Chapter 100: Shackles of the Past

Ren Wuji's voice was hoarse as he finished recounting the tale. His back leaned against the cliff, his eyes dark and hollow.

Han Long stared at the bound demon, his expression unreadable. The stories from the righteous sects painted this creature as a world-ending calamity, an embodiment of bloodlust and carnage. But hearing Ren's tale—hearing of betrayal, fearmongering, and manipulated history—had shifted something inside him.

A part of him knew this might be a mistake.

But a deeper part—the part still chained by the ghost of the cave cried out for liberation.

"You say you didn't choose to be this way," Han said finally, eyes narrowing. "That the Blood Demon was made, not born. Then let's find out the truth."

He stepped forward, the ground trembling faintly beneath his feet. Qi flared around him, swirling into the shape of an ethereal dragon—the manifestation of the Dragon Cloak Technique. The phantom dragon coiled around his shoulders like a protective mantle, its golden scales glowing with radiant defiance.

"Break," Han commanded, striking the nearest chain.

A deafening clang rang out as the cloak-empowered fist slammed into the blood-iron. The chain quivered… but held.

Han gritted his teeth and struck again. Then again.

Each blow shook the void realm, the chains twitching in response.

Hope flickered in the demon's eyes. "Keep going! The seals are weakening!"

But before Han could deliver another blow—

A ripple of spatial energy shimmered from the opened portal behind him and from it stepped two figures, cloaked in silver mist.

"Kai!" Yin Shuang called, her sword already half-drawn.

Kai Feng, clad in dark robes, his breath steady, raised a hand to shield his eyes from the crimson glow of the chamber. The Celestial Eclipse Manual pulsed faintly at his side, guiding him like a compass.

"It worked," Kai muttered. "The tracking technique…"

They had followed the trail of demonic Qi that Han used to activate the portal, leading to the secret location of the void realm portal. And now they were here, just in time to see Han Long's cloak-shrouded form hammering against the demon's chains.

"Han!" Kai shouted. "Stop!"

Han glanced back, eyes burning. "Don't interfere, Kai."

"That thing isn't some misunderstood puppy!" Kai snapped. "It's a catastrophe sealed for a reason!"

"He's no worse than the so-called righteous sects," Han growled, turning to face them fully. "He's power and power doesn't belong in a cage."

Yin Shuang's blade gleamed. "You're being manipulated."

Han took a breath. "Maybe. But I choose this path. Just like you chose yours."

Unbeknownst to any of them, a third presence had followed them into the void realm.

Hidden behind one of the jagged spires that rose along the cliff, Meng Yao crouched low, breath held tight in her chest. Her heart pounded like a drum, fingers clutched around the folds of her robe. She had seen them vanish into the portal and followed without thinking—without understanding.

Now she was here, eyes wide with fear and awe as the three cultivators faced off, and the sleeping demon trembled in his chains.

"I shouldn't be here," she whispered to herself. "This… this is too much."

But she couldn't tear her gaze away.

Han Long's roar split the sky.

The Dragon Cloak blazed to full life—twin dragons of crimson flame spiraling around him like living armor. His body expanded with raw power, tendons and veins glowing like molten iron. The tattoos along his arms shimmered violently, crowned with Qi so intense the void around him began to warp.

With one motion, he struck the ground and it cracked beneath him like glass.

"Kai. Yin," he growled, his voice layered with something ancient, inhuman. "You shouldn't have come."

Kai drew his sword slowly, his eyes never leaving Han. "We came because we believe that there's still a piece of you left. We'll reach it… even if we have to fight you."

Yin Shuang's expression was resolute, her blades already raised in guard. "We're not here to kill you, Han. But we won't let you destroy yourself."

Han didn't respond. He moved.

The air combusted as Han lunged forward. His clawed hand, wreathed in bestial Qi and wrapped in dragonflame, slammed into Yin's guard. The impact tossed her back a dozen steps, boots skidding across obsidian stone.

Kai intercepted the follow-up—sword clashing against claws, sparks cascading like a fountain of fire.

"You can't defeat me," Han snarled. "Not against what I've become."

Kai didn't answer. Yin had already returned to his side.

"Now," she said. "Dual Harmony, Phase Two."

Their steps aligned. Their Qi resonated. A harmonic aura shimmered into being between them—two hearts, two blades, moving as one.

The Dual Swords Harmony Technique ignited.

Yin became the edge. Kai, the breath between cuts.

They moved like wind through trees—perfect rhythm, perfect flow. Silver arcs of swordlight wove complex sigils in the air as they surrounded Han from both flanks.

Han answered with force.

His Dragon Cloak Technique surged, flames twisting into serpents that lashed outward. One serpent smashed Yin's blade arc. Another crushed Kai's binding glyph.

He turned—a cyclone of fire and claws, a blur of rage. Bestial Howl. Devouring Claw.

The Harmony Technique shattered mid-form, threads of light unraveling in the air.

Kai was hurled backward, crashing into a floating monolith with a bone-jarring crack.

Yin twisted midair, barely managing to deflect the worst of the impact—but even then, a thin line of blood traced down the corner of her mouth.

At the center of the wreckage stood Han. Chest heaving. Grinning like a predator. Around him, the air pulsed with the remnants of broken techniques, smoldering like ash.

"Even together," he growled, voice low and electric, "you can't stop me."

Kai staggered to his feet, wiping blood from his lip. "Han—wake up from this!"

Yin's voice followed, calm and piercing. "We're not here to fight you. We're here to save you."

For a moment, just a moment, Han blinked.

"You were the one who risked everything to bring Meng Yao back from Shen Zhenhai," Yin said quietly, voice laced with awe and something close to sorrow.

Kai stepped forward, his gaze steady. "Since the day you were born, you've clawed your way through every shadow alone. You don't need that pendant to prove your worth."

But Han's eyes had gone dark, distant—as if a door had shut behind them. The Dragon Cloak shuddered, then flared with a sudden, feral heat, scales whispering like wind over steel.

"Stop. Talking."

Han charged, wreathed in flame—the Dragon Cloak blazing around him like a second skin. Immolation Rush ignited beneath his feet, and he became a streak of burning fury hurtling through the void.

Kai and Yin split apart, instincts honed by their mutual understanding barely enough to keep them ahead of the searing arc he carved into the empty sky. The very air warped in his wake, spirals of scorched qi twisting into blackened trails.

They tried to respond. Their techniques flickered, reaching for rhythm, for the fluid symmetry they had trained to perfection. But Han gave them no rhythm.

Only chaos.

He descended like a storm unbound. Strike after strike, relentless and unchained. Bestial Claws. Blood Dragon Fang. Infernal Talon Sweep.

Each technique came faster than the last—wild, unfamiliar, barely tempered. Moves he had never displayed before. Forms he should not have mastered. Not yet.

And yet… he had.

Yin blocked a downward arc of fire with a blade of light, only to be forced back by the shockwave. Kai ducked beneath a flaming claw, countered with a pulse of force—too slow. Han was already gone, appearing behind him like smoke and teeth.

They were losing ground.

The void around them shook with the force of his assault. Floating monoliths cracked. Light fractured. For every blow they landed, Han delivered three. Their edges dulled. Their breathing frayed.

But they never stopped speaking to Han.

Between parries and evasions, between the blaze of impact and the tremor of falling stone, their voices cut through.

"Han, this isn't you!" Kai shouted, even as his body reeled from a near-miss.

"You're stronger than this darkness," Yin said, voice low but unshaken, even through bloodied lips.

"You are not alone."

"Han, please," Yin said, ducking beneath a scything blow. "This isn't strength—it's corruption!"

"We don't want to destroy you!" Kai shouted as he deflected another flaming claw. "We want you to remember who you are!"

Something flickered in Han's eyes.

A moment.

A heartbeat of stillness.

He stood in the air, fire swirling around him, panting hard. His clawed hand trembled.

Meng Yao's face flashed in his mind.

Her smile.

Her trust.

The screaming rage in his chest dulled. The dragons of fire stilled, waiting.

That was all they needed.

"Now!" Yin cried.

Kai thrust forward a glyph already prepared.

"Twin Moons Binding, Celestial Lock!"

Yin mirrored the motion with a corresponding sigil—Silver Thread Lattice!

The two techniques collided midair, then snapped into place around Han in a cage of interwoven light and spiritual suppression.

Han roared, struggling, but the Harmony Seal had caught him in that moment of doubt. His fire flared—then sputtered. The cloak flickered like dying embers.

Kai approached slowly, sword lowered.

"I didn't want to do this," he said, standing over his immobilized friend.

Han's breathing was erratic, eyes wild, but the rage in them had dimmed.

"This isn't punishment," Kai continued. "It's survival. For all of us."

He raised his hand, palm glowing with silver threads of Qi. "I'm going to strip your cultivation. I have no other choice."

Han didn't move. Didn't protest.

He just closed his eyes.

"I'll remove the corruption. You'll live," Kai whispered. "But it'll be over."

Just as his hand began to descend—

A voice shattered the air like a lightning strike.

"Stop!"

Kai froze.

From the shadows beyond the shattered ridge, Meng Yao burst into view. Her face was pale, eyes wide and wet with tears.

She ran forward, tripping slightly as she reached the edge of the battlefield.

"Please, don't," she sobbed. "Don't take everything from him."

Yin turned, shocked. "Meng Yao?!"