Extreme Demonic Body
Thick blood and black-crimson demonic energy mingled together, paralyzing both sight and smell.
Through the dim, spreading fog, fingernails caked with blood and shreds of flesh kept drawing closer.
Only instinct remained in them, a beast’s outstretched hands lunging wildly, but once the number swelled past six, something irregular crept into those simple motions.
I darted my eyes about and, with the bare minimum of movement, knocked aside about half of them.
A heavy force throbbed at my stinging fingertips. Demonic energy had wrapped itself around the arms flung at me in a frenzy.
This was my first direct fight against someone using inner energy.
I had no way of knowing how much power those bastards possessed, so I didn’t bother parrying the rest. Instead, I used footwork to slip past them.
My inner energy had clearly grown noticeably through a month of breathing exercises and circulation, but there was no need to be recklessly arrogant.
If the demonic energy they had accumulated surpassed mine by too much, I’d suffer internal injuries and end up as a one-bite meal for the demons.
As I slipped away just out of reach, three of them lowered their stances and charged.
The last one lagged a beat behind, leaping down from above with its mouth open, aiming for the back of my neck.
Their coordination was so clean I almost wondered whether they had really lost all reason, but my demonic-enhanced vision split that instant into pieces.
Inner energy surged through my whole body, as if it would explode out of me.
With my center of gravity lowered, I stomped on the head laid bare before me, vaulted high into the air, and spun the jaw of the drooling bastard wide open with my elbow.
The head I’d used as a foothold caved in, and the jaw didn’t just dislocate—it tore right off.
The sight froze the remaining two long enough for me to sweep their thighs out from under them and crush them to the floor, pinning them in place.
Contrary to my worries, the demonic energy they wielded was pitifully weak, and there was no need to bother with any grand martial arts.
That was the result of the gap in our inner energy.
They had all gone through the same great ritual before, so why was there such a difference?
Was my guess wrong? Could it be that the ritual wasn’t the source of the bizarrely rapid accumulation of demonic energy?
The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was sinking into a maze, so I stopped thinking and looked down at the writhing bodies.
I didn’t like it much, but killing them was the right thing to do.
Even if I didn’t do it now, I’d have to one day anyway, so I wrapped demonic energy around my fist and ended their lives with a single blow.
It was my first killing, yet not even the slightest ripple stirred inside me.
While I was instead feeling bewildered by that fact, two voices threw me into further confusion.
"You’re strong. Aren’t you, Myeong?"
"Indeed. Even if the two of us worked together, it would be difficult. So should we kill him, Sister?"
"Little brother, stop spouting nonsense and stay still for once."
"Haha. That hurts, Sister. So killing really is going to be hard, huh?"
A girl with a small frame and a giant of a man so big I doubted he was even the same age as me.
Unlike the demonic wretches from before, they didn’t seem to be consumed by madness, but I still didn’t let my guard down.
Every last person in this cave was an enemy who had to die.
Having made up my mind, I bared my hostility toward them.
"Don’t look at me like that, and don’t listen to whatever this idiot says."
"I’m not an idiot, but if you keep looking at Sister like that, I’ll kill you."
"...Just ignore him for now."
"Start by telling me what you want from me. And don’t come any closer."
The only person who had ever approached me without asking for anything in return was Yiryeong.
At the thought of her, my heart softened for an instant, but my judgment did not change.
If people came close for no reason in a place like this, I had to be even more careful.
"We want to form an alliance with you. The others have all started making factions of their own."
"Yeah, Sister and I took a look around the whole cave. The strong ones have already gathered together."
Factions. So not everyone here thought the same way I did?
No, maybe there wasn’t much difference at all. They might just be grouping up to clear out the other children first.
If that was the case, then I was in danger alone. If they were organized enough to form factions, it meant they’d endured without being swallowed by demonic energy, and if several such bastards came at once, I couldn’t hold out without a sword.
"I’ll accept an alliance, too. Only to the extent that we help each other when things get dangerous."
"Good. That’s enough for me."
"Hey, if you betray us, I won’t forgive you."
"Myeong, would it kill you to not ruin a good atmosphere for once?"
I didn’t know much about the woman, but her younger brother seemed extremely strong.
Ferocious demonic energy seeped out of him like heat haze, and there was no mistaking that massive frame.
We would have to fight someday, but for now, I was satisfied just not having them as enemies.
"So what’s your name? I’m Danri Yeon, and this idiot is Danri Myeong."
"Sister, I..."
"Shin Hyun."
"Fine, Hyun. How about we share some information? If we’re going to survive here, it’d be better to work together, wouldn’t it?"
I was fine with giving my name. Anything beyond that felt like it might make me hesitate later, so I warned her in advance.
"Just so you don’t misunderstand, this is only an alliance."
"You’re prickly, aren’t you? Still, I understand what you mean. Myeong, let’s move aside."
"Sister, are we really just going to leave that rude bastard alone?"
"Please shut up and follow me."
Fortunately, Danri Yeon seemed to catch my meaning and moved away.
As I leaned against the rock wall and regulated my breathing, the blocked entrance opened and a familiar old man entered, accompanied by masked figures.
The dull echo rolled through the cave, and children sprang up from every corner.
We had clearly been more than fifty a month ago, but now barely more than half remained.
Each person’s presence wasn’t especially threatening, but most of them were gathered into groups. That brother and sister had been right.
After waiting a moment for everyone to assemble, the old man spoke.
"Hmph... disappointing. I was told only the talented ones were brought here, and this is what I get?"
He moved among the children, checking their pulses one by one.
"It’s commendable that you haven’t been consumed by demonic arts, but your inner energy is far too ordinary."
Twisting his face in open disappointment, the old man came toward me.
When his skeletal fingers settled on my wrist, an alien force seeped into my body.
The old man swept through me in an instant, then stopped in place.
"Oh? There’s a monster here, too. Good. This is a great ritual personally overseen by the Cult Leader—there ought to be a freak like you among them!"
That ritual again. Just what the hell was it?
After confirming the rest of their progress, the old man leapt up onto the dais in a single step.
"Trash who don’t even have the guts to learn demonic arts will have to be taken back."
He extended his hand.
It was a simple motion, one that carried no special force or presence, yet an impossible result unfolded before my eyes.
Water flows from high ground to low.
So does energy. Qi flows like water from places where it is dense to places where it is thin.
This natural order, set by heaven itself, allowed humanity to cultivate inner energy.
The force dispersed throughout the world flowing into the weak dantian. That was the foundation of breathing arts and the beginning of all circulation.
That should have been the way of things. So what on earth was that?
Qi was being sucked out of the scattered corpses and the bodies of several children.
The demonic energy in my own abdomen writhed as though it had found a new master, but it wasn’t taken from me like theirs was.
Reversing heaven. Qi was moving against the flow of the world.
From low to high. From thin to abundant.
As the surge of power roaring from the old man’s hand died away, a pitch-black pill was revealed.
Thud.
The children whose energy had been completely drained collapsed.
With no life left in their bodies, it seemed not only their inner energy but even their innate vital essence had been absorbed.
"Now, eat. It is a kindness bestowed upon you."
Before our trembling eyes, stunned by the horrific scene, the pitch-black pill came to rest.
He wanted us to eat pills made from the vital essence of living people? And he’d shown us the entire process, too?
But we had no choice but to eat.
If I was going to keep my promise to Yiryeong, I’d decided I would stop at nothing.
"Gulp."
Revulsion spread through my entire body. My stomach churned at the feeling of filthy sludge staining me from head to toe, but the demonic energy in my dantian welcomed it with delight.
Yiryeong would surely despise this if she saw it, but if I could only see her again...
My inner energy had risen sharply, yet I turned my eyes away from the disgust of it all.
There were some who crushed the pill without hesitation, but most of us were gagging as we swallowed.
Watching us, the old man left the cave with a satisfied smile.
The old man was quite pleased with the situation as it stood.
More than half of the children he had searched for with such difficulty, sending people all the way into the Central Plains, had already been lost, but a few raw gems remained—stones that, if polished a little, would strengthen the cult’s forces.
But that alone was not enough.
"Left Emissary, we have arrived at Maryeongwan."
The old man—the Sungmu Cult’s Left Emissary, in charge of this place—had not staged all this just to raise a few mere demonic practitioners.
The boy he had seen earlier in Maryeongwan came back to mind.
Vital energy, fully inverted and spreading outward from the dantian like roots driven deep into the earth, greedily devouring nourishment.
A body meant for demonic arts. The ritual had succeeded.
The Heaven-Reversing Blood Flow Great Ritual had twisted the children’s meridians.
Among them, the few bodies that had already been suited to demonic arts from the beginning had not merely been twisted.
The Extreme Demonic Body, a heaven-given constitution, was born that way.
It wasn’t certain whether the boy would become the kind of talent the cult needed now, but if there was a child who could surpass him, that too would be a cause for rejoicing.
The corners of the old man’s mouth split wide in pleasant satisfaction.