Chapter 75: The Arrival

Chapter 75 - The Arrival The cool sensation was faint at first—like a fleeting breeze in blistering heat, there one moment and swallowed by rolling waves of fire the next. It was a brief respite, a single stolen breath after a grueling trek before the journey resumed without pause. Had Lordi Payne not been writhing in excruciating pain, he might have missed the faint coolness entirely. But then, the comfortable chill began to spread. To onlookers, the azure glow enveloping Lordi Payne's body shuddered before collapsing inward, drawn toward his dantian like water spiraling down a drain. Oen Shinae's heart, which had just begun to settle, lurched back into her throat. The most agonizing stage had passed—now came the true trial. The Dao Flame had to fuse with his flesh, the Ice Pith Fire wholly absorbed into his very being. Success or annihilation hung in the balance. Many so-called "steadfast", "iron-will" cultivators had crumbled at this precipice, their resolve shattering mere steps from triumph. The Pyro Fusion Art promised unparalleled power, but its price was written in ashes. Until the final moment, nothing was certain. Yet Lordi Payne remained eerily calm, his composure a fragile anchor in the storm. It eased Oen Shinae's dread, if only slightly. Beside her, Fang Jit stifled a sigh, shaking off a prickle of envy. He stepped closer, voice hushed. "Senior Sister, rest assured—I'll guard Junior Brother Lordi Payne with my life." "Silence." Oen Shinae's glare was razor-sharp, she frowned, scolding in a low voice, "Junior Brother Payne has not yet completed the fusing of Dao Flame. Don't disturb him. One misstep could ruin everything." "Aye, senior sister." Fang Jit swallowed the humiliation caused by himself, but he didn't get angry at this time, he quickly forced an apologetically smile, "My bad... " Outside the array formation, Sharky Ink's body trembled with suppressed rage, his envy twisted into madness. If he had not been restrained by the bone-growing flower, unable to move or even speak, he would have been hysterically screaming. Why...? The question festered in his mind, a poison rotting his Dao Heart. WHY HIM?! "I joined the holy sect so young, and my resolve to Great Dao was unshakable." Juniors like Kinson Wexford had long since surpassed him. And now... this. "Over the relentless decades, I have been devoted to cultivation—sleepless nights, bloodied knuckles, sacrifices beyond counting—yet after reaching the Foundation Stage, I remained trapped at the Early Phase without any progress!. "Juniors like Kinson Wexford had long since surpassed me one after another. And now... this?!" Lordi Payne. A lowlife whelp young enough to be his grandson. A newbie who had barely spent a moon within the holy sect. A brat who hadn't even been born when Sharky Ink had clawed his way through the Deathveil Bloodline's honor. And yet— The azure glow around Lordi Payne pulsed rhythmically, like the calm breath of destiny itself. The Dao Flame's fusion was succeeding. "Even just bare few weeks joined the holy sect, his status is superior to me because of his damned talent." "Now he is about to succeed in fusing the Dao Flame into his body smoothly, and this make his future boundless." "Lies..." Sharky Ink's vision swam crimson. "Heaven's justice is a lie!" Despair had driven him to treachery. He never wanted to betray the Deathveil—but what choice did he have? The world had forced his hand! And now, as he watched Lordi Payne about to ascend to heights he could never reach, something inside him snapped. Sharky Ink's eyes were bloodshot, staring at the figure surrounded by the azure halo in the Seige Array. "Burn," he willed, teeth grinding. "Burn to ashes, you wretched thief of fates!" He made countless resentful vows in his heart. In that moment, he would have sold his soul to the vilest demon just to see Lordi Payne fail. "As long as this brat failed at this moment and was burnt to ashes on the spot, I, Sharky Ink would be willingly to be enslaved by the evil forever without regret!" However, no matter how angry and despair Sharky Ink was, he still found that the azure halo on Lordi Payne's body faded at a leisurely and measured pace—calm, deliberate—slipping away. Sharky Ink's stomach dropped. He knew what it meant.—it was Lordi Payne nearing total fusion, the flame bonding with his flesh. Once the glow vanished, he'd look ordinary, the Cold Marrow Fire one with his body, growing with his cultivation. Its primal nature would burn away impurities, refining him ceaselessly. Its unique chill would transform his marrow, forging a foundation stronger than peers—a step ahead, always ahead. Of course, he knew well that this was not a failure sign of fusion. On the contrary, it was a sign that Lordi Payne was about to completely absorb the Ice Pith Fire and refine it into his flesh. When all the azure glow around Lordi Payne vanished completely, he would be looked like an ordinary cultivator. At that time, the Ice Pith Fire would be integrated with his body and grow strong together with his cultivation level. During his future path to Great Dao, the features of the primal Dao Flame would scour his impurities, purify his base marrow at all times. "Moreover, due to the unique earth chill characteristics of the Ice Pith Fire, this Dao Flame can also boost Lordi Payne's bone marrow with a special transformation, making him stronger than average cultivators of the same level." "With every breath, his Dao Base would grow stronger, purer, untouchable." "Reaching to Foundation Stage with such strengthened Dao Base would make this Lordi Payne more powerful than other sect comrades naturally. A single step ahead today—a thousand miles ahead tomorrow." Back in the day, Miu Tyanh and Kinson Wexford had wrestled their own Dao Flames into submission, their triumphs propelling them from the teeming abyss of the Outer Sect—hundreds of millions strong in the Outer Sect of Abyss Pit Sect—to the Inner Sect's rarefied air, then soaring to claim thrones among the thirteen Bloodline Lords. And now Lordi Payne, this whelp, mirrored their ascent with chilling ease. "I won't fucking take this!" Sharky Ink bellowed in his skull, a roar of pure hate clawing to break free. He yearned to shatter the Bone Bloom Curse, activate the Siege Array immediately, and tear Lordi Payne to bloody ribbons right there in the mire's skeletal gloom. "Hmm?" Oen Shinae twitched, sensing a quiver in the Bone Bloom's icy grip. Her brow creased, and with a flick of her wrist, a blood-red spark flared at her fingertip—a casual seal cast like a death knell. Beyond the array, Sharky Ink's eyes bulged, his muted scream choking silent as the curse gagged his tongue. Dark purple-black blood oozed down the bone chains, a vile ichor staining the mire. Inside the carapace, a jagged bone spike erupted, punching through his chest with a wet crunch. Her voice slithered into his ears, cold as a grave's whisper: "Behave yourself." "That fucking bitch—that tit-swinging wench!" Sharky Ink's mind reeled, fury and pain shoving him to the edge of blackout. Hate surged, a molten tide in his chest. "This aloof whore struts around all high and indifferent—why's she shielding Lordi Payne like he's her damn pup? Bet she spread her legs for Kinson Wexford, got the story on this brat early, then let Fang Jit and me mock him bloody while she plays the saintly senior. Fuck! Where in the abyss are Wraithbone's men?" A flicker of doubt gnawed him. "What if Miu Tyanh's scared shitless of Fairy Lith? All that thunder before—just noise, no storm? Pulled his dogs back?" Thinking of this possibility, Sharky Ink's rage flood poured, nearly choking him dead. "No fucking way! Fairy Lith's high and mighty, sure, but Sect Successor Chou matches her strut for strut—and Miu's her golden boy. With Sect Successor Chou's endorsement, and that Bloodline Lord's obsession over avenging his brother, Miu Toanh, he'd never spare a chance to avenge his brothe!" "Delayed—they're delayed, by something, yes that's it." He clung to the thought, frantic. "I left no trace marks since the Yin-Yang Venomgulf—they're hunting us now. Scouring the abyss. They'll come—they have to!" But as the azure glow on Lordi Payne's body dimmed, the fusion nearing its end, and the Skeletal Roost Mire enviroment stayed still—no rustle, no shadow—despair sank its claws in Sharky Ink's gut. "Am I, Sharky Ink, damned to rot? Cursed off the True Dao's path?" The question festered. He'd slogged through and endured Deathveil's decline for years, finally making a despair leap towards Wraithbone's light, how could he land in this pitiful pit. In fact, Lordi Payne's situation at this moment was not easy at all—far from it.! After the coolness feeling deep in the bone marrow spread, the agony pain was indeed greatly reduced. Lordi Payne also breathed a sigh of relief at first, thinking that the worst—inhuman torment experience just now had finally passed over. He was dead wrong. Who knew that what followed was not pain, but numbness and itching that was more unbearable than pain. It began as a twitch—just beneath the right shoulder blade. A flicker of discomfort, easily ignored. Then the crawling started. The itching that emanated from the bones almost made him crazy! The itch wasn't just on the surface—it seethed beneath the muscles, as if parasites writhed between sinew and bone. If he could control his body, he'd draw the Blade of Life Hater. Not to scratch—to flay. To peel back the skin like rotten fruit and scrape the itch from the muscle beneath. To gouge his flesh, rip out every bone. However, under system control, no matter how hysterically he screamed, wailed, and begged for mercy in his mind, the AllFullOS system cared nothing for his collapse indifferent. It churned on, a cold machine absorbing the Ice Pith Fire into his flesh with ruthless focus. His pupils shrank to trembling pinpricks, irises quivering like trapped flies. Shadows bled into his vision, darkness seeping like ink through murky water. His throat clamped shut, lungs and guts twisting with an impossible, suffocating itch no scream could purge. A single, feral thought consumed him: SCRATCH. But he couldn't move. Not a twitch. However, Lordi Payne was unable to move. Cold sweat burst forth, icy rivulets streaming from every pore, yet his skin blazed—a furnace of prickling torment, his clothes a cage of phantom needles jabbing deeper. Electric jolts raced along his limbs, nerves snapping like frayed wires under the itch's relentless tide. As the itch surged fiercer, his pores yawned wide, oozing a thick, sludge-like filth—impurities purged in rancid waves. Seeing this, Oen Shinae and Fang Jit hurriedly held their breath—the entire Seige Array filled with a rancid stench. —— At that very moment, Miu Tyanh prowled into the Skeletal Roost Mire, his boots sinking into the muck after finding naught but echoes in the Necrospore Chasm and Maggotcradle Summit. The air greeted him with a bite—a denser shroud of Yin-Chill Cold Qi than he'd ever tasted here before, thick and cloying, seeping into his lungs like a specter's breath. The mire sprawled around him, a gray wasteland of skeletal cranes and stagnant pools, where even the mosses and reeds bore a faint, ghostly frost—a shimmering veil of residue, spilled from the Ice Pith Fire's wild outburst. He plucked a leaf from the mire's grasp, its edges crusted with that telltale chill, and studied it with a predator's focus. A sneer twisted his lips. "Got you, you little motherfucker—no hole deep enough to hide in now," he muttered, voice a low growl as he flicked the leaf aside. His footwork flared, a sudden burst of speed slicing through the fog, his shadow streaking like a vengeful wraith. Not far off, cloaked in the mire's heavy, gray mist, a pair of ink-black eyes glimmered, unblinking, peering from the haze. They lingered, cold and calculating, as if weighing a dark intent, before melting silently into the gloom.