Agony ripped through Lin Xiao. The sealing artifact pulsed, a cold, crushing weight on his very essence. It wasn't just physical pain; it was a violation, a spiritual assault that sought to shackle the primordial evil stirring within him. His immense Demonic Qi, usually an unstoppable torrent, felt sluggish, constrained. Flashes of black energy flickered around him, struggling against the brilliant, starlit chains that dug deeper with every beat of his enraged heart. "Foolish demon!" The Dao Guardian's voice boomed, satisfaction lacing his ancient tone. "You are nothing against the combined might of the True Dao. Your primordial evil will be tamed, your ambition shattered!" Scions, their faces alight with triumphant zeal, chanted. Their synchronized efforts amplified the artifact's power, each word a spike driven into Lin Xiao's core. He tasted blood. A dark, metallic tang filled his mouth. This was humiliation. This was weakness. Never again. Never. A guttural snarl escaped his lips, a sound more beast than man. His eyes, usually pools of calculating darkness, now flared with a raw, untamed fury. The Dao Guardian's words, the scions' smug expressions, the searing pain – it all converged into a single, explosive point of pure, incandescent rage. They sought to bind the primordial evil? They sought to chain *him*? They had no idea what they were playing with. Deep within his spiritual sea, where the forbidden entity writhed, a different kind of darkness stirred. It was not the controlled, channeled Demonic Qi he usually wielded. This was older, vaster, a primal force barely contained, barely understood. Lin Xiao reached for it. Not with careful cultivation, not with intricate seals, but with sheer, unadulterated will. He plunged into the abyss, abandoning all caution, all reason. His sanity teetered on the brink. The primordial evil pulsed, a ravenous maw sensing release. It was a gamble, a desperate, suicidal play. If he lost control, he would be consumed, his very soul annihilated. But the humiliation, the perceived defeat, burned hotter than any fear. "You want to bind me?" His voice tore through the air, ragged and raw, yet laced with a growing, terrifying power. "Then *witness* true bondage!" The starlit chains, once brilliant, began to dim. Cracks spiderwebbed across the sealing artifact. The scions faltered in their chant, their eyes widening in dawning horror. Dao Guardian's smirk vanished. A flicker of genuine alarm crossed his ancient features. "What… what is this?" Lin Xiao's body began to distort. Veins bulged, black as obsidian, across his skin. His aura erupted, no longer merely Demonic Qi, but a swirling vortex of pure, corrosive nihility. He was no longer just Lin Xiao. He was a conduit. A gate. A scream tore from his throat. It wasn't human. It was the sound of tearing fabric, of shattering glass, of a dimension being ripped apart at its seams. It was the primordial evil's voice, channeled through his raw, desperate will. The very air around him warped, shimmering with impossible colors and then collapsing into oppressive darkness. Sound died. Light died. Space buckled. Reality itself fractured, jagged lines of pure energy slicing through the air like invisible blades. The scions screamed, but no sound escaped their lips. Their faces contorted in silent terror as the wave of destructive force, born from Lin Xiao's primal roar, slammed into them. The sealing artifact, once so formidable, glowed with frantic, desperate energy. It shrieked, a high-pitched, unheard wail, as the primordial scream devoured its essence. Stars within its surface exploded, one by one. The intricate symbols dissolved. Its metallic structure groaned, then twisted, then simply ceased to be, dissolving into dust and raw, chaotic energy. Dao Guardian staggered back, his eyes wide with a horror he hadn't shown in millennia. He threw up a barrier of pure Dao energy, but it shimmered, then cracked, then disintegrated under the sheer, unbridled might. One scion, the starlit leader, tried to activate a last-ditch escape spell. His hand reached for a shimmering pendant, but the destructive wave consumed him before his fingers could close. His body disintegrated, not into ash, but into nothingness, as if he had never existed. His companions met the same fate. They were not merely killed; they were unmade. Their very existence was erased from the fabric of reality, leaving not a trace. Lin Xiao, his eyes still blazing with a horrifying, alien light, stood amidst the maelstrom. The scream subsided, replaced by a low, vibrating hum that echoed through the shattered space. The chaotic energy that had been the sealing artifact swirled, coalescing into a dark, swirling motes of essence. It was broken, fragmented, but its inherent sealing properties remained, raw and unbound. His breath came in ragged gasps, his body trembling from the immense drain. He had paid a terrible price. His spirit felt raw, his mind a volatile storm. But the pain, the humiliation, was gone. Only power remained. Slowly, his eyes focused on the swirling fragments. The artifact's essence, now free, beckoned. It was a treasure, a tool forged by ancient powers, now broken and ripe for the taking. He extended a hand, palm open. The fragments swirled towards him, drawn by an invisible, irresistible force. They phased through his skin, seeping into his meridians, his spiritual sea. A profound understanding flooded his mind. He grasped the fragmented principles of sealing, of containment, of binding. It was incomplete, distorted, but it was there, a new layer added to his already formidable Demonic Arts. Then, a vision. It wasn't a memory, nor a prophecy. It was a direct, horrifying glimpse into the heart of the primordial evil itself. Not the bounded energy within him, but its true, unchained form. A vastness beyond comprehension. A void that swallowed stars. Tentacles of pure thought, not flesh, probed the edges of existence. Cosmic dust, like galaxies, swirled in its wake. It was a consciousness that predated time, a hunger that consumed dimensions. It saw, yet had no eyes. It spoke, yet had no voice. It was the ultimate, inescapable terror, a cosmic horror that transcended gods and demons, patiently waiting, its true awakening an event that would unravel the very tapestry of the universe. Lin Xiao's mind reeled. His newfound partial control over sealing properties felt like a child's toy against *that*. He had peered into the abyss, and the abyss had shown him something far, far worse than anything he could have ever imagined. Something that made his own ambition, his own desire for domination, seem utterly insignificant, a mere flicker in an unending night. The primordial evil within him was merely a fragment, a shadow of this ultimate entity, and its true power was a cosmic horror far beyond his current understanding. He had gained a formidable new ability, but at the cost of witnessing a truth that threatened to shatter his very soul. He had glimpsed the true scale of the entity that empowered him, and for the first time, a sliver of genuine, bone-chilling fear pierced his ruthless resolve. What had he truly unleashed, and what would it demand when it finally awoke in its entirety? Lin Xiao felt the subtle shift, the almost imperceptible growth of the primordial evil's influence within him, a silent promise of future power and unimaginable terror, leaving him with a chilling understanding of the true cost of his ascension. The broken artifact's essence now flowed through his veins, imbuing him with its sealing properties, yet the horrifying vision of the primordial evil's true form, a cosmic horror far beyond his current understanding, was seared into his mind, a terrifying glimpse of what awaited him at the apex of his demonic path.

Chapter 85: Primal Scream of Power