Chapter 186
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Cave (1)
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"This is uncomfortable."
"Think of it as shedding your old skin and accept it."
"Fusion Realm... it'll get bigger, right?"
"......Probably?"
Lutsuhaya.
You're still dreaming, aren't you.
But as an adult, I couldn't ruthlessly crush Rua's innocence.
Even after gaining the miraculous opportunity of complete physical transformation, I set off once more on the long journey back to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult alongside the absolute pinnacle Luri, who still jiggled and bounced with every step like some ultra-soft effect.
There was one minor issue, though.
"Hmm. No idea."
"......Isn't this the way to your hometown?"
"We're in a carriage."
The young lady from a (former) chaebol family, who had grown up pampered with a personal driver and never even dreamed of getting a license herself, had no clue about the roads.
Sure, one might think, "Central Plains has navigation, what's the problem?"
But the area near the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, around Tianshan, was like some restricted military zone—no routes showed up on the navigation at all.
In other words.
We had to rely solely on Luri's hazy memories and my animal-like sense of direction for the journey.
Well......
No helping it.
I didn't expect much from Luri anyway.
Just grow up healthy.
No, actually, just mature a bit mentally. That's enough.
.
.
.
"......Is this the right way?"
"Hmm......"
Three hours of aimless walking later.
Luri finally started glancing at me nervously.
The silver lining was.
"Let's drink some water."
"Okay."
That even in this extreme situation, I was mastering the ultimate supreme martial art for survival.
First, I pulled out the gourd from my travel pack.
I coated its surface with true qi for pressure resistance, then slowly gathered natural qi to draw up the ice technique.
Crack, craaack—!
Ice fluffily formed around my hand in an instant, and then, with a touch of extreme yang qi, I melted it just enough.
"Whoa, that's amazing."
My ultimate secret technique.
The perfected art of 'Making this much water without a single drop around?'.
Usually, it's likened to producing holy water by using moisture from inside the body.
But I could perform a pure Aqua Splash using only nature's power, without losing a drop of my own hydration!
"Mmm."
As Luri gulped it down eagerly, I repeated the process a couple more times to give some to the mutt too, took a sip myself.
And as we prepared to wander aimlessly again.
I began sensing a cluster of demonic qi wriggling in the distance.
"Luri, anyone coming out to greet us?"
"Not really."
"Then, among the people in Tianshan right now, anyone who'd warmly welcome you?"
"......Not really."
I immediately activated the full Yi Rong Technique set to alter my face.
Let's see, this concept...
"From now on, I'm your big brother."
"Big brother? You?"
"Hey, call me orabuni."
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's forbidden treasure.
Even Cheon Luri, thought to be an only child, had a secret sibling?
Bam! His name was Cheon Siu!
......Feels fine, but something about it bugs me, like it trips some duplicate nickname generator rule.
Starting with Siu just gives off this vibe—
Somehow whiny like "hying hying," or a grand hero's aura, or even that little brother who cries "hou" in ceremonies.
Anyway, a name fitting a protagonist in every sense.
So...
Not suitable for an alt character nickname.
Time for something bold.
Perfect, the background's a desert—let's mix in some ascetic vibe from the Western Regions.
"My name from now on is Cheon Pedro."
"......?"
"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen."
"......?"
......
If God exists even in this pseudo-primitive ancient martial world, please forgive this blasphemy.
I'll write five indulgences later and repent devoutly.
As they drew closer to the girl presumed to be the young cult leader and her group, Seok Chungmyeong began feeling an intensely bizarre sense of dissonance.
First off.
The young cult leader's appearance.
Not just a different hairstyle—her hair color had flipped from mostly black to mostly red, the exact opposite of her original.
It evoked that insane bitch, Hong... Ryeon, making him flinch involuntarily.
And her most prominent physical feature.
Her short stature remained, but for some reason, her chest had ballooned to twice the size.
"This is...... hell......"
"In the world......"
"......Shut your mouths, all of you. Surround them as is."
He reined in his subordinates' nonsense.
Of course, he could empathize with their feelings to some extent, but the real issue wasn't the young cult leader.
The man beside her.
An unprecedented pressure emanated from him.
A face exuding an aura as if he saw all the world's vanities, paired with eyes glowing red and bewitching.
Eyes just like those of the Cheon bloodline......
Seok Chungmyeong, as one of the Seven Elders of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and leader of the Blood Sword Squad, had reached the absolute pinnacle realm, though not yet Extreme Demon.
Yet in his eyes.
He detected not a trace of internal energy from the man beside the young cult leader.
Two conclusions.
Either he had none at all.
Or he possessed depths so profound no one like Seok could even glimpse them.
Swallowing a sliver of unease, right as he approached them.
"You misguided lambs. Why do you approach harboring doubt?"
And moreover.
The girl presumed to be the young cult leader stepped back, the stranger advanced.
With words laced in profoundly heavy demonic qi, yet strangely sacred in tone.
"......Who might you be?"
Seok Chungmyeong unwittingly used honorifics.
At those words.
The stranger's brow furrowed slightly.
"I am Cheon Pedro. Wanderer of the Western wilderness, superhuman arrived upon a white horse. I have come to this place to save you."
When his voice, heavy enough to shake the desert silence, echoed everywhere.
Seok Chungmyeong and all the Blood Sword Squad members fell into momentary silence.
Pedro...? A Western name?
Why ride a white horse if superhuman...?
"On that distant day when heaven first split open and the cock crowed for the first time. You shall deny me thrice today, yet still cry out my name in this wilderness."
The moment those words ended.
"Heavenly Demon Divine Art......!"
"How can another inheritor exist......!"
Heavenly Demon Divine Art
Demonic qi began swirling around his entire body.
And not just any demonic qi—
"Th-that's......! Heavenly Demon Wings......!"
Wings of dense demonic qi sprout from the shoulders
As he spread his arms wide.
In their vision, the young cult leader vanished entirely, only the man visible, dark demonic qi wings slowly sprouting from between his shoulders.
A legend of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The true Heavenly Demon shall come with black wings...
Exactly that passage.
And the bizarre acts didn't end there.
Whoosh!
The stranger's figure suddenly vanished.
"......!"
In that instant, he was nowhere—and everywhere.
All directions, eight points, nay, thirty-six, even the full Sixty-Four Hexagrams.
His hazy afterimages flickered into existence, then faded.
Shadowless Step (Full Deployment)
Afterimages fill all directions / Omnipresence
"Where do you look, misguided lambs? Those are but my afterimages."
His voice rang precisely from behind them, and in that instant, every Blood Sword Squad member whipped around.
Indeed.
There he stood, the self-proclaimed Cheon Pedro, backlit by the setting sun like a halo.
And the next moment.
: : Fear not. : :
As if echoing from the heavens, the voice resounded in their minds.
And.
The seven warriors.
All turned to face each other simultaneously.
Their eyes conveyed the same meaning.
- Dude, you too?
After a brief eye-contact verification of their senses' accuracy.
Thud, thud, thud......!
All dropped to their knees at once.
Of course.
The sight was imposing, undeniably mystical.
Some Blood Sword members, devout in faith, knelt weeping, murmuring "The true Heavenly Demon has finally descended......!"
But.
Seok Chungmyeong...
Deep down, he couldn't shake the suspicion that this was just a madman, disloyal as it was.
However.
Though his name sounded Western, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, passed only through Cheon blood, was clearly in his grasp.
His footwork exuded the essence of Supremacy of the Heavenly Demon unmistakably.
......And deploying Six Harmonies Omnipresence—said possible only at realms beyond imagination—simultaneously on all of them?
Deny him thrice, as he said.
And he'd end up a cold corpse.
"Grieving over the current state of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, I return personally with the young cult leader to restore it—this is my trial. Spread not word of my arrival. And you faithful, rejoice silently in the coming crimson blessing."
Thus.
"We greet the Heavenly Demon!"
He keenly sensed survival and prostrated flat.
: : ......Geum Sihyeon. Are you insane? : :
: : Shh. It worked, didn't it? No fight, right? : :
......After that ridiculous performance, shame boiled up from deep within.
But what could I do.
Get lost and trigger a wipeout at the entrance?
That'd be like slapping "Fight me, bitch" right in their faces.
So......
I put on the most intimidating show possible.
Splurged the demonic qi Luri lent me for maximum Heavenly Demon Divine Art flair.
Deployed Shadowless Step at full power to mimic illusionary clones.
And as the finishing touch, pushed my multi-core telepathy processor to the limit.
Dialogue variations would've spiked difficulty, but unifying it was key.
Layered unique feats only I could pull off for a perfect Western Heavenly Demon Pedro cosplay.
"This way leads to the Heavenly Demon Cave, Hea...venly Demon."
Of course, repeated brain-melts led to.
A very insolent glance: "Heavenly Demon, but you don't know the cave's location?"
I met it head-on with dignity.
"Lamb, you've suffered much. I shall breach the Heavenly Demon Cave and fling wide the gates of a new era—go repent and pray. New light shall dawn upon you. Heaven for a thousand generations, a thousand thousand!"
"......?"
Uh, wrong one?
"Fear not. Doubt not. Heavenly Demon Reincarnation, All Demons Prostrate!"
"......Heavenly Demon Reincarnation, All Demons Prostrate!"
This guy. One of the Seven Elders, right.
Quick on the uptake, and buffering soon—he'd betray before long.
But irrelevant.
Only Cheon blood could open the Heavenly Demon Cave.
Casually probed: Cheon Siu, the attacker...... anyway, he's away.
Clear the cave fast, smash the boss, all solved.
"You, flesh and heir of Cheon, rejoice as destined. After millennia, the chosen—"
"No one's...... here......"
"Ah, all gone?"
After self-exorcising the false spirit Cheon Pedro from my body.
"Pretty big scale. Pyramid-level."
"Pyramid? What's that?"
"Oh, you wouldn't know."
Chatted idly to ease tension.
"Eut."
As a drop of blood from Luri's adorable finger plipped onto the altar.
The Heavenly Demon Cave entrance blazed with fiery effects and creaked open.
"Let's go."
"Okay."
Swift, precise Geum Sihyeon eat-and-run express bus.
Departing now.