I cut across the night sky.
A crescent moon hung brilliantly overhead as the wind brushed my cheeks.
It was a night that felt unusually beautiful.
Of all nights, it had to be this one.
Feeling the summer heat, how long had I been flying?
It had clearly not been a short distance. The scenery had changed countless times.
Kkwak—!
I tightened my grip. The one I'd dragged along moved her head.
Black hair fluttered in the wind, and her face was furrowed, perhaps from the rough air pressure.
However.
'At this level, it's no big deal, right?'
Even though she was being dragged around by the neck, she showed no sign of discomfort.
How could that be when I was holding on this tightly?
Just as bewilderment tinged with anger began to rise.
Cheonma's gaze fleetingly surveyed the surroundings.
Was it to gauge how far we had flown? The moment that thought crossed my mind.
I felt a sensation on my wrist.
Cheonma grabbed my arm with a pale white hand.
And then.
Kku-uuk—!
"...!"
Cheonma began to push me away with sheer grip strength.
I hadn't been using my full strength, but even so, it was tremendous.
I furrowed my brow.
As expected. So this was what it meant for a Heavenly Demon to be a Heavenly Demon.
'Yes, it should be like this instead.'
Rather, it was only fitting.
This was better for reducing hesitation.
Thinking so.
Kiiiiing—.
I condensed heat behind my back. Then, I detonated the gathered heat in an instant.
Paaaang—!!!
An explosion mixed with qi burst forth, and I used it to add acceleration.
At tremendous speed, I threw my body toward the ground together with Cheonma.
Hwarurururk—!! Kwaaaaaang—!!!!
Vibrations rang out, and flames of enormous size spread in all directions, crushing the earth.
As a result, the forest was destroyed in an instant.
Trees that had abundantly surrounded the area were uprooted, and a field brimming with life was turned into a wasteland.
Thick heat and impact from the flames caused dust to rise.
Saaah...
It was enough dust to obscure one's vision, but such things could no longer blind my eyes.
I surveyed the surroundings with flashing eyes.
No, in truth, there was no need to look.
Because the opponent stood completely still, not moving at all.
I sent out qi to clear away the dust.
Hwaak—! As the dust was swept away, my vision cleared.
With the devastated area behind me, Cheonma stood before me.
She tilted her head and caressed her neck.
Seeing that, I asked with a furrowed brow.
"Why did you follow me?"
"...?"
At my question, Cheonma's expression showed doubt.
"You brought me here."
It was an attitude of utter shamelessness.
In a way, she was right, but I knew it wasn't that simple.
"You could have dodged it."
Cheonma could have easily avoided my surprise attack if she had wanted to.
That much was clear just from the pressure she had shown earlier and the qi she had displayed when protecting Gu Huibi.
So I asked Cheonma.
"Why didn't you dodge and let yourself get caught?"
It was a question of why she hadn't resisted. Hearing this, Cheonma answered.
"If I stayed there, Unni would get hurt."
"..."
"It's fine here."
She gave an answer that made my blood boil just hearing it.
"You're out of your damn mind."
Just what kind of situation was this?
It was absurd beyond belief.
Who would have thought such words would come from Cheonma's mouth? I ground my teeth in fury.
That brief answer was enough to turn my stomach, but.
"...Fine."
It subsided in an instant.
It was meaningless.
The time to rage and grind my teeth had passed. I recalled once more what I had come here for.
Hwarureuk.
Flames gathered above my palm.
In a fleeting moment, a Flame Prison wrapped in blue light was completed. Raising my fighting spirit, I looked at Cheonma.
I would kill Cheonma here. Thus, I would complete part of the karma I had intended to fulfill upon regressing.
Just as I was wrapping myself in qi with only that thought.
Cheonma asked me a question.
"Do you hate me?"
It was an obvious question.
"I hate you."
Enough to want to kill you.
I resented her, again and again.
"Why?"
To me like that, Cheonma continued to ask, as if she simply could not understand.
"I... I haven't done anything to you, though?"
She hadn't done anything. Yes, that was true too.
"You haven't done anything."
In this life, she certainly hadn't done anything. Though we had met several times up until now.
Cheonma had never initiated anything against me first.
It's just that.
"You just haven't done it yet."
"I won't ever do anything, though?"
"..."
I didn't answer that.
Because perhaps that could really be the case.
It was a life where even small matters caused countless changes.
I had changed many people's lives, and my own life was changing as well.
So Cheonma might change too.
Though this was not something I could be certain of.
'In the end, it's merely uncertain.'
That was all.
To believe such fleeting words, I had experienced too much at her hands.
Hwarurureuk.
The condensed Flame Prison changed shape.
I manifested a spear.
The speed at which I created the spear was far faster than before. In an instant, the Flame Prison Spear was completed.
Grabbing it.
Kwadeuk—! I stomped the ground and twisted my upper body.
Using the recoil, I hurled the spear with all my might.
Shwaaaaaaa—!!
Tremendous heat tore through the air and drilled forward in a straight line.
"...!"
Cheonma's eyes widened, and she moved her body to evade the spear.
The spear missed and flew toward the forest behind.
Not long after.
Ung—!
Kwaaaaaaa—!!!
A small vibration rang out, and at the same time, an enormous explosion erupted in the distance.
The smell of gunpowder thickly permeated the air.
Watching this, I narrowed my eyes.
The spear had missed.
But it didn't matter.
'Because I didn't throw it to hit in the first place.'
In the brief moment Cheonma was flustered, I took a half-step.
Half-step (banbo).
It was a light half-stride, but as condensed internal qi infused it, it transformed into something close to distance compression.
The scenery shifted, and I arrived before Cheonma.
There wasn't enough time to manifest the spear.
So I gathered Flame Prison and thrust my hand right in front of her nose.
Cheonma furrowed her eyes.
Last time, she had grabbed and shattered the Flame Prison with her hand. Could she do so again this time?
The strike filled with doubt headed toward Cheonma.
Just as I wondered how she would deal with it.
Seuuuu—!!!
For an instant, I saw black energy gather around Cheonma's physical body.
The formed energy created a thin membrane in a flash, and the extended Flame Prison struck it directly.
Kwaaaaa—!!!
Blue flames containing intense heat exploded.
One might think she would certainly be damaged since it had blown up right in front of her, but.
My expression wasn't very good.
Because the moment I saw the black membrane, I realized.
'It didn't reach.'
Judging so, I widened the distance.
Saaah—!
The heat gathering around Cheonma disappeared, and Cheonma's figure, hidden there, was revealed.
A semi-transparent black membrane formed in a circle.
Inside it, she appeared completely unharmed.
"Tch."
Seeing that, I had to click my tongue briefly.
'So she still has that, I see.'
That membrane was a power Cheonma had possessed in the previous life as well.
Cheonma's overwhelming martial might was strong enough to place her among the strongest.
But it wasn't just that—the power that membrane held had definitely played a large part.
'...Absolute Gangqi.'
I ground my teeth at the recollection of its name.
Protective gangqi was what martial artists used to protect their bodies with qi.
That membrane held power incomparable to such things.
'Cheonma's gangqi isn't merely something that blocks attacks and protects the body...'
It blocked all 'martial arts' that opposed her.
No matter what divine technique or ultimate skill, before Cheonma, it all became meaningless.
Since strength couldn't pierce the gangqi, the only thing possible was to flee.
That was why even the so-called Three Venerables were nothing but weak humans before Cheonma.
'That's what's strange.'
How had Father been able to inflict damage on such a Cheonma?
That question suddenly flashed through my mind.
Had a miracle occurred?
Perhaps it had.
Martial artists could not oppose Cheonma.
Yet martial artists were also those who protected the world and resisted the Blood Calamity.
It seemed like a fight where defeat was already decided, but.
'We had... no, they had the Divine Sword, which is why they could do it.'
The sole person among countless individuals across the Central Plains who could cut through the Absolute Gangqi.
The Divine Sword was exactly such a person.
The so-called Sword of Demonic Destruction.
The Divine Sword was someone who could ignore the Absolute Gangqi and deal damage to Cheonma.
Using that, they had ultimately succeeded in killing Cheonma.
But, put differently.
'Without the Divine Sword, Cheonma's gangqi cannot be pierced.'
There was no issue in seeing it that way, and indeed, that was how it had been in the previous life.
That was also why so many people had died trying to somehow save at least the Divine Sword.
Padeudeuk—!
I ground my teeth roughly.
'How do I pierce that?'
As long as the Absolute Gangqi existed, everything became meaningless.
'If only it hadn't been completed yet, I had hoped at least that it wouldn't be there.'
But damn it, it seemed Cheonma had already established her defensive system.
Then what should I do?
Just what should I do?
In the moment I was agonizing fiercely.
"Stop."
Cheonma muttered to me.
"...I don't want to fight."
Words spat out with a somehow sorrowful expression.
I could feel the emotions contained within, however faintly, in my chest.
Because of that, I briefly thought perhaps they were sincere words.
"Nonsense."
Such feelings burned and disappeared the moment they arose.
"You shouldn't say such things."
You don't want to fight?
At least, you shouldn't be saying that.
Even if you were to say such words.
"You should have done it much earlier."
Not now, not in this life, but much earlier than that.
Even then, it would have been too late.
Hwarureuk.
Flames wrapped around my body. Blue flames burned turbidly.
It was because demonic energy had mixed in along with my emotions.
I still didn't know the method.
Perhaps I might never be able to pierce the gangqi.
Even so.
Turning my back on the moment before my eyes—now was the time to stop doing that.
Kwam—!
I stomped the ground and charged.
I twisted my waist and put strength into my lower body.
I immediately launched a kick at Cheonma.
Hwarureuk—! Flames wrapped around the tips of my feet.
Condensed into a single point, I swung at Cheonma, but.
Pang—!
The moment it touched the gangqi, the flames vanished. The qi gathered in my leg also disappeared.
Strength drained away.
In an instant, the kick lost its speed.
Kwak—!
Cheonma grabbed my leg like that and threw me spinning away.
Hwaak—!
"Kuk!"
Perhaps she had used considerable force, as my body flew at tremendous speed.
Since I mustn't widen the distance more than necessary, I immediately spewed flames to stop my movement.
Hwarueuk—! Chiiik—!!
Just as I barely reduced my speed and was about to charge again, looking forward.
"..."
Cheonma, who had already approached at some point, was looking at me from up close.
Damn it.
Was she toying with me?
"...Stop...."
A miserable voice grazed my ears.
It was even more disgusting that she said such things with the exact same face and voice as Wi Seol-a.
'Find a way.'
The more it was like this, the more I had to find a way. Until now, I had found them well.
Thus, I would find one this time too.
Now was the time to do so.
Looking at Cheonma enveloped in gangqi, I opened my Mind's Eye.
I had opened it wondering if I could see something with the Mind's Eye.
'Bullshit.'
I had to curse the moment I saw the membrane.
'Nothing is visible?'
Even with the Mind's Eye, no flow whatsoever was visible in the membrane.
How could that be?
All qi inevitably had flow.
If that too was gangqi, some degree of flow should have been visible, yet in Cheonma's Absolute Gangqi, not even the slightest flow could be seen.
'No. It's not strange.'
Yes, it wasn't strange.
If something like flow had been visible from the start.
'Because Paejon couldn't have been defeated.'
Not Paejon, who possessed a Mind's Eye even more precise than mine, and of course the Three Venerables couldn't have been defeated so easily either.
Because it was difficult to break, they must have tried somehow to save the Divine Sword.
'This is a real shitty situation.'
Was there truly no way?
No matter how much I struggled to kill Cheonma, if I couldn't overcome even this, it was no different from being unable to start.
Even after regressing and struggling so much, to fail to open even that single thing was simply absurd.
'It's a nonsensical power from the start.'
A gangqi that blocks all martial arts.
To express such a thing as gangqi...
'Huh?'
I stopped mid-thought.
Because something had come to mind.
'What if...'
If the Absolute Gangqi wasn't gangqi from the very beginning.
If the reason no flow was visible through the Mind's Eye was, in other words, because it wasn't qi itself.
'It might not be qi. Which means.'
I raised my head and looked at Cheonma.
Cheonma was looking at me with the same expression as before.
"I...."
I heard something she was trying to say. What was she trying to say to me, moving her lips?
Though I had such doubts, more than that.
"Greed."
There was something I had to do first.
"Bite."
Kkumteul—.
Kwadeudeuk—!
"...!"
A giant mouth bursting from my shadow bit and tore Cheonma's gangqi.
Space formed where Greed had bitten.
The membrane was torn away.
Cheonma's Absolute Gangqi had been ripped apart by Greed.
"Huh?"
At the torn membrane, Cheonma displayed a bewildered reaction for a moment.
I didn't miss that.
Hwarueuk—!
I wedged the gathered Flame Prison into the gap.
Then.
Kwaaaaaaa—!!!
An explosion burst from inside the membrane.
Smoke billowed out and spread to the surroundings.
Fortunately, the smoke subsided before long.
Where the smoke had completely cleared, Cheonma stood.
Drip...
Blood was dripping from the corner of Cheonma's mouth.
Cheonma wiped the flowing blood with the back of her hand and looked at it.
"Uh...."
Emotions of disbelief were clearly visible in her eyes.
"It hurts."
The halting words seemed like something she had almost never spat out before.
Moreover, as she said it hurt, her eyes were full of wonder.
Was being in pain that wondrous?
On one hand, it felt surprising.
I felt the same.
'...I suspected, but.'
I had thought it strange that it couldn't be seen with the Mind's Eye.
The black membrane protecting her body was no gangqi.
"That was an Authority."
"Authority?"
The baptism used by demonic humans.
Recalling the many demonic humans who had received supernatural powers from Cheonma, I found it strange myself that I hadn't thought of it.
"I thought it made no sense as martial arts...."
From the start.
"It wasn't martial arts."
"..."
I raised myself up.
Just as Cheonma had done, I too wiped away the drops flowing down my chin.
Was it sweat?
When had I started sweating cold sweat?
My body wasn't tired. My internal qi was overflowing.
Even so, my physical body was sweating cold sweat.
As if I had been frightened prematurely.
Ridiculous.
"Huu...."
I let out a deep sigh and raised my head.
And I looked at Cheonma, who was bleeding.
Was Cheonma a dragon?
Since she used an Authority, I thought she might indeed be a dragon, but.
'I don't feel hostility.'
The hostility I had felt whenever I saw a dragon was faint.
No, hostility was definitely being felt. It was just that.
'It's not because she's a dragon.'
It was closer to the hostility felt toward an existence that must be killed—a different instinctive sensation from what I felt simply because the opponent was a dragon.
What was going on?
Though a question suddenly arose.
'None of that matters.'
Now even that no longer mattered.
What was important now.
"I can pierce it."
That I could pierce Cheonma's membrane, something only the Divine Sword could do.
And thus.
'I will devour.'
That I could chew up and swallow the spawn of the Blood Calamity right here.
That was the only thing that mattered to me now.
Kkumteul.
Heat surged.
Dugeun—!
The backlash starting from my heart seeped into the corners of my eyes.
A reddish hue gradually seeped into the shining blue eyes.
Then blue and red mixed, turning purple.
I might be able to kill Cheonma.
By doing so, I might be able to fully take the place of the Divine Sword.
Such longing accumulated in my head.
"Greed."
The newly arisen possibility turned into longing.
The twisted longing turned into hope.
And further, hope turned into purpose.
Thus the created purpose ignited turbidly, mixed with purple.
"Devour."
Kyaaaaaa—!!
Kill Cheonma.
Now, there was only that thought.
*****************
Hwarurururuk—!!!
Just as purple light dyed the area beneath the crescent moon.
"...Mm."
Sensing a presence, the man looked in one direction. Hanam, where the Martial Alliance was. His original destination, but.
Hwareuk.
Now, nothing but blazing flames could be seen.
"..."
At this, the man withdrew his gaze and surveyed the surroundings.
On Taeseong Mountain, which led to Hanam, another fire was burning.
Taeseong Mountain.
It was a towering great mountain located on the path from Shanxi to Hanam.
It was a mountain that should have been filled with green light befitting the season.
Yet for some reason, Taeseong Mountain was wrapped in flames, burning red even in the middle of the night.
The strange thing was, there were houses below the mountain, yet the people of those houses showed no interest even as Taeseong Mountain burned.
As if.
As if the flames could not be seen at all.
On the peak of Taeseong Mountain wrapped in such alien flames stood the man.
The Patriarch of the Shanxi Gu Clan, Tiger Hero Gu Cheol-un, looked ahead with expressionless eyes.
To be precise, he was facing the owner of these flames that enveloped the mountain.
At the end of his gaze, someone sat astride a massive rock.
A white-haired elder wearing a completely tattered rag was visible.
The elder was looking at Gu Cheol-un with crimson-tinted eyes.
The strange thing was.
A huge red horn was sprouting from one side of the elder's forehead.
The horn glowing red in the darkness was clearly visible even at night.
Gu Cheol-un, who had been looking at that horn, turned his similarly red eyes and opened his mouth to the elder.
"It has been a while. I trust you have been in good health."
To those words of Gu Cheol-un.
"Father."
The elder's expression changed into a ghastly smile.