Prologue
The underground dungeon of the Wulin Alliance.
Specifically, the sealed sector on the third basement floor, where only the most dangerous and heinous criminals were kept.
Once you set foot inside, no one left alive.
The only thing permitted to them was to become something neither living nor dead, suffering until their final moments while repenting for their sins.
Neither dead nor alive.
By all rights, only the most atrocious villains should have been confined to this dreadful place.
Yet, there was a man here who had once been hailed as a hero.
A great hero who had vanquished evil and saved the Orthodox faction from the brink of ruin with a single spear.
His name was Han Cheong-un.
Once, he was the hero of the Orthodox faction, known throughout the Jianghu as the Heavenly Destiny Single Spear.
But now, the hero's appearance was wretched beyond belief.
Limbs thinner than those of a young girl.
A haggard complexion and a rotting body.
Disheveled, matted hair that hung wildly.
Having suffered the punishment of Severing Tendons and Rupturing Meridians, he was now a crippled shell of his former self, wasting away day by day in this dark cell.
What sin could he possibly have committed to end up like this?
Han Cheong-un had originally been just one of the many low-ranking warriors trained by the Wulin Alliance.
Though he did not stand out at first, his exceptional talent for martial arts allowed him to gradually accumulate achievements.
However, simply because he was a low-ranking warrior, his achievements were denied and downplayed.
It was only after he turned thirty that his name began to spread, playing a pivotal role in the war against the Sado-palmun.
Eventually, the Orthodox faction formed a special combat unit just for him and appointed him as its commander.
The Annihilation Squad.
Thus, the heroes who, along with Han Cheong-un, would become the natural enemies of the Sado-palmun were born.
They were strong.
Rallying around Cheong-un, they swept through the battlefields, miraculously turning the tide of seemingly impossible situations time and time again.
Thanks to them, the Orthodox faction—which had been pushed back unilaterally like a candle flickering in the wind—was able to seize a chance to counterattack.
Then came the final battle.
The Annihilation Squad led by Han Cheong-un clashed with the elites of the Heavenly Demon Sect, one of the pillars of the Sado-palmun.
"Clear the path! Do not let the Commander be stopped!"
"Vice-Commander! There are three Heavenly Demon Jiangshi! There are Blood Jiangshi and Iron Jiangshi as well!"
"It doesn't matter. Focus solely on opening a path for the Commander!"
That day, the Annihilation Squad fought with no regard for their own lives.
They believed.
Even if they died, they had to forge a path.
As long as they opened the way, their commander's spear would surely lead them to victory.
"Do not fear! What a warrior must leave behind is not a wretched life, but their will!"
One by one, they threw away their lives, becoming the stepping stones for the future. And...
Grit...
Han Cheong-un ran.
He did not look left or right, nor did he look back.
Even as he heard the death screams of the comrades who were like brothers to him, he did not stop.
The tears streaming down his face were the only mourning he could offer them.
Everyone was sacrificing their lives for victory.
As their commander, there was only one thing he could do to answer their wishes.
As he ran, something blocked his path.
Monsters with gray skin and pitch-black eyes.
Iron Jiangshi. Five of them.
Skin so tough it could deflect sword qi.
Poison potent enough to kill a giant tiger instantly.
Strength and speed rivaling a Transcendent Peak Expert.
They were truly cursed abominations. However...
"Out of my way!"
With Cheong-un's roar, the tip of his spear flashed.
Lightning Straight Strike
In the next instant.
No one could track the trajectory of Cheong-un's spear. All they could see were the shredded remains of the five Iron Jiangshi falling to the ground in dozens of pieces.
Having cleared the final line of defense in a single strike, Cheong-un finally faced his ultimate enemy and roared.
"Dokgo Dan!"
The Heavenly Demon Star Lord, Dokgo Dan.
The Sect Leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect, hailed as the descendant of the Heavenly Demon and reigning at the absolute peak of the Sado-palmun.
A pitch-black light gathered in his hands.
"Come."
Boom!
"Cough... Urgh..."
Han Cheong-un fell to his knees.
If he did not lean on the spear shaft driven deep into the ground, he would have collapsed instantly.
In that state, he looked around.
Corpses and more corpses.
There was nothing but dead bodies.
The comrades he had laughed and shared drinks with just yesterday were now cold corpses littering the ground.
"..."
From the beginning, the chances of victory had been slim.
It was a battle where even the combined forces of the Wulin Alliance would have struggled to win, yet the Annihilation Squad had charged in alone.
Thus, their annihilation was only natural.
"I am speechless."
The one who spoke, looking down at the silently weeping Han Cheong-un, was Dokgo Dan.
He was the only other person left standing on the battlefield.
However...
"To think I would lose..."
A massive hole was pierced through his heart. Although he was slowly dying, there was neither anger nor impatience on Dokgo Dan's face.
There was only admiration for the man before him, and...
"In the end, is my dream not meant to be?"
...a deep, profound sorrow.
Indeed. Though he was in a wretched state, the victor was undeniably Han Cheong-un.
Even while facing the strongest master of the Unorthodox faction and three cursed Heavenly Demon Jiangshi simultaneously, he had triumphed.
"Magnificent..."
With those final words to the hero who had defeated him, he closed his eyes.
And then...
"Han Cheong-un! Cheong-un, are you alright?"
A voice called out to him from the distance.
"Alliance Leader..."
With a sigh of relief, the tension left his body.
The figures rushing toward him from afar were clearly allies. Led by the Alliance Leader, Cheongheo Jinin, a group of martial artists was running toward him in haste.
Though they had opposed this battle until the very end, it seemed they had changed their minds and arrived, however late.
After asking them to retrieve the bodies of his comrades, he could finally...
Slash!
It happened then.
A cold blade pierced straight into Cheong-un's dantian.
It was a Pine Pattern Ancient Sword, the signature weapon of the Wudang Sect.
"Alliance... Urgh!"
Han Cheong-un's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
Cheongheo Jinin spoke to him.
"Tsk, tsk. You should have just died. Why did you bother surviving?"
"Alliance... Alliance Leader..."
"Now I have to dirty my own hands because of you. Tsk. This is why one shouldn't associate with lowborn bastards."
"..."
"It can't be helped. Still, you will be remembered as a hero of the Wulin. Consider it an honor and die in peace."
"Al... Alliance..."
Unable to finish his sentence, Han Cheong-un collapsed. Tears of blood streamed from his eyes, staining the earth.
The hero of the Orthodox Wulin, the Heavenly Destiny Single Spear, Han Cheong-un.
He had defied the Alliance's orders, leading the Annihilation Squad into a reckless battle on his own authority.
Due to his poor judgment, the Annihilation Squad was wiped out, and he perished alongside them.
Fortunately, the reinforcement army led by the Alliance Leader himself arrived in time to defeat the Heavenly Demon Sect and strike down Dokgo Dan.
That was the story presented to the world.
It was an ugly lie that completely inverted the truth, yet the public believed it blindly.
As for Han Cheong-un, who was reported dead...
He was not dead.
For reasons unknown, the Alliance Leader had spared his life, choosing instead to lock him away in the deepest depths of the dungeon.
And now...
"..."
Just how much time had passed?
For a long, long time, Han Cheong-un did nothing but think.
He thought and thought again.
There was nothing else he could do.
Anger, hope, despair, resignation...
A torrent of emotions had ravaged his mind in turns, leaving behind only one final feeling.
Regret.
Did I dedicate myself and strive so hard just for this? Just for this miserable end?
He regretted everything.
Had he known, he would never have devoted his life to the illusion of righteousness.
He would never have made the same choices.
Rumble.
It was then.
The sound of something cracking echoed from the ceiling of the dungeon.
An earthquake?
That was his first thought.
But he was wrong.
A succession of rupturing sounds echoed, accompanied by a massive energy drawing closer and closer to his location.
What is this?
Though he had lost his martial arts and was crippled, his ability to sense energy remained.
Above all, the nature of the energy he was sensing was something that simply could not exist. This was...
Crash!
It happened in an instant.
Sunlight poured down through the shattered ceiling.
Against the backdrop of the light, a slender, doll-like figure slowly revealed itself.
Skin so pale it was almost translucent.
Pitch-black hair.
Mystical mantras densely inscribed across her exposed skin.
And above all, those crimson eyes that glowed with an eerie light even in the darkness.
This is impossible.
Han Cheong-un knew this entity all too well.
Although she looked different from the ones he had seen before, the girl's appearance was unmistakably...
"A Heavenly Demon Jiangshi..."
There was no way he was mistaken.
There was no way he wouldn't recognize it.
But how?
He had personally destroyed the last of the Heavenly Demon Jiangshi.
He had even killed the Ghost Spirit King, Won Pyeong, the only one capable of creating them.
So why was such an entity standing before him once again?
The Heavenly Demon Jiangshi before him was a woman of slender build.
She cast a cold, indifferent gaze toward him. A gaze...
Wait. She has a will of her own?
How could a jiangshi possess a will?
It was utterly impossible.
The Heavenly Demon Jiangshi he knew were, by definition...
Thud!
He couldn't carry his thoughts any further.
Before he could even register what was happening, the hand blade of the Heavenly Demon Jiangshi had pierced straight through his heart.
"..."
Not even a scream could escape his throat.
As his consciousness faded into the dark, Han Cheong-un had one final thought.
Damn it... I cannot... accept... a death like this.
That was his end.