowed to trample upon the rules and regulations o the sect and only be given the barest of punishments. Only to return, in triumph, to lord it over those who had stayed.

Finding wisdom in his travels.

No, he knew what arrogance had cost him. He was no storied protagonist, no eldest son that brought prestige to the family by marrying well. He had discarded his place with them, long ago, to continue his climb upwards. Not out of strength, not out of arrogance, but out of spite alone.

For the shade was not mistaken.

The heavens were corrupt and wrong, and someone had to say it to them.