Chapter 262
Chapter 262
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 262
Chapter Title: The Weakest and the Strongest
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The blue sky seemed to split open.
Silver energy surged from the Heavenly Demon's entire body, writhing like a living creature as it began to rise toward the heavens.
Though everyone misunderstood it, the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon weren't some martial art composed of specific techniques.
The Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon was the Heavenly Demon's "unique domain."
The "domain of the absolute one," which devoured the world and promptly made it his own.
Right now, the Immortal Realm was no longer the immortals'.
The master of the world had become the Heavenly Demon in an instant.
Commonly known as "Sky Splitter."
Before long, all attacks ceased.
They had no choice but to stop.
After all, there was no way they wouldn't recognize this unique domain.
A realm that no one could trespass upon.
A domain that flawed beings could never imitate.
Only the Heavenly Demon could split the sky, overturn it, and stand atop it.
"Ah..."
"Truly...?"
"Heav... enly... Demon...?"
There was no longer any room for doubt.
The vanished Heavenly Demon had returned.
The Heavenly Demon surveyed his surroundings with a bored gaze.
Ascending to a new heaven.
It meant becoming the sun above the heavens, becoming a god.
Suns could not coexist as two, which signified that he had become the world's most powerful being.
The One True God, Heavenly Demon!
This world stripped immortality from all existences not acknowledged by the Heavenly Demon.
In a word...
"You are all weaklings."
A world of absolute survival of the fittest was being forged, where the weak could not survive.
The moment the Heavenly Demon finished speaking, the immortals' and Daoists' energies began draining away rapidly.
Their sizes shrank, and the radiant light that had blazed around them visibly diminished.
"Wh-what is this?"
The immortals panicked in that instant.
If this was truly the Heavenly Demon they had believed in and followed, why was he now stripping them of their power?
Wasn't he supposed to return and lead them once more?
However, such sentiments did not exist for the Heavenly Demon.
No matter how loyally they had followed him, the weak were merely vermin fit only to die.
What did it matter if they had followed him their entire lives?
Even possessing demigod status and overwhelming might—what use was that?
The very act of failing to wait for him and attempting to forge a new heaven proved their frailty.
"Because you are weak."
Yes. Weak.
Whether physically or mentally.
Because they were frail, they gave up, despaired, and clung to pointless endeavors.
Their behavior of leaning on yet another heaven without even thinking to rise on their own was utterly pathetic.
They didn't belong in the pantheon he had created.
But...
In the Heavenly Demon's eyes, the immortals were already gone.
They weren't worth his attention.
What the Heavenly Demon beheld was beyond them.
The massive egg encasing Taebaek.
At the very least, the aura emanating from this Taebaek was superior to that of the immortals.
He could sense the fierce will to ascend to the heavens.
Of course. After all, it was a being created to replace him.
Its spirit had to at least resemble his own.
"You are no weakling."
He acknowledged it lightly.
However, Taebaek was far removed from ordinary lifeforms.
No one knew from what aberration it had been born, but its interior was utterly hollow.
The only emotion detectable from it was a singular desire to grow stronger.
That intense urge to devour and evolve felt like beholding one of the great cardinal sins.
No fear.
No terror.
It had lived its entire life as the strong.
It had never encountered a being stronger than itself.
Therefore...
"I shall etch the heart of the weak upon you."
He would make it realize that there were heavens above the heavens.
Even if this flesh withered away, it had nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon.
The Heavenly Demon clenched his fist once more.
However, there was one difference from before.
Kuooooooo!
Vast magical power was surging forth.
Dragon God Sepiro's mana coursed through his body in an instant, swirling around his fist.
His skin tore, and his entire body felt like it was shattering, but he paid it no mind.
His nerves burned away, black blood streamed from his eyes.
The "absolute death" within Park Chan-woo couldn't halt the Heavenly Demon's actions either.
For the Heavenly Demon was merely fulfilling the contract's terms.
Delivering a single blow to Taebaek.
Something impossible for the current Park Chan-woo, achievable only in a distant future.
An ideal realm reachable only after growing stronger at this very pace for ten years, or even longer.
The Heavenly Demon was personally demonstrating the ultimate potential Park Chan-woo possessed.
At the very least, he sensed that this body's potential bordered on his own.
Naturally, such potential came with commensurate risks.
—Heav... enly... Demon...!!
It was then.
The moment the Heavenly Demon thrust out his fist.
Outer God Zarpham's voice struck the surroundings.
At the same time...
Whiiiiiing!
Zarpham's unique domain, "Dimensional Great Glacier," unfurled.
It caused a small crack in the absolute one's domain.
An astonishing event.
Zarpham, whom he had tamed and commanded, was now rebelling.
Despite being sealed in the Demon-Sealing God's Chalice, it bared its fangs at the cost of its own existence.
In other words...
"You mean this one is stronger than me?"
It meant Zarpham was siding with Park Chan-woo, not the Heavenly Demon.
Did it think Park Chan-woo was stronger?
Or was it simply mired in the past?
—I will never forgive you.
Zarpham sought to seize control of the body.
It knew full well that emerging from the Demon-Sealing God's Chalice without a contract was suicidal.
For the first time, the Heavenly Demon smiled.
"As expected, you are a weakling, Zarpham."
It proved his judgment correct.
The fool remained as idiotic as ever.
Better yet.
The Heavenly Demon instead plundered Zarpham's existence in reverse.
And precisely...
Kururrrrrrr!
He delivered a proper "one shot" toward Taebaek.
"You are no weakling."
...Long ago.
The "Dimensional Wanderer Zarpham," who emerged through the great rift, was defeated by the Heavenly Demon.
Yet the Heavenly Demon did not kill Zarpham.
"Come with me. We shall create a world for beings like us."
On the contrary, he sought to take Zarpham under his wing.
Though he had slain countless outer gods, Zarpham wondered why he alone was spared.
However, Zarpham was an outer god. He bore the mission to annihilate the Abyss.
Afterward, the Heavenly Demon visited Zarpham several more times.
Curiosity piqued by his persistence, Zarpham thought to follow him just once.
At some point, Zarpham began following the Heavenly Demon.
"My name will be remembered eternally. Alongside you. In this free world we create together."
On the day the pantheon was forged.
The Heavenly Demon spoke to Zarpham.
Zarpham agreed.
Those who followed them had grown countless, and as he said, a world for them had unfolded.
Naturally, Zarpham became the pantheon's guardian deity.
He watched from the side as the Heavenly Demon opened new horizons for the world.
But.
The Heavenly Demon fled.
Into the chalice.
And sealed Zarpham alongside him.
A free world?
What nonsense.
Within the chalice, the yin world was a bitterly cold realm.
A suffocating place devoid of any freedom, where the Heavenly Demon had imprisoned himself.
Why?
A place permitting not even the slightest movement.
To survive, Zarpham had to forget everything.
Forcing memories away to barely sustain his existence.
Then one day.
Someone released him from the seal.
Park Chan-woo.
He was different from the Heavenly Demon.
He didn't whisper sweet nothings or spout obvious lies about granting freedom.
From the moment he was bound to the Demon-Sealing God's Chalice, true freedom was impossible anyway.
A relationship of thoroughly exploiting one another.
He merely tolerated Park Chan-woo for a taste of temporary liberation.
That was the initial intent.
Yet.
Park Chan-woo's actions brought hope to Zarpham simply by observing them.
"Perhaps..."
He was different.
Markedly so from all previous masters of the chalice.
Park Chan-woo was a liberator.
A savior who broke curses, listened to the wronged, and set them free.
One who knew no surrender, turning the impossible into possible.
Always in the position of the weak, yet perpetually hunting the strong—an odd fellow.
Undeniably the weakest, yet somehow always capable of toppling the strongest. It was baffling.
So perhaps...
He could break this damned chalice's seal too.
He pondered for a long time.
The reason the Heavenly Demon had imprisoned him alongside himself.
But he found no answer.
No matter how he thought, it was nothing more or less than the bastard's whim.
Thus.
Zarpham chose Park Chan-woo.
He couldn't let everything proceed at the Heavenly Demon's whim, even if it meant his own annihilation.
"I am no weakling, Heavenly Demon."
He would protect Park Chan-woo.
Zarpham forcibly broke the seal.
Such an act from within the Demon-Sealing God's Chalice meant oblivion.
A mere instant.
A fleeting moment, not even seconds.
The Heavenly Demon would think he had exploited Zarpham's existence in reverse.
But Zarpham's sole intent was one thing.
This single blow right now.
To make Park Chan-woo, not the Heavenly Demon, deliver it.
An annihilation solely for that purpose.
Awakening Park Chan-woo's spirit and concealing the Heavenly Demon's presence!
The Heavenly Demon was mistaken.
He believed Zarpham was desperately trying to seize the body.
The arrogant, selfish Heavenly Demon knew no word like "sacrifice."
He could never discern Zarpham's true intent.
For his sake, even his own death was no loss.
"Zarpham...!"
In that instant, the Heavenly Demon lost control of the body.
Having guarded only against Zarpham, he never imagined Zarpham would sacrifice himself to awaken Park Chan-woo.
He thought he had thrust out the fist, but he hadn't.
The Heavenly Demon's spirit was pushed back behind Park Chan-woo's.
Control was wrested away.
Soon after.
Park Chan-woo, buried deep in that abyss, opened his eyes.
Having witnessed everything, he finally awoke, furrowing his brow as he spoke.
"You, who have nothing worth protecting and seek to protect nothing—you are the true weakest. Heavenly Demon."
The true weakest man, Park Chan-woo, declared toward the strongest.
Heavenly Demon.
The frailest weakling in this world is you.