Chapter 357: Heavenly Demon (1)
Chapter 357: Heavenly Demon (1)
He looked like a criminal sentenced to crucifixion.
Patrick Schneider, the strongest man on the continent, was embedded so deeply into the wall that one had to wonder how it was even possible to be shoved in that far.
‘How long has it been? Since I was thrashed like this?’
Maybe if he were facing a crowd, it would be different. But this was the first time he had been so unilaterally beaten in a one-on-one fight. In a way, the experience was so novel it was almost moving.
Just then, the Heavenly Demon’s unpleasant voice reached Patrick’s ears.
“Surely this isn’t all you’ve got?”
“…….”
“Do not disappoint me. If you fail to meet my expectations, a fate more terrible than death awaits you….”
Boom!
It happened in an instant. Patrick cut the Heavenly Demon off mid-sentence, exploding forward through the air. His movement, a sudden sprint without any preparatory motion, was so rapid that even most masters would have struggled to react. However….
Thud!
“Yes. This is more like it.”
The opponent was a supreme master of such caliber that it felt blasphemous to even compare him to "most masters." The Heavenly Demon blocked Patrick’s attack with ease.
Then came his counter.
The Heavenly Demon’s fist lunged forward. It moved slowly—so slowly that even a child could have dodged it. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to hit anyone with such a sluggish punch.
BOOM!
“Cough!”
The moment the Heavenly Demon’s fist made contact with Patrick’s abdomen, a sound like a massive drum bursting echoed out, and Patrick was sent flying backward.
As Patrick barely managed to pick himself up after rolling several times, the Heavenly Demon spoke.
“How was it? I displayed the subtle principles of stillness within motion in my own way.”
“Damn it….”
Patrick frowned as he forced his body upright.
‘Monster.’
For a while now, the Heavenly Demon had been demonstrating his martial arts one by one, as if testing them. It was as if an elder of the same sect were imparting lessons to a young disciple. It was the ultimate humiliation and disgrace, but….
‘I’m getting thrashed so hard I can’t even feel those emotions.’
He had expected the Heavenly Demon, one of the Four Grandmasters, to be a level above him. But honestly, he hadn't expected it to be this much. To be this relaxed while facing him….
‘The difference in our level of martial arts is too vast.’
In a way, it was impressive. The opponent was already a brilliant martial artist known as one of the Four Grandmasters, and he was a monster who had consistently honed his skills even while sealed for thousands of years.
“You martial arts-obsessed freak.”
At Patrick’s grumbling, the Heavenly Demon smiled and said, “That is an evaluation that strikes right at the heart of my essence.”
“…….”
“I’ve thought this for a while, but you have a sharp side to you. And yet, you repeatedly make foolish choices.”
“…….”
“Well, in a way, it’s because of that charm that I chose you….”
Crash!
Patrick lunged again. The Heavenly Demon casually blocked the attack with a barrier of Qi created by swirling his left hand in a circle.
Boing!
The Flash Dragon Strike bounced off with an elasticity that felt like hitting rubber. In that moment, Patrick didn't fight the flow; instead, he accelerated his backward momentum to widen the distance.
The moment the Heavenly Demon took a step forward to pursue him….
Pop!
Patrick’s form split into dozens of images. The Heavenly Demon was inwardly impressed by the perfect clones, whose true body could not be discerned.
‘Perfect.’
It was a soul-stirring variation executed without missing the slight opening created the moment he moved forward. How could he not be impressed?
Watching the Patricks swarming toward him from all directions, the corners of the Heavenly Demon’s mouth curled up.
Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Earth Explosion Flame Prison.
An explosion erupted at the Heavenly Demon’s feet.
KABOOM!
“Urgh….”
Patrick, who had rushed in to create an opening, was forced to stop, blocked by a terrifying wall of flames surging before his eyes. Furthermore….
Boom! Bang! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosion triggered by the Heavenly Demon grew in scale and spread in all directions. It was truly a technique that combined offense and defense into one.
Judging that there was nowhere to hide, Patrick quickly shifted his sword style to the offensive.
Radiant Dragon Twelve Sword Styles.
Third Form.
Adaptive: Returning Heaven, Emerging Dragon.
Patrick’s body spun in a spiral, colliding with the exploding wall of flames.
CRAAAAASH!
At the moment it seemed their offensives would cancel each other out with a terrifying roar….
“Heavenly Demoooon!”
Patrick, his entire body scorched by flames, forced his way through the wall and caught the Heavenly Demon within his range. Immediately, Patrick’s Black and White Twin Dragon Sword drew two lines in the air.
Once horizontally.
Once vertically.
Radiant Dragon Twelve Sword Styles.
Second Style.
Great Dragon Cross Sword.
The Great Dragon Cross Sword, swung by Patrick at close range, eliminated any space for the Heavenly Demon to dodge. In a situation where the only options were to retreat or face it head-on, the Heavenly Demon….
“Splendid.”
With an exhilarated voice, he stood his ground, focusing Aura into the hand-blades of both hands. The Heavenly Demon’s hands came together as if in prayer. The massive Aura formed by the union struck the exact intersection of the Great Dragon Cross Sword.
“Hah!”
And as the Heavenly Demon pulled his hands apart as if opening a set of doors….
Shatter!
With a sound like breaking glass, Patrick’s attack was smashed to pieces.
And in that instant, Patrick dug in, not missing the gap where the Heavenly Demon’s chest was exposed. Patrick’s left hand thrust forward.
Just before the White Dragon Sword, flying at high speed, could pierce the Heavenly Demon’s heart, the Heavenly Demon’s body spun rapidly on the spot. And then….
Crack!
The Heavenly Demon’s heel slammed directly into the side of Patrick’s head.
Watching Patrick get sent flying once again to crash in the distance, the Heavenly Demon spoke.
“That attack was decent. It was only for a moment, but it was quite chilling.”
“…….”
“So this is what it feels like. Yes. This is it.”
“…….”
Patrick didn't answer, but a deeply satisfied smile played on the Heavenly Demon’s lips.
This was it. This was exactly what he had wanted. Just how long had it taken?
* * *
The Heavenly Demon.
An absolute being sent by the heavens to bring trials upon the world. He had known his destiny since the moment he was born. Though he came from a human womb, he was a demigod born with divinity from the start.
If asked if he welcomed this, he could answer immediately.
Not at all.
He began his journey at the age of fifteen. And then….
“How hollow.”
He despaired at the utterly hollow results.
Elders of prestigious sects who had trained in martial arts for over a hundred years. Gamblers who had realized their own realms through hundreds of life-and-death struggles. Absolute masters of the Unorthodox Faction who used any means necessary to win.
None of them even came close to his expectations. Not a single person could stop him, and facing him was impossible.
“How can I know anything like this?”
He was a demigod, but also a martial artist. He had come out into the world with the expectation of testing his martial arts and competing with a worthy rival….
“What on earth is this?”
In fact, this was only natural. The Heavenly Demon was a demigod possessing divinity. No matter how great a master someone was, their attacks could not harm him, while his attacks were fatal to them.
The difference was too stark. The level of martial arts didn't matter at all. It was fundamentally impossible for a lion and a rabbit to have a duel.
Amidst terrible emptiness and despair, the Heavenly Demon thought:
‘Somewhere, there must be my adversary. Someone who will save me from this hell of solitude.’
He could sense it instinctively. If he was a calamity meant to bring trials to the world, then conversely, there must be someone standing at the opposite pole, created to overcome him.
That was actually true. However, one never knows how the dice of fate will roll.
The one born as the Heavenly Demon’s adversary at the time was a prince of the Imperial Family, but he died caught in the power struggles of the court before he could even reach adulthood. It was a tragic result of human greed, but this, too, was the world's fate.
The moment the adversary disappeared, there was no one to stop the destroyer. The destruction of the world was now a set conclusion.
But the Heavenly Demon did not do that. He cast aside his impatience and decided to wait for a new adversary to appear somewhere, all while further honing his martial arts for that time.
This was a bug. The destroyer had gone against his own essence. But the Heavenly Demon composed himself. Whether his essence was god or human didn't matter.
‘I am a martial artist. I will test my own limits.’
That was how the Heavenly Demon defined himself. Devoting himself to martial training, he created the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. And in the process of creating and testing it, he took on several disciples.
It was a form of amusement. Since he himself was unable to compete with anyone before the adversary arrived, he wanted to at least watch others grow as martial artists and compete with each other as he raised them. It was mere vicarious satisfaction, but he felt he couldn't endure it otherwise.
The disciples began to fear and worship him, whose martial realm reached the heavens, to an extreme degree. They served him not as a master but as a god, and they gathered followers to worship that god.
This was the birth of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Both the Jianghu and the Imperial Family were uncomfortable with and wary of the cult's existence, but the Heavenly Demon didn't care about such things.
The only thing he wanted was one thing.
‘Someone, please save me. Please….’
Only a worthy rival who could compete with him in martial arts. The one born with the fate of bringing destruction to the world suppressed his essence and endured. His desire as a martial artist had surpassed his innate nature.
However, this endurance of the Heavenly Demon actually brought about an unexpected situation. From the perspective of the world's laws, the Heavenly Demon was a broken gear. A destroyer with enough power to destroy the world was not fulfilling his karmic duty of destruction.
Therefore, the laws of the world created a new destroyer. That was the Blood Demon.
The Blood Demon was different from the Heavenly Demon. He was cruel and cunning, and above all, he was faithful to his own desires. The Heavenly Demon was flustered by the Blood Demon’s appearance but soon changed his mind.
Though he might not be a proper adversary, the Blood Demon was a being with a divine rank equal to his own. If he competed in martial arts with such a being, wouldn't he be able to quench his long-standing thirst?
The Heavenly Demon sought out the Blood Demon. It was a way to satisfy his desire through a duel, and if one of them disappeared, the skewed laws of the world would return to normal, so it was killing two birds with one stone.
However, the Blood Demon did not accept the Heavenly Demon’s duel. He said….
“I will never grant your wish. Writhe and suffer in agony for all eternity.”
The Blood Demon was a being who truly felt joy and fulfillment in the pain of others. Realizing that even if he fought and won against the Heavenly Demon, the result itself was something the Heavenly Demon desperately wanted, he mocked the Heavenly Demon and fled.
The Heavenly Demon captured and brutally tore apart countless followers of the Blood Demon Cult, but the Blood Demon didn't even bat an eye. Instead, he only laughed joyfully and mocked the Heavenly Demon.
“Hahaha. Heavenly Demon, suffer forever. That is the punishment I bestow upon you.”
“Blood Demoooon!”
No matter how much he shouted or desperately pleaded, the Blood Demon would not grant the Heavenly Demon’s wish. He avoided the Heavenly Demon thoroughly. A massive war broke out between the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Blood Demon Cult, and vast amounts of blood flowed on both sides, but that was it.
The Blood Demon never fought the Heavenly Demon; he only slaughtered the demon warriors of the Heavenly Demon Cult in places where the Heavenly Demon was absent, balancing the scales of the war. It was as if he wanted this feast called war to continue.
In the end, the Heavenly Demon cursed his fate. If this was how it was going to be, it would have been better not to have divinity at all…. If he had just been born as an ordinary human, he could have lived as a martial artist….
Because his desire for martial arts was stronger than anyone else's, his situation of being unable to satisfy that desire was miserable and painful.
Decades later.
The Blood Demon made a proposal to the Heavenly Demon. He said he would open the gate, so they should attack the Heavenly Realm together.
In truth, the Blood Demon was just as insane as the Heavenly Demon, if not more. If the Heavenly Demon was a being who had lost his essence due to a strong longing as a martial artist, the Blood Demon prioritized something else.
Evil.
There would be no more accurate expression than this to describe the Blood Demon’s essence. Originally, it was the destroyer's destiny to impose trials on the world and bring an end to those that could not overcome them.
But the Blood Demon was also as broken as the Heavenly Demon. He wanted the world to deviate from its natural order, and he felt deep rage at being treated as a pawn in a grand flow.
That was why he thought:
“We shall flip the board, Heavenly Demon.”
At those words, the Heavenly Demon felt a sense of kinship with the Blood Demon for the first time. The Blood Demon was also suffering from his existence, born with the fate of a destroyer. Therefore, he agreed to the Blood Demon’s proposal.
“Fine. Let’s do it.”
And so, the Heavenly Demon and the Blood Demon led their followers into a war against the Heavenly Realm. This was an act that went beyond skewing the laws of the world; it was an act of reversing them.
The Heavenly Realm was perplexed. Dealing with two destroyers was burdensome enough, but even if they won, it would be a problem. The causality of this world, which had already produced two destroyers, was severely depleted.
At this rate, the world's development would stop and stagnate. A divinity belonging to a stagnant world is no different from a prisoner trapped in a jail. No, it might be even more miserable. They would literally have to exist as gears of that world for all eternity.
They made a proposal to the Heavenly Demon, who was at least somewhat reasonable. They said they would open a gate to another world. They said that if he went there, the adversary he desired might be there.
It was no different from passing the fire in one's own house to someone else's, but the Heavenly Realm was that desperate at the time.
And the Heavenly Demon accepted the proposal. He was already disappointed by how even the Immortals of the Heavenly Realm were lukewarm and evasive in their fights with him.
Though their reasons were different, they were no different from the Blood Demon in that they did not face him with sincerity.
‘Please. Let there be someone in the other world who can stand against me….’
With a desperate wish, the Heavenly Demon crossed the wall of the world.