Quickly driving Hong Yue out of his room, Hong Tian soon finished driving all of the poison out of his body. Once more he was healthy, or rather, as healthy as someone with a wasted cultivation base could be. Right now, he put off diving right into cultivation as there were more pressing matters to attend to; namely, the effect of Geng Xin's aura on his curse.
Sitting as if he were entering meditation, Hong Tian entered the world of his inner body. Normally, only cultivators that had passed the Body Sanctification Realm could achieve this, but he had gone above and beyond the Body Sanctification Realm in his past life. Practitioners of this level weren't even ants to him while he was the Immortal Villain; the first Realm of cultivation didn't even amount to that.
Within his inner world, after cringing at the sight of his torn meridians and wasted Dantian, Hong Tian came across his soul; it rested in his brain, within his terribly weak spiritual sea. Diving headfirst in the shallow puddle that was his current spiritual sea, he found the core of his soul.
100 or so breaths worth of time passed and along with the ghastly scowl that appeared on Hong Tian's face outside his inner world, his source soul shook as if angry beyond belief. He had come up with a truly horrifying thought, but he still needed to prove if it really was as bad as he imagined.
Walking out of the room, he found Hong Yue waiting for him, but before she could say anything he appeared before her like a ghost. A horrifying killing intent locked down on her body like that of a Raging Buddha, but before Hong Tian could do anything he was once more interrupted by a pain spawning from his soul.
This time being prepared, even though he was once more incapacitated, Hong Tian's Blood Dao wasn't interrupted to the point where he couldn't control it. Merely coughing up some blood, proved he was affected at all, despite there not being any change in his expression. He simply put his hand on Hong Yue's shoulder and deadpanned, "Thank you for the clothes..."
Walking right past her, towards the restroom to clean himself of the blood stains that remained on his body, he left behind Hong Yue who was beyond scared. Even if he hadn't directed the totality of his killing intent at her during his test, with the trace amounts of intent that made their way onto her body, it was more than enough to leave a mortal shell shocked.
In the bathroom, as Hong Tian washed his arm and face clean of blood, he grew solemn. 'It's been locked… My unorthodoxy, my Dao...' Slamming his hand onto the sink, an infinite song of curses ran through Hong Tian's mind. Geng Xin's aura had infected his curse and locked him in a horrible state. His Dao had been locked. Not that of his insight or understanding but of his intent, his temperament and personality. Corrupted, or purified really, to match that of Geng Xin's own ideals, going forward with the Dao Heart Hong Tian had cultivated as the Immortal Villain would prove suicidal; and dying once more to seize a better vessel wouldn't change that!
His cultivated Daos would work no problem, but if the intent behind them was sinister, malevolent, insidious or any other descriptive trait characteristic of the Dao Heart he had cultivated in his past life, he would have to suffer a severe backlash. Eyes growing bloodshot, Hong Tian realized that even if his cultivated Daos were available to him should he be free of ill intent, it was essentially the same as saying they had grown obsolete.
His everything had been cultivated through demonic and devilish techniques and that included his Daos. Having to learn using his Daos through orthodoxy was the same as asking him to truly start from square one. If anything, the only thing he hadn't lost was the experience of cultivating for hundreds of years before dying. Now, even his Daos couldn't be counted on when he started cultivation anew.
Bang! Bang! Bang! A terrible knocking rocked the door to the bathroom wherein Hong Tian was lamenting his reincarnation. "Hong Tian, you miserable waste of space, open up and face your punishment!" This insufferably nasally voice was strikingly familiar to Hong Tian.
Hong Wu! "It seems I'll be able to vent my frustrations soon enough," A shadow was cast over Hong Tian's face as he opened the door. Before the door had even opened all the way, a sucker punch raced through the air to Hong Tian's torso.
"Hmph!" A single snort carrying with it a portion of Hong Tian's true killing intent instantly paralyzed Hong Wu. Upon sensing the threat, Hong Tian reacted instinctively. Though he had yet to even begin mastering this new mortal body of his, had any experienced practitioner been around to see him move, they would feel confident guessing Hong Tian was experienced in combat.
Striking the now paralyzed Hong Wu right in his jaw without the slightest trace of mercy, the helpless boy instantly lost consciousness. Hong Tian's striking force was so strong that his opponent — if he could even be called that — took a step back before instantly collapsing. Even as Hong Tian approached the now-unconscious body of his downed opponent, he cursed his body's fragility; feeling rebound of that devastating punch having fractured the bones in his hands.
Suddenly stopping, Hong Tian looked at Hong Yue, who had taken the chance to get in between Hong Tian and Hong Wu, and hissed, "Move aside..." Out of all the enemies he had ever fought, the few that had managed to live to tell the tale consisted of only those that joined the group which ultimately ended his time as the Immortal Villain. All the others, no matter how strong or cautious, had died without question; most were devoured, becoming tonics to the Immortal Villains cultivation.
"W-w-what do y-you t-think you're doing!" She blurted out, obviously scared witless over the malevolence her young master was displaying. For years now, she had accompanied Hong Tian and not once he had shown even a hint of fierceness. Moreover, he was often bullied by not just Hong Wu but most of the other members of the branch clan. To suddenly see a ruthless killer erupt out of the normally tame and shy Hong Tian… putting it lightly, she was nonplussed and terrified.
"What do you think?" Hong Tian sarcastically barked. The Hong Tian of the past might not have even amount to being a cowardly pawn in the game of life, but the Immortal Villain was a king! Being challenged by Hong Wu, who didn't even qualify as an ant in his eyes, what would Hong Tian do? Accept this blatant disrespect and ill will?
"Obviously I'm ending his pathetic life." Hong Tian's eyes looked dead as he spoke.
"Y-you'll get in trouble w-with the clan..." Hong Yue paled. Not for herself, but for what might happen to Hong Tian if he followed through with his plan. Hong Wu might be a useless member of the branch clan like the previous Hong Tian and the rest of the people that live in Minor Hong Estate, but Hong Wu's father, Hong Mang, was one of the Splitting Wind Sect's Outer Sect Elders. If Hong Wu, whose status was that of a useless person in the branch clan, dared attempt to kill Hong Tian, his father who was actually somewhat valuable to the sect wouldn't have any qualms.
"The what? Huh?" Disregarding her completely, Hong Tian approached and managed to effortlessly drive her out of his way; the domineering fashion with which he moved forward caused her to unconsciously obey his will.
"I don't give a fuck," he stomped on Hong Wu's neck with more than enough force to end his life mid-sentence, before continuing, "who I get in trouble with." Without sparing a look at the corpse, he eyed Hong Yue with no emotion in his eyes as he hissed, "Anyone who dares harass me will die. If the clan comes I'll end the clan. If the sect comes, the sect will have to disband as well..."
Leaving Hong Yue in deep distress as this was the first time in her life that she came so close to a dead person, Hong Tian frowned deeply. His frown had little to do with what the consequences of his actions might bring or Hong Yue's distress. Rather, at that moment, he had tried channeling a Devil's Cultivation Method to steal Hong Wu's cultivation — what little of it existed, anyway — but he found out that his curse activated as the intent to start the technique was about to begin.
'Mhmm… This Geng Xin has not only destroyed my Dao Heart, he's also limited my methods and forced me down the path of orthodoxy...' Though his Dao Heart hadn't really been destroyed, only rendered obsolete, there was hardly any difference. With hatred and lamentations nearly consuming his very being, Hong Tian's mood brewed for a minute before the dark expression on his face lifted.
'At least I still have all my memories,' Hong Tian's mind returned to temporary peace as he found a silver lining to his dark cloud. Perhaps his path as a demonic devil who terrorized and did as he pleased across the cosmos had come to a temporary halt. But with the experiences of his past life ingrained in his soul, even if he couldn't return to his previous peak as fast as he could have, it wasn't like he couldn't return at all. Hong Tian would just have to take a new path.