Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I shouted in my paralyzed head as the priest came to officiate the marriage that was happening and which I could feel in quite the details.

My father’s Jade Authority and my phantom infused with Jade intent mingled and fused into one and with every second that followed, I felt it.

The loss was slowly gnawing at me.

Almost, almost like the sudden intrusion of a man into a household, then went straight to the parents and said he made her pregnant.

To add more fuel to it, the girl in question did not hesitate to cast off the influence of the parents and ignoring all the customs they used, they called for the priest for a flash marriage to complete the ceremony.

That was how I felt as I lost influence on my phantom with every second.

I never had a daughter or anything close to it, but there was no mistake in the feelings this has created in me.

As the fusion progressed, I felt the priest, aka the Will of the Universe, officiate the consummation process.

Many thoughts passed through me in those moments.

Why was it happening?

How was it happening?

But all that became an afterthought when I felt something else.

The Authority was one greedy motherfucker. Even more than me as it went for the one thing that was holding the phantom in shape.

It went for my own Ability.

It cared not that it belonged to me.

Almost like it wanted a dowry from me alongside stealing the daughter.

And if I didn't give it willingly I knew it would take it regardless.

With the backing of the Will of the Universe as the new Ability was starting to form from the Authority, and the Jade intent infused Auril, my own little Ability could not withstand it.

Second, after second, I felt the numbness creep more and more as it overtook part of my Ability.

First came the outer layer, then layer after layer I felt my own Ability be subsumed.

What the Authority and the Will of the Universe that was backing it did not know, was that by every step that it conquered from me and for every step that I retreated a burning feeling rose from deep within me.

At first, that burning feeling made me feel frustrated.

Frustrated that this was happening in the first place.

Frustrated that I had forgotten my promise made just a few days ago.

Frustrated that I was overcome by greed and that I noticed it too late.

Then came the agitation. It climbed over the frustration by telling me my failures and that with every second I lost ground in my own Ability, the agitation only grew as if taunting me.

Soon that agitation turned into hostility. There was no other way to look at it.

The Authority was hostile to me. Not only did it ignore me, but it stole from me, almost as if I didn't matter at all in this world.

As if I was just a tiny little thing that it did not need to acknowledge, I even existed.

That casual denial of my own existence triggered something.

Something I didn't know I had but I knew I had felt before.

Inside the Dream of Remembrance, I had felt it. At that first moment when I became aware of myself.

I realized that somebody or something had been tampering with my life in subtle ways that looked harmless, but were far more insidious than one imagined.

It was then that I felt it for the first time and did so again at this moment.

The hate inside me burned. It caught on fire as Rage formed from it.

With Rage came clarity, contrary to what I imagined would happen if one became consumed by it.

I became aware of not only the emotion that brought me clarity but also became aware of the feelings in my own body.

The Will of the Universe may have locked me from making any outward actions, but that did not include the biochemistry that was needed to keep the body alive.

Chemical reaction after chemical reaction activated as my body started processing the emotional stress and with it the Rage that gave me the awareness of it.

When my clarity reached the necessary level, I realized why this was possible at all.

The Internal Life Essence Construct inside me had caught on fire, well not literal fire, but my Rage infused it and it shifted my existence slightly from a purely physical state to something else.

But most of all, the Rage inside gave my Will the necessary emotional boost to break the paralyzes, the Authority, and subsequently, the Will of the Universe had trapped me.

With it, I felt the loosening strains and slowly craned my neck back to the Jade phantom that had changed in appearance.

Its looks started to resemble my father and not my previous, handsome self.

That I had changed its muscle structure to my fathers in my casual arrogance, only infuriated me more and it became another piece of coal to fuel the furnace that was my Rage.

When I looked at the face of the Jade phantom, another reality hit me.

No longer was it my own previous, handsome self but a visage that resembled my current father. With only one difference.

This one's eyes did not convey the emotions that Yu Liwei did when he looked at me.

Yu Liwei may have lost his beloved daughter but I was her continuation in a way. Whenever he looked at me there was a slight emotional unbalance.

Sadness at not seeing his daughter behave as she did before.

Anger at the current me who replaced her, but there was a balance of sorts.

The Yu Liwei Jade phantom had none of that balance. On its head was a crown, in a similar fashion that he had when he showcased his Ability to me, and still has.

With the crown and the apathetic facial expression, it should have emanated Regality or Majesty, whichever, but this one's eyes transformed it into something different.

In its eyes, I observed anger, hate, sorrow, grief, and guilt, along with a few others that turned its existence from the neutral that it was before, into a negative spectral existence.

In the same category with nightmares given shapes, or ghosts taken form.

Or an inner Devil that had manifested from the emotional turmoils one was experiencing due to extreme stressful experiences.

‘ Like losing one's beloved daughter? ’

I craned my head slightly and looked at my current and real father, and there I saw disbelief at what was happening and the emotions that were running amok inside him.

He was connected to it, and just as I was losing ground on my Ability and he was gaining, his turmoil only increased as the conquered ground increased.

When he noticed me looking at him, he recognized that with both of us connected like this, we both could read each other's emotions to a degree.

Unlike him though, who was engulfed in his inner turmoil and was radiating his emotional stress, I on the other hand was emitting only one thing, Rage.

It encompassed my whole being, but I knew he sensed that I still retained my rational mind.

Ignoring him for a second I turned towards the Jade phantom wearing my father's face and considered what to do next.

‘ Soon I will lose the Ability that I had and what will happen afterward, is anyone's guess. It might just stay there and do nothing but the most likely scenario is that it would turn on me. And if that is the case, why not make use of it? ‘

Turning back to my father, I slowly reached out to him and hugged him with my hands around his neck. Pulling his face down a bit I looked him straight into the eyes. “ Father, you suck at processing your inner turmoil. No matter how strong one’s Will is unless you face it head-on, it will rot you from within. Father, I might be part of the reason it is happening in the first place but let me help you. ”

Unlike me who was actively resisting the Will of the Universe, he had a much deeper connection to it as he was a Cultivator and could not resist it with his current cultivation, much less somebody in his position.

He could not reply but I could read him like a book currently. “ Father, I need you to trust me. Can you do that? ” In his eyes, I read grief, guilt, regret alongside everything else negative, but there were sparks of positive in there. “ Father, I need you to stop holding back. ” I felt the flicker pass through him as despair appeared. It wasn't hard to imagine why.

Inner Devils are the counterbalance of a Cultivator's conscious morality.

Due to the sensitivity of Qi to the inner body chemistry, if one is not careful of one's own emotional balance, it was easy for the Qi to go rogue on them and take over their actions before the balance has righted itself again after the chemicals were reset.

“ Father, I can imagine what it is that you fear, but you have to trust me. Stop holding back. Let it overwhelm you for a bit but in those seconds after the Inner Devil has appeared I need all your willpower in an instant and have it shove the Inner Devil into that. ” I explain as I point at the phantom that had taken on his shape. “ Your Ability is the guide and with the connection between them, there should not be any problem of shoving it in there. “

“ Can you do that? ” I ask him. “ Will you trust me and let me help you? ”

Once I saw the trust and resolve I knew he would do as asked. “ Good. Do it when I give you the order. ” I told him and released him.

Back to facing the Jade phantom, I focused on my part. As it was I would lose 100%. There was no denying it.

With the negative emotional-infused Authority being constantly supplied by my father and the Will of the Universe meddling as the new Ability was forming, I was simply outclassed in both momentum and power.

Still, I had one advantage over them. The Will that was infused into the Black Hole Energy Generator Ability had not been lost and it retreated with the lost ground.

Finally, when there was no more ground to be retreated to, that left the only place that existed.

The Flame of Life that burned inside the Ability.

It was the hidden card that I needed.

When everything was conquered I hid my Will inside the Flame and it too was divided into two parts.

The outer part and the core inside.

With the Will inside the core, I had it condense and transform back into a kindling temporarily. At the same time, I addressed my father.

“ Do it, now. ”

I didn't look away from the phantom before me, but I did feel the difference immediately.

The constant battle of inner emotions changed as one side won and the corresponding effect happened.

My father's presence turned more sinister and it was even easier to notice it since it was directed toward me.

Still, that was all that happened. As suddenly as that presence had appeared, it had suddenly been shoved ahead of me.

It was at that moment that it appeared there, that I separated the kindling from the outer part of the Flame of Life.

As I did that, the Will of the Universe intertwined as it finally was able to finish what had started all of this.

It connected all those parts into one, well almost all.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The Flame of Life in its kindling form refuses any external change applied to it, well all but one.

When the Will of the Universe had finally officiated the marriage of the negative emotional infused Authority, the Inner Devil that had been born in father and was shoved inside the Auril construct that was my Jade phantom, and the Ability inside its chest that was the core, it had turned into a distortion of Yu Liwei in quite the dramatic fashion and became the Jaded Devil.

A slight rip sound echoed inside my head as I felt its form announce its presence.

When I heard sounds behind me, probably from my father, I ignored them and looked at the new form of the distorted Jaded Devil. All over its body strange lines and shapes appeared and commemorating their appearance were the dark purple and dark green colors that colored its body.

Before its face was fairly neutral but now it was distorted by the self-image my father probably imagined himself having. It was a mix of hate, disgust, and resentment.

The only thing that was missing is the freaky hair that was usually depicted in these Inner Devil’s scenarios.

Right now it sported the same top bum father had and only the crown which turned spikier made it look more menacing.

“ Jiao, what is going on? Why did Dao's Descent happen and why did your phantom turn into my brother? ” A familiar voice called for answers.

“ First Uncle? ” Turning around for a second I saw him, and Second Uncle by father’s right side and the old healer on his left as he had his hand on father's chest. The only one missing was Gao Junjie and when I looked for him I saw him still sitting and sipping his tea.

Seeing his nonchalance at everything, I felt my left eyebrow twitch.

“ We can talk later. ” I replied to him. “ First Uncle, I need you to defend me for a bit. ”

As if the words triggered the event, I saw the Jaded Devil wonder at itself in one second, and in the next, a BOOM rattled out in my ears in the same second that I felt a shock wave pass through me, that threw me meters away into the wall.

My world blacked out and I lost all perception in return.

My brain probably got rattled quite a bit in that explosion, yet I was still conscious. The Internal LE Construct that was infused with my Rage still kept giving me information on the state of my body.

I felt pain in my chest, back, the back of my head and my ears were still ringing.

Micromanaging the essence inside me I felt something not much later. It was a bit weird to classify it as anything but for a second my body felt weightless before something brought me down slightly, only for that to repeat.

After about fifteen of those I opened my eyes and saw the world blur by me.

At first, I thought that my eyes were damaged or something, but when I focused on what they were showing me better, I realized that the world was indeed blurring by me as I was carried by my Second Uncle at a phenomenal speed.

If my memories served me right, my uncle was carrying me and running similar to a regular car cruise, so about 60km/h. Only he was able to switch direction much easier and with me being carried in a princess carry as a bonus.

“ Ugh, what happened? ” I asked my youngest uncle with a groggy voice.

“ You happened? ” He replied. “ What did you do, and tell me what happened? ”

“ Long story, can be told later. ” I told him in return. “ Why are you carrying me and running through a forest? ”

“ You happened, again. ” He said. “ Second Brother’s… phantom, or whatever it is, engaged you and First Brother intervened. The shockwave destroyed half the room. After a few more exchanges Gao Junjie noticed its fixation on you and ordered me to take you and use you as bait to lure it away to someplace else. ”

There my Second Uncle stopped for a second and switched topics without any notion of urgency. “ By the way, I have not seen Gao Junjie so expressive as at that time. You being the cause of his house being half-destroyed, I expect he will be holding a grudge with you for quite some time. Be prepared. ”

“ Great. ” Was my reply to that. “ Where are we going and is Father's Inner Devil still following us? ”

“ Inner Devil? Second Brother’s? ” I heard his voice in doubt but I did notice a slight tilt of his head behind before he replied. “ Yea, it's still rushing for us. First Brother and Gao Junjie are keeping it busy. ”

Straining my ears would not help as I was barely hearing him speak due to the wind rushing by my ears. “ Is there any clearing nearby where we can stop it? I want to deal with that. ”

“ Hmm, I think there is one in that direction. ” He said and a second later I felt the heavy push of gravity as he switched directions rapidly.

Moments later he stopped in a small clearing by a river and put me down.

Slight vertigo bothered me, but I found my balance.

“ When you talked Second Brother into this, you asked for his trust. Meaning you have a way to deal with it? ” He asked me.

“ I do. But what I don't understand is why it is taking two people to deal with it? ” I ask him.

“ There should be many nuances but it's mainly because Second Brother is strong, so with that being his Inner Devil it should not be weak and it's harder to protect something than to destroy it. ” He explained.

‘ Right, I better finish this sooner before it realizes the true potential of its form. ‘

Waiting a bit, I heard the sounds. Loud booms and bangs rang out rhythmically as they were closing in on this place.

When the final one rang out, I saw two shapes appear near us and another that followed them right behind.

The first two were my defenders and the third one the attacker.

There were about thirty meters between us when the Devil spoke. “ Filthy abomination, you finally stopped running away? It matters not if you run away or if others help you. I will rip you apart, piece by piece for taking away my beloved daughter. ”

Ignoring its speech I focus on my protectors. “ Protect me for a bit. I need to focus on this part. ” If they heard me they made no notion of acknowledging it, but I knew they did.

So I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I was about to do.

It would hurt and hurt a lot.

Bracing myself for the pain, I opened my eyes and announced it.

Burn

Immediately I felt the pain etch itself inside my head. The Devil on the other hand felt something too. I was sure as the kindling hiding in the Flame of Life burst open with the strength it never presented before, to those on this world.

The reason was simple. This time the fuel it used was far juicier than before.

To feel one’s Will burn was to experience pain, not of the physical variety. It was an experience that was hard to convey to anybody not having ever experienced it.

“ Filth, what did you do? ” I heard it, as Will was burned and the Flame of Life gained the traction it never had before.

It touched its chest as it noticed that something was wrong with it.

Despite having decided to use my Will as fuel, I did not go all-in from the start. The first part was to awaken the Flame and have it overwhelm the rest inside the heart of the Ability, so I only used about 10% stored inside.

Once the Flame I had control of overtook back its rightful place I changed its setting, in a manner of speaking.

Currently, it was set to 33% being used to fuel its own existence. Another 33% was used to fuel the Ability’s existence and the last part was what I had used for myself, and the part that was sustaining the Jaded Devil, currently.

Now I changed it back to its original setting so that everything it consumed would be used for its growth.

Still, even that was not enough. The Flame’s very nature was passive existence and it would remain that way forever without a guiding hand. I could not let it stay like that.

Otherwise, the Jaded Devil could take over the Flame since it was part of the Devil's existence, thanks to the meddling Universe.

Through the Will that connected me to the Flame, I gathered and sent all the Rage that was stewing inside me from the first moment the Authority ignored my existence to now as the Rage colored the flame and gave it a modifier.

No longer was the Flame invisible as it gained a gray hue and it immediately showed its brilliance as the flame turned from Life to Wrath.

It became a Flame that would actively seek out the target of the Rage and at the same time burn oh so much fiercer.

In this part, the Jaded Devil should have noticed it much clearer, and its agitation showed it. “ Filthy abomination, what did you do? ” With much more aggression it started to claw at its Jaded chest as if it was suffering from asphyxiation.

Seeing its suffering, a wide smile appeared on my face.

It must have been noticeable as the Devil jumped at me and shouted. “ Filthy Abomination, You will pay for everything that you have done. “

In seconds boom’s echoed as my protectors engaged it.

The shockwaves pushed the air around us and winds battered at me as I failed to see the perpetrators at all.

So I made another announcement.

BURN

Another 30% burned as I felt the backlash inside my head. Pain in such an amount I never felt before, spiked inside my head and it wasn't the instant type that was there and gone the next second.

No.

This one stayed, like a piece of gum stuck on you and there was no taking it away without scraping it off.

The spike of pain brought along blurry vision alongside other systems to such a degree that I lost my balance and almost fell to the ground.

It was my Second Uncle that held me up.

“ You ok? ” Nodding without looking at him I observed our surroundings with my blurry vision. After blinking multiple times to clear my vision I found them.

About a hundred meters south of my current position.

Making my way to them, I saw the Jaded Devil clutching at its chest as it heaved on the ground, even though it did not need it.

Through the Jade skin, a lot of gray patches showed on its chest as the Flame of Wrath consumed the heart that had kept its sustained existence.

With Second Uncle's help, I made it to its place as it kneeled on the ground.

Once I was by its side I had no choice but to laugh at its miserable state with glee. “ Hahahahaa, Jaded Devil of Yu Liwei, how does it feel to have your insides burn? I am sure it must feel terrible to have your insides burn piece by piece. The pain must be unimaginable to your mind, but I know how that feels. I am feeling it right now. I am burning my own Will to make you learn from your mistake. ”

“ Mistake? Filthy abomination, you took over my daughter who I raised with love her whole life and I am making the mistake here? Abomination, I will kill you for the filth that you are. ” It cried out to me hysterically as it heaved for the breath it never needed in the first place.

“ I am no abomination, Devil. ” I declared it loudly, for it to hear.

Just as I proclaimed the same for my two uncles and teacher to hear.

Most of all, though, I proclaimed it for myself. “ In this life, I am who I decide who I am. Nothing will change that. Neither you, a cheap copy of my father and neither will my real father. Neither will the Clan, or the Empire. And neither will it be the Heavens, much less Gods and Devils. “

Pained as it was as its chest burned, my proclamation did change its expression into one of disbelief. “ So, open your fake ears and ingrain this deep into your fake mind as you feel the Flame of Wrath burn you piece by piece and deny you your existence just like you wanted to deny mine. ”

Taking a deep breath in preparation for what was to come, I speak my last words to it. “ As such, Listen to my Declaration, Devil. In this Life, I am Yu Jiao and for your casual arrogance in thinking you could deny my existence I demand your Death by BURNING.”

With that, I dumped the rest of the stored Will inside the Flame and the burning began.

Only I wanted this one to last so it did not go boom.

No.

This one burned much slower and it showed as the Jaded Devil started screaming as its very existence started burning slowly from within and with every piece more pain was added.

This metaphysical pain was a real pain in the ass, as I too felt it.

Piece by piece as I used pieces of myself as fuel.

I am unsure as to how long it took, but when the last piece of the Jaded Devil vanished in the gray flame, I finally relaxed that metaphysical nerve that had kept me conscious, and in an instance a void engulfed me.

***

In a small clearing in the woods near a river stood three people. Three adults and one female child of age 13 or so.

Before them, there had been another figure that had slowly been reduced by a gray flame into nonexistence.

When the final piece of it was consumed it made a strange popping sound as the gray flame got sucked inside itself and vanished from the three adults' sight, as the child was unconscious at that point, her body lost all strength and started falling backward.

If not for Yu Ying holding onto her, she would have hit the soft earth in a second.

“ Well, that was an interesting experience. ” Yu Ying said as he gently picked up his niece and held her in a princess carry.

“ On that, we can agree, little brother. ” Agreed Yu Qiao and while Gao Junjie said nothing, he did nod.

“ First, Yu Jiao said that that thing was Second Brother’s Inner Devil. ” He relayed the words of his niece. “ Elder He may be with him but let's hurry back, I am still worried. ”

“ Alright, let's go. ” The older brother agreed and they made their way back to the scene of the crime.

On the way back, they took roughly the same route they had used in the first place, and all over them, Yu Ying could see destruction.

Broken trees, fallen trees. Big holes on the ground.

That was nothing new to him. The same happened every time Cultivators fought.

Still, as he was observing everything in detail a thought came to him. ‘ It is said that those that reach Immortality can reshape the world to their liking. I wonder if the same will apply to Jiao? ’

On their way back, they did not rush but it still took them a few minutes to return.

When they reached the half-broken house in question, Ying looked at Gao Junjie and saw the twitching of his eyebrows. He was truly unhappy that it happened to his house.

Ignoring that part of the house, Yu Ying used his Divine Sense to look for his target and observed his second brother laying down in Jiao’s room.

The room and the servant who inhabited the room in question, at that point in time, were lucky that the damage was restricted to the western part of the house and not the eastern where they were located.

Seconds later, the three men and an unconscious girl entered the room and were beholden to a strange sight.

The man laying on the bed was engulfed in a gray flame but strangely the man in question showed no sign of feeling its existence, at all.

“ What is going on? Why is that flame on Second? ” Murmured Yu Qiao just loud enough for the healer and oldest among them to hear it.

“ Qiao, are you familiar with the flame? ” Asked the He Shoushan. The flame in question had sprung upon his patient all of a sudden in the middle of his treatment.

“ Sort of. Jiao used it on that thing. It burned it up from the inside, and from the looks, that thing had, it was quite painful. Is there a problem with Second? ” He replied in return.

“ Frankly I don't know. ” Admitted He Shoushan. “ This one is different compared to that Flame. Not only did this one ignore me, it even ignored my Qi when I tested it out. Thanks to that I could continue my treatment of him. If it was indeed Jiao that summoned the Flame then we will have to ask her for it? How is she? ” He asked as he made his way to Yu Ying and grasped the girl's left hand by the wrist.

“ I don't see any problems, should I try to wake her to see about that flame? ” Asked the healer.

“ Elder, wait. ” Intervened Yu Ying in favor of his niece. “ During the last conversation Jiao had with brother’s Inner Devil, she said she used her own Will to burn it. Previously she said that Will plus Qi creates Divine Sense, so if we take that into account, it should be similar to burning one’s Divine Sense. If so I think it's best we let her wake on her own. ”

“Is that so? ” He questioned, but he did stretch his investigation to Jiao’s head for a bit. “ I still don't see a problem but if what you say is true then let's do it like that. I do remember her saying once that she can recover from her Will being injured. ”

“ That being said, where should we place her? ” Asked Gao Junjie. “ Half of my house is rubble, you remember? ” All of them felt his unhappiness to have his house half destroyed.

It had taken the carpenters quite a while to make it just perfect to suit his taste, and now he had to repair it.

Thinking about that fact, he had a hunch that the feeling of harmony it once had was lost either way. ‘ Should I have a new one made? Why not? I will be advancing a stage anyway. A new lodging is a good way to celebrate it. ’

“ Hmm, what do you think would happen if we placed her on the bed by Second’s side? ” Questioned Yu Qiao. “ I mean the Flame did kind of come from her? ”

At that conundrum, after a few arguments, they agreed to at least check if the flame reacted to her. Yu Ying, who was still holding her, brought her closer to the bed and had one of his niece’s hands touch his brother’s hand.

As if all their arguments made sense, the gray flame reacted to her when they made contact.

It slowly gathered towards that connection and vanished into Jiao's body.

After it was done they placed her by her father’s side and left them there.