Chapter 102

A cultist burst out laughing.

The cultists kneeling on either side were jolted by a splash of lumpy liquid that hit them in the cheek.

Because it was an ancient, uncivilized time in China where cold water was detested, even when drenched, it was burning hot.

At this point, no matter how devout a member of the Divine Sect was, their faith had to be starting to waver.

The Supreme Heavenly Demon, who had promised eternal wealth and power in liberating the Central Plain, was now sending death instead of prosperity with the flick of a finger.

The cultists closest inside the circle began to sneakily back away, casting wary glances.

The Heavenly Demon cracked his knuckles, lifting a foot.

As the master of the demonic arts and the world’s destroyer, it was said that the very act of him walking would set the world ablaze.

When the world turned to ash and returned to emptiness with only darkness remaining.

The Heavenly Demon’s dominion was the first step in the destruction that tramples the earth and annihilates all living beings.

Enormous energy capable of shattering stars gathered beneath the Heavenly Demon’s foot.

Originally, the intention of the body owner was to protect this blasphemous old man, but it seemed he wanted to crush the space entirely instead.

The attempt was commendable.

Just as the Heavenly Demon’s foot was about to touch the ground, the energy suddenly scattered, resulting in an ordinary step instead.

If not for that, Choi Riyong would have ended up as flat as a squashed frog.

Suddenly, a mysterious movement occurred, and the Heavenly Demon’s foot slipped back like a river or sea flowing backwards.

Then the other foot followed suit, making the Heavenly Demon appear to advance with grandeur while actually retreating.

This was a miracle that one could hardly believe, even with their own eyes.

The natural law of the world dictated that a person pushes the earth away as they walk, moving themselves forward.

The Great Heavenly Demon was demonstrating the power that shattered even that simple logic.

“……?”

It was indeed a remarkable technique, but why? Why suddenly?

The solemn silence that filled the tomb began to show signs of awkwardness and discomfort.

It was like the eternal awkwardness when a friend momentarily stepped away while two friends met.

In that uncomfortable atmosphere, the Heavenly Demon continued to march forward while circling around.

Could mere humans ever understand the will of the great Demon God?

The cultists could only roll their eyes in despair.

Hiss!

The blue tape that sealed the wall was ripped off roughly.

Having passed through the tape wall, it was inevitable that it would stick to his entire body.

The Heavenly Demon, flailing like a bug that had been chased away, finally managed to consolidate himself and threw the blue tape away.

“Ah. You’ve arrived?”

Qing greeted the Heavenly Demon cheerfully, each hand clutching a chicken leg.

“Sorry, but I can’t part with the chicken legs. No way I’m giving up the drumsticks or wings, and that tender part between the thigh and body is mine too. And the tender meat? It’s got its own delightful taste. So, pick between the right or left drumstick. Right? Left?”

Offering nothing but a chicken leg, how rude! It was a reaction that could earn a slap from a guest.

Yet, offering such goodwill was too generous for an uninvited guest who smashed through a wall and ruined the deposit.

The Heavenly Demon raised his voice, annoyed.

“What the hell is going on? The essence, surely the spirit itself must be damaged…!”

“Not telling you! But, surprisingly, it felt fine when my head blew up. You could say there was a sense of liberation.”

Then he savored the chicken leg forcefully.

The Heavenly Demon frowned.

He raised his hand, pointing a finger.

“Stop! Freeze that finger!”

Qing hurriedly shouted while shooting bits of chewed chicken everywhere.

“Hey, don’t mess with someone who’s eating! Even a dog will bite if you bother it while eating! I’m a human, so I can throw a tantrum.”

The Heavenly Demon momentarily lost his senses upon hearing such nonsense.

“…Are you saying you’re worse off than a dog?”

“You do know that if you try dancing that ridiculous dance in front of your followers, you’ll regret thinking you should have just enjoyed the show, right?”

Chen Hui Palace welcomed the Heavenly Demon, making him look like this Heavenly Demon himself.

It was originally the case that all Heavenly Demons were this man.

The Heavenly Demon was aware of what that dance of clumsy movements was. The supreme existence of a sect shouldn’t be showing off clothes or cheap seduction in order to gain respect from others forever.

(It was something the Heavenly Demons of other worlds sometimes did.)

The Heavenly Demon opened his mouth in astonishment, but eventually let out a deep sigh, retracting his finger.

“Fine. I won’t touch your father anymore. Is that enough? Seriously, like father like daughter. To be so concerned with personal emotions, how could you, born as a daughter of the Divine Sect, hinder the aspirations of liberating the Central Plain?”

This was a significant misunderstanding from the Heavenly Demon.

In truth, it was a misunderstanding that couldn’t be helped.

The Heavenly Demon assumed this flesh was a living corpse. Naturally, he thought it was made by the Divine Sect members to accept the Heavenly Demon Soul.

But now that the old man had jumped in to cause a disturbance, he mistakenly believed the elderly one who had cared for her for forty-nine days was now seeing her as a daughter out of attachment.

Moreover, he thought the spirit entering had also taken the old man as a father and grown fond of him.

This beautiful, heartwarming narrative had loosely formed in his mind.

What a grand miscalculation.

“Huh? My father? A daughter of the Divine Sect?”

“That rude old guy outside.”

“Oh. Grandpa? Grandpa isn’t my father!”

It was purely a gleeful filial piety.

The Heavenly Demon asked back seriously.

“What strange nonsense is that? Surely.”

“That old man has been a bit wishy-washy lately. I saw it myself, looks like he’s completely lost it! He doesn’t have a hobby of replacing anyone, nor does he intend to.”

Qing also saw Choi Riyong’s passionate performance over the screen.

In fact, it was a rather unpleasant attitude.

Having saved him out of sympathy, if things didn’t look like this now, he would have firmly started on a course of radiation therapy back at day one.

“Then why the hell are you interfering?”

“You don’t know? If I let them be, they’ll just charge in crying for liberation of the Central Plain like idiots, and how can I sit back and watch with my eyes wide open?”

“Hah. So your mere ignorance was the reason.”

“What? No, it’s all because of what I did.”

“That’s enough. You’ll see when you see for yourself.”

The Heavenly Demon interrupted Qing and raised his hand.

Then the four walls of the room collapsed backwards, revealing the outside scenery.

No, he was demolishing someone else’s house at will.

Qing grumbled, wondering what good thing would be shown as he deftly broke into the chicken leg.

It was somewhere in the Central Plain full of folks who looked like they hadn’t eaten in days. Wretched people scattered everywhere, with hardly a breath of life left in them.

It was nothing short of a beggar’s village.

Men around the age of twenty wandered about, inspecting the fallen people. They tried talking, waving their hands in front of them.

Then, after seeing a corpse and poking, beating, and shaking it without any response, they picked it up with a faint smile.

As they moved with the body, it led to a massive cauldron—

“Stop! What are you doing to the people while they’re eating? If I thought I could intimidate you, I’d be sorely mistaken. But it looks like you’re just doing the cultists’ shameless propaganda.”

“I saw it with my own eyes. A decade of summers that rolled into winters without any harvest. The beasts were eaten long ago, and tree bark had been stripped just to brew soup, causing all the trees to die. This was an era where people survived by feasting on one another’s corpses.”

“Oh. That’s true?”

“But not everyone went hungry. Look.”

The world seemed to blur like a watercolor painting, only to sharpen back into focus revealing a splendid palace.

A lavish feast was laid out on a massive table spacious enough for twenty burly men to lie on, filled with delicacies from land and sea.

The man seated at the high table, along with all at the feast, had bulging bellies and more than one chin, displaying a robust physique.

“That was the mayor of that city. Instead of caring for the starving people, he instead lavishly held grand banquets.”

The nearby Taoist elder from Hwasan and all those sitting here were either righteous heroes or wealthy families they’ve protected with their swords.

“Is that the Hwasan in question?”

“It can’t just be the Hwasan, can it? From Shaolin monks to the Wudang’s Daoists and those esteemed lineages from the empire—they all colluded to take advantage.”

Wait, such a dark history in the orthodox Martial World?

Qing’s eyes widened.

“In that age, there specifically wasn’t an orthodox sect. It never existed. So how ludicrous it is for them to later separate into orthodox and heterodox sects.”

For an orthodox sect to exist, a heterodox sect and demonic arts were needed.

If there were neither heterodox nor demonic arts, there was no need to differentiate among thugs wielding knives; it was enough to group together the ones with better manners.

In that period, you could categorize them simply into officials and the Martial World, with the officials treating the Martial World as mere unpaid volunteers beneath their command.

“What? This is ancient history.”

“Keep watching. Just how they oppressed the citizens crying for help.”

The scene unfolded.

Those merely begging to be saved, pleading for just a handful of grains, received only brutal beatings in return.

An old man wanting to beg for gruel to feed his ailing child was snuffed out like that, and taken by those pitiful gluttons who saw him not as a body, but as meat.

One warrior couldn’t bear to watch and stood up.

It was the man standing before Qing.

Thus he stood, bearing the crimson flag representing the holy fire of revolution, promptly igniting the fervor of the masses.

“Wait a minute. Could you stop waving that red flag? Why does it have to be a red flag? Furthermore, isn’t that the Yellow Turban Rebellion?”

Wasn’t this a Chinese game?

Waving a red flag while announcing we should build the people’s republic together should have raised no problems!

Qing hadn’t played the game before.

In the game, such things were hidden so well that they never appeared even as background details.

“Yeah, I’ll admit. Some believers did shout for the Yellow Turban’s return. Their results weren’t much different.”

Spears and swords rained down upon the commoners who simply cried to be spared.

The spears belonged to the army, while the swords belonged to the martial artists.

And soon the scene transitioned into the desperate escape of the survivors after the oppression.

Crossing mountains and rivers, amidst countless deaths to the desert, it finally led to a massive mountain range.

This was the start of the Heavenly Demon Sect.