Chapter 538: Traces of a Past Life (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 538: Traces of a Past Life (8)
Park Min-woo’s words and actions were utterly intolerable.
Xiao Long, who had accompanied Wang Wiryong as his bodyguard, stepped forward and gripped the hilt of his sword.
"Just give the word, Your Majesty. For daring to insult the Emperor, I will take that bastard's head this instant."
It was no empty threat.
Meeting that radiating murderous intent, Park Min-woo simply flared his own magic power, a look of sheer ridicule plastered across his face.
Rumble!
"Dumbass. I guess you didn't listen to the explanation properly. The moment Wang Wiryong is granted an audience with His Majesty, Emperor Roman Dmitry, he won't even have the right to call himself an emperor anymore. And another thing. Don't look at me with those eyes. The only person in this world who gets to look down on me is His Majesty, Emperor Roman Dmitry."
The atmosphere turned icy.
It was a hair-trigger situation.
The second Xiao Long's blade left its scabbard, Park Min-woo's magic would bombard him.
He had no doubt of his victory. Park Min-woo believed in his own strength, and above all, he despised China's arrogant attitude even after setting foot on the soil of the Korean Empire. The opponent claimed to be a descendant of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Knowing what would happen once they faced the truth, there was no reason to cater to Xiao Long's pathetic pride. Whether they ultimately knelt or denied reality, establishing the hierarchy between them right now was absolutely necessary.
Magic power erupted.
Xiao Long's expression stiffened.
He knew the Mage in White was strong, but he hadn't expected such an overwhelming surge of energy.
It was then.
"Xiao Long. Stop."
"Your Majesty! We cannot just let this slide."
"Yes, you are right. But if Roman Dmitry is truly the Heavenly Demon, Lord Baek Joong-hyuk, we are in no position to flaunt our pride."
Wang Wiryong's expression was complex.
Though he had chosen to come to the Korean Empire, he still lacked absolute certainty.
Was that man truly the Heavenly Demon, Baek Joong-hyuk?
Was it really possible to reverse the flow of time?
Amidst his tangled state of mind, Park Min-woo's arrogant attitude ironically offered him a sense of psychological certainty.
Though he couldn't fathom why the Mage in White was behaving like a third-rate street thug, Park Min-woo was a powerhouse who had enjoyed global fame for years. He was a man well-versed in the ways of the world. For someone of his stature to act so brazenly against the Emperor of China, it had to stem from absolute confidence in the master he served: Roman Dmitry.
Which meant...
The chances of him being the Heavenly Demon were incredibly high.
Park Min-woo's attempt to establish dominance had ironically given Wang Wiryong the perfect justification to back down.
Treating me with such disrespect means he has something to back it up.
He suppressed his emotions.
With a cold expression, he looked at Park Min-woo.
"I will go alone, as you wish. However, you will have to take responsibility for your words. If Roman Dmitry has absolutely nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon Cult, I, Wang Wiryong, will never let you live."
Pfft.
Park Min-woo smirked.
Stepping forward to lead the way, he tossed back a flippant reply.
"Yeah, yeah. Do whatever the fuck you want."
* * *
Aside from the friction with Park Min-woo, the journey was uneventful.
Wang Wiryong followed the Mage in White, and before long, they arrived at a training ground shielded by a magic defense formation.
There stood Roman Dmitry.
Seeing the figure he had only ever viewed through a screen in person, Wang Wiryong swallowed hard.
Roman Dmitry!
The being who might be the Heavenly Demon himself.
Wang Wiryong circulated his mana.
He tried to gauge the man's presence, but strangely, he couldn't sense a single drop of power from Roman Dmitry. Doubt welled up inside him. If this was truly the Heavenly Demon, Baek Joong-hyuk, he should be radiating an overwhelming pressure. Instead, his aura felt surprisingly ordinary, making Wang Wiryong wonder if he had just walked into a trap.
Then, he flinched.
Their eyes met.
Even though Roman Dmitry hadn't stirred a sliver of mana, goosebumps erupted across Wang Wiryong's entire body in an instant.
...What is this?
The man standing before him was anything but ordinary.
The realization hit him: Roman was an existence so overwhelmingly profound that his power simply couldn't be sensed. Wang Wiryong's heart pounded frantically. This truly might be the master of the Heavenly Demon Cult, the Heavenly Demon Baek Joong-hyuk. The arrogant gaze looking down on him, the sheer insolence of demanding the Emperor of China come to him in person—every piece of the puzzle pointed to Baek Joong-hyuk.
But he had to be absolutely sure.
Not through circumstantial evidence, but through a demonstration of absolute, overwhelming martial might!
Roman Dmitry spoke.
"Wang Wiryong. Draw your sword. I will see for myself if your claim of being a descendant of the Heavenly Demon Cult is more than just empty words."
"Just what I wanted."
Shring.
He drew his blade.
No more words were needed.
The moment his eyes locked with Roman Dmitry's once more, Wang Wiryong detonated his mana and lunged forward like a bolt of lightning.
Rumble!
Whoosh!
He was fast.
Wang Wiryong's footsteps left deep imprints in the ground, closing the distance with explosive force every time the earth gouged beneath his feet. It was the footwork depicted in the ancient mural. Having named it the Heavenly Demon's Sovereign Step, Wang Wiryong unleashed a torrent of magic power, intending to sweep his opponent away from the very first exchange.
Clang!
Crash!
Sword clashed against sword.
Roman Dmitry had already drawn his blade to block, and anticipating the reaction, Wang Wiryong immediately followed up with his next strike.
I'll end this in one blow.
Boom!
He brought his blade crashing down toward Roman's head.
Executing his footwork, Wang Wiryong instantly slipped to the side. The magic power erupting from his steps like an active volcano lent even greater destructive force to this strike than the last. He unleashed it directly at Roman. When another violent explosion signaled that Roman had blocked it yet again, Wang Wiryong pivoted and launched into a relentless, frenzied assault.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
It was overwhelming.
Wang Wiryong.
The man hailed as the world's greatest swordsman.
Though there were many S-Rank swordsmen in the world, every single one of them acknowledged that Wang Wiryong existed on an entirely different level. That was how he had been able to unify China. The teachings of the mural had guided him into a completely new realm, and Volkan's memories had completed him, allowing him to be reborn as the Heavenly Demon.
A descendant of the Murim.
That was his root.
In truth, if the memories of an Inheritor were all that mattered, someone like Samuel—who had inherited Chris's memories—would have surpassed Wang Wiryong. But reality was different. The same memories manifested differently depending on the vessel that received them. Because his roots lay in the Murim, Wang Wiryong was able to reach completion.
Flash!
Rumble!
Magic power surged.
Wang Wiryong's blinding barrage of attacks dominated the entire space.
He believed in himself.
He believed in the blood and sweat he had poured in up to this very moment.
Whether his opponent was the Heavenly Demon or not, there was no way he could block this attack.
Or so he thought.
Flash.
With the latest clash, Wang Wiryong's arm was deflected.
It was a fatal opening. Wang Wiryong strained himself, bracing to defend against Roman Dmitry's inevitable counterattack.
But... there was no attack.
Only a cold gaze looking down at him.
No way.
Only then did he realize.
Roman Dmitry was holding back.
He was merely defending against Wang Wiryong's onslaught. Come to think of it, no matter how many openings appeared, Roman never countered. No, he only deflected just enough to draw out a reaction. Wang Wiryong's pupils trembled violently. He couldn't accept that the gap between them was this vast.
This was separate from the truth of Roman's identity.
He wanted to prove himself.
If his opponent truly was a legendary being, he wanted to prove that his own efforts had not been in vain.
Gripping his sword tighter, he muttered, "It will be different from now on."
His expression shifted drastically.
He executed the Heavenly Demon's Sovereign Step.
At the same time, he unleashed his full power.
Heavenly Demon Sword Technique.
* * *
Boom!
Crash!
The heavens shook.
The explosive magic power sent out a shockwave that felt as if the sky itself were collapsing, and Wang Wiryong's face flushed crimson under the strain of channeling such immense energy.
He gritted his teeth.
Forcing his mana down, he absorbed the immense power of the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique with his entire body.
"This is the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique!"
Flash!
Boom!
It was on a completely different level from before.
With every strike, a massive storm of magic power raged. Wang Wiryong pressed his advantage immediately, unleashing a relentless barrage to deny his opponent any opening. His movements perfectly mirrored the drawings on the ancient mural. Since the mural depicted a strike descending from the heavens, Wang Wiryong's sword brought down a bolt of lightning from above, plunging straight toward Roman Dmitry.
Crash!
Rumble!
Because the mural depicted severing both arms before piercing the heart, Wang Wiryong's blade followed the exact same trajectory.
Flash!
Boom!
Perfect assimilation.
He lost himself in the teachings of the mural.
The ancestors of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
They had studied the mural for generations, and those accumulated teachings had been passed down entirely to Wang Wiryong. He had spent his entire life staring at that mural, dedicating himself to training. Before the Great Disaster, people had called his efforts meaningless, but after inheriting Volkan's memories, his lifelong dedication finally erupted with explosive power.
The Heavenly Demon Sword Technique.
He held the power of the Heavenly Demon in his very hands.
As if to prove his claim to the title, Wang Wiryong burned through his very life force.
I am the Heavenly Demon, Wang Wiryong!
Whoosh!
Crash!
Magic power swirled violently.
His face turned so red it looked ready to burst, yet he poured every last ounce of his strength into this final onslaught.
Boom!
Crash!
Rumble!
Everything in the vicinity was obliterated.
The sheer pressure of the swirling magic power cracked the magic defense formation, and the training ground's floor split wide open as if struck by an earthquake. Surely, no one could block this. Staring at the thick cloud of dust rising before him, Wang Wiryong panted heavily from a few paces away.
"Huff, puff..."
His efforts had not been in vain.
If his opponent truly was the Heavenly Demon, he would have no choice but to acknowledge this level of dedication.
It was then.
...?!
A human silhouette appeared.
Through the settling dust cloud, Roman Dmitry walked forward, his footsteps steady.
He was completely unscathed.
It was an attack powerful enough to tear off an arm—no, powerful enough to rip several S-Rank Hunters to shreds simultaneously—yet Roman Dmitry's expression remained perfectly serene. He had taken the brunt of Wang Wiryong's full-power attack head-on. His pristine condition was absolute proof of the overwhelming disparity between them.
Roman Dmitry spoke coldly.
"That is not the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique."
"W-What do you mean by that?!"
Wang Wiryong gasped in shock.
Not the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique?
Rather than the realization that his opponent was the true Heavenly Demon, this absolute denial of his life's work shook him to his core.
Roman Dmitry had fully assessed Wang Wiryong and reached a firm conclusion about his identity.
"If you were truly a descendant of the Heavenly Demon Cult, you wouldn't use a version of the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique that merely mimics its outward appearance. The Heavenly Demon Sword Technique has no fixed forms. Your sword technique, bound by rigid, predictable forms, proves that you are not a descendant of the Heavenly Demon Cult."
There was no longer any reason to drag this out.
Roman Dmitry gathered his magic power.
"Behold. This is the true Heavenly Demon Sword Technique."
The forms from the latter half of the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique.
The moment he unleashed the very first form...
Flash!
Boom!
Crash!
The magic defense formation tore apart, and the entire surrounding area was instantly obliterated.
* * *
Thud.
Wang Wiryong fell to his knees.
He stared blankly at the devastated space.
"...So that is the true Heavenly Demon Sword Technique."
It was completely different from the mural.
There was no downward strike, no slashing of both sides to target the heart. Without any resemblance to those rigid forms, a simple swing of Roman's sword had completely laid waste to the entire area. A storm of complex emotions swirled within him. While goosebumps erupted across his skin at having witnessed the true Heavenly Demon Sword Technique, he was simultaneously struck by a profound doubt regarding the meaning of his own existence.
What on earth was he?
He had believed himself to be a descendant of the Heavenly Demon Cult, but Roman Dmitry's words had utterly invalidated his entire life.
Roman Dmitry spoke.
"The Heavenly Demon Sword Technique you used is nothing but an empty shell, completely devoid of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. You seem to have mimicked the sword paths I favored, but if you had legitimately carried on the lineage of the Heavenly Demon Cult, you would never have used it in such a pathetic manner. Wang Wiryong. Tell me the name of your ancestor. Depending on who they were, I will decide whether you live or die here today."
Wang Wiryong had already lost all will to fight.
For someone whose singular dream was the reconstruction of the Heavenly Demon Cult, having his very identity denied stripped away his desire to live.
He spoke with a vacant expression.
Whether Roman killed him or let him live, it was entirely up to his whim now.
"Wang Seok-ho. I am a descendant of Wang Seok-ho. Do you remember him?"
He fully acknowledged Roman Dmitry.
The man before him was the Heavenly Demon. There was no other way to make sense of this situation.
At the name Wang Seok-ho, Roman Dmitry showed an unexpected reaction.
"You are a descendant of Wang Seok-ho? He was my friend, and..."
Delving into his past life's memories, Roman recalled a certain figure.
Someone who had watched him from afar.
Someone he had allowed to stay by his side.
"...the master painter who painted me as I trained."