Chapter 4: The Gathering at Enryu's Inn

[Demonic Vessel Awakening]: an ancient book that describes the process to allow non-demon entity to cultivate like a demon.

As the young lady watched the young man lay down the book, her eyes sparkled with anticipation. She took a step back to give the young man some space before saying, "Young master, are you prepared?"

The young man stood up and said, "There's nothing much to be prepared about anyways. Although, I did read that this process will be a little painful."

As he walked to the inn, the young lady picked up the book he left behind and hurriedly followed. This young lady was naturally Hell Butterfly and the young man was the boy that arrived in the village seven years ago.

....

Nighttime. The clock was approaching midnight and most of the guests at Enryu's Inn were sleeping. Within another secret location outside of Enryu's Inn, dozens of people were all gathered at a garden.

These people were the villagers and staff members of the inn. There were a total of thirty-five people here, not a particular small group, and not a large group either. Usually most would be off doing their work or be at home, however, tonight, the entire village decided to gather at this garden for a single purpose.

In this garden, there was a large pond at the center. Like any pond, it would as blue as the sky during morning, and dark as the night during the evening. However, tonight, the pond was as dark as ink. It was not like its usual crystal-clear self.

Next to the pond was an old man pouring a dark liquid into the pond. Although he was kneeling on one knee, he had an extremely dignified look and was surrounded in an air of majesty and power.

He was dressed in a silky black robe that was covered in fine gold lining. Moreover his tall, large, and healthy physique gave people the impression that he could live for decades more and easily live pass a century.

His long, grey hair was tied neatly into a bun that was behind his head and his long beard was neat, as though it was groomed every day.

Anyone who looked at this old man would immediately have the impression that he was a patriarch of a noble clan, or the emperor of a wealthy nation. However, he was instead the village chief of Springfield Village and the inn keeper of Enryu's Inn.

Once the remaining liquid in that vial that he pouring was empty, the old man stood up and muttered a few words to himself. Then, he turned around and said, "The young master is here!"

Immediately, the crowd turned around and divided into two separate group to make an opening. Walking towards them were two people: Hell Butterfly and the young man. As the young man walked through the opening, Hell Butterfly joined one of the groups.

The old man stepped forward and bowed. "Greetings, young master!"

The other villagers joined him and bowed as well. "Greetings, young master!"

The young man nodded and walked to the old man before kneeling. The stern and intense look on the old man disappeared and was replaced with a more relaxed expression.

"Young master, the demonic soul pond has been prepared for you now. Step forward once you're ready and receive the power. Once you emerge, you will become Demonic Vessel!" A look of anticipation appeared in the old man's eyes. However, hidden deep behind that anticipation was also a slight trace of another feeling the old man had, but wasn't aware of.

The young man nodded again. He then began to take off his clothes one by one, but as quickly as possible. A rare moment of awkwardness was in the air as everyone watched the young man undressed. Some snickering and laughing could be heard in the back of the crowd, but was suppressed.

The young man walked slowly into the dark pond. Although the pond was shallow enough that even a child wouldn't sink into it, the young man continued to sink into the pond until his head completely submerged.

Dark clouds formed above in the sky and thunder crackled. As dark clouds formed, the earth also got darker. Eventually, darkness engulfed a region of a hundred kilometers. The only spot that wasn't completely engulf in this darkness was the pond.

The old man looked up onto the sky and began chanting.

"An Ancient Path; one that desires to bury Heaven and Earth; fallen along with the twelve stars!"

"A hand to slaughter gods! A blade to butcher devils! A thought to wipe away demons! A will to cut away immortals and saints!"

"Though broken, let it return! By my decree, let the ancient path of the demon slayers... open!"

...

Within the pond, the young man slowly opened his eyes and search his surroundings. Despite having just fallen into a pond, the young man was not wet and nor was he surrounded in water.

He looked up and could a see a small amount to light from above.

"So now I wait? No, according to that book, I should meditate and recite that chant so I could absorb demonic qi."

The young man sat down and began meditating. The moment he did, a surge of black wind gathered around him and formed a small hurricane. This was a hurricane of demonic qi.

He then began reciting the text from the [Demonic Vessel Awakening] book. The massive amount of demonic qi next to him then began to enter him. They mostly gathered and entered through his chest.

Soon, the young man could feel the demonic energy inside of was stabilizing and gathering at a single point to form a small black sphere.

This sphere was a dantian. Moreover, this dantian was unique since unlike most other dantian that other people such as cultivators and exorcists had, it held demonic qi!

Dantian were objects inside people that could store powerful and mystical forces of nature called qi. There were all sorts and types of "qi" in the world, but the one that was used by most people was spiritual qi.

Spiritual qi was rich in nature and was nearly infinite. It was also extremely versatile and could convert into other types of energies. Demonic qi was one of these variations!

As soon as the demonic qi in the surrounding started to fade and the dantian inside of him grew stronger and more abundant in demonic qi, the more powerful the young man's body grew as well to accommodate this powerful energy.

Soon, all the demonic qi in the surrounding had been absorbed inside of him. The young man's dantian was also completely black now and he could even tell that when he tried gathering a small bit of spiritual qi inside of him, it was immediately converted to demonic qi.

This meant that his dantian had been fully converted to a demonic dantian. This was the symbol that he had awakened and was now in the Demonic Vessel realm!