In the Liangyi Realm, Song Yan sat cross-legged beside the illusory Sword Seed, pondering the origin of that strange shadow.

After Peach Blossom Dock, the liangyi pearl purified the demonic flames on the Heart Demon, which then formed the ink-colored sky waterfall and the Ink Pool in the realm.

Now that he thought about it, where those Devilish Qi and demonic flames went was actually obvious.

But this couldn’t be blamed on Song Yan’s oversight.

After all, the Liangyi Realm was entirely black and white. At the time, he had only thought that it was a formless spiritual intent left by Senior Zhou Ziyin, causing some change in the liangyi pearl.

Coupled with an subconscious over-reinforcement of the liangyi pearl’s power, he instinctively believed that those demonic flames had already been dealt with by the pearl and required no further attention.

Recalling it now, no matter how powerful this treasure was, he was merely a Cultivator in the Qi Refinement Stage. How could he so easily ignore those demonic flames that had burned for a thousand years without dissipating?

He silently warned himself but didn’t overly blame himself.

His low Cultivation and narrow perspective were not things he could quickly improve overnight.

Any grand master in the Cultivation World also started from immaturity and matured step by step.

Song Yan calmed down, his thoughts becoming clearer.

The most important thing right now was to figure out these few matters.

First was to check himself, to see if he had been eroded or affected by this Devilish Qi.

Second was to clarify what exactly that strange shadow deep within the Ink Pool was.

Finally, it was how to completely eradicate this thing.

Recalling everything from head to toe—all the Cultivation Technique, secret arts, and sword arts he had Cultivated—nothing seemed to be affected.

The Dao scripture he currently Cultivated was still the common Qi Condensation Chapter, and his Cultivation speed hadn’t changed.

In fact, later on, his Cultivation speed had significantly improved due to absorbing the formless spiritual intent and supreme spiritual items left by a Senior.

The Hidden Sword Gathering Spirit Stance and other Spell secret arts also functioned as usual, unaffected.

Before the Ink Pool appeared, the only sword arts Song Yan mastered were Sword Dao True Essence and Cloud Piercing Sword. After the Ink Pool appeared, the power of these two moves remained unchanged.

"It seems this thing, at least in terms of Cultivation, has no effect."

However, based on Xiao Song’s experience fighting in the Cultivation World over the years, it was utterly impossible for this level of Devilish Qi to have no effect on him.

"Could it be..."

His thoughts suddenly returned to the day after Peach Blossom Dock, when he retrieved the Flying Sword from Qin Ying’s qiankun bag.

The name of that Flying Sword was Heart Demon.

"Could it be affecting the mind?"

"No, no, it shouldn’t be..."

Song Yan immediately wanted to deny this point, because in his opinion, his thoughts and ideas seemed to have completely unchanged; everything was normal.

But when he roughly reviewed his memories, he became somewhat indecisive.

Upon closer reflection, ever since then, his thoughts had indeed become... extremely aggressive.

When Senior Brother Sun Zhengfu informed him that Dan Zifeng had embezzled the spiritual resources compensated by the Profound Origin Sect, why was his first thought not to report it to the Sect, but to find a way to kill him?

When he and the couple Rong and Wu went to explore the Foundation Establishment Realm Immortal Cave, he had also considered, from Che Ning’s perspective, whether he could bury everyone inside and claim the benefits for himself.

Making a deal with Liang Feng, the criminal from Linghua Valley in Bei Ya Mountain, and exchanging killings with A Nian in Changping Ghost Mountain... one incident after another, now that he thought back, none of it seemed like the work of his former innocent self.

Yet, things had reached this point, and he had been completely unaware.

Why was this happening?

"..."

Subsequently, Song Yan carefully sorted through all of this and discovered something that surprised him.

That was, if all of these were influences brought to him by the Heart Demon.

Then these influences all seemed to be... positive.

Indeed, after the incident at Jiran Valley, his personality had matured somewhat, but in the current state of the Cultivation World, this was barely worth mentioning.

But the Heart Demon... made him speculate on all his enemies with the greatest malice.

It made him use the most extreme methods to cut through chaos quickly.

It allowed him to face troubles in a way that maximized his gains.

Thinking about it this way, it was too strange.

Wasn’t the Heart Demon the culprit that caused people to suffer Qi Deviation, fail their Breakthroughs, and bring about their own destruction?

Song Yan felt that everything happening to him was beyond his understanding.

The most terrifying thing was that he himself was completely unaware of such changes.

If he hadn’t Cultivated the Insightful Void Sword Eye and, following the overflowing Devilish Qi, seen that strange shadow deep within the Ink Pool, he didn’t know when he would have discovered it.

"..."

"Yan Yan?"

Just as Song Yan was pondering, Xiao He’s voice came from outside, pulling his Divine Sense sharply back to reality.

Opening his eyes, he saw Snake Babe gently tapping his forehead with its small tongue.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Xiao He’s tone was suspicious: "You look terrible, like you’ve seen a ghost."

He really had seen a ghost.

"Xiao He, I’m going out for a bit. I’ll be back soon."

"Okay~"

Song Yan walked out of the Immortal Cave, fully employing the Lingyun Intent movement technique, quickly traversing the Sect grounds.

He went straight to the Inner Sect’s library.

The Inner Sect’s library contained far more books than the Outer Sect’s book pavilion.

He searched around but couldn’t find many ancient texts or information related to "Heart Demon" for a while.

The few books he did find not only had very little content, but their descriptions were also extremely abstruse, with little reference value.

However, all descriptions of Heart Demon indicated one point.

That was, a Heart Demon could only be resolved by oneself; no one could rely on external forces or objects to dispel it.

Other than that, the recorded content was merely about how Cultivators manipulated by Heart Demons brought about their own destruction and met tragic ends.

Song Yan read it with trepidation.

Was it that serious?

Why did it feel like the Heart Demon was helping him now?

Could it be that his original personality was too gentle and kind, and the Heart Demon’s desire for slaughter and violent mindset compensated for this?

But among the countless people in history who suffered Qi Deviation due to a Heart Demon, weren’t there any like him?

What was the difference between him and them?

Dao Heart and Sword Intent? No, it couldn’t be. Even among Sword Cultivators, there were those who fell to the Demonic Path.

"..."

Unable to find a conclusion or an answer, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Just as he was about to return the book in his hand, he saw a sentence within it.

It was a note, not part of the original text, possibly left by a Senior.

"The most terrifying aspect of the Heart Demon is not that it makes people evil."

"Rather, it will always use what the Cultivator most desires deep down as bait, subtly influencing many of their decisions."

It was another abstruse statement.

"..."

Song Yan returned the book and left the library.

"The most desired thing?"

On his way back, he kept pondering this sentence.

If there was anything he desired most, it was probably freedom.

One could say this was even the foundation of his pursuit of Dao and his Sword Dao will.

"In that case..."

Recalling various past events, up until now, the Heart Demon had not brought him mental distortion, but rather a breaking free from constraints.

It was the freedom of escaping moral shackles, the satisfaction of acting on grudges, the decisiveness of no longer having to look before leaping.

This was precisely the most dangerous temptation the Heart Demon brought him.

Freedom downwards is not true freedom.

Chasing instinct and desire is actually letting oneself go.

Having understood this point, the knot in Song Yan’s heart suddenly vanished.

The current Song Yan had a clear Sword Heart, with his sharpness fully revealed.

His original fear of the Heart Demon stemmed from the unknown.

But now, since he temporarily couldn’t find a way to dispel the Heart Demon, why not... find a way to utilize it and make it an aid?