Novel Full Chapter 47—Inner Demon
Chapter 47: Chapter 47—Inner Demon
Chapter 47—Inner Demon
"He is..." Hua Mingyue paused and continued simply, "You should ask him yourself."
Lei Cheng looked at her, then back at Lin Lin. "Do you really think he would answer properly?"
"You should have let him finish his monologue," Hua Mingyue said, her mouth curving slightly.
"You genuinely wanted to listen?" Lei Cheng smiled softly.
"It was quite interesting," she said, with the brightness of someone describing a good book. "It could even be written into a story."
Lei Cheng exhaled. "Fine."
He turned to Lin Lin and released the coiled vine. "Go ahead."
He crossed his arms. If there were answers to be found, he’d rather hear them from the source than rely on guesses.
Lin Lin did not speak.
He lunged forward.
The vine came back before the lunge had completed its first step—Slap!—a flat, sweeping slap that caught him across the face and dumped him onto the ground hard.
Thud!
"Ahh!" Lin Lin howled, twitching. Then he got up as if it had not happened, purple-gold flames still burning. A red bruise appeared on his face.
He looked up at the sky and exclaimed, "When gangs stole from my family—from me—why didn’t the government do anything? Why didn’t the constables step in?" His gaze dropped toward the direction of Constable Street. "But when I stole, they arrested me instantly. Was it because I had no background?" He pointed at himself. "Or because I had no power?"
Lei Cheng glanced at his trembling body and shook his head. "Both."
Lin Lin froze for the briefest moment. Then he composed himself and continued. "They put me on death row. Just for stealing. Why?"
Lei Cheng raised his brows. "You took money from the poor. They couldn’t even save money for a doctor." His voice rose. "You call that just stealing?"
Lin Lin’s voice stammered. "I... I..."
Lei Cheng hissed. "And what about that kid?"
Lin Lin paused and turned away.
The moment he did, a vine shot from the ground nearby—thud!—slapping the stone beside him. A small crater formed. Lin Lin glanced at it, swallowed, and started talking again.
"I never expected the boy to have won a catch spirit fish and sell for a huge amount."
"Spirit Fish," Lei Cheng hissed. He exhaled. "So that’s it. You killed him?"
Lin Lin shook his head quickly and bit his lip. "I didn’t intend to kill him. I knocked him on the neck and took his money. That was all." He bit his lip. "The next day, the constables came to my door. Said the kid had died."
"Feeling guilty now?" Lei Cheng said. "You pushed many others to their deaths by stealing their income. They died indirectly because of you. This was just the one who died directly."
Lin Lin went still.
Something moved behind his eyes. He pressed a palm against his chest.
"Yes," he said quietly. "Lin Lin did cause many deaths indirectly." For the first time in his life, he stopped searching for someone else to blame. The answer had always been himself.
"So that’s why I was... born." He grinned. "Hahaha—Lin Lin was a fool." He fell silent shortly.
’Born.’
Lei Cheng mused over the word.
Lin Lin turned back toward the constabulary district, his expression resolving into something violent. "I’ll kill those corrupted constables for Lin Lin."
He dashed for the gates of the Lei courtyard.
"Did you understand what’s happening?" Hua Mingyue asked.
"He seems to be acting purely on buried emotions—doing everything he suppressed in his actual life," Lei Cheng replied, having noticed everything.
"Yes." She nodded. "Inner Demon. The fusion of Bizarre Qi allowed it to form inside him—and it won. It took over his body."
"How long does it normally take for an Inner Demon to form?" Lei Cheng raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A vine erupted at the corner of the courtyard gate just as Lin Lin reached it, coiling around him and dragging him back to the center of the garden.
"Normally, for Immortal Cultivators, it takes decades. Sometimes a hundred years. That is without external pressure," Hua Mingyue explained, covering her mouth with her fan. "Under heavenly tribulations, though—when a cultivator attempts a breakthrough, the pressure and energy of the heavens bear down on their heart—even a sliver of buried doubt can crystallize into an Inner Demon instantly."
"Tribulations act as an accelerant," Lei Cheng said. "But here, Bizarre Qi matched it."
"Exactly. But I think this thug’s Dao Heart was weak, and he was feeling guilt from the start—hence it was possible. After all, Bizarre Qi alone cannot match a tribulation." She looked at the struggling Lin Lin, still being dragged back across the garden stone.
She sounded almost satisfied that he had reached the conclusion himself.
"So how do you plan to deal with him?"
"Why are you asking when you already know?" Lei Cheng sighed.
A vine wrapped around Lin Lin’s neck.
Crack!
It was over in an instant. Lei Cheng released the vines and shook his head.
"Just because the world treated someone wrongly," he sighed, "that does not make it acceptable to follow the same path."
’Sympathy could explain a person’s choices. It could never erase their consequences.’ He closed his eyes to calm himself. The garden remained silent for several long breaths.
After a few moments, he turned to the next prisoner.
A medium-built, middle-aged man. There was a subtle, ferocious aura around him that only came from real martial training. Lei Cheng sensed raging Blood Qi within the body and a bloodthirsty temperament.
’A martial cultivator.’
He recalled the criminal record. The man had once been a farmer. Poverty and heavy extortion from gangs and taxes had pushed him to banditry—he had led more than fifteen men. He had killed multiple people in his raids. The warden had noted specifically that this man had attacked wealthy merchant families, killing the boys and men outright, while selling women and young girls to a brothel.
Lei Cheng took a slow breath through his nose.
"You know the procedure," he said. "Step forward."
The bandit nodded and came to the front. They sat cross-legged, facing each other.
Lei Cheng began, following the same steps as before. While controlling Bizarre Intent in the bandit’s body, he turned toward Hua Mingyue. "How does someone avoid an Inner Demon?"
She walked toward him and stood nearby.
"The Dao Heart," she said. "First—if the Dao Heart is strong, they defeat the Inner Demon head-on. Second—if a person has made peace with their own actions and carries no unresolved conflict about what they have done or who they are, no Inner Demon can take root."
"Because there is no buried guilt or denial for the demon to feed on," Lei Cheng said, cutting in.
"Correct." She nodded and returned to reading her book in the rocking chair.
The bandit was calm throughout the fusion. His focus did not waver. When the process completed, his eyes opened—flashed black for a single moment—and then cleared.
Purple-gold Blood Qi flowed across his skin like flames.
"Your Dao Heart is strong," Lei Cheng said, raising his brows. "What happened just now?"
The bandit stood without fanfare. "I did what I did. I don’t pretend it was otherwise." He paused. "Guilt, fear, and many emotions flooded my mind for a moment. And then someone similar to me appeared in my mind."
"Go on." Lei Cheng turned serious, wanting to remember every detail.
"He emitted black energy and stated that I was evil." The bandit grinned widely. "Pathetic—he mentioned how my mother and father would feel knowing I was a bandit." He paused, barely controlling his laughter. "Hahaha! So pathetic—he tried to invoke emotions by every method, trying to make me give up my body to him. Such a fool."
There hadn’t been the slightest hesitation in his voice.
"So his Inner Demon failed," Lei Cheng said, studying the bandit with a deep glance. "His Dao Heart seems stronger than Lin Lin’s."
He had barely finished the thought when he realized the bandit was already walking—not walking, running—toward the gates.
"Why are you running?" Lei Cheng called sharply.
"Don’t go back on your word," the bandit hissed without turning around. "You said anyone who survived goes free."
Lei Cheng closed his eyes. He pressed two fingers to his forehead.
"Fine," he said. "You are free to leave. I just hope you don’t kill anyone."
"Sure. I’ll change my ways." The bandit grinned over his shoulder and kept running. ’Idiot. Once I’m free, I’ll go for that Pong Clan’s third young miss. I heard she’s quite a beauty.’ He couldn’t hold his smile. ’She’ll sell for good money.’
The remaining prisoners in the garden exhaled in quiet, collective relief. They finally believed him. The deal was real.
They were wrong. Very wrong.
The moment the bandit passed through the courtyard gate, the vine that had snapped Lin Lin’s neck—already dismissed by everyone present—had not vanished. It had simply waited silently on the other side of the courtyard.
It moved now.
It shot outward and wrapped itself around the bandit from top to bottom in a single motion. The coils tightened in a fraction of a second, crushing every bone simultaneously.
The bandit died quickly, but not without pain. No one in the garden had noticed, as it had happened on the other side of the wall. Only the brief echo of snapping bones reached the courtyard before silence returned.
Lei Cheng sat cross-legged at the center of the garden, turned inward.
The experiments had given him what he needed. The path was clear. It was time to apply it to himself.
He began by sensing his own Blood Qi.
After several minutes, he opened his eyes and clicked his tongue.
’Weak.’
He had never cultivated even a basic stance, let alone a technique.
"Life Intent." He quickly enhanced himself as green light entered his body in floods. But previously, he had used Life Intent only to heal himself, not to increase strength. His Blood Qi existed, but it was too thin to work with effectively.
He pushed Life Intent through every meridian, every organ, every layer of tissue, strengthening his body from the inside out. He kept the flow increasing steadily.
After a few hours, he clenched his fist.
The difference was immediate. He had gained muscles—he glanced down and was no longer thin and slight like a weak kid.
’Strong.’
He smiled.
He took a breath, steadied himself, and then moved.
Life Intent and Death Intent fused with his Blood Qi in a flash. He deployed his comprehended Bizarre Dao to control the Bizarre Intent within the Bizarre Qi in the surroundings, drawing it down into his body.
He began fusing—each thread of Blood Qi and Bizarre Qi blending into new purple-gold flaming Blood Qi.
Almost half an hour passed.
"Lei Cheng." A voice echoed in his mind. "You didn’t avenge your parents..."
Lei Cheng opened his eyes and found himself standing in an endless dimension filled with blue water reaching his ankles. A golden eye as large as a sun burned in the sky above.
"Soul Dimension," he muttered, and turned toward the voice.
A person exactly like him stood in front of him with a wide smile. His temperament was eerie, and his sneaky glance and strange smile made Lei Cheng’s body jolt.
The duplicate’s eyes were black.
"My Inner Demon," Lei Cheng muttered. "This is going to be tough."
"Lei Cheng, Lei Cheng..." The Inner Demon sighed. "Did you forget how your parents died? You cannot go back to earth."
He paused, glaring at the indifferent Lei Cheng, and continued, pointing at himself. "Why don’t you give me your body? I’ll avenge them for you. Aren’t you tired from yesterday—that fox and everything else? Just give me your body and rest."
Lei Cheng looked at his double without expression for a long moment.
He put both hands in his sleeves, tilted his head, and smiled.