Heart Demon
The heart demon was lonely. It was isolated. A flurry of emotions flashed through my mind in an instant. The grueling training that felt almost like closed-door cultivation continued without pause.
“······.”
How much time had passed? Even the monotonous repetition of the same routine felt unbearably long, to the point of losing all meaning. I stared blankly up at the empty air.
“Huu.”
I began to slowly examine my entire body. After receiving the oral formulas for the Purple Sunset Heart Art and the Purple Sunset Sword Art from Hyeonmu Jin-in, I had thrown myself into solitary training. Through that process, I had come to a realization.
If the Purple Sunset Heart Art is a mental technique that condenses purple sunset energy into the dantian in a single stroke, then the Purple Sunset Sword Art is the process of manifesting that gathered energy through the blade.
It was simple. The heart art gathered the energy, and the sword art applied it. That was all.
Yet having already witnessed the terrifying power of purple sunset energy firsthand, I couldn’t help but understand why both arts evoked the image of hell.
Purple sunset refers to the sky of the underworld, doesn’t it?
With an expressionless face devoid of even the slightest smile, I continued my train of thought.
Simply by sensing and manipulating purple sunset energy, one can obtain the power to look down upon the entire world… Now I see why this martial art is only passed down to the greatest disciples of the Mount Hua Sect.
It was a technique that could not only dominate the world, but perhaps even dream of shattering the heavens themselves. The moment I realized that, I felt a chill run down my spine.
I smiled bitterly and resumed my meditation.
Focus.
I slowly closed my eyes. As I maintained half-awareness, struggling to grasp at faint clues, the heart demon would always appear.
The moment my vision blurred, the world seemed to invert, and the illusion that every light in existence was flickering—
“······.”
“······.”
Inside the world of the mind, I once again came face to face with another ‘me.’
What does it truly feel like to manifest one’s inner heart?
I had pondered it often, always imagining a peaceful world with a clear blue sky and lush green fields.
But there’s no way my inner world would be that beautiful.
I slowly looked around. Everything was filled with ash-gray tones. The sky looked choked with gray dust, projecting nothing but hazy afterimages. The ground was at least dotted with a white surface, yet even that was marred by incomplete black fissures here and there.
And then…
“You’re here?”
“You…”
My words trailed off. In this space that embodied my inner world, the only other living, moving entity besides myself.
But what was truly ridiculous was its appearance.
…It’s exactly the same.
The face was identical. Of course, it wasn’t the appearance of Eun Haseong. The figure standing quietly before me looked exactly like the ‘me’ from my previous world.
“Don’t look so surprised. You always assumed something like this would happen eventually, didn’t you?”
“······.”
“From the very beginning, you’ve been ignoring everything you did or achieved in the past. How long do you plan to keep disguising and packaging yourself in this damned world?”
“Who… exactly are you?”
I asked in a slightly trembling voice. The other ‘me’ twisted into a distorted smile and continued slowly.
“Does it really matter?”
“What?”
“If you’re asking what to call me, you can call me heart demon or another version of yourself. That’s not the issue. Let’s talk about why the current you is turning your back on the past.”
“······.”
When I fell silent for a moment, the heart demon smirked faintly and kept speaking.
“Let’s be honest with each other. From the moment you fell into this absurd, third-rate wuxia novel world, you started acting like someone born to become a heavenly martial artist.”
“Hmm.”
“In normal cases, that would be incomprehensible… No matter how powerful you were in your original world, how many people could casually keep pulling off one impossible feat after another like you?”
The heart demon sneered as it continued. Listening to its words, I couldn’t deny them. There was nothing wrong with what it said.
Seeming to notice that I couldn’t refute it, the heart demon glared at me once before opening its mouth again.
“You’re nothing but a coward who fled from a harsh reality into another world.”
At that moment, someone’s memories flashed through my mind.
There was a man. His appearance was unremarkable, his face ordinary. The kind of person you might pass on the street without a second glance. There was nothing particularly special about him.
The only notable thing in his otherwise ordinary life was the moment he took up the sword.
The world was in an era of great upheaval. Monsters invaded from the skies, and all kinds of villains ran rampant on the ground. The law of the jungle had arrived. To protect himself from external threats, the man picked up a sword.
At first, it was incredibly crude. He had never held a sword before, after all. Even so, the man began to swing it. That was the beginning.
He had nearly died to monsters dozens of times, but the number of times he had nearly been killed by humans was beyond counting. The man came to understand human cruelty. He learned that the desperate struggles of those with nothing were far more vicious.
From then on, the man grew cold.
Time passed, the chaos subsided, and a new order was established in the ruined society. Laws, rules, norms, and systems were created anew. Around this time, the man began to feel his limits.
His body was no longer what it used to be, and his skills refused to improve. He had slain countless monsters and villains without any compensation, yet because there was no evidence, he received no recognition. In the new society, those who had fallen behind were no longer needed.
Even so, the man continued to swing his sword.
He accepted it. He was not a hero who stood at the forefront to save everyone. He did not possess strength greater than others. Nor did he have any special talent. He had simply taken up the sword to survive. That was all.
He felt neither resentment nor injustice at society abandoning him. What tormented him more was his own stagnant skill.
There was no longer any need to swing the sword, yet the man kept swinging it anyway.
Time flowed like water. The chaotic society became a thing of the past. A new generation appeared. Monsters were no longer a threat. Instead, humans began to fight over the new resources the monsters had brought.
Each time, heroes would suddenly appear to mediate, but villains would rise up to sow chaos in response. The man could only watch.
The calluses in his palms only grew thicker.
When had it started? The man recalled it, then shook his head. Thinking about it now was pointless. The moment when a single sword stopped being a means to an end and became the end itself had long since faded from memory.
The man had no family. Instead, a single sword always rested by his side.
“…Ah.”
…One day, the man realized his end was near.
It had been a life with nothing left. Even so, the man felt no regret. Though others had never acknowledged him and had even feared his power, the man was satisfied. His mental fortitude had been evaluated as transcending that of ordinary humans.
There had been many moments of despair. Yet he had never given up. He had already realized that the fruits of effort would come naturally one day.
Now the man no longer felt despair. It wasn’t that he had grown stronger—he had simply grown used to it.
The man smiled faintly.
“Even after devoting an entire lifetime to effort, the realm of transcendence remains so distant…”
His murmur echoed. Finally, the sword slipped from the man’s hand. It was his end.
“This is the ending you met in your original world.”
“······.”
“They called you the first hunter, the savior of humanity… but in the end, your death was that of a nameless wanderer no one prayed for.”
The heart demon stared piercingly at me and spat out the words.
“In your original world, you couldn’t protect anyone and only lived for your own survival, rationalizing it all. And now you stand here declaring you’ll reach the pinnacle of this world? It made me want to vomit.”
“······.”
“Did you enjoy it that much? In your original world, you were a pathetic weakling who groveled before the strong and sobbed as monsters tore your arm off. Now that things are a little better, you’ve forgotten all about the past and decided to live a brand new life? Don’t make me laugh.”
The heart demon growled.
“How does it feel to finally meet the version of yourself who lived a lifetime of frustration and disappointment—all because of your own selfishness?”