After the spirit core entered his body, black flames covered Xiao Yan's right hand. He stretched out his palm and quickly seized the butterfly-shaped purple flame. Although the temperature of the Heavenly Flame was incredibly high, with the protection of the Nine Nether Flame, it couldn't cause him any harm.
Without any hesitation, Xiao Yan swallowed the source of the Nether Poison Flame.
In Yao Lao's original assessment, the greatest danger in refining the Nether Poison Flame lay in its deadly toxicity. That was why he had refined the Hundred Detoxification Pill to counter the poison. His precautions were thorough, and under normal circumstances, nothing should have gone wrong.
However, what Yao Lao hadn't known was that within the Nether Poison Flame lurked an extremely rare neurotoxin. This poison didn't harm the body directly—it induced powerful hallucinations, slowly eroding the will of the person refining the flame. And when it came to refining a Heavenly Flame, willpower was the most crucial component. No amount of preparation would matter if the will faltered.
Earlier, the traces of neurotoxin scattered through the Heavenly Poison Swamp had already dragged Xiao Yan into a powerful illusion. But this time, he had swallowed the Nether Poison Flame itself. The neurotoxin it released was magnified thousands of times over! That was precisely why so few people had ever successfully refined this flame. Its conventional poison wasn't the real threat—the mind-affecting neurotoxin was the fatal killer.
The poison didn't just create illusions. It dulled thinking. Even the clearest mind would slow under its influence. Fantasies full of flaws would appear seamless. In time, the person would sink completely into the illusion and never escape.
At this moment, the neurotoxin began to take full effect. The sensation of searing heat dulled to a whisper, and Xiao Yan was startled to find that he had somehow opened his eyes. But he was no longer in the black forest ravaged by the Demonic Wrath Flame Lotus. Before him now was a spacious courtyard.
This place carved itself deeply into his memory—it was home.
Not the current Xiao Family, led by Xiao Zhan, but the Xiao Family from his past life. And between the two, the difference was stark.
In his past life, his father had forced his children to train from a very young age. If their results didn't meet expectations, they were killed without mercy. The bodies were sent to an unknown place, never to be seen again.
Xiao Yan was his father's third child—or more accurately, the third to survive. The rest, deemed "failures" with no talent for cultivation, were slaughtered one after another.
Now, what stood before Xiao Yan was the courtyard of his childhood—one that had brought him only pain and torment. Only, it was no longer empty. The ground had become a thick pool of blood.
Rotting corpses floated in the bloody mire. All the blood flowed swiftly toward the altar at the center of the courtyard, forming a strange, crimson array. Above it, a man with fangs lining his mouth stood suspended in the air, arms spread wide, basking in the surging power flowing through him.
Xiao Yan instantly understood—this was the moment his father had conducted the blood sacrifice to achieve a breakthrough. This battle, from his previous life, had been the most painful in his youth. Not just because of his father's overwhelming power—but because the enemy was his own father, a living nightmare from childhood.
And now, that bloody scene replayed itself before Xiao Yan's eyes once again.
The man in the blood sea suddenly opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on Xiao Yan.
"My child! You've finally returned! Come! Offer your body to the blood pool and become part of its power!"
"Tch. So it's you… I thought I'd already forgotten your disgusting face, but clearly I remember it just fine." Xiao Yan unsheathed the Heavy Xuan Ruler from his back, his tone calm. "If anyone's going into that pool, it'll be you. I'm not interested."
"You are a Xiao! My son! It's only right you sacrifice for your father!" The man let out a mad laugh. "Once I break through that bottleneck, I'll unify the entire Wu Tan City! You'll be the Xiao Family's greatest hero. Your name will be praised for generations!"
"Heh. If you need a blood sacrifice to break through to Dou Ling, then your life is already meaningless." Xiao Yan stepped into the blood pool. "Still, it's good you showed up again. It gives me another chance to kill you."
"You bastard! Have you forgotten?! I'm your father! Do you mean to commit patricide?!" the man roared.
"Of course I haven't forgotten. But you might not know this—patricide is old news to me." Xiao Yan chuckled. "I already killed you once, hundreds of years ago. This time will be no different. Only, I won't struggle nearly as much as I did back then."
After a brutal clash, the man collapsed into the blood pool. He opened his mouth as if to speak but fell silent upon seeing Xiao Yan's emotionless expression.
"Only the ruthless survive. That's what you taught me." Xiao Yan raised the Heavy Xuan Ruler and brought it crashing down onto the man's skull—just like the trembling youth who once committed this 'unfilial' act so long ago. "So take this 'concern' of yours. It means nothing."
As the blade fell, the scene shifted again.
This time, standing before Xiao Yan were two figures who looked strikingly like him. Upon seeing them, he sighed softly and turned to face them fully.
"Looks like I'll have to kill you two all over again…"
In the depths of the bottomless pit, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged in silence. Around him, wisps of purple flame drifted outward, forming countless thin strands of energy that quickly wrapped around him. From a distance, it looked like a massive cocoon was being buried deep beneath the earth.
The intelligence of this Nether Poison Flame was clearly greater than expected. It hadn't revealed its source because of the Demonic Wrath Flame Lotus—it had done so intentionally, luring Xiao Yan into swallowing it.
In truth, its previous hosts had all met the same fate. They were consumed by illusions during the refining process, falling under its control.
And now, Xiao Yan too… was trapped within the shadows of his childhood.
(End of Chapter)
---
Read 200+ Chapters on Patreon of This Fanfiction.
Support me if you like this Fanfiction.
Patreon,com/Fallen_Archangel_
(Remove comma for dot.)
Leave a 5 star Review and a Power Stone.