The stench of death hung heavy in the small hut at the edge of Blackwater Village. Liu Yun watched dispassionately as his father drew a final, rattling breath, the fever having consumed the once-respected physician over agonizing weeks. No tears came to the seventeen-year-old's eyes—only cold calculation.
"Finally," Liu Yun muttered, immediately searching through his father's robes. The man had clutched something to his chest throughout his delirium, mumbling about "keeping it sealed" and "the price of ambition."
From the inner pocket, Liu Yun extracted a jade pendant in the shape of a sword, cracked down its center. Despite its damaged appearance, it felt unnaturally heavy, as though it contained something far greater than its physical form suggested.
He had endured seventeen years of being called "the bastard"—his mother unknown, his father fallen from grace after some mysterious incident in his past. The villagers had tolerated the disgraced physician for his skills but had shown nothing but contempt for his dark-eyed, sharp-featured son.
"Whatever secrets you kept, old man, they're mine now," Liu Yun said to the corpse. "Along with whatever power this trinket holds."
A commotion outside drew his attention—screams, the clash of weapons, and inhuman growls. Peering through the window, Liu Yun saw mounted raiders sweeping through the village, their bodies twisted with bestial features—the mark of deviant cultivators who had sacrificed their humanity for power.
He should have felt fear. Instead, Liu Yun felt only opportunity.
"Open it," whispered a voice that seemed to emanate from the pendant itself. "Break the seal with blood, and I will grant you the power to survive... and so much more."
Without hesitation, Liu Yun drew his father's rusted surgery knife across his palm. As crimson droplets fell upon the cracked jade, the pendant emitted a sickly green glow that spread up his arm like creeping vines of light.
"Five thousand years," the voice growled, stronger now. "Five thousand years I have waited for a vessel with the proper bloodline and the proper... moral flexibility."
Pain erupted through Liu Yun's meridians as foreign energy invaded his body. Most would have screamed, begged for it to stop. Liu Yun gritted his teeth and demanded more.
"Who are you?" he managed to ask as the energy rewrote his very essence.
"I am Xu Fenyang, the Demon Sword Emperor, conqueror of nine realms, slayer of six immortal sovereigns... before betrayal and sealed blades reduced me to this fragment." The voice carried equal parts arrogance and rage. "And you, boy with my bloodline, shall be my resurrection."
The door to the hut splintered as a massive figure pushed through—a raid leader with the upper body of a man but the clawed lower limbs of a tiger, his face a grotesque fusion of human and feline features.
"I smell... potential," the beast-man growled, golden eyes fixing on the glowing pendant. "Your essence will strengthen my cultivation nicely, village rat."
Liu Yun's lips curved into a cold smile. "You smell your death."
Knowledge that was not his own flooded Liu Yun's mind—sword forms, energy manipulation techniques, and the precise vulnerabilities of cultivators who had undergone bestial transformations. The pendant melted into his palm, becoming one with his flesh as jade-colored energy coalesced into a crude blade around his hand.
"Impossible!" the beast-man snarled. "A mere mortal cannot—"
Liu Yun moved with unnatural speed, the energy blade slicing upward between the raider's legs and continuing through his torso in a single savage motion. There was no elegance to the attack, only brutal efficiency. The beast-man's expression of shock remained frozen as his body separated vertically, both halves collapsing in a spray of blood.
Rather than recoil from the gruesome sight, Liu Yun thrust his hand into the steaming remains, the pendant in his palm pulsing as it drew in the fading spiritual energy of the slain cultivator.
"Good," the emperor's voice approved. "Waste nothing. The essence of your enemies is the quickest path to power."
The remaining raiders had surrounded the hut, drawn by their leader's death cry. Liu Yun stepped outside, blood-drenched and radiating cold killing intent that belied his mortal cultivation level.
"More resources," he said, eyes gleaming with predatory anticipation.
What followed was not a battle but a slaughter. Each fallen raider contributed essence that the pendant absorbed, channeling it into Liu Yun's rapidly expanding meridians. Villagers who had hidden in terror watched as the disgraced physician's son moved through the raiders like a demon of legend, his makeshift energy blade growing more defined with each kill.
When the last raider fell, Liu Yun stood amidst the carnage, his threadbare clothes soaked in blood, his eyes glowing with the same jade hue as the energy blade.
Old Man Wei, the village elder, cautiously approached. "Liu Yun... you saved us. The gods must have blessed—"
"The gods had nothing to do with it," Liu Yun cut him off coldly. "And I didn't save you. These cultivators were simply in my way." He looked around at the devastated village with detachment. "There's nothing left for me here."
"Indeed," the emperor's voice agreed in his mind. "Your path lies elsewhere. To the north, the Azure Cloud Sect will soon hold its recruitment trials. With what you've absorbed today and my guidance, you could secure a place—a foundation from which to build our power."
"Then we leave tonight," Liu Yun said aloud, ignoring the confused expressions of the villagers. Why explain to those who would soon be as insignificant as ants to him?
As he gathered the few possessions worth taking, the emperor's presence stirred in his mind.
"You adapt quickly to communion with a spirit," the ancient tyrant observed. "Most would be fighting my influence, questioning my intentions."
Liu Yun's response was simple: "Power is power, regardless of source. I've lived seventeen years as nothing. I will achieve greatness or die trying—whatever the cost."
"And if that cost is your humanity?" the emperor tested.
"A small price for immortality," Liu Yun replied without hesitation.
The emperor's laughter resonated through their shared consciousness. "Perhaps I've found more than a vessel. Perhaps I've found a worthy successor. Rest tonight, Liu Yun. Tomorrow, we begin breaking the chains of your mortal limitations... and forging you into the weapon of my vengeance."
As night fell over the blood-soaked village, Liu Yun sat in meditation, allowing the emperor's corrupting energy to flow through his meridians, reshaping them, expanding them beyond mortal limits. The pain was excruciating, but he never once cried out.
Pain was temporary. Weakness was forever. And Liu Yun had been weak for the last time.