Chapter 365

So this is what it feels like.

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

I had taken a step into a place that had always been beyond my reach, and I felt boundless freedom.

How could I put this…?

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 rang out without pause, announcing advances in my martial arts, the resulting Level Ups, and completed achievements.

Qi like molten lava surged from deep within me. I felt not the slightest fear of the darkness bearing down on Jeok Cheongang and me.

“Die!”

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

Nothing remained of the genial, smiling middle-aged man he had once appeared to be.

All that stood before me was a monster consumed by killing intent.

Whoooosh!

Ink-black Sword Force, wreathed in savage killing intent, came crashing down like a lightning bolt. One look was enough to feel the destructive power lurking within 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. A needle couldn’t pierce a boulder, but it could slip through the gaps between grains of sand.

Sss.

One step.

The instant my toes pushed off the ground, the space between us vanished.

I appeared in front of Jeok Cheongang, blocking his path. He shouted urgently at my back.

“You little bastard, get back—”

His voice cut off.

Cyan-white energy surged over White Flame’s transparent spearhead.

Imbued with the heat of Extreme Yang, strands of energy intertwined like tangled thread, drawing together until they finally assumed a single form.

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

Force.

I had finally made it this far.

Trembling with exhilaration, I thrust my arm toward the oncoming darkness.

Ssssh!

A single line traced through the air. Cyan-white flame shot forward like an arrow and met the darkness head-on.

Heavenly Strike.

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

KRAAAAAA!

Amid the deafening roar, I saw it clearly.

The darkness scattering—and the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s face twisting with rage and shock.

The backlash from his shattered Force inflicted an Internal Injury. Blood and a furious howl burst from his mouth.

“You dare—you dare!”

“What, motherfucker?”

You’re dead now.

I beamed and kicked off the ground.

But someone else was already streaking toward the Western Heaven Demon Lord, one step ahead of me.

A small figure.

Jeok Cheongang had brought his briefly disordered qi back under control.

—You can tell me what happened later.

A short Sound Transmission followed.

—First, let’s beat the shit out of that goddamn bastard.

It was the kind of comment that made me want to hit the Like button.

Or rather, the kind of Sound Transmission.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord was stunned.

How? How can this be happening?

More than a hundred years. Several jiazi¹ of internal energy.

Everything he had built over all that time was collapsing. Being denied.

And by a mere brat in his twenties!

How is such a thing possible?

What crossed the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s mind at that moment went beyond mere doubt.

Supernatural powers.

A young man barely past twenty had manifested Force. Nor was that all. He possessed the strength of a giant and the speed of the wind.

Nothing short of a ghost’s intervention could explain it.

And yet…

You will be the ones who die.

The Western Heaven Demon Lord ground his teeth and planted his foot on the ground. At the same instant, a tremendous wave of qi erupted from his entire body.

“Come!”

He roared like a wounded tiger.

No—he truly was a wounded tiger.

Fatigue had accumulated over the long battle, and much of his internal energy had been exhausted. One wrist had been torn off, and one ankle was broken. A momentary misjudgment had even left him with 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.² 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 together.

KWAANG!

A thunderous roar erupted as a terrifying wave of qi swept through the underground prison.

A moment later, blood trickled from one man’s lips.

“Cough.”

The Western Heaven Demon Lord staggered beneath the tremendous impact he had taken 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 refused to give up.

I’ll bring one of them down first.

The young Disciple overflowed with strength granted by some ghostly aid, while the old Master still suffered from his injuries.

Naturally, the Western Heaven Demon Lord chose the latter.

“Die!”

His leg lashed out like a whip.

Boom!

Jeok Cheongang blocked the terrifying kick with one hand and let out a low groan.

At that very moment—

“How dare you touch him.”

Crack! Crunch!

The spear shaft flashed upward like lightning and smashed into the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s jaw.

His vision went white. The tremendous force, which even his Body-Protecting Qi could not fully absorb, slammed his jaws shut and severed his tongue.

Pain and impact lifted the Western Heaven Demon Lord into the air.

Waiting for him were two hands wreathed in flame.

“This old man is the Fire King, you son of a bitch!”

With that vicious curse, Jeok Cheongang unleashed the Flame Divine Palm.

BOOM!

The already unstable Body-Protecting Qi scattered. The heat of Extreme Yang seeped through the spiderweb of cracks covering the Black Dragon Armor.

A burning agony seized him, and something hot surged up his throat.

“GWAAAAAAGH!”

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 filled his blood-red eyes, their vessels already burst.

Cyan-white flames scorched the air as they closed in from every direction. The Western Heaven Demon Lord dragged up every last shred of strength he possessed.

Ssssss!

Ink-black Sword Force surged along his blade and collided with the spear shadows.

Every clash unleashed a tremendous roar and shock wave, shaking the underground prison and churning the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s insides.

“Graaagh…!”

But it wasn’t over.

“Do you have time to look away?”

The cold voice sounded just as Jeok Cheongang’s Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist drove into the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s side.

Crack! KRRRUNCH!

It was a full-powered blow from Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King acclaimed as the greatest of the Ten Kings.

Unable to withstand the tremendous impact, part of the Black Dragon Armor shattered along with his Body-Protecting Qi. Flesh burned, and bones crumpled.

“GAAAAAH!”

A horrific scream echoed through the prison.

Even as he writhed in agony, the Western Heaven Demon Lord drew up all his remaining internal energy and unleashed it in every direction.

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 was hurled away like a cannonball in agony unlike anything he had ever experienced.

His body smashed through solid rock and buried itself deep within the wall.

“Ghk, ghek.”

A grotesque groan escaped him as he blinked.

Through his blurred vision, he saw two figures approaching.

Is this how I die?

The Western Heaven Demon Lord thought blankly.

For many long years, he had reigned over others as one of the strong. He had taken pleasure in trampling the weak and stealing everything they cherished.

Every ordinary martial artist in Murim contemplated death at least once.

But not the Western Heaven Demon Lord.

The only beings beneath heaven who should have been able to take his life were himself and the one supreme and exalted being—the Lord of Heaven.

And yet…

“How dare wretches such as you attempt to kill my servant?”

A voice as dry as desert sand slipped between his blood-soaked lips.

There was neither pain nor reason in the Western Heaven Demon Lord’s voice.

His eyes, now filled entirely with blood-red light, were no longer human.

Nor did they belong to the Western Heaven Demon Lord.

“This body has descended from heaven to earth. Kneel before me, 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 to its feet.

As he approached one step at a time, manifested internal energy spread behind him like wings.

And then—

“……!”

Everything stopped.

The trembling. The wind. Even the drifting dust and the flow of the air.

Within that frozen world, a streak of darkness shot forward.

Ssssss!

The darkness approached without a sound and swallowed the two of them.

No—it would have.

Had a spearhead not thrust forward, cleaving through a flow of time divided into ever-finer instants.

Gooooooong—

Wind and qi condensed around the spearhead, then erupted.

Wreathed in cyan-white flame, the spearhead advanced, erasing everything in its path.

One Annihilation.

A blinding flash burst forth.

Time began to flow again.

With it came complete exhaustion and pain that made my entire body feel as though it were breaking apart.

I want to collapse just like this.

My arms, my legs, my fingers, every last strand of muscle—every part of my body felt ready to snap.

But I held on through sheer, superhuman strength.

Not yet. Not yet.

At the very least, I didn’t want to fall before he did.

“So just fucking die already, you bastard.”

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

Its entire body had been burned black, and a gaping hole had been blasted through its chest.

After inspecting the damage, the corners of its mouth slowly lifted.

“Interesting. Very interesting.”

Fwoosh.

The moment it finished speaking, its fingers turned to ash and scattered.

A stray breeze swept past, and its body slowly began to crumble.

But the thing borrowing another man’s body felt no pain. Instead, it tossed out a final remark with a laugh.

“We shall meet again.”

I barely managed to raise 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 falling.

Grab.

A wrinkled hand caught me by the 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 melted away.

Then a gentle smile appeared on his lips.

“Yes. It was incredible.”

That was enough.

I closed my eyes with the answer I could no longer voice.

In the distance, the sound of the underground prison collapsing echoed faintly.