Path of Radiant Ascension
A fist that strikes with the force of a coiling dragon.
The startled bastard reacted a beat too late. The hit landed clean. Dragon Fist slammed into the shadow's gut and sent him flying into the wall.
The shadow rose from the ground as if nothing had happened. Not a fatal blow, then. Still, I took satisfaction in the way his aura had wavered.
"The demonic art you use is clearly the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. But it is not the Heavenly Demon Divine Art I know. Have you remade the original? Or is this… another Heavenly Demon Divine Art entirely…"
Even as he spoke, the shadow's demonic qi writhed, trying to seize the surrounding space. I'd felt it during the fight. The defining trait of his Heavenly Demon Divine Art was corrosion — slowly eating away at an opponent's power until he held the advantage of affinity.
But with my Heavenly Demon Divine Art, I could weather his demonic qi without much trouble.
"Hand over the White Yang Flower and die."
A black gale that tears toward its prey.
I swept the blade. A black wind howled forth and raced at the shadow.
He thrust his sword forward. Pitch-black demonic qi flickered at the tip like a candle flame, then suddenly expanded into a shield. A sword barrier. The black wind struck it and vanished.
I wasn't disappointed. I'd never expected him to fall for something that simple.
Each stride claims the space around it.
I advanced.
With every step, I felt the surrounding space bend to my will. Before long I had crossed into the shadow's domain. I couldn't strip him of it in a single stroke — but bit by bit, the right of dominion was tipping my way.
I grinned. Just as I'd expected, his demonic qi couldn't corrode mine.
Three simultaneous thrusts — crown and both shoulders.
I drove the blade at the shadow's head and both shoulders at once.
His body slid aside as if on ice. His legs never moved. It was a bizarre motion, as though some invisible hand had simply yanked him out of the way.
"What the hell was that? Some kind of sorcery?"
"The Heavenly Demon Dominion Step."
"That's it?"
"Only a fraction of it."
I pressed the attack. The shadow glided like a ghost, slipping every strike. Then, in an instant, there were two of him — identical enough that telling the real one apart was nearly impossible. The funnier part was that each moved in a completely different stance.
Didn't feel like sorcery. Has to be an artifact ability.
No reason to panic. In this world, clone techniques were closer to immortal arts. No ordinary artifact could house something like that.
Even Mi-ryeong can't create a perfect double of herself. At best, a clone would only put out about thirty percent of the original's power.
Sword aura spins and rips the space around it to shreds.
I whirled the sword aura and swept it in every direction. The spinning edge shredded the space around me. Once again, my blade failed to touch the shadow. That footwork of his — sliding through space as if the ground itself refused to hold him — was damn hard to read.
His body multiplied again. Two became four.
Not a clone technique… some kind of misdirection, like Form-Exchange Displacement?
Except the multiplied figures were each moving independently.
When I held still, they multiplied further. Four to eight. Eight to sixteen. Before I knew it, shadows had me surrounded on every side. I glanced around, then froze as something clicked into place.
"You look surprised."
"…Is this your Heavenly Demon Dominion Step?"
The shadow didn't answer. And that silence was answer enough.
All of them charged me at once. They occupied every one of the sixteen directions. The ceiling was sealed; digging into the ground wasn't an option. The only choice left was to counterattack.
A stomping shockwave that scours every direction.
I drove my foot into the ground. A pulse of energy exploded outward and slammed into the shadows. The clones hit by the wave flickered like candle flames in a gale and vanished, leaving only a single shadow lunging for my back. Unfortunately, it was already too late to dodge.
Flesh hardened to its absolute limit.
I wrenched my body's durability to the extreme. In less than a second, his blade carved through me twenty-two times. Even with Adamantine Demon Dragon active, my skin split open and blood sprayed in every direction. But nothing fatal. I weathered the assault.
The shadow looked at me standing there like a diamond guardian and let out a hollow laugh.
"You tanked that? …Absurd."
All accumulated damage, unleashed at once.
I discharged every scrap of damage stored in Adamantine Demon Dragon straight at the shadow. The explosive force launched his body into the air.
A palm strike that caves in whatever it meets.
I drove a Heavenly Demon Divine Palm into his abdomen.
"Gaaargh!"
His waist folded and he slammed into the floor.
"Finally. Now I get to see what you really are."
I closed in and raised Hwaryeonbido. Its crimson edge was sheathed in pitch-black sword aura.
What I needed first was information. I'd cut off his limbs, interrogate him, and wring out whatever he knew. If necessary, I'd even call on Mi-ryeong for help.
Even on the brink, the shadow stayed calm. That unsettled me just enough that I moved to swing immediately.
Krrrk—!
A grotesque sound tore through my body, and pain flooded in. I nearly dropped the blade, staggered, barely held my stance, and looked down at myself. From the skin the shadow had already torn open, pitch-black demonic qi was rising like smoke.
"…What did you do."
"I used the trump card I'd been holding back."
He lifted his left hand and clenched it into a fist. Demonic qi bored into my body. It was already too late to shake it off with Heavenly Mind. His qi had already reached my heart.
"You're allowed to take pride in this. You and your Heavenly Demon Divine Art were more than impressive. You weren't careless, either. You simply had no information on me."
The demonic qi that had burrowed inside seized my heart and crushed it.
I can't just take this lying down…!
My consciousness blurred. I'd felt death's approach more times than I could count. I clung to awareness. Crack-zzzt — lightning current jolted through my body. With the slightly clearer sensation that brought, I tightened my grip on the blade and drove it straight through his skull.
"…Remarkable. I never expected to run into a variable like you so soon. But the variable that is you ends here."
The shadow melted away and vanished. Where he had been, a single black heart remained, impaled on Hwaryeonbido, still twitching.
My face twisted.
It had been a deception from the start. The shadow had been a clone all along.
…No. Not so much a clone as an avatar. His true power is far beyond what that shadow showed.
I almost had to be grateful it wasn't the real body. If he'd come in person, I might have died without even landing a counter.
I collapsed to the floor as the strength left my legs.
Death Resistance has activated.
You will not die for the next 15 seconds.
Complete Recovery
All physical wounds healed. Status ailments cured. Stamina restored.
I opened my eyes again. Every wound on my body was gone. I couldn't feel so much as a trace of the demonic qi that had burrowed into my flesh.
I scanned the surroundings on reflex. The cavern was a wreck from the fight. And in the corner, Cheon Yu-un lay unconscious.
I frowned. Cleanup had just become a problem.
First… the White Yang Flower is mine.
Next was Cheon Yu-un.
Two options: leave him and walk away, or take him with me. The first was easier on me. The second meant erasing every trace of the fight as thoroughly as possible — which meant collapsing the cavern. In exchange, I'd earn Cheon Yu-un's trust.
I can use Cheon Yu-un to climb naturally into the upper ranks of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Killing him is not an option.
Cheon Yu-un still had his uses.
Annoying as it is, I'm taking him. That's the only way to win his confidence.
I hauled Cheon Yu-un down from White Mountain. Before we left, of course, I collapsed the cavern and wiped out the battle traces. Dragging him by the arm, I let my thoughts turn over as we moved.
The shadow. That bastard's identity is definitely the Regression Heavenly Demon.
Nothing else made sense.
The problem was that he didn't quite match the Regression Heavenly Demon I knew. The protagonist of The Heavenly Demon's Vengeance never operated this way. His Heavenly Demon Divine Art was different too.
Even if he diverges from the original, he's still the Regression Heavenly Demon. He knew Cheon Yu-un would find a fortuitous encounter here, and he knew the real Yeom Gu-seok's face. Meaning he's already regressed in this world.
Fortunately, he didn't know me. That meant he never crossed paths with me before his regression.
…I have the Leisure Life App. In the world before his regression, there's a good chance I simply didn't exist.
That explained the situation.
The Regression Heavenly Demon using powers different from the original work? This world's backdrop was xianxia. Whatever realm he'd reached before regressing… the strange abilities made sense once you factored in that setting.
What matters more is his objective.
In The Heavenly Demon's Vengeance, the protagonist was the greatest under heaven — and the world wanted him dead. Betrayed by his subordinates, lured into a trap by forces outside the Heavenly Demon Cult, he was killed.
There's only one Heavenly Demon Cult in this world. The original settings of the Possession Heavenly Demon and the Regression Heavenly Demon collided, and what got applied here was the Possession Heavenly Demon's background.
You could tell just from the fact that Cheon Yu-un still held the seat of Young Heavenly Demon.
The Leisure Life App must have papered over the setting conflicts on its own. Almost nothing from the original of The Heavenly Demon's Vengeance is left. And whatever remains has almost certainly been altered.
But one thing hadn't changed — the single most important setting of all: that the Regression Heavenly Demon had regressed.
His goal is… revenge, obviously. The real question is the target. In the original, he tore through the Heavenly Demon Cult and everything else without discrimination… but this is different. He's using an avatar to hide his true body, moving in secret, and making off with spirit medicines.
The Regression Heavenly Demon was stockpiling power. His true body was already at Samjeong or higher, by my estimate. And still he was operating quietly.
A powerhouse of that caliber moving openly would already have rumors flying. Is Samjeong still not enough for him?
Maybe the Heavenly Demon Cult was only a small piece of his revenge.
Just how high did that bastard climb before he regressed? And who the hell is he after?
My head throbbed. Thinking harder didn't produce answers. Only the man who had actually regressed would know the truth behind all of this.
One thing was certain, though: he had no intention of killing Cheon Yu-un right away. I hadn't felt killing intent when he ambushed him. Maybe Cheon Yu-un wasn't a target of revenge at all. Or maybe the plan was to use him first and dispose of him later.
Things were going smoothly right up through killing the otherworld Heavenly Demon, Shin Jong-woo… and now everything's getting tangled.
And the Regression Heavenly Demon wasn't the only variable left.
The Reincarnation Heavenly Demon.
What the hell was that bastard up to? Just thinking about it piled on the stress.
Ah. Tonight I'm definitely screwing Yeon Ye-ha.
When things get like this, sex is the best medicine.