Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Reunion with the Flying Demon
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"How do you know that title...!"
Sa-Nyeom exclaimed in shock.
'It really is the Flying Demon.'
Cheonhwi could now be certain.
If it weren't the Flying Demon, there would have been no reaction to those words.
"It's been a while."
Cheonhwi smiled warmly.
The identity of the one who had left behind a remnant of thought even while unleashing the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path was none other than his former trusted subordinate, the Flying Demon.
"I never imagined we'd meet like this."
"Do you know me?"
"What? You still don't recognize me?"
Cheonhwi bared his pristine white teeth.
At the same time, an overwhelming presence emanated from him, one that no one could dare approach.
"Th-this!"
The Flying Demon's eyes trembled.
This intense presence.
And that arrogant smile and demeanor, looking down as if it were the most natural thing in the world—it belonged to someone he had often seen in life.
"N-no way!"
The startled Flying Demon dropped to his knees without hesitation, pressing his forehead to the floor.
"Ahh! My Sovereign!"
"It's been a long time."
"F-forgive me. My eyes were blind as knots, and I failed to recognize you, Sovereign."
"That can happen."
"Thank you for understanding with a heart as vast as the sea."
A smile formed on Cheonhwi's lips.
Seeing the Flying Demon made him feel as if he had returned to his previous life.
"But you've aged quite a bit."
Cheonhwi met the eyes of the Flying Demon as he lifted his head.
Once, he had been a handsome middle-aged man who turned the heads of many women...
But his current appearance was entirely different.
His once lush hair was mostly gone, and his face was covered in deep wrinkles.
When they first met, Cheonhwi hadn't recognized him as the Flying Demon at all.
"No one can stand against the passage of time."
He gave a wrinkled smile.
"But you, Sovereign, seem to have overcome it... Have you perhaps achieved the legendary reversal of aging?"
"Not quite."
"Then this appearance..."
"Do you know the Eternal Life Immortal Dominion Great Law?"
The Flying Demon nodded.
The Eternal Life Immortal Dominion Great Law was the supreme art that Cheonhwi had constantly spoken of in his prime.
And not only that.
In the past, hadn't Cheonhwi secretly tasked him with fetching a millennial ice crystal for it?
"Didn't you once order me to retrieve a millennial ice crystal to unleash that great law, Sovereign?"
"Ah, yes, I did."
Cheonhwi recalled a memory he had momentarily forgotten and finally said what he hadn't earlier.
"Anyway, when I unleashed it, this became my body."
"Pardon...?"
Seeing the Flying Demon's confusion, Cheonhwi shrugged.
"I transferred my soul into another body..."
Cheonhwi paused midway.
Explaining it in words was proving complicated.
'And it's a hassle.'
In the end, he gave up on the detailed explanation and simplified it.
"Just think of it as similar to reincarnation."
"R-reincarnation?"
The Flying Demon couldn't hide his bewilderment.
Reincarnation usually meant being reborn without memories.
Yet here he was, in his exact previous form.
But he soon accepted it.
Who was he talking about?
The unparalleled demonic sovereign of past and present, the Absolute Heavenly Demon for whom nothing was impossible.
"If it's you, Sovereign, it's certainly possible."
Then his eyes widened.
"But if this happened after unleashing the Eternal Life Immortal Dominion Great Law, does that mean the reason you left the Divine Cult was..."
"Exactly what you're thinking."
The Flying Demon was at a loss for words.
The internal strife in the Divine Cult after the Sovereign's sudden departure had been fierce.
And it was all just to execute that great law?
"Th-then, Sovereign, where have you been all this time?"
"Me? In the Tianshan Mountains."
The Flying Demon burst out in shock.
"But we searched everywhere, and you weren't in the Tianshan Mountains..."
"You think you could find me if I truly hid?"
The Flying Demon was speechless.
As he said, if Cheonhwi willed it, who in the world could track him down?
Cheonhwi chuckled and asked,
"More importantly, Shadowless Divine Throw is you, right?"
The Flying Demon collected himself and replied,
"Yes."
Cheonhwi stroked his chin.
It made sense now—Shadowless Divine Throw stealing from the Nine Great Sects and the imperial family.
With the Flying Demon's lightness skill, he could toy with them at will.
But one thing was unexpected.
"You managed to hide that you were the Flying Demon well enough."
The Flying Demon was a great demon who had once turned the Central Plains upside down.
Yet despite operating in the Central Plains for so long, his identity hadn't been exposed. That was remarkable.
"I avoided using martial arts known in the Central Plains as much as possible, relying mainly on lightness techniques."
"What mission required that?"
"It wasn't a mission."
"Then why come to the Central Plains?"
"To find you, Sovereign."
Cheonhwi was slightly taken aback.
"Me?"
"After failing to find you in Tianshan and the Western Regions, I thought perhaps you were in the Central Plains..."
The Flying Demon trailed off with a bitter smile.
The one he had searched so desperately for had been right there in Tianshan all along. What a futile effort.
"You should have just stayed in the Divine Cult."
"I, the sect leader of the Flying Dragon Sect, abandoned my sect to devote myself to the Divine Cult solely to serve you, Sovereign."
The Flying Demon's eyes sharpened.
"What reason would I have to remain in a Divine Cult without you?"
"The Demon Brain must not have stayed quiet."
"......"
The Flying Demon clamped his mouth shut.
That was answer enough.
'He snuck away.'
Cheonhwi didn't press further.
Instead, he asked something else.
"Why did you unleash the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path?"
"I was on the brink of death."
"So you used it?"
Cheonhwi's eyebrow arched.
"Are you insane? I told you not to."
His voice lowered slightly.
"I warned you time and again never to use the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path, even on the verge of death, because it breaks the wheel of reincarnation. What were you thinking?"
"Forgive me."
The Flying Demon prostrated fully and spoke.
"But I wanted to see you again, Sovereign, even if it meant this."
"What if I hadn't come?"
"But you did."
"It was coincidence."
"You once said, Sovereign, that coincidence is no different from fate."
"Did I?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"When we first met."
"Was it?"
"It was."
Cheonhwi smacked his lips at the Flying Demon's irrefutable rebuttal.
"You used to be unable to utter a single word before, but you've changed."
"My apologies."
"Your skin's gotten thicker too."
Cheonhwi scratched the back of his head at the Flying Demon's slightly altered attitude and speech.
"Whatever. What's done is done—you've already gone this far."
Cheonhwi hardened his expression and said,
"Lift your head."
The Flying Demon slowly raised his head.
Their eyes met for a moment.
"Are you okay with this?"
Cheonhwi asked softly.
"What do you mean...?"
"You're about to dissipate now. Aren't you afraid?"
"I'm fine. No, I'm joyful. Haven't I reunited with you, Sovereign, at the cost of my soul?"
The Flying Demon smiled.
It was a bright smile Cheonhwi had never seen even in their previous life.
"And now I can pass on the items I gathered for you. What greater fortune could there be?"
Cheonhwi let out a hollow laugh.
"Your head's still as twisted as ever."
Though it was nearly a rebuke, the Flying Demon opened his mouth with a pleased expression.
"How could a person change so easily?"
"True enough. Even with a new body, my essence hasn't changed."
Cheonhwi chuckled.
Then, recalling what he had heard earlier, he spoke up.
"By the way, what items did you gather?"
"A few martial arts manuals and a sword I painstakingly obtained from the Western Regions. Especially the manuals—you'll like them, Sovereign."
Cheonhwi's eyes sparkled.
As expected from his trusted limb—he knew exactly what he wanted.
"You're the best, Flying Demon. You know me so well."
"The years serving you don't vanish."
And they weren't ordinary years.
Over twenty by count alone, tending to him faithfully.
"Then what about the stuff in the outer secret chamber?"
"Bait."
The Flying Demon's eyes narrowed.
"My fame grew too much, drawing too many hunters. So I prepared separate items to deceive them."
"A tactic the Demon Brain often used."
Cheonhwi grinned.
"You deliberately marked the treasure ledger as worthless too, right?"
"I thought if you found it, Sovereign, you might take interest precisely because it was marked that way..."
The Flying Demon's eyes narrowed further.
"And even if the treasure ledger fell into others' hands, those outside the Divine Cult's core couldn't decipher its true locations."
Cheonhwi nodded.
The main reason he had taken interest in Shadowless Divine Throw was that worthless marking.
"You used your head well."
"Thank you."
"So you prepared multiple treasure ledgers."
"Five in total."
"Five..."
Now it made sense why the outer chamber had been ransacked.
'Then the one who hit the outer chamber first was likely from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.'
At that moment, the Flying Demon's face twisted briefly, and he slowly rose.
"I wish to speak more with you, Sovereign, but the world won't allow it."
Cheonhwi gazed intently at the Flying Demon, now eye-level with him.
A remnant of thought could not be eternal.
It was the law of nature.
"At least I could see you again like this..."
In that instant, the Flying Demon's form grew transparent, turning to light and vanishing.
At the same time—
Whoosh!
Colors flooded the surroundings.
Red, blue, yellow.
Like painting a picture, hues gradually filled the space.
Soon, a single room materialized.
"......"
The Flying Demon had vanished without finishing his words, but the lingering resonance stirred Cheonhwi's heart.
The Flying Demon had changed greatly.
From a handsome middle-aged man to an elderly one.
That span of time wasn't short.
At least several decades, no doubt.
And through those long, arduous years, he had scoured everywhere for him.
Yet the result was failure.
Still, he had waited, even unleashing the Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Path, and they had met.
They had reunited after over three hundred years, but he was gone.
Soul and remnant alike.
Nothing remained.
His wish was fulfilled, yet unfulfilled all the same.
But.
'The Flying Demon was satisfied, so it's fine.'
Cheonhwi closed his eyes and opened them.
"I was glad to see you too."
Whispering to himself, he composed his emotions and surveyed the room.
The lavish interior, utterly unlike the outer secret chamber, was impeccably clean—hard to believe it had been abandoned for ages.
'Is that it?'
Six wooden boxes lined the front.
At a glance, they exuded an extraordinary aura.
But Cheonhwi ignored them and turned his gaze elsewhere.
From the moment he entered, something familiar had been emanating energy.
Cheonhwi walked to the center of the room.
A single sword impaled in the middle of the table.
Clearly no ordinary blade.
Even at a glance, it surpassed a famed sword; a sinister demonic energy seeped from the blade.
Cheonhwi reached out and gripped the sword.
"Swords harboring demonic energy are rare."
As he stared at the blade for a long while—
Hummm!
Suddenly, the sword resonated.
At the same time, thick demonic energy poured out, enveloping his hand on the hilt.
'Has this thing gone mad?'
Cheonhwi's expression soured.
The demonic energy wasn't content to merely wrap around him—it sought to dominate him entirely.
His gaze on the blade turned icy.
This was rebellion beyond rebellion.
For a mere sword infused with demonic energy to try seizing the body of the sovereign of all demons!
"You dare challenge me?"
Cheonhwi's eyes flashed.
Simultaneously, a fierce energy surged from his entire body.
It was the peerless demonic art that had made him the Heavenly Demon: the Absolute Dominion Art.
Vrrrrm—
The sword, which had been wildly emitting demonic energy, sensed something gravely amiss and trembled.
'Too late.'
But Cheonhwi was faster.
The Absolute Dominion Art's energy not only repelled the demonic qi but sought to suppress it, making the sword shudder violently.
—Kiiiiiek!
A grating noise erupted.
It was a pitiful wail akin to a scream.
As the Absolute Dominion Art eroded and destroyed the sword's soul.
Drip.
The sword, which had quivered for so long, absorbed the demonic energy and fell silent.
It had finally submitted.
'That's more like it.'
Cheonhwi looked at the now-quiet demonic sword with satisfaction, lifting it before his eyes.
A sleek blade that felt sharp just by looking.
And a persistent demonic energy faintly emanating from it.
The divine sword's poise, coveted by any demonic cultivator.
'I like it, but...'
Precisely because of that, it was unsuitable for the current Cheonhwi to carry.
In his previous life, perhaps—but now he was a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect.
"No helping it. I'll have to discard..."
As he moved to release the sword—
Click—
The table opened, revealing a sheath.
Seeing the pitch-black sheath that looked far from ordinary, Cheonhwi chuckled.
"Put it in here, right?"
Cheonhwi slid the sword into the sheath.
In that instant, the demonic energy spilling everywhere vanished cleanly.
Not only that—the sword's incessant humming ceased as well.
"As expected of the Flying Demon."
A smile tugged at his lips.
In truth, the vanishing demonic energy probably wasn't the Flying Demon's intent.
He had likely aimed to silence the noisy resonance, but the result had erased the demonic energy too.
Cheonhwi strapped the demonic sword to his side.
"Now for the rest..."
Only then did he look at the wooden boxes.
Unlike the five at the back, one crudely shaped box sat prominently in front.
"This one's meant to be opened first."
He approached the foremost box.
Brushing aside the thick dust on the wooden box, Cheonhwi slowly opened it.
With a click, he peered inside—and his eyes narrowed.
"Huh? This is it?"
His inflated expectations deflated sharply.
Inside the box was merely a single book.
Cheonhwi shook his head, his face showing disappointment as he examined the interior.
'Eh. But it's the Flying Demon. This could be a peerless divine art.'
Clinging to his lingering hope, he slowly read the title of the book.
"Jianghu Martial Arts Ranking?"