Chapter 189: Heavenly Demon Divine Art (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 189: Heavenly Demon Divine Art (1)
The remaining right half of the Purple Lightning Demon’s body began to swell grotesquely.
His skin had already turned a deep, bruised purple, mutating past the point of anything remotely human. Half-fused with erratic arcs of lightning, his flickering form would have opened a whole new frontier for any evolutionary biologist lucky enough to witness it.
Grrr...!!
At this point, even Seo-jun couldn't just ignore him. Putting his conversation with Nok-yo on hold, he observed this newly transformed Purple Lightning Demon with keen interest.
'It seems like all these demons have a Phase 2 unless you finish them off cleanly.'
He felt a renewed surge of respect for the Great Hero Soul-Stealing Demon, who had so graciously donated the Star-Absorbing Great Art. What a man with a truly generous heart—he had simply handed over what needed to be given and departed this world without even a hint of a Phase 2.
Seo-jun patted Nok-yo on the head. "There are more peaches in the luggage over there. Go eat some."
"Peaches! Got it, I do!"
Leaving Seo-jun behind without a shred of hesitation, Nok-yo scrambled over to the bags and dug out a peach. Seo-jun turned back to the New-Purple Lightning Demon, his own body now shrouded in dense Demonic Qi.
'He seems to have completely lost his reason. In that case...'
Seo-jun consciously layered power into his voice. "Paw."
The New-Purple Lightning Demon reflexively held out his hand. Then, as if realizing something was utterly wrong, he tilted his head in confusion before letting out a savage roar and lunging at Seo-jun.
Kuaaaaaa────────!!
Perhaps because half his body had literally turned into lightning, he was far faster than before. His bizarre state was reminiscent of the Qi Spirit Scripture.
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Seo-jun reached out to meet the strike.
Zzzzt! The moment the Purple Lightning Demon’s electrified palm met Seo-jun’s hand—
Sluuurp!
The Purple Lightning Demon’s body shriveled instantly, and he stumbled backward with a heavy thud. Seo-jun had used the Star-Absorbing Great Art to forcefully drain the demon's lightning energy.
"Oho."
Seo-jun casually rolled the absorbed Purple Lightning Demonic Qi around in his palm before ruthlessly slamming it right back into the demon's body.
Boom!
Cr-crack! Once again, the Purple Lightning Demon’s body swelled up like a balloon, and the creature let out another savage roar.
Kuaaaaaa──────!!
'Fascinating. Has this thing really transcended the human species entirely?'
After that, Seo-jun spent a good amount of time simply playing with the Purple Lightning Demon, conducting various gruesome experiments. Even though the demon had gone completely berserk, he still instinctively used the same martial arts as before, so copying the Purple Lightning Demonic Art was a breeze.
"Mister."
Nok-yo trotted up to Seo-jun as he wrapped up his experiments.
"Are you done with the peaches?" he asked.
"There are plenty more inside!"
"Wait, are those all gone too?"
Seo-jun glanced back, only to see his luggage completely ransacked and peach pits scattered all over the dirt.
'Is she actually just a wild animal?'
Scratching his head, Seo-jun grabbed the Purple Lightning Demon by the skull and mercilessly sucked out every last drop of his True Qi.
Kuaaa....
The Purple Lightning Demon was reduced to nothing more than a regular, shriveled husk. After crushing the head to officially complete his "creep eradication" mission, Seo-jun sighed and began reorganizing his ruined luggage.
"Hey, kid. You shouldn't rummage through people's things like that."
"Is it okay?"
"What?"
"Someone else will clean it up anyway, won't they?"
"You're asking for a smack, aren't you?"
"Why are you copying me, are you?"
"Got a problem with it, do you?"
"Even the gentle Nok-yo knows how to get angry, she does!"
Nok-yo stomped her feet, and the small horns on her head began to hum and vibrate. It seemed her horns physically resonated whenever she was angry.
Seo-jun smacked his lips. "Fine, fine, little friend. Anyway, I'll take you back to your mother, so point out where your house is."
"You shouldn't let strangers into your house, you shouldn't!"
"Then are you going to walk back alone?"
"I don't want to do that, I don't!"
"Then what do you want me to do?"
"Give me a piggyback ride, will you?"
Before he could even answer, Nok-yo scrambled up Seo-jun’s body like a squirrel and perched herself comfortably on his back.
"Let's go, shall we!"
He really felt the sudden urge to give her a noogie.
* * *
Seo-jun organized his thoughts as he followed Nok-yo’s directions toward her home.
'I wonder if her mother is around the Extreme Demon realm?'
If so, that was actually for the best. He felt like he might gain some martial enlightenment if he witnessed an Extreme Demon with his own two eyes. Wasn't the whole point of coming to the Demonic Cult to see an Extreme Demon in person anyway?
Even if she tried to kill him, he should at least be able to escape. If the opportunity presented itself, he might even be able to take her head instead.
'No. Still, taking a mother's head right in front of her child is a bit much, isn't it?'
That would be truly crossing a line. Even Seo-jun possessed a human heart, after all.
"So, my friend."
"What is it?"
"Does your mother have horns on her head too?"
"Of course she does!"
Did female deer even have horns? He was pretty sure that was only a trait for the males.
"What about your dad?"
"Dad has horns too!"
"Seriously, what kind of biology is this?"
After pondering it for a moment, Seo-jun just accepted it. Since they were deer-people, their anatomy was bound to be different from regular deer. It wasn't the end of the world if a doe had horns.
With Nok-yo on his back, Seo-jun ran for a long time.
Zzz...
The carefree brat had fallen fast asleep on his back before he even realized it. He had been running in the general direction she had pointed out before drifting off for quite a while now.
"Is it here?"
He suddenly found his path blocked by a dense, lush forest. Seo-jun shook Nok-yo awake.
"Uwah...! W-what is it?"
"Is your house here?"
"Oh...! That's right!"
Wriggling down from Seo-jun’s back, Nok-yo cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted into the trees.
"Nok-yo is back...!"
Back...! Is back...! Back...! Her voice echoed deeply through the woods.
Rustle—
A single deer emerged from the thick brush. It wasn't a half-human deer-person like Nok-yo, but a literal, four-legged deer.
Snort!
The deer tossed its head like a proud stallion and approached Seo-jun with a dignified gait.
Wreeeeeeee────────!!
A bizarrely powerful cry rang out, vibrating right through his eardrums. Having never actually heard a deer's cry before, Seo-jun stared blankly into the animal's eyes.
'Why does it sound like a whale?'
With a bewildered expression, Seo-jun gave the deer a slight, awkward nod. "Hello...?"
The deer nodded back at Seo-jun and then lowered its head toward Nok-yo. It wasn't a greeting; it deftly hooked Nok-yo’s clothes with its massive antlers and casually tossed her up onto its back.
Naturally settling into place, Nok-yo patted its flank affectionately. "This is my daddy!"
Seo-jun truly couldn't believe his eyes.
* * *
"So he's gone."
A man sitting atop a horse poured the last drops of his wine onto the ground. A dark, wet stain spread across the dry dirt.
The man dismounted and surveyed the surroundings. The signs of battle indicated an entirely one-sided slaughter. Surprisingly, the one who had been hunted down was the Purple Lightning Demon.
'I only came by for a drink, and yet...'
The Purple Lightning Demon had been a decent drinking buddy. His tastes were definitely a bit strange, but as far as companions on Tianshan went, he was among the best.
After carefully examining the remaining traces of the fight etched into the ground, rocks, and splintered trees, the man climbed back onto his horse.
"I shall avenge you. If only for my own amusement."
The man let out a short, hollow laugh and pulled his bamboo hat down low. He tucked the blade he had been cradling into his saddle straps and tossed the empty wine bottle into the brush.
'At the very least, the killer is someone using a martial art I've never seen in these parts.'
He couldn't exactly gauge how strong the opponent was. The only absolute certainty was that they were far stronger than the Purple Lightning Demon.
But the man didn't care. On Tianshan, he was known as the Heavenly Wandering Blade. His skill with the blade was ghost-like and unpredictable, and countless masters had already lost their lives to his edge.
Even if the opponent was of a higher rank, nothing would change. The Heavenly Wandering Blade possessed absolute faith in his own talent. He was a peerless genius who had reached the Super Peak Realm before the age of thirty and was now eyeing the Extreme Demon realm while still under seventy years of age.
'Perhaps through this battle, I might finally ascend to the Extreme Demon realm.'
The Heavenly Wandering Blade kicked his horse's flanks. "Hyah!"
Neigh!
The horse bolted forward. As the man’s Demonic Qi flowed directly into the steed, its speed explosively increased. Trailing a massive cloud of dust from the horse's hooves, the man’s figure vanished beyond the setting sun.
* * *
Seo-jun strolled through the dense forest, following the deer carrying Nok-yo.
The deer, walking loftily on its long, slender legs, was happily chewing on a mouthful of bok choy. Looking up at Nok-yo, who was also munching on a stalk of bok choy, Seo-jun asked a question.
"By the way, does bok choy usually grow in the summer?"
"You didn't know? It grows all four seasons at my home!"
"That's a pretty nice house."
"It is! Except for being a bit boring, it has everything!"
Having finished her bok choy, Nok-yo immediately curled up on her father's back and fell fast asleep again. She really was no different from a wild animal.
Left without a conversation partner, Seo-jun blankly observed his surroundings while returning to his inner thoughts on demonic arts.
'The Purple Lightning Demonic Art was a type of Reverse Principle art.'
Heaven-Defying, Reverse Principle, and Reverse Taiji.
Among the seven lineages of demonic arts, the distinctions between those three were notably vague. "Reverse Principle" meant going against the natural order, and if one wanted to loosely fit Heaven-Defying and Reverse Taiji into that same category, it wasn't exactly impossible.
However, his educated guess was that the one closest to the true essence of demonic arts was Heaven-Defying. He didn't know exactly why, but he had a strong hunch that the martial arts used by the Heavenly Demon also followed the Principle of Heaven-Defying.
'The demonic art Gak-yu was practicing was also of the Heaven-Defying lineage.'
Seo-jun began to calmly deconstruct the flow of the demonic arts he had analyzed back when he had placed his hand on her chest.
He planned to extract the fundamental principle of Heaven-Defying and remodel it completely to his liking. To put it simply, he intended to reverse-engineer the low-level demonic art Gak-yu had learned and forge a high-ranking Heaven-Defying art from its foundation. He had a very good feeling about this.
Wreeeeeeee────────!!
Covering his ears against the sudden blast of noise, Seo-jun asked, "Are we there?"
"Wreee!"
"I have absolutely no idea what you're saying."
"Snort!"
"Nok-yo. Wake up and translate for me."
He shook the sleeping Nok-yo awake. She blinked her groggy eyes open and interpreted the deer's words.
"From here on out, only Nok-yo and Mister go together!"
"Why? What about your dad?"
"My daddy can't just go where Mommy is whenever he wants!"
"No, seriously, why not?"
"I don't know! All our daddies are like that!"
Daddies? Seo-jun’s expression turned incredibly strange.
"By any chance... do you have an even number of fathers?"
"Hmm?" Nok-yo spread her fingers to count, then furrowed her brow in confusion. "I'm not sure...? There are so many I can't count them all!"
"This guy here... he is your biological father, right?"
"He is!"
He felt like he had just stumbled into Wonderland. As Seo-jun smacked his lips in disbelief, Nok-yo climbed right up his leg and perched herself on his shoulder.
"Anyway, let's go!"
* * *
There was no need to search for a path through the forest. The thick brush parted on its own, naturally guiding Seo-jun forward.
As he moved past the various deer grazing nearby, Seo-jun’s eyes suddenly sharpened. His Qi detection had just picked up an unimaginably massive presence.
'As expected.'
With this kind of suffocating pressure, she was definitely an Extreme Demon. Just as a slightly tense Seo-jun took another step forward, the scenery shifted in an instant.
Flash!
A vast, endless meadow appeared. Amidst countless grazing deer, a massive mountain loomed in the distance.
And then, that mountain opened its eyes.
They were pupils larger than Seo-jun’s entire body. The colossal deer, so large it literally blotted out the sun, spoke:
[Who are you, and why have you brought Nok-yo here?]
Wasn't there a saying that a truly great mountain casts a shadow even upon the heavens? Seo-jun stared blankly up at the shadowed sky.
It was a sheer size that utterly defied all common sense. Despite that, the voice transmitted directly into his mind through the vibrations of Qi was surprisingly delicate and feminine.
However, absolutely no one who saw the terrifying ocean of Demonic Qi filling that mountain-sized body would ever dare call her "delicate." In the first place, Seo-jun had no way of knowing what counted as delicate for a giant deer anyway. Snapping back to his senses, Seo-jun hardened his expression and replied.
"...I rescued her while she was fleeing from the Purple Lightning Demon."
Unless he was dealing with an ordinary deer or a literal child, it was always better to maintain his persona as Cheon Seo-jun. Of course, the entity in front of him was technically a deer, but since it was a mountain-sized deer that could speak telepathically, he figured it warranted an exception.
[I see.]
The colossal deer lowered its impossibly long neck to look closer at Seo-jun. Seeing his own tiny reflection mirrored in those massive, glowing eyes was quite the novel experience.
Staring at the inverted world reflected within her pupils, Seo-jun suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to ask something.
'It should be fine, right?'
Since he was currently acting as the fearless Cheon Seo-jun anyway, it probably wouldn't matter. Probably.
"May I ask you one thing?"
[Of course.]
"Then... excuse me, but exactly how do you mate? The size difference makes absolutely no sense."
The adult inside Seo-jun was just extremely curious about the logistics of this.