Li Ling calmly stepped forward.
Each of his steps echoed through the Ancestral Hall, not because he was deliberately exerting force, but because the hall itself seed to acknowledge movent within it.
This was not a normal building where sound traveled through air and struck walls.
It was more like the entire place was a ritual vessel, and every action taken inside it would be recorded, judged, weighed, and then engraved into the hidden history of the sect.
The distance from the entrance to the center of the hall was not short, but Li Ling did not rush.
He walked down the central path with Asura Reaper in hand, his white-and-gold robes fluttering faintly, while the gazes of seventy-one high-level existences fell upon him like invisible mountains.
A normal Core Formation cultivator would have collapsed by now.
Even a Nascent Soul cultivator, when standing before such a gathering, would likely feel their knees soften and their Dao Heart tremble.
After all, this was not rely pressure from cultivation realms.
It was pressure from hierarchy and from the fact that every person seated here had slaughtered enough beings, seized enough resources, survived enough calamities, and crushed enough geniuses to sit where they currently sat.
Yet Li Ling only walked forward with a faint smile.
Not because he did not feel the weight, he did.
Rather, it was precisely because he felt it that he smiled.
This was what he had wanted since the day his worldview collapsed in Ivy Lane.
He did not crave survival in so rat hole, nor unrealistic ’cautious’ progress, and certainly not hiding under a rock and hoping that no random disaster would one day choose him as its entertainnt.
No.
He wanted to stand before mountains and make them rember his na.
He wanted to walk into the court of monsters and make them calculate whether they should kill him, recruit him, fear him, or invest in him.
He wanted the world to look at him not as prey, not as an insect, not as so talentless exiled bastard who would live and die in the first level of Qi Refinent, but as a force of nature they could do nothing about.
That was his path to Supremacy!
And now, he stood before the central throne of the Six Paths Demon Sect.
Li Ling stopped about thirty steps away from Ming Yue’s platform and cupped his fists.
"Disciple Li Ling greets the Sect Master."
His tone was polite, but not servile.
This made more than a few of the seated True Inheritors and Grand Elders narrow their eyes slightly, not because they were offended, but because they could sense the difference.
So people bowed because they were crushed by authority, so bowed because they feared death, and others bowed because they wanted benefits.
Li Ling bowed because the occasion required it, and because Ming Yue currently stood above him in status, strength, and value.
That was all.
Ming Yue’s smile deepened slightly, as if he found this amusing.
"Li Ling," Ming Yue said calmly, his voice carrying through the entire hall without needing to be loud.
"You were born of the Qi Refinent Li Clan of Liangzhou in the Hai Yue Immortal Empire’s region, then subsequently cast out by your clan. You were raised by no master, protected by no lineage, guided by no ancestor, and yet in less than one year, you crossed Qi Refinent, Foundation Establishnt, and Core Formation, entered my Six Paths Demon Sect, beca champion of the lower-layer ascension tournant, and received the Daoist title Demon Emperor."
The six-colored wheel behind Ming Yue rotated slowly, and as it moved, each section of the hall lit up one by one.
Divine Deva judgnt.
Asura blood killing intent.
Wild Beast savagery.
True Human mundanity.
Hungry Ghost yin.
Desolate Hell karma.
Ming Yue leaned forward slightly.
"Such a thing is absurd."
The hall remained silent.
"Such a thing is monstrous."
The wheel turned again.
"Such a thing is dangerous."
A few of the Grand Elders seed to smile at this.
Ming Yue’s golden eyes landed fully on Li Ling.
"And precisely because it is absurd, monstrous, and dangerous, it is suitable for my Six Paths Demon Sect."
Li Ling smiled faintly.
Finally, so good dialogue.
This kind of speech was much more suitable for a demonic sect.
If this was the righteous Dao, they would probably speak about destiny, virtue, heaven’s favor, responsibility, protecting the weak, and other such flowery nonsense while secretly wondering how to cut him open and remove whatever made him special.
Here, Ming Yue openly said he was dangerous and still accepted him.
It was much more honest, no?
Ming Yue raised his right hand.
The entire Ancestral Hall responded.
The six avenues outside the hall seed to light up through the open doors, and the six sections within the auditorium released a thread of power, each one flowing toward the center like rivers returning to the sea.
A golden-white thread ca from the Divine Deva section.
A blood-red thread ca from the Asura Blood section.
A green-blue thread ca from the Wild Beast section.
A kaleidoscopic thread ca from the True Human section.
A bright grey thread ca from the Hungry Ghost section.
A pitch-black thread ca from the Desolate Hell section.
The six threads gathered before Ming Yue, spinning slowly to form a miniature wheel of the Six Paths.
At the sa ti, the floor beneath Li Ling lit up.
A circular formation appeared around him, divided into six equal segnts, each one corresponding to one path.
However, unlike the stable wheel behind Ming Yue, the wheel beneath Li Ling’s feet did not rotate peacefully.
Rather, the Asura Blood segnt erupted first.
Scarlet light surged upward around Li Ling like a blood fountain, coiling around him from his feet to his shoulders.
It did not attack him, but resonated with the Blood Asura Descent within his body.
Li Ling’s blood stirred, but his Asura Blood Golden Body remained steady.
His Asura Path cultivation, born from the system’s perfect advancent and refined through slaughter, responded with a deep and hungry pulse.
The scarlet light brightened.
In the Asura Blood section, Zhen Xueren’s lips curled up slightly, while so of the other True Inheritors showed varying degrees of interest.
Then ca the golden-white light of the Divine Deva Path.
It descended like judgnt, pressing against Li Ling’s body, spirit, and Dao Heart, as if asking whether he had the right to stand in this hall despite not walking the path of divine light.
Li Ling rely looked upward and smiled.
If it was judgnt, then let it judge.
If it was light, then let it shine.
After all, light could illuminate a butcher’s knife just as easily as it could illuminate a holy scripture.
The golden-white light trembled slightly, then withdrew.
Next ca Wild Beast savagery, which surged around Li Ling like the breath of ten thousand creatures, sniffing at his instincts, his hunger, his body, and the strange absence of any proper inherited beast bloodline.
For a mont, it seed confused.
After all, Li Ling did not possess a Divine Tiger bloodline, a dragon bloodline, a phoenix bloodline, or any famous monster inheritance.
Yet the savagery in him was no weaker than any beast.
No, it was worse.
A beast hunted because it was hungry.
Li Ling hunted because he wanted to, and he liked it!
The Wild Beast light retreated like a puppy with its tail between its legs, whimpering in fear.
The True Human section activated next, and a strange will descended upon Li Ling, not judging his morality nor asuring his bloodline, but inspecting his structure, his mind, his adaptability, his ability to use tools, slaves, techniques, resources, and systems to accomplish his goals.
For so reason, this one lingered the longest.
Perhaps because among all the paths, the True Human Path was the one that should have understood Li Ling’s nature the most, especially the fact that he turned everything he encountered into a tool.
Whether it was his enemies, his won, or his mistakes.
Heck, he even exploited the Will of Heaven when it was foolish enough to sell him answers.
The black-white light faded with a deep sigh, as if feeling it was a pity that he wasn’t on its side.
Then, Hungry Ghost yin rose from the ground like cold mist, brushing against Li Ling’s soul and spirit.
For a brief mont, countless hungry whispers seed to sound in his ears, each one filled with desire, hunger, greed, and endless craving.
Li Ling listened to them calmly.
Craving?
Hunger?
Greed?
What a joke.
If a starving ghost wanted to compare hunger with him, then it had truly picked the wrong opponent.
He had swallowed fear, humiliation, caution, pain, weakness, slaughter, lust, ambition, and blood, and none of it had filled him.
The Hungry Ghost mist dispersed with a wail, like an evil ghost eting a Taoist priest casting a yang palm.
Finally, Desolate Hell karmic power erged, simply appearing around him like invisible chains, weighing the karma attached to his existence.
For a mont, the hall beca slightly colder as so of the Desolate Hell True Inheritors tilted their heads, and a few Grand Elders in that section shifted their posture.
Even the six-colored wheel behind Ming Yue slowed slightly.
The karmic power around Li Ling seed to touch sothing it should not have touched, or perhaps sothing that was too heavy to casually asure.
Countless threads.
Countless dead.
Countless grudges.
Countless severed futures.
And amid all that blood-red darkness, a faint golden-white thread that led far away, warm, bright, and strangely clean.
Li Ling’s eyes flickered.
Li Lingyi.
The Desolate Hell power eventually retreated as well, but unlike the others, it retreated with a strange hesitation, as if it had not finished reading but had decided that continuing would be impolite and dangerous.
The six lights gathered above Li Ling’s head, forming a rotating wheel that mirrored the one behind Ming Yue.
Ming Yue stood up.
The mont he rose, all the True Inheritors and Grand Elders also rose from their seats.
Seventy-one high-level cultivators stood as one.
Even Li Ling had to admit, the scene was quite sothing.
Ming Yue’s voice rang out.
"Before the Six Paths, before the Ancestors, before the Grand Elders, before the True Inheritors, and before the inheritance of my Demon Sect, I, Ming Yue, Sect Master of the Six Paths Demon Sect, accept Li Ling as my fifth personal disciple!"
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