The twenty senior disciples jumped in fright when they noticed the white dust on the ground.

Panicked, they all began talking in unison.

“Sect Leader, the… the white powder...”

"Sect Leader, Grandmaster Shen, he..."

Zhang Xukai understood even without his disciples saying it out loud. His entire body trembled in a mixture of fury and grief as he watched Shen Ruizhe’s remains on the ground. The pain he felt after losing Shen Ruizhe crashed upon him like a tsunami, piercing him right into the chest.

As the pain receded, a clandestine fury surged forward, blinding Zhang Xukai with red rage.

"You bastard," he ground out. "You unrepentant scum, trash of three realms..."

With a battle cry, he lunged at Mo Zhiyuan with his scimitar.

"You can't even let him die with an intact corpse, can you!"

Mo Zhiyuan's sword materialized in his hand just in time to intercept the attack.

Zhang Xukai slashed and stabbed at his opponent like a madman. A single attack's power was powerful enough to bring the entire palace into collapse, but Mo Zhiyuan remained unfazed.

"It's all your fault!" Zhang Xukai let his emotions run free, wrapping him in a veil of heartbreak.

"If not for you, my shizun would still be alive!"

"If not for you, my shizun would still be by my side."

"If not for you....!"

Mo Zhiyuan's eyes flashed with malice.

"Are you done babbling like a baby?"

He flipped his sword and sent Zhang Xukai crashing against a wall.

"Sect Leader!!!"

The twenty cultivators, who did not know what was good for them, descended the steps and lunged at Mo Zhiyuan, only to be repelled in similar manner.

Mo Zhiyuan gritted his teeth.

"My shizun this, my shizun that," he growled. "I am so sick of hearing you refer to him as 'your shizun'."

Zhang Xukai staggered to his feet and glared at Mo Zhiyuan.

"What can I say," he ground out. "I am the only disciple who has the right to call him 'my shizun'."

His remark earned him another beating from Mo Zhiyuan. The imposing demonic cultivator, who once terrorized the entire mortal realm for ten long years, had his boot pressing against Zhang Xukai's throat.

"Kill me," Zhang Xukai choked out. "Just kill me and be done with it."

Mo Zhiyuan pressed harder against Zhang Xukai's throat, murderous light gleaming in his bright purple eyes.

He wanted to kill Zhang Xukai.

This time, he would do it for sure.

But right before he carried out the murder, Shen Ruizhe's pleading voice echoed in his head.

"After all, he's still your shixiong."

"Zhiyuan, can you not spare his life?"

It was not like Shen Ruizhe never begged for other people's lives. But when he begged for Zhang Xukai's life, he did not speak about Mo Zhiyuan's monstrous nature or inherent evil. He also did not give Mo Zhiyuan a lecture about righteousness or the ways of a gentleman. He only asked Mo Zhiyuan to spare his beloved disciple's life, plain and simple.

For Zhang Xukai's sake, Shen Ruizhe gave his body to Mo Zhiyuan willingly.

The taste of his shizun's body, the intoxicating gaze that his shizun gave him during their intimate encounter, and the lewd sounds their bodies made every time Mo Zhiyuan thrust into him were etched vividly in Mo Zhiyuan's memories.

Once, for the sake of Shen Ruizhe's willingness to be trampled beneath him, naked and dirty, with his rear hole overflowing with his disciple's semen, Mo Zhiyuan vowed to spare Zhang Xukai.

The man, whom he made the vow to, was already gone.

Even his corpse had been reduced to a pile of dust.

But Mo Zhiyuan remembered.

And he still intended to keep his promise, even after Shen Ruizhe broke his.

After some time, Zhang Xukai passed out from asphyxiation.

Mo Zhiyuan let go of him and returned to the heart of the stone formation. With his spiritual power, he engraved complex spells upon the gate, one by one. As the final glyph shimmered, a brilliant crimson pillar erupted skyward, lifting Mo Zhiyuan from the ground.

The man closed his eyes and chanted a spell repeatedly. Each syllable he uttered pulsed with dark energy, manifesting as leaping electrical sparks in the air.

A column of black fire erupted, swallowing Mo Zhiyuan whole. His once-regal presence was swiftly devoured, collapsing into skeletal remains before dissolving into ash within mere minutes. The ritual's end brought absolute obliteration, leaving no traces behind.

And then, a mighty storm was unleashed within the dilapidated Blood Moon Palace, devouring the entire realm into its hungry maw.

----------------

Author's note :

And now we shall enter the villain's redemption arc :)

Get ready, readers!