Free Web NovelChapter 490: Chapter 483: Nightmare of the Heart Demon
A tall figure zipped across a desolate Gobi desert in a foreign land, heading straight toward a distant point.
He had the white hair of an old man but the face of a youth, carrying the transcendent air of an Immortal.
As he raced onward, Zhang Dongwei could feel the faint sense of being watched growing ever more distinct.
When he arrived before a desolate, broken cliff, the strange sensation reached its zenith.
He knew the threat was here.
"Come out. I’m here."
"It’s time to settle the grudges of a thousand years ago."
Zhang Dongwei stood his ground, his back ramrod straight. His figure was like an unsheathed Sharp Sword, and an intense Magnetic Field Power emanated from him, causing the winds to rise and the clouds to churn—a Celestial Phenomenon.
RUMBLE!
Where Zhang Dongwei stood, massive thunderclouds gathered in the dry sky. Lightning roiled within them, and it seemed a torrential downpour could begin at any second.
The bearing of an Immortal, attended by a Celestial Phenomenon.
"What’s going on over there?!"
On a nearby highway, people in passing cars stared in shock at the strange scene in the distance. They cried out in amazement, pulling out their phones and cameras to take pictures.
In the valley, Zhang Dongwei’s voice was like the tolling of a great bell, vibrating and echoing ceaselessly.
"Grudges? Tsk. Is that how you see what happened back then? If not for us, how would you have had the chance to see the world as it is today? How could you still be bathing in the sun and wind of the mortal realm, still feeling the blood flow in your veins and the pulse of life itself?"
"Everything you enjoy now is built upon us as its foundation, yet you see it as a grudge?"
At the same time, a cold, mocking laugh rang out.
The voice seemed to come from all corners of the valley, yet it also felt as if it had sprung from within his own mind. It was incredibly eerie and difficult to pinpoint.
’I can’t tell where it’s coming from...’
Zhang Dongwei’s eyes narrowed slightly. Despite his keen perception of magnetic fields, he couldn’t discern the direction of the voice.
"If I had the choice, I would have died an honorable death in that era."
Zhang Dongwei said in a low voice, his eyes narrowed.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
Upon hearing Zhang Dongwei’s words, the voice burst into wild laughter, as if it had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
"No, you wouldn’t. Even if you could do it over a hundred times, you would still make the same choice."
"Stop lying to yourself. All this time—your stance, your principles, your sense of duty? They’re all flimsy lies. In their most bigoted and foolish form, they are preventing you from truly understanding your own heart."
"They make you believe your choices were pure and noble, flawless and lofty. But what’s the reality? I have already seen into your true heart."
The voice spoke again, calm and right beside his ear. Zhang Dongwei knew the speaker was here, yet he still couldn’t pinpoint their exact location.
"You’re happy, aren’t you?"
"You’re attached to this world. Or rather, you’re attached to the uncertainty and excitement unique to life itself. The morning light when you wake, the searing heat of your surging Bloodline, the complex tapestry of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight! You want to remain in this world forever, to eternally possess these sensations that belong only to the living. Isn’t that right?"
"The truth is, you could have found release long ago. You had a thousand ways to end it all before you ever met us, to vanish completely from this world. But you didn’t. You cling to it."
"You use one ’righteous’ or ’moral’ excuse after another to numb yourself, to console yourself, but it’s not enough to hide the truth."
"You tell yourself, ’I want to see this new world.’ You tell yourself, ’I want to pass on my skills.’ You tell yourself, ’I must settle the thousand-year grudge with them.’ With this constant stream of self-hypnosis, you’ve allowed yourself—this ’hidden danger’—to survive to this very day."
"It all sounds so grand and glorious, doesn’t it? But just as humanity has always used righteousness and morality to gloss over its own sin and selfishness, how filthy and laughable are these grand justifications you use to hypnotize yourself and satisfy your own selfish desires?"
"I’ve seen right through you. A self-righteous hypocrite! A pathetic wretch begging for survival! Face your own heart! Look! Your brain, your muscles, your very Bloodline—they are all rejoicing in the rhythm of life."
"That’s why I say, even if you were given a hundred chances to do it over, you would make the exact same choice!"
"Because *this* is the real you!"
The voice was filled with unrestrained, wild laughter, a mixture of disdain, contempt, pity, and a host of other complex emotions.
Every sentence, every word, was like the sharpest Sharp Sword, stabbing relentlessly into Zhang Dongwei’s body and leaving his heart riddled with holes.
It was as if his every cell, his every inch of thought, was being mercilessly dismantled.
’Is that how it is? It seems so...’
’What he’s saying... it doesn’t seem wrong at all.’
’Why didn’t I end my own life? Why, knowing full well that my existence is a great hidden danger, did I keep deceiving myself with one excuse after another? Why didn’t I immediately end this mistaken life, instead dragging it out until now?’
’What am I so happy about? What am I clinging to and yearning for?!’
’Is that the real me?!’
HUFF! HUFF!
Unconsciously, Zhang Dongwei’s breathing grew heavy. In that moment, his will, once as firm as steel, began to waver.
It was just like a thousand years ago, when that unknown voice had first appeared.
His heart had a flaw.
That was why he could never reach the Absolute peak that Zhou Yuanjue had.
Under the influence of his opponent’s power and words that struck straight to the soul, the flaw in his heart was dissected and laid bare.
A thousand years ago, it was precisely because Doctor Nightmare had seen this flaw in Zhang Dongwei’s heart that he had chosen him.
While personally luring him into corruption, Doctor Nightmare had left this flaw behind, burying it deep within Zhang Dongwei’s heart.
When the right words were combined with the suppression from a bloodline’s magnetic field, this flaw would be magnified infinitely.
But Zhang Dongwei was, after all, Zhang Dongwei. At the very moment he was about to descend into chaos and despair, he forcibly suppressed the storm in his heart and frantically searched for the source of the voice.
If he couldn’t find his opponent, he would surely lose.
The control his opponent had over him was far stronger than he could have ever imagined.
"Trying to find me? You’re looking in the wrong place. I am not somewhere else. I come from your ’heart’..."
The eerie voice rang out again. This time, Zhang Dongwei clearly sensed its source.
The voice was actually coming from his own chest!
He jerked his head down.
A black fissure had split open on his chest.
Countless withered arms made of shadow shot out from the fissure, grabbing Zhang Dongwei’s body and yanking him forward.
The world spun around him. Zhang Dongwei’s expression went blank for a moment. When his eyes focused again, he had been transported to an unknown place.
The world was a murky, grayish black, shrouded in a hazy fog. It was still a valley, but the mountains were now piled high with ghastly white bones that emitted a cold, white light. The cawing of crows echoed in the sky. It was as if he had been plunged into a nightmare.
This time, in a distant part of the valley, Zhang Dongwei finally saw a figure.
He was dressed impeccably in a suit, like a member of society’s upper echelon. His hair was slicked back neatly, and a smile played on his handsome face. He gave Zhang Dongwei a slight, gentlemanly bow and spoke.
"A pleasure to meet you. I am one of the Seven Mo Luo, the Nightmare of the Heart Demon. My name is Hui Ming."
