Chapter 365

So this is what it feels like.

The Supreme Peak realm. The domain of the great martial artists chosen by heaven.

I had taken a step into a place that had never been granted to me before, and I felt endless freedom.

How should I describe this feeling…

This is incredible.

A faint smile had already formed at the corners of my mouth.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

System

• The realm of Fire Gate Divine Technique has advanced to the eighth stage.
• The realm of Fire Dragon Divine Spear has advanced to the eighth stage!
• Flamefire Path has advanced to…!

System notifications announcing increases in various martial arts, along with Level Ups and achievement completions, rang out without pause.

Qi like molten lava surged from deep within my entire body. The darkness rushing toward Jeok Cheongang and me no longer frightened me in the slightest.

“Die!”

A scream-like shout. A face twisted like a fiend.

There was no trace left of the middle-aged man who had once worn a good-natured smile.

Only a monster consumed by killing intent remained.

Whoooosh!

The ink-black Sword Force, wrapped in savage killing intent, came crashing down like a bolt of lightning. I could feel the destructive power lurking within it just by looking at it.

But…

In the end, you were human too.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord was already exhausted from his injuries and fatigue, and his excessive rage had scattered his mind.

When the mind wavered, so did the qi. You could not pierce a boulder with a needle, but passing between grains of sand was not difficult.

Sss.

One step. As the tip of my foot pushed against the ground, space vanished.

Jeok Cheongang hurriedly shouted when he saw my back suddenly blocking his path.

“You little bastard, get back—”

His voice could not continue. Cyan-white energy was surging over the transparent spearhead of White Flame.

Filled with the heat of Extreme Yang, the energy connected toward itself like tangled threads, gathered together, and finally took shape.

A beautiful yet destructive concentration of internal energy. The exclusive province of great martial artists.

Force.

I had finally made it this far.

Trembling with joy, I thrust my arm toward the darkness rushing at me.

Ssssh!

A single line was drawn through the air. Cyan-white flames shot forward like an arrow and collided with the darkness.

Heavenly Strike.

The fire dragon’s claws tore the ink-colored Force to pieces.

KRAAAAAA!

Amid the deafening roar, I could see it clearly. The scattering darkness. And the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s face, twisted with rage and shock.

Blood and a howl poured from his mouth as the backlash of his shattered Force inflicted an Internal Injury.

“You dare—you dare!”

“What, you fucking bastard?”

You’re fucking dead now.

I smiled brightly and kicked off the ground. But someone had already shot toward the Western Heaven Demon Lord, one step ahead of me.

A small body. Jeok Cheongang, who had gathered the qi that had briefly fallen out of balance.

—I’ll hear what happened later.

A short Sound Transmission followed.

—First, let’s beat down that double-damned bastard.

It was the kind of comment that made me want to hit the Like button—or rather, it was a Sound Transmission.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord was stunned.

How? How could this be happening?

More than a hundred years of time. Several jiazi of internal energy. Everything he had built up until now was collapsing. Being denied.

And by a mere brat in his twenties!

Could such a thing be possible?

At this moment, the thought that flashed through the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s mind went beyond doubt.

Supernatural powers.

A young man barely past twenty had manifested Force. And that was not all. He possessed the strength of a giant and the speed of the wind.

It was something that could not be explained without the aid of a ghost. And yet…

You will be the ones who die.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord clenched his teeth and planted his foot on the ground. At the same time, a powerful qi aura surged from his entire body and burst outward.

“Come!”

The Western Heaven Demon Lord roared like an injured tiger.

No—he really was an injured tiger. Fatigue accumulated through a long battle and exhausted internal energy. One wrist had been torn away, and one ankle had been broken. Because of a momentary misjudgment, he had even suffered an Internal Injury at the hands of a mere brat.

But even so, one fact remained unchanged.

“I am the Lord of Heaven’s loyal servant. So long as that person is with me, even death itself shall pass me by!”

The Western Heaven Demon Lord’s shout carried an almost heroic grandeur. Two voices—one old, one young—immediately followed.

“What kind of bullshit are you spouting now?”

“Sounds less like Dark Heaven and more like Darkcheonji.¹ Hey, try saying, ‘Lee Man-ui is a son of a bitch.’”

Jeok Cheongang and Jin Taekyung.

Master and Disciple rushed forward like the wind and thrust out their arms at the same time.

KWAANG!

After a terrifying qi aura swept through the underground prison with a thunderous roar, blood began to flow from one man’s mouth.

“Cough.”

The Western Heaven Demon Lord’s body staggered slightly after absorbing the tremendous impact head-on.

Under normal circumstances, perhaps it would have been different. But for a man who had already suffered serious injuries, the joint attack of two Supreme Peak masters was truly threatening.

Even so, the Western Heaven Demon Lord did not give up.

I’ll bring down one of them first.

A young Disciple overflowing with strength thanks to the aid of a ghost, and an old Master suffering from the effects of his injuries.

Naturally, the Western Heaven Demon Lord chose the latter.

“Die!”

His leg swung like a whip.

Boom!

At the moment Jeok Cheongang blocked the terrifying kick with his hand and let out a low groan—

“How dare you touch him.”

Crack! Crunch!

The spear shaft struck upward like lightning and caught the Western Heaven Demon Lord beneath the jaw. His vision flashed white. The tremendous force, which even his Body-Protecting Qi could not fully absorb, snapped his jaw shut and severed his tongue.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord rose into the air from the pain and impact. Waiting for him were two hands wreathed in flame.

“This old man is the Fire King, you fucking bastard!”

Jeok Cheongang unleashed the Flame Divine Palm along with a thick curse.

BOOM!

The already unstable Body-Protecting Qi scattered. The heat of Extreme Yang seeped between the cracks in the Black Dragon Armor, which had split like a spiderweb.

Along with a pain like being burned alive, something hot surged up his throat.

“Gwaaaaaaagh!”

Black blood mixed with pieces of his organs sprayed out. Before the blood could even reach the ground, a brief sound of something cutting through the air pierced the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s ears.

Ssssh-sh-sh-sh!

“……!”

Dozens of spear shadows appeared in the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s bloodshot eyes, with burst blood vessels spreading across them.

As cyan-white flames flew through the air, scorching it in every direction, the Western Heaven Demon Lord dragged up every last bit of strength he possessed.

Ssssss!

Ink-colored Sword Force surged along his blade and collided with the spear shadows. Every clash produced a tremendous roar and shock wave that shook the underground prison and churned the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s insides.

“Graaagh…!”

But it was not over.

“Do you have time to look away?”

At the sound of the cold voice, Jeok Cheongang’s Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist drove into the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s side.

Crack! KRRRUNCH!

This was a punch unleashed with all the strength of Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King who was called the greatest among the Ten Kings.

Part of the Black Dragon Armor shattered along with the Body-Protecting Qi, unable to withstand the enormous impact. Flesh burned, and bones broke.

“Gaaaaah!”

A horrific scream reverberated. Even as he writhed in agony, the Western Heaven Demon Lord drew up every bit of his remaining internal energy and unleashed it in all directions.

BOOM! KWA-KWAKWANG!

The ground, ceiling, pillars, and rocks. The manifested ink-colored Force shot out without discrimination. Everything it touched turned to dust or was sliced apart like tofu.

Yet the two people who should have been its targets had already torn through the net of Force and reached the Western Heaven Demon Lord.

Shhk!

The Force gathered on the transparent spearhead slashed diagonally through the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s upper body, while the two flame-wreathed palms struck his collapsing chest.

BOOM! KWAANG!

“……!”

The Western Heaven Demon Lord’s body was hurled away like a cannonball, accompanied by an unimaginable pain he had never experienced before. It smashed through solid rock and buried itself deep in the wall.

“Ghk, ghek.”

The Western Heaven Demon Lord blinked with a bizarre groan. Through his blurred vision, he saw two people walking toward him.

Is this how I die?

The Western Heaven Demon Lord thought blankly.

For a long time, he had reigned as a powerful figure. He had enjoyed trampling the weak and taking away the things they cherished.

Every ordinary martial artist in Murim thought about death at least once. But not the Western Heaven Demon Lord.

The only beings in the world who should have been capable of taking his life were himself and the one sole, dignified existence known as the Lord of Heaven.

And yet…

“How dare you wretches try to kill my servant?”

A dry voice, like grains of sand in a desert, slipped between his blood-soaked lips.

There was no pain or reason in the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s voice.

His two eyes, shining with pure bloodlight, were no longer human.

Nor did they belong to the Western Heaven Demon Lord anymore.

“As this body descends to earth from heaven, kneel—from the lowest to the highest.”

At that moment, Jeok Cheongang and Jin Taekyung shouted like thunder.

“No way…”

“The Lord of Heaven!”

Rumble-rumble!

A terrifying energy spread from the Western Heaven Demon Lord—or rather, from the being temporarily borrowing his body—and shook the ground and ceiling.

An ink-colored current writhed like a tentacle from the stump of his torn-off arm, slowly sealing the wound that had been gushing blood like a waterfall.

“Worship me. Submit before omnipotent power.”

Plop. Plop.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord’s body slowly rose.

With every step he took toward them, manifested internal energy spread out behind him like wings.

And then—

“……!”

Everything stopped. The trembling, the wind, even the drifting dust and the movement of the air.

In that world where everything had stopped, a streak of darkness shot forward.

Ssssss!

The darkness approached without a sound and swallowed them both.

No—it would have, if not for the spearhead that thrust out, cleaving through a flow of time divided into ever-finer instants.

Gooooooong—

Wind and qi condensed around the spearhead, then burst out like an explosion. The spearhead, carrying cyan-white flames, advanced while erasing everything in its path.

One Annihilation.

A blinding flash erupted.

When time began to flow again, it brought with it pain that made my entire body feel as though it were breaking apart, along with complete exhaustion.

I want to collapse just like this.

My arms and legs, my fingers, even every individual strand of muscle. Every part of my body felt as though it might snap at any moment.

But I held on with superhuman strength.

Not yet. Not yet.

At the very least, I did not want to collapse before him.

“So die already, you fucking bastard.”

I raised my head and looked at the Western Heaven Demon Lord—or rather, the thing borrowing the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s body.

After confirming that his entire body had been burned black and that a hole had been blown through his chest, the corners of his mouth slowly lifted.

“Interesting. Very interesting.”

Fwoosh.

No sooner had he finished speaking than his fingers turned to ash and scattered. In a breeze that had come from somewhere, his body slowly began to crumble.

But the thing borrowing another person’s body could not feel pain. Instead, it tossed out a single line with a laugh.

“We’ll meet again next time.”

I barely raised my middle finger.

“Go eat a dick.”

No answer came.

Beyond the drifting ash, System notifications announcing Quest success and Level Up rang out.

But the mental fatigue caused by the battle did not recover.

I only wanted to collapse right there. No—I was already in the process of collapsing.

Grab.

A wrinkled hand caught my shoulder.

It belonged to Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King. When I saw his welcome face, I suddenly remembered something I needed to say.

“How was it?”

“What?”

“One Annihilation. It was incredible, right?”

The concern filling Jeok Cheongang’s face slowly faded. Before long, a gentle smile formed on his lips.

“Yes. It was incredible.”

That was enough.

Alongside an answer that never escaped my lips, I closed my eyes. The sound of the underground prison collapsing echoed faintly in the distance.