A mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
A landscape where not trees and water, but corpses and blood adorned the mountains and valleys.
The dark crimson scenery that filled Mount Nakgok was truly worthy of being called a hellscape that had descended upon the mortal realm.
Within that hellish scenery.
Two beings remained alive. A man in white mourning robes soaked in blood, and a man wearing clothes embroidered with the image of a black dragon ascending to the heavens.
“Khuhuh...”
Of the two, the man in the clothes bearing the black dragon emblem let out a low laugh. Despite his ribs being shattered and his heart pierced through, there was not the slightest hint of pain on his face.
“What a pity. I really thought this time it would work.”
The man spoke with genuine regret. And to the man expressing such regret, the other man, his white mourning robes stained red with blood, opened his mouth.
“You crazy bastard.”
Anyone who had even the slightest connection to the martial world would know their sobriquets. A demon who had slaughtered nearly one million people, including martial artists and civilians alike.
The strongest and most vicious demon who dyed the Central Plains in blood.
The Heavenly Demon.
“Khuhuh, yes. If it’s you, you have the right to say that to me.”
And the man who had plunged his fist into the Heavenly Demon’s heart, bringing the long war between the righteous and demonic factions to an end.
The Invincible Fist God, Shin Mujo.
Shin Mujo, the man in white mourning robes, burst out in fury.
“You slaughtered hundreds of thousands of martial artists and civilians, and now you’re spouting this kind of bullshit?!”
At Shin Mujo’s roar, a faint look of irritation appeared on the Heavenly Demon’s face.
“It’s true that I failed, is it not? I should think about trying a slightly different method next time.”
“Don’t make me laugh!”
Shin Mujo shouted as he poured even more strength into the fist buried in the Heavenly Demon’s chest.
“You won’t get another chance!”
That’s right. A dying man with his heart pierced gets no next chance.
* * *
The third year of Yeongnak.
Led by the Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which had accumulated the greatest power in history, crushed the martial world through sheer force.
Within a month of the war beginning, Sichuan and Gansu were breached, and after a year, more than half of the Nine Great Sects had been annihilated.
However, the resistance of the Central Plains’ martial world was fierce. Hidden masters of the previous generation emerged, and a new generation of rising talents began to appear. Making full use of their numerical advantage, they relentlessly clung to the small but elite forces of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult until the very end.
Thus, the Central Plains martial world, which had once been pushed all the way to the outskirts of Guangdong Province, joined forces with the imperial court and barely managed to reclaim territory up to Shaanxi.
In the seven years of the war between the righteous and demonic factions that followed. All of the ten greatest masters of the era perished, and a new generation rose to fill their places. Among the warriors who survived the inferno of war and bloomed into towering flowers, one stood out above all others.
The leader of the new Ten Great Masters and the hope of the martial world.
The Invincible Fist God, Shin Mujo.
“Yes. Shin Mujo, you indeed have the right to say that.”
Even in the face of the Heavenly Demon’s praise, Shin Mujo tightened his fist still embedded in the demon’s heart and growled.
“To kill you, far too many sacrifices were made.”
Eight of the new Ten Great Masters, every last ounce of the Martial Alliance’s strength, and even the imperial court’s army were mobilized.
And to kill a single Heavenly Demon, all of that power had been thrown away in sacrifice.
Only after going that far was he able to drive his fist into the Heavenly Demon’s heart like this.
And yet…For some reason, it didn’t feel like it was over.
“Now crawl down to the bottom of hell already!”
“Heh heh, I’d like to, but.”
The Heavenly Demon let out a small chuckle and said,
“Until I achieve ascension, I am immortal. It is simply my fate.”
“...What?”
“But in this era, your side has won. Until this body returns, enjoy your victory and savor a brief peace.”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The moment the Heavenly Demon finished speaking, massive fireballs erupted all around Mount Nakgok, triggering a chain of violent explosions.
“Still, even as I go, it would be only right to leave my descendants a small breathing space.”
“You insane bastard!”
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Mountain peaks exploded, valleys collapsed, and lush greenery was engulfed by the raging flames.
It was clearly the power of planned, artificial incendiaries.
“Explosives?!”
Shin Mujo tried to pull his arm out of the hole he had made in the Heavenly Demon’s chest, but when the Heavenly Demon grabbed his arm, the attempt came to nothing.
“Khuhuhuh, I can’t let you go.”
‘Damn it, how does a dying bastard still have this much strength...!’
The Heavenly Demon brought his face close to Shin Mujo’s and sneered.
“At the very least, every one of you righteous faction bastards who entered this area will die.”
Squeeze!
“And I can’t allow any future troublemakers to survive.”
The artificial inferno spread and tried to swallow them whole.
At that moment, Shin Mujo widened his eyes as he felt an overwhelming demonic energy begin to burrow into his body.
There was only one thing this could mean.
“Mutual destruction?!”
“I’ll grant you the honor of accompanying this Heavenly Demon in his final moments. Come, let us go together.”
A technique that binds the opponent’s body by detonating all the demonic energy throughout one’s own body, regardless of its collapse.
Shin Mujo desperately unleashed all of his internal energy and even his innate qi to drive out the demonic energy invading his body, but...
“Krrrgh!”
“Heh heh heh, too late.”
The inferno that had swallowed the surroundings engulfed both the Heavenly Demon and Shin Mujo’s bodies, and Shin Mujo was swept into the flames without any chance to escape.
‘I can’t die like this!’
Even when he tried to protect his body with a defensive energy barrier, the accursed demonic energy invading his body refused to allow the formation of a qi barrier.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
How many thousands of loads of explosives had been prepared that even the ground beneath his feet was now cracking and shaking?
“Ah… next time, I will surely...”
With his life hanging by a thread, the Heavenly Demon, who had bound Shin Mujo’s body, closed his eyes with a strangely peaceful expression.
“You damned bastard!”
Thud!
Shin Mujo flung away the now-corpse of the Heavenly Demon and immediately sat down in a cross-legged position.
‘It’s too late to escape.’
With even movement techniques rendered difficult by the demonic energy, the only remaining hope was to detonate all of his innate qi and endure until the catastrophe ended! But having expended most of his internal energy in the battle against the Heavenly Demon, Shin Mujo’s options were extremely limited.
‘Demonic energy is also a form of energy. I must use it as power.’
The Heavenly Demon had poured in his strength until the very end, leaving an overwhelming amount of demonic energy within Shin Mujo’s body, far exceeding the capacity of his dantian, as it rampaged through his meridians. What this would do to his body and soul was unknown, but it was still better than dying!
Shin Mujo struggled. Never in his half-century-long life as a martial artist had he wrung out his strength and spirit more than this.
HOOOOOOO!
The demonic energy and righteous energy, which should never have fused, merged together in an attempt to save his dying body, piercing through every blood channel in his body.
As a result, his upper dantian opened.
The realm of communion with heaven and earth was unveiled, and the Divine Eye was opened.
Shin Mujo stepped into an unprecedented realm of enlightenment, never before or after seen. But unfortunately, he was unable to break through the final gate that would allow him to cast aside his flesh and ascend.
‘...Damn it.’
As a result, with his limbs burned away and his body reduced to rags, Shin Mujo was dying, leaving behind only an immense amount of internal energy.
‘So this is how I die...’
Shin Mujo lamented as he gazed up at the sky. His eyes had been crushed by the inferno and he had lost his physical sight, but with the Divine Eye opened, he had not lost the very concept of seeing.
But what meaning did that have?
Within a single quarter-hour, the Reaper would separate his soul from his body.
‘At least… I avenged my comrades. That is enough.’
Just as Shin Mujo calmly awaited death, having given up everything.
Saaaaaah!
‘What is that?’
Shin Mujo was left speechless by a bizarre sight he had never seen in his life.
From the crown of the Heavenly Demon’s corpse lying sprawled on the ground, something brilliantly multicolored suddenly emerged and began rising into the sky.
‘W-what is that?!’
Having awakened the Divine Eye, Shin Mujo instinctively realized what this phenomenon was. That multicolored thing was the Heavenly Demon’s soul, and his soul was now ascending to the heavens, heading somewhere beyond!
‘H-how can that be?!’
Ascension into immortality!
The phenomenon said to be the ultimate goal of Daoist sects and the very reason martial artists train!
Though he did not know why this was happening in this situation, at this very moment, the Heavenly Demon was undergoing ascension and rising to the heavens.
‘How can that demon ascend?!’
Shin Mujo was enraged and he felt wronged.
To protect justice and safeguard the martial world, countless warriors had died without even being able to retrieve the single blade they wielded. So how could the pinnacle of evil, who had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of lives, be allowed something like ascension?!
‘I refuse to accept this! Never!’
Shin Mujo stretched out his hand. Even though his arm had melted away up to the elbow, he still desperately reached out to stop the Heavenly Demon’s ascension.
‘Where do you think you’re going, you bastard!’
Even if it amounted to nothing more than a futile struggle, Shin Mujo reached out.
Grab!
But somehow, Shin Mujo felt as though he had grabbed onto the very edge of the Heavenly Demon’s soul.
[…]
The Heavenly Demon’s soul, having its ascension obstructed, trembled.
Though it was not in human form but rather a hazy mass of energy, Shin Mujo could feel that the Heavenly Demon’s soul was looking at him.
A surge of rage was transmitted from the Heavenly Demon.
[You wretch!]
‘H-heh heh... I will never, never let you go like this.’
If he let this monster ascend to the heavens, something irreversible would surely happen.
‘I will never let you go.’
Even if it meant being called pathetic for clinging on, he could not allow this to end here. But then…
‘W-what is that?!’
HOOOOOO!
Before he could even register it, a massive sphere of pitch-black darkness, as if spinning in place, appeared before both the Heavenly Demon and Shin Mujo.
[This, this is…! Not the Gate of Re-Heaven, but the Gate of Chaos?!]
For once, the Heavenly Demon sounded genuinely flustered.
Soon after, the sphere of black darkness began to suck in both the Heavenly Demon’s and Shin Mujo’s souls.
‘Krrrgh!’
Shin Mujo struggled desperately to resist being pulled in. But his struggle was nothing more than a futile thrashing.
‘I-I can’t resist it!’
[Oooooooh!]
Before long, both souls were swallowed into the sphere. And Shin Mujo’s consciousness was cut off there.
