THE DEMON EMPEROR REBORN AS A SERVANT

Chapter 2: Bloody Betrayal

Xiao Chen's laughter thundered, tearing through the spiritual storm in Skull Valley. His voice was hoarse, mixed with the clots of blood that continued to spill from his lips, yet its resonance projected an absolute dominance that froze the air.

In the sky, the three remaining White Sect Emperors trembled violently. The halos behind them flickered dimly, as if the laws of nature themselves were terrified by the tyrant's laugh. Their eyes were fixed on the stump of Xiao Chen's right shoulder, then shifted to the mist of blood that was once their colleague.

While his enemies trembled, on the same cliff, Jian Ying, Xiao Chen's only disciple and confidant, stood frozen. His hand, gripping the Heaven-Conquering Sword, shook uncontrollably. Beads of cold sweat rolled down his temples. His gaze was vacant, fixed on his master's back, which now looked like that of a broken god of death.

"Why are you silent?!" Xiao Chen roared, sweeping his condescending gaze over the three Emperors. He used the last of his Qi to float a step off the cliff's edge. "Where is the justice you were screaming about? Where is the arrogance of the White Sect?! You call yourselves pillars of heaven? You're nothing but a bunch of rats hiding behind golden robes!"

"Shut your mouth, you vile demon!" shouted the Holy Wind Emperor, though his voice was clearly trembling. "You've lost an arm and shattered your own Dantian! Your death is certain!"

Xiao Chen spat, casting a glob of black blood onto the ground. He pointed to the dark sky with his remaining left hand. "My death? Perhaps. But one thing is certain, none of you are worthy of taking my life! In this entire Holy Realm, only one person is fit to cross swords with me! Only the Ice Isle Emperor deserves to witness my fall! You? You aren't even worthy of being the ground beneath my feet!"

The insult was too direct. Their pride as the highest entities in the Holy Realm was being trampled by a dying, one-armed man.

"Don't be provoked! He's just buying time!" exclaimed the Golden Sun Emperor. However, the veins on his neck were already bulging with anger. He turned towards the valley's perimeter. "All Sect Elders! Attack at once! Whoever brings me the head of Xiao Chen, I will make them the Lord of the Eastern Continent!"

The provocation and the lure of power ignited a new storm. From behind the thick fog at the edge of the valley, dozens of figures shot into the air. They were the Peak-level Holy Sect Elders, old monsters who had been hiding, waiting for the prey to weaken. Together with the three remaining Emperors, they lunged like a pack of starving wolves towards a single point: Xiao Chen.

Seeing the sea of deadly energy heading his way, Xiao Chen did not retreat. He closed his eyes for a moment.

"Master..." Jian Ying's voice was faint and trembling from behind him. "There... there are too many of them."

"Stay back, Jian Ying," Xiao Chen commanded, his tone suddenly gentle, a stark contrast to his earlier arrogance. "Stay behind me. As long as I'm still breathing, not one of these dogs will touch you."

Xiao Chen opened his eyes. His black pupils now glowed like molten lava. He sealed five fatal acupuncture points on his chest with absolute force.

"If heaven wants my life today, then I'll make sure heaven weeps blood to pay for it!" Xiao Chen snarled.

"Forbidden Technique: Soul Combustion of the 9 Hells!"

Instantly, a pillar of reddish-black energy erupted from Xiao Chen's body, piercing the clouds and splitting the storm in Skull Valley. He exchanged all his remaining lifespan and soul essence for a one-hundred-percent boost in combat power for a short time. A pain that surpassed being flayed alive assaulted his nerves, but he swallowed it whole.

Xiao Chen shot forward, meeting the wave of attacks head-on.

"Die, demon!" shouted one of the Sect Elders, slashing a lightning spear at Xiao Chen.

"You're the one who needs to learn how to die!" Xiao Chen retorted.

Without a weapon, Xiao Chen's left hand sliced through the air. A black Qi claw formed, instantly tearing through the Elder's chest and ripping out his spine in one smooth motion. Blood splattered onto Xiao Chen's face, but he didn't stop. He moved like a shadow from hell. Every time he flickered, a desperate scream was heard. Severed heads, chests with holes, and a sea of blood rained down on the rocky cliff.

The Holy Wind Emperor tried to attack from above, creating a storm of a thousand wind blades.

"Get down here!" roared Xiao Chen. He struck the air with his left palm, compressing gravity a thousandfold. The storm of blades shattered, and the Holy Wind Emperor was dragged down. Before the Emperor could touch the ground, Xiao Chen's foot had landed squarely on his head, crushing the Qi-reinforced skull like a rotten watermelon.

"Three!" Xiao Chen counted with a cruel smile amidst the rain of blood.

In less than a minute, two Emperors and twenty Sect Elders had been turned into a pile of shapeless minced meat. However, that victory demanded a steep price for using the forbidden technique. Xiao Chen's movements began to slow. His vision blurred.

Taking advantage of the split second when Xiao Chen coughed up blood, one of the remaining Emperors launched a suicide attack. Sacrificing his legendary sword, he stabbed directly through Xiao Chen's thinning Qi defense.

JLEB!

A silver blade pierced through Xiao Chen's stomach, exiting through his back. Xiao Chen let out a muffled growl. He grabbed the neck of the Emperor who stabbed him with his left hand and crushed his throat until it snapped. The Emperor died instantly, his eyes bulging in horror.

Xiao Chen's breath hitched. His body had surpassed the absolute limits of destruction. Gritting his teeth, he gripped the blade embedded in his stomach.

"Pathetic..." he hissed, then with a brutal, rough pull, he yanked the sword from his body. Fresh blood flooded the ground.

He threw the sword away, his vision blurry. But at least the strongest enemies were dead. The remaining Elders who were still alive now retreated dozens of meters, too terrified to even breathe loudly. Xiao Chen slowly turned his body towards his disciple, intending to tell him to escape using an emergency teleportation artifact.

"Jian... Ying..." Xiao Chen called out, his voice hoarse.

However, before he could fully turn, a strange and deadly coldness tore through his back.

TRASH!

The sound of metal piercing flesh was crystal clear in the valley's silence. A cold blade, pulsing with a familiar Qi, pierced through Xiao Chen's back, through his lungs, and emerged from his chest. Xiao Chen's blood dripped slowly from the tip of the blade, staining the rocks below.

Time seemed to stop. The spiritual storm above them seemed to freeze.

Xiao Chen didn't scream. His eyes just widened, staring at the sword tip protruding from his chest. It wasn't an enemy's sword. It was the Heaven-Conquering Sword. The sword he had forged himself from a dead star's meteorite, the sword he had given to the only person he considered his own son.

Slowly, Xiao Chen looked back over his severed shoulder.

There, Jian Ying stood. Both his hands were gripping the sword's hilt, buried deep in Xiao Chen's back. The young man's face was wet with tears, but his lips were curved into a trembling smile filled with ambition, fear, and a crazed hatred.

"Jian... Ying...?" Xiao Chen's voice was just a hoarse whisper in the wind. Not from physical pain, but because his heart had just been crushed by an unbelievable reality.

"I'm sorry, Master," Jian Ying sobbed, but his hands twisted the blade inside Xiao Chen's chest, triggering a heart-wrenching pain. "It's your own fault! You forced me to do it!"

"My fault...?" Xiao Chen coughed up fresh blood. His gaze searched for the truth in his disciple's eyes. "I... protected you..."

"Protected me?!" Jian Ying shrieked, his voice shrill with hysteria. "You always called me your son! You said I was your sole heir! But what did you do?! You found the Scripture of 9 Hells and 5 Heavens, a relic that could let us rule the entire continent, and you hid it from me! You refused to teach me the 9 Hells part!"

Xiao Chen's breath came in short gasps. "You... wanted... the scripture...?"

"Of course I wanted it!" Jian Ying took a step back, releasing the hilt but leaving the blade embedded in his master's body. He pointed at Xiao Chen's face with a trembling finger. "Those White Emperors were right! You were going to take it to your grave! You were afraid I'd become stronger than you, weren't you?! You never really trusted me, Xiao Chen! You just made me your shadow!"

Hearing those words, the pain in Xiao Chen's stomach and chest suddenly felt numb. A coldness spread from his toes to the top of his head. It wasn't the cold of blood loss, but the cold of a tragic enlightenment.

He looked at the face of the disciple he had raised since Jian Ying was five, whom he had taken in from the city streets. He had given him everything, risked his life against dozens of Emperors to protect this young man from the harshness of the Holy Realm. Yet, in the young man's eyes, his affection was just a form of selfishness.

A soft, hoarse laugh, full of bitter irony, escaped Xiao Chen's lips.

"Heh... hehehe... hahahaha!" Xiao Chen laughed while spitting up blood that flooded his black robe. The laugh was so heart-wrenching, filled with the disappointment and pain of a demon emperor betrayed by his disciple and adopted son.

"What are you laughing at, you old demon?!" Jian Ying yelled, feeling insulted by his master's laugh.

Xiao Chen stopped laughing. He turned his face, looking straight into Jian Ying's eyes. There was no longer the warmth of a master there. Only a dark, empty void.

"Fool... you are a true fool, Jian Ying," Xiao Chen whispered, his voice now as hard as ice. "You think that scripture is a gift? You think the 9 Hells is the key to the throne?"

Jian Ying flinched, stepping back at the sight of the deadly aura still emanating from his master's body.

"That scripture is a curse, you foolish boy," Xiao Chen continued, each word cutting through the air. "The power of the 9 Hells demands your sanity and your lifespan as payment. The technique will bind your soul to an eternal sea of hatred. I hid it from you... I burned it today... so you wouldn't have to swallow the same hell as me. So you, the only person I considered family, could live in the light. Without vengeance. Without having to crawl through a sea of blood like me."

Jian Ying's eyes widened. His hands began to tremble more violently. The truth in Xiao Chen's words struck his soul, but his ego refused to accept it.

"Lies!" Jian Ying screamed, covering his ears. "You're a lying old demon! You're just making excuses to cover your selfishness! Just die!"

Jian Ying lunged forward, intending to pull out the sword and slash Xiao Chen's neck to prove himself right.

But Xiao Chen didn't give him the chance.

In a split second, the disappointment in Xiao Chen's eyes froze completely, transforming into a pure hatred for the world, for the laws of cultivation, and for his own weakness.

"Trust..." Xiao Chen thought to himself, his heart truly dying in that moment. "Trust is the sweetest poison ever created by the universe. I will never... drink it again."

As Jian Ying's hand was about to touch the hilt, Xiao Chen's left hand shot out like a black bolt of lightning. Without hesitation, without any remaining affection, Xiao Chen grabbed his disciple's throat.

"Gkhh...!" Jian Ying's eyes bulged, his feet lifting off the ground.

"You were right about one thing, Jian Ying," Xiao Chen whispered, right in front of his disciple's face. His eyes radiated the absolute cruelty of a Demon Emperor. "I am selfish. And in my next life, I will make sure there is no more 'family' to stab me in the back."

With a single, hard jerk, Xiao Chen channeled the rest of his hellish Qi.

CRAAK!

Jian Ying's neck bones shattered into pieces. The young man's heart exploded from within due to the demonic Qi invasion. With blood flowing from his nose and mouth, Jian Ying looked at Xiao Chen one last time.

"You... demon... liar..." Jian Ying cursed with his last breath, before his eyes completely lost the light of life.

Xiao Chen released his grip. The lifeless body of his disciple fell with a thud onto the rocky ground, joining the pool of their own blood.

As the body fell, Xiao Chen's defenses completely crumbled. The Soul Combustion technique had run its course. A fatigue as heavy as a mountain crashed down on every cell in his body.

Xiao Chen fell to his knees with a loud thud. The Heaven-Conquering Sword was still embedded upright in his chest, like a tombstone to his suffering. His breath was now just a thin wisp of air. Darkness began to creep into his vision.

In the midst of his fading consciousness, the sound of slow footsteps approached.

From behind the dust of battle, the Golden Sun Emperor, the only White Emperor who had managed to survive without fatal injuries by hiding behind the Elders, stepped forward. Behind him, the five remaining Sect Elders followed with relieved smiles.

The Golden Sun Emperor looked at the kneeling Xiao Chen, bleeding profusely, then at Jian Ying's corpse. A disgustingly triumphant smirk formed on his face.

"Betrayal by your own disciple? What a poetic end for a tyrant, Xiao Chen," the Golden Sun Emperor mocked, raising his giant sword high into the air, reflecting the dim light of Skull Valley. "Let me be the one to end your tragic story. Your head... will be my stepping stone to the pinnacle of the Holy Realm!"