In the same extravagant room, where blood had stained the once immaculate silken sheets and roses lay scattered like forgotten remnants of love...
Qing Yue stood frozen, her eyes wide with disbelief. Her heart pounded in her chest as she stared at the man sitting before her... the man who should have been dead.
Ye Tian sat still, his expression as cold and emotionless as the void itself. His crimson-red eyes, once filled with warmth, were now swirling with dark, demonic energy.
His pupils had become sharp, slitted like those of a beast, glowing faintly with black and red hues. Shadows seemed to dance in the room, cast by the swirling aura that surrounded him.
"N-No..." Qing Yue stammered, her voice cracking as panic gripped her. She took a shaky step back, her mind struggling to process the impossible.
"This... this can't be real. You should have died!"
Her heart raced as she clutched her chest, the weight of the moment crashing down on her like a tidal wave.
Ye Tian... the man who had given up his cultivation, who had become mortal for the sake of his people... was supposed to be powerless now.
He was supposed to die from the poison she had so carefully prepared, the Nine Heavens Annihilating Poison, a toxin so deadly it was said to eradicate even the souls of immortals.
Her breath quickened, her mind grasping for an explanation. But the truth before her was undeniable. Ye Tian was still alive, and not just alive... he was awakening.
"Don't tell me..." she whispered, her voice trembling, her wide eyes reflecting her growing fear.
"Don't tell me that those stories were true..."
She had heard the legends, of course... stories passed down from the ancient realms, whispered by cultivators and immortal beings alike.
Tales of the Absolute Demon, a being so powerful that even the heavens trembled at his name. But those were just stories. Weren't they?
"No way..." Qing Yue shook her head violently, denying the reality in front of her.
"You gave up your cultivation! You should be nothing more than a mortal now, a man with a few more years than the average life span..."
Her voice faltered as she stared into Ye Tian's soulless eyes. His gaze was cold, unblinking, and completely devoid of any human emotion.
It was as if the man she had once known... the man she had plotted to kill... had ceased to exist.
The energy surrounding him was unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was ancient, terrifying, and boundless.
"Yeah..." she muttered to herself, trying desperately to hold on to her crumbling sense of reality.
"You're just using the last bits of your energy. I know it. You're dying... right?"
Her words were filled with false confidence as she clung to the hope that she was right... that this was just the final flicker of a dying flame.
But Ye Tian remained silent. His eyes... those dark, soul-piercing eyes... were locked onto her, emotionless.
He was unmoved by her words, by her desperation. He was something far beyond what he once was.
Then, slowly, sounds began to seep into his awareness. The distant screams, the cries of his people, the clashing of weapons. Chaos reigned outside... his people were being slaughtered.
Qing Yue smiled... a sick, twisted grin. Her lips curled in satisfaction, her eyes gleaming with something bordering on pleasure.
She tilted her head back and let out a soft, unsettling laugh that echoed through the room.
"Hah... They're dying, Ye Tian. Your people..." she said with a voice dripping in mockery.
"Doesn't it fill you with regret? Knowing that you gave up your powers for them, and now they're being wiped out? What a pitiful king you are."
Her face twisted with pleasure as she closed her eyes, savoring the sounds of the massacre outside.
"How does it feel, dear husband? To know that your sacrifice meant nothing?"
But even as she reveled in the carnage, a growing sense of discomfort crept up her spine. The room felt colder, darker.
The air itself seemed to thicken with the weight of an unimaginable power. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked at him again.
Ye Tian was still watching her, his gaze unbroken, his expression utterly blank. But there was something else... something terrifying. His aura had changed. It was darker, heavier, as if death itself had entered the room.
Qing Yue shivered, a cold sweat breaking out across her skin. It felt as if her very soul was being pierced by those unfeeling eyes.
She couldn't take it anymore.
Her hand shot up, trembling, but driven by a surge of fury.
"You motherfucker!" she screamed, her voice cracking as she swung her hand toward him, intent on slapping his face. She needed to hurt him, to satisfy her wounded ego.
But just as her hand was mere inches from his face, it stopped.
Her wrist froze mid-air, as if an invisible force had seized it, holding her in place. Her muscles tensed, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move. It was as if her body had betrayed her, refusing to strike him.
Her eyes widened in panic. She pulled at her arm, but it wouldn't budge. Sweat dripped from her brow as the room grew colder, darker. The air was suffocating.
Then, a voice... cold and devoid of emotion... filled the room.
"You shouldn't have done that."
The words sent a chill down her spine, her heart stopping for a moment as an overwhelming, oppressive power washed over her.
It wasn't just the room... it felt as though the entire city, the entire world, had been swallowed by this terrifying energy.
Qing Yue's breath hitched. Cold sweat drenched her skin, her heart pounding erratically as her knees threatened to buckle beneath her.
She stared at Ye Tian, whose body began to glow with a faint blackish-red hue, bits of light flickering around him like embers from a dying fire. The power emanating from him was terrifying.
"Just because I haven't used my powers in a long time..." his voice was low, dark, and filled with an ancient authority.
"...doesn't mean I've forsaken my cultivation."
The energy surrounding him intensified, swirling like a storm. The very air seemed to vibrate with his power as his aura expanded, darkening the room even further.
His clothes, once the elegant robes he had worn for their wedding, withered away, disintegrating into dust. In their place, black robes materialized, their edges swirling with dark energy.
His long hair, which had been tied neatly for the wedding, loosened and floated in the air, untamed, as if carried by an invisible wind.
The blade that had been buried in his back disintegrated, vanishing into the void as if it had never existed.
Qing Yue could barely breathe, her chest rising and falling in quick, shallow gasps. She wanted to run, to flee, but her body wouldn't respond.
The power radiating from Ye Tian was too much... far too overwhelming. It felt like the very essence of death was weighing down on her.
Slowly, Ye Tian lifted his hand, his movements calm, deliberate. His fingers brushed against her cheek, cold and unforgiving as he gripped her face, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"Now..." his voice was barely above a whisper, but it carried a weight that made her blood run cold.
"Let me show you what true despair looks like."
Qing Yue's heart raced, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she stared into the abyss of his eyes. She could see nothing but endless darkness in them, a void that threatened to consume her entire existence.
"I dare you to laugh..." he continued, his grip tightening,
"as this world crumbles to pieces."
He stood up slowly, his presence towering over her, casting an enormous shadow that seemed to swallow the entire room. His voice rose, a declaration that seemed to shake the heavens themselves.
"Rejoice, world... for I am back."
The very ground beneath them trembled as his words echoed throughout the heavens and the earth, carried on the winds of his awakening.
The room, the palace, the city, the world... all of it seemed to quake beneath the weight of the Absolute Demon's return.