Trials of the Abyss
Chapter 760: Dao of Oblivion

Chapter 760: Dao of Oblivion

The fundamental laws of the Lamentveil World shifted subtly when Yuan Hui reclaimed her true self.

The demonic energy and negative emotions of this world coalesced into something noble—a higher form of yearning.

For a Great Demon God to rise from the Lamentveil World was the greatest wish of its inhabitants. In their hearts, Yuan Hui was the only one worthy of that role, the embodiment of that grand dream.

Her name reverberated through the hearts of the Lamentveil World's strongest beings, echoing thunderously through their lips. Countless voices cried out her name.

"Yuan Hui! Yuan Hui! Yuan..."

Yuan Hui's name gradually blurred into the Primordial Demon[1]

"Her influence over this world is astonishing," the Abyssal Demon said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know her past or what legends she's left behind in this world, but they all believe in her.

"Luan Ji made her forget who she was and convinced her to let go of her ambitions. She may be frightening, but Luan Ji is even more so.

"It'll be difficult to deal with her when she's actively fleeing. I'll have to set her aside and face the most difficult one first."

The Abyssal Demon searched for the one he deemed his strongest opponent through the lingering connection between their souls.

***

In the Fifth World of the Abyss, Luan Ji's name on the demon cloak glowed faintly.

With the barrier of the Abyss having lost its shielding effect, the cloak had become something akin to an altar or an anchor point through which Great Demon God Luan Ji could locate Pang Jian.

You've stirred her will to fight. You've awakened her desire. Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you've caused me? Luan Ji's fury emanated from the two glowing characters, throwing the malevolent thoughts and demonic energy within the cloak into chaos.

The two demonic characters for Luan Ji drifted across the black cloak like stars, drawing power from the connected Demon Realms.

"Oblivion."

"Demon God of Oblivion."

"One can only become a true Demon God by letting go of the past and emptying the heart of all suffering, allowing the soul to attain true liberation."

Luan Ji's vast demonic energy and Dao of Demon influenced an untold number of low-ranking and mid-ranking Demon Gods across the many Demon Realms.

Some Demon Race elites, having endured endless suffering and wasted lifetimes in anguish, found that repeatedly chanting the words "Demon God of Oblivion" numbed the ache in their hearts.

Forgetting pain and remembering only joy appeared to be the essence of Luan Ji's Dao of Demon.

Those wishing to forget their suffering and attain lasting joy could drink Luan Ji's Bitter Wine of Oblivion and quietly chant his title, the Demon God of Oblivion.

The Demon Races and Demon Gods across the twenty-six Demon Realms were responding to Luan Ji.

A thunderous shock surged through Pang Jian as flashes of the past flickered through his mind.

Countless versions of Luan Ji had appeared throughout all twenty-six Demon Realms and the two thousand worlds.

He was a fortune-teller, a brewer, or even a venerable old man passing down demonic scriptures.

As long as they drank his bitter wine, allowed their fates to be guided, or were taught the Scriptures of Oblivion, they would forget their suffering, only able to recall the beautiful moments in their life.

After traveling across the Demon Realms, he even ventured into the myriad worlds where the various races dwelled. It was uncertain just how many worlds his Dao of Oblivion had touched and quietly influenced.

Luan Ji had never truly been indifferent to fame or power. He simply disdained He Motian's and Fa Ji's paths.

He Motian gathered the insights of every Demon God throughout history and merged them into a single, unified Dao of Demon. Thus was born the Primordial Demon, whose Dao revolved around the Primeval Demon Fusion Art.

The Primordial Demon then fractured his soul into nine fragments, sending each to live a distinct life and ascend as Demon Gods. He sought to ascend as a Sovereign through the eventual reunion of the nine fragments.

Fa Ji, born within the bizarre mist, remained loyal to the Demonheaven's Dao of Demon. Even after the Sovereign's fall, he clung to the belief that the same Dao could birth another Sovereign.

Neither Fa Ji nor He Motian ever truly believed their respective Daos of Demon were capable of leading them to become a new Sovereign.

However, Luan Ji was different. He had always believed that his Dao of Oblivion would allow him to ascend as a Sovereign.

To that end, he had been silently preparing for many years, far from the eyes of others.

He left his mark across the twenty-six Demon Realms, spreading his Dao throughout the thousands of worlds within, even extending his influence to the starry skies beyond.

The secrets of the Nether Abyss and the strange wonders of the Abyss mattered little to him. All he cared about was his own Dao of Demon.

What I stripped from Yuan Hui was my own Dao of Oblivion. The birth of the Primordial Demon was only possible because all the Great Demon Gods and Demon Gods contributed their insights into their respective Daos, fusing them with the Demon Lair!

Yuan Hui's fragment of the Primordial Demon carried the Dao of Oblivion I once contributed. All I did was reclaim what was rightfully mine!

I won't allow my Dao of Oblivion to flourish through her, only to be reabsorbed into the Primordial Demon in the end!

You ignorant brat. You're meddling in matters far beyond you!

Luan Ji's voice rang out from all twenty-six Demon Realms, drawing on the negative emotions of those unknowingly cultivating the Dao of Oblivion. Each utterance manifested as colossal demonic runes capable of erasing suffering, attempting to indoctrinate Pang Jian into becoming yet another of his many followers.

Hundreds of colossal demonic runes manifested in Pang Jian's sea of consciousness. These runes, tangible embodiments of the Dao of Demon, loomed ominously overhead, forming a vast primordial array.

Great Demon God Luan Ji had somehow used Demonheaven's demonic cloak to strike back at Pang Jian from afar.

His strength likely already surpassed that of Fa Ji and He Motian.

The five existing Great Demon Gods of this era were He Motian, Fa Ji, Luan Ji, Tian Wei, and Qi Ling.

Luan Ji once ranked third, behind He Motian and Fa Ji, but Pang Jian believed he had since become the strongest of them all.

Everyone experiences pain. What's yours? Let me remind you of your pain and make sure it stays, Luan Ji sneered, voice ringing ominously within Pang Jian's sea of consciousness.

His divine consciousness seeped into every fiber of Pang Jian's being, delving into the deepest recesses of his memory and dredging up his buried anguish.

Tiny flickers of strange light fell like raindrops.

Fortunately, Pang Jian had no shortage of means to counter Luan Ji's invading divine consciousness when the Great Demon God's true body could not reach him.

The lightning coursing through his body, his profound understanding of the Dao of Soul, and the might of the seven Heaven Ascension Tribulation Pillars meant he could neutralize the intrusion if he truly wished.

Despite this, Pang Jian did nothing. Instead, he cautiously circulated the various energies in his body and allowed Luan Ji's Dao of Oblivion to dredge up his past regrets and sorrows.

The memory of his father's departure surfaced with piercing clarity. His father had yet to return, even to this day, leaving Pang Jian to take care of his sister alone. Even so, this remembrance did not bring sharp pain. Only a dull heaviness and the crushing weight of responsibility.

He recalled his time in the Solitary Mountain Range, battling savage beasts and enduring hardship alone, all to care for his sister. Those days had been spent teetering between life and death.

Fear had naturally taken root in his heart during those perilous times.

It was not the fear of dying, but of what would become of his young sister if she were left with no one to protect her.

The claws and fangs of the beasts in the Solitary Mountain Range had left grisly wounds on his body, drawing agonized cries from his lips. However, Pang Jian was familiar with the tempering of hardship. Such physical pain paled in comparison to the torment within his soul.

When Sun Bin had taken his sister away, Pang Jian quietly watched her leave, feeling nothing but pride as she soared toward the upper worlds. He felt no sorrow or pain, only a quiet, heartfelt joy.

Not long after, he was forced to serve as a guide for the Ning Clan through the Solitary Mountain Range and was plunged into a world of relentless slaughter. He endured the carnage of Eight Trigrams City and the schemes of the Shadow Specter Sect.

He saw the deaths of Meng Qiulan, Zhao Ling, and others. He also recalled the times he was gravely wounded and hovered on the brink of death. Ordeal after ordeal flashed through his mind. Some were events that once struck his heart deeply, but he had already endured them before.

Mere memories of such pains were far from enough to break him. Luan Ji could stir and amplify everything Pang Jian had suffered in his not-so-long life, but they still left little impact on him.

Your will is firm. Your heart is strong. In that case, I'll try another way. I'll let you experience the pain of others, Luan Ji said coldly.

Pang Jian felt as though he were going through countless lives all at once.

He was an elderly man of the Celestial Race, in his twilight years, receiving word that powerful elites had brutally beaten his beloved children and grandchildren to death. Their whipped bodies were lined up before him.

The grief and powerlessness of this elder burying his descendants washed over Pang Jian like a tide.

Those in power mocked him, but his lack of influence or strength meant he could do nothing to resist. His few remaining granddaughters, living in another village, still relied on him, so he could not even die.

Living was a constant torment, but death was not an option. That kind of pain overwhelmed Pang Jian. He had never gone through anything like this before.

The hardships Pang Jian had endured were nothing in comparison to this old man's suffering.

Another version of Pang Jian was a warrior of the Dark Demon Race, fighting on the frontlines for the glory of his people.

His love for his beautiful wife and adorable daughter drove him onward through the battles. They were his whole world.

Unfortunately, during a brutal campaign, his unit suffered a catastrophic defeat. They were all buried in ice within a frigid ravine, with the outside world presuming them to be annihilated.

Miraculously, he alone survived. After struggling for years, he finally managed to return home, only to find his wife living with his closest brother, and his daughter calling the man "father" with a sweet smile.

He stood silently before his own home, staring at the harmonious scene within, heart in pieces. When his wife saw him, she burst into tears, saying she had thought him dead. His brother knelt and confessed the same. He, too, had believed him gone and only wanted to care for his wife and child in his absence.

The warrior wished he had died in that frigid ravine.

If only I'd perished back then. It would've been better if I'd never lived to see this.

The memory of his wife and daughter had given him the strength to survive frosty catastrophe, granting him the will to cling to life against all odds.

He lived. Only to witness a reality far crueler than death.

His wife and brother had believed him gone. The entire nation had assumed he was lost. It was not entirely their fault that they had ended up together.

But what about me? I'm still alive. How am I supposed to live with this?

If only I could forget...

These anguished words echoed in the warrior's heart.

Yet another version of Pang Jian was a general of a demonic kingdom, defeated in a bloody power struggle for the throne. Bound and forced to his knees, he could only watch in helpless silence as his loyal soldiers were beheaded one by one on a vast execution square.

First, it was the hundreds of soldiers loyal to him. Then, it was his wife, his children, and his parents.

Head after head rolled across the blood-soaked stones. Gory crimson sprayed from the severed necks as the mountain of corpses piled up on the square.

A crowd had gathered around him, not in mourning, but in mockery. The rival general sipped wine and laughed from a high platform, watching his suffering like a spectacle.

All he could do was watch as those he loved, those who had sworn loyalty to him, those who had unwavering faith in him, died one by one.

He was spared.

They stripped him of his cultivation bloodline, crippled his limbs, and dumped him in a filthy alley, left to rot like discarded waste.

As he had once stood tall in glory, he now fell in equally devastating measure. In the end, the victor became king and the defeated a criminal. He was evidence of that cruel truth.

Each time he tried to hang himself, someone would appear and stop him, making even death an unreachable release. He was not allowed to die.

If I can't die, then can I at least forget the past?

***

Life after life was carved into Pang Jian as if they were his own.

Draped in the pitch-black demonic cloak, Pang Jian stood on the nameless fragmented land in the Fifth World and wailed in anguish. He cried until his voice turned hoarse and his throat bloody, knees giving out.

This was not a pain he had ever endured before—he did not know if he could endure it.

Pang Jian was not as strong as he thought.

All the pain he had gone through in his life was nothing compared to the suffering of so many others. The resilience of spirit he once prided himself on seemed laughable after this experience. There were just some pains that no ordinary person could ever withstand.

The things you've just lived through, I've endured a thousand times over. I relive the immense suffering of every one of my followers as if it were my own.

What they forget, I remember all the more. I etch their pain into my heart. Their anguish is mine to bear. That is the true essence of my Dao of Demon.

1. The Chinese characters for Yuan Hui's name, 媛慧, share the same pronunciation as the characters for the Primordial Demon, 始魔. ☜