A video, 'hwik, hwik', flashed through his mind.
The seven-story stone pagoda of the So family was briefly visible, and himself training in an unknown training room, the brightly smiling face of a young Bi Yun-seol, himself dueling, and so on... all sorts of videos flashed by.
Baekji, realizing that his soul, which had been sealed through 'soul division', was now rging with his current soul, was startled and tried to get up.
At that mont, the Cult Leader's voice was heard.
―The 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art' is to borrow the power of heaven. With power cos responsibility. To abandon the one hundred thousand sect mbers and to only take the 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art'? That is sothing that cannot be!
An imnse energy pressed down on him, and he could not move.
The Cult Leader's voice echoed in the cavity.
"I hereby pass on the position of the four hundred and ninety-ninth Cult Leader and the fourth Heavenly Demon!"
Hwa-ra-ra-rak!
Suddenly, the flas of the sacred fire soared high and then, like a fire dragon, they covered Baekji.
The fire of the sacred fire was a fire of 'reversing heaven' that was created from the 'heavenly yin' energy that had co down through the 'cold vein' of the Heavenly Mountains and the 'earthly fire' energy that had pierced through the earth's qi. That was why it burned endlessly without being extinguished.
The fire of the sacred fire covered Baekji.
The mont the human body, which was created from the 'heavenly yang' and the 'earthly yin' energies, and the fire of 'reversing heaven' harmonized.
An intense light erupted from Baekji's body.
"Keu-a-a!"
Baekji, at the pain of not only his body but also his soul, spirit, and ethereal soul being torn apart, scread without realizing it.
At the sa ti, he felt his soul, spirit, and ethereal soul being reborn.
anwhile, the ice wall where Bi Yun-seol had been sealed, cracked and then, in an instant, it exploded. At the sa ti, the sphere where Bi Yun-seol's spirit had been sealed exploded, and the light of the spirit entered Bi Yun-seol's 'spirit platform' point.
Then, a stream of the sacred fire's fire enveloped Bi Yun-seol, and the spirit combined with the ethereal soul and settled in the body.
In the anti, the light that had surrounded Baekji disappeared.
―My son. I have done all that I can. When you leave the 'Heavenly Demon Flying Cave', forty-nine calamities will strike. You must prepare thoroughly and go out.
As soon as the words ended, the Cult Leader's body, which was sitting in a ditative posture on the ice jade platform, turned into a stream of light and then disappeared into the sacred fire.
The flas of the sacred fire once again flared up high and then subsided.
"..."
How much ti had passed?
Baekji opened his eyes. An intense light flashed from his eyes.
"..."
Baekji slowly gathered his energy and stood up from his seat.
Although his appearance was the sa as the reincarnated Baekji, his temperant had changed, and he looked like a different person. His gaze was cold, and his expression was indifferent.
Baekji's cold gaze turned to Bi Yun-seol. At that, a warm energy slowly rose from the depths of his eyes.
"Yun-seol..."
Baekji knew the aning of his father forcibly putting in So Ya-hu's soul and reviving Bi Yun-seol.
He had passed on the safety of the one hundred thousand sect mbers.
'The fourth Heavenly Demon...'
Until now, there had only been two Heavenly Demons.
The first Heavenly Demon and the second Heavenly Demon who had ascended to the 'Heavenly Demon Throne' about five hundred years ago.
Now, following his father, he had ascended to the fourth Heavenly Demon.
'Father...'
Although his father had ascended to the third Heavenly Demon, since he had already reached the end of his lifespan and had been sealed in the 'Heavenly Demon Cave', no one knew that fact.
That was why he had passed on everything he had to Baekji and had left.
"Hmm..."
So Ya-hu's mories and emotions were mixed with Baekji's, and he was confused for a mont.
'I will need ti...'
Baekji, after his reincarnation, had lived with his original cheerful nature manifested after all his mories had disappeared.
This was also So Ya-hu's nature. But So Ya-hu, as the bloodline of the So family, had to live a life different from his own nature, with the sense of mission to succeed to the position of Cult Leader. As he had devoted himself to martial arts to ascend to the position of Young Lord and had dealt with people with a high status... aspects different from his own nature had beco ingrained in his body.
Now Baekji was feeling the acquired character engraved on So Ya-hu's soul.
Baekji had learned the 'Great Soul Spirit Art'. If he used the 'soul spirit art' of the So family, he would be able to separate So Ya-hu's soul again.
But he had no intention of doing so. So Ya-hu was also himself.
Above all, it was because he had realized the reason why his father had done so.
His father had entrusted him with the fate of the one hundred thousand sect mbers.
Baekji had co to the Heavenly Mountains and had watched the Demonic Cult fall into a vortex of chaos. The twelve guardian families were causing a bloodbath under the pretext of a competition for the successor.
The peaceful scenery of the village outside the fortress that he had seen from the main headquarters was clearly about to be covered in a blood wind.
Was it for nothing that Baekji, who was not interested in other people's affairs, had thought he had to do sothing?
His father, as the Cult Leader and the third Heavenly Demon, had asked Baekji to hold the center of the sect. Because So Ya-hu... would surely do so.
Baekji, instead of the 'soul spirit art', believed in his own nature.
His soul, which had been peaceful while he was with Yang Soryeong, had now taken root and had beco his essence. Although So Ya-hu's temperant would be manifested for a while... as ti passed, it would return to his own nature.
'Yun-seol...'
Baekji slowly approached Bi Yun-seol.
When everyone had called So Ya-hu a ruthless person, only Bi Yun-seol had recognized So Ya-hu's original nature. So Ya-hu also, when he was with Bi Yun-seol, his original nature would co out.
But... an incident that had turned all that upside down had occurred.
The incident where Hyuk-ryeonjong had killed Bi Yun-seol and had stolen her soul... after that, So Ya-hu had walked the path of a demon.
'―!'
The sword that had been stuck in the center of Bi Yun-seol's chest... but now there was not even a scar.
It must be the efficacy of the 'Harmony Pond', where the energies of 'following heaven' and 'reversing heaven' had reached a 'harmony realm'.
Baekji touched his own forehead.
The bloodstain had disappeared. As his body was reborn, even the scar that had seed to be engraved on his soul had disappeared.
But the intense hatred for the Blood Cult Leader was still the sa.
'It's a relief that it's the mories and emotions before I entered the path of blood.'
Wouldn't there be no such thing as creating a sea of blood and mountains of corpses like he had seen in his dream?
In fact, it was not a dream.
The 'Jade Spirit Mountain' bloody battle.
The terrible mory that was reminiscent of a hellscape had been engraved even on his spirit, so it had been manifested as a dream.
Bi Yun-seol was sleeping as if she were dreaming. She would wake up when the energy of her 'baihui' point was released.
It must be the last arrangent his father had left.
To wake her up with his own hands.
This ant to live as So Ya-hu, but not to beco a demon who walked the path of blood.
Baekji, instead of waking Bi Yun-seol, slowly went up to the platform and sat on the stone throne.
Below, the sacred fire burning in the middle of the 'Harmony Pond' was visible.
"..."
There were many things to sort out before waking Bi Yun-seol.
First, his father's insights that had co with the 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art'...
'There is no god!'
It was sothing Baekji could not have imagined. To say there was no god...
His father had mastered the 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art' after sealing himself on the 'Ice Jade Platform' in the 'Heavenly Demon Flying Cave'. He had gone to the ultimate place that even the first Heavenly Demon had not been able to reach, while continuing to train as a being of spirit for the first ti.
And the conclusion he had obtained was.
―There is no god. There is only 'qi'!
After passing through the 'harmony realm', the 'infinite realm', and the 'void realm', when he had reached the ultimate, his father, who had confird that the being that humans had thought of as a god did not exist, had realized in an instant.
―We are all gods!
Baekji, while operating the 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art', slowly engraved his father's insights. The energies called 'yin' and 'yang' in the martial world interacted and exerted all sorts of forces, such as pushing or pulling.
The 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art' was a divine art that reached a 'harmony realm' by combining with the energy of nature with the energy of 'reversing heaven' and neutralizing it.
Baekji, while operating the 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art', experienced that his father's insights were correct.
At the sa ti, he could understand the intention of the Blood Cult Leader, Zhong Yue.
'Zhong Yue. The first old soul must have believed that there was a god and must have wanted to ascend to the position of a god!'
That was why he had remained as a soul and had wandered the world. After countless years had passed, he must have also realized.
The being called a god... the fact that the 'heavenly realm' that he wanted to go to did not exist...
That was why he was trying to 'toss away the Blood Sect like a used dog' and to transform into a new sect called the 'Spirit Immortal Sect'. If there was no god, he himself would want to beco a god on earth.
'The Blood Demon... that brat must have co.'
He had told the Blood Demon to co to the Heavenly Mountains with Seomun So if he wanted to beco a complete 'Blood Demon'.
'You foolish brat...'
The Blood Demon believed that if he achieved the 'Blood Demon', he could enter the realm of 'entering godhood'.
But the 'Blood Demon' was just a being of the 'natural realm'. With the 'Blood Demon', he could not even enter the 'harmony realm'.
The 'Blood Blood Divine Art' was not a 'harmonious qi' like the 'Heavenly Demon Divine Art'.
Because it was achieved with 'soul power', he could only feel and use the 'qi' of nature... he did not have the power to neutralize and to harmonize it.
The Blood Demon had not even reached that realm. By the arrangent of the Blood Cult Leader, Zhong Yue, he had only obtained the body of a 'Blood Demon'... he had not obtained the enlightennt to understand the 'harmonious qi'.
If he were to stay like that, he would have to enter a state of ditation for a hundred years to barely be able to enter the 'harmony realm'. Since the 'Blood Demon God' had an indestructible body, a hundred years of ditation might be possible.
But.
'I can't let it be like that. A brat who has stolen so many living souls... if he enters the 'harmony realm'... that would be to go against the principles of heaven.'
Although Baekji might not, So Ya-hu could not let the Blood Demon live.
The Blood Demon... had co to the place where he would die.
Baekji then thought about the Hyuk-ryeon family.
Jian Yi must have brought Hyuk-ryeonhu. So the 'Great Successor War' must have been held.
'The Hyuk-ryeon family... what are you hiding...?'
It was clear that there was so connection with the Blood Cult Leader... but there was nothing that was clearly caught. Since Hyuk-ryeonjong, a mber of the family, had been defeated, there was no way they would have joined hands with the Blood Cult Leader...
'I'll have to et Jian Yi first.'
He might have found out sothing while bringing Hyuk-ryeonhu.
When he thought of Jian Yi, a laugh ca out. It was not Baekji, but So Ya-hu's consciousness that was manifested.
'So I beat him that much...'
The current consciousness of So Ya-hu was the mories of the ti when he had just been inaugurated as the Young Lord fifty years ago. The 'soul division art' was not to completely copy the soul. Since it was to copy a part of the soul, it could not revive all the mories.
That was why he had no mory of beating Jian Yi. But from what he had heard while living as Baekji, Jian Yi and Tie Yantai had been beaten a lot.
'It's quite possible.'
The face of a skinny boy flashed through Baekji's mind. The boy, Jian Yi, who had said he liked books more than martial arts and had wanted to beco a scholar, had been beaten by his father and had been kicked out.
Baekji had taken him in and had given him a room in a corner of the Young Lord's hall... but he was already calling for a hawk's bud. He would interfere in every little thing whenever he opened his mouth.
'Forty-nine calamities...'
Baekji then rembered his father's last warning.
The 'Heavenly Demon Flying Cave' was a world like the 'middle heaven' due to the 'harmonious qi'. The mont he left here, a heavenly calamity of forty-nine calamities would strike.
He had achieved a neutralization with the body of 'following heaven' with the power of 'reversing heaven'. As a reaction, that much energy would return.
If the energy of the reaction were to return at once, he would probably turn into ashes. Originally, it would have been so.
His father, before scattering into the realm beyond the 'void realm', had, with his last ounce of strength, split one calamity into forty-nine calamities.
'First, I have to go out and overco the heavenly calamity.'
After that... he had to co back, wake Bi Yun-seol, and go out together. A reaction energy would also strike Bi Yun-seol.
But it would be insignificant compared to Baekji... and Baekji would be able to block most of it.
If he just overca the heavenly calamity...
Even Baekji did not know what form the heavenly calamity would take.
The Alliance Leader had also warned of the calamity of 'reversing heaven'... and had told him of the possibility that a thunderbolt would strike. In Baekji's entire body, the energies of 'following heaven' and 'reversing heaven' were flowing at the sa ti.
A being that could not exist in nature.
Only when the reaction due to the energy of 'reversing heaven' was offset would the 'qi' of neutralization be completed.
Baekji, after organizing his thoughts, slowly stood up.
.
.
.
That day, forty-nine thunderbolts fell on the peak of the Heavenly Mountains.
It was a thunderbolt so powerful that the huge mountain shook.
The people trembled at the strange phenonon.
After the forty-nine thunderbolts struck... a mont later, three more thunderbolts fell.
After that...
The ascension of the Cult Leader was declared.
The people thought that the thunderbolts were the will of heaven to announce the ascension of the Cult Leader.
.
.
.
"Welco... ah, you're back."
The waiter greeted him warmly and then, with a blank look, he looked behind Baekji. A fairy who had co down from the heavens was following behind Baekji.
The waiter could not take his eyes off Bi Yun-seol.
Bi Yun-seol's eyes went up.
"What? That gaze? Shall I gouge out your eyeballs?"
Bi Yun-seol glared at the waiter.
(End of Chapter)
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