Chapter 47: Heavenly Demon Divine Art
According to the settings of Return of the Murim, martial arts are typically composed of two parts: the inner cultivation art for building internal energy, and the techniques that express that energy. Of the two, the inner cultivation was always more emphasized. The essence of any martial art, recorded as mnemonic verses of insight, lies in its inner cultivation.
In that sense, Do Il-gwang’s shocked expression upon seeing was entirely natural.
What I had mastered was the first half of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art—the inner cultivation part.
What Do Il-gwang had mastered was the second half, the techniques.
Of course he would recognize it.
Like many Heavenly Demons before him, Do Il-gwang had likely exhausted every thod to complete his partial version of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. But all in vain.
This was a martial art ant to rule over all demons in existence. No other art’s inner cultivation thod could fill in its missing half. Which ant—he had likely never been able to fully utilize even a quarter of the techniques he did know.
So when he saw the missing half in front of him, he imdiately recognized it.
“Heavenly Demon Divine Art…?!”
The startled voice ca from behind—Baekryung.
“L-Lord Supre! W-What do you an by that?!”
“Exactly what it sounds like… This man has mastered the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.”
“Th-That’s impossible!”
A choice had to be made.
Until now, no one knew I had learned the inner cultivation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Saweol and Tak Horak were too busy managing internal injuries and wouldn't have heard anything.
But Baekryung was different. He had seen it.
Even if I had only learned the inner half, if word got out...
I’ll die. Definitely.
The na Heavenly Demon carried that much weight.
It is a na reserved for only one person—the peak of all one hundred thousand followers of the Cult.
There was no way soone like , who had “tainted” that na, would be allowed to live. My entire bloodline would be wiped out alongside .
So if I wanted to survive...
I have to kill Baekryung.
Don’t hesitate, Kim Dong-yun.
After all, I ca here to kill a prisoner.
Do I feel guilt killing characters from a novel I read? I do.
But now that I’ve seen, heard, and felt them—this is all overwhelmingly real.
Still, guilt is a contradiction. It’s self-deception. Arrogance.
If not for , those prisoners by the campfire might still be alive. They died because of my presence.
I cannot survive in Return of the Murim without killing soone.
So nothing changes.
And—
Fwoosh!
The force of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art surged from my eyes, scorching away even the last trace of guilt.
As if telling : “Don’t hesitate. Don’t question your path.”
Skybreaker.
[………]
He said nothing. Usually, he’d be bursting with excitent at being recharged. But now he was completely silent.
You must be confused. But for now…
I said heavily, “Kill Baekryung and absorb him.”
Skybreaker’s blade glinted.
Transcendent Peak.
***
This was the level where one becos a true superhuman. Those who change the laws of reality by will alone.
Beyond that lies the Immortal Realm, said to be reachable only by sages—and thus, for all practical purposes, the final realm humans can attain.
Do Il-gwang was soone who stood at the very brink of that realm.
Soone at that level shouldn’t be surprised easily. A violent temper is different from being startled.
Yet in this mont—he was undeniably shocked.
“An unannounced sword-flight technique...”
Those at the Transcendent Peak are hyper-aware of the flow of energy. Yet Do Il-gwang didn’t sense a thing.
Still, my sword had moved naturally—and pierced Baekryung’s heart, who had frozen like a statue.
There wasn’t even a hint of wasted motion in that flow of qi.
He could’ve dismissed it as just an efficient technique. But what truly shocked him was what he saw in my eyes—
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
But how could it be so silent?
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art is the king of all demon arts. It doesn’t hide. It dominates. It blazes like untamable fire.
So the only logical conclusion:
“He’s mastered the complete Heavenly Demon Divine Art—not a fragnt. And he’s in full control of it.”
And that wasn’t the end.
“Aaarghhh!”
Baekryung scread in agony.
His veins darkened and bulged grotesquely around the sword stabbed in his heart. It looked like he was being drained, gulp by gulp.
In a blink, his body withered like a mummified corpse.
Absorption Demon Art…?
It was the Heavenly Demon’s forbidden technique—a taboo among all martial artists that had caused a bloodbath a hundred years ago.
Do Il-gwang muttered in a voice like scraping iron:
“Could it be… you truly inherited the legacy of the Heavenly Demon?”
At first, I thought he was spouting nonsense.
And then it hit —He mistook Skybreaker.
Skybreaker is a demon blade that absorbs energy. Unless soone was well-versed in ancient martial history, they wouldn’t know what it truly was.
Do Il-gwang clearly wasn’t. So he mistook Skybreaker’s function for the Absorption Demon Art. I’d avoided using it publicly for that very reason.
I hadn’t ant to deceive him. I was just trying to say, “I know the art too, so stop acting up.”
And yet… here we were.
In monts like these, there was only one correct move:
Act natural.
Crossing my arms, I stared at him arrogantly.
“Absorption Demon Art was one of the Four Great Heavenly Demons’ secret techniques… able to drain every speck of an opponent’s qi and make it one’s own. But the Four left no heirs.”
As expected, it worked. Do Il-gwang started rambling unprompted.
“Then who the hell are you, really?”
At this point, it was better to let him misunderstand. These delusions could work in my favor.
So I said flatly:
“You see exactly what I am.”
“The Heavenly Demons after the Four were all incomplete. Even if they bore the title, their substance was lacking… even that accursed woman. But you... you’re different. The Absorption Demon Art… you’ve inherited the true will of the Heavenly Demon.”
Do Il-gwang looked back at Baekryung’s dried corpse, then turned to .
“Then your goal must be to absorb my qi as well.
So I walked straight into your trap, didn’t I?”
I didn’t respond.
He suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hahaha! Fine! True heir of the Heavenly Demon! Take my qi! Beco the true Heavenly Demon!”
God, he was dramatic.
“Shut up.”
“What…?”
“You an that pitiful sliver of qi you’ve got left?”
That irritating hum from earlier—it was coming from the altar. My instincts, honed by Return of the Murim, told what it was.
That was the formation powering the entire Disciplinary Block. And Do Il-gwang was its battery. The chains, the aura flowing from his body into the altar—he was literally an external power source.
Sure, he may have had a massive qi reservoir—but how much was actually left now?
Besides, Skybreaker hasn’t said a word since I ordered him to kill Baekryung.
He had likely been shaken.
He had believed, with absolute faith, that his power was the Asura Demon Emperor Divine Art. That was his pride and identity—now shattered.
We’re gonna need a conversation later.
In any case, I hadn’t co here to absorb Do Il-gwang’s energy. Would it be nice? Sure. But it wasn’t my goal.
Do Il-gwang scowled.
“You… that tone… I haven’t heard it in 20 years. But for soone like you, it makes sense.”
He smirked.
“So that’s it. You’re looking for the Heavenly Demon’s weakness.”
“Huh?”
“A man of your caliber must have ambition. If you were born into the Cult, you must’ve dread of toppling the sky.”
The Heavenly Demon was a title constantly challenged. Even if soone used cowardly thods, it didn’t matter. That was the burden of bearing that na—and why it could be passed down for centuries.
He chuckled.
“Ask ! I’ll tell you the Heavenly Demon’s weakness! Use it on that accursed woman in my place!”
“I don’t need it.”
“What…?”
“I said I don’t need it. You think soone like you could even understand the Supre One’s weakness?”
The Heavenly Demon is a monster.
In the early parts of Return of the Murim, the Transcendent Peak is portrayed as the ceiling of human power. Later on, power creep kicks in and everyone reaches it—but the Heavenly Demon was the first to go beyond.
Her injuries? Not even from battle. She hurt herself during training.
Yeah. I really shouldn’t et the current Heavenly Demon…
If Do Il-gwang could exude this kind of pressure under restriction…Then what kind of being was the current Heavenly Demon?
Honestly, if this were a fantasy novel and not a martial arts one, I’d fully believe she was a dragon in human form.
Just as Do Il-gwang saw through instantly, so would she.
“You bastard! Then why the hell did you co?!”
“There’s sothing I want.”
He looked like he expected that.
“Heh heh heh… and what would that be?”
“Your martial philosophy.”
“What?!”
“Those at the Transcendent Peak infuse their martial arts with their own belief—their ideation. I want the essence of yours.”
A martial artist’s lifelong belief—refined through years of discipline—is called their ideation. It lets them part the seas with a swing, leap across mountains in one step.
And the physical manifestation of ideation is True Qi.
So when I said I wanted his “essence,” I ant all of his martial accomplishnts.
Do Il-gwang’s tyranny, the oppressive pressure he emitted in this cave—it all stemd from his ideation.
An overwhelming advantage against anyone weaker.
“You really think you could comprehend that? Even if I explained, you’d understand nothing.”
“Do Il-gwang. You think I don’t know your ideation?”
“Oh? Then what is it?”
“To trample the weak without rcy. And to destroy anything that stands between you and what you want.”
I locked eyes with him.
“That’s the ideation of a man who once called himself the Heavenly Demon—only to fall into ruin.”
Do Il-gwang’s eyes trembled violently.
“Supre Reign.”
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