"The Blade-Wielding Immortal Venerable?"
"He comprehended all three thousand Great Dao, only to become the one and only demon in this world."
*
At thirteen, Li Zhiren was gloomy and frail. His peers mocked him because of his bad left leg. In other people's eyes, he was a cripple anyone could order around, an unwanted stray child the Li family paid no attention to, and someone who would never amount to anything in his life.
Li Zhiren dreamed of escaping that fate, but there was no one who could help him.
Then one day, while gathering firewood on the mountain, he found a box. Inside were three demon pearls that could grant people's wishes. Each time one was smashed, the imprisoned soul within came one step closer to freedom.
With the first, he cured his lame leg.
With the second, Li Zhiren wished for the family that tormented him to be destroyed. After he made his wish, bandits ransacked the entire village. Corpses littered the ground and blood ran in rivers. His foster parents and his older brother all died. Only the scrawny child survived, hidden beside the bodies.
He chewed on his family's flesh as it began to rot and drank the blood that flowed from their stomachs. Li Zhiren became a blood-soaked madman, but he didn't care in the least.
When it came time to make his final wish, he suddenly tightened his grip on the demon pearl. "Pearl, you have the power of the immortals. I want to... become you."
Li Zhiren swallowed the demon pearl whole.
[Reading Guide]
1. The protagonist does not transmigrate or become reborn. He is chaotic and evil.
2. This is not typical cultivation. The world is dark and realistic.
Theme: A sharp sword is forged through hardship
