The Introverted Heavenly Demon - Chapter 1

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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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The Introverted Heavenly Demon Episode 001
An Introverted Soul
“You said you had no plans, didn’t you? So why are you backing out now?”
Watching my Friend’s bewildered expression, I recall the conversation we’d exchanged through messenger just moments before.
-What are you doing this weekend?
-(Me) Nothing at all.
-Perfect timing. Some of us are planning a trip. Come with us.
-(Me) A trip?
-Yeah. We haven’t decided where yet, but it’ll probably be to the Beach.
-(Me) No, that’s a bit…
-What???
-(Me) (Sorry)
-Why?? You said you had no plans?
-(Me) Did I say that?
-???
After exchanging messages up to that point, I ran into him face-to-face in the Hallway.
For him, this was probably incomprehensible.
He must be thinking—you said you had no commitments, so why are you changing your tune?
This wasn’t the first or second time this had happened; it was nearly every single time.
‘I feel bad about it, but there’s nothing I can do.’
But I didn’t change my answer.
I said it clearly.
That this weekend, I had a plan to do ‘absolutely nothing’….
This wasn’t ‘waiting for something to come up’—it was a firm resolve to ‘do nothing, no matter what happens.’
It wasn’t that I had ‘no plans,’ but rather that I had ‘a commitment with myself’ that mattered above all else.
“Actually, I’m not feeling well. Let’s go together next time.”
I expressed my apologies, sent my Friend off, and began walking.
I planned to grab a solitary meal at a nearby Restaurant and then head Home to read web novels.
Of course, it’s not that I dislike him.
We first met as freshmen at University, and even after military service, here we are in our final year—five years of him treating me kindly.
He’s always cheerful and personable. Good-natured too, someone I genuinely like.
It’s just my personality.
Friend!
For us to become close enough to travel together without formality, five years of knowing each other simply isn’t enough, is it?
Even if it were just you, I might manage, but you’re bringing other people I barely know along….
‘Ugh, just thinking about it exhausts me.’
That’s right.
I am what they call an ‘introverted’ person.
In MBTI terms, I fall under the ‘I’ personality type.
While introverted personalities have various characteristics, in essence, I’m someone who ‘gains energy from solitude.’
Of course, if you’re simply comparing I versus E personalities, there are plenty of I types out there, but I’m a rather special kind of I.
Most I types still possess some degree of E tendencies, but I have virtually none of that extroverted nature.
I’d say I’m 99.99% introverted.
People like that Friend earlier—the extroverted types—they gain energy from meeting others, or so I’ve heard.
But I’m the complete opposite.
It’s not that I dislike people; it’s just that interacting with unfamiliar faces drains my energy and emotions to an extreme degree.
Eating alone is a hundred times more comfortable than sharing a meal with someone I’m not close to.
‘The Restaurant Owner has already made eye contact with me twice now. Next time, she might try to strike up a conversation. I suppose it’s time to find a new restaurant….’
When I was younger, this introverted nature led to countless misunderstandings.
People saw me as a gloomy, antisocial oddity.
But isn’t it said that humans are social creatures?
After finishing middle and high school, enduring University and military service, I managed to adapt to social life through the process of socialization, even as an extreme introvert like myself.
Yet after living through daily life, meeting countless people, and spending a week like that, my energy completely drains away.
In introvert terminology, we call it having your qi sucked dry.
At least during the weekend, I need to spend time alone and recharge my energy.
It’s exactly like how a phone needs its battery charged after being used all day.
From the Restaurant to the Bus Stop, and even on the bus itself, I didn’t encounter a single person I knew.
It was truly a blessing.
No one stood in the way of my journey home.
Let’s go.
Back to my Home, where no one else is, and where I have no plans for at least the next two days.
‘Let’s go. Time to recharge the battery.’
Muttering to myself like this, I stood waiting for the Crosswalk signal to turn green.
“Hey? Hey, hey!”
Suddenly, I heard people crying out in alarm.
‘What’s going on?’
I looked up and saw a Child, no more than five years old, who had been standing on the sidewalk, suddenly stepping out into the street.
A truck was barreling down the road at high speed.
It all happened in an instant.
The people around could only scream; they were frozen in place.
My body moved before my mind could even process what was happening.
Screeeech!
The moment I shoved the Child to the other side, the truck’s emergency brakes kicked in, its tires shrieking as it skidded to a halt.
…That was my last memory in this world.

* * *
….
“Did you not see the Young Sect Leader’s eyes blazing with crimson light? That was the Heavenly Killing Star!”
What on earth are they babbling about…?
Is this a dream?
“The Heavenly Killing Star?”
“Indeed. That very phenomenon which proves one’s qualification to be Sect Leader of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect!”
Voices from somewhere unknown reached my ears.
Though I had never heard this language before, I could somehow understand every word.
“Yet Baek Yeon is merely eleven years old…!”
“That is precisely why it is so extraordinary!”
With great effort, I opened my eyes to find myself in a dimly lit chamber.
I lay upon some sort of bed, surrounded by hanging curtains of fabric.
“So it was the Young Sect Leader’s slaying of that Assassin which triggered the awakening of the Heavenly Killing Star.”
“Without question.”
In the faint glow of candlelight, I could make out the silhouettes of people.
Middle-aged men dressed in the flowing robes and long coats I had only ever seen in martial arts dramas.
Their voices continued unabated.
“It is most lamentable. He possessed the makings of a great Cheon Ma, yet to think it has come to this…”
“Is the Young Sect Leader’s condition truly so grave?”
“It appears he will not survive the night. The wound is in a most critical location…”
This young Sect Leader seemed to be dying from a blade wound inflicted by the Assassin.
‘Is this a hospital? How am I even alive?’
I remembered a massive truck bearing down upon me.
The child I had pushed to safety seemed to have escaped injury.
Given the truck’s speed, my survival was nothing short of miraculous.
Yet judging by the bandages wrapped tightly around my torso, my injuries were severe.
“And yet, even as he was being stabbed, he turned the tables and slew his Assassin. Truly remarkable.”
“What does the Sect Leader say?”
“Sigh. Do not ask.”
I lay quietly, listening to the grave discussions of these people speaking of Cheon Ma and other matters.
Though unintentional, I had overheard their conversation—something they might not appreciate from a complete stranger.
“If he could be brought down by some bungling Assassin from the Martial Alliance, would it not be better for him to die now?”
“He is your eldest son, yet even so, that is rather harsh.”
“Why else would he be called the King of Ten Thousand Demons, the Cheon Ma?”
“Sigh…”
With a long sigh, the conversation between the two men ended, and one of them soon left the chamber.
It seemed safe to wake now.
“Excuse me?”
I made a sound and startled myself in the process.
My voice had transformed into that of a small child who hadn’t even reached puberty, and I was speaking in a language I couldn’t comprehend at all.
Now that I thought about it, why were my hands so impossibly small?
“Ugh!”
But the one who was even more shocked than I was the middle-aged man standing near the bed.
“Young Sect Leader!”
He pulled back the curtain and thrust his bearded face toward me, his expression as if he’d just glimpsed a ghost.
But what was this man saying?
“Have you regained consciousness?”
“Ah… yes.”
“Thank heavens! No, this won’t do. Listen! Summon a physician at once! Report this to the Sect Leader!”
At the man’s command, the chamber erupted into chaos.
People dressed similarly to him rushed in, examining me from every angle, calling for someone, and some even shed tears.
Growing increasingly bewildered, I turned to the bearded man with a question.
“Where… where is this place? And who are you?”
“Young Sect Leader? I am Baek Ryung Hou, your humble servant. Do you not remember?”
“I’m the Young Sect Leader? That can’t… be possible?”
“You are surely Young Sect Leader Baek Yeon, the young master. Heavens, this is grave indeed!”
“Has the Young Sect Leader lost his memories?”
“It’s possible this could be temporary shock-induced amnesia.”
I was far more panicked than anyone else in the room.
Then suddenly, a mirror beyond the parted curtain caught my eye.
“!!!”
And upon seeing my reflection in that mirror, I felt myself slipping into an even deeper abyss of shock.
Long jet-black hair tied back, slightly raised eyebrows, sharp eyes and a defined jawline, and skin so pale it held an almost vampiric blue tint.
In the mirror stood a youthful boy I’d never seen before in my life, staring back at me with wide, startled eyes.
Cough!
Suddenly, blood surged up from within and spilled from my mouth.
The bandages wrapped around my upper body were also stained crimson with blood.
It seemed the wound from the blade had reopened.
But the trauma inflicted upon my mind seemed far more severe.
For a sensitive introvert like myself, the current situation was far too shocking to process.
My heart was racing wildly.
“Young Sect Leader!”
“Lay him down at once!”
Seeing me cough up blood, the people around me paled and gently laid me back down.
They wiped away the blood and changed my bandages.
Unable to believe the reality before me, I asked.
“So I’m the Young Sect Leader… Baek Yeon?”
“Yes, of course, Young Sect Leader! You are the Sect Leader’s eldest son and the successor destined to become the next Sect Leader.”
“And the one nearly killed by an Assassin’s blade was me?”
“Yes, yes. It was during the Grand Sect Gathering. An Assassin launched a surprise attack, but the Young Sect Leader cut him down in a single stroke!”
“The… the Heavenly Killing Star?”
“The Young Sect Leader awakened the Heavenly Killing Star immediately after slaying that wretch!”
Could it be? Everything I heard just now was about me.
My heart raced faster and faster as the unbelievable story unfolded before me.
Socialization, introversion—my introverted nature surged back with a vengeance, and all I wanted was to crawl into a cave or mouse hole and disappear.
Thump! Thump!
My uncontrollable heartbeat now thundered like a war drum.
That was when it happened.
Tap, tap.
A single man walked through the door, and the very air in the chamber seemed to freeze.
A man dressed in a violet robe embroidered with ornate patterns.
His long hair and thick brows bore a resemblance to my own reflection, yet his eyes—those piercing eyes that seemed to see through all things—were unlike any I had ever witnessed.
Everyone knelt before him in unison.
The man glanced at my face, paused as if considering something, then swept his sleeve once through the air. All those in the chamber bowed their heads and filed out, the door closing behind them.
Left alone with him, I could only blink helplessly.
“Young Sect Leader, or rather, Baek Yeon… listen carefully to what I say.”
It was obvious at a glance that this man was the Sect Leader.
Yet his cold voice was so merciless that it could not belong to a father reunited with his resurrected son.
I could say nothing.
“The Young Sect Leader of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect is destined to rule ten thousand demons. I held great expectations for you, yet increasingly I doubt whether you possess the qualifications. To be killed by a mere Assassin and cling to life by a thread—it is pathetic.”
In the palpable presence before me, I was gradually awakening to a truth.
This world, like something from a martial arts novel, was no dream—it was reality.
“Had I not witnessed the Heavenly Killing Star within you, I would have stripped you of the Young Sect Leader’s position long ago. But considering what you have shown me thus far, I grant you one more chance…”
Unbelievable as it was.
The man before my eyes was Cheon Ma, the King of Ten Thousand Demons, the Sect Leader of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect.
And I was his son, reincarnated as the Young Sect Leader Baek Yeon.
“Prove to me that you possess the qualifications of a Young Sect Leader.”
I understood what the Sect Leader meant.
How great his expectations were for the son who would one day become the Sect Leader of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect.
But in that moment, a surge of emotion welled up inside me.
‘Qualifications, nothing—this is too much, even for this.’
No matter what, wasn’t this too cold toward a son brought back from the dead?
Shouldn’t he at least ask if I’m alright?
I wanted to confront this heartless man immediately.
But.
Being an introvert with no comeback…
“Y-yes…”
I could only turn my gaze away from his piercing stare and answer thus.
“…!”
“…!?”
After that, an awkward silence stretched between us for a long moment.

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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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