Chapter Fourteen: Spirit Communication, The Dragon-Serpent Demon King (Second Update)

Rage, fury—the kind that makes one’s hair stand on end. At this moment, any words of comfort were redundant, and restraint could only be practiced after the storm had passed. Understanding this, Ye Tianya quietly slipped away.

A father’s murder, a wife’s abduction—these are life’s two greatest hatreds. But the pain of a mother slain and a father wounded surpasses even these. Worse yet, all of it happened right under his nose.

He hated himself, but hated his enemy even more.

At some point, the spiritual power within him began to surge wildly, golden energy blazing across Ye Feng’s entire body.

Suddenly, he let out a furious roar, pouring all his spiritual power recklessly into his left arm.

With a thunderous crash, a single Dragon Seizing Hand strike shattered the stone wall, making the whole room tremble as if on the verge of collapse. Ye Feng’s eyes were bloodshot, veins crawling across his gaze; there was no need for pretense now. Seventy-eight spiritual marks shone in golden splendor across his chest.

He stepped over the rubble, striding out of the room.

“Kill—!” He howled at the sky, left hand reaching once more for spiritual energy… but his reserves were already drained.

Perhaps the demon king’s inner core sensed Ye Feng’s wrath; at just the right moment, it released a flood of spiritual energy into his body.

Again and again, five Dragon Seizing Hand strikes were unleashed with reckless abandon. Not a single building remained intact in the courtyard; everywhere, ruins and broken walls.

Nearby, the steward and a crowd of servants stood in the garden, still in their nightclothes, faces smeared with dust and ash, staring dumbfounded as their home was torn apart and the flowers of the little garden withered beneath Ye Feng’s merciless blows.

“What’s wrong with the young master? Could it be… he’s finally snapped from too much repression?” a trembling coachman muttered, brushing dirt from his face. All his worldly goods were in those rooms…

But soon, they all sensed something was wrong. Ye Feng, wild-eyed and frenzied, suddenly froze—his whole being radiating an even more terrifying aura.

After venting his rage, Ye Feng regained a sliver of clarity and quickly realized something was wrong with his body.

The spiritual energy from the demon king’s inner core surged continuously into him. When he finally tried to control it, it was already too late.

The swelling sensation filled every corner of his being—veins bulging, muscles rising, fine threads of blood oozing from his pores. If he couldn’t rein in the energy soon, he would explode.

Panic seized him. Perhaps before today he had not feared death, but now, he neither wanted nor could afford to die. A sea of blood lay between him and his enemies; he had to slaughter them one by one with his own hands.

In two lifetimes, he had never known a single day of parental love. In his previous life, as a child, he envied his peers who had toys, who were cherished by their parents and played with them. Even when he saw a parent scold a child, he thought that child was lucky, at least someone cared.

But he himself had only ever scavenged for scraps, or else he would go hungry—the taste of starvation was bitter indeed.

He had once had loving parents, but by the time he learned of it, it was already too late.

Blood and tears trickled from his swollen eyes as Ye Feng desperately circulated the Celestial King’s Manual, trying to harness the wild torrent of power.

But the mysterious crystal’s output was much too fast; every limb, every bone was swollen with energy. Even his acupoints were packed to bursting with near-liquid spiritual force.

By now, even the Dragon Serpent Demon King hadn’t intervened. Ye Feng nearly resigned himself: “Is this my end? But… I refuse to accept it…” He closed his eyes, blood-tears falling in silence.

Just then, a milky white radiance flared in his dantian. In the next instant, all the spiritual energy within him seemed to find a leader, beginning to flow along the path of the Celestial King’s Manual. Still wild, but finally showing signs of control.

The Dragon Serpent Demon King had acted—silent, yet giving Ye Feng hope for survival.

Never give up, not while there’s hope. Ye Feng sat cross-legged, focusing all his will on controlling the energy within.

In the Spirit Summoning Realm, condensing spiritual marks required a vast reserve of power. With the demon king guiding him, Ye Feng soon calmed, directing the energy to open new meridians.

Compared to the earlier agony, this pain was nothing. The old monster seemed unexpectedly considerate now; as Ye Feng prepared to break open new channels, he found assistance already there.

With each passing moment, Ye Feng’s body crackled and popped as if beans were bursting inside him. Each sound sent his muscles twitching as if struck by lightning.

But soon, a new spiritual mark began to form on his chest—at first a faint trace, but swiftly coalescing into a clear, golden line with the influx of power.

Seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one… ninety-three…

As the marks accumulated, a new problem arose: at this rate, reaching ninety-nine marks was only a matter of time. But no one had ever condensed a hundred spiritual marks. What then?

Even the ninety-three he now bore were the stuff of legends.

If one hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, no one would believe it possible for a person to manifest more than fifty spiritual marks.

Ancient records mentioned that even the greatest of the ancients, in the Spirit Summoning Realm, could only reach ninety-nine.

"Could Young Master Feng truly have the potential to become a figure akin to the ancients?" A servant who thought this instantly shook his head. "Nonsense. Just yesterday he was a good-for-nothing, and today he’s a genius? I’d never believe it, not even if threatened with death."

Time did not stop for a servant’s doubts. The number of spiritual marks on Ye Feng’s chest continued to rise.

Ninety-six… ninety-seven…

The steward and servants stood paralyzed by fear, their faces ashen. Yet Ye Feng only grew calmer. By the time he reached ninety marks, he had already turned his focus inward, toward the demon king’s inner core.

But the circumstances in his body were peculiar; every step closer to his dantian was a struggle. As the ninety-eighth mark formed, his consciousness drew closer to the demon king’s core.

But now another problem emerged: he had no idea how to control it.

Ninety-nine…

The swelling sensation returned, his muscles and veins bulging once more.

And now, the Dragon Serpent Demon King had stopped assisting him, as if choosing to watch from the sidelines.

“You… must commune with the spirit!” At the end of despair, hope appeared again. That same ethereal voice from when Ye Feng first learned the Celestial King’s Manual echoed in his mind.

But Ye Feng had no time to ponder the mystery. “Commune with the spirit? But with what? There isn’t even a trace of a demon beast around here…”

Suddenly, a possibility struck him: “For human cultivators, the essence lies in the dantian; for demon beasts, it’s in the inner core…”

Time flowed onward. The bottleneck between Spirit Summoning and Spirit Communion was like a great chasm, blocking all his spiritual energy.

The power kept accumulating, tiny cracks appearing across Ye Feng’s body, blood and spiritual energy seeping out together. If he didn’t find a way to vent it soon, he would die from his body’s explosion.

Only now did Ye Feng understand why the Dragon Serpent Demon King hadn’t acted immediately, why after intervening he’d suddenly withdrawn.

“So the old monster had foreseen this all along… Senior, forgive me…”

With a furious roar, Ye Feng threw all his willpower around the demon king’s inner core, squeezing it with everything he had.

A final, desperate gamble—succeed, or die.

Under his pressure, waves of violet ripples emerged from the crystal, merging into Ye Feng’s body.

“There’s hope!” Ye Feng realized that these violet waves were the demon beast’s innate talents. Under his spiritual suppression—or perhaps with the demon king’s tacit approval—they began to merge with his flesh.

“Boy… you’re getting a huge bargain!” Within the chaotic space, the Dragon Serpent Demon King’s form seemed to hunch as if suddenly aged.

ps: Second update! Please add to your collections!!!!!!!!