Ascension of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 198

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 198

 

I loved the strong.

 

I enjoyed the thrill that the boundary between life and death brought, where one might die fighting.

 

I loved the sharp blade energy that seemed to thinly graze over my skin in an instant, and that feeling when every hair on my body stood on end from the cruel breathing sounds reaching my ears.

 

It was like that in the past, but even more so now.

 

Reincarnation.

 

This is truly mysterious.

 

Sometimes it makes me wonder if this is really reality, or if I’m dreaming.

 

But whenever that happens, this thrilling feeling makes me feel alive.

 

Above all, the victory seized within it excites me more than any other ecstasy.

 

Whoosh! Crack!

 

The heavy paw that grazed over my ducked head completely shattered the rock that had been embedded like the mountain’s owner.

 

Even as stone fragments scattered in all directions and embedded in my body like hidden weapons, making my face contort, I thrust Eunhangon straight forward.

 

Thud!

 

Below the beast’s armpit, the Extreme Spring acupoint.

 

I don’t know what beasts call that spot, but if it were human, the heart would stop briefly and the arm would become unusable.

 

But look at this creature.

 

Roaaaar!

 

Even while in pain, it swung its other paw with a roar of fury.

 

Thwack!

 

The impact was enough to bend Eunhangon that I raised to block.

 

It was natural that my body was sent flying.

 

Crash!

 

I collided with a large tree and felt pain as if my spine was breaking.

 

But there was no time to rest.

 

Even if bones were broken, I had to get up.

 

“Huff, huff…”

 

Though exhausted to the point where my breath reached my chin, I prepared for the next attack.

 

“Damn bastard.”

 

Curses came out naturally.

 

No matter how spiritual it was, what kind of body is this sturdy?

 

The that Dang Ihwa had given me.

 

The weapon that could spew out a thousand hidden weapons in an instant had truly tremendous power.

 

It burrowed through the beast’s tough golden fur and tore its skin.

 

The fifth shot luckily burst one eye, blinding it.

 

Though that was all, thanks to it, the beast now had a blind spot.

 

Since beasts can’t have all senses superior, there were more opportunities to target gaps.

 

However.

 

Roaaaar!

 

The more enraged beast resulted in even more violent rampage.

 

The sweeping aura flew like blade winds, clawing at everything around, and trees broke and rocks exploded even when the claws didn’t directly graze them.

 

Even though its golden fur was stained red with blood and it was panting from exhaustion, the beast was still strong.

 

Aenoe Mountain was becoming ruins in an instant.

 

I couldn’t let my guard down for even a moment.

 

It was a beast that freely displayed the earth-shaking strength that could startle heaven and overturn the earth.

 

Who would have thought a mere beast could be this strong just because it contained spiritual energy?

 

All my cultivation seemed meaningless.

 

No matter how much I pounded it, nothing worked, so my will broke and strength left my body.

 

In the end, can’t one overcome what they’re born with?

 

Should I give up like this?

 

Grind.

 

I felt unnecessarily angry.

 

‘To be intimidated…’

 

I thought the name of the Heavenly Demon from my past life was being wasted.

 

Looking back, it seemed life had never been easy even once.

 

When I was kidnapped by the demonic path and had to survive by killing each other with children of similar fate, when I became a lower martial artist serving as cannon fodder at the front of battlefields under superior orders, when I led subordinates and fought at the very front, and even when I reached the highest position but couldn’t sleep peacefully even once due to countless assassination threats.

 

I always kept death by my side.

 

‘Come to think of it, it was the same during my wandering days. I always walked on blade edges.’

 

So I lived as if it didn’t matter when I died.

 

Death was peace.

 

Yet every time I overcame death, I became stronger, and eventually reigned with the name ‘Heavenly Demon.’

 

Though perhaps due to my innate nature, I wasn’t as noble as those called Heavenly Demon in previous generations, nor did I live maintaining dignity and prestige, but I was the Heavenly Demon.

 

Because I had grasped strength that no one could look down upon.

 

The whole world seemed like a joke.

 

I thought that if the Immortal Realm existed, I could reign over even that place.

 

Death?

 

What was something like that…

 

But you see.

 

Now I want to live.

 

Though I once vowed to achieve ascension to immortality someday, for now I must live.

 

There’s a mother who places pure water in one corner of the courtyard and prays morning and evening when her son goes out, and a father whose expression is rough and sometimes does unwanted things, but would become fertilizer for my sake.

 

There’s Zhuge Munho who will someday make the Zhuge name resound throughout All Under Heaven again, and Gwan Hwiping who is foolish and petty unlike the Zhuge clan, barely understanding one thing when taught one.

 

There are also the family members who always treat me like a human being.

 

There’s also that fellow who learned the martial arts I left from my previous life and though called an evil seed, follows me like a master…

 

Well, are they the only ones I can think of?

 

Starting with Sohye who always smiles warmly and treasures me more than her own body, there are Sayo and the Beggar’s Sect people.

 

And countless others I met while living as a descendant of Zhuge.

 

Those who taught me the meaning of being ‘human’ that I never felt in my previous life.

 

Those who make me grateful to be alive.

 

“I… must live!”

 

Zhuge Munhyeon gritted his teeth, and despair disappeared from his eyes as divine light swirled within them.

 

I must live.

 

I absolutely must live.

 

Though I was someone who never once turned away from anything I recognized as an enemy, whether human or beast, always facing them squarely, now I must live even if it means running away.

 

Roaaaar!

 

An attack was coming.

 

Zhuge Munhyeon abandoned counterattacking.

 

Though Eunhangon, filled with spiritual energy, was crying out madly and glowing as if begging to fight more, saying it could win, I chose retreat for the future.

 

Even if it was cowardly, it couldn’t be helped.

 

Because there’s only a next time if I survive!

 

Dash!

 

Zhuge Munhyeon, who had been leaping into the tiger’s embrace and exchanging offense and defense until now, changed direction for the first time.

 

The opposite direction from the tiger.

 

He ran toward the upper part of the mountain, not toward where people had gone down the mountain.

 

Crash! Boom! Thud!

 

As if mocking me for running away with my tail between my legs, the tiger pursued without even avoiding obstacles, smashing and crushing them.

 

This was probably the first time.

 

The first time I poured all my abilities into light body technique.

 

The first time I tried to escape with such desperate effort.

 

But why does heaven act this way?

 

If it’s going to give something, it should always give only good things, but after giving good fortune, it always accompanies it with misfortune like this.

 

“…Damn it.”

 

Laughter escaped from his dejected heart.

 

The flat land on the middle slope of Aenoe Mountain.

 

It was a cliff.

 

A precipice of a ravine so deep that the end couldn’t be seen blocked his path ahead.

 

This is why strategists assess the terrain first before any war…

 

Grrrrrrr.

 

Meanwhile, the tiger that noticed his escape had ended didn’t immediately pounce but growled and prowled near the cliff.

 

As if assessing beforehand that there was no hole to escape through.

 

Grooooowl!

 

The sight of it firmly planting its two feet on the ground, raising its body, and letting out a roar seemed as if it was mocking him.

 

This is as far as you go.

 

You’re nothing but a flea no matter how much you jump.

 

“Phew, I’ve suddenly become like the monkey that pissed in Buddha’s palm.”

 

He tried to joke in his empty heart, but there was no way the tiger would understand human speech.

 

He couldn’t fight anymore anyway.

 

He had long since realized and more that he was no match for that monstrous tiger cub.

 

But doesn’t everyone have a final moment?

 

Even earthworms do that, so he should at least squirm.

 

“Good?”

 

The tiger’s mouth stretched wide.

 

Was it a spiritual beast that could understand human speech?

 

“Son of a bitch.”

 

Frustrated by his situation with nowhere left to go, he demoted the tiger to a dog.

 

The creature’s eyes slightly narrowed.

 

It really seemed to understand.

 

“Still, I can’t let you fill your belly when I’m about to die.”

 

Zhuge Munhyeon spat out like a final testament, then turned and ran with those words.

 

Toward the cliff.

 

There was only one path anyway.

 

He wasn’t yet at a level where he could use legendary light body techniques like walking on air, and he didn’t know how long heaven would help him, but even if misfortune piled up, what more could happen than death?

 

If someone found his corpse and mourned his death… they would send him to his beloved home.

 

Just one thing.

 

There was still hope.

 

Tree branches jutting out from the cliff, or protruding rocks and such.

 

If he could grab onto such things and just reduce his falling speed…!

 

Swoosh!

 

Zhuge Munhyeon gracefully launched his body toward that place where only birds could come and go.

 

Riding the surging wind, he quickly scanned the cliff face.

 

He could see them.

 

The hopeful tree branches and rocks.

 

But just as he reached out toward them.

 

Roar!

 

“…Ugh!”

 

That crazy tiger bastard!

 

As if to crush even his last hope, the creature that had immediately followed him by leaping came running down the cliff as if it were flat ground.

 

Spiritual beasts could really do anything.

 

Just falling versus leaping down with the added force of a jump.

 

The difference in speed was clear.

 

It caught up in an instant, and its massive maw gaped wide open.

 

‘The tree… the tree…’

 

Hope that he might survive if he could just grab it was right before his eyes, but the creature’s maw was already close.

 

He could see how many teeth it had, that’s how close it was.

 

Zhuge Munhyeon withdrew his hand that had been reaching for the tree branch and twisted his body.

 

“Even if I’m at the boundary between life and death! I can’t become your shit!”

 

That wouldn’t do.

 

They say tigers leave their hide when they die and humans leave their name, but he couldn’t be eaten by a tiger cub and reduced to excrement.

 

Grip!

 

The Silver Cold Staff he clutched with all his might glowed as it was swung.

 

Claaaaaang!

 

The moment he struck the tiger’s head, Zhuge Munhyeon’s body fell even faster than before due to the returning recoil.

 

Thanks to that, he widened the distance from the tiger.

 

Thud!

 

But he couldn’t avoid his back colliding with a thick tree branch that jutted out precariously from the cliff face.

 

His body bent like a bow.

 

His mouth gaped open from the pain of his spine bending backward, and he lost consciousness for a moment.

 

Crash!

 

Continuing to fall and hitting a protruding stone, he briefly regained consciousness, but then became dazed again.

 

It was his limit.

 

Each time he blinked, his vision grew increasingly blurry.

 

The tiger grew more and more distant.

 

It seemed that creature couldn’t chase him any further either.

 

Well…

 

Thud! Crash!

 

Several more times after that.

 

Zhuge Munhyeon bounced off tree branches and crashed into rocks, becoming battered all over as he continued falling.

 

Into the bottomless precipice…

 

* * *

 

Is this what death is originally like?

 

He didn’t know since he hadn’t experienced it.

 

Because he had been reborn instead of dying and ascending to immortality.

 

‘It’s warm.’

 

Warmth flowing from somewhere.

 

‘Ah, could this be… Guihuan Hell from the hell realm? Well, that Shaolin monk did say so. That I had accumulated so much karma from killing that I would fall there when I died.’

 

Perhaps because he was dead, old memories came flooding back.

 

But this level of heat seemed quite bearable.

 

Wasn’t it like the hot springs of Huaqingchi that he had once visited claiming to treat a skin condition?

 

Hell isn’t much either…

 

His mind seemed intact too, and if it was like this, he should have died and conquered hell rather than ascending to immortality. Perhaps that would have suited the Heavenly Demon much better.

 

Just as a faint smile formed on his lips with such thoughts.

 

“That fellow, his body is as sturdy as iron. Are you already awake?”

 

He felt puzzled by the voice directed at him.

 

Who is it?

 

A jailer managing Guihuan Hell?

 

For a hell being, the voice was strangely benevolent.

 

But as soon as he heard the voice, his bodily senses began to awaken.

 

“Ugh!”

 

The shock of pain washing over him all at once, as if his body was being torn apart strand by strand, was indescribable. It was just like when he had experienced Bone Transformation before.

 

“Don’t strain yourself. Every bone in your body has been shattered.”

 

“…What?”

 

Zhuge Munhyeon, barely managing to respond while enduring the terrible pain, forced his eyes open to look at the owner of the voice.

 

Soon his vision cleared and he could see the man’s appearance.

 

A Taiji… crown hat and worn-out Taoist robe.

 

“Hm?”

 

As far as he knew, there was only one such outfit in all the Central Plains, wasn’t there?

 

But there was no way the Wudang Sect would be in Hell…

 

Yet the face of the middle-aged Taoist looking down at him with a benevolent smile seemed very familiar.

 

Where had he seen him before?

 

Just where exactly… Huh?

 

“Ye, Yeongmun?”

 

…Why are you here?

 

It was truly a mystery beyond understanding.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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