The first thing Ao Longtian heard was crying.
Not the ordinary cry of a newborn.
This cry was wrong.
It carried through the manor after midnight, slipping beneath doors and winding through the long corridors of the Ao Clan like a thin blade.
Longtian opened his eyes.
For several breaths, he remained still.
Outside his window, the night was silent beneath a pale moon. Ancient trees surrounded the western residence, their leaves barely moving in the cold breeze. Lanterns burned along the stone paths, their flames occasionally bending as the wind passed.
Then the child cried again.
Longtian sat upright.
He had heard the sound many times during the past several days.
Yet tonight was different.
There was something inside the cry.
A pressure.
Something that made the spiritual energy inside the room tremble.
Longtian swung his feet onto the floor.
"Again?"
He reached for his robe.
The moment his fingers touched the fabric, there was a knock at the door.
"My lord?"
It was his maid.
Longtian opened the door.
The young woman stood outside with her head lowered. She was pale.
"What happened?"
She hesitated.
"The young master…"
Longtian's expression changed.
"What about him?"
"He is crying again."
"I heard."
"No."
The maid swallowed.
"You don't understand."
Longtian stared at her.
The maid looked toward the nursery.
"His eyes opened."
Longtian said nothing.
"He is only a few days old," she continued. "But when I entered the room, he was looking directly at me."
"So?"
"He followed me with his eyes."
Longtian frowned.
"Children do that."
"He wasn't looking at me."
Her voice dropped.
"He was looking through me."
The hallway suddenly felt colder.
Longtian stepped past her.
"Stay here."
"My lord—"
"Stay."
He walked toward the nursery.
The Ao Clan's western residence had been constructed generations ago by cultivators who believed every important room should be protected by formations.
The nursery was no exception.
Small protective runes were carved beneath the floorboards. Defensive talismans had been placed behind the walls. A formation stone sat beneath the child's cradle, quietly releasing a warm spiritual current.
Everything should have been safe.
Yet as Longtian approached the door, every formation rune along the hallway flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went dark.
Longtian stopped.
His eyes narrowed.
That shouldn't have happened.
The protective formation had been maintained for generations.
He placed his palm against the door.
Cold.
Far too cold.
He pushed it open.
The room was dark.
The lantern beside the cradle had gone out.
Longtian stepped inside.
"Who's there?"
No answer.
The child's crying had stopped.
That was worse.
Longtian slowly approached the cradle.
The infant was awake.
He was staring upward.
His tiny hands rested against the blanket.
His eyes were open.
Completely open.
Too focused.
Longtian stared at him.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the infant smiled.
Longtian's blood ran cold.
It wasn't the smile that frightened him.
It was the blood.
A thin red line emerged from the corner of the child's mouth.
Longtian immediately reached down.
The infant's skin was burning.
"What…"
The child suddenly screamed.
Every window in the room shattered.
Longtian raised his arm as shards of glass flew toward him.
BOOM!
A wave of energy exploded outward.
The nursery walls cracked.
The cradle flipped into the air.
Longtian caught it.
The child was still screaming.
Something black crawled beneath his skin.
Veins.
No.
Not veins.
Something else.
Thin black lines spread from the child's chest toward his neck.
Longtian's expression hardened.
"Demonic Qi."
The words escaped his mouth before he could stop them.
He had seen demonic Qi before.
Every cultivator had.
But this wasn't ordinary demonic Qi.
It was alive.
It moved beneath the child's skin as if searching for something.
Searching.
Longtian suddenly understood.
It wasn't trying to kill the child.
It was using him.
"For what?"
The infant stopped crying.
His tiny head slowly turned.
His eyes met Longtian's.
Then a voice whispered.
Not from the child's mouth.
Inside Longtian's head.
Father.
Longtian froze.
The room became silent.
"What did you say?"
The infant smiled again.
The black veins spread across his face.
Father.
Longtian stepped backward.
He had never heard the child speak.
The infant was barely old enough to breathe properly.
Yet that voice had been clear.
Adult.
Cold.
Ancient.
Longtian's instincts screamed.
He released his spiritual sense.
The moment his consciousness touched the child—
Pain exploded through his skull.
Longtian staggered.
Images flooded his mind.
A battlefield beneath a red sky.
Millions of corpses.
A black ocean.
A mountain split in half.
A monstrous figure standing beneath the moon.
Then—
a pair of golden eyes.
Watching him.
Waiting.
Longtian tore his spiritual sense away.
He fell against the wall.
Blood ran from his nose.
"What are you?"
The child stared at him.
The black markings suddenly formed a pattern across his chest.
A symbol.
Longtian recognized it.
His face became pale.
Impossible.
He had seen that symbol only once.
Inside the restricted records of the Ao Clan.
It belonged to an ancient demonic bloodline that should have disappeared thousands of years ago.
The Heaven Devouring Demon Blood.
A bloodline that didn't simply strengthen its host.
It consumed them.
It replaced them.
It turned the host into something else.
Longtian looked at the child.
"No."
The infant began laughing.
The sound was tiny.
Almost innocent.
That somehow made it worse.
Longtian rushed forward.
He grabbed the child's wrist.
The instant he touched him, something exploded.
Blood erupted from the infant's body.
The black markings became crimson.
Longtian felt something enter his arm.
His veins burned.
He released the child.
Too late.
A strand of dark-red energy had already entered his body.
Longtian dropped to one knee.
His heart stopped.
For one terrifying second, he couldn't breathe.
Then—
THUMP.
His heart beat again.
Harder.
THUMP.
The entire room shook.
Longtian looked down at his chest.
Something was moving beneath his skin.
The demon blood was spreading.
"No."
He forced spiritual energy into his meridians.
The demonic energy devoured it.
Longtian tried again.
The same thing happened.
His cultivation began collapsing.
One realm.
Then another.
His spiritual energy was being consumed at an impossible speed.
Outside the nursery, the maid screamed.
"My lord!"
Longtian couldn't answer.
His bones cracked.
His muscles tightened.
His vision blurred.
The child began crying again.
But this time the crying wasn't frightening.
It sounded almost sad.
Longtian looked toward the cradle.
The infant reached one tiny hand toward him.
The voice returned.
Father…
Longtian's breathing stopped.
Something inside that word was different.
Fear.
Not the child's fear.
Someone else's.
The demon blood was afraid.
Longtian realized that before the blood had entered his body, it had been searching for something.
And now it had found it.
Him.
A pulse of crimson energy exploded from his chest.
The entire western residence disappeared beneath a wave of pressure.
Every cultivator within several miles looked toward the Ao Clan.
And high above the clouds—
something opened its eyes.
A voice whispered into the darkness.
"He has awakened."
Another voice answered.
"Too early."
Silence.
Then the first voice laughed.
"Then let us see what he becomes."
Back inside the ruined nursery, Ao Longtian fell unconscious.
The infant crawled toward the edge of the broken cradle.
His tiny hand touched Longtian's blood-covered fingers.
The demon blood between them connected.
For one brief moment—
two souls became one.
And somewhere deep inside Longtian's soul, something ancient opened its eyes.