Chapter 357
Chapter 357
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 357
Chapter Title: Heavenly Deception Demon Immortal (3)
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Rumble—
How many times was this now?
The deafening roars echoing from outside showed no signs of stopping.
'What the hell is going on out there?'
Jeonggal Hye-mi bit her lip as she peered out the window again.
But outside was shrouded in such thick darkness, as if a black curtain had been drawn over it—nothing met her eyes.
It was an unnatural phenomenon that had arisen shortly after the sky was suddenly blanketed by dark clouds.
'It has to be connected to those clouds. That was no natural occurrence. The most likely explanation is a battle breaking out... but who against? Don't tell me rescuers have arrived...!'
Unable to grasp the situation clearly, all sorts of stray thoughts flooded her mind.
A faint hope she'd thought withered away began to rear its head again, swelling with anticipation—
'...No, no matter how I think about it, we don't have the spare forces for an assault on this scale so quickly. Then could it be another faction? They wouldn't try to use us for their own ends too, would they?'
But the anxiety taking root in one corner of her heart grew faster than any hope.
Given everything she'd been through so far.
It was only natural for her thoughts to skew toward the negative.
'Or maybe it's not a battle at all. It might just be a bit noisy prelude before the main ritual begins.'
Her pessimistic thoughts began to swell steadily.
But amid the confusion, Jeonggal Hye-mi forced down her trembling heart and shot to her feet.
She didn't know exactly what was happening, but if some variable had arisen, she couldn't just sit idly by.
This was her one and only chance to try something.
'Worst case, I fail and end up as another sacrifice? Better to at least try something.'
She slowly opened the cabin door and cautiously stepped out.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Whoooosh—
Waves of death crashed endlessly upon them.
The barren wasteland, depleted of qi from the aftermath, had long since been blanketed in sticky death.
Naturally, the one facing that torrent head-on couldn't possibly emerge unscathed.
'This won't do. I need... I need to find some way...!'
Simply enduring like this had its limits.
The Six-Headed Dragon ground his teeth repeatedly, racking his brain for a breakthrough.
But despite trying every method at his disposal, nothing changed.
The situation only worsened as time dragged on.
His defenses thinned, wounds opened across his massive body, and fresh blood sprayed forth.
The deathly energy that burrowed into him rotted his flesh and blood in an instant, his regenerative powers reduced to less than half of normal—no, a fraction of that.
'Just a little more time, if only a little more...!'
A few days more... no, even one day, and he wouldn't be suffering this utter defeat.
He should have hurried the ritual...
Who could have foreseen that his meticulous efforts to maximize the limited sacrifices would backfire into this nightmare?
And so, the foreordained catastrophe drew near.
Slash—!
Thud!
One of his six heads was severed.
A massive abyssal scythe cleaved through the red head, sending it crashing to the ground.
The horrific energy clinging stickily to the stump relentlessly devoured his vitality, stubbornly hindering regeneration.
[Kraaak! You worm! You filthy intruder! Everything would have been perfect without you...! Why show up now of all times!]
His imperfect divinity shook as his balance crumbled.
The dragon's furious roar spread in all directions, but the momentum within it paled compared to his initial majesty.
Splat—!
Another head fell.
With only four heads left from six, his power destabilized uncontrollably, the energies within his body clashing chaotically.
A side effect of transcending limits through unnatural means.
'This can't be! How have I endured this long!'
His rampaging body thrashed wildly even as his mind grew hazy.
Just like that day, escaping Geom-o Island after a final showdown.
After battling hordes of dragons and fleeing the spirit world wounded, he'd chosen the infamous Heavenly Demon Cult as his refuge in his battered state.
A perfect fit in nature and conditions—an ideal sanctuary.
But after disguising himself as human and recuperating there, he instinctively sensed something ominous.
The instant he'd devoured enough dragons to complete all six heads through predation, he'd touched the divine realm.
In martial terms, the mythical Mythic Realm.
Though he'd retreated after clashing with powerful foes before fully mastering his powers, he believed recovery would allow sweet revenge.
But such taboo, abnormal growth came with commensurate backlash.
'...I can't recover my realm?'
To be precise, he could recover it.
But it required an astronomical amount of karma on top of what he'd already amassed.
Exactly as many dragons as he'd devoured to ascend.
Reaching divinity demanded vast karma for any one being.
And six times that... plus everything devoured in the subsequent battles?
What else could that be but impossible?
'Maybe if I destroyed the entire world... no, even that might not suffice.'
His growth had effectively stalled.
He was far stronger than before, yet fell short of true divinity—an ambiguous limbo.
Revealing himself in this state would see him crushed by Geom-o Island's forces before he could end the world.
'What kind of bullshit situation is this!'
No further growth possible.
Driven by endless greed, he'd broken taboos to reach higher, only for it to seal his potential completely!
Thereafter, operating within the Heavenly Demon Cult, he'd tried everything.
Delving into forbidden curses and secret arts strictly controlled even among demon cultists, repeating vile grand spells and bloody experiments defying heaven's mandate.
The moniker he'd earned: Heavenly Deception Demon Immortal.
A demonic immortal who deceived the heavens.
And those efforts, soaked in countless lives, finally bore fruit.
His path to overcoming this predicament lay in...
'Yes, think differently. Instead of achieving divinity through predation, devour one who has fully attained it and make it my own...!'
Ironically, the same method he'd used before.
Devouring others and stealing their power.
While scouting candidates, his eyes fell on an otherworlder.
One with special abilities and inhuman growth speed, especially the Heaven-Death Star bearer who outpaced all others.
'Perfect.'
Time passed.
As predicted, the otherworlder discarded his name to become the Heavenly Demon, forgoing return to settle here and grow steadily.
To the brink of the Manifest Realm, just shy of Mythic.
'Just a bit more, a little closer...'
A genius who'd closed the gap to his millennia of cultivation in mere decades.
If he struck the moment that one bloomed into radiant light...
Devouring his karma, his stature, his potential and future whole...!
"Hmm, back to your senses now? You've gone awfully quiet. Or have you finally decided to give up?"
[...Huh?]
The mocking voice pierced his mind, snapping his reverie.
His hazy consciousness cleared, reality refocusing under Yarulhwan's gaze.
First, he noticed the surroundings had plunged into pitch black—not just from demonic clouds and the deathly land, but true midnight.
The midday battle had raged nearly half a day.
'This...'
Turning toward the voice, Yarulhwan realized he'd collapsed.
His crumbling divinity must have caused a brief berserk loss of reason.
And the results looked grim.
Aching—
The now-familiar pain drew his gaze to its source.
Standing atop his rotting, headless body—save one green head—with a pitch-black sword impaled in its nape: the Heavenly Demon.
[...Heh, what a joke. I figured we'd clash someday, but never like this.]
A hollow laugh escaped him.
The tension-building tale had twisted wildly with a third party's intervention, ending with one side zombified and sword-stuck.
Any storyteller peddling such a plotless mess would've had their tongue ripped out.
'The Heavenly Demon being here means... he's already cleaned up the rest.'
No more battlefield clamor anywhere.
The resistors executed, only the surrendered remained.
Not content with conquering the headquarters alone with his zombies, he'd crushed even the dispatched elite units.
'Truly... a calamity incarnate.'
Yarulhwan's gaze fixed on the culprit who'd ruined his plans.
A middle-aged man examining his body with specimen-like curiosity.
Clad in living flesh, mimicking the quick—but undoubtedly long dead.
And the one who'd bloomed the divinity he'd ultimately failed to seize.
[Kuhuhu... pity. Devouring you would've restored my stature and let me wipe out those Geom-o Island fools with otherworldly arts.]
"Pfft—now that's amusing. Doubt you'd survive the indigestion."
[Ah, true, that'd be trouble. Just starting to feel better, only to swallow worse poison...]
"Feeling better, huh..."
Hans the Demon King tilted his head at Yarulhwan's cheeky remark.
Time had passed, so fading effects weren't surprising.
But...
'In that state? If anything, worse than before.'
All heads but the central one severed, undead gnawing the stumps to prevent regeneration while shoving abyssal energy in real-time.
And that massive frame shredded beyond recognition, pinned by abyssal chains and shadow thorns constantly draining life with death qi.
Without his lofty stature, he'd have died ages ago.
Yet he felt improved...
'He's done for. Senses completely shot. Then again, surviving this long against me is impressive.'
Over ten hours against Hans.
Even with hordes of undead and zombies mobilized.
Considering the irreparable losses to his forces, he'd lived up to hidden boss billing.
[Kuhuhuhu— Pfft!]
Yarulhwan twitched, laughing madly like a lunatic.
Hans watched with peculiar eyes, stroking his chin slowly.
'Six-Headed Dragon... no, Greed.'
Prime material.
Arguably the finest in the Spirit World.
He'd recovered the severed heads and orbs cleanly—enough to recreate his living form as an undead if desired.
'But...'
His gaze swept the surroundings.
The battlefield reduced to utter ruins from prolonged combat.
But appearances weren't the issue.
'A demonic realm.'
Seeing it firsthand, he understood.
Why this land bore such infamy.
'Worse than expected. Measuring qi depletion elsewhere suggested some buffer...'
Currently sustained by qi from other dragon veins, but this black hole of a demonic realm sucked harder than anticipated.
Fail to plug this hole, and all veins would hit limits, the world's qi sucked dry here.
It wouldn't just cripple qi users.
Qi was both power source and life's foundation here.
Deplete it all... and all life perished.
'Won't worsen that fast. Geom-o Island's buying time.'
But viewing their plight via Horus, he knew it wouldn't last.
Especially with casualties during their ritual.
'Solve it before then. I have a plan, but using Greed's corpse as sacrifice would seal it perfectly.'
Dragon god-blessed progeny, karma-devouring zombie Heavenly Demon, and the Greedy Dragon's divine-touched remains.
New plans solidified in Hans's mind.
Then, abruptly—
"Hm?"
Greed's mad laughter cut off.
His flickering life signs with it.
"...Dead. Wanted to test his limits."
Though he'd decided on another use, a mage's curiosity lingered.
No gains? At least sate the thirst for knowledge.
...Or so he thought.
But gains there were.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Achievement Unlocked! You've hunted the Spirit World's calamity, 'Greed (貪).' You've slain the apocalyptic dragon of annihilation, who would've devoured even itself after consuming all, dooming the world. Reward: Special Privilege 「Authority of Gluttony」 granted. You've achieved a feat impacting the world greatly. Karma additionally increased. A new achievement window.
First of its kind in the Spirit World.
No, not just that...
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Achievement Unlocked! You've become the last remaining 'Final Imperial Dragon' in this world. You've become the Spirit World's sole Imperial Dragon. Reward: Special Privilege 「Imperial Dragon's Orb」 granted. You've achieved a feat impacting the world greatly. Karma additionally increased. An unexpected buy-one-get-one event.