Demon Immortal

Duncan felt as if he was immersed in a raging river.

As he concentrated on unraveling the mystery present in the blood that was held in his hands, he could feel something far grander from it. Now that he had let go of his apprehension regarding the blood, he could feel it more intuitively.

Thus a picture emerged in his mind.

In that picture, he was immersed in a raging river. The flow of the river was ferocious enough to destabilize him. He could feel its power intuitively. The river raged all around as he tried to stay afloat in it.

Furthermore, he could hear the various roars in his ears. There was a different feeling related to each and every roar he heard. He felt as if these roars were issued by different people. It was as if he was hearing people roar majestically across time and space.

With each roar, Duncan could feel the river raging even more fiercer. It was as if the river was drawing sustenance from these roars. The more roars that echoed in his ears, the more fiercer the pull of the river was.

Feeling this, Duncan could only conclude that these roars were stimulating the river. Frowing lightly Duncan felt as if he was in a bit of a predicament at this moment.

Even though he knew that nothing here would harm him, his heart and mind were agitated a bit. Especially, as the river raged fiercely, he couldn't help but want to stay firm on the spot. Something told him intuitively that he could not be careless and be swept away by the river.

And it was only becoming harder with each roar that echoed in his ears.

As time went on, the roars Duncan heard were becoming more and more clear. Conversely, the fierceness of the river felt more and more comfortable. Duncan's eyes began to turn red unknowingly as he gritted his teeth and stood his ground.

Duncan didn't know how long he stood in that fierce river. All he could concentrate on as time passed was to stand firm and not be swept away. The increasingly louder roars were beginning to irritate him a bit.

If Duncan had to describe those roars, then he would say that they were akin to generals roaring orders to soldiers on a battlefield. Even though he hadn't seen such a scene in reality, he had heard about such stuff in Starsinger Town. He had imagined countless times about such scenes and could only relate these roars to them.

He didn't know if it was the right way to describe these roars. But, a part of him told Duncan that he wouldn't be far off. All these roars had one thing in common – defiance.

Yes, these roars all personified defiance in one way or another.

Duncan tried to not let these roars affect him much. But, it was a task in vain. He was becoming increasingly irritable as time passed. He felt as if something was stuck in his chest.

A belief was beginning to emerge within himself that it would be good to go and get carried away in those roars. But, Duncan didn't want to do that. He didn't know which thought of him was right or wrong. He didn't know even if these were his thoughts.

Everything felt confusing as time passed. Nothing made sense. It was as if everything was random and very sudden. Duncan didn't like that feeling one bit. His chest ached as if something was trying to come out. But, Duncan didn't know what it was.

All through these hazy impressions and incoherence, there was one thought that remained passive in the background. And all Duncan could do was to grab hold of it and cling onto it with sheer stubbornness.

I must not be carried away by this river.

That was the only thought he could trust to be his. Everything else felt like both his and not his. It was confusing him a lot. So, Duncan could only grab hold onto that one sane thought he had and persist.

He felt as if his body was battered by the raging river a lot. It was as if the river was trying its best to throw him off. Waves of blood-colored liquid buffeted Duncan relentlessly causing his footing to become unstable.

As time passed, Duncan didn't know why he was doing what he was doing. The original intention had long gone into the myriad of roars and hazy thoughts that were forming randomly in his mind. He only knew that he should stand firm. Nothing mattered to him.

As much as Duncan tried to resist, he felt as if he was nearing his limit and couldn't hold on any longer. But, he was unwilling to be swept away. He felt that since this was inside his mind, he should be the one deciding stuff.

In the end, Duncan's irritability became hard to ignore. The physical discomfort didn't matter to Duncan much, but these random roars and the ensuing thoughts made it difficult for him to hold on to the one thought he felt like he should hold onto.

At last, Duncan tossed his head back and let out a howl of unwillingness and anger to vent his irritability. As his voice overwhelmed the echoes he heard, his mind cleared a bit and he held onto to the original thought of not being swept away in this river.

Duncan shouted out his defiance when he realized that he could use his own voice to counter those roars. He shouted against the raging river. He shouted against those echoes that were driving him mad. He shouted against anything and everything that wanted to sweep him away.

The next moment, everything became eerily quiet. He could feel the river still for a second. He could feel those roars pause for a moment as if taken aback by his answering shout. He could feel his body stabilize like a pillar in the turbulent river.

The moment lasted for a short while.

Then, came chaos.

It was as if the river was infuriated by his defiance. The river raged as it had never done before. The roars weren't idle either. They roared back even more as if they felt disrespected by Duncan's defiance.

This time, those roars weren't echoes.

On the contrary, they felt as if they were coming from around him. Duncan's mind blanked immediately. His head felt dizzy and then he blacked out without any further action.

BOOM!

Duncan's eyes shot open inside the cave. Next moment, he spurted out blood from his mouth and began to cough hard. He couldn't sit still anymore. He slipped sideways and fell down.

His entire body shook. Immense pain wracked all over his body as he began to convulse. Blood sprayed out of all his orifices as if he had suffered heavy internal damage. Duncan twitched on the floor uncontrollably for a long time.

*****

Several hours later, Duncan's bloodshot eyes shot open as clarity returned to him.

Duncan looked at the bloody floor beside him and suppressed a shiver that came over his body. In his entire life, he had never felt such pain. It was as if something within him was being torn apart.

Just imagining itself was enough for Duncan to shiver in fear. Duncan wasn't someone who wasn't unaccustomed to pain. Being a spirit stone miner meant enduring long hours of arduous work that was both monotonous and stressful.

He had been in several situations during his time as a miner that caused him serious pain. After he left his hometown, he had been constantly fighting as well. So, he wasn't a stranger to pain. But, this one was very different from anything else he had ever felt.

Just looking at the blood splattered on the floor was enough to make his scalp tingle.

Duncan slowly dragged his body towards a corner and used the support of the cave to sit up. Struggling to breathe, Duncan took in large gulps of air to relieve the uncomfortable situation.

Slowly, the fear in his eyes subsided and Duncan began to calm down. He never expected that trying to resist the roars would bring him such a disaster. His pale face still contained traces of blood that had leaked out of his orifices.

Duncan knew that this time he had made a serious error. He was worried about the state his body was in currently. He hadn't yet checked upon the status of his body and was worried about what he would find.

But, he also knew that he needed to repair his body as quickly as possible. If these kinds of internal injuries are left to linger they would become hidden dangers in his cultivation journey. So, gritting his teeth, Duncan forcefully calmed himself down and started concentrating on his body to figure out how much damage he had sustained right now.

Duncan closed his eyes and sent his consciousness inward trying to assess the damage he had incurred due to the backlash. Time passed slowly and Duncan's focus was completely inwards during this time.

After a long time, Duncan opened his eyes with a confused expression on his face. His face showed puzzlement as he started mumbling to himself incoherently.

"What the fuck? My body is even more robust than it was before. What happened? Didn't I encounter backlash due to a cultivation mishap? Why is my body fine?"

Duncan frowned as he searched his body for any injuries. Strangely enough, Duncan wasn't able to find anything. The pain he felt was like phantom pain. He had no internal injuries in his body and he couldn't figure out why certain regions were in pain.

This confused Duncan utterly.

Common logic dictated that he must have suffered severe internal injuries due to the backlash from resisting those roars. However, his current situation was anything but that.

If not for the pain and the blood on the floor, Duncan would have even believed that he had hallucinated everything. His body felt even more stronger than ever before. He didn't know how to classify this mysterious event.

Did he really suffer backlash? If so, why are there no internal injuries? Duncan knew he had above-average healing abilities. But, even they wouldn't be capable of repairing his body to this level.

But, if he didn't suffer backlash, how come there is so much blood on the floor? Not to mention that mind-numbing pain he had felt earlier. Even now there are some phantom pains across his body.

What the hell was happening?

Duncan knew that there was only one thing that could answer this question. The answers to his questions probably lay with the culprit of the event. And it was the only region he had avoided while trying to check on his body.

The Black Heart!