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Chapter 183:
Chapter 183:
Chapter 183:
Chapter 183
The old man Huang dreamed of the past.
Back then, he was an instructor of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
He traveled around the eastern region, looking for potential disciples.
He somehow ended up in a remote village’s slum.
He could not remember why he went there.
There was nothing to gain from that place full of beggars.
‘No. There was something.’
There was a girl.
A young girl who had such extraordinary talent and potential that he could not help but admire her.
She was malnourished, sleep-deprived, and dirty.
But her eyes were more beautiful than anyone else’s.
Maybe he was drawn to them.
He thought that she could elevate the status of the sect.
He followed his uncertain intuition and took her in.
That must have been why.
He raised her himself, without any relatives.
The girl’s talent was amazing.
Even he, who was already old enough to be called an elder, was astonished by her progress.
He thought that she could restore the glory of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
No, he was sure of it.
‘She had to be trained hard for that.’
The girl endured the harsh training and followed him.
She left his side and became a lower disciple of the sect, carrying out missions without complaining.
She even asked him for praise and approval, and he could only smile and say yes.
She was the future of the sect.
The future of the Heavenly Demon Sect, which had lost its former prestige and honor, and only fought for their own interests.
Time passed.
The girl grew up, and he grew old.
The girl’s eyes were higher than his waist.
She became more beautiful and dazzling as time went by.
There were those who envied her and tried to harm her, but she defeated them one by one.
Of course, there were also those who were too much for her to handle.
Those who feared her power and resorted to despicable schemes that did not suit the sect.
Even a powerful girl like her would have no chance against them.
‘Did she know? That I secretly helped her from behind.’
He had learned that petty emotions were unnecessary.
But when did it start?
When did he feel affection for the girl he raised as a tool for the sect?
When did he care more about her smile than her achievements?
The old man Huang wished that she would smile more brightly and be happier.
‘When did it start?’
When did he prioritize her over the sect, when he thought he could give up everything for it?
Suddenly, he remembered a much older memory.
When his hair was black instead of white, and his body was stronger than now.
He had a family when he was young and vigorous.
He had a beautiful wife and a cute daughter.
But he was too focused on his mission, and he lost them.
It was a tragic accident.
A puppet that could not withstand the excessive training of the Heavenly Demon Sect went berserk and destroyed a village, killing ten people before self-destructing.
It was a village with 1,500 people.
It was a miracle that only ten people died from the rampage of the puppet.
His wife and daughter were among those ten people.
In the center of his collapsed house, Huang Anjun knelt in front of their corpses.
In his rough hand, he held a rag doll that his daughter used to play with.
The doll was soaked with his daughter’s blood.
His daughter’s warmth remained on the doll.
The old man Huang realized too late how precious his family was.
He regretted what happened then.
If he had been with his family at that time, they would not have died.
He gave up everything and devoted himself to the Heavenly Demon Sect.
That was the only way to forget the pain of losing his family.
He did not need a family anymore.
He would dedicate himself to the sect.
That was what he vowed, but the girl reminded him of his family’s love again.
He liked seeing her smile.
Her smile was more precious to him than the rise or fall of the sect.
If he had honestly accepted and acknowledged that feeling, maybe things would have turned out better.
But foolishly, he could not accept it easily at that time.
‘No. Maybe I knew it but deliberately ignored it.’
The girl grew stronger every day.
She rose from a lower disciple to an upper one, from a leader of a blood wing unit to an elder.
And then, she reached the position of the sect leader and the Heavenly Demon of this generation.
She climbed higher than old man Huang, and now he had to call her respectfully.
She was a supreme being, a Heavenly Demon that he had to serve.
‘Sect leader. The leader of a blood wing unit is too much for me.’
‘Hey, old man. Just be comfortable like before.’
‘How can I do that? I’m afraid others will look down on us.’
Grandpa, don’t be disappointed in me. What do others matter? Grandpa is special. You’re an exception. Just like before, just praise me and that’s enough for me. Grandpa is fine. Grandpa is my… family.’
‘…’
The child said he was family.
The moment he heard those words, the old man finally realized.
What he had wished for so much was not the restoration of the former glory of the sect.
‘So that’s how it was. I just wanted… a family that I thought I had forgotten.’
But it was too late to realize that.
She had risen to the position of Heavenly Demon while leaving many things unresolved.
She had taken the seat of sect leader with a smaller force than anyone else.
There were bound to be those who opposed her.
When he pointed out the problem with them, she, who had become the sect leader, said.
‘They’re all part of the sect. I can’t cruelly purge them.’
‘But if you don’t, the sect will fall apart.’
‘Then we’ll have to find another way.’
That way was the conquest of the Central Plains that the sect had failed in the past.
She thought that if they faced an external enemy like the Martial Alliance, their internal cohesion would naturally strengthen, and her expectation was indeed fulfilled.
Only temporarily.
The Martial Alliance changed their tactics when they were pushed back by force, and dragged the war into a stalemate.
The watching imperial army intervened, and even the internal problem that she thought she had barely resolved erupted again.
The old man watched all of that.
He thought.
The sovereign he served had a too weak heart, and could not bear these things properly.
She would crumble from being wounded in a fight that seemed like a victory.
Looking at his Heavenly Demon that had been greatly weakened by the war, the old man made a decision.
He went to find her and told her his intention.
‘You are not suited for the position of Heavenly Demon. Now throw away all your heavy burdens and leave to find your own life.’
But the old man’s Heavenly Demon did not listen to him properly.
‘What are you talking about? No. I can do more.’
‘Sect leader. You’ve done enough.’
‘I can’t! This is something only I can do! Do you know how much, how much I worked to get here!’
‘Sect leader…’
‘I’m fine, grandpa. Don’t say that. I’m fine…’
She, who had been driven to the edge of her sanity, did not even have time to do that.
There was no reason in her eyes, and she even repeated the same words several times.
The old man realized one thing from her attitude.
‘So that’s how it was. I was her last hesitation.’
She had sacrificed herself for the Heavenly Demon Sect because he had wished for it.
She had climbed up to the position of Heavenly Demon that she did not want because he had wished for it.
The old man lamented that he had become her shackles.
‘I don’t want to see her suffer anymore.’
He did not want to see her as a Heavenly Demon tied to someone like him either.
She still had a lot of life left.
And there were many things she could do.
Now the huge organization called the Heavenly Demon Sect was nothing more than a small cage that confined her.
She needed freedom.
‘I should have done this from the start.’
The old man made a cruel decision.
He would cut off all the chains that had been connected until now with his own hands.
The Heavenly Demon was strong.
She was the best martial artist in the world.
He did not want to see her being held back by someone who was nothing but a criminal like him.
As if reading his mind, one night all of his Blood Shadow Unit stood before him.
‘Sect leader. Let us do it too.’
‘Vice leader. And you guys…’
‘Sect leader may not remember, but we all owe him a favor. There is no one here who has not received his help since he was a sect leader. So please let us help too.’
‘You might die.’
‘If it’s for her, gladly.’
‘She might get hurt.’
‘But she will overcome it. At least she will live a more rewarding life than caring about us useless guys.’
‘Is that so?’
The old man did not stop them.
He could not stop them.
He was also determined to do so.
‘I’m going to do something terrible to her.’
What he was going to do now was treason.
And on a smaller scale, it was also betrayal towards a child who trusted and followed him like family.
How much would she suffer?
How much would she grieve?
Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
Still, he had no choice but to do this.
‘Child.’
The old man looked up at the moon with a sad expression.
‘Please, don’t forgive us.’
One day, while the war of the magic horses was raging on.
The old man Huang led his entire blood eagle squad to face the Heavenly Demon.
***
The old man Huang dragged his wounded body and got up.
‘Was he still alive?’
He knew how powerful her martial arts were.
Yet he survived even though he rushed in from the closest distance.
‘She showed mercy in his palm. She is still a soft-hearted person.’
He felt sorry for making her make a cruel decision, but the old man Huang hardened his heart.
They were shackles. Shackles that prevented her from rising higher.
If they truly cared for her, they should have disappeared on their own.
‘That’s why he must rise higher.’
The old man Huang clenched his painful shoulder and stood up completely in the ruins.
Behind him, the blood eagle squad regained their senses and got up one by one, clearing the dirt and debris.
They did not speak.
They did not need to exchange words, they knew what they had to do as if it was engraved in their souls.
The explosions that echoed from afar subsided.
The old man Huang and the blood eagle squad moved their steps toward the source.
When they reached the place where the Heavenly Demon was, they widened their eyes at the sight before them.
***
‘Is it all over?’
Yu-hyun breathed heavily and sorted out the situation around him.
‘No. It’s not over yet.’
The story of this world was not over yet. It was only paused for a while because of the interference of the White Night Society, but this was not the real story.
Yu-hyun looked down at the Heavenly Demon who was still in a daze.
The black magic energy writhed in real time, showing her unstable mental state. Seo Sumin also seemed hesitant somewhere, looking at her past self.
Yu-hyun opened his mouth.
“Now…”
He was about to ask what she was going to do.
Waaaaah!!
People’s screams came from afar.
People in white uniforms and soldiers in armor were rushing in.
Yu-hyun frowned at the appearance of the alliance of the martial alliance and the government forces.
‘What? I didn’t hear about this. No, no. This must have happened in the real world.’
But Yu-hyun didn’t know about this because Seo Sumin didn’t tell him.
It wasn’t because she didn’t want to remember and deliberately didn’t tell him. Seo Sumin said she lost her sanity after being betrayed.
When she came to her senses, she was in a deep mountain with no one around.
That meant that the surprise attack by the martial alliance and the government forces happened when she went berserk.
And.
‘They all got swept away by the angry Heavenly Demon.’
The middle-aged man with a long beard who was leading them shouted.
“Heavenly Demon! How dare you use witchcraft on us! Your cowardice has crossed the line! Your evil deeds will end here today!”
They were furious.
They believed that the rampage caused by Sacred Buddhist Relic was witchcraft by the Heavenly Demon.
Those with weak mental power were still unconscious.
Only the elite experts with strong mental power barely regained their sanity and carried out their original surprise attack.
Yu-hyun wondered what to do as he saw the unexpected appearance of the enemies.
“The evil cultists of the demon sect will be uprooted today… Kheuk!”
“Leader… Huek!”
The ones who were running fine stopped in their tracks and fell one by one with screams.
Yu-hyun was puzzled by that sight.
‘What? Why are they collapsing all of a sudden?’
He belatedly realized that the Genesis System’s message window was ringing very loudly.
[The spirits are appalled by what is happening now.]
[Some spirits point fingers at an unbelievable intervention.]
[The spirits condemn the behavior that violates the rules.]
[The spirits urge you to run away.]
‘What? What does that mean?’
The spirits’ reactions were strange.
Yu-hyun soon found out why.
‘The flow of air is weird.’
The sky was full of dark clouds.
The dark clouds swirled like a school of fish swimming in the sea.
The soldiers and martial artists who fell to the ground turned into characters one by one and scattered.
The text that made up them ascended to heaven and was sucked into the center of the whirlpool.
Yu-hyun felt goosebumps all over his body as he saw that sight.
‘Something is coming.’
Paaah!
The center of the dark clouds opened and light came down.
Inside the pillar of light, Yu-hyun felt a huge presence.
Something white and shapeless was watching him through the gaps of the blinding light.
Zap!
An overwhelming aura that made his skin tingle with just a glance.
Yu-hyun knew who could manifest such a thing in reality.
‘A Spirit!’
And not just any ordinary Spirit.
There were ranks among the Spirits.
From the first generation to the fourth generation.
The opponent was at least a second generation.
And it had come out personally from the Paradise of the Great Sage in the Great Sage Army.