Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

The moon was high in the sky, its clear light like frost, pouring down on the forbidden woods.

The ancient tree stands tall and majestic.

Its branches are gnarled and twisted, and its canopy blocks out the sky and the moon.

On that very tree trunk, a boy was pinned there, his shoulder blade and waist pierced by three bronze nails.

Fresh blood meandered down the cracked bark, turning an eerie dark red in the moonlight, dripping into the roots of the tree.

All around, the tribesmen held torches and formed a huge circle, the flickering flames illuminating each person's face in an alternating light and shadow.

The ground was a mess.

The shattered yellow talismans were scattered all over the ground, some trampled into the mud, and some still bearing the scorch marks of unburnt flames.

Footprints were scattered haphazardly on the muddy ground, and specks of blood dotted the tree roots, fallen leaves, and even drooping withered branches.

Everything silently proclaimed that a fierce battle had just taken place here.

The high priest stood directly in front of the sacred tree, flanked by the sorceress and the clan chief.

The clan leader stepped forward and slammed his wooden scepter to the ground with a thud.

"You think you're something just because you went out?" His voice echoed through the silent forest. "How many times have I told you, you're just a dog kept by the village. The high priest calls you, and you wag your tail and come back!"

He lifted his foot and ran it over the crumpled yellow talisman on the ground, tearing the paper apart.

"And you, the first thing you do upon returning is bite your master?" The clan chief gritted his teeth. "As a descendant of the witchcraft clan, you actually went and learned those hypocritical immortal arts!?"

He still felt a lingering fear when he recalled what had happened.

Not long ago, the high priest brought Wu Li back to the village.

As the clan chief, he originally planned to punish this arrogant brat with whipping in front of the entire clan.

He would never forget that his daughter, a saintess, had sacrificed her bloodline for a man of another race, giving birth to this bastard. Now, this bastard was even more lawless, and if he wasn't punished, he feared he would lose his position as clan leader.

But to his utter surprise, the bastard who had never fought back or uttered a sound since childhood actually rebelled for the first time.

They even used immortal techniques, which caught everyone off guard.

After a fierce battle, the high priest finally intervened and nailed him to the sacred tree.

"Feed".

A hoarse voice interrupted his thoughts.

Wu Li slightly lifted his eyelids, staring coldly at the clan leader's shoes. His voice sounded as if it had been torn apart, his breath hoarse and broken: "Move your foot away."

"What did you say?" The clan chief paused, and he could detect a hint of command in the little bastard's tone, as if a superior were looking down on an ant.

"Can't you understand human language?" Wu Li curled his lips into a mocking smile, his pale face stained with blood. "I'll say it one last time, move your pig's trotters, you're stepping on the talisman I drew."

The clan chief's expression changed drastically. He leaned on his scepter and took a few steps forward, grabbing the boy's drooping hair and forcing him to raise his head.

"Just because you've learned a few hand seals and talisman-drawing techniques, you think you're all that? But look at you, is it any use? These fancy moves dare to be compared to witchcraft?"

"Our witchcraft clan has been passed down for thousands of years, relying on genuine skills, not those superstitious tricks of the immortal sects. Using such rubbish against your own people is utterly disgraceful!"

The clan chief suddenly released his grip, letting the boy's head slam heavily against the tree trunk.

"You're a pathetic mess, covered in blood. What's a dog doing learning this stuff? Do you think you can cultivate immortality?!"

"Who would tell you I want to cultivate immortality?" Wu Li scoffed, a hint of annoyance creeping into his eyes.

Tsk.

It's all that old geezer's fault. He kept saying he needed to cultivate his mind and warned him never to use his murderous aura to commit killing again, otherwise he might have his true nature devoured and become a mindless walking corpse who only knew how to kill indiscriminately.

That's why he fought for so long but didn't dare to use even a trace of his killing intent.

The results of it?

As a result, he was nailed to the tree.

It turns out that the magic-breaking method is really bad!

That old geezer, that fat cat, he really believed all that nonsense about his "divine powers."

Of course, one cannot entirely blame his weak magic; after all, there was a mother worm in his heart controlled by the high priest, whose every move affected his entire body, leaving him constantly hampered.

"Chieftain, why waste words with this bastard! Have the High Priest unleash divine fire and burn him for three days and three nights!"

"Right! He can't be burned to death anyway, so let him experience what it's like to wish he were dead!"

"After burning it all, nail him to this sacred tree forever and seal him here. After all, his blood is a valuable commodity; the Gu worms raised from it are a hundred times stronger than those raised normally!"

The malicious faces around him were all smiling, eager to see the boy burning and screaming in agony in the flames.

"Hehehe..."

Suddenly, a chilling laugh escaped from the boy's hoarse throat.

He slowly lifted his eyelids and scanned the faces of the crowd with great interest.

"Bastard." He murmured the word, savoring it as if he were contemplating something. "My wife doesn't like that term. So from now on, anyone who has uttered those two words will die."

Mimi, I'm sorry.

He didn't want to get his hands dirty either.

However, if these people want to escape the high priest's control, they must die.

"If you don't want to die, run!"

"but--"

"It might be too late."

His heterochromatic eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty and excited light, and a wicked smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

In an instant, countless black malevolent energies surged out from his body, emitting a sharp hiss.

Before the clan leader could react, he was swept into the air by a baleful aura. Fortunately, the high priest reacted quickly and pulled him back in mid-air.

The next instant, the bronze nails embedded in the boy trembled violently, causing the entire trunk of the divine tree to shake.

The high priest stared in utter horror at the scene before him, yet his eyes flashed with intense light.

It's malevolent energy...

Bearing Wu Ying's curse...

This child, who grew up right under his nose, indeed harbored a powerful and terrifying force within him. Now, it was finally revealed to the world.

Without hesitation, he immediately activated the Gu technique and unleashed divine fire.

A bolt of lightning rolled down and struck the divine tree squarely, instantly sending flames soaring into the air.

Black malevolent energy intertwined with orange-yellow flames.

A hurricane suddenly arose, whipping up countless fallen leaves that spun rapidly around the sacred tree.

In the firelight, that face was breathtakingly alluring.

The high priest stared blankly, and in a daze, that face overlapped with the figure in his memory.

"Sakura..."

But gradually, that face changed.

A strange black totem climbed up from the neck, spreading across the entire face like a living thing, inch by inch devouring all the familiar outlines.

The flames scorched Wu Li's body, but he was completely unaware.

The flesh was charred, cracked, and peeled off in the raging fire, but it grew back and merged with the totem, like a demon crawling out of hell.

A crimson light suddenly shone down from above.

The high priest suddenly looked up.

The cold moon in the sky had somehow transformed into a blood moon, its crimson color resembling an open eye, gazing down upon this burning earth.

"Interesting." The high priest chuckled softly, his tone melancholic. "This is what your mother left you. She hated this world, that person... to the core. In the end, she even sacrificed herself to plant this hatred in you."

"This malevolent energy is so intense that it can turn you into a monster, enough to destroy everything in this world."

"But I will not do as she wishes." The boy's heterochromatic eyes swirled in the firelight, his gaze being gradually eroded by the black aura, yet a sliver of clarity clung to him.

"Oh?" The high priest bit his right index finger, and with the gushing blood, he quickly drew a twisted rune on his left palm. The bloodstain writhed on his skin, as if it had come alive. A cruel smile curled at the corner of his lips in the shadow of his cloak. "Then let me wait and see if you can guard your mind."

The high priest raised his blood-soaked hand, pointed it at the blood moon in the sky, and roared in a deep voice:

"With my blood, I offer this sacrifice in your name! All poisonous creatures, heed my command, devour!"

As soon as he finished speaking, countless Gu worms surged out from the shadows, forming a dark, overwhelming mass that blotted out the sun.

The blood moon was completely swallowed up.