Volume One: The Cloudy Immortal Palace Chapter Eighty-Four: The Inner Demon

His offhand remark sounded casual enough, but it gave one the impression that he was either utterly certain of himself or simply blind with overconfidence.

The turtle was clearly stunned by Zhou Hao’s words. Then, with a look of disdain, it said, “Well, well, aren’t you full of yourself. Let’s see how you die in a moment. Grandpa Turtle isn’t staying to die with you—I’m leaving!”

With that, the turtle turned into a streak of dark light and fled from the tribulation of the Five Thunder Righteous Method. Zhou Hao did not stop it. He merely watched it go, a strange smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

With a whoosh, the dark light pierced through layer after layer of lightning and vanished in an instant at the heart of the storm. Zhou Hao’s strange smile was immediately replaced by surprise; clearly, this exceeded his expectations.

“It actually escaped the tribulation zone? What’s going on? And the heavenly lightning didn’t stop it either. How strange!” Zhou Hao pondered in secret.

“Of course. That turtle is not as useless as you think. I can’t say for certain what it is, but I can be sure its background is unimaginably grand!” A female voice rang by Zhou Hao’s ear, soft and lively, playful yet earnest.

“Heh. So it’s not just the turtle—looks like you’ve awakened too. If I’m not mistaken, this must also be thanks to the Sunfire Essence, right?” Zhou Hao was no stranger to that voice. On the contrary, he knew it all too well, though his words seemed to lack the concern they ought to have carried.

“Hmph, speak for yourself. I heard long ago of the so-called inner demon, a defective thing only the peerless geniuses are fit to possess. Zhou Hao really hasn’t disappointed this young lady. I just didn’t expect that on his very first tribulation, he’d actually let you out.” The female voice clearly knew Zhou Hao just as well and revealed the other’s identity in a single sentence.

So this Zhou Hao was an impostor—the inner demon of Zhou Hao!

“Defective thing?” The inner demon Zhou Hao gave a cold laugh. “You say I’m a defective version of Zhou Hao? Then I’ll show you how this defective thing kills the original and becomes the new Zhou Hao today.”

“Do you think I’ll give you that chance?” the female voice replied with an equally cold laugh, her words carrying an indescribable confidence.

“Hahaha, what a joke! From Zhou Hao’s memories, you’re nothing but a Nine-Petaled Fireheart Lotus that matures once every three thousand years. You only just formed a human shape, and before you even had time to cultivate, you were severely wounded for his sake. Though you’ve recovered now, how could your power possibly contend with mine, when I already possess the strength of a Golden Immortal?” Inner Demon Zhou Hao could not help laughing aloud.

“Whether I can defeat you or not, we’ll know after a fight. Perhaps the result will be beyond your imagination.”

The female voice showed no sign of anger at being underestimated; instead, she let out a light laugh, clear and sweet as silver bells.

Inner Demon Zhou Hao suppressed his laughter. His expression turned somewhat grave, and his eyes narrowed slightly. He wondered whether this Nine-Petaled Fireheart Lotus was merely bluffing, or whether she truly possessed formidable strength.

“Ah, I was only joking with you. Look how frightened you got—why are you so easy to fool?” the female voice said coquettishly.

“Hmph. As long as I erase Zhou Hao’s primordial spirit, I will be the true one from now on!” Inner Demon Zhou Hao snorted. “But before that, let me devour you first.”

Thunderous rumbles echoed deep within the Dragon King Treasury. Above the Yin-Yang Eyes of the Two Realms, the world had become a land of heavenly tribulation. Multicolored lightning interwove across the sky as if thousands upon thousands of divine dragons were waging war; the sight was so terrifying that it made one’s scalp tingle, as though even the soul might be shaken out of the body.

Inside the tribulation of the Five Thunder Righteous Method, Zhou Hao stood enveloped in golden light, as if he were in an invincible realm. The terrifying five-colored lightning did him no harm at all. No matter the mountain of gold that tried to suppress him, the lightning-striking wood that lashed through the air, the sweeping blue ocean, the spiraling flame tornado, or the flying sand and yellow earth that sought to bury him, none of those bizarre bolts of lightning could pierce that blazing radiance as brilliant as the sun.

“Die!” Inner Demon Zhou Hao shouted, golden light blazing all around him as he tried to force the owner of that female voice out of his body.

“The inner demon must ultimately be suppressed by the true heart. Zhou Hao’s first tribulation gave you the opening you needed, and you suppressed his immortal soul, driving his primordial spirit into a spiritual abyss. As long as I bring him out, it will be your turn to return to that lightless abyss! Heh heh heh...” The Nine-Petaled Fireheart Lotus was not shaken out. Instead, she laid bare the inner demon Zhou Hao’s secret in one sentence.

Her laughter grew fainter and farther away. The Nine-Petaled Fireheart Lotus kept her word and truly slipped into Zhou Hao’s spiritual space. With her current strength and Zhou Hao completely unable to control his own heart, his spiritual space had become public ground, open for any to enter.

And hearing the girl’s silver-bell laughter echo in his ears, Inner Demon Zhou Hao felt only piercing annoyance. He clenched both fists, and the thing he feared most had finally happened. Because of this tribulation, Zhou Hao’s immortal soul had been suppressed. The inner demon had seized the chance to escape the spiritual abyss, while Zhou Hao’s primordial spirit wandered in by mistake. And so long as Zhou Hao’s primordial spirit did not emerge, the inner demon could continue to control this body—and might even become the true Zhou Hao!

“You’re courting death!” Inner Demon Zhou Hao ground out through clenched teeth, about to rush personally into the spiritual abyss to intercept the Nine-Petaled Fireheart Lotus.

“Wait, no—if I go, I won’t be able to leave.” He spoke to himself. “If I enter the spiritual abyss too, this body will be left without a master, and the protective power of the Great Sun Palm will fail as well. The heavenly tribulation will surely destroy both flesh and soul in an instant. By then Zhou Hao will be annihilated in body and spirit. He and I rise and fall together—I can’t escape death either!”

Crack, crack, crack. Inner Demon Zhou Hao clenched his fists even harder until his knuckles went white. The golden protective light around him burned ever more intensely, pressing the surrounding five-colored lightning into submission.

“Damn it! Damn it all!” The inner demon threw his head back and howled, striking out repeatedly into the surrounding void. Massive golden palm imprints swept across the sky, and a great explosion shook this land of tribulation.

Boom! The golden mountain forged from lightning was blasted into fields of glittering sand by the palm print. The little sun in the center of the Great Sun Palm spun at high speed, and the lightning sand turned into pure energy that was absorbed by it.

Boom! The lightning-struck wood, wrapped in crisscrossing green bolts, burst apart with popping detonations under the golden palm. From the shattered wood chips, strands of electric light seeped out before vanishing beneath the palm imprint.

Boom! In the blue ocean formed from lightning, waves surged to the heavens and countless spray blossoms rose, each one a cluster of sparks like a blue rose. The Great Sun Palm darkened the sky and pressed over the sea; instantly the entire ocean boiled as if water had been brought to a furious simmer. The blue sea was rapidly evaporated into lightning vapor that streamed upward, and the spinning little sun in the palm inhaled the vapor of an entire sea in the blink of an eye.

Boom! Two enormous golden palms came together, trapping within them a flaming tornado formed from lightning. Crimson bolts intertwined and became a thunderfire dragon blazing with flames all over its body. But it was as if it faced the union of heaven and earth; no matter how it roared or how fiercely it erupted, it was utterly useless. In the end, the thunderfire dragon let out a mournful cry and could no longer withstand the suppressive force of those palms. Thus the fire-and-thunder radiance was ground out within the palm center.

Boom! Thunder as flying sand and yellow earth collided with the Great Sun Palm. In an instant the sand and soil became a skyful of dust. The palm imprint covered the void and pressed onward, and immediately it was as though the rain had passed and the sky cleared; clouds scattered, dust vanished, and all traces disappeared.

While the inner demon raged and attacked the tribulation of the Five Thunder Righteous Method, the spiritual space within Zhou Hao’s inner world was likewise far from calm.

A bewitchingly beautiful red lotus crossed the void. It had nine lotus petals, and its entire body was crystalline and translucent, scarlet as if ready to drip blood, like a gem carved from crimson crystal. In anyone’s eyes, it was less a plant than a work of art.

The red lotus gave off dazzling crimson light. Sparkling rain of light drifted from the petals like a shower of red meteors, a scene so intoxicating that one glance was enough to steal the gaze forever.

Soon the red lotus arrived at the deepest part of the spiritual space, where a dark abyss lay before her, its far side unseen and its depths immeasurable.

“Is Zhou Hao’s primordial spirit down there? Then let this young lady go and take a look.”

With a whoosh, the red lotus transformed into a streak of crimson radiance that cut through the void of the spiritual space and dove straight toward that boundless, bottomless darkness. Its speed was so great it could no longer be caught by the eye.

Huff, huff, huff!

In the void above the Yin-Yang Eyes of the Two Realms, a figure appeared. He looked utterly exhausted, as though he could only breathe out and not in. The moment that figure emerged, the surrounding kaleidoscopic lightning zone collapsed at once. The calamity clouds receded, the lightning fled, and the dense heavenly tribulation that had filled the void gathered instead toward the top of the Dragon King Treasury. There, for a brief moment, everything became extraordinarily still, as if time itself had stopped.

The tribulation of the Five Thunder Righteous Method had been broken!

“Just wait, Zhou Hao. I’m coming for you now, heh heh!” The figure swayed on the brink of collapse, yet he was laughing coldly.

Thud! Zhou Hao’s body fell heavily onto the curved path that divided the two Yin-Yang Eyes. The light in his eyes vanished. Though they remained open, his spirit had clearly ceased to govern them, leaving only an unmoving shell behind.