A vast cavern was darkening.

The single strike from the Heavenly Demon’s raised hoof had traced a beautiful arc. With just that one flawless kick, every luminous stone inside had all but shattered.

Their residual glow now shimmered through the thick clouds of dust, like dawn mist stirring before sunrise.

“To whom.”

Through the dreamlike atmosphere, only one voice rang out clear.

“What did you ask?”

A voice laced with laughter and madness—

That was the voice of the Heavenly Demon.

Even though it was unmistakably Baek Mi-ryeo’s body, it sounded like a man’s voice. At the same time, it also felt like it was Baek Mi-ryeo’s own voice, as if clawing its way up from the deepest part of her being.

A demon.

Whatever the case, it was someone who could easily plant a heart demon inside Jeong Yeon-shin. That much was obvious.

Far closer to chaos than even So Cheonmujuk.

Man, woman, old man, child, sky.

They could be anything. Or nothing at all.

‘Even the Revealing the Lowly Method can’t pin them down. This isn’t someone Mental Laws can work on.’

The words of the Lord of the Gaebong Clan echoed in his mind.

—You must gain the recognition of the Greatest Demon in all of history, no one else...

But Jeong Yeon-shin decided not to bother with being cautious in word or deed.

It was the only fitting approach for a place like this.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“If you’ve felt the world through your senses, you should already know. The world is dying.”

“Speak properly.”

Rrrumble—

Suddenly, behind the Heavenly Demon, the dirt rose up. In an instant, it formed into an ancient-style chair.

It was a Grand Chancellor’s seat, its surface polished smooth as if sculpted by divine hands.

“This star won’t die for another eon at least. The only beings who fail to live as they should are humans.”

Spoke the Heavenly Demon, now seated.

Strange words.

They had just called a star the same thing as the world.

And yet, it all flowed naturally.

Even their skewed logic, even their view that seemed inhuman.

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke quietly.

“I don’t care about your perspective. To me, the world is people. The gates and the famine threatening to destroy it—also people’s world.

If you’re going to twist words with sophistry, look at this again first.”

At the same moment, a sword cry rang beside him.

Wuuuung!

A powerful resonance.

A deep blue flame blazed in the shape of a sword—his only method for halting the Heavenly Demon’s crushing pressure.

In this moment, though his Invisible Sword: Starry Night was not as sharp as when Jeong Yeon-shin was in peak form, even a single stroke could cleave through the cave and slice all the way to Nakan Peak.

It was born of the mirrored sense of battle between them.

Jeong Yeon-shin had guided it. So Cheonmujuk had followed.

Only once the Starry Night rose, completed through the converging points of their palms—her Shaofu point and his Laogong—

Jeong Yeon-shin addressed So Cheonmujuk.

“I’ll take the front. You cover the rear.”

Slip.

He naturally released her hand that had been held in sync with his.

As So Cheonmujuk’s calloused, corpse-like cold fingers brushed past his and fell away, her internal energy faltered, ever so slightly.

‘A madwoman who has nothing left but hatred.’

The Righteous Demon Sect Master. A once-in-a-generation genius.

She was probably more familiar with armrests of execution chairs than with another person’s touch.

It was doubtful she had ever held hands with anyone, let alone fought in harmony with someone else.

The closer their distance grew, the more she felt not like a senior or elder sibling, but rather a reckless younger one.

Suddenly, So Cheonmujuk asked,

“I’m in the rear?”

“Unless you can handle that alone.”

Jeong Yeon-shin gave a small jut of his chin forward.

Unlike how the Heavenly Demon had earlier referred to So Cheonmujuk as “that thing,” Jeong Yeon-shin’s tone made it clear—he wasn’t talking about a person, but facing a calamity.

So Cheonmujuk remained silent.

“......”

Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at her from the side.

She no longer looked like someone wrapped in perfection—no trace of that Tenfold Elegance or Garments Seamless as Heaven.

Her white cloak of wind had been completely torn away, inner armor and all.

Even the faint white ripple of her abdominal muscles, front and back, now bore dark bruises.

They were traces left by the Absorption Art, completed in the instant just before Jeong Yeon-shin’s Heaven-Splitting Strike severed the Heavenly Demon’s output.

It looked like a grievous wound.

She had always appeared flawless since the moment they met. That’s why it struck him so strongly.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked without thinking,

“That injury must be painful. Will you be able to keep up with my output speed?”

“What pain?”

So Cheonmujuk replied.

At the same time, a rustle—

A thousand strands of her torn robe floated up from her abdomen on their own.

It was a dreamlike sight.

It seemed to be a treasure ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) robe that could restore itself using internal energy, much like the violet robes of Ipwang Fortress.

Jeong Yeon-shin furrowed his brow.

“You’re wasting your remaining internal energy on a damn robe?”

“This damn robe is better than most body-hardening techniques, you know. Seomye, ever since the Black Blade Island, you’ve been spewing arrogance nonstop. You ought to learn some restraint.”

Even now, she hid her weakness completely.

Was it because the Founder of Gaepa Sect and her “brother” were watching?

Jeong Yeon-shin silently shook his head.

Step.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

As he stepped forward once, the Heavenly Demon’s finger lightly tapped the armrest.

Amusement glinted in Baek Mi-ryeo’s pale white face.

It was the leisure and refinement of one admiring a fascinating painting.

The Heavenly Demon parted their lips.

“The connection between you two is rather amusing. That half-wit agreed to joint combat?”

“I don’t know.”

At Jeong Yeon-shin’s answer, the Starry Night sword hovered lightly to his side.

Just that slight motion made translucent waves of energy surge through the entire cavern.

But the Heavenly Demon’s black eyes didn’t just observe the Invisible Sword.

They took in both of them—missing nothing.

Eyes like ink, impossible to read, like they were meditating upon something beyond the realm of the living.

“I shall,”

The index finger that had been tapping the armrest rose smoothly.

“Ask.”

Boom!

In an instant, So Cheonmujuk dropped, her knees nearly slamming to the ground.

Just from being exposed to the demonic energy within the finger wind, she had nearly collapsed in place.

This was how demonic arts worked.

Even among practitioners, clear hierarchies existed.

It was why those who had summoned forth the true essence of destruction could still gather under the name of the Righteous Demon Sect.

“Urgh...!”

So Cheonmujuk’s brow contorted.

Thin red veins flared faintly across her skin.

A sight that would make any martial artist doubt their eyes.

Her level could not reach the Heavenly Demon.

She had fallen, reduced to a demon forced to bow before the heavens.

Had she studied orthodox martial arts instead, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.

Jeong Yeon-shin could feel a brutal force surging from her hips and thighs, resisting.

A tremendous resonance.

Bright Phoenix Divine Form.

A power that defied providence itself.

A faint, crooked smirk formed on the Heavenly Demon’s lips—aimed at her.

The first hint of emotion to show, even if it was twisted mockery. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“You’ve received my bloodline and martial arts.”

The index finger bent downward as they spoke slowly.

“So even if you die, that’s only right.”

Boom!

“......!”

At last, So Cheonmujuk’s knees hit the ground.

The cave floor was gouged and torn.

She, who had always embodied perfection, was now farther from it than ever before in her life.

From the look in her wide eyes, she felt it too.

Jeong Yeon-shin sensed it instinctively.

At this very moment, the Heavenly Demon’s gaze would allow no interference.

He didn’t even need to tap into upper dantian insight.

The killing intent had taken shape, clinging to his skin like a tangible mist.

Huff!

It felt like his entire body was being crushed.

If he interfered again, even he would be killed.

Regardless of the slivers of favor the Heavenly Demon had shown him until now.

He already understood the extent of the Heavenly Demon’s transcendence.

‘I don’t know how they surpassed their natural lifespan, but...’

This was the end that awaited anyone who walked the one-way path of the Demonic Way—having even defied the decree of heaven.

No one was allowed to resist.

Unlike Shin Cheon-hwa, they might truly live out their entire life in Baek Mi-ryeo’s body.

Ruuuuuumble!

So Cheonmujuk began to sink along with the earth itself.

How immense must the pressure be?

Even while kneeling, she seemed like she’d be driven into the abyss.

Blood burst across her entire body like ruptured vessels, dyeing her white wind-robe red.

‘At this rate, she really will die.’

Jeong Yeon-shin gripped Starry Night in one hand, raising the other.

A sword embedded in the ceiling trembled—Ipsin Sword—sliding smoothly through the air to join Starry Night, completing the ritual of the twin blades.

Unlike Yeorae, this one felt utterly loyal to its master’s command.

Still, Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t help but briefly recall the divine swords of the Tang siblings.

Would the poppy-flower Zhaengyi left in the North be able to retrieve Yeorae from Aeshin Gakra’s Black Ring?

There had been some unspoken agreement between him and the Black Ring.

Screeeeeee!

Jeong Yeon-shin brought the Ipsin Sword and Starry Night together into a single blade, casting aside such thoughts.

The Heavenly Demon had risen from the Grand Chancellor’s chair and now stood directly before him, locking eyes.

“......”

They said nothing.

Like the god of death come to execute a cursed descendant.

So Jeong Yeon-shin chose to speak first.

“You act like you’ve transcended everything, but even so...”

He spoke while lowering the Ipsin Sword sheathed in Starry Night into his right hand.

“...it seems you still have attachments.”

If not, there’d be no reason to go this far for So Cheonmujuk.

So Jeong Yeon-shin measured their close-range distance with certainty and spoke words no martial artist would dare say.

“In the end, you’re human too.”

“Such an obvious thing to say.”

And yet—

The Heavenly Demon smiled with delight.

It clashed strangely with their inherent nature, yet that contrast made it feel all the more natural.

“To embrace all desire—only then can a human body speak of the heavens.

The demon... is the most human of all.”

Crackle! Crackle—!

Black lightning surged nonstop between them.

Divine sparks burst in every direction.

It was because Jeong Yeon-shin had truly begun to resist the Heavenly Demon’s approach.

“I thought you were someone I could talk to. Seems I was mistaken.”

“That’s right. Exactly that. Come.”

A deafening roar filled his ears.

The very ground, the vast walls of the cavern—they were all being clawed open, like a dragon’s talons.

The whole place looked ready to collapse.

Even though past Righteous Demon Sect leaders must have layered the area with countless defensive spells and martial techniques.

Now that he was feeling that power directly, even Jeong Yeon-shin, rarely fazed, couldn’t hide his astonishment.

‘To wield such power with an incomplete Origin Spirit...’

The Heavenly Demon.

Who could unleash their energy in front of them?

Unless it were another Martial God or lunatic, anyone else would have no choice but to kneel.

With that thought, Jeong Yeon-shin rotated toward the Heavenly Demon’s chest.

Both the Starry Night and Ipsin Sword overlapped in his hand.

Flash!

A streak of light faster than sound turned the entire world a deep navy blue.

***

“The end of the world, it seems.”

A middle-aged swordsman’s voice, thick with breath, suited the ruined landscape.

So did the words that followed.

“If what you’re saying is true.”

The Azure Dragon Lord of the Great Purity League.

A middle-aged swordsman who had descended from Mount Hua just before the battle began.

And yet, his aura didn’t match that of Mount Hua at all.

His internal energy was coarse, dry, like that of a wandering rogue.

He had only visited Mount Hua as a guest, and his martial arts had been completed by learning a few techniques from Lang Seong, Lord of the Great Purity League.

“Suddenly the First Heavenly Demon?

Even if this mountain range is eerie and mysterious, what kind of nonsense is that?

How could the owner of such an ancient tomb just appear like that?”

The Azure Dragon Lord was suspicious of the old man who explained the situation—thinking perhaps the Gaebong Clan Lord had gone senile.

That old man, missing both shoulders, merely clucked his tongue as if watching a pitiful grandson.

“I only spoke the truth.

Now it’s up to you, the newer generation of the river’s flow, to act.

Though honestly, even I find what I saw today hard to believe...”

But the Azure Dragon Lord’s face remained calm.

Because he stood at the forefront of thirty warriors bearing the Azure Dragon standard.

Unlike the thousands of martial artists now half-buried in the collapsing mountain, the Azure Dragon warriors had held their ground.

Their banners had resisted So Cheonmujuk’s area-wide distorted void like treasured artifacts.

“What’s really hard to believe... is your condition.

How could the top expert of Gaebong have arms like that...

Was the Sword Master of the Divine Sword Corps really that powerful?”

“I'm getting tired. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Just as the Gaebong Clan Lord turned to go, he let out a small sound of realization.

“Come to think of it—weren’t the former masters of Mount Hua going to be summoned back from inside the Gate?

The four-hundredth uncle of the Sacred Flame Sword Spirit, Yulha Nangnang.

The Sect Leader was convinced it could happen...

What became of that?”

“You’d probably have to slice through a whole peak like Nakan to bring them out.

The young Sect Leader of Zhongnan was pressuring me nonstop—if my cultivation had been even a bit shallower, I would’ve drawn the Azure Dragon Sword.”

That was when it happened.

“......?”

Suddenly, a deep blue horizon flickered across the Jinryeong mountain range.

All voices, all noise, stopped instantly.

As if the world had been slashed by a blade.

On the north’s Undae Peak, the east’s Joyang Peak, and the south’s Nakan Peak—each of the great summits making up Mount Hua—

A single horizontal line appeared.

Humans may not have seen it with the naked eye, but those with martial perception could.

A truly sudden occurrence.

All of Mount Hua—

Ruuuuuuumble!

Began to collapse, slowly.