The ugly bastard with the huge mouth full of dagger-like black teeth stared at me outside the doorway waiting for me to follow him outside.
However, I couldn't move I could only stand there paralyzed by sear terror after all I was only four years old and this was a literal monster.
It was perfectly reasonable for me to be scared stiff in the face of this horrific-looking man.
Seeing me not moving though the man with the stitch-up mouth got mad and walked over to me and grabbed me by the neck and began walking toward the door at the end of the underground tunnel.
In just a few steps he reached the door tore it off its hinges and threw it aside what took me several minutes of running took him only a measly few seconds.
It only proved to me how powerless I truly am and it shattered any shred of confidence I had at that moment I realized I'm pathetically weak.
I was trapped in the slit-mouth man's iron grip completely unable to move I knew struggling was pointless this guy was just too strong but luckily even though he was gripping my neck he was doing his best not to crush my throat.
Which meant this guy wanted me alive but unfortunately it sounded like he wanted me alive for some kind of terrible demonic ritual.
He was walking around a large building while holding me by my neck which was incredibly uncomfortable but I endured it and tried to look around and figure out where I am.
I was disappointed to see a boring stone room devoid of any kind of decoration or furniture but thankfully we didn't remain there.
The man quickly took me outside into a long corridor and rushed toward a door that lead into a huge room and inside this room was an old man.
When I looked at the old man a chill ran through my entire body as every cell in my body screamed at me to run away.
The old man had a withered body that was covered by the thick aura of death the old man coughed constantly and from his throat, black bile would spew from his mouth and hit the stone floor with a sicking plop.
His skin looked like greenish tree bark tough and full of wrinkles while his eye sockets appeared to be hollow black voids.
As for hair well he had none he was completely hairless he looked like a moldy corpse and exuded the rancid odor of a corpse too.
If his chest didn't heave violently up and down I'd assume he had been long deceased but all these things only made the old man even more terrifying than the slit-mouth man.
I looked at the slit-mouth man and I saw that even he was covered in a fear-induced cold sweat this demon-faced man was just as scared as I was in the presence of this old man.
"Shi Xuan thank you for bringing my grandson to me now leave!" said the old man in a weak raspy voice.
The slit-mouth man back jolted and in a flash he sat me down gently and then ran away as fast as he could giving me a guilty look before leaving.
That look he gave me was unsettling he looked so sorry for me like he was abandoning me to die this was a very bad sign.
"Come here, my precious grandson I must give you something," The old man whispered in a soft voice as he motioned to me with his boney old hand to come closer to him.
My body instinctively moved toward him and on some primal level, I knew if I defied this old man I would die a miserable death so my body moved on its own and walked toward the old man.
The old man smiled at me his face forming a horrific grin that covered his entire face and showed off his brown-colored rotten teeth.
"Good boy, don't worry I'm not gonna eat you so just relax after all you and I are all that's left of our clan your mother, your uncle, and all your cousins are dead we are what remains of the once mighty Pan clan in this God-forsaken hell hole," said the old man in a shakey dying voice full of resentment and hate.
The old man was the elder of the Pan clan who rule over the abyss and what he said was true only he and I were left of our clan everyone else is dead.
The old man spent a long time explaining where I am, what our clan was, and what was going on.
First of all, I live in a place called the abyss which is located underground in the Southern lands.
The abyss was created when cultivator's from the central plains mined several spiritual veins and moved them to their territory this created a labyrinth of tunnels and massive caverns underground.
Which became the home of our clan which is the Pan clan and we are a clan of demonic cultivators.
He went on to explain about the current situation of the Southern lands which was because of the Central plains a barren wasteland full of demonic creatures and including demonic cultivators as well.
The Southern lands were full of sects and clans who couldn't cut it in the Central plains so they fled to the Southern lands to recuperate and one day those cultivators hope to return to the Central plains.
However, the Southern lands were stripped of it's precious cultivation resources by those people from the Central plains making it very difficult to do so.
That's why so many resorted to the demonic path which could help them become strong enough to do so but our clan was different we were already a clan that lived in the southern lands for hundreds of years before those rejects arrived.
The demon race called the Southern lands home and naturally so would demonic cultivators, in fact, demonic sects and many demonic clans populate the Southern lands our clan included but our clan made a life-altering decision.
We moved underground after discovering a special kind of gemstone called blood amethyst which for a clan of body refiners was very important.
This blood amethyst when refined into a substance called destiny blood would temper the body and increase your vitality.
So our ancestors made the choice to move into the underground labyrinth so that we could mine the blood amethyst and make destiny blood.
"That's not all there's more for you to know about cultivation and about so many more things my precious grandson but before that listen carefully," said the old man in an enthusiastic tone.
He then reached into a bag on his extremely thin waist and pulled out a box but when he opened the box with a huge smile plastered on his old face my blood froze in my veins.
Inside was a lumpy pulsating black heart that gave off an overwhelming demonic aura.
His smile only grew bigger and bigger when he saw my pale face he even began to giggle at me as he shoved the box in my horrified face.
"See here my precious grandson this is a demon's heart, oh but not just any demon's heart no no no it's the heart of a demon lord that was about to become a demon monarch!!!" shouted the old man in a voice full of pure joy
He even danced a little that's how happy he was about this heart but then he suddenly became eerily serious.
"Listen you must hear this grandson you will soon find out that to survive in the abyss the demonic cultivator's here have fused the body parts of demonic creatures and even demons themselves onto their bodies to ensure their survival just like Shi Xuan the man who brought you here did,"
His tone was very serious he truly wanted me to listen carefully but I already was so moving on.
"Our clan the mighty Pan clan possesses a body refining technique that allows us to survive down here without having to become monsters but even though with the holly destiny blood and our sacred technique and practically all the cultivation resources in the abyss we are on the very verge of collapse,"
The old man then moved very close to me and whispered in my ear in a soft gentle voice.
"You must fuse this demon heart into your body it will make you practically invincible but I know you must be worried about the side effects of doing this procedure," and I totally was worried about that.
"Do not fear my precious grandson Pan Huang you possess a very strong soul and a special constitution which will help you merge the heart into your body without turning you into a demon just be strong my one and only descendant and resist the voices it will be over quickly just steal your resolve and remember your our clan's last hope," Wait what does he mean by that he is creeping me out he is so close to me that his face is practically touching mine.
However, before I could move or even take a single breath he ripped out my heart and shoved the menacing demon heart into my open chest, and very quickly stitched my chest back up.
It all happened in one swift motion that took only a single second but before I could even be astonished by the old man's skills I black out.