Immortal Druid

[POV: Hao Lei]

“What is this?”

When Hao Lei opened his eyes, he found himself bound in chains. Cold metal wrapped around his wrists and torso, holding him firmly against what felt like a stone wall. His most recent memories were blurry, broken apart like fragments of a dream. He remembered traveling toward the Clear Harmony Sect. On his way back, he had been ambushed by the Bleeding Emperor of the Sunblood Dynasty.

After that, there was nothing.

“I can’t feel my legs.”

The realization filled him with horror.

His voice echoed through the darkness, only to be swallowed by the oppressive silence that followed. Beneath the darkness, a pair of crimson eyes slowly opened.

Scarlet flames ignited one after another, hovering throughout the chamber like drifting wisps. Their light illuminated the stone walls, the chains binding Hao Lei, and finally the man standing several steps before him.

The Bleeding Emperor, Lu Li.

He had long crimson hair that fell around his shoulders like the mane of a lion. His expression was cold and emotionless, while his crimson eyes regarded Hao Lei with the detached interest of someone examining an unusual specimen.

“You noticed rather quickly,” Lu Li said. “I had to amputate your legs. Otherwise, I could not be certain you would remain here long enough to answer my questions.”

Hao Lei's heart sank.

“You have information I require,” Lu Li continued. “I will ask you several questions, and you will answer them truthfully. If you cooperate, there will be no need for further suffering. If you refuse, I will find another way to obtain the answers.”

Hao Lei lowered his gaze.

Only then did he see what had been done to him.

His legs were gone.

The wounds had been seared shut, the flesh around the stumps blackened by an unnatural flame. Even now, he could feel the sensation of burning crawling through what remained of his limbs. It was not ordinary fire. Something was continuously suppressing his innate immortality, preventing his body from regenerating even the smallest portion of what he had lost.

“What did you do to me?”

Lu Li ignored the question.

“What exactly is your relationship with the immortal known as Wo Li?”

Hao Lei's pupils contracted, and then he laughed. It was a strained, almost hysterical laugh, but there was still defiance within it.

“You think I will tell you?”

His voice rose into a scream.

“You will get nothing from me! I would rather die than let you pry anything out of my mouth!”

Hao Lei immediately formed a hand seal.

A spell manifested around his face.

Threads of spiritual energy emerged from his cheeks and lips, stitching his mouth shut with a cruel-looking pattern. The spell sealed his ability to speak, preventing even the most powerful interrogation technique from forcing words from him.

His eyes glared defiantly at Lu Li.

The Bleeding Emperor merely stared at him. When he raised one hand, a single drop of crimson blood appeared above his fingertip. It was tiny, yet the moment it manifested, Hao Lei's soul trembled.

Lu Li flicked his finger.

The drop of blood flew forward and struck Hao Lei directly between the eyebrows.

“Then I will just have to make you.”

The instant the blood entered his body, Hao Lei's expression changed.

Pain erupted throughout him.

Something invasive began threading itself through his flesh, meridians, soul, and consciousness. It was not simply attacking his body. It was burrowing into the very foundation of his existence, winding around his soul with countless invisible threads.

Hao Lei's body convulsed violently against the chains. His sealed mouth could no longer scream, but his eyes widened until the veins around them became visible.

What kind of curse was this?

He had endured countless injuries throughout his long existence. He had experienced death more times than he cared to remember. Yet this pain was different. It did not merely hurt.

It made his soul shudder.

It felt as though something foreign was forcing its way into the deepest part of him and attempting to overwrite his very will.

The spell stitched across his mouth finally unraveled.

“Stop!”

Hao Lei screamed.

“Stop! Lu Li, stop this!”

Lu Li's expression remained unchanged.

“Why?”

“I will cooperate!” Hao Lei's voice trembled from the pain, surprising even himself by how cooperative he'd suddenly become. “I will answer your questions! Just stop!”

“No.”

Lu Li's response was immediate.

Hao Lei stared at him in disbelief.

“I have already begun,” Lu Li said. “Whether you cooperate now or not changes nothing.”

The pain intensified.

Hao Lei gritted his teeth until blood flowed from his gums. Only then did he understand. This was a domination spell.

If he allowed it to finish, his will would no longer belong to him.

For countless years, he had prepared a trump card specifically for situations like this. He had always hoped he would never need to use it. The thought of wasting such a precious technique filled him with reluctance.

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But he had no choice.

Hao Lei's eyes hardened. His soul suddenly split apart.

A violent tremor passed through his spiritual body as he severed the portion of his soul that carried his innate immortality. He had no intention of allowing Lu Li to seize it. Instead, he intended to abandon his body entirely and escape through death.

For an ordinary cultivator, severing one's soul at this level would already be an extraordinary technique. Once a cultivator reached at least the Nascent Soul realm, their soul could detach from their body and, under certain circumstances, even seize another vessel.

Hao Lei's technique, however, was far more developed than such a crude method.

The moment his soul separated, Lu Li sneered.

“So that is your answer?”

The Bleeding Emperor watched calmly as Hao Lei's spiritual form emerged from his body.

“Attempting something so childish before me is futile. You seem to have forgotten where you are. This prison was constructed specifically to imprison spiritual bodies. Even if you abandon your flesh, you will not escape.”

Hao Lei looked at him, a faint smile appearing on his face.

“You're mistaken.”

Hao Lei's spiritual body suddenly began to unravel. His soul broke apart into countless fragments.

The technique did not resemble an ordinary escape art. Hao Lei was not attempting to flee from the prison as a single spiritual entity. Instead, he was deliberately dismantling himself.

His soul scattered. One fragment became ten. Ten became a hundred. A hundred became countless pieces that dissolved into the darkness. Yet Hao Lei did not truly perish.

A soul was immortal.

Even when perceived to have been destroyed, even when shattered into fragments so minute that nothing of its original form remained, a soul did not simply cease to exist. It would instead be drawn elsewhere, slipping into another dimension, another existence, or the endless flow of reincarnation.

Hao Lei's secret art interfered with that natural process.

His soul had not been destroyed. Instead, it had been dispersed. And before the forces governing reincarnation could claim those fragments, his innate immortality began pulling them back together.

One fragment found another, and then another.

His soul began reconstructing itself somewhere beyond Lu Li's reach.

This was an art Hao Lei had devised only because of the knowledge he had obtained from Yuan Tao, the late leader of the now-perished Dark Order. Yuan Tao had possessed knowledge concerning the nature of souls that few living beings could even comprehend.

Hao Lei had spent years studying that knowledge.

Now, it had saved his life. His final fragment drifted away. His voice reached Lu Li from somewhere beyond the prison.

“Lu Li... remember this. You can destroy my body. You can tear my soul apart. But you cannot kill what was never truly meant to die. I will live freely and eternally as I please. You can't have me. So no, I will not be your prisoner."

Finally, Hao Lei disappeared, leaving Lu Li alone and standing motionlessly beneath the floating scarlet flames.

Far away, hidden within an isolated cave, a small box suddenly trembled.

The box was Hao Lei's phylactery.

Its surface was covered in layers of seals and arcane runes, each one protecting the object from detection. At its center rested a single heart. The heart suddenly began beating. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Cracks appeared across its surface.

The seals surrounding it ignited one after another as an immense vitality erupted from within. Flesh began growing around the heart, first forming a rib cage, then muscles, nerves, organs, and finally skin.

The box could no longer contain the surge of power.

Boom!

It exploded outward. Fragments of wood and shattered seals flew across the cave as a naked silhouette emerged from the remains. Hao Lei collapsed onto one knee. He breathed heavily, his entire body drenched in sweat. For several moments, he simply remained there, recovering from the agony of reconstructing his existence.

“I need to get back to the Sage immediately.”

His expression was unusually grave. There was more to the Bleeding Emperor than he had initially believed. Something about Lu Li's power had disturbed him deeply. That blood? That curse? That terrifying sensation that had invaded his soul?

It reminded him of the dark power once possessed by Yuan Tao.

Hao Lei had encountered countless strange energies throughout his existence, yet he could not find a suitable word to describe what he had felt inside Lu Li. If he had to borrow the Sage's vocabulary, however, there was one word that seemed appropriate.

“Primordial.”

Hao Lei slowly rose to his feet.

Whatever Lu Li truly was, he knew one thing with certainty. The Bleeding Emperor was far more dangerous than anyone realized.

…

..

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[POV: Lu Li]

It was a very disappointing development.

Lu Li stood in silence, staring at the body of the immortal known as Hao Lei. He had not expected his captive to possess a method capable of escaping the prison he had prepared. Even after severing his own soul, Hao Lei had somehow managed to slip beyond the reach of his domination spell and vanish entirely.

It was an unexpected failure, yet Lu Li felt no frustration.

His belief in himself was firmer than anything in this world. A single failure could not shake it, nor could the escape of an immortal he had intended to interrogate make him doubt his own strength. There was nothing in this world that could make the Bleeding Emperor question his own capabilities.

Before him lay Hao Lei's body.

The immortal looked healthy and perfectly fine at first glance, almost as though nothing had happened to him. Only his eyes revealed the truth. They were dull and lifeless, as if the spark that had once animated them had completely vanished.

Lu Li released the searing flames around Hao Lei's legs.

The moment the flames disappeared, the suppression preventing regeneration vanished with them. Yet the body did not move. It did not regenerate. It did not even twitch.

There was no soul left inside it.

After everything Hao Lei had endured, the body was now nothing more than a slab of meat.

“How funny.”

A voice drifted from the darkness behind Lu Li.

“To think the Bleeding Emperor himself would actually get one-upped by one of his own peers. I almost wish I had brought wine for this.”

Lu Li did not turn around.

“Hardly.”

His voice remained calm.

The crimson flames around him continued floating lazily through the chamber, illuminating his expressionless face.

“He escaped. That is all.”

From the darkness emerged another figure.

At first glance, it looked exactly like Hao Lei.

It possessed the same appearance, the same presence, and even the same gloomy eyes. Yet there was something subtly wrong about it. The resemblance was too perfect, as though someone had copied Hao Lei rather than actually becoming him.

The figure stopped several steps away from Lu Li.

Slowly, its body began to change.

Its flesh twisted.

Its face stretched apart as numerous eyes opened across its features. Its skin became something darker and stranger, while its humanoid appearance collapsed into that of a faceless creature covered in countless watching eyes.

Lu Li finally glanced toward it.

“How did your infiltration go?” he asked. “And why are you back so much earlier than expected?”

The creature chuckled.

“There are actually two things.”

Lu Li raised an eyebrow. "What?"

“First, one of our allies, Cloud General Woon Yong, was taken down by the enemy. At least, that's what I heard from the sage's people. And second, the Heavenly Domain Sect just attacked the Serenity Lake Domain.”

Lu Li's expression finally shifted. “The Heavenly Domain Sect?”

“Yes.”

The creature laughed.

“It got too out of hand. I decided it was time to bail out before I became part of the casualties.”

Lu Li fell silent.

The forces within the Serenity Lake Domain were dangerous in a way that he understood far too little about. That alone had made him cautious. The stories surrounding the mysterious Sage who lived there were troubling enough, but the existence of the Fairy Queen made the situation even more complicated.

That was why he had sent his co-conspirator there.

He needed information.

Instead, the situation had erupted into open conflict before he could learn everything he wanted.

The Heavenly Domain Sect was no ordinary force, either. If their Sect Leader had personally made a move, the resulting battle could not possibly have been minor.

Lu Li's eyes narrowed slightly.

Perhaps this was not entirely bad.

If the Heavenly Domain Sect and the forces of the Serenity Lake Domain injured one another badly enough, it would be an ideal outcome.

After all, Lu Li maintained a friendly, if not somewhat subservient, relationship with the Heavenly Domain Sect. He had cooperated with them before, and maintaining such ties was useful.

But cooperation was not loyalty.

He had never regarded them as anything other than potential enemies.

It was simply the way of the world.

Those beneath others naturally wished to rise above them. Those who possessed power wished to obtain more. Alliances were nothing more than arrangements that lasted until they ceased being beneficial.

Lu Li understood that better than most.

He had not become the Emperor of the Sunblood Dynasty through a lack of ambition.

“If they truly fought each other,” Lu Li said quietly, “then the result could be beneficial.”

The creature's numerous eyes turned toward him. “And what are your plans now?”

Lu Li looked toward the corpse of Hao Lei. For a moment, he considered the immortal's escape. Then he turned away.

“I need to call a meeting between the Four Sovereign Flags.”

The creature became silent.

“We lost Woon Yong,” Lu Li continued. “That changes the situation considerably. Our plans to take over the continent will be severely hampered with one of our members gone.”

This setback had been unexpected, but it was not enough to stop him.

The continent was already moving toward chaos, and Lu Li had no intention of allowing that chaos to pass him by. If anything, the growing disorder merely created more opportunities for someone ambitious enough to seize them.

And Lu Li had never lacked ambition.

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