Prologue: Apex of the Sword and the Silver Streamer
January 1, 1970. As the world's immense will trembled, a boy was born. The child's name was Gyu-yeon.
From the moment he first gripped a sword at around five years old, the boy's eyes seemed to pierce straight through his colossal destiny—deep and hazy.
Time flowed on, and at fifteen, he obliterated the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly with overwhelming force, earning the title Sword Dragon. But Gyu-yeon's world was terribly, dreadfully boring. A world without a single rival to clash swords against was nothing but shades of gray. Everyone else's swordsmanship felt like clumsy kids' play.
October 11, 2000. The year Gyu-yeon turned thirty. At last, a streak of lightning pierced his monotonous world.
The ruler of Cheonma Singyo. The Heavenly Demon, Cheon Mu-hyeok. The moment Gyu-yeon, the Republic's Supreme Sword and Sword Master, laid eyes on the man who appeared after beheading the world's then-number-one martial artist in America, his heart pounded for the second time in his life.
"Hahaha!!!"
Clearly, a man who saw the same world as he did.
With the Heavenly Demon firing the opening shot, the First World War erupted.
January 1, 2020. Twenty years since the war began. Even amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, the Heavenly Demon's face remained impassive. Not even the Murim Alliance's boasted supreme experts could pique his interest. The beheaded saintess's head. The hero with a pierced chest. The great sage torn limb from limb. Even the Diamond Invincible whose breath had ceased.
Gyu-yeon stepped lightly over those wretched corpses and faced the Heavenly Demon.
"At last, we meet."
His lips curled uncontrollably upward. Over the past twenty years, sensing he still couldn't reach the Heavenly Demon's level, Gyu-yeon had focused solely on building his power, methodically carving through the Seven Seats of Cheonma Singyo one by one.
Immediately.
The Sword Master's Intent Qi condensed into a single beam of light, coolly grazing the Heavenly Demon's cheek.
"Hoo..."
For the first time, admiration flickered across the Heavenly Demon's cold features.
"Now our eyes are finally level?"
Gyu-yeon stared at him with eyes brimming with competitive fire.
"Heavenly DemonCheon Mu-hyeok."
The Heavenly Demon proclaimed his name in an arrogant voice.
"Suddenly want to be friends?"
Gyu-yeon smirked, gripping his partner sword, the Mugyeok True Sword, at a slant.
"You are worthy to hear my name."
"Sword MasterGyu-yeon. The man who will kill you and become the supreme under heaven!"
"Let's see who dies first, then."
At last, the curtain rose on the 20-year grudge match between the Heavenly Demon and the Sword Master—a duel to the death.
"Cheon Mu-hyeok, I'll never forget you until the day I die."
Gyu-yeon, his left arm severed clean off, knelt in a pool of his own blood, laughing. At the end of his gaze lay the Heavenly Demon, his upper body blasted away.
"You... have finally ascended, haven't you?"
The Heavenly Demon asked in a voice like a fading ember.
"Yes."
The internal energy amassed in his dantian fully evaporated, scattering into the world. In its place, the entire world became his vast dantian. His will was the world's will. As long as this world did not perish, his energy would never run dry.
The realm of the divine. Mugyeok.
Heaven Above, Heaven Below, Only I Am Supreme
"Hail the supreme of past and present, who has reached Mugyeok..."
With a faint smile, the Heavenly Demon breathed his last.
Gyu-yeon tossed the Heavenly Demon's remaining head to the Alliance Leader and immediately entered a long seclusion for closed-door training.
Twenty years later. A petite silver-haired girl missing her left arm grinned arrogantly at a horde of goblins.
Kirrik?
"Dodge this."
The goblins didn't even have time to scream before their upper bodies were diced into chunks, dissolving into blood.
"How was that?!"
The girl shouted at the floating display in the air, her voice brimming with hyped-up energy like a kid begging for praise.
"Super cool, right?!"
The man who had been the supreme Sword Master of past and present. That one (TS) was now gleefully slicing goblins in a dungeon while streaming live on the internet.