I Am the Greatest Under Heaven

"Internal energy? No, it isn't."

The Heavenly Demon's hands rolled in a circular motion through the air, as if shaping or refining something. Between her scale-covered hands, pure white and pitch-black energies clashed and orbited each other. They warped and threatened to shatter, but she barely managed to hold them together, kneading them like clay.

Even at a glance, it looked crude and incomplete—certainly not a technique fit for actual combat.

"Is that martial arts too?"

"No. This low one believes it is similar, yet fundamentally different," So-wol replied.

It was a type of power I had never seen before. Without any data, making an accurate assessment was impossible. I considered just pushing forward and overwhelming her, but that didn't seem like the best move. Time was on our side. Just like the martial arts of the elders and guardians, this was likely just a secret technique meant to catch an opponent off guard or unleash a massive burst of destructive power.

"As long as we don't get taken out in one hit, we win."

With the high-speed regeneration unique to high-level monsters, combined with healing talismans, elixirs, and dharma treasures, any injury could be healed instantly unless it was inflicted by some highly specialized method. Even if she tried to run, there was no way she could escape. We had dharma treasures dedicated entirely to movement.

Thus, I opted for a rock-solid defense. It might not have been the absolute best choice, but it was a highly effective alternative.

"Take this!"

The black and white spheres, chasing each other's tails in a tight orbit, shot forward. Our choice: defense. I raised a wall of obsidian rock like a fortress, Jeongha slashed at the spheres, and So-wol activated her dharma treasure.

"Wow. I didn't expect that."

The jagged obsidian spires that had risen so menacingly just moments ago were now crumbling pitifully, their sharp edges completely shattered like a toothless beast. I thought we had overprepared, but the destructive power of her attack was greater than expected.

Yet, despite unleashing such formidable power, the Heavenly Demon's eyes seemed clouded with a faint trace of anxiety.

"Honestly, the sheer resilience of you monsters is utterly sickening. I know there are three of you blocking it, but this is absurd."

It must have been her trump card. Reality isn't a game, after all; dropping your ultimate move right at the start of a fight is usually the smartest play.

The Heavenly Demon shuddered, her scales bristling as if in frustration. She let out a sigh and assumed a stance, thrusting her claw-like nails forward.

"Indeed. Since when did a martial artist rely on such childish tricks? It is only fitting that I settle this with the martial arts I have spent my life accumulating."

With those words, her figure blurred. In an instant, she closed the distance, appearing right in front of me, and thrust both palms forward.

A circular shockwave in the shape of palms erupted from her two dragon-like hands. I had to admit, the strike successfully rattled my internal organs and dealt a decent blow to my bones and core. However...

Grab. Instead of flying back disgracefully, spitting blood, or gagging from the impact, I reached out with brute force and clamped my hands over her wrists. It hurt, but it was far from a fatal wound.

Of course, if Jeongha had taken that hit, it would have been critical. But aside from my high cultivation realm, I also possessed the power of obsidian. The passive effect that halved energy-based attacks worked perfectly against this strange power, which was neither internal energy nor demonic qi.

"Up you go!" Clamping down on her slender wrists—which I could easily cover with a single hand—I slammed her into the ground as if she were a wet sheet of laundry. Whoosh—Crash!

She smashed into the earth like a discarded rag, the sheer force of the impact bouncing her body back up along with the shattered fragments of the stone floor. Even as she was being slammed, she had managed to swing her foot and kick me square in the jaw, but since she hadn't infused it with that bizarre energy, it only left a dull ache.

As expected, that power was simply too much for the Heavenly Demon—or rather, any human—to properly control.

"..."

The Heavenly Demon's form, a hybrid of dragon and human, flickered unsteadily. To be precise, the draconic projection overlaying her human body glitched and distorted like a broken television screen. At that moment, Ryeo-ah sent a telepathic message filled with curiosity, pointing toward the small horn budding on the Heavenly Demon's head.

"Well, just looking at her, she doesn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠exactly look like a normal dragon."

Well, now. "How heartbreaking," I muttered. Crash!

It was a brief commentary delivered as I swung the Heavenly Demon like a baseball bat. She crashed through the outer wall of the Heavenly Demon Palace, scraping violently against the stone. Yet, even as she tumbled, she somehow managed to stabilize and maintain her flickering draconic form. This time, she unleashed a black-and-white claw technique, her fingernails fully transforming into draconic talons.

Black and white threads wriggled like serpents, shooting straight toward my head. They were so thin and fast that had she not unleashed them right before my eyes, I would have struggled to detect them with my senses alone. It was likely meant to be a stealthy, one-hit-kill assassination technique, but given the circumstances, she seemed to be relying solely on its extreme speed.

I immediately coated both of my horns in the heavy stone of the Great Mountain and rammed them directly into her talons. Crack! A heavy, dull thud echoed, far too solid to be the sound of mere fingernails snapping.

"What..." Only then did bewilderment wash over the Heavenly Demon's eyes. Perhaps she had expected our attacks to cancel each other out, but she clearly hadn't anticipated her claws shattering completely.

But honestly, I would have been disappointed if they had merely canceled each other out. Horns are the hardest part of a Dokkaebi's body. If my horns, fully reinforced with the power of my Qi Circulation realm, were pushed back or even matched by the likes of the Heavenly Demon, martial artists wouldn't be looked down upon so heavily by cultivators in the first place. No matter how much she borrowed the power of a non-human entity, there was still a massive, unbridgeable gap in our fundamental weight classes.

And the moment I absorbed her major attack, two flanking strikes launched from either side of me. Jeongha's red single-edged blade cleanly severed the Heavenly Demon's left shoulder in a single flash, while So-wol's straight punch buried itself deep into her solar plexus.

"Damn it..." The Heavenly Demon grimaced, trying to suppress the pain, but that was just her being stubborn. Reality wasn't so forgiving. Slash!

She severed her own ankles to escape my grasp, but she was already in a pathetic state. Her left arm was cleanly sliced off from the shoulder down, her body was a battered mess, and her feet were gone.

An ordinary human would have died on the spot, but perhaps her obsession with mimicking a monster and a dragon paid off, as her wounds were regenerating at a remarkably fast pace. Yes, they were regenerating.

Riding the wind, I closed the distance in an instant and swung my club right at her. Boom!

The Heavenly Demon was sent flying like a cannonball, smashing through several pillars and walls of the Heavenly Demon Palace. Before she could even recover, I pinned her down, delivering a brutal slap to her backside as she desperately tried to stabilize her black-and-white energy without losing consciousness. Smack! "Gah!"

Of course, calling it a slap to the backside was a bit of a euphemism; it was more of a strike intended to shatter her lower body. Her mental fortitude was truly remarkable, though. Far from fainting, she didn't even blink as her limbs were being hacked away.

"Ugh..." Dragging her by her hair as she twitched, her lower body completely paralyzed, I walked back into the Heavenly Demon Palace.

"...Kill me."

"You're giving up much easier than I expected."

"I have already lost, and the Sacred Cult is practically annihilated. What reason do I have to drag out a pathetic existence? Accepting my fate without unsightly struggles is the least I can do to show respect to the fallen elders and guardians."

"Ah. Not a bad mindset." But there was no way I was letting her die. First of all, she had to offer up her pussy as my personal onahole, and second, I was quite curious about that strange martial art of hers.

"Are you referring to the Yin-Yang Primal Dragon Art?"

"Why does the name have to be so grandiose?" I really had to make allowances for these martial artists and their obsession with naming everything so dramatically.

"It is a technique the First Heavenly Demon created in an attempt to emulate a dragon. The deeper I cultivated it, the more I questioned whether it could truly be classified as martial arts."

"That's true. What you used wasn't really martial arts." It was more of a cultivation method disguised as martial arts—similar to the technique the old ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man Chi-o used to transform into a bird. Considering Jeongha had instinctively begged me for the Monster Transformation Art, it seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there really was a path of martial study in that direction.

Perhaps things would have been different if the Heavenly Demon had delved deeper into it for a longer period. If she had become more accustomed to those energies, combined her training with a sudden flash of enlightenment, and fully comprehended the technique, she might have actually achieved an understanding similar to the Qi Circulation realm and reached the Profound Realm.

But look at her now. Her soft hair was gripped ruthlessly in my hand, her clothes torn and disheveled in various places, leaving her body completely exposed to the gaze of a strange man. Sensing my eyes on her, she glared at me with pure hostility.

"I see the filthy gaze of a lustful beast in your eyes. Do you truly feel desire despite our different species?"

"Hell yeah, you're hot as fuck." Since she brought it up, I might as well start enjoying her breasts. She was still in the middle of regenerating, so shoving my cock into her pussy right now wasn't the best idea. I didn't have a fetish for fucking a mangled onahole, so I had to wait for her to fully heal first.

So, I grabbed her beautifully proportioned, voluptuous breasts and began to knead them. I flicked her nipples with my fingers, gently scraped her aureolas with my nails, and buried my face in the deep cleavage between them, taking a deep breath.

"Sssrrrp. Pffft—"

"...Vulgar beast."

In all her years as the Heavenly Demon, could she ever have imagined a rough man burying his face in her chest, sniffing and panting like a dog? Looking up slightly, I saw her eyes filled with the deepest, most visceral emotion she had ever felt in her life. Loathing.

Loathing for the fact that I had slaughtered her followers, killed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her elders, beaten her—the god of the Heavenly Demon Sect—like a dog, and was now playing with her like a toy. Loathing that, as the Heavenly Demon, she couldn't even commit suicide in this situation and had to passively surrender her breasts, letting me feel and taste her nipples to my heart's content. And finally, loathing as a woman for allowing a rough man to taste and judge every corner of her body, which she had never permitted anyone else to touch.

She had been trying to commit suicide by circulating her energy to rupture her meridians or burn away her innate qi, but I blocked every single attempt. Monsters are quite insidious creatures; we possess countless ways to keep someone alive while torturing them indefinitely. Her energy was completely suppressed under my control, and her body was covered in various talismans and chain-type dharma treasures.

Jeongha smirked, gently grabbing the Heavenly Demon's chin.

"Hmph. It would have been fun to fight you one-on-one. What a shame. The guy currently sucking and biting your nipples might look like a brute, but he's incredibly meticulous when it comes to business. He said something about not leaving anything to chance."

"..."

"So, you'd better offer up your pussy as best as you can. Who knows? If you make his cock feel good enough, maybe he'll let your Heavenly Demon Sect—or whatever it's called—survive in some form?"

Jeongha was a Dokkaebi after all. Possessing a cruel and sadistic nature deep down, the act of humiliating and trampling a powerful master she had met in the Murim seemed to have triggered her sadistic urges. Watching someone fall from such a high pedestal was always an entertaining spectacle.

To my surprise, the Heavenly Demon's eyes wavered for a brief second before her lips curled into a self-deprecating sneer.

"Only to be kept alive like livestock, no doubt. Who doesn't know that you monsters breed humans like cattle? I would rather sleep forever here in Mount Ten Thousand than be muzzled and raised like a pig."

"Oh, but he's a bit different. If you squeeze his cock tight with your delicious pussy, he might actually let you live in peace."

"The delusions of a demon. You speak just like a filthy whore. I am sure your mother was no different. A bastard born from a woman who spread her legs so carelessly dares to look down on me?"

Slap! The sharp, stinging sound made me spit out the nipple I was suckling. As expected, Jeongha's face flushed red before turning deathly pale, her crimson eyes flashing with lethal intent.

"You... have no right to say that, you arrogant bitch."

"What? Did I strike a nerve? I certainly did. Even a wild beast will roar in agony when its wounds are poked. You truly are the bastard child of a whore. At least I was raised under the loving care of my mother and father as the successor of the Sacred Cult, and when they passed, I offered them wine and rites in a sunny, peaceful grave."

"You..."

"Fufu. To think your life is more pathetic than that of the monsters you look down upon. I pray that you, too, will give birth to a bastard just like yourself, only to miscarry and bury it in the cold, damp mud."

"That's enough." This bitch was crossing the line. To teach her a lesson, I shoved my index finger deep into her anus. The Heavenly Demon's black-and-white hair shuddered violently. Meanwhile, Jeongha clung to my arm, rubbing her body against mine.

"Hey... you know..."

"Yeah?"

"Our baby... won't be a bastard, right?"

It seemed the talk about bastards had triggered her trauma. But seriously, did she really think I would abandon her if I got her pregnant? I pulled Jeongha into my arms and gently patted her head.

"None of that is going to happen. Do you really think I'd just shut my mouth and abandon you if you carried my child?"

"Right? I knew I could trust you. Yeah."

"In times like this, the best way to feel better is to take it out on someone else."

I pressed my finger deeper into the Heavenly Demon's anus as she glared at our display with utter disgust. Looking into her eyes, I let out a soft chuckle.

"My dear Heavenly Demon. Get ready to have a wild, messy night with a monster. I'm going to break you in like a bitch."

Twitch. I felt her anus twitch around my deeply buried finger. It was as if she were already imagining her future of being completely ruined as a woman.