Chapter 245 : Reappearance of the Heavenly Demon (5)
Chapter 245: Reappearance of the Heavenly Demon (5)
The Heavenly Demon’s gaze was fixed upon a distant past.
Within the space of intent where only pure white existed, his story flowed backward through time—to the moment just before every martial artist of the martial world prostrated themselves at his feet.
It returned to the era when he crushed every orthodox and unorthodox force alike and forged a demonic dominion over the world.
“Back then, I reached the absolute pinnacle of the Life and Death Realm.”
“……!!”
Sewoon was shocked.
That someone had attained the extreme limit of the Life and Death Realm—a height utterly unimaginable to him at his current stage—was nothing short of astonishing.
“The shedding occurred one night, suddenly, without any prior sign.”
The Heavenly Demon’s voice was low, yet it carried a profundity as vast as the cosmos itself.
At the apex of his ambition to unify the martial world, the Heavenly Demon glimpsed a new horizon of martiality.
It was not merely an elevation of martial might, but an awakening that pierced through the very essence of existence.
As all his senses expanded, even the principles governing the world became vividly clear—and when that state of enlightenment reached its extreme—
“I realized that what was visible was not all that existed, and what had been unseen became visible.”
A secret beyond the world, known to no one else.
“Beyond the human world lies another realm. That is the Immortal Realm.”
“……!”
At the words “Immortal Realm” spoken by the Heavenly Demon, Sewoon shuddered as if struck by lightning.
It could not be helped.
‘The world of immortals… such a place truly existed?’
Though the phrase ascension to immortality was known, it had been nothing more than a term.
Immortals and the Immortal Realm belonged only to legends or myths.
Yet the Heavenly Demon had directly perceived its reality.
“If one surpasses even the extreme and advances to the next realm, one ascends as a Demonic Immortal and may depart from the human world. It is a realm where one ceases to be human and becomes a god.”
“……!”
A Demonic Immortal.
Excitement surged within Sewoon.
To transcend the human world and become a god was the ultimate dream of all martial artists—and a realm beyond even imagination.
However.
“After establishing a demonic dominion and cultivating for several years, it seemed achievable with just a single step forward.”
Contrary to expectations, the Heavenly Demon’s reaction was entirely different.
As though he held no yearning or lingering attachment to becoming an immortal.
Was it because he had already escaped all suffering and worldly afflictions?
Just as Sewoon was forming that thought—
“But then, at that moment.”
Suddenly, the Heavenly Demon’s voice dropped.
Unconcealed fury seeped into his tone.
“After my ascension, I glimpsed a future hundreds of years ahead.”
A shadow fell across the Heavenly Demon’s face.
One of the six divine faculties—Heavenly Eye Perception.
The future he briefly saw upon reaching the extreme of the Life and Death Realm was neither beautiful nor peaceful.
As the memory of that devastation resurfaced and he hesitated to continue, Sewoon carefully asked with a grave expression.
“……What kind of future was it?”
The Heavenly Demon answered with a shocking declaration.
“A worst possible future where the human world itself was annihilated.”
“!!”
“All land was drenched in blood, and a hellscape where not a single trace of life remained unfolded.”
Sewoon stopped breathing.
He knew exactly what point in time that future referred to.
Calmly, the Heavenly Demon recounted the worst future he had seen with his own eyes.
“In that blood-soaked world, the only one laughing madly toward the heavens was a being called the ‘Blood Demon.’”
That was right.
The Blood Cult’s conquest of the martial world—something Sewoon had failed to prevent before his regression.
And the time that followed.
After crushing every resisting force, the Blood Demon moved on to extinguish the flames of all life itself.
“I wished to stop him. But it was impossible.”
“……Why was that?”
As Sewoon asked softly, filled with regret, the Heavenly Demon resolved a long-held mystery Sewoon had carried regarding the Blood Demon.
“He endlessly repeated life itself, continuing what is known as infinite reincarnation.”
“……!”
“And within that cycle, the moment of the Blood Demon’s birth and the moment of my death were perfectly intertwined.”
“!!”
Even an absolute being who had reached the extreme of the Life and Death Realm and glimpsed a nameless beyond could not prevent certain things.
They were known by many names.
Natural order. Causality. Or the mandate of heaven.
A calamity that would not appear while one yet lived—but would manifest after one’s death.
The moment one resisted their originally allotted lifespan to stop it,
The very mandate of heaven one defied instead caused the world to collapse—a paradoxical outcome.
Only then did Sewoon belatedly grasp the meaning of the Heavenly Demon’s words.
‘Opposing the Blood Demon itself would be defying the laws of the universe—and could bring about even greater destruction.’
What would he have done in that position?
Overwhelmed by suffocating despair, Sewoon let out a low groan without realizing it.
“Yet even so, I could not simply watch the world’s destined destruction unfold.”
The Heavenly Demon never gave up.
“To find a way to save the world, I left the followers of the Divine Cult and spent hundreds of years seeking a solution alone.”
By sealing himself within this very place.
Though the physical body decays with time, he sought a method by which the soul could remain forever.
The world mocked him as mad when he vanished at the moment of unifying the martial world—but in truth, he was fighting alone and in solitude for the future of the human world.
And that wandering was not in vain.
For just before his body drew its final breath, he discovered a last hope.
“Though I could not find a way to stop the Blood Demon directly before the end, I clearly saw fragments of a different future—faint as a firefly’s light.”
“……!!”
Sewoon’s heart pounded.
Was there truly something that could stop the Blood Demon?
And then—
The Heavenly Demon’s gaze turned precisely toward Sewoon.
“I saw the image of a descendant who would come to this place.”
“When the will of that descendant and my will converge, that alone becomes the sole way to stand against the infinite enemy.”
“And then……”
A faint smile surfaced at the corner of the Heavenly Demon’s lips as he looked at Sewoon.
“So it was you, the descendant, my child.”
“!!”
Sewoon was struck with shock.
Only then did he fully understand why the Heavenly Demon had tested him, granted him insight, and guided him all this time.
“The future I saw was not a moment of victory. It was merely the back of one who faced the end, staking his life.”
“To entrust everything and depart… it pains the heart beyond words.”
The emotion contained in the voice of the absolute being was sincere, without a single grain of falsehood.
If it had been possible, he would have wished to fight the Blood Demon himself.
And thus, the Heavenly Demon’s tale came to an end.
Swaa.
The pure white space once more sank into silence.
Sewoon could not easily open his mouth.
His mind was in turmoil from the truths revealed about the Blood Demon.
‘He said the Blood Demon endlessly reincarnates, repeating life without end.’
The exact reason for repeating countless lives was unclear, yet Sewoon could hazard a guess.
When one surpassed the extreme of the Life and Death Realm and reached the moment of ascension—
He would not be content to stop at becoming a Demonic Immortal, but would desire to become something even greater beyond that.
Yet one question would not unravel so easily.
‘Then why was I specifically made to regress?’
That was because the Blood Demon had included him within the cycle of past lives.
No matter how much he pondered it, this alone yielded no answer.
Just then—
“There is something I wish to ask.”
“……!”
Breaking the long silence, the Heavenly Demon spoke to Sewoon.
Setting aside the confusion in his mind, Sewoon replied with a solemn attitude.
“Please ask anything.”
Soon after, the Heavenly Demon posed his question.
“Are you a human?”
“……!”
Sewoon fell into thought.
Under normal circumstances, he would have answered without hesitation.
He was, without question, a human.
Yet the reason his words would not immediately leave his lips was because—
That question was not simply asking, ‘Are you human?’
As he remained lost in contemplation, the voice of an old monk echoed in his mind.
I am sorry. My ties to the mortal world end here.
But do not worry. To stop the calamity to come, I have left one behind.
Did I not leave you behind?
All things shall flow according to the natural order.
The final moments of Shaolin’s Divine Monk came back to him.
As the old monk’s smiling face resurfaced in his memory, the fog that had clouded his mind seemed to clear away completely.
Sewoon no longer avoided the Heavenly Demon’s gaze.
A fierce, unusual light shone in Sewoon’s eyes as he met the other’s stare directly.
At last, Sewoon answered.
“I was born a human.”
“……!”
“And when I die, I will die as a human.”
His voice was resolute, without the slightest tremor.
No matter what trials or temptations might come,
It was as though he was swearing to preserve the essence of being human.
At that earnest reply—
“That will suffice.”
The Heavenly Demon smiled in satisfaction.
That smile was, surprisingly, strikingly similar to that of the Divine Monk.
From this moment on, carve my words into your heart.
The reason I abandoned ascension to immortality was only one.
Rather than turning my back on all living people of this world to become a god, I wished to live alongside them.
Ah…
Sewoon forcibly swallowed the groan that threatened to escape his lips.
With every word the Heavenly Demon spoke, it felt as though a great flood surged through his mind, his energy raging out of control.
To save all living beings from the evil that calls itself righteous while deceiving the masses, we of the Divine Cult cast ourselves down as demons. This, too, is a teaching that leads to the Divine Demon.
Those words carved themselves deeply into Sewoon’s consciousness.
The truth hidden behind the Heavenly Demon’s infamous reputation.
He realized that everything the Heavenly Demon had done was, ultimately, a lonely struggle to save this world.
To protect all living beings from the hypocrisy and violence committed in the name of righteousness, he had chosen to become the darkness himself.
As the misconceptions he had held about the Heavenly Demon were corrected, Sewoon felt his heart quake violently.
‘The will the Heavenly Demon sought was demonic, yet not demonic at all.’
The Heavenly Demon’s will was, in truth, an ultimate love directed toward this world.
Swaaaa!
In that instant, from the Heavenly Demon’s entire body, the energy dwelling within Sewoon’s Ice Wheel Thread burst forth like sunlight.
That breathtakingly beautiful yet piercing cold spread through Sewoon’s body, reaching every limb and bone, inducing a supreme transformation.
‘Ah… so this is…!’
It was as though light had entered a world once filled only with darkness.
As though eyes that had long lost their sight were opening anew.
At that moment, the Heavenly Demon spoke again.
Through the Ice Heaven Demon God Art that I now bestow upon you, the path you must walk should be the same as mine.
The Heavenly Demon.
No—the Soulbound Divine Demon.
It was the very moment when the ultimate demonic path achieved by Linked Sand River was about to be transmitted to Sewoon.