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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Awakening (2)
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Even now, closing my eyes brought those memories into sharp focus.
This was my final memory as the Heavenly Demon.
-Heavenly Demon...
His voice and his face.
Unlike me, who favored black martial robes, he always wore blindingly white ones.
The world called him the White Dragon Sword God, Baek Un-hwi.
-Can't we stop here?
Baek Un-hwi said to me.
Looking back, maybe I should have retreated then.
-Get lost.
But my heart burned hot at the time, hungry to devour the world.
-I see.
Soon, Baek Un-hwi gazed at me with somewhat sad eyes.
In truth, this wasn't the first time our fates had clashed.
From the junior disciple tournament when he emerged as a rising star and I represented the Demonic Cult, all the way to the Righteous-Demonic Great War.
From my youth, there had been only one man strong enough to share a table with me across the world.
Just Baek Un-hwi.
-This time, I'll kill you for sure!
The fourth time? Or the fifth?
Our duel reignited once more.
-Grow up a little. You childish fool.
I hated how he looked down on me like an older brother, despite being weaker.
We fought there for three full days and nights, and I held the advantage throughout.
I sensed that this time, I could finally slay Baek Un-hwi...
-Demon Sealing Sword Array!
But the battle suddenly veered far from my expectations.
Incredibly, Baek Un-hwi unleashed the long-lost Demon Sealing Sword Array, drawing even on his life force—his innate true qi—to strike at me.
Kurururung!
From his sword bloomed ice crystals and pure white snowflower buds.
At first, I thought them merely beautiful, but by the time I realized,
Craaaack!
I was slowly freezing from toe to crown in an indescribably frigid Eternal Ice.
-...!!
Victory nearly in hand, I stared at Baek Un-hwi, frustrated and shocked as my limbs locked and my qi refused to flow.
Shhhh!
Surprisingly, death claimed us both—the one sealed in Eternal Ice and the one unleashing the array.
As I froze bit by bit, Baek Un-hwi crumbled to dust from the toes up, scattering on the wind.
-Why...?!
I stared at him in stunned incomprehension.
He knew me well, and I knew him just as well.
True absolutes are solitary by nature.
Especially in the righteous sects, rife with hypocrites, where a standout genius like Baek Un-hwi drew too much envy.
He knew better than anyone that once our Demonic Cult conquered the Central Plains, those who feigned loyalty would discard him.
'Why sacrifice your life for such hypocrites?'
I wanted to shout it, but no voice escaped my lips.
Smirk.
He couldn't speak either, it seemed.
Our eyes met amid my bewilderment, and he simply smiled—kind and gentle, as always.
-You mad bastard!!
I mustered my last strength to curse this reckless fool and shatter it all, but it was too late.
Craaaaaack!
The Eternal Ice that began at my feet had turned the barren wasteland into an icy gorge.
'White Dragon Sword God Baek Un-hwi! You scum!!'
I screamed it in my mind, but it never reached him.
At least it was satisfying that Baek Un-hwi, who had trapped me in this inescapable Demon Sealing Sword Array's Eternal Ice, was also fading away.
Shhhh!
Falling petals.
Were spring blossoms like this?
Baek Un-hwi's body disintegrated slowly, scattering across the entire icy valley born from my frozen form on the wind.
[Gunryong.]
Honestly, from here, I can't say if it was my imagination or if Baek Un-hwi truly transmitted my name into my mind.
From that point, I... lost consciousness, trapped in eons of time.
Deep underground, where no one could find, I slumbered endlessly in the Eternal Ice pillar's roots, thoughts frozen away.
Like a frog or bear preparing for hibernation.
Was death like this?
My mind went black, and I drifted as a void through the nine heavens.
Time passed—immeasurable, instantaneous, eternal—who could know?
'Hm? What is this?'
Incredibly, I who could neither think nor ponder began to sense my own existence.
How was this possible?
The true shock came next.
Craaaaack!
The Eternal Ice that bound me, sealing my qi and dantian, began to thaw and shatter.
'Impossible!'
Stunned by this reality, I examined my body.
Soon, certainty dawned.
"The Demon Sealing Sword Array's seal... is broken!"
Proof came as color returned to my face, but more encouraging still:
-Heavenly Demon Divine Art!
My dantian stirred, and my internal energy—surpassing even Shaolin's Dharma Patriarch or Wudang's Zhang Sanfeng True Person—began to return.
Kwaaaaaang!
Unleashing the Heavenly Demon Divine Art cloaked me in radiant light.
"Hahahahahahaha!"
In the abyssal Eternal Ice valley my seal had wrought, I laughed endlessly.
Until my sides ached, perhaps a full incense stick's time?
"You damned Baek Un-hwi!!"
After joy at my release came fury at the White Dragon Sword God who had plunged this Heavenly Demon into that mire.
'I'll kill you. Kill you again and again!'
Uncontrollable rage surged at first, but it faded.
Baek Un-hwi's final smile, laughing as he departed, resurfaced.
'What did it mean?'
Lost in thought,
my returning qi sharpened my peerless senses beyond any other's.
From far, far away from my sealed prison came faint voices. My word.
-The First Heavenly Demon is...!
-The Heavenly Demon... the First Heavenly Demon... surely...
Incredibly, they spoke of me.
A weak, faint energy flickered, suppressed by many others, fading away.
'What? A Demonic Cult survivor?'
Too feeble for that—like a wolf pup the Cult raised trying to speak.
'Let's go!'
My seal broken, strength restored, I decided to rescue whatever disciple had guarded the Cult in my absence, weak or not.
-Central Plains Supremacy Step!
I soared upward with long-unused lightness skill.
Joints screamed, bones cracked like dislocations, but I ignored it.
Paaaaang!
Not mere air-stepping, but true flight—scaling the thousand-foot cliff to the surface took little time.
My innate martial frame and heaven-slaying body, gifted by the heavens, stood ready to kill even after ages.
Finally reaching the surface, astonishing sights unfolded.
"Who the hell are you?"
A bear-like brute from the North Sea tundra muttered in dazed stupidity.
More infuriating was the fool from our Cult, too pathetic to resist even these lesser whelps, tarnishing our prestige.
Flash!
I unleashed my piercing gaze on the one who dared call me "you bastard."
When I set out to conquer the Central Plains, no one in the world dared label this Heavenly Demon so.
Why? I slaughtered them all.
No, one exception.
The White Dragon Sword God Baek Un-hwi.
"I am..."
Truth be told, the bear's question was welcome.
I wanted to declare my existence too.
"The Heavenly Demon. The Heavenly Demon."
I expected chaos upon revealing myself—the bear and his crew prostrating, tearfully begging mercy.
Not exaggeration; it happened before.
But what was this?
"Pfft, haha, hahahahaha!"
"They say madmen appear in the North Sea Star tundra sometimes. You one of 'em?"
"No idea how you climbed up glowing like that, some trick... but no dice. It won't work."
I clearly stated who I was, yet they neither panicked nor wept in despair, nor begged on hands and knees.
More enraging still:
"R-run... away. He's a first-rate... expert."
Unclear if Cult disciple or aspirant, the gaunt wretch—starved, skin and bones—spouted nonsense.
"First-rate?"
Through martial history, only I reached the divine realm; below that, martial god; then transcendent; even peak eluded all but me. Flee a mere first-rate?
"Haha! Brother Jin Ung, this guy's frozen in fear."
"Seeing a first-rate out here in the sticks got your legs shaking?"
"What do we do? Toss him in the Eternal Ice valley too?"
When I roamed conquering the Central Plains, first-rates aside, even peaks fled my gaze or suicided if caught.
"I'll handle it."
The bear called Jin Ung fearlessly approached, sword drawn.
Like a snail charging a man?
I was stunned for other reasons.
"Heh heh, don't be so scared. Just a few limbs..."
Snails crawling, worms lunging—once or twice maybe, but I couldn't endure it.
"Hah!"
I unleashed Lion's Roar at Jin Ung and his robed crew, sparing only the aspirant.
Jin Ung first-rate, others second-rate at best?
Enough.
Pububububung!
Their heads exploded, instant death—like festival fireworks, skulls flying in unison.
Eardrums burst with their heads from my roar.
First-rates, no, even peaks I could suppress with Lion's Roar alone.
No, with a mere glance?
"The world remains ruled by hypocrites, steeped in filth. Unacceptable."
Trapped in Eternal Ice for ages, the martial world hadn't changed.
Nothing had.
Such scum dominated, claimed righteousness, lorded over the weak masses.
"I must revive the fallen Demonic Cult, gather my hidden followers, fulfill my ancient vow... conquer the Central Plains anew."
Are those true righteous sects?
If those weaklings claim true righteousness, I'll shatter their systems and order.
Call me demonic all you like.
"Huff! Haaah!"
The aspirant, battered worse than snails or worms, gasped wildly, staring at the corpses in shock.
"Wh-who... are you?"
Good grief, do modern aspirants not know their Lord?
"You asking because you don't know? The one you've sought."
I lightly lifted the gravely wounded man with qi,
making him float effortlessly, then continued.
"I am the Heavenly Demon."