Ā Chapter 1
The Blood Demon Cult.
Its official name was the Asura Blood Demon Divine Cult, a heretical organization that worshiped the Blood God, a deity said to have come from another realm.
They deceived and misled the people with the false doctrine that anyone who received the Blood God’s protection could escape the cycle of reincarnation, life, and death and gain the power of eternal life.
As a result, bloodshed and screams had continued throughout the Central Plains for several years. It was truly a horrific calamity that defied all the laws of heaven and humanity.
Yet the net of heaven is vast and wide. Though it may appear loose and full of gaps, nothing can ultimately escape it.
Now, with the End of Summer Festival just around the corner, when it was said that the cool autumn breeze came riding on the back of crickets on the ground and drifting clouds in the sky, dozens of yellow flags were fluttering proudly in front of the Blood Demon Cult’s main headquarters.
Embroidered on them were the characters for “Martial” and “Forest.”
They were the banners of the Martial Alliance, an organization in which the orthodox and unorthodox martial factions had joined forces to oppose the atrocities of the Blood Demon Cult.
For the Martial Alliance’s banners to be flying at the Blood Demon Cult’s headquarters meant only one thing.
The end of the years-long war between the Martial Alliance and the Blood Demon Cult was finally at hand.
Amid the desperate screams echoing from every direction, two groups stood facing each other across an ancient altar deep within the Blood Demon Cult’s grand headquarters, which resembled an imperial palace.
One group was led by a middle-aged man wearing a magnificent blood-red robe. In stark contrast to his splendid clothing, however, one side of his face was almost completely melted by burns. He was also born with a pronounced hunchback, giving him a truly grotesque appearance.
He was none other than the Blood Demon Cult Leader, the Nine Heavens Blood Demon, Gao Tianluo.
Facing him was the representative of the opposing group, a middle-aged man dressed in a white robe.
He was the leader of the Martial Alliance, Nangong Hui, who had earned the title Azure Heaven Sword Emperor through this very war.
Nangong Hui had once been famous by the nickname Jade Qilin. Even now, having passed the age of forty and approaching fifty, he still possessed an exceptionally refined and handsome appearance.
The contrast between the two men could not have been greater.
“With this, you are the only ones left. Stop your futile resistance and surrender, Nine Heavens Blood Demon!”
Gao Tianluo glared at Nangong Hui as though he wanted to tear him apart.
“Heh heh heh. Azure Heaven Sword Emperor. How arrogant you have become. But even that ends today.”
“Hmph! Being driven into a corner has finally made you lose your mind.”
“Kakakak! Let us see whether you can remain so imposing when death is right before your eyes!”
With an enraged shout, Gao Tianluo pulled a strange talisman from inside his robes.
At the same time, an indescribable red glow began pouring out from the altar.
“Alliance Leader! He’s using some kind of sorcery!”
“It’s dangerous! Please retreat!”
Hearing his subordinates’ shouts, Nangong Hui nodded.
Gao Tianluo, the leader of the Blood Demon Cult, was famous not only for mastering the Blood Demon Cult’s supreme martial arts but also for possessing knowledge of bizarre and mysterious techniques.
However, just as Nangong Hui was about to retreatā
Whoosh!
The talisman in Gao Tianluo’s hand suddenly burst into flames on its own, and Nangong Hui’s body abruptly stopped moving.
“What?!”
Caught off guard by the strange phenomenon, Nangong Hui hurriedly pushed the energy of his Celestial Grand Evolution Divine Technique to its absolute limit.
Yet his body did not move at all.
An enormous, semitransparent serpent that was invisible to ordinary people had wrapped itself tightly around his entire body.
Seeing this, Gao Tianluo smiled triumphantly.
“Heh heh heh. It’s useless. No matter how powerful you are, you can do nothing before the Blood Serpent Talisman. This is the end, Azure Heaven Sword Emperor!”
The moment he finished speaking, the red light pouring from the altar grew even more intense.
Anyone could sense that something tremendous was about to happen at this critical moment. But Nangong Hui was completely helpless. He could not move an inch because of the bizarre technique restraining him, which was neither martial arts nor poison.
Just thenā
Slash!
Kiiiiieeeeeeeek!
A streak of sword light flashed through the air, and the enormous serpent wrapped around Nangong Hui’s body let out a painful howl.
However, because it was a spiritual cry, no one except Gao Tianluo could hear it.
Nangong Hui suddenly regained control of his body. Confused, he hesitated for a moment.
That was when a masked figure dressed in a black cloak suddenly appeared before him like a ghost.
Nangong Hui’s eyes widened when he saw the figure’s back.
‘The Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard…!’
The masked man’s identity was the commander of the Hidden Moon Guard, Nangong Hui’s personal escort unit.
“Th-that bastard…!”
Gao Tianluo was stunned by the unexpected interference.
‘How did he cut the spiritual body of the Blood Serpent?’
It should have been impossible unless he had mastered either the mystical power of the orthodox arts or the demon-subduing energy of Buddhist techniques.
But there was an even greater problem.
Gao Tianluo had used the Blood Serpent Talisman partly to restrict Nangong Hui’s movements.
But its greater purpose was to mark his target so that the blood light being gathered by the altar would never miss.
He hurriedly reached for another Blood Serpent Talisman.
That was whenā
“Urgh!”
The Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard suddenly stopped with a groan.
The Blood Serpent, which Gao Tianluo had believed had completely disappeared after the earlier attack, had already reappeared and wrapped itself around the commander’s body.
Gao Tianluo’s heart sank.
‘What?!’
At that very moment, the light of the altar, which had reached its peak, transformed into a single streak of blood-red radiance and shot straight toward the Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard.
“Nooooo!”
Regardless of Gao Tianluo’s desperate scream, the blood-red beam swallowed the commander’s entire body in an instant.
BOOM!
At the same time, an enormous roar that seemed capable of shaking heaven and earth reverberated throughout the entire stone chamber.
Whoosh!
The blood-red beam then pierced through the ceiling of the chamber and shot high into the sky.
It looked as though a new pillar of red light had appeared, connecting heaven and earth.
The blood-red beam continued rising as if it would never stop.
But gradually, its power weakened, and it vanished without leaving a trace.
Naturally, there was no sign of the Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard, who had been swallowed by the beam.
Even the altar from which the blood-red beam had originally been fired had disappeared.
Gao Tianluo’s face had become even paler than before as he muttered,
“Damn… it…! The Cult’s ultimate trump card…! To fail so ridiculously like this…! I-I can’t accept this…!”
With a look of utter resentment, Gao Tianluo could not even finish his sentence.
His body collapsed to the ground like a sandcastle crumbling apart.
His body soon began shrinking and wrinkling like a dried corpse.
In the end, it crumbled into dust.
This was the price of using the Blood God’s divine relicāthe true source of the altar’s powerāwithout properly completing the required ritual.
However, the members of the Martial Alliance who witnessed the scene completely misunderstood what had happened.
“Looks like he intended to die together with the Alliance Leader…”
“The Blood Demon… Truly, he was a terrifying man…”
“Still, thanks to the sacrifice of the Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard, the Alliance Leader is safe…”
Hearing the murmurs of those standing nearby and staring blankly at the scene, Nangong Hui finally came to his senses.
He bit his lower lip.
“Urgh… Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard. No… He Tian. I will never forget your loyalty, even in death.”
With the deaths of the Nine Heavens Blood Demon and the sacrifice of the Commander of the Hidden Moon Guard, the long and bitter war between the righteous and demonic factions finally came to an end.
Before the Martial Alliance could even fully savor the joy of victory, they immediately set fire to the Blood Demon Cult’s headquarters.
The magnificent and enormous complex of buildings, which had been as grand as an imperial palace, was devoured by flames in an instant and reduced to ashes.
How much time passed after that?
An unprecedented torrential downpour began pouring over the ashes of the Blood Demon Cult.
Although it was not even the rainy season, the heavy rain continued day and night for seven days.
The resulting floodwaters overflowed the rivers and swept over what remained of the Blood Demon Cult’s headquarters like a tidal wave.
When the flood finally receded, nothing remained.
The place had become a barren wasteland so completely transformed that no one could even imagine that the headquarters of the Blood Demon Cult had once stood there.
Winter arrived.
White snow accumulated softly across the land before eventually melting away.
Then came spring.
Unknown plants carried by the freezing eastern winds began sprouting, pushing their green shoots through the earth.
How many times did the seasons repeat their cycle?
The plants grew old, bending beneath the frost of time like elderly people burdened by the years.
Eventually, spring returned once more, covering the land with colorful flowers and trees.
The place had become a peaceful habitat for animals such as rabbits and deer.
Anyone who saw it would never have imagined that this tranquil wilderness had once been the headquarters of the Blood Demon Cult, the organization that had bathed the entire world in blood.
But that peace was soon shattered.
Rumbleeeee!
The ground suddenly began to tremble.
The animals on the field were startled by the unexpected earthquake and fled in every direction.
After they had disappeared, a short while later, a pillar of blood-red light suddenly shot upward from the middle of the field.
It was just like when the Blood God’s divine relic had been activated in the past.
The blood-red pillar soared high into the sky before quickly disappearing.
The earthquake also subsided as though it had never happened.
The animals that had fled cautiously began returning.
Then they suddenly pricked up their ears.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
With a scream, something suddenly fell from the sky.
Thud!
The animals were startled by the loud impact and fled once again.
As the thick cloud of dust gradually cleared, someone emerged, brushing the dirt from his body and coughing.
“Cough, cough! Ugh, damn it. What the hell was that? I was sleeping peacefully!”
The owner of the voice was a young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties.
He spoke in a strange foreign language rather than the common language of the Central Plains.
His appearance was just as foreign as the language he spoke.
Instead of the traditional tied-up hairstyle, he had what was commonly known as a modern see-through dandy haircut.
His clothes were equally strange.
He wore a simple white T-shirt and blue jeans.
The young man looked around in confusion and tilted his head.
“No matter how I look at it, I’ve never seen this place before. Where am I?”
He had gone to sleep and woken up in the sky.
Then he had fallen from the sky into a completely unfamiliar place.
From his perspective, it was utterly absurd.
Yet he showed no signs of panic and remained remarkably calm.
It was as though this sort of thing was not happening to him for the first time.
“First, I need to figure out where I am.”
The moment he finished speaking, the young man kicked off the ground.
In a single step, he covered more than a dozen units of distance and displayed astonishing movement speed.
He swiftly circled the entire field and returned to his original position.
Despite moving at such an incredible speed, he was not even breathing heavily.
However, for some reason, his face was filled with shock.
“No freaking way. This was the Blood Demon Cult’s headquarters, wasn’t it? Did I actually come back here?”
The young manāor rather, Heo Cheon, the Commander of the Hidden Moon Guardārealized that he had returned to the martial world.
Yet instead of being happy about it, he could not hide his sadness.
He even dropped to the ground and cried out in despair.
“No!! If I’d only waited one more day, the final episode of Squid Game Season 3 would have been released! I should have been there to see the mystery about that Front Man guy finally revealed…! Sob, this is a nightmare! A nightmare!!”
He had spent the past twenty years living in a country called South Korea.
It was a society with an advanced civilization that was clearly several hundred years ahead of the Central Plains.
Compared with that world, the Central Plains was not merely backwardāit was practically primitive.
He had become completely immersed in the culture of that world.
Now he could hardly imagine how he was supposed to adapt and survive here.
After making a tremendous fuss for who knew how long, Heo Cheon eventually had no choice but to forcibly accept his current reality.
Once he had finally calmed down, he looked around.
“Man… this place has changed so much. Just how much time has passed?”
If he wanted more accurate information, he would first have to travel to a nearby village or city.
Without wasting any time, Heo Cheon set off.
