A Demon's Pursuit of Chivalry
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
A fearsome martial faction entrenched within Shiwan Dashan on the desolate fringes of the Central Plains. Bound solely by the brutal law of Respect for the Strong, they were a scourge that descended upon the heartlands at the slightest whim, leaving ash and ruin in their wake.
Yet, for all their savagery, no one could deny their terrifying might.
Deep within the Cult's vast domain lay the Grand Hall of the Heavenly Demon Divine Palace, an edifice of unmatched grandeur and scale. Seated upon a magnificent jade throne—sculpted as if to embody the master's boundless dominance—was a solitary figure.
The Heavenly Demon.
Leader of the Divine Cult, and the supreme predator in a den teeming with monsters.
With one elbow propped casually on the throne's armrest, supporting his chin, he might have seemed like nothing more than an old man weary of life. But should anyone dare meet his gaze, the sheer, crushing majesty radiating from him—vast and suffocating as Mount Tai—would choke the breath from their throat before such foolish thoughts could form.
His haughty posture and arrogant eyes exerted an innate pressure that bowed the souls of all before him. The three men standing in audience instinctively swallowed dry saliva and lowered their heads.
"...We pay our deepest respects to the Absolute Master of the Divine Cu—!"
"Ah, enough, that's enough."
The Heavenly Demon waved a dismissive hand, cutting short the tedious formalities that had long grown stale to his ears. It was a casual gesture far removed from the dread his moniker inspired, but despising stuffy rituals was quintessential to who he was.
He looked down upon the supplicants.
Each was a sovereign master whose very name sent tremors across the Central Plains, yet before the Heavenly Demon, they were reduced to trembling children stripped of all agency.
The Heavenly Demon opened his mouth.
"Alliance Leader."
Though addressed like an errant toddler, Lee Geuk, the Leader of the Murim Alliance, dared not show a shred of displeasure. He simply buried his head lower.
"Well? Have you devised a solution?"
"About that, Cult Leader..."
Tsk.
The click of the Heavenly Demon's tongue sent a shiver racing down Lee Geuk's spine. Ignoring the trembling alliance leader, the Demon shifted his gaze to Won Hyeong, the Leader of the Wicked Dao Alliance.
"And you?"
"I have brought the Clear Sky Stalactite Fluid and the Ten-Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root! With these legendary treasures, Cult Leader, surely you will be able to—!"
"Hey."
"Y-Yes?!"
"Do you truly believe shoveling a few elixirs down my throat at this stage will change a damn thing?"
"That is..."
"Why is your skull so hollow? If you're weak and stupid, the least you could do is possess a sliver of tact like the fellow standing next to you. Has the wicked qi from your dantian seeped into your marrow and rotted your brain? Or should I crack your skull open to clear it out for you?"
"..."
Won Hyeong could only hang his head in silence.
"And what about the bald monk?"
"A-Amitabha. This humble monk dispatched disciples to comb through every corner of Tianzhu, yet we have found nothing of note."
Even from the mouth of Abbot Hye Mun, the venerable leader of Shaolin Temple, no satisfactory answer came.
The Heavenly Demon looked upon the three men with undisguised contempt as they kept their mouths shut tight, as if by prior agreement.
"Utterly pathetic. To think that worms like you split the Central Plains between yourselves, strutting and boasting as if you own the realm. Did I demand something impossible of you? Did I order you to offer up your precious disciples as living sacrifices? Did I demand you surrender every last one of your secret martial arts? Not once! And yet, you cannot even manage this simple task."
You miserable old bastard who won't even die a peaceful death, running your damn mouth!
Not an impossible demand? If I could, I'd rip that filthy snout off your face!
Even if it means plunging into the Avici Hell, I would gladly march into the flames if only I could slay this fiend!
The Heavenly Demon's demand was straightforward in concept: his martial arts had struck an insurmountable wall, and they were to bring him a method to break through it.
The problem was that the current Heavenly Demon had long transcended the title of the world's foremost master; he was indisputably the greatest martial artist in history.
The Murim Alliance Leader and the Wicked Dao Alliance Leader were hailed as the foremost masters of the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions, respectively. And Abbot Hye Mun stood as the spiritual pillar of Shaolin, the northern star of the martial world. Yet none of the three could even fathom the depths of the Heavenly Demon's current realm—and he was telling them to find a way to surpass it.
Offering up our disciples as sacrifices or surrendering our clans' martial legacies might be horrific and painful, but at least that's physically possible!
Does he expect us to unearth the mythical treasures of Bodhidharma or Lü Dongbin?
Even if we scour the Central Plains, cross the borderlands, and search as far as the Great Qin Empire, who knows if such a secret even exists!
Worse still, if such a path actually existed, they would have learned it themselves and slapped that insufferable smirk right off the Demon's face.
"You bastards! From the looks on your faces, you dare harbor treasonous thoughts toward the Heavenly Demon! Do you wish for your bodies and your entire sects to be ground into dust?!"
The roar came from the man standing at the Heavenly Demon's flank.
He was the Demon's most trusted retainer and closest confidant: the Mad Demon.
"Stand down," the Heavenly Demon murmured. "What harm is there in a few insolent thoughts? So long as they don't voice them and offend my ears, it matters little."
Looking down upon Lee Geuk and Won Hyeong with haughty eyes, he added, "After all, that is the only recourse left to the weak. We must be generous."
"..."
"..."
Neither man could utter a word of rebuttal.
"Truly, the Heavenly Demon's magnanimity knows no bounds!" the Mad Demon praised.
"Heh, I think so too."
Though it sounded like shameless self-flattery, remarkably, Lee Geuk and Won Hyeong silently agreed with the sentiment.
Despite wielding undisputed might as the greatest martial artist in all of history, the Heavenly Demon had not invaded the Central Plains. Instead, he remained secluded in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, devoted solely to martial arts. Considering that restraint alone, 'magnanimous' was an understatement.
"However," the Heavenly Demon continued softly, "my patience grows exceedingly thin."
Cold sweat began drenching the backs of the three visitors.
"Must I go forth and search for it myself?"
"T-That would never do!"
"How could we ever trouble the Heavenly Demon's exalted presence with such trivial labor?!"
"Please, Cult Leader, remain in your grand palace! We shall turn the world upside down to deliver the method to your hands!"
That terrifying prospect was precisely why the three had cast aside every shred of pride to obey his absurd demands.
If the Heavenly Demon marched into the Central Plains to seek his breakthrough, he wouldn't come alone. He would mobilize the full, ravenous might of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
That meant total war.
And without a shadow of a doubt, defeat would belong to them.
"Very well. I shall endure a little longer. But engrave this upon your minds: my patience will not last forever."
Though they still possessed no viable plan, they had averted an immediate cataclysm. Breathing an inward sigh of relief, the three pressed their foreheads to the polished stone floor.
"We thank you for your ocean-like benevolence!"
"We are overwhelmed by the Heavenly Demon's boundless grace!"
"Indeed, your mercy reaches the very heavens! Beneath the sky, none can rival your Righteousness and Chivalry!"
"...Righteousness and Chivalry?"
Oh, no!
Lee Geuk squeezed his eyes shut in horror.
To dare utter 'Righteousness and Chivalry' before the Heavenly Demon! In his giddy relief at buying borrowed time, his tongue had run wild with habitual orthodox platitudes.
Beside him, he could feel Won Hyeong and Hye Mun staring in sheer horror. He could feel the Mad Demon glaring at him with murderous intent.
And from the Heavenly Demon...
Wait... there's no rage?
Lee Geuk cautiously raised his head.
Upon the Demon's face, there was neither fury, nor bloodlust, nor mocking derision. He was merely lost in deep, contemplative silence.
"...Cult Leader?" the Mad Demon ventured softly.
"...The three of you. Leave."
It was an immediate dismissal.
Whatever had transpired in that monstrous mind, they had survived. Careful not to provoke him further, the three retreated as swiftly as their legs could carry them.
"Cult Leader! Grant the order this instant! I shall lead our brethren to conquer the Central Plains in one stroke and drag back the secret to your next realm!" the Mad Demon shouted fiercely the moment the visitors departed.
A few moments earlier, the proposal might have tempted him. His warning to the Murim Alliance Leader, the Wicked Dao Alliance Leader, and the Abbot of Shaolin that his patience was running dry had been no idle boast.
Moreover, he could feel his own lifespan gradually approaching its end. He was not about to drop dead in a matter of months, but neither did he have decades left to spare.
Yet the Heavenly Demon shook his head.
"Leave me as well. I wish to think."
Though confusion flashed across his face, the Mad Demon bowed low and exited the grand hall.
Left alone in the quiet chamber, the Heavenly Demon turned the thought over in his mind.
Conquering the Central Plains had always seemed far less efficient than ordering its leaders around.
Even if we occupied their lands, my people know little of their ways and even less about conducting subtle investigations.
Yet watching those three fail to grasp even a single thread despite all the time he had granted, he had been on the verge of taking matters into his own hands.
And then, today, an unexpected spark had ignited.
Righteousness and Chivalry.
The empty rhetoric the orthodox fools loved to spout. To Lee Geuk, blurting it out had likely been nothing more than an unconscious shower of praise born from sheer relief—to an orthodox hypocrite, there was no higher compliment.
Yet he was the Heavenly Demon. Never once in his hundred and fifty years had he harbored such notions.
And yet, the instant I heard those words, something stirred within me.
It was a faint, inexplicable resonance, yet intimately familiar.
Whenever he was on the cusp of an epiphany that would breach a new realm, the thread of enlightenment always announced itself like this.
A dry chuckle escaped his lips.
To think the clue that eluded me across heaven and earth would present itself like this.
Epiphanies were fickle things, striking like lightning on a whim, but this bordered on absurd.
Should I have seized the orthodox arts long ago?
No, that wasn't it. He had perused their supreme arts before—even their most sacred and guarded scriptures.
There had been no path forward in those texts.
Then it is not their techniques, but the concepts of Righteousness and Chivalry themselves that hold the key.
Baffling as it was, a surge of fierce exhilaration flooded his veins. He had finally found the thread he had craved for decades.
Is this what they call fate?
Though he ruled the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult today, he had originally hailed from the Righteous path.
Generations ago, during the reign of the previous Heavenly Demon, the Cult had initiated an insidious design: kidnap promising infants across the Central Plains and subject them to ruthless mental conditioning and secret arts, forging them into cold, unfeeling living weapons devoted solely to the Cult's dominion.
He was one of those stolen children.
In truth, the Divine Cult was the mortal enemy that stole his birthright. Yet having grown up within its brutal embrace, he had long become its absolute master. The Cult was his home, his only world.
And now, at the twilight of his life, his path intertwined once more with the Righteous faction.
Fate or irony, it mattered little to him.
The only thing in this world that truly mattered was the peak of martial arts.
Let us begin training.
With his peerless genius, dissecting the concepts of chivalry and righteousness should be child's play...
...Wait. What, exactly, are Righteousness and Chivalry?
His mind, forged across a lifetime of bloodshed, was dyed through and through in the doctrines of the Divine Cult.
And the Divine Cult stood at the furthest possible pole from anything resembling chivalry.
"Is anyone outside?!" the Heavenly Demon roared. "Bring the Murim Alliance Leader back here! At once!"
Thus began the Heavenly Demon's frantic struggle to reach the next realm.
Yet no matter how thoroughly the Murim Alliance Leader lectured him, no matter what twisted angles the Wicked Dao Alliance Leader proposed, no matter how relentlessly he grilled the Abbot of Shaolin or how many philosophical treatises he devoured, a mindset entrenched for one hundred and fifty years refused to budge.
Even his peerless comprehension was utterly useless when trying to grasp a concept entirely alien to his nature.
Years slipped away like water.
"Son of a bitch!"
The Heavenly Demon spat a venomous curse.
Ten whole years had passed.
Yet from that day onward, he had failed to advance a single step toward the next realm. Now, he could clearly feel the embers of his life guttering in the wind.
He could not accept dying like this.
After finally seizing the clue, am I to rot away empty-handed?!
Death held no terror for him. But dying without ever stepping into the next realm was an indignity he could not bear.
There is no other choice. I must resort to the final method!
Having severed his remaining ties to the mortal world, the Heavenly Demon established a secluded training cave atop an isolated peak, far from the Divine Cult's palace.
Cross-legged upon the stone, he began circulating his energy.
I will intentionally drive every drop of internal qi in my dantian into total, violent berserk.
It was a gamble conceived only by a madman standing at the threshold of the grave. With his unfathomable sea of qi, his meridians wouldn't merely twist—his physical form would be blown to atoms.
Yet that was precisely what he sought.
In that razor-thin instant where life and death overlap, I will wrest enlightenment from the void!
Frenzied, demonic qi surged outward, swallowing not only the cavern but the entire mountain peak in a suffocating tempest of black mist.
Amidst agony beyond mortal reckoning, the Heavenly Demon fought tooth and nail to hold his consciousness together.
In that split second, he felt his very soul being dragged into an infinite vortex.
It worke—!
Darkness swallowed him whole.
BOOOOOM!
A terrifying shockwave of demonic energy erupted from the training cave, sweeping across the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
Rumble! Crash!
The entire mountain peak collapsed into pulverized stone.
It was a cataclysm that shook the heavens. From afar, every Cult disciple fell to their knees, gazing upon the devastated peak in equal parts reverent awe and paralyzing terror.
Yet their supreme master, who should have emerged from the rubble, never appeared again.
Before long, tidings of the Heavenly Demon's demise echoed through the hundred thousand peaks of the Divine Cult.
When he finally opened his eyes, a world he had never seen before unrolled before his gaze.