The God of the Demon Realm, called Hell.
Someone arrived at the entrance of the Ten Thousand Demons Hall, where they dwelled.
Arisa, dressed in an elegant gown, knocked on the door of the massive temple.
“I have come bearing Lord Paimon’s message.”
The door opened noisily.
Screech, screech.
“Someone fix that door.”
“You fix it.”
“We barely even use it, so just leave it.”
Dozens of demons grumbled and muttered.
Inside, various demons sat in their respective places, chattering.
Arisa ascended to the lowest stage, which they all looked down upon.
Thrones that existed according to each one’s position and power.
The highest throne among them stood empty.
Immediately below it, Lucifer—once the King of Demons and the true Demon God of the Demon Realm—gazed at her.
“Well, well. To what do I owe the pleasure of the mighty Paimon’s hound coming all this way?”
Arisa looked at them with an expressionless face.
“Lord Paimon wishes for all of you to join him.”
“Hahahaha!”
Everyone laughed heartily, throwing their heads back.
Lucifer sported the widest grin among them and spoke.
“What? That great Archdemon, the Great Demon of Wisdom and Mystery, needs *our* power? Hah!?”
He roughly struck the armrest of his throne.
*Thud!*
Dense black demonic energy spread throughout the hall.
“You tried to devour everything alone, crushed us underfoot, and now you summon us again?”
Arisa tidied her swaying hair and spoke once more.
“That is correct.”
“Hahahaha!”
Everyone laughed.
Lucifer raised his hand, and the laughter immediately ceased.
“Brothers. A worthless underling flaps her mouth before us. Shall we simply stand by and watch?”
At Lucifer’s words, one demon stood up.
Dantalian, bearing many faces, smiled faintly.
“Perfect. I’ve wanted your face for a while now.”
She looked at him with a listless gaze.
“Lord Dantalian. Do you dream?”
“Dare you present a trifling creation’s ability before a great Demon God!”
Dantalian’s sinister demonic energy drew near.
“There is no true god. All are merely creations.”
The energy vanished without a trace, and Dantalian likewise collapsed to the floor with a thud.
Silence descended upon the hall.
Arisa revealed a displeased expression and addressed them all.
“Lord Paimon has said he will share your stake.”
Everyone stirred.
“In exchange for sharing the stake in the new world.”
Everyone pricked up their ears.
“He has requested that you dispose of the vermin in the Ruination Realm.”
Lucifer made an intrigued expression.
“Very well.”
She turned and exited the Ten Thousand Demons Hall.
Lucifer looked at the fallen Dantalian and spoke.
“She’s gone, you fool.”
*Squirm.*
Dantalian awkwardly rose.
“To think demons of hell would fall to a mere Demon King.”
“Ahem. For a Demon King, he has transcended far too much.”
“Shut up. You’re going first. Send out your Demon King. Go and wipe them out.”
Dantalian grumbled at those words.
“Come on, do you know how hard it is to raise a Demon King? How the hell does that bastard Paimon mass-produce them like a factory?”
He grumbled as he left the Ten Thousand Demons Hall and headed somewhere.
“The Ruination Realm. So far away.”
* * *
Dantalian hurriedly arrived in the Ruination Realm.
He looked down beneath a massive mountain range.
“Quiet. Did I really have to come all the way to such a boring place?”
He looked around.
“I’ll have to settle this with my own subordinates. It would be a disgrace to my standing as a Demon God if I stepped in myself.”
The many faces embedded in Dantalian’s body twitched.
He looked down at his body and picked one with his finger.
“Hmm, which one should I send?”
While he was in the middle of choosing, the ground shook.
“Why…… is this happening?”
As he looked around, it suddenly grew dark.
“What?”
Dantalian looked up, and a giant sprang to his feet, looking down at him.
“H-haha, h-hello?”
The giant spoke, harboring cold fury.
“Abominable demon. I shall avenge my kin.”
“Damn it! The one who wiped you out was that bastard Paimon! Why the hell are you taking it out on me!”
The giant’s fist slammed into the ground.
“Gaaack!”
Dantalian urgently cried out.
“Everyone, get out!”
As he hurriedly tried to distance himself from the giant, the sound of a dog barking was heard from afar.
Annoyed by the sound, he turned sharply and frowned.
“What kind of mutt?!”
Blue grinned and opened his maw wide.
“Snack time!”
“Shit.”
* * *
Shiver, shiver.
Nangong Zhentian’s body shook violently.
The trembling would not stop.
“This is too strong!”
Bai Yalin hurriedly dragged Bu Shinhyeok’s body, struggling, and moved far away.
“Xiao Hui! Get away!”
The sparks originating from Nangong Zhentian were growing increasingly intense.
At the same time, his body was being enveloped in lightning.
“This won’t do. Everyone out!”
He dashed out into the corridor and shouted to everyone around.
“Everyone get out of the castle! Hurry!”
At the urgent cry, the residents dwelling inside the castle scrambled out.
When they came outside, the castle was a sight to behold.
Lightning enveloped the castle.
“What in the world is going on?”
Everyone watched with expressions of bewilderment and shock.
“What on earth did this old man make?”
Bu Shinhyeok, who had collapsed, couldn’t answer.
Xiao Hui quietly clasped her hands and prayed.
“Please, please save our grandfather.”
* * *
Someone’s past, and a miserable memory.
Those memories surfaced once more.
“Zhentian. Do you like the Heavenly Thunder?”
Someone whispered to Nangong Zhentian.
“Yes. Is it not the greatest among all martial arts? That is why I like it.”
He remembered who had whispered.
His foolish youth.
His father, who had been the family head, asked him.
“Will you not regret it?”
He remembered confidently answering, “I will not.”
“My son. There are many martial arts. I recommend a different one.”
To him, a fledgling of the martial world who had just received a superior art capable of reaching the pinnacle, those words had been all too cruel.
He had hated them.
The reality of bearing the name Nangong, yet being treated as the lowest among the junior generation.
In that reality, his father’s kindness and consideration had instead sounded like mockery.
“No. The Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art is my path. I shall prove it.”
His father swallowed many words and stood up.
“If it feels dangerous, stop at any time.”
“Danger is a fate that martial artists always carry. If I lose to that fate, then so be it.”
He had said so proudly to his father.
Only after outgrowing the junior generation did he understand the reason for his father’s pitiable gaze.
When he had passed thirty, reached forty, and was approaching the Transcendent Pinnacle.
It happened.
“Kuh.”
He collapsed in the training ground, clutching his heart and dantian.
“My son!”
His father rushed out and embraced him.
What he barely opened his eyes to see was a gaze that said, *The inevitable has come.*
“No. N-no……!”
And when he opened his eyes again, the physician delivered a definitive diagnosis.
“You must not use martial arts anymore. Over half of your meridians have already burned away.”
“…….”
He couldn’t help but make a hollow expression.
After the physician withdrew, his father entered.
“Zhentian.”
“Are you satisfied?”
“Zhentian!”
He glared at his father with a twisted expression.
“Instead of this incompetent eldest son, your second son will become the family head. You must feel much more at ease.”
“How can you look at it that way? You are my son too. Why do you see it with such a twisted heart!”
Not wanting to speak anymore, he turned away.
“Zhentian. Please.”
His father did not leave his side.
He simply spoke calmly about the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art.
“That divine art requires the mandate of heaven. That is why I told you to give it up.”
His mind, warped by his distorted heart and declining talent, had become utterly twisted, and he shouted in a burst of rage.
“Are you saying I am not the one!”
“No.”
His father answered him to his face.
“Thunder is pure and intense. The very act of containing it is beyond common sense.”
“…….”
His father continued.
“But do you know why such a martial art exists in our family?”
“Why.”
“To be given to one who bears the destiny of a Sovereign chosen by the heavens. Because it is possible for them.”
*So it’s about constitution.*
He became even more miserable.
“I was not the one?”
“You were not. Many martial artists of various families have died that way. Unable to withstand the heavenly lightning.”
Nangong Zhentian let out a hollow laugh.
“Kekekek.”
Laughing like a madman alone, he rose from his sickbed.
He tore off his training clothes and threw them away.
“I shall no longer live as a martial artist. This child shall leave the Nangong family.”
Throwing on only a light outer robe, he left the Nangong household that very day.
This was his last memory of his father.
“It is a martial art chosen by the heavens. It was simply that kind of fate.”
Nangong Zhentian was filled with those memories.
And yet, the reason he had seized it again.
*Xiao Hui…… Hui-ah.*
Those he must protect.
Those he had to meet again.
Such people remained.
*Not now. Not now!*
Nangong Zhentian grasped the intense thunder energy burning his entire body.
When he circulated it according to the formula the young hero had taught him, the thunder energy gradually subsided.
*It’s settling.*
But he felt that something was wrong.
*Why is the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art designed to accept the thunder energy wholly, without refining or diluting it?*
Why had such a formula remained in the family, never corrected?
Why had his father said, *It is a martial art chosen by the heavens*?
Questions arose.
[You have temporarily connected to the administrator of Yggdrasil.]
[Sharing a portion of the root.]
[Temporarily accessing the Trait: Akashic Cabinet.]
[A new skill is being generated.]
[Shall I inform you?]
Someone made contact.
And asked.
[I am the Akashic Cabinet. You may think of me as the administrator’s library.]
*Ah. That young hero’s……*
[I am currently in a state of temporary connection with you, Nangong Zhentian-nim, so conversation is possible.]
[For your reference, I can answer the earlier question.]
“Then answer me. How is it that the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art possesses a formula that does not consider the practitioner’s life?”
[It appears to be related to “Bone Transformation” among martial artists’ knowledge.]
“What?”
[It is conjectured to be for inducing rapid physical development with a small amount of accumulated qi.]
[Bone Transformation is an unconscious physical evolution phenomenon in which the body metamorphoses through accumulated internal energy, enabling the free circulation of qi.]
“So?”
[For that reason, there have been many baseless hypotheses since ancient times that the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art requires being chosen by the heavens.]
[In reality, what matters is whether one can endure the process. My conjecture is that the core is enduring until the heavenly thunder burns everything and brings about new change.]
[Hasty abandonment and neglect rather worsen the condition.]
“Ha, haha, hahaha!”
Nangong Zhentian burst into uproarious laughter.
*Because I gave up on myself.*
[A true Sovereign must know how to appropriately understand the words of others.]
“Yes. That’s right. I should have gone my own stubborn way.”
[Biological synthesis is currently in progress.]
*For one must burn everything to be reborn.*
Nangong Zhentian attained enlightenment.
He discarded the supplemented formula.
*Burn me. All of me.*
He entrusted the intense thunder energy entirely to the flow.
*Szzzzt!*
The released lightning grew larger and larger.
“Heavenly lightning. Since you do not permit it, I shall seize it myself.”
The blue lightning gradually dyed itself black.
Nangong Zhentian, stained in black lightning, rose with a smile.
Smiling, he spread his arms wide.
“Burn me. Every last strand of hair, every fragment of flesh!”
His surroundings filled with black lightning and devoured the castle.
“Thus, I am reborn anew!”
Outside the castle.
“Unni. Grandfather has gone crazy.”
Xiao Hui said, looking at the silhouette of black lightning standing by the window.
“No. He’s in the middle of recovering. But why is he doing that?”
The thunderclaps gradually diminished and subsided.
As the lightning slowly disappeared, a perfectly fine Nangong Zhentian revealed himself.
[Status Window]
Name: Nangong Zhentian (Lv. 100)
Class: Martial Artist (Transcendence)
Strength: 2,567
Agility: 3,468
Constitution: 2,431
Internal Energy: 4 Jiazi
Trait: Night Thunder Lord Body
[Acquired Skills]
=====================
[Main]
Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art (Lv. Max)
Night Thunder Qi (Lv. 1)
Heavenly Wind Divine Movement (Lv. 79)
=====================
Nangong Zhentian looked at the status window that had automatically appeared.
“Yes. This must be my destiny.”
He was pleased with his changed state.
“Grandfather!”
Nangong Zhentian smiled and looked down below.
“Here. It’s your grandfather.”
He checked the warning appearing before his eyes.
[A message from Blue.]
[Demon King approaching.]
[Preemptive interception recommended.]
Nangong Zhentian felt the power boiling over throughout his entire body and leaped down to the ground.
Black sparks flew across his entire body, but unlike before, they were tranquil.
“Wait here. I’m going out for a stroll.”
“Huh?”
Everyone looked at Nangong Zhentian in puzzlement.
“Tell the young hero when he wakes up later. I’ll be back shortly, so let him know to wait.”
And Nangong Zhentian kicked off the ground and ran.
His form diffused into black lightning and disappeared into a dark shadow.
“Oh my, oh my.”
Everyone blinked in astonishment at his changed state.