Chapter 418: Erasing Stars
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 418: Erasing Stars
A cold sweat beaded on his face. His pupils trembled as a hand flew to his dantian. Watching his massive frame begin to crumple, I knew my plan was unfolding perfectly.
So it does work.
I’d been worried, but the Demonic Qi proved more effective than I’d anticipated. There was a reason Tang Duk was faltering.
I couldn't even recall the name of his lackey anymore. Jul Bok? Or was it Jung Bok? It didn't matter. I’d turned the fool into a Demonic Human for a purpose. I’d woven the Demonic Qi within him to scatter upon his return, but only if he was killed by Tang Duk himself.
I stepped closer to the struggling giant to assess his condition. While the Demonic Qi was working, a problem was becoming clear.
It's a bit difficult.
Harnessing the Demonic Qi now coursing through Tang Duk’s body was proving extremely challenging. I’d felt the same resistance with the Black Dragon. It seemed restraining those of a higher cultivation level with Demonic Qi was a formidable task. Still, my situation was far better than his; he was undoubtedly feeling overwhelmed.
I approached him, my expression calm. "Nice to meet you."
"…"
Tang Duk looked up at me, his eyes unsteady, clearly confused by the agony wracking his body.
"...What did you do to me…?"
"Do you like my gift?"
"You little…!" he shouted, his face contorted with rage. "You dare to poison me!"
He thought it was poison. Well, that wasn't entirely inaccurate.
He’s very angry.
I smirked at his fury. To a scion of the Tang Clan, poison was a profound insult—a dagger to his pride, a reminder of a body incapable of building the very immunity his lineage was famed for.
I looked down at him with a smile. "What will you do about it?"
"You bastaaard!"
Slam-!
Combat aura erupted from Tang Duk’s body. Even ensnared by the Demonic Qi, the amount of power he could muster was impressive, barely below the level of the Black Dragon. It confirmed my suspicion: he, too, had reached the Fusion Realm.
As I observed him, Tang Duk growled out a question, his voice thick with accusation. "You joined forces with the Poison King…!"
The sudden remark made me tilt my head in genuine confusion. "Why do you think that?"
"Only that damned household is capable of wielding such poison!"
"Aren't you a bit harsh? 'Damned household?' Weren't you also from that household?"
"You bastard…! How dare you put me in the same—!"
"Well… I suppose you aren't anymore. They did throw you out a long time ago, after all."
"…!"
Tang Duk gritted his teeth, the sound audible. "Just how much do you know…"
"I don't know that much…" But I decided to tell him this much. "The Celestial Martial Body Plan."
"…!"
"Around that much, I suppose."
His eyes widened in shock, and his body began to tremble. He hadn't expected me to know that.
It's not like I wanted to know.
The Celestial Martial Body Plan. The name sounded grand, but the reality was disgustingly ugly. It was the name of an experiment led by the previous lord of the Tang Clan, the Poison Emperor.
Tang Bi Seung, the Poison Emperor, loved his clan more than anyone. He held its position in the highest regard and dreamed of elevating it beyond all others. He constantly pondered the fastest method to achieve this, and the answer was simple: the Tang Clan needed to produce the strongest martial artist in the Central Plains.
While the clan's reputation and honor were substantial, they weren't enough to surpass the Four Noble Clans. True supremacy required an absolute power. The current era was considered the Orthodox Faction's prime, dominated by the Three Venerables, yet it was also a time when the legendary masters of the past had vanished. The Zenith.
The Sword Emperor, the Dishonored Venerable, and the Heavenly Venerable—people debated who was strongest, but no definitive answer existed. They operated in different spheres and never clashed directly, leading to a precarious peace known as the Three Venerables' generation. A balanced era, but one the Poison Emperor despised.
He saw it as his chance to lead the Tang Clan to the top, yet he knew his own limits. So, he decided to wait and cultivate the future. Thus, the Celestial Martial Body Plan was born.
A Celestial Martial Body was said to be a gift from the heavens—a perfect form with an ideal physique for martial arts, a brilliant mind for learning, and a vast dantian capable of holding immense qi. A body destined for perfection. The Poison Emperor aimed to create such a body within the Tang Clan and nurture it into the Zenith, securing his clan's ultimate dominance.
But this ambition, fueled by greed, morphed into a brutal experiment. A true Celestial Martial Body wasn't something that could be easily found; it was a talent that might appear once in a millennium. Unwilling to rely on chance, Tang Bi Seung resolved to create one artificially.
An artificial Celestial Martial Body. It sounded like nonsense, and I was right to be skeptical. The details made me gasp when I first learned of them.
First, Tang Bi Seung gathered nameless children from across the Central Plains, confined them in a basement, and bestowed upon them the Tang surname. Then, he injected them with the blood of Demons.
He forcibly infused children with the blood of primal Demons—beings whose hard, powerful muscles surpassed any human's. The result was as obvious as it was horrific: they all died. Demons were fundamentally different from humans; even their blood was a different color. Injecting it in large quantities was a death sentence.
I discovered records of these experiments deep within the Tang Clan's basement in my past life. I found thousands of journals detailing this atrocity, and likely many more had been lost. How many children had died for Tang Bi Seung's greed? The youngest were five, the oldest, ten.
Was Tang Bi Seung directly responsible for all those deaths? I couldn't be sure, but the man before me, Tang Duk, was a victim of that very experiment.
At the end of those countless journals, I read something astonishing. While all others had perished, one subject had survived the demonic blood infusion. It defied logic—how could a human survive such a fusion?—but the record was clear: "Injection successful." It noted great muscular expansion and skin hardening.
Somehow, Tang Bi Seung's experiment had achieved a partial success, creating a body approaching the Celestial Martial ideal. Yet, the record ultimately deemed it a failure. After thousands of attempts, it ended in disappointment for one critical reason: no poison resistance.
The experiment had a prerequisite. Since the Poison Emperor wanted a Zenith to bear the Tang name, the body needed to be capable of learning the clan's Poison Art. In this, the subject was a complete failure. The magnificent body possessed no innate resistance to poison. Despite further attempts to artificially induce immunity, all failed. The records stated the test subject had been "completely removed from the world."
But I was certain. The subject in that story was Tang Duk, standing before me.
After all, the name written in the records is Tang Duk too.
His name, his immense strength, his seemingly indestructible body, his inability to develop poison immunity, his burning hatred for the Tang Clan—it all added up.
"The failed subject who couldn't become the Celestial Martial Body. That's you, right?"
"...You bastard… just… what are you?"
"What am I?" I pondered his question for a moment. My identity? Why was I even wondering? Then, a name surfaced in my mind, and I mumbled it almost without thinking. "Heavenly Demon."
"...What?"
"Ah, never mind. I was just suddenly reminded of that name for some reason." I didn't know why it came to me, but Tang Duk, strangely, nodded as if it made sense.
"A Demon sent down from the heavens… how fitting."
"You bastard…?" I was annoyed by the insult from someone I'd just met, but I suppressed the emotion.
Crack.
Tang Duk was pushing himself up, using his spear for support. "Plus… I now see you are working with that Poison King bastard."
"…"
It wasn't true, but I didn't bother denying it. He wouldn't believe me anyway.
It doesn't matter if he doesn't believe me.
That wasn't the point.
Once fully upright, he pointed his spear at me. "You will die by my hands today." Despite the Demonic Qi ravaging him, his stance was unshaken. It reminded me of when I'd gouged out his eyes in my past life. "Poison King, that damned old man's descendants will also die by my hands."
His hatred for the Tang Clan was palpable. Understandable. Had I been treated as he was, I, too, would have lived for revenge. And all the bandits who followed him likely shared that hatred. They called themselves bandits, but in reality, they were just people living for vengeance. I didn't know if they were all victims of the same experiment, and I didn't care to find out.
I didn't think the Tang Clan was in the right. What they did was horrible, and perhaps they deserved punishment.
But I don't care.
Apologetically, their tragic past meant nothing to me. While I could understand Tang Duk's hatred, his desire for revenge…
It doesn't matter to me.
I had my own, more important priorities. It might make me seem cold or selfish, but I didn't care. I only needed to protect what was mine, and Tang Duk was merely a piece in that puzzle.
As I finished my thought, Tang Duk spoke again. "Moreover, that Poison King. I heard he has a daughter, yes?"
My frown was immediate when he mentioned Tang Soyeol.
"She, too, will die by my—"
"Hey."
When I called out, Tang Duk stared at me, puzzled.
"Don't cross the line."
"What?"
"I need to use you while keeping you alive…" I forcibly suppressed my boiling anger. I wanted to twist his neck right then, but I held back. "But if you keep going, I'll have to kill you. Just do what you came here for. Are you going to fight me or not?"
"…"
Sigh…
Tang Duk let out a short sigh at my words. Then, he tightened his grip on his spear, and combat aura poured out anew. He still had this much power, even with the Demonic Qi inside him? It felt as if the Qi wasn't spreading through his system effectively.
Perhaps…
This is because he possesses a Demon’s blood?
That was possible. Demonic Qi predated the Heavenly Demon; perhaps demonic blood granted a degree of immunity. Was fighting a Tang Duk not fully suppressed by the Qi too difficult? I stared at him and reached a conclusion.
I’ll just have to try. I wouldn't know without trying.
I hadn't fought many Fusion Realm martial artists in this life—only the Black Dragon, the White Heavenly Sword, and my father. Compared to them, I didn't feel particularly pressured by this bastard. Moreover, I wanted a proper fight after reaching the Fusion Realm myself.
It doesn't matter if I kill him. Having nothing to lose was liberating. Of course, I wouldn't kill him—I needed him—but I didn't have to feel pressured about holding back.
"I won't touch your eyes this time."
"...?"
"Nothing. I just find your eyes rather attractive."
"...You bastard."
Provoked, Tang Duk immediately charged. At the same time, a smile touched my lips as I gathered a torrent of Demonic Qi. In an instant, it flooded a part of my heart.
Swoosh-!
I felt my body enhance dramatically as my own aura burst forth.
First,
Black Heaven.
I erased the stars from the sky.