Unlike the air of the frigid Malyeonggok, a dense, scorching warmth enveloped Siu's cheeks.
The first thing Siu felt upon barely surfacing to the shallows of consciousness was the sensation of a woman's thighs—soft, yet brimming with elasticity.
Baekhui had laid the unconscious Siu's head upon her lap, gazing down at him with languid eyes.
But the place where Siu opened his eyes was not the real Jirisan.
A space filled with pitch-black darkness on all sides, where only the existence of the two people floated like faded illusions—it was the mindscape, a world woven by Siu's spirit.
"……Do you believe this one's words now?"
Baekhui's voice embedded itself not into his mind, but directly into his soul.
Siu furrowed his brows, enduring a splitting headache. His head could not possibly accept this situation, yet the century of years and the smell of blood he had experienced through the illusion technique moments ago were already engraved like tattoos upon his meridians and bones.
"Fuck…… There's no way not to believe it. Not after you hammered all that insane shit into my head."
Siu answered, grinding his teeth.
Baekhui smiled seductively, as if his rough reaction were cute, and caressed Siu's disheveled hair with her fingers.
"How wise. This place is not reality, but your interior—your mindscape. In this place where time has stopped, I shall impart to you the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the quintessence of the Heavenly Demon. My true demonic qi shall flow through your qi meridians."
Baekhui's offer was like sweet poison.
But Siu turned his head away, as if refusing her touch.
"No. I don't want to get entangled in any of that Murim stuff. My goal is just to escape this damned poverty and live like everyone else—warm-backed and full-bellied, ordinarily."
To Siu, who had fought hunger alone in the mountain village, lofty authority was a luxury. Simply living without worrying about three meals a day—that was the only happiness he knew.
But Baekhui grabbed Siu's chin and forced him to gaze at her.
Her crimson irises flashed as if piercing through Siu's soul.
"Ordinary……? What a laughable thing to say, my disciple. Do you think one born with the Heavenly Demon Physique, forged by the heavens themselves, could remain within the bounds of the ordinary? You have already broken this seal of your own accord and accepted some portion of this one's demonic qi. Fate has already shredded your peace to pieces."
Baekhui's face drew close enough to almost touch Siu's nose.
Her immense breasts pressed against Siu's chest, evoking a tension that felt as though it might burst forth at any moment.
"Rather, place this world beneath your feet and shake it. Do not beg for ordinariness as if pleading for alms; instead, become a God in the end and seize everything. That alone is the only path the demonic nature flowing through your bloodline desires."
Baekhui's words, at once seductive and commanding, resonated through Siu's mindscape.
Siu felt a destructive, irresistible desire squirming up from his dantian within her breath.
For a long while, Siu tore at his hair and let out anguished groans.
A fierce conflict between his humble dream of escaping poverty and the destructive destiny presented by the absolute being before his eyes.
In the pitch-black mindscape, only Siu's rough sighs sank heavily.
How much time had passed?
Finally, Siu raised his head with firm resolve.
In his eyes, instead of the previous confusion, there lurked a fierce, venomous determination and an untamed spirit to tear apart everything blocking his path.
Still lying with his head in her lap, Siu stared piercingly up at Baekhui looking down at him and opened his mouth.
"……Fine. I'll do it. Whether as your disciple or whatever, I'll become that Demon God."
It was a resolute, weighty declaration.
Siu's intense gaze pierced head-on into Baekhui's crimson irises.
Under the savage, oppressive aura radiating from the 185cm-tall hulk of a man, the shoulders of Baekhui—the First Heavenly Demon who had once dominated all under heaven—trembled with a shudder.
"Oh my……"
Baekhui, flustered by Siu's unexpected momentum, flushed red and twisted her body.
Her silvery-white long hair scattered across Siu's cheek, leaving a tickling sensation.
Baekhui let out a needless cough and lowered her eyes seductively.
"The moment you say you'll become a disciple, how impertinent is the gaze you direct at your master? You look as though you would devour this one whole."
Though she chastised him with her mouth, her voice quivered ever so slightly.
Wherever Siu's tyrannical gaze touched, her skin burned hot, and a strange excitement coursed through her veins.
At this man's temperament, which seemed capable of burning away a thousand years of tedium in an instant, Baekhui exhaled a moist breath.
"Huhu, but that gaze…… is not bad. Rather, I quite like how it sets this one aflame."
Baekhui lowered her upper body even closer to Siu's face.
Her voluptuous bosom, so full that her martial attire seemed ready to scream, surged heavily before Siu's nose.
With her slender hands, she gathered those massive breasts together, brazenly thrusting the deeply carved cleavage into Siu's line of sight.
"If you wish to serve your master from here on, you must endure at least this much pressure. Now, are you prepared to make the power before your eyes…… and me…… yours?"
As she gathered her breasts, a bursting volume pressed against Siu's face, and a dense demonic fragrance heated the entire mindscape.
Siu felt his very breath catch at the destructive sensuality before his eyes, and finally stepped completely into the vortex of destiny.
"Wait! Wh—you! No, what does becoming your disciple have to do with making you mine?!"
Siu shouted and sprang up like a coiled spring.
The spirited, dominating gaze from moments ago was nowhere to be seen; now he looked plainly flustered, like a beast on the verge of being devoured.
Siu tried to back away and widen the distance between them, but the pitch-black mindscape was endlessly vast, yet strangely constricted him.
"Huhu, ahn……!"
Baekhui let out a hazy moan between her lips and slowly rose.
With every movement, the supple, pitch-black silk martial attire flowed smoothly along her sensational curves.
The thin cloth, not stiff like leather, instead reflected each of Baekhui's breaths, each minute tremor of her muscles, paralyzing Siu's sight.
"Oh my. Is it not obvious, my disciple? Because the disciple who took a thousand years to find this master was so long in coming, this one could not even lose her virginity all that long time."
"Wh-what……?"
Siu's jaw dropped.
It was a shocking statement, unbelievable coming from the mouth of the legendary Heavenly Demon.
Enjoying the flustered Siu's gaze, Baekhui leisurely gathered up the deep side-slit of her martial attire with one hand.
Dazzlingly white thighs were brazenly exposed between the silk folds, and her smooth leg line embedded itself into Siu's eyes.
"Could it be that you do not fancy your master? Or…… does this body of mine fail to satisfy your tastes?"
With her other hand, Baekhui grabbed her immense breast from below and hefted it upward with weighty emphasis.
The plentiful flesh created such a grotesquely sensual swell that finger marks seemed ready to remain upon the thin martial attire, and in that state, she took a step toward Siu.
Instead of the sound of leather rubbing, a soft, secretive sound of silk sliding against skin shattered the silence of the mindscape.
"Make me yours and ascend to the seat of the Demon God. That is the reason this one chose you, and the only path you must walk."
Her thick, moist voice scorched the atmosphere of the mindscape.
Though there was no wall behind him, Siu felt a desperate pressure that there was nowhere left to retreat, and swallowed dryly.
Watching Siu back away, Baekhui twitched her red lips as if amused.
She lightly swept down her voluptuous chest, thrusting the brazenly exposed silhouette through the thin silk martial attire into Siu's view.
"However, do you think you can take your master's virginity in this mindscape world? You best look forward to returning to reality."
At her words, thrown with a seductive flutter of her eyes, Siu finally let the taut string of tension snap.
"……Phew. Th-that's a relief."
Siu let out a sigh of relief, yet strangely, an indescribable sense of regret brushed across a corner of his heart.
The fact that he could not immediately claim the surreal beauty and destructive sensuality before his eyes evoked an instinctive sense of loss.
As if to hide his inner thoughts, Siu raised his voice needlessly and changed the subject.
"Y-yeah! Now tell me how to become a Heavenly Demon or whatever!"
The wild, untamed man who until moments ago had been afraid of being devoured now widened his eyes and begged for instruction.
Baekhui found that change in Siu both admirable and unbearably adorable.
Whenever the raw temperament that had once dominated the Central Plains a thousand years ago flashed in Siu's eyes, a pleasant heat rose in Baekhui's lower abdomen.
She forcibly suppressed her boiling excitement and tried to don a strict master's expression.
"Good. It seems you have finally thought to learn martial arts from this master. Then, perform the Rite of Nine Bows."
"The Rite of Nine Bows……? You want me to bow nine times?"
The moment Siu fell into thought, feeling puzzled inwardly, Baekhui nodded as if it were only natural.
"Yes. Offer nine bows. Is that not rather light for the first courtesy shown to a master?"
"What the! How did you read my mind?!"
Siu cried out in alarm and backed away again.
A chill ran down his spine at her gaze, which seemed to peer straight into his head.
But Baekhui, as if nothing were impossible for this master, elegantly flicked her silk sleeve and smiled like a victor.
"This place is your mindscape, but also a space imbued with my will. What is so difficult about reading one shallow thought of yours? Now, quickly observe the rites. The path of the Heavenly Demon is by no means easy."
Siu hesitated for a moment, then seemed to resolve himself and knelt on the floor.
The heavy weight of his 185cm frame pressed down on the silence of the pitch-black mindscape.
His muttering lips sealed shut, and in their place, a frigid, venomous ferocity colder than the dirt ground of Malyeonggok settled.
Siu bent at the waist and pressed his forehead to the ground.
Once, twice……
With each bow, the lonely millennium of Baekhui that he had witnessed through the illusion technique moments ago swept through his mind like a panorama.
It was not a simple submission to learn martial arts. It was the heavy declaration of a savage man willingly joining the destiny of this arrogant woman who vowed to pull him from this hellish poverty and make him a "God."
The ninth bow finally came to an end.
"……Your disciple, Baek Siu, greets his master."
When Siu raised his head, the pupils of Baekhui looking down at him quivered.
A strange sense of fulfillment, one she had never felt even when tens of thousands of cultists prostrated themselves at her feet to pledge loyalty a thousand years ago, constricted her chest.
Baekhui slowly reached out and grasped Siu's firm shoulder.
The scorching heat of Siu's body, transmitted through the thin silk sleeve, resonated with her cold demonic qi and vibrated the entire mindscape.
"Yes…… splendid, my disciple."
Baekhui's voice carried a majestic weight that only one who possessed the world could utter, instead of her usual seductiveness.
She raised Siu up, staring piercingly into his pitch-black eyes.
"By this, the master-disciple bond between this one and you, separated by a thousand years, has been established. Now you are my disciple, and you shall surpass me, the Heavenly Demon, to become the one and only Demon God who will place this world beneath your feet."
Siu's rough hand and Baekhui's slender hand clasped together.
It was the moment a master-disciple bond transcending time was born, and simultaneously, the prologue of the collapse of modern common sense and the rewriting of an ancient legend.
Baekhui, seemingly satisfied, lightly rested her head against Siu's chest and whispered lowly.
"Now, I shall give you everything of this master. You had best prepare yourself, Siu."