Divine Emperor of Death

Davis, Evelynn, and Empress Hex Arachnid arrived at the inheritance location, where the latter handed over her true blood essence while Davis watched over with a calm gaze in his eyes.

The reason why Davis audaciously entered the Empress Hex Arachnid's Immortal Inheritance was that he had Lereza's support. Although she first refused, stating that the inheritance palace might be fine but the rift would collapse easily upon her exit, Davis said that was what he wanted. If they were not getting the inheritance and were instead subjected to vile intentions, then it was better to explode rather than die without being able to fight back.

However, there was no need to go that far. Davis explained to Lereza that he was only going to use her existence as a bargaining chip if the Empress Hex Arachnid tried to devour them, causing Lereza to reluctantly agree as she didn't like this suicidal plan. Fortunately, like Evelynn once said and believed, the Empress Hex Arachnid seemed like a good person.

In fact, after inspecting Empress Hex Arachnid, he concluded that all the goodness was with the Empress Hex Arachnid while the malice was sealed within her heart demon. To him, that explained why one was sane, seeking aid for her clan, while the other was insane, seeking pure destruction for the things that happened to her.

Even if Empress Hex Arachnid wasn't able to conquer her heart demon, to be able to separate the different natures of her true soul and heart demon was quite a feat in and of itself.

"…!"

However, a hint of realization struck Davis.

"Empress Hex Arachnid…"

"Yes…?"

The Empress Hex Arachnid had her gaze on Evelynn, who was currently absorbing the true blood essence.

"If it's possible, can you tell me how you separated your malice and sealed those emotions into your heart demon?

"Why?"

Davis thought for a moment before he answered, "I have a friend who suffers from a similar problem…"

The Empress Hex Arachnid turned her gaze to him.

"Young man, it's not something you learn just because you want to. These are innate gifts given to us by the heavens themselves as touted by our ancestors, by all immortal beasts, which makes me not understand why it would continue to seek our persecution. Perhaps, it's not the heaven's will but the will of greediness. Perhaps, I'm looking deep into it when many races have already gone extinct from time immemorial. Perhaps, it's just our time has neared."

"Nonetheless, such things are irrelevant to you, who's still a mortal.

"As for your question, I can explain the theory behind the hex technique if you want to know."

"Please tell." Davis adopted a respectful attitude.

"First, I'll let you imagine what a heart demon is."

"Think of your soul as the cauldron and the emotions behind it as the ingredients while the flame is your will. Both you and your heart demon are undoubtedly your own will. If the flames weaken enough through your own powerlessness or are negatively influenced by the myriad of ingredients, the aura of the refinement will consequently be impure."

"In other words, the more your will weakens, whether by your own weakness or influenced by the myriad of emotions tormenting you, the more your heart demon will end up manifesting. Therefore, the intensity of the flames must be ever-surging in accordance with your cultivation base to keep the emotions in check, or you risk an impure concoction or exploding the cauldron altogether."

Davis's eyes couldn't help but shine brightly. These few words uttered by Empress Hex Arachnid truly allowed him to imagine how a heart demon could be formed under many strenuous circumstances.

"Seems like you understood. What do you think I did to split my emotions in half?"

"Since your heart demon has already formed… it would mean that a concoction is completed and half the flames are under the control of your heart demon-"

"How many flames that had fallen under the control of the heart demon depends on how far it has advanced but go on..."

The Empress Hex Arachnid nodded as she smiled, looking favorably at him.

"That makes it so that… there are two pills in the cauldron, one impure and one pure. The heart demon and you."

"However, you preemptively used your will, in other words, used your flames to split the malice hovering inside the cauldron as residue and push them towards the heart demon pill, burning the desire for vengeance deep inside it and managed to get rid of malice along with the other negative emotions from your pill boundary if I may assume. I also presume this feat could only be achieved when the flames you control are extremely higher than the flames the heart demon control."

"You're not far off..." Empress Hex Arachnid's eyes gleamed in appreciation as she nodded, "After I sealed my negative emotions in my heart demon to remain sane and not be influenced by heart demon as I formed a boundary wall inside the cauldron, a considerable portion of my flames was sacrificed, and the end result is that we share fifty-fifty of the flames, essentially making the heart demon's standing equal to mine but unable to make any progress because I caused us to enter a stalemate."

Hearing Empress Hex Arachnid's explanation, Davis couldn't help but proudly smile that he got it right.

Of course, he had received Myria's teachings on how to revive a soul when learning the Fallen Soul Resurrection Technique. If he couldn't guess this in theory, then he must be really lucky to have learned the Fallen Soul Resurrection Technique, which was even more complicated than this theory revolving around the soul.

"Since our standing is equal, we can fight over our soul body anytime we wanted regardless of the stalemate as matters of will cannot be pinned down to numbers, but since this palace is mine and in one way designed to help suppress heart demons, I will always win." The Empress Hex Arachnid continued.

"However, no wondrous technique such as the one I used is risk-free. It was precisely because I sealed my malice in my heart demon and formed an unbreakable boundary that I couldn't figure out where it hid in me and because it knew that it could be suppressed by the palace, it never showed itself until Evelynn arrived. By the time I sensed its sneaky actions of resurrecting through the blood essence, I was already too late to react."

Davis kept nodding as he imagined how it went. If the Empress Hex Arachnid was lying, he had really had to give it to her for keeping a story this straight that he couldn't find many holes in her teaching. Nonetheless, he felt that this was useful information because although it might not be as useful as he thought it to be for Myria and Ellia's separation, it could be incredibly useful for his second wife, Natalya, although it seemed like he would have to modify the theory heavily in a way that the heart demon never appears to haunt her.

The Empress Hex Arachnid saw Davis lower his head in deep thought before she smiled and returned her gaze to Evelynn.

"But beware of the mystical nature of the soul. If you find a way to develop this technique and use it on your friend in the future after much research, it is possible that your friend will be taken over before they can even try sealing their heart demon because of their incapability. After all, I was only able to seal my heart demon due to the binding power of Hex Laws. If their own flames are weak, then there is nothing you can do about it."

'So this is why after you seal yourself in the monument, your heart demon will gain control. After all, you have essentially squashed a part of your will by doing such a thing.'

Davis derived before he clasped his hands and gave a bow as he reached shoulder level, "Many thanks for your teachings, Empress Hex Arachnid."

As he came to believe that Empress Hex Arachnid truly went this far to nurture her inheritor to save her clan, he no longer resented her for almost causing Evelynn to be taken over. If anything, he wanted to somehow pull out that heart demon from Empress Hex Arachnid and torture her for millions of years if it was ever possible in the first place.

"Hgh~"

Evelynn clenched her teeth as her body shuddered in pain.

"The time for discussion is over. Don't interfere with the inheritance process, so stand back and watch or leave if you're unable to see your beloved wife endure unbearable pain."

The Empress Hex Arachnid warned Davis as things got more solemn.