2026-04-27 21:21:04Theon could hear the countdown in his mind. With every passing second, the barrier weakened, and his heartbeat climbed faster in response.
Cracks had already begun to form. Tiny at first, then spreading like fractures across glass. It was only a matter of time before it gave out completely. “Three.” His mind raced. Astral Villain System. It felt like an evil gift from something far worse than fate itself. But if he didn’t accept… “Two.” “Fuck it.” Theon’s eyes hardened. Dying here wasn’t an option. “I accept.” A sharp beep echoed inside his mind. “Bond confirmed. Strengthening barrier in process. Reinforcement completed.” The cracks stopped spreading. Then, slowly, they began to heal, sealing themselves at unnatural speed. A moment later, a second layer formed, this time a deep red glow wrapping around the original green barrier, reinforcing it from within. Theon exhaled, his pounding heart finally easing back into control. Above him, the owl-lion creature clawed and slammed against the barrier, shrieking in frustration. But it couldn’t get through. All it could do was rage. The system’s voice returned. “Bond completed.” [ASTRAL VILLAIN SYSTEM ACTIVATED] [HOST DETECTED WITH INFINITE POTENTIAL FOR HATRED AND RESENTMENT] [Analyzing personal data...] A translucent blue panel materialized before his eyes, lines of text glowing with cold precision. [Host: Theon Dravorn] [Age: 18] [Race: Human celestial × beast god] [Bloodline purity: Divine ascendant tier] [Current hatred count: 50/100000] [Physique: Primordial supreme yin body] [Cultivation: Spirit Gathering Level 1] [Assessment: Pitifully weak] Theon’s lips twitched. Even the system looks down on him? [AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS] [Void Severance Pathway: Locked] [Abyssal Comprehension Eye: Locked] [SPECIAL TALENT: Infinite Evolution Daegis] [Host potential is limitless, provided sufficient hatred points and negative energy are gathered.] Only then did it truly settle in. Negative energy. Hatred. Resentment. In his desperation to live, he had accepted without asking questions. This system wasn’t guiding him toward the righteous path his father had walked. It was pointing him straight in the opposite direction. Into the dark. Into the very thing his father had fought his entire life to destroy. Theon’s expression darkened. No. He had endured too much, survived too much, for this. Everything he was doing…everything he wanted…was to uphold his father’s legacy. Not corrupt it. But it seems he already fell into the system's trap. He lifted his head slightly. “I can't unbind, can I?” Even before he asked, he knew the answer. A brief pause followed. Then the system responded, calm as ever. “Apologies, host. That is not possible at your current level.” “Final bonding has been completed. To dissolve the bond, reach the Divine Realm and attempt again.” “Divine realm?” Theon’s heart sank. Even the archmages of the academy had not reached such a level. How was he supposed to reach it—let alone in time to remove this thing binding to him? The system’s voice softened a bit. “You are Ren Dravorn’s only son. The system could only bind to you.” The certainty in the voice made his breath catch. Theon’s pulse hammered harder. His eyes flicked toward the creatures outside the barrier, still clawing and howling at the edges of his fragile safety. For the first time, they felt secondary. Death out there suddenly seemed simple. This thing inside him was not. “Could this system have been left by an enemy?” His voice turned tight. “Someone trying to use me to tarnish my father’s legacy?” A faint pause followed. Then the system answered. “You have quite the vivid imagination. It is nothing of the sort.” Theon’s hand trembled. Although the system appears to be evil, he needed the power it came with. Weak men can't be choosers. They're trampled, crushed, and obliterated. To uphold his father's legacy, he needed to be strong. As for the method used to climb, no one needs to know. He remained silent, weighing his decision in his mind. Convincing himself that power was worth severing his conscience. The system spoke again, calm, patient… almost coaxing. “You said you must obtain power at all costs. Power is here. With the Dao integrated into this system, you will rise in record time. You will surpass so-called geniuses. You will stand at the top.” Its tone shifted, subtle but deliberate, pressing where it mattered. “Do you not want that? To crush those who once looked down on you?” The words struck deeper than expected. Memories surfaced without warning. Mockery. Isolation. Laughter that followed him like a shadow. Hands that shoved him aside. Voices that treated him as nothing worth remembering. His breathing grew uneven. His chest tightened. Something hot began to stir inside him…rage, humiliation, resentment, all coiling together like a waking beast. “That’s right,” the system cooed softly. “You have everything to gain. Nothing to lose.” For a moment, Theon saw it. Not the wasteland. Not the monsters. But his past. Then, abruptly, his father’s image flashed in his mind. Clear. Stern. Untouchable. Like a blade of ice cutting through fire. Shame colored his face. His father was a saintly legend. Yet, he was so useless he had to resort to underhanded tactics to make it to the top. “Are you still going to refuse me?” The system asked, firm and disappointed. “Even if it means you never avenge his unjust death?” Theon froze. The air seemed to leave his lungs all at once. “What… are you saying?” The system struck harder. “If you have not realized by now that he was set up and killed, then you truly do not deserve to be his son.” His palm dug into the burning desert sand as his entire body went still. Something in him always knew his father's death was off. Solvyn's smiling face as he crushed his father's legacy. The way others treated the son of their so-called savior like a vermin. “…My father was murdered?” His voice cracked despite himself. “That can’t be right. He died at the Battle of Yass. He overdrew his life force, sealing the three hundred and eight demon portals of the Celestial Realm…” Theon told himself it was all in his head. His father was immortal. Who had the ability to kill him? The lie kept him sane. But now, it has been torn away. “That was only what people were made to believe.” The system answered with a dark chuckle. His throat tightened. Goosebumps spread across his skin. The system’s voice remained calm, almost indifferent. “Your father was a true immortal, already on the verge of ascending to the higher realm. He chose to remain behind for humanity. If he had not been schemed against, do you think he would have fallen? He had survived far worse.” Theon’s breath hitched. “Your mother died shortly after, leaving you orphaned. Do you still think that was a coincidence?” His vision wavered, blurring. “The initial plan was to frame your father as a traitor and erase his legacy. But the forces behind him were too strong. No one believed it—not even a child would have doubted Ren Dravorn’s character.” A brief pause followed, the calm before the blizzard. “So they changed their approach. They let him die as a martyr instead.” The world tilted. The desert beneath Theon seemed to spin, the horizon bending unnaturally as his knees nearly gave way. He had been a child. That much he remembered clearly. His mother was said to have died from grief. But fragments surfaced—blurred, fractured memories. His mother pacing late at night. Tense conversations cut short the moment he entered the room. Warning notes. Mirror crystals flickering with unstable connections. Discussions that stopped when certain people came too close. Was she afraid? Or was she being watched? The thought struck him like a blade. His breath turned uneven. A cold tremor ran through his hands. A slow, burning heat began to rise in his chest, deeper and more dangerous than anything he had felt since entering this place. It wasn’t rage yet. It was something heavier. Something awakening. Theon’s eyes darkened. Previously, he had already decided to accept the system. But now, that conviction morphed into obsession. A crazed hunger to obtain power, no matter how dirty his hands needed to get. To avenge a saint, he would become the most villainous demon the celestial realm had ever seen. “If what you say is true,” he said slowly, voice tight with suppressed emotion, “then you should know who did it.” His fingers curled into the sand, trembling but firm. “System…” His gaze sharpened, fire and bloodlust flickering beneath the shock. “Who killed my father?”
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CHAPTER 148
Theon kept his eyes closed.He was doing his best to contain the chaotic energy rioting inside him. It clawed at his meridians, a restless beast pacing behind his ribs.He was already distracted. The reminder from the system worsened it, splintering what little concentration he had left and making his aegis stutter mid-cycle.After five more forced circulation cycles, his back bowed. A wet, ragged cough tore out of him, and dark, stale blood splattered onto the mat beneath.His face twisted. A low grimace broke through his composure as pain lanced white-hot through his chest.Still with his eyes closed, his hand groped blindly to the side until his fingers found the towel he had used to wipe his wound earlier. He brought it to his mouth, wiping the thick, metallic blood from his lips with a trembling hand.Once he was done, he did not stop. He continued the process.This time, breathing came easier. The terrible clogging in his heart meridians that had felt like wet stone lodged in hi
CHAPTER 147
Backlands, 2:00 a.m.Blood was steadily dripping from a cut on the upper part of his arm.His lips had gone pale, and the area around the injury had turned suspiciously purplish, almost as if it had been poisoned.Sweat coated his body, running down his temples, neck, and back. His clothes clung to his skin, damp and uncomfortable, while every movement sent a dull throb through the wound.After leaving the academy through the secret routes he had previously prepared, he had spent another hour circling around and trying to reach the target.An hour of running, changing directions, and following traces that seemed deliberately designed to lead him in circles.The target kept switching routes midway, almost as if he had already guessed that he was being followed.Theon had changed his route several times as well, but each time he thought he was finally closing in, the other party would suddenly veer off in another direction.It had been infuriating. Worse, it had cost him precious time.
CHAPTER 146
Twenty minutes had already gone by since he began to carve out the tiny corner of the wall, which he intended to crawl out from.The old stones were indeed hard to carve out without letting the entire building fall apart. Every strike had to be measured. One wrong move, one section weakened too much, and the entire wall could come crashing down on top of him.The result was that the edges were rough since he was cutting circularly along the areas where the mortar was applied. Between stones.Small fragments of stone continued to fall whenever his tool scraped too deeply into the wall. Each time, Theon froze and listened, waiting to hear the ominous groan of shifting stone.Nothing. Only then would he resume.He also had to use special miniature arrays to hold up the sections he had already cut open. Tiny arrays flickered faintly in the darkness, anchoring the weakened stones and preventing them from shifting under their own weight.The process was painfully slow.Sweat poured steadily
CHAPTER 145
Theon's heart was hammering erratically in his chest. But somehow, he managed to stay silent enough that even his breath remained undetectable. His entire body had gone rigid behind the cupboard. He could hear the faintest sounds from the passage outside, the barely audible scrape of footsteps against the floor, followed by a moment of silence. The person walking along the passage stopped briefly before pushing open the door. Theon held his breath. That was when he noticed something. There was a second footstep which he hadn't detected before. His eyes narrowed. Two people? The first footsteps had been so light that he had barely registered them, but now there was another presence moving through the passage. His fingers curled slowly against the floor as he strained his ears. “There’s no one here. I told you he’s still sleeping upstairs.” He heard old man Lu’s familiar voice say. Theon’s brows furrowed. Old man Lu? “Better.” A gruff one answered. The voice was unfamiliar. D
CHAPTER 144
Theon checked the time once again. It was seven in the evening.He had checked around the house thoroughly. Every window now had metal barricades reinforced across it. He could remove them and just leave. However, the mark would leave visible damage on both the wall and the metal bars. Damage that would be difficult to explain, and hard to hide.There also was the monitoring formation upstairs that was supposed to track and record his movements.He had thought carefully, turning over every possibility in his mind, and there was no safe exit out of the building.And time was counting down.“Since they're watching the doors and windows to see when I leave, why don't I just totally avoid both?”The idea was absurd. But that seemed to be the only option left.“You think you can use a teleportation talisman or technique without disrupting the formations?” The system sneered. “Quite naive.”Theon chuckled, his pitch low. “Who said anything about teleportation?”He made his way to the back
CHAPTER 143
Backlands; Theon's New RoomTheon finally settled for the room opposite his previous room.It wasn't ideal. Far from it.However, considering the circumstances, it was still better than remaining in his previous room and waiting for the death formation to finish what it had started.There were drawbacks, though.The most troublesome was the environment itself.He couldn't simply absorb energy from the surroundings since it was basically poison.Currently, in the room, there was a giant tent. The thick silver tent took up most part of the modest room, leaving only a narrow path around its edges. Its leather surface shimmered faintly under the dim light, covered in tiny, almost imperceptible patterns that pulsed whenever the formations outside shifted.All around, there were also thick rugs with special arrays engraved on them to repel the other formations.The rugs overlapped slightly at the edges, creating another defensive layer between Theon and the death formations hidden throughou
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