The ruins of the Heavenly Demon Sect stood like a forgotten graveyard, the once towering pillars now reduced to dust. It was quiet, unsettlingly so. The air carried a heavy stillness, the silence only broken by the soft rustling of wind through cracked stone.

Jian Mu stood in the middle of it all, surrounded by the remnants of his past. His robe hung loosely around his frame, torn and weathered by years of neglect. His once proud stature had withered, his youth replaced with cold bitterness.

He was the abandoned son of a sect that had once revered his bloodline, yet the moment his mother—an outsider, a commoner—had died, they discarded him as if he were nothing more than a burden. His father, the sect leader, had abandoned him to the wolves. The women who had once bowed before him now spat on his name. They had taken everything, and in return, they had left him with nothing but this desolate place.

This... is all I have left, Jian Mu thought, his fists clenching at his sides. 

"I'm sorry mother..."

The grief that had plagued him for years had now twisted into something darker. Revenge had become the only thing that kept him moving forward. And today, as he wandered deeper into the forgotten halls of his ancestors, a new feeling stirred within him—a sensation that was not born of anger, but something... sinister.

Something alive.

It was faint at first, like a whisper from the shadows. His hand brushed against an old, cracked stone pedestal, and suddenly, he felt it. A pull. A force that seemed to reach into the very core of his being. A pull so powerful that it made his chest tighten.

His eyes narrowed as he turned, drawn to the far corner of the room where a single scroll lay undisturbed on a stone altar. The Heavenly Demon Seal—a symbol once feared across the land. The power of his ancestors, lost for years. The power that he had been denied.

He walked toward it, each step heavier than the last, until his fingers hovered over the scroll.

The moment his skin made contact, the sensation exploded inside him—a violent surge that left him breathless. His vision blurred, his heart raced, but it wasn't pain. It was something else. Something... wrong.

"So, it begins."

The voice was deep and resonant, a presence that filled his mind before he could even think to resist. The words weren't spoken aloud, but they echoed inside his skull with the weight of centuries.

"You have finally found me, Son of the Heavenly Demon." 

Jian Mu staggered backward, his hand instinctively reaching for his chest as his breath came in ragged gasps. The air around him grew heavy, oppressive, like something was pushing in on him from all sides.

"Who... what are you?"

His voice came out almost as a whisper, but the presence inside his mind didn't falter. It only grew stronger.

"I am that of a former, or I could be someone... Anyone, even a ghost but most of all I could be you. Bit by bit, you will inherit everything. You will be my successor. My vessel."

Jian Mu's body trembled as the words twisted through him. His stomach churned, the power coiling inside him like a dark flame, hot and fierce. But it wasn't just power. It was corruption. He could feel it, creeping into his very soul.

"You are weak. That weakness will be stripped from you. I will give you strength. Not fully, but enough. Enough to make you grow."

The force behind those words struck him harder than any physical blow. Jian Mu's hands trembled as he fought to steady himself, trying to block out the growing flood of thoughts. But the demon's presence had already taken root inside him. He could feel it, like a seed buried deep within his chest.

"You want revenge, the voice purred, its tone smooth, coaxing. You want to tear down the world that forsook you. All I ask is that you trust me. You will have the power. But at what cost?"

The question lingered in the air, unanswered, and Jian Mu's mind struggled to focus. He wanted to reject this. To walk away. To remain himself, if only for a moment longer. But the weight of the power, the desire for vengeance—it was too much.

"Do you really believe that you have a choice?" the voice laughed, dark and mocking. "This is your fate now. And in time, you will embrace it."

Jian Mu's eyes snapped open, a sudden rush of cold clarity flooding his mind. The power wasn't overwhelming, not yet. But he could already feel the demon's influence begin to settle in. He wasn't yet its master—but it was now a part of him.

He stared at the scroll, now crumbling in his hands, the last remnants of its power seeping into him. The whispers of the demon faded, but the dark presence inside him was unmistakable.

"I'll take it" he whispered to himself. "I'll take everything!"

And so, the first step was taken. Jian Mu had no idea what lay ahead—whether it would be his salvation or his undoing—but he knew one thing for certain: he had nothing left to lose. The Heavenly Demon Sect, the world—it would all bow to him in the end.

For now, he could only wait. The demon's seed had been planted, and it would grow, slowly, painfully, until it consumed him completely. But for now, it was enough. It was just the beginning.

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End of Chapter 1