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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A Demon from the Heavens?
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'The... Heavenly Demon...?'
Did I hear him wrong? The old man, who looked like a grim reaper, had introduced himself as Cheon Mu-hyeok and said that in the mortal world, he was called the Heavenly Demon. I couldn't tell if he was speaking sense or spouting nonsense.
Even I, a physician who had never set foot in the world of martial arts, had heard of the infamous reputation of the exceedingly wicked Demonic Cult time and again.
I finally mustered the courage to ask a question.
"Isn't the... Heavenly Demon... an evil man?"
"..."
The old man didn't answer my question, merely gazing at me with his profound, sunken eyes. His gaze felt like staring into the deepest abyss of the sea said to lie at the very edge of the Central Plains, and I instinctively recoiled.
'Did I ask something I shouldn't have?'
But I couldn't back down. Whether the old man I was speaking with was a man of good or evil was a matter I had to settle, even if it meant dying a hundred more times right here.
Baek Jung-hyeok, the Divine Doctor. That was the kind of man I was.
But the old man remained silent for a while, so I suppressed my fear and gathered my thoughts.
The enemies of the Orthodox Sects were, for the most part, the Unorthodox Sects.
The Unorthodox were those who honed their martial arts for their own selfish gain. They were the kind of people who built up their strength because it was easier to seize the crops harvested by farmers than to toil and sweat, plowing the fields and reaping the harvest themselves.
If the bandits of the forest who directly killed and plundered were the lower echelons of the Unorthodox, then the clans of the underworld who occupied towns and cities, extending their influence to continuously exploit the people, were the upper echelons.
They naturally clashed with the forces of the Orthodox Sects, and to stand against the organized Martial Alliance, they formed an Unorthodox Alliance.
The war between the Martial Alliance of the Orthodox and the Alliance of the Unorthodox. It was known as the Great War of Sects. But there was a faction that operated on a completely different plane from all these powers.
That was the Demonic Cult.
This religion, said to exist in Xinjiang, was a constant source of terror for the martial artists of the Central Plains. A colossal organization said to be the strongest single power, they were based in the Heavenly Mountains and were rumored to possess the strength to shake both the Orthodox Martial Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance.
The war between the Orthodox Martial Alliance and the Demonic Cult was called the Great Demonic War. Their power and ruthlessness were said to have even brought about an alliance between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects... For that reason, they were always a subject of fear in the martial world of the Central Plains.
The kind of beings whose names were used to frighten crying children into silence.
The founder of such a Demonic Cult was none other than the Heavenly Demon.
From what I had heard, the Heavenly Demon was...
Yes, from time immemorial, the one known as the Heavenly Demon...
was a figure who placed all creation beneath his feet, looking upon the world with arrogant, bored eyes. A distant past. The very embodiment of a terrible calamity that had descended upon the Central Plains.
As he turned his back on the devastated Central Plains, people began to call him the Heavenly Demon, meaning a fiend descended from the heavens...
That was definitely the impression I had.
This old man before me was the Heavenly Demon?
As if reading my thoughts, the old man finally spoke.
"Is that what you think the Demonic Cult is?"
"...!"
'He read my thoughts!'
"A village caught in the crossfire of martial artists. A sole survivor. That is not a story unique to you."
"Ah...!"
The village where I grew up had been like that. It was the fundamental reason I came to despise martial arts. But just how much did this old man know?
"I was the same. That incident made me hate martial artists. In the end, I created a martial art imbued with demonic energy that no one had ever reached, and from that day on, I killed every martial artist I saw."
"..."
"I do not regret my actions back then. But I do not believe they were absolutely right, either."
"..."
I had nothing to say in response, but I was quite shocked. The terrifying being who had laid waste to the Central Plains, the legendary demonic figure known as the Heavenly Demon, actually shared a past similar to mine?
I could understand. I was not unfamiliar with that hatred and resentment, but... to kill martial artists indiscriminately because of it? I did not make that choice. On the contrary, I poured all my energy into healing people.
"Yes... You chose a different path from me."
"..."
'Is he really reading my thoughts...?'
The Heavenly Demon looked at me, his eyes tinged with a purple glow. It was a killing intent denser than any I had ever encountered in the Central Plains.
However...
Even when I suffered excruciating pain from the Sichuan Tang Clan's poison, even when blood gushed from the holes in my limbs, even in the final moment as I closed my eyes, I had never once succumbed to the fear of death.
"No matter what reasons you may have had, in the end, are you not a merciless murderer?"
"..."
I said it.
My thoughts, my feelings.
Am I going to die now?
"Who said I wasn't?"
"...?"
"In your eyes, what is the state of the current martial world?"
The suffocating killing intent subsided. The old man showed no anger, simply asking about the martial world.
"Are you saying the current martial world is corrupt?"
"I will ask again. Does the Orthodox martial world seem righteous in your eyes?"
"..."
The old man's question made me recall the things I had realized upon my death. The doubt and skepticism about whether the Orthodox martial world was truly righteous.
'I once thought so. Of course, they were human and had their dark sides, but I believed that, for the most part, they were on the side of justice. No, I wanted to believe that.'
"You must have much to ponder. However, the important thing is not a matter of right or wrong."
"...Then what is important?"
"Whether the Orthodox are right, the Unorthodox are right, or even if the Demonic Cult is right... such things are not important. What truly matters is the path they choose to walk."
"...!"
Yes...
Indeed, it is meaningless to distinguish whether a person is good or evil. Only the consequences of a person's actions define who they are.
If a clan that calls itself Orthodox commits evil, its actions are evil. If a martial artist belonging to the Demonic Cult performs a good deed, that action is good.
In that case, the Sichuan Tang Clan, who captured orphans to cultivate Poison Blood Demons and make a name for themselves in the world...
was unequivocally evil.
"The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was created to fight against beings from beyond the heavens."
The old man suddenly brought up an incomprehensible story.
"What..."
"I gathered all the hidden masters and renowned experts, waged a war, and we were victorious. No, I thought we were victorious."
*Rumble...*
"Ugh..."
An ominous demonic energy pierced through his lofty dignity. The pressure, like Mount Tai bearing down, was something I had never experienced in my entire life.
Crushed by that terrifying pressure, I found it difficult to even stand straight and breathe.
"They are beings that the entire Central Plains martial world could not defeat even if they joined forces."
What on earth was he suddenly talking about? But I had to speak. I had to grasp the underlying meaning of his words. I had to ask to understand his intentions, to resolve my own questions.
"Who are they?"
The old man opened his mouth in response to my question, but no sound came out. There was only a slight headache.
"Well now, it seems you are not yet ready to know."
Because I couldn't hear his answer, because he said I was not ready, I spoke.
"Then why don't you, esteemed Heavenly Demon, go down and tell them yourself?"
At my words, the pressure that had been bearing down like Mount Tai vanished in an instant. It seemed he was finally willing to explain the reason clearly to me. I could finally breathe.
"As you said, I committed merciless slaughter in the Central Plains. That was my answer to the martial artists of that era, and I stood on the side of the common people. As the years passed, I founded the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and after perfecting the ultimate martial art, I ascended to immortality."
Ascended to immortality... Ah... So that was something even merciless murderers could do...
Then, the Heavenly Demon continued, his eyes narrowed as he watched me.
Oops, he must have read my thoughts...
"Once one completes their ascension, they are given a position in the celestial realm. I can no longer descend to the mortal world. But you can. Your soul is still in a state of suspension."
I couldn't understand what on earth he was talking about, but one thing was clear.
"Forgive my impertinence, but I cannot yet trust you."
That I could not trust this old man.
"Are you fine with your grand technique endangering the martial world?"
"..."
Damn.
The Heavenly Demon had poked a sore spot.
My heart grew heavy.
"If you wish, I will pass on my martial arts to you and send you back to the mortal world. Of course, you will possess the body of someone who has just died, not your original one, and will awaken in a state of barely having survived."
I didn't know if he was telling the truth or not. But the burden on my shoulders was too heavy to just give up and move on. Two things came to mind.
'I can't just let that damn Sichuan Tang Clan be.'
The first was that I couldn't stand by and watch the Sichuan Tang Clan. The other was my disciples, left behind in the mortal world to be exploited by the Tang Clan. What crime had those poor souls committed...?
If that was the case...
this might be a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.
What was there to hesitate about when I was already dead?
But nothing in the world is given for free.
"What are the conditions?"
"A clever one, you are. There are two conditions."
"Please state them."
"First, as a member of the Demonic Cult, you must lead it down the right path."
"And the other?"
"The day will come when beings from beyond the heavens threaten the world. You must prepare for war against that time. You must prevent the world's destruction."
"Who exactly are these beings from beyond the heavens?"
"That... you will find out when the time comes."
"...Will I be able to do such a thing?"
"Do you think I chose just anyone?"
"..."
The old man's conditions were surprisingly easy to accept.
The first condition. I didn't know if it was possible, but if the Demonic Cult's origins were as the old man said, then the current Demonic Cult was clearly on the wrong path. My task would be to return it to the path he had originally intended.
The second condition. To stop the unknown beings from beyond the heavens and prevent the world's destruction... They were things I couldn't understand right now, but if the world would be destroyed if I didn't act, I couldn't just stand by. There was no reason not to accept.
"Then the Sichuan Tang Clan..."
"That is your business, so handle it as you see fit. My conditions only require you to strive to fulfill them during your lifetime, after you have returned."
"I understand."
"Does that mean you accept the conditions?"
"Yes."
Right, what use was being one of the three great Divine Doctors of the Central Plains? If I could save my disciples and stop those bastards from the Tang Clan, becoming the Heavenly Demon's disciple was a hundred times better. And if I could prevent the world's destruction along the way, all the better.
"A wise decision."
And so, I became the disciple of the Heavenly Demon.
***
In a white space where the sun and moon neither rose nor set, where there was no boundary between day and night. A place where my sense of time had dulled, where I couldn't tell if a year or a century had passed.
Following the Heavenly Demon's teachings, I refined my body, absorbed energy, and built my martial prowess. I relentlessly swung various weapons, including the sword. I practiced footwork to move faster, stronger.
A hundred times, a thousand times... or perhaps ten thousand times. In that space where I felt neither hunger nor thirst, I had to build my martial arts without rest.
For me, who had lived and died without ever learning martial arts, this was a whole new realm. But...
It was so hard I felt like I was dying. No, I wanted to die. No, please just kill me. This old man was definitely a murderous demon. I felt a newfound respect for everyone who trained in martial arts.
I endured the bone-grinding pain and trained, and finally, I was able to earn his approval.
"The minimum preparations are complete."
"Yes, old man—I mean, Master."
In a moment of rising anger, I had misspoken. But I was half-intentional. It was my rebellious streak, an inescapable part of my nature.
"Insolent brat. Is there no fixing that tongue of yours?"
"My apologies, Master. But you know that in my heart, I respect you, don't you?"
Aside from that, one thing was clear. I had spent an immeasurable amount of time with the Heavenly Demon in this pure white space, and I had come to a realization.
'The Heavenly Demon is not lying.'
Having spent no small amount of time with the old Heavenly Demon, I came to understand him on a very deep level. He was a man who shared a past like mine and had created the ultimate martial art.
A man worthy of being called the Heavenly Demon, a name spoken with awe by all. A legendary being, yet my master. Even after my hair had turned white with age, I had never met anyone who inspired such reverence in me...
Just as I suddenly realized it was time to leave.
"The time has come."
Master Heavenly Demon emitted energy from his hand, carving characters into the air, and a black portal appeared.
"Go. You will awaken in the Heavenly Mountains."
"Yes. Thank you for everything."
I shared my final farewells with Master Heavenly Demon and took a step forward.
It was the moment a man called the Divine Doctor, who had been betrayed and killed, was being reborn, having learned the divine arts of the Heavenly Demon.
"When you awaken, go and find... There, you will find the ... you must take. ..."
...?
Why tell me this at the very end?
I couldn't hear him...