When that massive black-pupiled eye surged into Yang Kai's body and fused with him, his mind grew hazy.
All the negative emotions that had been buried in the deepest recesses of his heart now erupted forth as if summoned by some unseen force, flooding out all at once. His entire being radiated an aura of supreme malevolence and wickedness.
Complex, arcane demonic runes crawled across his skin, growing ever darker as torrents of demonic energy poured into him.
A power far exceeding the first level of the Dao Source Realm brewed within his body, battering his will and sense of self. He found himself lost in the intoxicating rush of suddenly wielding such tremendous strength. Dense killing intent and a craving for destruction welled up in his chest — particularly an overwhelming impulse to slaughter any living, breathing creature.
His Divine Sense sank deeper and deeper, swallowed by infinite darkness. Not a shred of light could be seen. Given enough time, he would become nothing more than a member of the demon race.
But just then, amid that endless abyss of darkness, a faint glimmer of light burst forth like a blade cleaving through storm clouds, blooming gently into view.
The light shimmered with seven colors, breathtakingly beautiful. The seven-hued radiance pierced through the boundless demonic energy and shone down upon Yang Kai, flooding him with warmth. It was like spending a freezing winter night shivering in the cold, only to finally feel the sun wash over you at dawn.
The malevolent energy clinging to his body seemed to encounter its natural nemesis. It dissolved into wisps of greenish smoke and vanished swiftly.
Yang Kai's consciousness, on the very brink of being consumed, snapped back to lucidity for a single, crucial moment.
Gritting his teeth, he focused every ounce of his vision and stared ahead.
In his field of sight, a phantom lotus wreathed in seven-colored radiance flickered in and out of existence.
The seven-hued lotus was not large — a mere speck compared to the infinite demonic energy — but the space it occupied had become the last pristine sanctuary in this dark world.
"The Seven-Colored Warming Spirit Lotus!" Yang Kai's mind cleared in a flash. He realized that without even noticing, he had projected his spiritual soul body and entered his own sea of consciousness.
The seven-hued radiance was, unmistakably, emanating from the Seven-Colored Warming Spirit Lotus.
With a stir of intent, he shot toward the lotus's position.
Moments later, he stood at the heart of the lotus, right above its pistil.
The seven-colored light enveloped him completely, sweeping away every last trace of negative emotion. As streaks of black smoke shot out from his body and dissipated, Yang Kai finally regained full clarity of mind.
He looked around. The entirety of his sea of consciousness was shrouded in immeasurable darkness. The starry map that should have hung in the sky above was nowhere to be found. In this entire world, the only light came from the seven-hued glow of the Warming Spirit Lotus. Nothing else remained.
A colossal black-pupiled eye lay suspended across the sky of his sea of consciousness, gazing down at Yang Kai with cold, emotionless indifference.
Yang Kai couldn't see it directly — but this was his sea of consciousness, and he could feel it with perfect clarity.
From that enormous black eye radiated boundless pressure and a domineering will, seeking to shatter Yang Kai's spiritual defenses and defile his soul.
Yet under the protection of a supreme heaven-and-earth treasure like the Seven-Colored Warming Spirit Lotus, any intangible assault was easily purified by its radiant glow.
More than that, from the Warming Spirit Lotus, countless tiny creatures — nearly invisible to the naked eye — flew outward in every direction.
Soul-Devouring Insects!
These were the peculiar exotic insects Yang Kai had obtained years ago on the Profound Continent. Over time, as his strength had grown, they had become largely useless and had been left to roam freely on the Seven-Colored Treasure Island that the Warming Spirit Lotus manifested, left to live and die on their own.
Decades of nourishment had multiplied their numbers to an almost inconceivable extent.
Now, contrary to Yang Kai's expectations, they swarmed out of the Warming Spirit Lotus all at once, scattering in every direction.
Wherever they passed, a crisp, pleasant crunching sound rang out. The ancient demonic energy that had invaded Yang Kai's sea of consciousness was devoured at a speed visible to the naked eye, vanishing as though it had never existed.
The Soul-Devouring Insects could consume even demonic energy? Yang Kai was stunned.
As time passed, the insects that had fed on the demonic energy grew steadily larger. They had originally been so minuscule that even when Yang Kai released them against enemies in the past, no one could see them at all.
But now, within Yang Kai's sea of consciousness, their size increased at a rate plainly visible to the eye. Not only that — their bodies gradually turned pitch-black. Intricate, subtle demonic runes began coiling around them, and their auras became utterly eerie and unfathomable.
Before long, each Soul-Devouring Insect had grown to the size of a grain of rice, and they continued to enlarge at an even faster pace.
Within the sea of consciousness, the demonic energy churned in agitation. It seemed to possess a will of its own, attempting to evade the insects' consumption — but this was Yang Kai's sea of consciousness. Where could it possibly hide?
Clumps of demonic energy were devoured like leaves being chewed through by silkworms, and great swaths of emptiness quickly appeared.
Yang Kai watched in silence for a while. He wasn't sure whether this was a blessing or a curse, but since it worked in his favor, he decided not to dwell on it.
The next moment, with a thought, he commanded the Seven-Colored Warming Spirit Lotus to ascend high into the sky, positioning it to face head-on the colossal black eye hidden within the infinite darkness.
The demonic energy slowly parted, finally revealing the black eye in its entirety.