I Was the Sun Before I Became an Immortal

When Heishan and Chifeng opened their eyes — now stained a deep, bloody crimson — Si Chen's heart sank.

These two hulking creatures were the only friends in this strange world who could make him feel at ease.

He didn't want anything to happen to them. Even less did he want to hurt them with his own hands.

On his shoulder, Red Bean let out a sharp, frantic cry, wings beating rapidly, as if trying to call them back with sound alone.

But it was useless. Heishan and Chifeng no longer recognized the young man or the little bird before them.

The great hall had become a living hell.

Those who had soaked in the blood pool — human and demon alike — had gone completely mad, tearing and clawing at each other like wild beasts, blood and severed limbs flying in every direction.

One after another, red-eyed figures who had lost all reason came shrieking toward Si Chen, their wild, uncoordinated lunges easily evaded with the Thunder Smite Flash.

But his gaze never left Heishan and Chifeng.

Heishan reared up on its massive haunches and let out a deafening roar, its heavy bear paw crashing down with a gust of rank wind!

Boom!

A red-eyed cultivator who couldn't dodge in time didn't even manage a scream — he was smashed apart like a watermelon, reduced to a pulp in an instant.

On the other side, Chifeng crouched low, every muscle coiled tight, then launched itself like a deadly crimson shadow.

Riiip!

Its razor-sharp claws sliced through another unfortunate soul's chest as easily as cutting through tofu.

Si Chen remembered Heishan once boasting to him that the two of them had only recently advanced to third-rank Demon Beasts — roughly equivalent to the Early Nascent Soul Stage for human cultivators — and that thanks to their thick hides and tough flesh, they could even hold their own against a Mid Nascent Soul Stage opponent in a real fight.

Looking at them now, that hadn't been an empty boast.

Having lost all reason, they relied purely on instinct and brute force, their attacks simple and one-dimensional, their combat power noticeably diminished compared to when they were clear-headed.

Yet even so, they were still far beyond what any Foundation Establishment Stage or Core Formation Stage cultivator could withstand.

Their arrival sent the already chaotic scene spiraling completely out of control.

"Run! Those two big ones have gone mad too!"

"They're third-rank Demon Beasts!"

The cultivators who still had their wits about them were scared out of their minds, scrambling and tumbling toward the passage they had entered from, cursing their parents for not giving them two extra legs.

The number of people still standing in the hall dwindled rapidly — some dead, some fled.

With the crowd thinning so quickly, the red-eyed, mindless ones soon locked onto the only living thing still moving nimbly through the hall: Si Chen.

Si Chen, of course, had no intention of sitting still and waiting to die.

He swept both hands in rapid succession, hurling blazing Spears of Thunder that screamed through the air, while the Thunder Smite Flash flickered like a butterfly weaving through flowers, blinking across the hall in a constant stream of motion.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Thunder burst after burst, flesh and blood flying.

He cared nothing for the lives of these people — except for his two friends.

But Si Chen's heart sank a little more with every passing moment.

Because he could see that after Heishan and Chifeng had finished off the "small fry" around them, those two pairs of blood-red beast eyes slowly turned toward him.

"ROAR!"

Heishan bellowed and charged, its enormous bear paw slamming down and smashing a deep crater into the ground where Si Chen had just been standing, rubble flying in all directions.

Si Chen had barely dodged with the Thunder Smite Flash and hadn't even steadied himself when Chifeng's razor claws came screaming in!

He was forced to trigger the Thunder Smite Flash again, while the other mindless figures closed in from all sides.

There were simply too many of them.

Si Chen's spiritual energy was draining at a terrifying rate. Surrounded like this — and especially having to avoid Heishan and Chifeng, two genuine third-rank Demon Beasts — the pressure was immense.

Their speed and physical power were both extraordinary, and in their current frenzy they were utterly fearless, every blow carrying devastating force.

He didn't want to hurt Heishan or Chifeng, and fighting with one hand tied behind his back made Si Chen feel the strain multiplying by the second.

He had to bring them back to their senses.

Even as he wove and dodged, his mind raced. Evading forever wasn't an option, and hurting them was the last thing he wanted.

What could dispel the savagery raging inside them?

A thought struck him like a bolt of lightning — the Yimu Everspring Art!

This Cultivation Technique was suffused with boundless vitality, the most balanced and harmonious of arts, like spring rain nourishing all living things.

Over the past two years on Wanji Mountain, he had cultivated day and night, absorbing vast quantities of wood and plant essence stored within his body...

Perhaps... this power could purify the madness the blood pool had brought?

The moment the thought formed, he acted.

Si Chen drew a deep breath and deliberately guided the warm, gentle energy within him. A soft emerald radiance began to seep out from his body.

That tranquil vitality was utterly at odds with the blood-soaked savagery filling the hall.

He spotted an opening, triggered the Thunder Smite Flash once more, and transformed into a jagged bolt of lightning threading through the frenzied crowd — charging straight toward Heishan.

Heishan swung its paw down again. Si Chen twisted sideways, slipping past the razor-sharp claws, and on his right fist a layer of soft, emerald light bloomed!

"Heishan! Wake up!"

He drove his fist into Heishan's furry forehead.

The blow dealt no real harm to Heishan's powerful body, but the gentle, stream-like vitality flowed through the point of contact, attempting to pour into Heishan's turbulent sea of consciousness.

Hmmm...

Heishan's massive body visibly shuddered to a halt.

A fleeting flicker of struggle and confusion passed through those crimson bear eyes, and the savage aura rolling off its body seemed to dim by just a fraction!

It was working!

Si Chen's spirits surged. He was about to pour in even more vitality—

At that critical moment—

"You little wretch, your life is mine!"

A roar saturated with bone-deep hatred erupted from the passage entrance!

With it came a slash — silent as a shadow, fast as lightning!

It was Lü Ci! They had caught up!

Si Chen's entire focus had been on healing Heishan, and he was half a beat too slow to react to the incoming sword strike.

He twisted his body in an instant, but the sword-qi still grazed his arm!

Riiip!

His sleeve was shredded in an instant, and a gash opened along his arm as blood welled up immediately.

But Si Chen didn't even glance at it. The Yimu Everspring Art's vitality activated on its own, and the flesh around the wound began to knit itself back together at once.

In just a few breaths, the terrible wound had stopped bleeding and closed.

But that single interruption had cost him the best opportunity.

The faint glimmer of clarity that had just surfaced in Heishan's eyes vanished completely, replaced by an even more violent and frenzied rage!

It reared up on its hind legs, unleashing a roar more terrifying than before, and lunged at Si Chen once again!

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the hall, Lü Ci, two Elders at the Core Formation Stage whose wounds had not yet healed but whose eyes burned with venomous hatred, along with Young Master Fang and his grey-robed guardian, had all arrived.

Before him: his closest friends, stripped of reason and consumed by madness. Behind him: enemies who despised him to the bone, their killing intent boiling over.

Yet Si Chen's expression remained utterly calm.

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