The Years When I Was the Boss of the Evil Abyss

The cold wind howled, and the sky grew dark.

The deep mountains and towering peaks were filled with thick black mist, and suddenly, a figure tore through the fog from above, uncontrollably crashing into the cliffside with a powerful impact, tumbling and rolling down until it crushed the fragile dry branches, finally stopping only when it fell among the trees.

After a few moments of silence, the black mist was disturbed by the sound of chattering. "What's that sound?" "Something's fallen."

Several faint, flickering figures drifted through the black mist, following the sound toward the distant fallen leaves, seemingly sensing something, and quickly floated over.

They saw a small, blood-soaked body among the shattered stones and dead leaves. They looked at it in surprise.

"It's a mortal! It's almost dead."

In the deep forest, the young boy lay on top of a rough tree root, his clothes torn by the cliff's sharp rocks, exposing his arms which were a bloodied mess.

His mouth was filled with blood, his right leg twisted unnaturally, and his eyes were half-open, giving off an impression of impending death. What was even more bizarre was that a ghost hovered above the boy.

The ghost looked calmly at the boy, lowering its head as it felt the blood slowly drain from the boy's body. The boy's consciousness seemed to flow away with the blood, and the pain in his body seemed to fade.

The ghost stretched out its hand to touch its own body, but the transparent hand passed right through, giving it a sense of absurdity. Tsk… Even in this state, I still can't touch myself. The ghost was born with an evil aura. When it descended, it couldn't enter the body properly, leaving its soul incomplete, so it could only hover next to its body, watching the body live in a dull, sluggish state, feeling the torment of its bodily pain… And now, an overwhelming sense of joy began to envelop it, as if it were about to be freed from its suffering. Am I going to die? I must be dying.

The boy's breathing stopped, and the ghost closed its eyes. At that moment, the thick black mist around it paused for a moment, as if guided by something. The chilling Yin energy suddenly wrapped around the fading ghost, entangling the blood-laden body, and slowly seeped into the boy's body. The Yin energy flowing into him suddenly dispersed, the scattered Yin energy spinning slowly, rapidly piecing together like fragments, forming a complex and obscure pattern, which became a strange totem.

The surface of the totem shimmered with a golden hue, and soon, the golden patterns deepened, converging in the center of the totem to form a shape—a pair of eerie eyes, tempered by golden light. As the boy's consciousness fragmented, those eyes suddenly opened. In the brief moment of eye contact, the boy's memories, like a revolving lantern, suddenly ceased.

The totem seemed to come to life, and the patterns on the eyes began to rotate violently, as if opening a monstrous mouth, its jaws snapping shut and forming an inscrutable mantra—'You cannot die.' The boy's spiritual platform felt like it was struck by a giant force, and a buzzing sound shook his consciousness. His awareness snapped back all at once, and a sharp, crushing pain tore through his limbs and bones.

The weight on his shoulders felt as if it were going to rip him apart, followed by a searing pain that pierced into his sea of consciousness, causing his head to throb unbearably. His whole body seemed to be driven by an unknown force, and just as the foul taste in his mouth brought his focus back, the bloody stench climbed up his throat. He suddenly spat out a mouthful of foul blood, and the meridians in his body seemed to come to life. "Huh?" "Still not dead?" What sound was that?

Who's speaking? The voices around him grew clearer, and the scent of decaying soil filled his nostrils. The boy slowly opened his eyes and touched the rough bark pressed against his belly.

The sound of wind howling through the trees filled his ears, and his body felt as though some invisible force was pulling him forward. The cold wind slipped into his collar, making him shiver uncontrollably. "He fell from so high, and this mortal can still move?" The boy endured the headache and suddenly realized that what was pulling him forward was not a person but something cold and slimy, exuding a nauseating, slippery sensation. He vaguely deduced, his mind muddled, that yes, he must have fallen…

Who pushed him down? Who am I? The boy suddenly realized, and his mind went blank. The invisible Yin wind gathered into a strange sensation, like human hands, feeling their way over his body, defining something with a few quick gestures. The boy tried to avoid the Yin wind. His ears twitched, and the faint voices around him grew clearer. His vision was dark, like ink, with nothing in sight, and he could only judge the location of the speakers by the sounds. "Let's make it clear, we'll divide the flesh equally, but the head is mine." "…I want the head too." "If it weren't for the big ghost fighting over territory, we wouldn't have to fight for these scraps.

Hurry up, don't let the other ghosts steal our food." The speaker seemed to be the leader of these entities. "Drag him over there, take advantage of the weakening seal, eat quickly, then get out." The boy listened to the chattering around him, his already broken leg aching terribly as the evil spirits dragged him, and an overwhelming pain surged through him. He could smell the blood on his body, but he couldn't tell if it was his own blood or the stench carried by these things. His body felt numb except for the pain, empty inside, not even the slightest trace of spiritual power. Lifting his head took enormous effort.

His muddled sea of consciousness was in disarray, but he barely understood his situation, listening to the voices around him, knowing that there were three voices near him—probably evil spirits. Even if he hadn't died from the fall, he would die soon.

The thought of death sent a dull pain rippling through his consciousness again. 

The complex array in the sea of consciousness suddenly froze at this moment. The intricate and obscure formation appeared within the boy's sea of consciousness, and his nearly shattered awareness was inexplicably bound by an unknown force, as though the sound of sacred mantras had once again echoed in his mind.

— You cannot die. Kill them.

His entire body seemed to be controlled by the formation's patterns in the sea of consciousness. An indescribable irritability filled his thoughts, and his blood-soaked fingertips moved uncontrollably, brushing against the damp, decaying earth.

In the chattering noise, the evil spirits, who were discussing how to divide their food, lowered their heads. They saw the head of the mortal, who should have been dead, twitch. In no time, they witnessed the mortal's face, smeared with filthy blood, slowly lift. A pair of dark, hollow eyes were staring at them. Those eyes were beautiful, as though crafted by heaven itself, but they looked eerie—seemingly without focus, as if they were looking at them, yet also looking far beyond them, as if seeing something distant.

"This seems like a blind person."

"Don't say that. This mortal actually looks quite good, just a bit thin."

He was frail, but his skin seemed somewhat delicate, and such flesh would have a good texture.

The evil spirits looked at him more and more, their mouths watering. They couldn't wait to drag him to a secluded cave.

Each time the cold wind blew, more blood oozed from the boy's body, and his struggling head fell.

The evil spirits next to him watched sadly as the blood seeped into the ground, for mortal blood was quite nourishing...

Suddenly, the evil spirit dragging the boy stopped.

The one leading them turned back, surprised, and looked at his two companions. "Why did you stop? Hurry up and eat, then let's leave."

The evil spirit gripping the mortal trembled slightly. It said in a quivering voice, "Brother, the blood—"

The leader of the evil spirits turned back, and saw that the blood dripping from the boy's body had not been absorbed by the roots of the withered trees, which normally thrived on blood. Instead, it remained eerily on the surface of the decayed soil, and the dark stains deepened, gradually revealing a faint crimson glow. As that blood light began to shine, the three evil spirits looked back and saw, to their horror, that a bloodline had mysteriously appeared along the ground where they had dragged the boy.

The howling yin wind had stopped, and the dark mist had thinned, as if being absorbed by the fresh blood. Eventually, the deep red blood seemed to come alive, constantly flowing into the boy's body.

The evil spirits were frightened and quickly let go of him. The next moment, a large blood circle appeared around them.

"What's going on?" The three evil spirits' faces changed drastically as they looked up at a small vortex above their heads.

The boy's fingertips, which had been limp on the ground, began to move without them realizing it. His pale hand, covered in filthy blood, slowly revealed mysterious symbols that had once been blurry. The evil spirits finally noticed the unusual nature of his hand, as the bloodlines continuously surged with the surrounding yin energy. Under the influence of the gathering spirit formation, a massive handprint was formed.

They stared in horror at the mortal. He struggled to rise, holding onto a withered tree trunk. The gigantic handprint hovered beside him.

Transparent chains extended from the handprint and immediately bound them.

The handprint, formed from condensed yin energy, gradually turned a chilling silver-white, exuding an imposing and solemn aura in the dense mist. The blood on the ground began to rise, guided by the handprint, as blood-like symbols were slowly drawn in its palm.

The bound evil spirits felt an intense burning pain as if their bodies were being scorched by flames. Yet, they could not escape the range of the handprint that the blind mortal had set. The surrounding yin energy was continuously absorbed by the symbols, transforming into intense yin fire that specifically targeted their souls and burned them.

The three evil spirits had low cultivation. Before their deaths, they were mere mortals and had to start over as ghosts, relying on eating corpses and maintaining their ghostly forms through human flesh and blood. They could only increase their strength slightly by feeding on the remains of the dead.

But they had never encountered such a tough mortal before. At first, they had thought he had no cultivation, only useful for a meal. But they never expected this mortal to walk the path of the sinister, deliberately luring them in, then trapping them here.

Looking at the technique, they had never seen such a ruthless method, even when encountering Daoists!

"Master!"

"Spare us!"

The boy didn't listen to their pleas. With a slight movement of his handprint, the first evil spirit's body was torn apart by the formation.

The broken yin energy was absorbed by the bloodline, and the giant hand that extended from it grabbed the second evil spirit and crushed it with quick precision.

"Spare me, I've never eaten a human. I swear I haven't..."

The last evil spirit fell to its knees, begging, "I was just passing by the cliff and accidentally fell. No one offered me salvation, and if I don't find something to eat, I'll die. I have a wife and children, I was just planning to leave this place and find them. I don't want to die..."

Before it could finish speaking, it noticed that the restraints on it were weakening.

The boy staggered half a step before him and suddenly collapsed onto the ground with a loud thud. His body felt hollow and weak. The handprint he maintained became transparent, and overwhelming exhaustion swept through him, along with the pain from his injuries.

A mortal body... without spiritual power, yet able to control ghosts using yin energy.

The backlash was now overwhelming, rushing toward him. His meridians felt as though they had been washed by the yin energy, sending a chilling sensation throughout his body. The boy pressed his hands heavily on the ground, struggling to hold up his heavy body, his chest heaving as the overwhelming blood surged through him. He gasped uncontrollably.

His exhausted meridians were being cleansed by the yin energy, and although he was trembling from the cold, he couldn't help but feel an indescribable exhilaration. The surrounding yin energy spun, like fate itself...

The remaining evil spirit saw the mortal kneeling on the ground and was immediately filled with wild joy. Seizing the opportunity, it hurriedly tried to escape through the weak point in the bloodline. Although it didn't know what was going on, now was the perfect time to flee for its life.

But before it could take a few steps, a voice it had never heard before suddenly came from behind.

"...You want to leave?"

Wasn't that obvious? If not now, then when?

Wait, who's speaking!?

The evil spirit turned around and was met with the slowly rising head of the mortal. Beneath the disheveled hair were two extremely eerie eyes.

Crimson gold threads slowly crawled up from the bottom of the boy's eyes, and the originally dark and lifeless gaze seemed to suddenly come alive, staring directly at the evil spirit.