Chapter 1304: Intercepted

Before the words even faded, the netherworld giant palm dissipated like a mirage, replaced by a more solid, more terrifying demon claw! This demon claw was pitch-black all over, with viscous demonic qi flowing across it like a living thing; its fingernails were sharp enough to seem able to hook onto causality, and within its palm countless fallen stars and wailing worlds seemed imprisoned—this was the very manifestation of the Heavenly Demon King's origin!

He actually acted in person—not to guard the netherworld, but… to stop Yan Buji from leaving!

Yan Buji's Chaos Core shuddered violently, its crimson light flashing wildly, conveying a thought mingled with shock and fury: 'Heavenly Demon King! Is it you?! Why do you block me?!'

'Why?' the Heavenly Demon King's will, like an icy poisonous snake, coiled around him: 'You stole the very core essence of that brat Han Wuxian, and fused it with the 'Primordial Silence Extinction' and your own 'self-obsession', giving birth to this unprecedented 'Chaos Core'… This thing is a supreme treasure capable of overturning the heavens and redefining order! How could I let you simply waltz it into the netherworld, making you a mere rat hiding its head and exposing its tail?'

The demon claw slowly closed, sealing off every possible escape route for Yan Buji; its terrifying demonic might, like a pressure of a hundred million tons, locked down this space-time.

'Stay in the Nine Heavens Five Domains. This place is the finest stage for beings like us.'

'Your Chaos and my Demon Abyss are a match made in heaven. Joining forces while Han Wuxian's life or death is unknown and the heavens are in turmoil, we can seize the utmost authority and resources! Once I help you fully stabilize this core, devour and digest that 'Infinity Essence', then—Nine Heavens Five Domains, even the netherworld realms—who could stand against us?'

The Heavenly Demon King's voice was full of temptation and irresistible domineering. He took notice of Yan Buji's Chaos Core's potential, and even more of the Infinity Essence within it that came from Han Wuxian! He did not want this power to slip from his control, but rather to incorporate it into his schemes, making it a tool for him to stir up storms and assault higher realms.

Yan Buji instantly realized, a chill rising in his heart. He had thought the Heavenly Demon King an ally, but now he understood: before true profit, among demonic paths there is only devouring and exploitation! The Heavenly Demon King intended to make him, Yan Buji, into a higher-grade pawn… even… fodder!

'You want… to raise me like livestock?!' Yan Buji's will erupted with utmost fury and humiliation; the chaotic resonance on his crimson blood arrow surged wildly, attempting to break the Heavenly Demon King's blockade.

'Dream on! I, Yan Buji, have roamed the world unchallenged—how could I submit to your restraint?!'

'Not up to you.'

The Heavenly Demon King's will was icy and merciless; the demon claw suddenly tightened! Endless Demon Abyss power turned into tangible shackles, wrapping around, not only sealing space but also beginning to erode and suppress the vitality of Yan Buji's Chaos Core!

'Before you possess the power to rival me, you… have no right to choose.'

The crimson blood arrow, gripped in the demon claw, let out a strained wail; Yan Buji felt his Chaos power being forcibly repressed and bound by the deeper, more ancient essence of the Demon Abyss.

Before him lay the netherworld's barrier; behind him, the demon lord's grasp.

Having just broken free of Han Wuxian's killing blow, he now fell into an even more dreadful predicament.

Yan Buji's path of escape came to an abrupt halt before the Heavenly Demon King's absolute power and ambition.

His newly born Chaos Core, not yet having blossomed its destructive radiance, had already become the Demon Abyss lord's coveted… caged beast!

The crimson blood arrow ultimately failed to escape that sky-covering demon claw. The Heavenly Demon King, with supreme demonic might, forcibly suppressed the Chaos Core's uprising, dragging it—like an unruly crimson star—into the lowest layer of the Demon Abyss, that eternal dark prison which can utterly devour light and hope.

Here there is no direction, no time, only demonic energy viscous to the extreme, imbued with the utmost yin and malevolent intent of heaven and earth. Countless twisted demonic shadows writhe and wail around; they are the residual thoughts of powerhouses suppressed and devoured by the Heavenly Demon King through the ages, turned into this prison's eternal wardens and backdrop.

'Boom—'

The demon claw loosened; the crimson Chaos Core hovered at the prison's center, its surface light dim, conveying Yan Buji's humiliated yet furious will. Countless chains of law, condensed from the purest Demon Abyss origin, probed out of the void like living things, wound around the Chaos Core, locking it fast. Upon the chains, ancient demonic patterns flickered, not only sealing power but constantly seeping in, seeking to parse and assimilate the core's Chaos and Infinity mysteries.

'Rest easy here in your "cultivation".' The Heavenly Demon King's grand will, like a decree, echoed in the prison: 'When you are fully tamed, when you comprehend what true "demon" is, what…… submission is, your time to shine will come.'

Having spoken, that terrifying will receded like a tide, leaving only endless darkness and dead silence, and the Demon Abyss chains that ceaselessly erode and suppress Yan Buji.

In the prison, Yan Buji's will at first was frantic impact and roar, trying to snap the chains and tear this cage. But the Heavenly Demon King's seal was far stronger and older than he imagined; the Demon Abyss origin itself mutually restrained his nascent Chaos power, each impact only provoking the chains to tighten their suppression and backlash, rendering his core ever more unstable.

After days of futile struggle, the crimson core's light seemed to have sunk completely into silence, its will undetectable, as if truly ground down of all edges, submitting to this eternal confinement.

Yet, deep within the seemingly lifeless core, a point of extremely condensed, ice-cold awareness stirred, like a venomous snake lying in wait, slowly awakening.

'Heavenly Demon King… old devil… you want to treat me as your livestock, milking me of my last worth…'

'Little do you know, my Chaos Core excels at…… assimilation and erosion!'

Yan Buji abandoned frontal opposition. He began to circulate his post-mutation new path in an extremely covert, extremely slow manner. He no longer tried to repel the Demon Abyss chains entwining him; instead… he actively guided a trace of imperceptible Chaos resonance, like the finest spore, to quietly attach onto the chains' demonic patterns.

This Chaos resonance contained the twisted inclusivity of 'Infinity' and his own extreme self-obsession's erosive force. It did not seek to destroy the chains' structure, but rather to 'understand', 'emulate', and 'integrate' the Demon Abyss principles within them!

He aimed to reverse the flow, stealing the Heavenly Demon King's Demonic Path origin! Using this cage as a crucible, the Demon Abyss chains as fodder, to temper his own Chaos Core!

This process was extremely perilous; a slight misstep would draw the Demon Abyss will's total notice, inviting thunderous annihilation. Yet Yan Buji's madness and patience here reached the extreme. He was like a master artisan, bit by bit dissecting the composition of the Demon Abyss principles, then attempting, with his Chaos essence, to make subtle alterations and contaminations.