Liang Tianye has been a demonic cultivator for most of his life. He had initially started out as a righteous cultivator, but the amount of hyprocrisy that involved in being one didn't sit well with his Dao Heart.
So, he eventually went rogue and started cultivating Demonic Techniques. Only when he did that did he realize that his Dao Heart was truly aligned with the demonic cultivation path.
Ever since then, he hadn't looked back.
Sometimes, when he was deep in his wine and feeling particularly melancholic he would reminisce about those early days when he had roamed the world with righteousness in his heart and would laugh loud at how naïve he had been then.
He truly believed in the creed that in front of power everything else is useless. No matter the schemes or connections, in front of true power they will all be broken and stomped under the foot.
That is why he truly believed that the path to power was the one true dao for any cultivator to cultivate.
Cultivators, in essence, chase after power. Whether it be power over time, age, another person, an entire sect, or even the world, the truth was that cultivators always chased after power.
It had been countless years since he joined the Heavenly Demon Sect. And the Heavenly Demon Sect was the ideal place for someone like him to grow and flourish.
When he had initially joined the sect as an inner disciple, he had initially been suppressed by the other disciples there and was not even able to lift his head. But, he slowly but surely grew.
He wasn't a genius that cultivated fast or had extraordinary power in them. He wasn't a genius who was blessed by the heavens. He was just an ordinary cultivator who found his true calling in the demonic dao.
As he grew into his power slowly, he watched countless geniuses rise and fall like meteors. People who tormented him died while traveling outside leaving him stunned. People who he thought unbeatable faced defeat and lost their dao hearts in the outside world.
This left him wondering what was the true and safest path to power. It took him decades, but the knowledge came with experience. By the time he figured out the answer, he was already a Sect Elder of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
His cultivation which had been stagnating for years saw a tremendous rise after that particular epiphany. As his cultivation began to skyrocket, he began to make breakthrough after breakthrough.
The geniuses whom he had envied in the past were left either dead or in the dust in his wake. Liang Tianye, slowly but surely, rose in the ranks and eventually became the Vice-Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
Ever since then, he had remained mostly in the sect. He oversaw most of the sect affairs and cultivated them in his free time. Right now, he was one of the most powerful members of this generation of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
Personally, he was a simple man who loved to do as he pleased. Things like morality and other aspects that the righteous cultivators concern themselves with never bothered him much.
If he wanted something, he would take something.
And right now, he wanted that mortal who was exuding such a dense amount of killing intent. But this killing intent was different than what cultivators usually possessed. It wasn't honed or refined among countless battles.
This was raw, primal, killing intent that exuded from the depth of someone's heart.
Such killing intent was rare.
Usually, cultivators cultivated their killing intent by participating in life-and-death battles. They combine their desire to kill with their formidable will and cultivated spirit to exude killing intent.
That's why pure killing intent like what that mortal possessed was rare. Without utilizing qi, only a rare few could utilize the killing intent in their body. Especially, mortals would normally be consumed by such dense killing intent without qi to augment their bodies.
Indeed, with his cultivation, Liang Tianye was easily able to identify that the man going on a killing spree amidst the wild beasts was indeed a mortal. He could sense no cultivation emanating from that man's body.
While Liang Tianye could tell that the mortal over there possessed an incredibly strong physique for mortals, he was also sure that the man possessed no cultivation.
For one thing, if that man over there possessed even a small amount of cultivation, then this horde of wild beasts wouldn't be alive now. If such dense killing intent was unleashed by combining even a small amount of qi, then the attacks would be devastating.
That is why seeing such a scene made him stop.
Whoever this mortal was, he was extremely suited to cultivate the Demonic Dao. Especially, if his guess was right.
While such pure killing intents were rare to come by, it wasn't unheard of either. There are scrolls depicting how one can identify such things back at the sect. And one of the tell-tale signs of it was the transformation of the black killing aura into the red slaughter aura.
Such a situation can only arise if the individual in question had an embryonic form of Heart of Killing or Seed of Destruction inside them. It was truly a rare phenomenon to come across as no one knew the exact conditions to condense it.
Several demonic dao practitioners have tried to replicate the Heart of Killing, only to end up in failure. While they would be able to create the dense killing aura, they could never form a true Heart of Killing or Seed of Destruction.
If the right cultivation technique was matched with the Heart of Killing, the practitioner would soon see his cultivation skyrocket within months. And those who have the Heart of Killing will always have a far easier time grasping their dao if it was based on killing or destruction.
As much as he wanted to rush toward the direction Hui Wanren had left, Liang Tianye couldn't bring himself to leave this mortal alone. This mortal was like an unpolished gem, waiting for the right person to come along and unearth it.
If he could be roped into the Heavenly Demon Sect, then this mortal would surely become a true demon in the future. And if he doesn't die prematurely, there is a high chance that this mortal would rise above most people in the cultivation world.
However, Liang Tianye didn't rush to rescue the mortal from the horde either. It would be child's play for him to do that. With a mere flip of his hand, Liang Tianye could obliterate everything in the surroundings.
It would be too easy for him to rescue the mortal, slay the beasts, and move on with his original mission. But, doing so would hinder the progress of the mortal over there.
For an embryonic form of Heart of Killing to form and stabilize, it doesn't just need a heart that has true killing intent deep in it. The person must voluntarily indulge in it and kill living beings for it to truly stabilize.
Right now, the mortal was truly indulged in the killing. This was the stage where the embryonic form truly stabilized. Until it did so, it couldn't be considered a true Heart of Killing. So, this was a rare opportunity for the mortal as well to accomplish something that most demonic cultivators can only dream about.
Interfering at this moment may save the mortal's life, but it would stop the embryonic form of Heart of Killing from truly stabilizing. If not for the Heart of Killing, Liang Tianye wouldn't even spare a look towards the mortal.
So, he merely observed from the side and watched the chaos below rage further.
While observing, he also kept an eye on the two figures that had hidden themselves in the distance and watched this event unfold as well. He could easily deduce that they were two juniors who had tried to obtain the Seven Colored Soul Lotus, only to lose out.
He was curious as to their motives as well. If it was a normal time, Liang Tianye would have tried to capture them. But, things were a little dicey at this moment and they both were soft permissions either.
Trying to mess with them with his higher cultivation would bring about untold problems for the sect and himself in the future. So, he just kept an eye on them and didn't do anything.
He wouldn't act unless they did something to spoil the event that was happening below. If he even suspected them to harbor some intent to disrupt the chaos below, he would step up and stop them unceremoniously.
Finding a talent with the Heart of Killing itself was rare and finding that said talent at the moment his Heart of Killing stabilized was indeed as rare as finding the presence of Seven Colored Soul Lotus.
Liang Tianye was sure that those two juniors were also waiting to see if the mortal below would succeed. And if he did, they would most probably try to rope him into their faction.
And if the refusal was presented, they would most probably kill the mortal and end a serious threat in the bud itself. He couldn't fault them for their thinking. But, unfortunately for them, he was here now and he would never allow such a seedling to be destroyed and led astray by those imbeciles of the righteous faction.
Just then, a deafening roar was heard from the distance causing Liang Tianye to look over.
In the distance, a true demonic beast was charging toward the mortal. It was bowling over the wild beasts that blocked its path, and was making a beeline for the mortal with madness in its eyes.
*****
A/N: Hey folks!
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