After getting instructions from the female Veilmaster, Simon began crossing the bridge with ease.
The narrow stone bridge which always swayed because of the chilling wind of the Blackwind Valley was also a test for all the candidates.
The Shadowgrave Clan was a clan of assassins, and this bridge tested one’s balance, mobility, and also courage.
When Simon thought about it, it was a little bit funny to him because he was a cat. And if there was one thing cats were good at, it was balance and mobility.
One could drop a cat from a building, but the cat would still land on its feet. Even if it was dropped upside down.
The bridge was nothing to him, but the heavy gusts of chilling wind could not be ignored even by him.
The other candidates who were either Fiends or Supreme Lesser Demons, he was still a Minor Lesser Demon with very little demonic energy.
The method many of the other candidates used to cross the bridge was to cover their entire bodies with their demonic energy.
Doing this increased their physical strength, and it prevented the wind from blowing them away.
Simon could also do this, but it would be a massive waste of his demonic energy if he coated his entire body with his demonic energy.
Compared to the others, he had very little demonic energy, and he had to be careful with how he used it.
So, what he did was to coat his feet in demonic energy and attach it to the bridge itself.
This made it so that no matter how much the bridge swayed, he would never fall as long as his demonic energy did not run out.
As he walked across the bridge, he looked down out of pure curiosity, and he was not surprised when all he saw was pure and utter darkness aside from the chilling wind from below.
’I wonder how many corpses are down there. Over twenty candidates died while trying to cross the bridge, and I’m sure there are even more candidates and demons who have died because of this bridge.’
He peeked down once again in curiosity.
"And I also wonder what else is down there." He mumbled softly, then he shook his head and decided to focus on what mattered.
The trials.
The first trial was an extremely easy trial for him, and although his actions might have seemed cruel in the eyes of others, even when they were demons, he didn’t care.
He hated demons. He despised them, and was disgusted by them. But he was just very good at hiding his feelings toward every demon he encounters.
He had been killing demons for so long and he was also over sixty years, so how could he not learn to control his emotions and expressions.
However, despite his feelings toward demons, a part of knew that he could have killed the foolish candidate in a less cruel manner.
But this part of him was just a tiny thought in the corner of his mind.
A big part of him was indifferent toward the way he killed the demon, and he even felt satisfied by his cruelty.
He had nearly smiled back then, but he controlled himself from doing so.
’I’m changing.’
Simon already knew this after living for so long as a demon and experiencing so much. There was no way he could have every single moral he had as the Hero of Earth.
He knew that.
But he also knew that there was another reason for this change.
What he felt back when he killed the poor lad, and what he was feeling right now was something he should not be feeling with his experience.
Step
Step
As he got off the bridge and walked into the entrance of the depths of Blackwind Valley, a scent drifted into his nose and his nose twitched.
’Blood.’
He felt his blood boil at the scent, and a hunger and desire began to rise in his blood.
He could feel it, and he knew it.
The awakening of his chaos flame, his demon heart, and his bloodline had not just changed him physically.
It had also changed him in ways he could not describe.
When he killed the other candidate with his claws, he felt satisfaction.
And now that he perceived the scent of blood and his eyes could see faint outlines of corpses on the ground in front of him, he could feel the desire to hunt.
The desire to kill.
The desire to battle.
Both humans and demons say cats are domestic animals, but what if this cat became a tiger?
What if this cat became a lion?
What if this cat became something else entirely?
A predator and no longer prey.
A beast that even the kings of the skies of the demon realm and the heavenly realm had to be wary of?
Simon did not know this.
He wasn’t certain what his bloodline had evolved to. But what he knew was that he was a predator.
He felt like a predator, and his blood boiled at the scent of blood, death, and battle.
Another thing that Simon did not know was that despite the changes to his bloodline, his bloodline would never have been able to affect his mind because of how sturdy his mind was.
He was the Hero of Earth who reached the realm of Demi-Gods.
The Halo of Earth.
The only human on earth to become a Demi-God.
How could his mind be so weak?
The main reason why he was changing was because of the soul-eating centipede which had torn off a tiny piece of his soul.
But this tiny piece was like a chink in his armor which his bloodline noticed and was continuously breaking.
Simon knew nothing of this, and he would not know until later in the future.
Simon stood at the entrance of the valley depths, then he inhaled deeply.
"This should be fun." His lips curled up into a light smile.