Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Little Heavenly Demon Yeon Un-hwi
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Reincarnation Demon God Temple
White silk-like hair cascading down to his waist like a fluffy rug.
A languid, decadent gaze.
He was a young man with such a beautiful appearance that you’d believe it if someone called him a stunning beauty in women’s clothing.
But the people living in the Cheonsan Mountains couldn’t dare say such things lightly to his face.
—The Grand Sorcerer of Evil Arts.
—The King of Wandering Ghosts in the Nine Heavens.
—Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Church.
And so on.
The titles and aliases referring to him were as countless as the stars in the sky.
—Little Heavenly Demon Yeon Un-hwi.
The young master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Church, the single faction considered the strongest in the martial world.
Naturally, no martial artist, regardless of affiliation, could afford to meet even his gaze carelessly.
But the greatest reason he inspired fear was something else entirely.
“Isn’t there anything better, Uncle Master? Don’t you think your nephew here feels utterly disappointed like this?”
Look at that venom.
He had drunk a handful of the ferocious poison Hakjeonghong, said to melt a water buffalo, yet not only did he refuse to collapse—he even had ghostly flames flickering at the corners of his eyes.
And with that, his cold sneer was enough to chill the blood just by looking at it.
On top of that, the scattered wine cups rolling before him, and the dozen elite assassins sprawled on the ground with holes drilled through their foreheads.
His feat of pulling this off even in poor physical condition explained exactly what kind of person Yeon Un-hwi was.
A venomous freak.
In truth, his evaluation was simple: despite his constitution preventing him from learning martial arts, he had seized control of the church solely through his supernatural abilities and risen to become the young cult leader.
—If he smiles, run without looking back. It just means you’re screwed.
—Get in his sights. He’ll be your umbrella of protection for life. If you can manage it.
“It’s always been like this. Whether it’s his innate temperament or if his twisted personality stems from his frail body, I can’t say.”
Tsk!
Cheon Ha-jin, the Vice Cult Leader who had orchestrated this situation, was deeply dissatisfied with it all.
Some time ago, Yeon Un-hwi had gone on an inspection tour to the Central Plains.
Somehow the rumors spread, and a young Taoist from the Wudang Sect kept tailing him, pestering him.
In response, Yeon Un-hwi yanked out every strand of hair from the kid’s head, turned him into a bald punk, tossed him into the Shaolin Temple grounds as a “gift” for them to shave together, and shook the entire Martial Alliance.
The righteous faction had gone berserk, practically declaring war, and cleaning up after that mess had been a nightmare.
The problem was that this was just a minor example.
Yeon Un-hwi had caused countless incidents like this.
The trouble was caused by Yeon Un-hwi, and the cleanup by Cheon Ha-jin.
Worse, the young cultists’ support for Yeon Un-hwi’s flashy, unrestrained antics only grew day by day.
Cheon Ha-jin could no longer tolerate the Heavenly Demon Divine Church being ruined by such a bastard.
“Indeed. I tried to give you your first lesson, but it didn’t work out. I have no face left.”
“If my body weren’t so frail, I’d have drilled a nice hole through your skull too, Uncle Master. Such a shame.”
“I can only say it’s a pity that it didn’t go as you wished either.”
Cheon Ha-jin responded leisurely, grinding his teeth inwardly.
He couldn’t let some orphan brat keep blabbering on like this any longer.
The groundwork was all done anyway.
Yeon Un-hwi’s guards had long been eliminated.
The elders, unwilling to accept a cult leader who hadn’t mastered the cult leader’s secret arts, had been persuaded.
Even the higher-ups had given their approval.
So now, all that remained was to eliminate him.
Splash! Splash!
Cheon Ha-jin began walking across the floor littered with corpses and blood.
No matter how distasteful, there was still the master-disciple bond.
For now, he remained the proud young master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Church.
So he had enough magnanimity left to end it with his own hands.
* * *
Master.
Was the price of the trust you drilled into my ears all this time really just this?
You were too naive.
See?
In the end, that damn bastard struck us in the back just as I said he would.
That’s what I wanted to tell you if I could see you still deep in slumber within the Heavenly Demon Palace.
Divine Sword Heavenly Demon.
If only you, who once terrified the martial world, hadn’t fallen into qi deviation while researching a grand spell to heal your worthless disciple’s shattered dantian, that punk would never have gained any power.
I was born with a ruined dantian, a body utterly incapable of cultivating martial arts.
So I had never even learned basic breathing techniques.
But fortunately—or perhaps disastrously—I possessed a unique talent unlike others.
—Eyes of the Dead.
I could see the dead.
Not just the dead, either.
The so-called supernatural freaks... things lurking on the world’s underside—I could converse with them and sometimes command them.
That’s how Master found me.
“You’re not just strange. You’re special.”
I still can’t forget that day.
The day Master reached out to me after the village kids beat me for “seeing things” and “lying,” dumping me under a bridge.
“Ever since that ‘Tower’ appeared beyond the heavens, children like you are occasionally born with extraordinarily developed upper dantians or unique spirit roots. So that talent isn’t a flaw. It’s a blessing.”
Special.
Blessing.
To me, who had always lived regretting “Why was I even born?”, those words were magic that changed how I saw the world.
“And children like that always accomplish something extraordinary. You will too.”
“R-Really...?”
“Yes. So will you follow me? I’ll help make you more special than anyone in the world.”
After that, I began learning various sorceries from Master to harness my Eyes of the Dead.
Yin-Yang arts, divination, barrier spells—of course, along with the secretive methods of demonic sorcerers, distant Western astrology and demon arts, even the ancient Fire Worship Cult’s forbidden immortality rites.
More tenaciously than anyone. More viciously than anyone.
Though I couldn’t wield a sword like Master, I would do anything to aid his reign.
Amid endless prejudice and finger-pointing, I endured solely on the desire to become like him.
And so, outstripping the heirs of the Nine Great Demon Sects and Seventy-Two Heretical Gates that propped up the Heavenly Demon Divine Church, I claimed this position...
But it seemed even that feat ended today.
“Before I go, let me ask one thing, Uncle Master.”
A smug smile played on the lips of the man approaching slowly. The smile of victory.
The urge to smash that face surged within me.
“What is it?”
“Who’s the bastard pulling your strings from behind, Uncle Master? No way someone as spineless as you orchestrated this grand scheme. There’s gotta be some rat who laid the board.”
Cheon Ha-jin’s face twisted most satisfyingly.
“What nonsense is this? Removing you from the throne is the resolve of me and the elders—”
“Bullshit. You don’t have the guts for it.”
“You bastard!!”
The emotions flickering on his further distorted face were just two.
Frustration.
And inferiority.
This punk had always been like this.
Back when Master was in his prime, he couldn’t even meet eyes, always bowing his head like a cripple.
“Who is it? Black Bone Ghost Valley Lord? Thunderbolt Blood Gate Lord? Or House Demon Path Lord? Or... a third party I don’t know?”
“...!”
“A third party, huh. There’s a shadowy hand behind this. Don’t tell me they’re the ones who did that to Master too?”
“Shut up!!”
Kwaaaaa—
Unable to take it anymore, Cheon Ha-jin lunged with his pitch-black Black Jade Hand to snap my neck.
With that, I gained certainty.
Both Master and I had been manipulated by someone in the shadows.
And their goal was to devour the Heavenly Demon Divine Church.
Of course, I had no intention of going down easily.
“Even if you kill me, remember one thing, Uncle Master.”
Kuduk!
My neck twisted under his rough grip.
The gruesome sound of breaking bone and searing pain.
But I laughed.
Cheon Ha-jin’s face paled in an instant.
A neck twisting yet still chattering must look eerie to him.
Then, realizing too late what I was aiming for, he went ashen.
“You can’t—”
Too late, asshole.
“The sacred relic Demon Dragon Sword is also the ultimate demonic artifact infused with the relic left by the founding Heavenly Demon.”
I placed my hand on the Demon Dragon Sword by my knee.
The cult leader’s sacred item Master always told me to carry, in case of need.
An object full of memories.
...I never imagined I’d shatter it with my own hands.
The moment my sorcery from the upper dantian poured into it, the Demon Dragon Sword and its sheath shattered like glass.
Crash!
Over the scattering black blade fragments gleamed the ashen faces of Cheon Ha-jin, and behind him the Demon Shadow Group and elders.
Even my own face, grinning like a malevolent ghost.
“So—”
Spirit Explosion Hell Flame Ritual.
A sorcery that burns souls to drag hellfire into the world.
Using the church’s supreme demonic artifact as sacrifice, its power would be immense.
At the very least, enough to obliterate the Chain Heaven Peak where the young cult leader’s residence stood?
“Die, all of you.”
—!
In that instant, the world turned white.
* * *
Consciousness fading further.
.
.
All dead?
Probably.
If any survived that explosion, I’d have to acknowledge their skills.
But that didn’t mean I could rest easy.
Master still lay in the Heavenly Demon Palace, and I hadn’t uncovered the shadowy manipulator.
With no knowing when their claws would reach out again, dying peacefully was impossible.
So I needed a way.
A way to revive.
But with my body completely incinerated in the blast, I couldn’t awaken as ‘Yeon Un-hwi’ again.
So only one path remained.
—What if I awakened in someone else’s body?
Among the ancient Fire Worship Cult’s grand spells was the Original Soul Wheel Tribulation.
A great art created by dying old cult leaders to transfer their souls into fresh bodies due to illness or injury.
But it failed nine times out of ten, and even successes ended in death from soul-body mismatch, classifying it as forbidden.
For me, though, there was no reason to avoid it.
Failure meant death anyway, and success...
Would grant a new chance.
To save Master and eradicate the shadows.
Conveniently, remnants of the Demon Dragon Sword’s demonic energy lingered from the explosion.
Controlling it... I slowly reached out into the void (or what felt like it).
Suddenly, a ray of saving light descended from the black sky, touching my fingertips.
Thinking how that sight resembled Un-hwi—‘light amid clouds,’ the name Master gave me the day we met, the day I gained a name after living nameless—I lost consciousness.
Reincarnation Demon God Temple
Prologue
—Shell-Shedders.
That’s what people called the absolutes and half-immortals who cast off human limits to climb the ‘Tower’ enthroned above the heavens.
Reincarnation Demon God Temple