The Eternal Emperor: Reborn to Slaughter The Gods

Rewriting the Flesh

"If the pain of shattering a soul did not break me, this petty flesh certainly will not," Lu Tian muttered, his teeth grinding together as he shoved the broken wooden door back into its frame.

He wedged a heavy wooden chair firmly underneath the handle, blocking the entrance completely. The guards outside were still groaning in the dirt, dragging Lu Jin back to the main courtyard to cry to his father. Lu Tian knew his time was incredibly short. The moment the First Elder discovered what happened to his precious son, an entire battalion of family enforcers would descend on this small room.

He sat cross-legged on the cold floor, ignoring the damp dust that clung to his tattered robes. Closing his eyes, he dove deep into his own mind, reaching past his physical senses until he touched his soul space.

Floating in the center of that dark spiritual sea was the Nine-Abyss Seal. The ancient stone relic was still vibrating intensely, shedding its dull outer crust to reveal glowing, pitch-black veins of pure primordial energy. As the stone pulsed, the gold letters of the Forbidden Devouring Scripture burned directly into his consciousness, illuminating his mind.

"To forge a supreme body, the old foundations must be completely destroyed," Lu Tian recited softly, his voice echoing in the empty room. "The weak must be consumed to let the divine awaken."

He took a deep breath, synchronized his heartbeat with the rhythm of the black seal, and initiated the first chant of the forbidden technique.

A sudden, violent explosion of dark energy erupted from the seal, rushing straight out of his soul space and flooding into his physical body. The effect was immediate and terrifying. It did not gently flow like normal spiritual energy; it ripped through his chest like molten iron, seeking out his blocked and twisted meridians.

Lu Tian's eyes flew open, his pupils shrinking to tiny pinpricks. A choked gasp caught in his throat as the first major meridian pathway in his shoulder was forcefully blasted open by the dark energy. The agonizing sensation felt as if someone were shoving a red-hot iron rod directly through his veins, tearing the flesh apart from the inside out.

"Is this all you have?" Lu Tian hissed through clenched teeth, blood trickling down his chin as he bit his own lip to keep from screaming aloud. "Bring more!"

The scripture responded to his defiance. The dark runes inside his mind glowed brighter, and the vortex of energy amplified, targeting the major meridian pathways in his torso and legs.

A sickening, wet cracking sound echoed inside his chest. His old, useless meridians were not just being cleared; they were being completely shredded, broken down into raw biological matter, and remolded by the primeval energy of the seal. Black, foul-smelling liquid began to ooze out of his pores, covering his skin in a thick, sticky layer of toxic waste that had accumulated in this weak body since birth.

"The pain is temporary," Lu Tian reminded himself, his vision blurring as sweat poured down his face, washing away lines of the black grime. "The throne is eternal."

He forced his trembling hands to maintain the cultivation gesture, refusing to break his posture even as his muscles spasmed violently. Every single breath felt like inhaling shards of broken glass. The dark energy swept through his abdomen, wrapping around his broken cultivation core. The core, which had failed to awaken the previous day during the public test, began to groan under the massive pressure.

Instead of gently nurturing the core, the Forbidden Devouring Scripture crushed it entirely.

Lu Tian let out a muffled groan, his spine arching as the core shattered into dust. The pain was so absolute that his heart nearly stopped beating. But before his consciousness could fade into the dark, the Nine-Abyss Seal pulled the ambient spiritual energy of the entire border city through the cracks of the room, forcing the raw power into the void left by his destroyed core.

The impure energy of the city was violently refined by the seal, stripped of its weaknesses, and compressed into pure, dense liquid power. This refined liquid rushed into his newly forged, widened meridians, cementing their new structure. The burning agony slowly transformed into a deep, heavy warmth that settled into his bones, strengthening his muscles and thickening his skin.

Hour after hour passed in total silence as Lu Tian continued the brutal cycle of destruction and rebirth. The dark night slowly gave way to the early morning sun, casting long, pale beams of light through the cracks of the window.

Lu Tian exhaled a long, grey plume of foul vapor from his lungs, slowly opening his eyes. The dark light in his pupils flashed once before fading back to normal. He looked down at his arms. The pale, sickly skin was gone, replaced by a smooth, healthy complexion that hid tightly coiled, dense muscle.

"First stage of body refinement," Lu Tian muttered, testing his grip as the air cracked under his fist. "No, the second stage. Wait."

He checked his internal sea and smiled coldly. The refined power had pushed him straight through the third stage of body refinement in a single night. He was now at the exact same cultivation level as Lu Jin, but his forged meridians were ten times wider and his physical strength was unmatched by anyone in the same realm.

A sudden, sharp knock rattled the blocked door, followed by a trembling, anxious voice.

"Young master Lu Tian?" the voice called out from the hallway. "Are you still alive in there? I brought some leftover porridge from the kitchen."

Lu Tian recognized the voice. It was Xiao Lan, an old maidservant who had been loyal to his mother and was the only person in the entire estate who still showed him an ounce of kindness.

"Come in, Xiao Lan," Lu Tian said, standing up and stretching his newly strengthened limbs.

"The door is stuck, young master," she called back, pushing against the wood. "Did something happen to the lock?"

Lu Tian walked over, grabbed the heavy chair wedged under the handle, and tossed it aside effortlessly. He pulled the door open, revealing a frail, middle-aged woman holding a chipped ceramic bowl filled with watery grain.

Xiao Lan took one look at Lu Tian and froze, her eyes widening in pure horror. She looked at his face, which was clear and full of vitality, and then down at his clothes, which were completely drenched in dried blood and black, foul-smelling filth. The bowl of porridge slipped from her hands, crashing onto the floor and shattering into pieces.

"Ghost!" Xiao Lan screamed, covering her mouth as she stumbled backward into the hallway, her face turning pale as a sheet. "A vengeful ghost has possessed the young master's corpse!"

"Calm down, Xiao Lan," Lu Tian said, his voice deep and steady. "I am not a ghost. I am very much alive."

"But the guards said... they said young master Jin ordered you to be beaten to death last night," she stammered, her knees shaking as she stared at him. "They said you were covered in blood and breathing your last breath. The First Elder even gave orders to prepare a wooden box for your burial."

"They lied to cover up their own incompetence," Lu Tian replied, stepping out into the hallway. "As you can see, I am perfectly fine."

Xiao Lan looked at his steady posture, the sharp focus in his eyes, and the lack of any visible wounds. She swallowed hard, still trembling. "Young master, your voice... your face... you look entirely different. What happened to you?"

"I simply woke up," Lu Tian said coldly. "Now, tell me why the estate is so noisy this morning. I can hear carriage wheels outside."

The reminder instantly brought a look of sheer panic back to Xiao Lan's face. She grabbed Lu Tian's sleeve, completely forgetting her fear of his appearance.

"Young master, you have to run right now!" she pleaded, her voice cracking with desperation. "The First Elder has betrayed your parents completely! He sold your late father’s private estate and the ancestral courtyard to the Wang Clan last night!"

Lu Tian's eyes narrowed, a dangerous aura leaking from his body that made the maidservant gasp. "He did what?"

"The buyers from the Wang Clan are already outside in the main gates," Xiao Lan wept, pointing toward the front of the estate. "They brought armored enforcers, and they are currently throwing out your mother's old belongings. They are here to evict you by force, young master!"