The Path of Radiant Ascension
The Path of Radiant Ascension was a composite amusement world stitched together from six separate creative works.
The backdrop itself was a xianxia realm of immortals and cultivation, but every other world layered into it was pure murim. Naturally, that meant the Heavenly Demon Cult existed here as well.
In a way, the Heavenly Demon Cult is the most important piece of all. Four of the six worlds are tied to the Heavenly Demon somehow.
Join the Heavenly Demon Cult.
That plan had started as pure impulse. I was the Heavenly Demon. As the Heavenly Demon, I wanted a force worth commanding — and the Heavenly Demon Cult was exactly that.
Building a faction from scratch is an option… but that would take forever.
How long would it take to raise something on the scale of the Heavenly Demon Cult from nothing? And was time even enough to solve that problem? Swallowing the Heavenly Demon Cult whole would be faster and cleaner by far.
Originally the plan was simple: cause just enough trouble near their territory, prove my strength by fighting them, then join up.
The Heavenly Demon Cult followed the Law of the Strong — both in principle and in official doctrine. Rather than kill a powerful man like me, they would try to recruit me. I would play hard to get, then accept. Unlike the orthodox sects, the Heavenly Demon Cult was free enough that such a thing was possible. Getting in was one thing, of course. Getting out was another matter entirely.
Before putting that first plan into motion, I gathered intelligence on the Heavenly Demon Cult.
With Gongbi, the proprietress of Hwayu-ru, in my pocket, even high-level information was easy to come by. I learned exactly how the Cult’s internal machinery was turning at present.
Once I reviewed what I had, a better plan presented itself — one that would get me into the Cult’s core faster and more thoroughly than the original scheme.
Leaving for the Heavenly Demon Cult required my master’s permission. Wi-yu’s approval was essential.
She granted it surprisingly quickly. Maybe it was because I had been dropping by Nakwol Mountain so often while climbing Manmu Tower. I had spatial transfer talismans and the spatial relocation system of the Heavenly Steel System. No matter how far I went, I could reach her in an instant.
Namgung Seol pouted, lips pushed out in protest, but eventually gave her consent. Getting Mi-ryeong and Namgung Rin’s permission was no trouble at all.
“You’re saying you’re leaving for the Heavenly Demon Cult… but it doesn’t feel like you’re gone for good. It’s more like watching a husband head off on a business trip. Work hard and provide for us, husband!”
That day, as if determined to lift the slightly gloomy mood, Mi-ryeong chirped in her brightest voice. I grinned. This plan needed her help too. A spellcaster of her caliber was rare.
Besides, she had been loafing around long enough. It was about time she did some work. Not that I needed her immediately.
After years of preparation by Path of Radiant Ascension time, I finally set out for the Heavenly Demon Cult. Their stronghold lay in the Hundred-Thousand Great Mountains in the northern reaches of the continent.
The distance between Nakwol Mountain and the Heavenly Demon Cult was roughly twenty-five thousand kilometers — an absurd span, befitting a xianxia world. For reference, Seoul to New York is only about eleven thousand.
It was far, but with Mi-ryeong’s help I could cover it in a matter of days. Once I made the trip once, the spatial transfer system would let me come and go freely. Distance was no longer a problem.
The minor issues were settled. It was time to begin.
I did not head straight for the Heavenly Demon Cult.
I went instead to a village roughly thirty days’ travel by horse from the Cult’s borders. A place called Nando.
This was no ordinary village.
It was a bandit town.
A settlement founded and populated entirely by thieves. The whole village was in on it. Anyone soft enough to pass nearby got stripped clean. Their preferred prey were half-baked martial artists touring the jianghu in search of fame, and traveling merchants.
I did not enter the village. I pitched a tent nearby and watched.
On the fourth day, smoke rose from the center of town.
I grinned and nodded.
Just as planned… no. Just as in the original.
The clash of weapons rang out from within the village. Infighting. The bandits were killing each other.
“You worthless trash! I fed you, I housed you, and you dare bare your teeth at me?!”
“Fed us? You call one meal a week feeding us? Cut the crap! You think we don’t know about the rice stockpiled in your house?!”
“You know what my boy says the moment he opens his eyes in the morning? He’s hungry. He says he’s hungry! I will not let my son starve!!”
“What are you waiting for?! Kill them!!”
The sun set. Evening fell.
The sounds of battle dwindled, but the village burned brighter than ever.
Through the flames, a man staggered out beyond the village edge, crawling on his hands and knees. Only then did I move. I walked to stand in front of the crawling figure.
“Wh-who are you?”
A solidly built man lifted his head. His blood-soaked clothes were half torn, and a crimson demon tattoo was etched across his back.
“Yeom Guseok. That you?”
“Y-yeah. I’m Yeom Guseok. Who the hell are you?”
Yeom Guseok — a martial artist barely at the Ipsik level — glared up at me and snarled. His hand drifted toward his waist. He clenched the hilt of a shattered blade.
“Nothing personal… but you’re going to die here.”
A soft rasp of steel.
The moment I drew my sword, Yeom Guseok’s face twisted.
“Who… who told you to kill me?! Was the fighting in the village your doing too?!”
“Looks like you’ve got the wrong idea. I’m not an assassin. The infighting in your village happened because your old man was too greedy.”
“…What’s your goal?”
“Your life. I’m going to become you.”
“Bullshit!!”
Yeom Guseok lurched to his feet and charged. The tip of his broken blade aimed dead at my solar plexus.
But he was far too slow.
Slow enough to make me yawn.
A wet thrust.
My blade punched through Yeom Guseok’s throat.
“Heh. Pathetic bastard. You should’ve just begged for your life.”
“Khh… s-spare me…”
“Too late.”
Yeom Guseok collapsed and died.
I stripped the corpse of its upper garments and stared at the crimson demon inked across his back. Then I pulled out my smartphone and opened the Amusement Life app.
Level: 81
Available Points: 7,580
My naked body stood motionless on the smartphone screen. From here I could spend points to change my face, increase my height, or freely adjust the length and girth of my cock however I pleased.
I rotated the body on the screen and added a tattoo to its back. The moment I pictured the design I wanted, it appeared as if by nature.
Consume 3 points to add a tattoo?
I added the tattoo.
I felt nothing. On the smartphone screen, the crimson demon that had been on Yeom Guseok’s back now marked mine.
I stripped off my clothes and used the phone’s camera to photograph my own back. The crimson demon tattoo was there.
I smiled in satisfaction and flung Yeom Guseok’s corpse into the flames.
Preparations complete.
Yeom Guseok was the right-hand man of the Possessed Heavenly Demon.
I would become Yeom Guseok and rise to the Possessed Heavenly Demon’s innermost circle. I would earn his trust — and when the time came, I would stab him in the back. I would claim this world’s Heavenly Demon Divine Art and become the master of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
I pulled a notebook from my inventory.
It held everything I had compiled on Yeom Guseok — his favorite foods, his petty habits, all the way down to the original Yeom Guseok’s every action in the source material.
To deceive the Possessed Heavenly Demon, I would have to play Yeom Guseok to perfection.
I stood before the main gate of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s headquarters.
Its scale rivaled that of a major city.
I headed for the Ipmaso, tucked into a corner of the complex.
The Ipmaso was where the Heavenly Demon Cult educated and trained its low-ranking warriors. It was also where the chaff got sifted out. In short, it was the bottom of the Cult — and the starting line.
The gates of the Ipmaso opened once a year, for ten days. And this was that window.
I stepped inside. A man sat at a desk. Brush in hand, he glanced at me and asked in a purely bureaucratic tone:
“What is your name?”
“Yeom Guseok.”
The brush stopped dead.
“…You’re rather short with your words.”
“I heard the Heavenly Demon Cult follows the Law of the Strong.”
“That is to say… I am weaker than you?”
He looked up at me, radiating a savage aura. I looked down at him, unmoved. Our eyes locked. He was the first to look away. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he moved the brush again. Yeom Guseok’s name was written on the paper.
“Ahem. And your age?”
“Twenty-one.”
“Place of origin?”
“Nando.”
“And where is that?”
“A village some ways from here. Burned to the ground a month ago.”
“Burned to the ground…?”
“There was a revolt. My father’s men took up arms because he wouldn’t feed them enough. I killed them all, though.”
“Ah. I see.”
When he finished recording, he handed me a sheet of paper.
“For the next year you will receive education and training at the Ipmaso. Only once you successfully complete that education and training will you become a true martial artist of the Heavenly Demon Cult.”
“Number one twenty-three?”
My face hardened. In the original, Yeom Guseok had been number one fifty-five. I had arrived earlier than the original Yeom Guseok.
“What. Don’t like the number? Even if you throw a tantrum, I cannot change it. Or have you started getting cold feet? It is not too late. Walk back out the way you came. I will tear up the paper with your name on it.”
“No. I’m fine. Where do I go?”
The man rose from his seat and seized me by the collar. He snarled into my ear, almost whispering.
“I know you’ve lived rough. Bandit or mountain thief stock, no doubt. But this is the Heavenly Demon Cult. There are plenty here rougher and more vicious than a country bumpkin like you. You think we get called demons for nothing? We are demons because we have left humanity behind. A word of advice from your senior. You are not a strong man. You are one common worm among countless others. If you don’t want to die, drop the arrogance and show some manners.”
“…Fuck. Your breath stinks.”
I grabbed a brush rolling on the desk and drove it into his right eye.
“Gyaaaaaaaah!”
He screamed and released my collar. Staggering, he raked his nails toward my throat. I tilted my head aside, dodged easily, and kicked his legs out from under him. He hit the floor thrashing.
“Stop!!”
“Halt!!”
Two martial artists appeared and seized me. I offered no resistance and simply watched the man on the ground.
“Anyone can see you’re the insect here.”
“Shut your mouth! You laid hands on a martial artist of the Cult! Do you think you’ll walk away from this unscathed?!”
Other martial artists rushed over and used pressure-point techniques to give the fallen man emergency treatment.
“I just joined the Cult myself. I am a member of the Cult. And that bastard picked the fight first.”
“…What did he do wrong?”
“He climbed above his station.”
“What?”
“A weakling who didn’t know his place climbed above his station!!”
“…Another madman just walked in.”
The martial artist sighed.
Half the people who entered the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Ipmaso were criminals. Men like me were a dime a dozen. And since I hadn’t killed the man, I wouldn’t be thrown out of the Ipmaso.
Some desk-jockey pushing a brush around here isn’t going to have powerful backing.
As the martial artists dragged me away, I sneered at the man being carried off somewhere by the others.