31. surprised
"Shall we pay a visit to the Lin family?" Damon's voice was casual, almost playful, as his crimson gaze settled on Lin Bai. But there was no response.
Lin Bai stood frozen, his mind a storm of fear and despair. Anger? Terror? Regret? He didn't even know what to feel anymore. Should he curse Damon for massacring his family? Or should he simply accept death and reunite with his son? His only wish now was for the suffering to end.
Damon watched him with a knowing smile. "Oh? You miss your son?" His laughter rang cold and sharp. "Look around you, Lin Bai. See the lives you've claimed. Oh well, who am I to judge? I am no better."
Without warning, Damon seized Lin Bai by the hair. Then—boom!—with a burst of speed, they shot into the night sky, leaving the blood-soaked inn behind.
As the wind howled past them, Lin Bai's mind reeled. Between these two monsters, who should I fear more? The madman who slaughtered me and my son without a second thought? Or Lin Feng—the cursed child of my clan, the one who devours the flesh of his victims?
He turned his gaze to Damon, watching the way the young man's lips curled into an unbothered smile. He's enjoying this. As if no force in the world could shake him.
But beneath that smile, another conversation was unfolding—one beyond Lin Bai's comprehension.
---
Within Damon's Sea of Consciousness
"Master," a soothing yet ancient voice echoed, "since your rebirth, you have achieved feats beyond this world's comprehension… and yet, you are still weak. You do not even wield a fraction of the power you once held."
Vivi, the Willow Tree of Imagination, spoke with concern.
Damon, however, simply smiled. "I know. But I can feel it. My power calls to me… yet something binds it. Chains I cannot yet break."
There was unease in his voice—an emotion that even Vivi found troubling. The God of Madness, worried?
"That is not the only news I bring," Vivi continued. "I have sensed them—your past enemies. Their breath lingers on this realm. They are already here."
Damon's pupils shrank. "They've arrived?"
"Not yet," Vivi corrected. "A veil keeps them at bay. But it weakens by the day."
The revelation made something stir within Damon—an emotion deeper than rage, darker than fear.
Then, suddenly—Vivi flinched. A shiver of terror rippled through the sea of consciousness.
Damon felt it, too. And then, realization dawned.
"They dare," he whispered. "They have forgotten who I am even at my weakest, they can't do anything. They crave my flesh, they crave my power they want me totally vanquished."
And then—he laughed.
A cold, bone-chilling laugh.
"Let them come! I want them to come!"
His nails dug into his own flesh, tearing at his skin, raking deep gashes across his arms.
Vivi watched without flinching—this was nothing new to her. But Lin Bai?
Lin Bai's entire body tensed in horror. "He's insane… he's tearing his own flesh open—for what?! For pleasure?!"
Yet the madness did not stop there. Before Lin Bai's eyes, Damon's wounds closed instantly—as if his flesh had never been torn in the first place.
Lin Bai's mind screamed. "Kill yourself. Now. Without me as a guide he can never make it to the Lin family."
Desperation took hold. He parted his lips, ready to bite down on his tongue—to end it all.
But Damon saw it.
In an instant, their flight halted. Lin Bai gagged as Damon's fingers wrapped around his throat.
"Hahaha! Look at this fool! He wants to take his secrets to the grave with him!"
Damon's expression was unreadable—his smile eerily gentle as his fingers trailed along Lin Bai's cheek. "Let me tell you something."
His grip tightened.
"You were never useful to me."
Lin Bai barely had time to register the words before a searing pain erupted in his mind.
An ancient forbidden technique, not know to this world.
"Mind Eater" .
Damon's power surged into Lin Bai's skull, ravaging his thoughts, devouring his memories.
Lin Bai's screams shattered the night.
Flashes of the Lin family's deepest secrets flooded Damon's mind. He saw Lin Feng's tragic fate. He saw the hidden battles within the Lin Clan. Every betrayal, every forbidden technique, every concealed power—laid bare before him.
Lin Bai thrashed wildly, but escape was impossible. He could feel it—his mind drying up, his thoughts slipping away. If this continued, he wouldn't just die—he'd become an empty husk, an idiot.
"Please! Just kill me!"
But Damon did not listen. He was too entranced by the knowledge unraveling before him.
Then—realization struck.
A slow grin spread across Damon's lips. "Fascinating."
His grip loosened. His amusement deepened.
"I shall grant you your final wish. Consider it a mercy."
With that, his fingers plunged into Lin Bai's throat.
A sickening crack.
And then—Damon dropped him.
Lin Bai plummeted from the sky, already a mindless shell. He did not even realize when he hit the ground.
He was dead before he even felt the impact.
---
Damon hovered in the sky, his mind still buzzing with the secrets he had consumed.
"Why didn't I do this sooner?" He mused, exhilaration tingling through his veins. "This world… it is truly vast and full of wonders."
His eyes burned with newfound knowledge.
The true powerhouses of this world—the Emperor Realm experts and beyond —were monsters beyond anything he had faced thus far. They were the ones who awakened their true bloodlines, unlocking the deepest wells of their ancestral power.
More than that—their weapons.
Which where of two types.
Some forged their weapons from the essence of their bloodline, wielding relics of their very soul.
Others? They wielded weapons of the ancient realms, artifacts of unimaginable might.
Damon clenched his fist.
He was strong. Stronger than most.
But in the grand scheme of this world, he was nothing more than a peak Commander Realm cultivator—a genius in the eyes of mortals, yes. A legend in the making, yes.
But to himself?
An insult.
His power was shackled. His former glory lay just beyond his reach.
But not for long.
Not for long.
A slow, maniacal grin spread across his face as he gazed toward the distant horizon.
Soon… he would remind this world who the God of Madness truly was.