Regressed by the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Returned to the Heavenly Demon.
Petty Investments (1)
Crash!
The moment Geon Pyeong entered the room, he smashed everything his hands could grab.
Paintings, furniture, all manner of expensive porcelain—not a single piece survived intact.
Even those who served him like limbs cowered in fear, not daring to speak a word.
They simply waited outside the door for his rage to burn itself out.
“Arrrrgh!!!”
Geon Pyeong only ceased his roaring, loud enough to shake the room from its foundations, after a considerable time had passed.
In the wreckage of the chamber, he collapsed onto the one chair that had survived intact.
“Bring me wine!!!”
A young maidservant trembled her way in at his command.
Geon Pyeong snatched the wine cup from the silver tray, drained it in a single gulp, then hurled the vessel to the floor.
“Get out, before I kill you where you stand.”
Only after the young maid had rushed from the room did Geon Pyeong gaze up at the ceiling and draw a long, shuddering breath.
He could not fathom what was happening.
No—one thing was clear.
He had been bested by the Second.
That fool of a younger brother, who had cowered and fawned before him his entire life.
A simpleton blinded by lust, forever slipping into brothels, whose every choice had been beneath contempt for lack of wit to match his ambition.
Unlike the Third, who was called talented, the Second had always danced only in the palm of his hand.
Yet he had lost this gambit to that very wretch.
All while bearing reproach from their mother.
“How shall I grind that bastard into the dust?”
His heart would not rest while this affront hung unresolved.
*
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*
“Uncomfortable indeed. Yes, deeply uncomfortable it must be.”
I emerged from the darkness and met eyes that gleamed like blades.
Damn it all—nothing ever passes without struggle.
The Spirit Beast I was staring down, clutching the Azure Blood Vine in one hand, was astonishingly a Frost Abyss Stone Lizard.
It was a rare Spirit Beast I had once encountered while pursuing that old demon, Hyeon Heum Bing Ma, ages past.
It stood on the verge of Mature Form.
I cannot fathom how such a creature, said to dwell only in the abyssal depths beneath glaciers, came to exist in this place—yet one thing was certain.
With every breath, this frost lizard froze all things around it, and it had fixed its gaze upon the ten stems of Thunder Silver Azure Dragon Herb nestled within the Azure Blood Vine.
Now I understand.
Why there were ten stems of the Thunder Silver Azure Dragon Herb and not merely four.
By rights, this creature should have been master of six of them.
In other words.
“You covet this as well, then?”
I felt my breath begin to crystallize as I spoke those quiet words.
I cast aside the wooden case containing the Magical Mask and stepped forward.
The space here was already under the dominion of the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard.
Four legs, each as thick as my torso.
A body sculpted from ice and gravel; each exhalation summoned a howling wind of frost.
The Frost Abyss Stone Lizard, pressed flat against the ground without motion, exhaled a dense and chill azure yin-force from the keen ice spikes that ran from head to tail.
With each passing moment, the creature’s bitter cold was freezing my entire body.
Were time to stretch further, my limbs would stiffen completely, leaving me unable to move.
The Frost Abyss Stone Lizard, meanwhile, waited with unhurried ease.
Its massive tail raised and tensed, ready to swallow me whole in a single strike.
The instant I move, it begins.
I cannot afford to overestimate my own strength at this hour.
But the knowledge and experience accumulated over long ages—
And the will I have forged and tempered—these I can trust.
Hiss—
I am the human of resolve, one whom even the Heavenly Demon himself acknowledged as absolute.
Step.
The moment my feet moved in the stepping art, the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard closed the distance in a single bound.
The creature’s frigid aura hung thick on all sides as its cavernous maw, opened wide above and below, descended toward my upper body.
There was no way to escape.
“I had no intention of running.”
Shrieeeek—
The Azure Blood Vine, whip-like in form, lashed out from my fingertips and coiled around all ten roots of Thunder Silver Azure Dragon Herb gathered in one place.
At the same moment, I kicked off the ground.
Not outside the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard’s jaws, but into them.
Just before I could be severed, my entire body was swallowed by the creature.
Crunch—
In that instant.
I wrapped the Azure Blood Vine tendrils around my body and crammed all the Thunder Silver Azure Dragon Herbs into its mouth.
A dizzying surge of Thunder Qi overwhelmed me in a single breath.
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I dreamed.
Quite a deep, long dream.
A cherished memory spent with my mother, and the day I learned the Water breathing technique.
Then too, the water was cold as ice.
But my mother’s hands, gripping my wrists and guiding me, were nothing but warm and strong.
—You don’t breathe only through your mouth. Your breath exists everywhere the water touches you. Don’t be afraid—swim and feel it. Mother is here.
I didn’t know it then.
That this was not simply a way to swim, but a remnant of the Cold Water Clan left to me as the sole inheritor—my mother’s legacy.
Whissssh—
The Cold Water Clan’s transmitted art, rooted in Water Qi, allowed one to breathe with the entire body even underwater.
And I, in my childhood.
Through my mother’s teachings, was already a being for whom this was carved into my very frame.
This is the power that sustains me even within the belly of the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard, steeped in extreme cold Qi.
And beyond that.
The essence of Thunder Qi I had consumed—the Thunder Silver Azure Dragon Herb and the Azure Blood Vine wrapped around my body—burned with intense Thunder Qi, colliding with the cold Qi.
The Frost Abyss Stone Lizard’s powerful cold Qi was drawn into me, merged with the Thunder Qi, and set my Spiritual Qi into violent motion in a way I could never have imagined.
Under normal circumstances, my vessel could not have borne even two roots.
But things were different now.
The cold Qi surrounding my body cooled the fierce heat of the Thunder Qi, making far more possible.
The pure Thunder Qi I needed to complete the Second Stage was not merely sufficient—it overflowed.
Now was the moment.
The perfect opportunity to advance to the second stage of the Heavenly Tribulation Shedding Technique.
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Bang!
I burst through the thickly frozen ice floor and surged upward.
I had flowed all the way to a small pond connected to the Cliff I had descended.
It seemed I had drifted here through the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard while I was completing the second stage.
Tsss-tsss-tsss—
I stripped off my tattered upper garment and swept back my wet hair.
The appearance of the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard ultimately served as a stroke of fortune.
It had an effect as though the creature itself had given birth to me.
Thanks to the Frost Abyss Stone Lizard, I had used ten roots of Thunder Silver Azure Dragon Herb for the second stage and achieved results beyond what I’d hoped for.
Beneath the harsh noon sun.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but the powerful energy writhing within my body was unmistakable.
“It’s been perfectly reconstructed. The foundation is set.”
The Heavenly Tribulation Shedding Technique, in my case, is completed across four stages, which are called the Four Stages.
The First Stage strips away hidden potential. That potential transforms bone and flesh.
The Second Stage awakens the dantians through which Qi flows and the meridians, reconstructing them to match the awakened potential. At this point, pure Thunder Qi for the reconstruction of the physical body is required.
Once the Second Stage allows essence, energy, and spirit to achieve balance,
the Third and Fourth Stages become a matter of refinement.
Polishing and honing, peeling away layer by layer.
From this point on, what kind of martial arts I cultivate and how I practice depends on what Heavenly Bone I have obtained through the Heavenly Tribulation Shedding Technique.
After that, I must fulfill the additional conditions necessary for the Third Stage.
I had been able to access records concerning the Heavenly Tribulation Shedding Technique through Cheon Yu-Wol, my former master, and was able to examine the testimonies of all those individuals who had undergone this second stage.
Among those possibilities, what I genuinely hoped for through the Great Method was this.
The Heavenly Demon God Body,
the Heavenly Spirit Pure Body,
the Northern Dark Gold God Body.
These three constitutions.
Even from the records alone, these three cases were Heavenly Bones bestowed by heaven itself.
Just looking at Cheon Yu-Wol’s Heavenly Demon God Body proved it.
The Heavenly Demon God Body was a physique forged for destruction of the highest order.
The True Qi and body meticulously layered for the destructive force a single point of power could unleash—they truly deserved the name Demon God.
Having observed it closely, I knew it well.
A question took shape in me: what of myself?
If my innate potential was truly as remarkable as Cheon Yu-Wol claimed it to be, matching his own—
then the Heavenly Bone I had attained should be either one of those constitutions or something comparable to them.
“I’m not one to speak recklessly.”
Sitting upon the ice, I stirred the inner energy gathered in my dantian.
I examined my entire frame in meticulous detail.
How condensed was the True Qi?
When Qi erupted, was its momentum strong or weak?
At what speed did True Qi accumulate in the dantian?
What reciprocal effects existed between the True Qi and body?
Was my blood vessel structure extraordinary?
The experience and knowledge I had accumulated across long years shone forth.
And the conclusion I reached was this.
“What on earth is this?”
Surprisingly, the Heavenly Bone newly forged from my awakened dormant potential was something I had never encountered before.
Usually, exceptional Heavenly Bones possess distinctive and formidable characteristics.
They might possess an absurdly rapid Qi-accumulation speed.
Or the muscle fibers could be densely packed dozens of times over, making the flesh itself a powerful armor.
Or the True Qi’s cohesion could grant destructive force beyond the ordinary.
I possessed these qualities as well.
Yet it was a case unprecedented in all the records I knew.
In a word: powerful Magnetic Qi flowed through every location the energy touched.
I myself cannot yet say what influence this would exert upon me, but one thing is certain.
The strength of my body—enhanced by the innate potential the Heavenly Demon had anticipated—lies in this mysterious Magnetic Qi, and I suspect that the Water Qi and Thunder Qi employed in the Great Method somehow influenced the formation of my Heavenly Bone.
So now the remaining question is which method I should choose to cultivate this Magnetic Qi.
“There is nothing among conventional martial arts.”
That’s right—finding martial arts suited to such an unusual Heavenly Bone as the Magnetic Body was a distant prospect.
Even after ninety years of life, nothing came to mind.
So I had to shift my thinking.
Rather than searching for cultivation methods suited to the Magnetic Body, I should consider cases where the Magnetic Body compensated for the weaknesses of martial arts.
Advancing through mutual support and complementation.
“Then the matter becomes simple.”
Though it possessed the Tyrant Path in terms of destructive force—
these forbidden techniques were the worst of the worst: unstable in True Qi control, damaging muscle and blood vessels, thus far too easily exposing one to the risk of Demonic Possession and plunging one into violent madness.
From the options surfacing in my mind, I recalled the most notorious of the Demonic Arts.
“The Thunder God Destruction Technique.”
On the surface, it was an absolute method possessing overwhelming power.
And rightfully so—the founder of this Demonic Art was a madman who once contended with the first Heavenly Demon for the seat of Heavenly Demon itself.
He dedicated his life solely to destroying the Heavenly Demon.
The problem was that the word “destruction” in that technique encompassed both the opponent and myself.
In the end, he destroyed himself.
But now that I had become one with the Magnetic Body, perhaps I could transform this accursed Demonic Art into a divine technique.
With my thoughts organized, it was time to retrieve the Magical Mask and return.
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If you have ever seen a wet mouse, perhaps it would be something like this.
With hair dried to dishevelment and having returned half-naked to the world, I was met by Seol Ha wearing a contorted expression.
“How did you find this place?”
The room I now occupied was a guest chamber provided by Gam Mok, the keeper of Mok Won.
“Sir, what on earth is this condition? Though I must say, that magical mask is still impeccable. I’m still not quite used to seeing you like this, either.”
“There’s plenty to explain, but let’s wash up first and talk afterward. I’ve already asked Gam Mok to prepare clothes and bathwater. Let’s meet as new people.”
As I passed by, Seol Ha’s nose wrinkled. Even she, it seemed, could only endure so much of this stench.
After scrubbing myself raw with all the strength I could muster, I finally looked like a person again.
Once I’d donned the coat Gam Mok had procured, I sat across from Seol Ha once more.
Of course, the magical mask—which I’d taken such care to preserve—had long since been fastened back in place.
For now, it remained a necessary shell.
“The Mok Yu here is excellent. Have you tried it? You must before we leave. Production is scarce, but the quality is outstanding. Once word spreads, everyone will be scrambling for it.”
……
Seol Ha continued to stare at me intently without a word, so I offered her a small smile.
“What is it you want to say?”
It took her a long moment before she answered.
“You never said you were going to disappear like that.”
“Are you upset?”
……
“I’m sorry. I moved hastily without telling you in advance—my mind was racing.”
It was understandable enough.
Seven weeks had passed since I parted ways with Geon Pyeong.
Seol Ha had borne it and waited, but finally, unable to contain her worry, she’d come searching for me.
Though before that, she’d received a command from the Great Madam to follow me, or so she said.
“Still, there was progress. And your timing is fortuitous.”
“What do you mean?”
At Seol Ha’s question, still tinged with hurt, I simply smiled.
“Let’s rest here a few more days.”
There’s something I need to do with you.

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