The Heavenly Demon Who Reigns

The twenty-second leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, Cheon Jin's eldest son.

That was Cheon Myeong.

Normally, he would have been the true owner of this body.

But now, for some unknown reason, Jang Cheon's soul had entered Cheon Myeong's body.

In other words, the true owner of this body had now become Jang Cheon.

Of course, he still had the memories of the body's original owner, Cheon Myeong, but the actual personality was Jang Cheon.

'For convenience's sake, it would be better to live as Cheon Myeong from now on.'

If asked which was more important, the mind or the body, Jang Cheon would naturally say the mind.

But to outsiders, Jang Cheon was, for all intents and purposes, Cheon Myeong.

Therefore, in order to live in this body, it would be more convenient in many ways to live as the being called Cheon Myeong, just as he had been doing until now.

After all, he knew for sure who he really was on the inside.

It didn't really matter how his outward appearance changed.

'I don't know what kind of heavenly luck followed me, but I have come to the past, about a hundred years from the era I originally lived in.'

As he remembered, the era when Cheon Jin was the leader was when the Demonic Cult began to split and its power began to weaken.

At the same time, from the next generation onwards, the incantation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was lost, and the lineage of the Heavenly Demon could no longer be continued.

In the end, the Demonic Cult that he originally knew, that is, the time when it had weakened as much as it could, would come.

'If I take action now, I can prevent the division of our cult.'

He knew the future.

If so, if he changed the present based on that, wouldn't the future also change?

In addition, he would be able to achieve the mastery of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, which he had not been able to achieve before, in this era.

However.

Contrary to his thoughts, reality did not flow so smoothly.

"..."

Cheon Myeong sat cross-legged again in the room and examined his dantian.

It was clean.

He couldn't feel a single handful of internal energy in his dantian, to the point where he wondered if this dantian really belonged to the son of the leader.

Hoo-.

A sigh escaped Cheon Myeong's lips.

Before he could even hope to complete the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, he had to do something about his empty dantian.

'What on earth was this guy thinking, leaving his dantian in this state?'

Of course, he knew the reason why his dantian had become like this.

And even what kind of feelings the original owner of the body had lived with until now.

Still, the current Cheon Myeong could not understand his past actions.

"..."

Originally, Cheon Myeong's dantian had internal energy.

And a considerable amount of it at that.

As the eldest son of the leader, he had been trained to become the successor since he was young, so it was natural for him to accumulate that much internal energy.

But about three years ago, Cheon Myeong fell into Qi Deviation, and although he was lucky enough to survive, his dantian was completely destroyed as a result.

'If the dantian was restored, shouldn't he have trained that much again?'

Restoring a destroyed dantian requires a huge amount of funds and heavenly luck.

Fortunately, the Demonic Cult had a huge amount of funds, so all that was left was heavenly luck.

Fortunately, as if heaven had helped, the Demonic Cult was able to restore Cheon Myeong's dantian with all kinds of elixirs.

However.

Cheon Myeong's original personality was so timid and cowardly that it was hard to believe he was the son of the leader.

Having had a near-death experience due to Qi Deviation, it took considerable courage to train again.

And the cowardly Cheon Myeong ended up running away.

"..."

And now, this situation had come to be.

Moreover, the place where Cheon Myeong was currently staying was not even Heavenly Mountain, where the headquarters of the Demonic Cult was located.

It was Shaanxi, which could be called the center of the Central Plains.

He was living like a dead rat in a remote village in that region.

'How shameful...'

In fact, the person who sent Cheon Myeong here was the leader, Cheon Jin, but at that time, Cheon Myeong was relieved inside when he received the order.

If he came to Shaanxi, he would no longer be caught up in the succession dispute and could live peacefully.

Wasn't it a perfect life for Cheon Myeong, who hated fighting and had a timid personality?

When he thought of the past guy who had thought that, Cheon Myeong could only sigh.

'I should go back to Heavenly Mountain right away.'

...is what he wanted to say, but.

If he went back with this body, no one would welcome him.

How much must he have disliked his son to chase him away to this distant place?

Moreover, the name Cheon Myeong was not written in the later genealogy, so he could well guess what kind of treatment he was receiving.

In order to change Cheon Jin's mind now, he would need to show him a somewhat changed appearance.

'I will return to Heavenly Mountain. But before that, I need to build some foundation.'

Originally, it was a truly hopeless situation.

However, Cheon Myeong had a single ray of hope to lean on, and that was his memory as Jang Cheon.

Although he had not mastered the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, if we were to talk purely about his talent for martial arts, he was not inferior to the previous leaders at all.

Rather, he could be called a great genius for having reached such a level with the incomplete Heavenly Demon Divine Art in such a poor situation.

'There must be a lost incantation. And in this era, the complete Heavenly Demon Divine Art must still be passed down.'

Of course, this was just Cheon Myeong's thought.

As he trained in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, Cheon Myeong reached a limit at a certain point, and he could not go beyond that even if he poured in his talent and effort.

Also, the strange sense of incongruity he felt in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art in the process.

After persistently digging into this point, he eventually came to the conclusion that there was a lost incantation in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art he had learned.

'I will be able to obtain that part naturally later on.'

Then, in this generation, he would be able to complete the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

Before that, he could train in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art based on his existing memories.

After finishing his thoughts, Cheon Myeong immediately entered a state of energy circulation.

"..."

Energy circulation was the most basic act for a martial artist.

No matter how much of a world-class master one was, there would be no one who reached that level without going through this process.

Of course, once one reached a certain level, there was no need to circulate energy in this way, but this was not the case for the current Cheon Myeong at all.

Woong-.

Cheon Myeong continued to circulate his energy while reciting the incantation needed to accumulate internal energy.

However, the amount of internal energy was clearly different from when Cheon Myeong had circulated his energy in the past.

That was natural.

Even if one knew the same incantation, if there was a difference in the understanding of it, the result would naturally be different.

That was the case right now.

He was reciting the incantation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art with the enlightenment he had gained based on his memory as Jang Cheon, so there was a clear difference compared to the past.

"..."

Thanks to this, Cheon Myeong was absorbing internal energy at a speed that was unimaginable in the past.

And finally, internal energy began to accumulate in Cheon Myeong's lower dantian, which had been empty for quite a long time.

After two hours.

Cheon Myeong quietly opened his eyes.

'Now I feel like the emptiness has disappeared to some extent.'

Of course, the amount of internal energy in his dantian now was not even a drop in the bucket compared to before.

But there was a huge difference between having it and not having it.

It could be said that he had finally returned to the body of a martial artist.

'Let's not overdo it.'

There was a reason why Cheon Myeong stopped circulating his energy after two hours.

Just as one could get an upset stomach from overeating, the same was true for internal energy.

If one suddenly accepted an excessive amount of energy into the dantian when there was no internal energy at all, one could get an upset stomach.

Of course, the meaning of that upset stomach was Qi Deviation, and this body had a history of it in the past, so he needed to be even more careful.

'Now, should I train my body?'

The training methods of martial arts could be broadly divided into two.

Internal energy and external energy.

If internal energy meant internal training like just now, external energy was the opposite, that is, training the body.

Of course, there were also methods of training the body such as forms or routines.

But all of that was useless to the current Cheon Myeong.

Swish-.

Cheon Myeong silently rolled up his sleeves.

Then, a gaunt forearm was revealed from the exposed area.

'Is this really my forearm?'

He couldn't believe it even after seeing it himself.

The forearm of a scarecrow in a rice paddy would be thicker than this.

To that extent, Cheon Myeong's body was so small compared to a normal person.

'Maybe I need to focus on external training rather than internal training.'

When he recalled his appearance as Jang Cheon, only sighs came out.

Even though he had entered his old age, Jang Cheon's body was made of solid muscles, and he had a huge build that most people had to look up to see.

Of course, he didn't expect that level of skill now, but shouldn't he at least be on par with others?

With this body, he didn't think he could even perform a single form properly.

'Let's start right away.'

Cheon Myeong was the type of person who had to do what he thought of right away.

Of course, that was also a personality he had as Jang Cheon, and it would be very helpful in this situation.

Thump-.

Cheon Myeong immediately supported his body with his arms and legs and took a push-up position.

And he slowly bent and straightened his arms.

Tremble- Tremble-.

He had only done one, but his arms were trembling like this.

If he had his way, he wanted to collapse on the floor right away.

But seeing his trembling arms in front of him, he couldn't collapse even out of spite.

'A hundred! I will never collapse before that!'

Thinking so, Cheon Myeong bent and straightened his arms again.

And a moment later.

Cheon Myeong quietly lowered his goal from a hundred to twenty.

* * *

Mihwa was heading somewhere with a bowl on a tray.

What was in the bowl was porridge.

Since Cheon Myeong could still be considered a patient, she had prepared food that was easy to digest.

'Still, I'm glad the Young Master seems to be safe.'

According to the doctor, because he had severely injured his head, there was a risk of memory confusion if things went wrong.

But as a result, Cheon Myeong did not seem to have such symptoms.

And his wounds seemed to be recovering quickly, so it was a relief.

'Still, there are times when his atmosphere changes from before.'

Of course, it could be her own misunderstanding.

It was just that she felt that way because she had been serving Cheon Myeong for a long time.

There was no definite change, so she couldn't say for sure.

'Anyway, I hope Elder Soyeon Sang comes back soon.'

Soyeon Sang was a person who was sent to Shaanxi with Cheon Myeong from the main headquarters, just like Mihwa.

If Mihwa had accompanied him to serve him, Soyeon Sang was sent to protect Cheon Myeong.

But Soyeon Sang was not in Shaanxi right now.

Because there was a time when he regularly visited the main headquarters, and now was that time.

And unfortunately, in the meantime, Cheon Myeong had gotten into such trouble.

'If only Elder Soyeon Sang comes back, he'll be able to give those guys who put the Young Master in that state a good scolding.'

The guys who had put Cheon Myeong in that state were famous for being vicious in this village.

The so-called Yakhyeon Gang.

It was a gang that committed all kinds of vicious acts, centered on the leader, Yakhyeon.

They didn't commit murder, but they did all sorts of bad things, such as extortion and threats.

'If those guys had known our Young Master's identity, they wouldn't have even dreamed of doing this.'

To the villagers, the three of them, including Cheon Myeong, were just an ordinary family.

A brother and sister living under a single father after their mother died early.

Since they had come here for the purpose of hiding their identities, they had made their outward appearance look like that.

"Hoo... Let's endure it, let's endure it."

Seeing the master she had served for a long time return in such a state, Mihwa also became angry.

No matter what others said, to Mihwa, Cheon Myeong was a very excellent and good master.

If she had her way, she wanted to give those guys a scolding before Soyeon Sang returned, but she didn't have the strength to do so, so Mihwa could only suppress her anger inside.

"Young Master, I've brought your meal."

Arriving in front of Cheon Myeong's room, Mihwa cleared her throat and said.

But no answer came from inside.

"Young Master."

Mihwa called Cheon Myeong again.

But still, all that came back was silence.

As the silence continued, Mihwa had a bad feeling for a moment.

'Could it be...!'

Did he think he was fine, but his condition worsened and he collapsed!

As that thought came to her, Mihwa immediately opened the door.

Clack-.

The door opened roughly.

As soon as the door opened, Cheon Myeong's figure was immediately visible.

And.

Mihwa was at a loss for words with surprised eyes at the sight inside.

(End of Chapter)