THE DEMON EMPEROR REBORN AS A SERVANT

Chapter 6: The Heart Demon's Shackles

The cave was dark, damp, and smelled of decaying moss. But for Xiao Chen, this place was the only sanctuary between him and a ridiculous death for the second time.

He sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor. His face was as pale as a corpse, his jaw clenched so tightly that the veins in his neck stood out like the roots of an old tree. Inside his mortal body, the life force he had absorbed from the assassin was raging like a firestorm.

"Worthless vessel, damn it!" Xiao Chen cursed between ragged breaths. Fresh blood trickled from the corner of his lips again.

If he were in his original body, this meager amount of energy would have been unnoticeable. However, the meridians of this lowly servant's body were incredibly narrow and clogged with mortal impurities. Forcing wild energy into them was like pouring molten lava through a bamboo straw.

Xiao Chen closed his eyes. He recalled the first part of the Scripture of 9 Hells.

The 9 Hells Purification Sutra: Taming the Yin Fire.

Instead of trying to calm the rampaging energy, Xiao Chen used his tyrannical mentality. He slammed his remaining consciousness directly into the energy vortex, forcing the wild power to bend to his will.

"You are in my body now! Submit, or we perish together!" Xiao Chen growled internally.

The pain exploded tenfold. His bones creaked horribly, as if being crushed under iron chariot wheels. His muscles tore and regenerated in a matter of seconds. A thick, foul-smelling black sweat began to seep from his pores. It was mortal filth, the built-up toxins from the food and air of this lower dimension that had clogged the servant's potential for years.

After four hours of torture that would shatter a normal person's sanity, the storm inside his body suddenly subsided.

BZZZTT!

A small pop echoed from his lower abdomen. The Dantian, which had been sealed shut, was now open to the size of a marble, housing a swirling vortex of dim gray Qi.

Xiao Chen's breathing gradually returned to normal. He opened his eyes. His vision was now much sharper, piercing through the cave's darkness. The fatal wound on his chest had closed, leaving behind a gruesome, horizontal scar.

"Formation Phase, Grade 1 Warrior," he muttered, clenching his fist. His strength was now twice that of an ordinary man. "Incredibly weak. Pathetic. But enough to kill insects."

Dawn began to break, sending a pale sliver of light into the cave. Xiao Chen stood, ripping off the tattered remains of his coarse clothing, which was soaked in blood and foul sweat. He exposed his thin but now wiry upper body to the morning air. He picked up the assassin's sword he had brought with him.

His plan was simple.

"The Lin family is finished," he said to himself, walking toward the mouth of the cave. "The naive Young Miss and her little brother, they'll be dead by noon tomorrow at the latest if they aren't caught tonight. Not my problem. I need to get to the border town, rob some low-level cultivators, seize their resources, and rebuild my strength. No one commands or controls a Demon Emperor like me."

With light steps, Xiao Chen walked away from the direction of the Lin Family Estate.

One step. The forest breeze felt refreshing.

Three steps. Birds chirped in the distance.

Five steps. Xiao Chen smiled faintly, imagining how this mortal world would soon kneel at his feet.

Ten steps...

JLEEEB!!

Xiao Chen froze abruptly. His foot stopped in mid-air. His eyes widened as an utterly incomprehensible pain slammed into his chest. It wasn't the pain from his physical wounds, but a sensation like a thousand invisible needles, heated in the fires of hell, stabbing directly into his solar plexus, squeezing his heart with an absolute grip.

"UAAARGH!"

Xiao Chen dropped to his knees, his sword clattering to the ground. He clutched his chest so hard his nails dug into his own skin. He gasped for air, but his lungs refused to work. His vision went dark.

In the midst of the paralyzing torment, a faint, familiar voice echoed inside his skull. It was the voice of the original servant, the owner of this body, resonating from the afterlife, carrying the last remnant of his desperate prayer.

"...I will trade my soul to the deepest hell, as long as I can still protect the Young Miss and the Young Master..."

"Damn it...!" Xiao Chen coughed up a mouthful of black blood. His Demon Emperor's mind instantly understood what was happening.

It wasn't poison. It was a Heart Demon Curse.

The absolute payment demanded by the law of causality for his reincarnation. Xiao Chen's soul could inhabit this vessel only because the servant's final prayer had invited a demonic entity. And the universe had sealed the contract. As long as the Lin siblings were alive and in danger, Xiao Chen was bound by fate to protect them. If he dared to flee and break the blood contract, the Heart Demon would crush his soul until not even a shred remained for another reincarnation.

"You dare... bind me?! I am the Demon Emperor!" Xiao Chen roared with what little strength he had left. He forced himself to his feet, intending to defy the curse and walk away.

But as his foot shifted a single inch, his heart felt as if it had been pierced by an ice spear. Faint cracks began to appear in his Dantian. He would truly die a ridiculous death here if he continued his tyrannical defiance.

Gasping for breath, blood staining his chin, Xiao Chen gave up. He dragged his body, crawling backward, and forced himself to turn back towards the Lin family's escape route.

Miraculously, as soon as he took a step in their direction, the heart-crushing pain vanished without a trace, leaving only ragged breaths and a white-hot fury.

Xiao Chen picked up his fallen sword. His black eyes now glinted with pure hatred and cunning.

"Alright... alright, you damn servant," he hissed, looking up at the forest canopy. "You win. If the universe forces me to babysit your useless masters, I'll do it. But remember, I'm no knight or guard dog. If I have to protect them, I will turn this pathetic family into a bloody war chariot that will run over the world."

With a predator's gaze, Xiao Chen shot into the forest, following the tracks left by the Young Miss's party.

Two miles from where Xiao Chen was, on a steep, rocky cliff, the air was thick with the stench of despair.

"Please... I beg you, let my brother go! You can take my life, but let him live!"

Young Miss Lin Xuanyin cried out in desperation. Her silk dress was torn in several places, her face smeared with mud and tears. She stood with her arms outstretched, shielding Lin Tian, who was trembling and crying behind her.

In front of them, Head Guard Lei Tie stood unsteadily. His severed left arm was wrapped in a blood-soaked rag. He held a sword in his trembling right hand, glaring at the dozen black-clad assassins who had now cornered them in a semicircle. The cliff edge behind the Young Miss was a dead end.

The lead assassin stepped forward. He twirled a curved blade in his hand, laughing dismissively.

"How touching," the leader chuckled. "The great Young Miss of the Lin Family, usually so arrogant, now begging like a street whore. Unfortunately, Advisor Zhao didn't pay us to listen to you cry. He paid us to bring him both of your heads, so there are no Lin family heirs left."

"Advisor Zhao is a traitorous dog!" Lei Tie spat, though his breathing was shallow. "If the Grand Master were still alive, he would have skinned all of you!"

"But your Grand Master is dead, Lei Tie, and you'll be joining him soon," the assassin sneered. He gestured with his head. "Kill the crippled guard. I'll take care of the Young Miss myself."

Four assassins immediately lunged forward, swinging their swords at Lei Tie simultaneously.

Lei Tie roared, forcing the last of his Qi from his Dantian. A brutal fight erupted in an instant. Lei Tie managed to parry two attacks, but without his left arm, his balance was shot. A hard kick landed on his chest, making him vomit blood and sending him flying to the ground. His sword slipped from his grasp.

"UNCLE LEI!" Lin Tian shrieked hysterically, trying to run forward, but Xuanyin held him back with all her might, sobbing.

"It's over," the lead assassin said, casually walking towards the helpless Lei Tie to deliver the final blow.

However, on the branch of a giant banyan tree, fifty feet above them, a pair of deathly cold eyes was watching the mortal drama unfold.

Xiao Chen crouched silently on the branch. His face was emotionless. In his hand, he held a few leaves of a bluish wild plant, Blood-Freezing Grass, and the deep red sap from the bark of a poisonous tree next to it. Both were useless materials to a cultivator, but in the hands of someone who had mastered the Scripture of 5 Heavens, mortal trash could be turned into a nightmare.

"Mortals... always talking so much before the kill," Xiao Chen muttered cynically.

He placed the blue leaves in his palm, dripped the red sap onto them, and then used a tiny bit of his Grade 1 Warrior Qi to rub the two ingredients together. An instant chemical reaction occurred. The leaves disintegrated into a fine purple powder that emitted a faint, sweet aroma, almost undetectable to the human nose.

Down below, the lead assassin's sword was raised high, aimed at Lei Tie's neck. The Young Miss covered her brother's eyes, unable to watch the end of their last protector.

Xiao Chen stood on the branch. His lips curled into the demonic grin that had once made the Emperors of the Holy Realm tremble in fear.

"Showtime."

With a precise flick of his finger, Xiao Chen dropped a clump of the poisonous purple powder right through a gap in the leaves above the crowd of assassins, letting the forest wind carry the dust of death towards the cliff.

"Let's teach these mortal rats..." Xiao Chen whispered, his eyes glowing in the darkness of the canopy, "...how a demon plays."