Chapter 41
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It was undoubtedly him.
The man who was a first-generation disciple of the Qingcheng Sect and one of its most talented martial artists.
His outstanding looks, enough to stir the hearts of all, young and old, were impossible to forget.
When he was a Taoist, he had an air of pure elegance, but the Heavenly Demon he faced now exuded a dangerous and languid aura.
His entire demeanor had changed so drastically it was hard to believe he was the same person.
And he, too, like Paeng Seo-jin, had been one of those abducted by the Demonic Cult.
For that man to suddenly appear and display the Heavenly Demon's martial arts... And to have learned them without succumbing to madness...
To think he was the one who had become the new Cult Leader.
Would the great bloodbath of fifty years ago happen all over again?
Paeng Ji-ryang's thoughts were cut short.
“Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword: Heaven-Defying Slaughter.”
Because as the man spoke in a low voice, the five swords held in the demon's hands moved in unison.
The movement was like a bolt of lightning.
A shower of light rained down from above, beautiful, but to be captivated by that beauty meant death.
Paeng Ji-ryang's eyes widened.
He tried to block the swords pouring down on him, but it was too late.
Paeng Ji-ryang's body was neatly split into five pieces.
Blood gushed from it like a fountain.
The man looked down at Paeng Ji-ryang's lifeless corpse with impassive eyes.
“I am not the person you think I am. I am the Heavenly Demon.”
*Crunch.*
The man's foot mercilessly crushed Paeng Ji-ryang's head.
“And the calamity that will become the new master of this world.”
Heavenly Demon Sa-u.
He had long since abandoned his true name and was now on the verge of mastering the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword.
And today, he had effortlessly disposed of the Saber Emperor, Paeng Ji-ryang, one of the Seven Emperors Under Heaven.
It was not just the Saber Emperor who had been dealt with.
The Hebei Peng Clan, which had long protected Beijing, was also disappearing.
Not a single one of the beautiful pavilions made of red pine was left unburnt.
Where burnt signboards had fallen, the lifeless bodies of the Hebei Peng Clan's warriors lay scattered.
The warriors still breathing let out pained groans, desperately hoping for someone to save them.
But there was no one left to save them. Even the Saber Emperor had met a futile end.
Raging flames lit up the night sky.
A conflagration that would not be easily extinguished.
Just then, two figures leaped out from between the flames.
They came over the outer wall, which had collapsed from Paeng Ji-ryang's attack, and looked at the Heavenly Demon who was crushing Paeng Ji-ryang's head.
Behind the Heavenly Demon, the six arms of the Asura, not yet faded, floated menacingly.
One of the newly arrived men saw the Asura and exclaimed in great admiration.
“You are on the verge of mastering the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword, Cult Leader! The world will tremble before your martial might, which the Saber Emperor could not even touch.”
The man who shouted this prostrated himself, banging his head on the floor.
“Somagi, you're being loud.”
But Somagi was still moved to be alive to witness the Heavenly Demon's martial arts once more.
To Somagi, the Heavenly Demon was his eternal lord and glory.
Fifty years ago, the Demonic Cult, which had sought to sweep through the Murim with the Heavenly Demon, was miserably defeated due to the desperate resistance of the Murim Alliance and the prowess of the Soul-Chasing Sword.
While countless Demonic Cultists were dying, Somagi had luckily survived.
Somagi, along with the other survivor, Baek Ga-rim, had striven for fifty years for the return of the Demonic Cult.
Finding talents from the Orthodox Factions who could learn the Heavenly Demon's arts, kidnapping them, and forcing them to learn...
Of course, the kidnapped youngsters from the Orthodox Factions had not been obedient. They had been so much trouble.
Among them, the man who was now the Heavenly Demon had resisted the most fiercely.
That was why, in the past, Somagi had never thought he would become the Heavenly Demon.
But one day, he suddenly began to learn the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword as if he had become a different person.
He was like someone who had resolved to become the Heavenly Demon.
What had changed him?
There seemed to be some trigger, but Somagi did not know the reason.
No, he did not try to find out.
For Somagi, the only thing that mattered was his achievement.
After his sudden change, he grew at an astonishing rate, eventually summoning the six arms of the Demon God, Asura.
He had fulfilled the prerequisite to becoming the Heavenly Demon—the ability to fully wield the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword.
Afterward, he achieved even greater mastery of the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword, causing each of Asura's six hands to hold a sword.
And so, he was now able to use up to the fifth sword.
Briefly recalling the past, Somagi's eyes reddened.
If the current Heavenly Demon's Asura could grasp the sixth sword, they could avenge the grudge from fifty years ago, and the Demonic Cult would rule the world.
Somagi admired the Heavenly Demon's bewitchingly red eyes, then banged his head on the floor again.
“Soon, the world will lie at the Cult Leader's feet.”
The Heavenly Demon ignored Somagi's continuous praise.
‘His obedience is good, but I can't seem to get used to this excessive adulation.’
The Heavenly Demon's gaze turned to the man who had appeared with Somagi.
The man was dressed as a neat scholar, a sight unbefitting a battlefield. Not a single drop of blood stained his white silk clothes.
The man held a folding fan, and the face visible beyond it was lustrous and beautiful.
However, his features were well-defined, so he did not look merely pretty.
A man who could appear as a beauty or a handsome man depending on the angle.
The man's name flowed from the Heavenly Demon's lips.
“Baek Ga-rim, have you taken care of the Peng Clan's small fry?”
His name was Baek Ga-rim.
He was the Pavilion Master of the Extreme Demon Pavilion, one of the four pavilions of the Demonic Cult.
The Extreme Demon Pavilion was the largest of the four pavilions and held a correspondingly important role. It was the place that managed all the Demonic Cult's resources and held overall decision-making authority.
“Yes, the prostrating Somagi was quite useless, so I had to exert myself.”
“Good work.”
The Heavenly Demon's blood-soaked feet began to walk, step by step.
The Heavenly Demon admired the scene visible through the gaping hole in the outer wall.
The Hebei Peng Clan was engulfed in a sea of fire.
Baek Ga-rim, Somagi, the Demonic Cult's military units—the Blood Wolf Brigade and the Extreme Demon Brigade—and the madmen they brought with them had dragged everyone in the Hebei Peng Clan to their deaths.
The annihilation of the Hebei Peng Clan, one of the Five Great Clans.
It was something made possible only by mobilizing the full might of the Demonic Cult.
No one would leave this place alive today.
As his thoughts reached that point, his heart suddenly stung.
Through the gray smoke rising above the flames, a long-forgotten memory from the past shimmered like a heat haze.
“Y-Young Master. I'm sorry... for not being... of help...”
Caught in the faintly surfacing old memory, the Heavenly Demon's eyes turned an even deeper red.
The hand gripping the jet-black Profound Sword of the Demon Emperor trembled slightly.
The sword, having tasted blood, craved more slaughter.
“Kill. Kill them all and raise a storm of blood.”
A grotesque voice, as if scraped from the throat, resonated in the Heavenly Demon's ears.
The temptation was relentless, throwing his mind into chaos.
The identity of this demonic whisper was ‘Madness’.
Madness was a symptom that always appeared when using the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword.
When one only learned the forms (式) of the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword, the Madness did not manifest.
But from the moment one went beyond the forms and manifested the shape (形) of Asura, the Demonic Energy would increase explosively.
That Demonic Energy was vast enough to fill all eight extraordinary meridians.
The problem, however, was the Demonic Energy that spread to the upper dantian.
If one could not control the Demonic Energy spreading throughout the brain, they would lose their reason and become a madman.
Warriors who became madmen due to Demonic Energy could be controlled by a flute called the Blood Demon Flute, a sacred artifact of the Demonic Cult.
Heavenly Demon Sa-u was no exception.
He had become the Heavenly Demon because he was the best at controlling the Madness among those who learned the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword, but he could not control it perfectly.
Thus, if he gave in to the voice urging him to slaughter and indiscriminately cut people down, he could truly go mad.
He could lose his will, like the madmen of the Demonic Cult, and become a blood-crazed fiend.
Since he had to overcome the Madness to fully master the Asura's Blood Heavenly Sword, he was desperate to find a cure.
To that end, he had consumed all sorts of Spiritual Herbs, Spiritual Elixirs, and even the inner cores of spiritual beasts, but there had been no noticeable improvement.
“...Cult Leader, is the Madness perhaps causing you harm?”
The quick-witted Baek Ga-rim instantly recognized the Heavenly Demon's condition.
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