The grand hall brimmed with countless demonic cultivators.
Demonic energy so thick it crushed even their breaths filled the air completely.
Though their eyes burned with madness, not a single one dared make a loud sound.
The reason sat high upon that throne.
The Demonic Cult's leader, the Heavenly Demon hailed as the world's strongest, glared down with furious eyes.
"Vice Cult Leader. You're truly leaving the cult?"
The throne room floor trembled with a deep hum at the Heavenly Demon's stern voice.
At the end of his gaze knelt a man with unbound hair, head bowed low.
"Sword Demon! Are you deaf to my words?!"
Rumble rumble rumble!
The ceiling shook, dust raining down.
The Sword Demon slowly raised his head.
His sharp black eyebrows thrust upward fiercely, his firmly set mouth and angular jawline revealing unyielding strength.
Only his eyes were utterly void.
Like the eyes of one already dead.
Even the rage-filled Heavenly Demon faltered for a moment before that gaze.
"I... will leave the cult."
"You dare!"
Boom!
The Heavenly Demon stomped hard.
Cracks shot out from under his foot like lightning, racing toward where the Sword Demon knelt.
Crack! Boom!
"..."
Fresh blood dripped from the Sword Demon's mouth. Red spots bloomed one by one on the floor.
"Why! Why abandon me?! If it's that worthless whelp, I can make another whenever you want!"
"My wife is dead too."
"I'll give you another woman! Just say the word! Any woman in the cult is yours, and if you want one from the orthodox sects, I'll drag her here right now!"
Like a child throwing a tantrum, the Heavenly Demon bellowed.
An impossibility with anyone else.
Only because it was the Sword Demon—raised like a brother since childhood—that his composure shattered.
"..."
Yet the Sword Demon merely shook his head in silence.
Frowning at the sight, the Heavenly Demon descended the steps with heavy footfalls and stood before him.
All swallowed hard, certain the cult's second-in-command's head would explode any second.
Hummm!
The Heavenly Demon erected an aura barrier. An opaque wall enveloped them.
Now, no one else could hear their words.
"Sword Demon."
His voice softened, as if the anger had been a lie.
The Sword Demon kept his head bowed.
"Muhon."
The Heavenly Demon called him again.
The Sword Demon's shoulders twitched.
A name he hadn't heard in ages.
The Sword Demon slowly lifted his head.
"Yes."
"Must there truly be blood?"
Their gazes locked in the air.
The Heavenly Demon's pupils quivered faintly before the Sword Demon's endless void.
"My wife and child are dead."
"You've killed everyone involved, haven't you? Still not enough?"
"..."
The Sword Demon gazed up indifferently.
Finally, the Heavenly Demon sighed deeply and closed his eyes.
"Fine. I know. I failed in raising that child."
"..."
"He must have feared you. That fool who knew nothing of his place. Never thought to grow strong and face you fairly."
"..."
Uncharacteristically, the Heavenly Demon rambled on.
Unable to bear the Sword Demon's silence any longer, he squatted down on the floor, meeting his eyes at the same level.
"Is that truly what you want? If I hand over Gunak, will you stay in the cult? Will you succeed me as Heavenly Demon?"
In the Demonic Cult, ruled by the law of the strong.
The Sword Demon, towering as its supreme warrior, had long been eyed as the next leader.
In response, the current leader's son, Cheon Gunak, had schemed behind the scenes to assassinate his wife and child.
The Sword Demon met the Heavenly Demon's blazing eyes for a moment, then let out a heavy sigh and bowed his head.
"Brother."
"..."
"I'm tired. Please... let me go."
The Sword Demon closed his eyes, lost in thought.
How many cult members had he slain in pursuit of his family's killers?
Yet at the end of that bloody trail stood someone utterly unexpected.
The leader's son, Cheon Gunak.
'Vice Cult Leader! N-no, Uncle! Spare my life! Just my life! I must have gone mad for a moment!'
Before the leader's son—no, before the child of his brother-like Heavenly Demon—the Sword Demon had stayed his blade.
Wasn't his own grief over losing a child enough to bear alone?
"You bastard! Is this you begging to die?!"
"If that's what you wish, so be it."
"Urgh!"
The Heavenly Demon raised his right hand high.
Black demonic energy surged from his fingertips, the floor cracking beneath.
One swing, and it would all end.
The Sword Demon offered his neck with an expression devoid of regret.
"Very well."
The Heavenly Demon halted.
"What will you do once you leave the cult?"
The Sword Demon opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
Having forsaken life, he suddenly yearned for the blue sky beyond the blocked heavens.
Long-forgotten memories surfaced one by one.
Warm spring sunlight, his mother's touch, his father's laughter...
"...I'll go... home."
"Why there? What's left?"
"I never even held a proper funeral for my parents. I want to at least pay my respects at their graves."
"And then?"
"..."
The Sword Demon gave no answer. He hadn't thought that far.
Chased from his childhood home, he'd walked nothing but blood-soaked paths ever since.
How many lives had ended by these callused hands?
Humanity abandoned long ago, his soul torn to shreds.
'Soyeon.'
The woman who had given such a man a new life.
Cheon Gunak hadn't merely taken his family—he'd shattered the very meaning of his existence.
Revenge was simple.
He could swing his sword now and take half the demonic cultivators in this hall with him.
But what would that achieve?
Now, he truly wanted rest.
"Tch."
The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue and turned away.
The aura barrier shattered with a boom, their private space vanishing.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Ascending the throne with heavy steps, the Heavenly Demon looked down upon the assembly.
"Vice Cult Leader Jin Muhon."
"...Yes."
"From this moment, I declare you eradicated."
Whoosh!
A chilling energy spread through the hall. Hundreds of hearts sank.
Eradication—complete excision from cult records.
It meant he was no longer one of them... and that killing him incurred no sin.
"Heh heh heh."
"Kukuku."
The eyes of those with old grudges against the Sword Demon blazed red.
The Sword Demon picked up his sword from the floor and rose slowly.
"Jin Muhon. You're no longer of the cult. Surrender everything you gained from the Demonic Cult and begone."
The Heavenly Demon's voice was ice-cold, his gaze as merciless as a northern gale.
Without the Sword Demon's aid, he would have lost his head to his brothers long ago, never becoming leader.
To him, the Sword Demon was closer than blood kin—a comrade-in-arms, the only one he could entrust his back to.
'Muhon...'
But now was the time to sever personal ties.
The Heavenly Demon glanced at the old strategist below the throne.
The elder nodded faintly.
Clang.
The Sword Demon tossed his sword to the floor.
"You bastard! Insolent fool! Jin scum! What safety makes you so rude?!"
"You punk! You've been strutting around with your neck held high! Clean it and wait—I'll come for you!"
"Cult Leader! Give the order! I'll tear that bastard limb from limb right now!"
The pent-up rage of the demonic cultivators erupted at once.
With the Heavenly Demon offering no check, the fury spread like wildfire through the hall.
He spoke coldly.
"Is a single sword all you gained from our cult?"
"..."
At the icy tone, the Sword Demon met his gaze impassively, then slammed his fist into his own dantian.
The Heavenly Demon's eyes widened.
"...!"
"M-madman! He destroyed his own dantian!"
"Vice... Cult Leader..."
"Uahaha! Good! Yes! That's more like it! You're dead by my hand tonight!"
A thick bloody scent filled the hall.
The demonic cultivators writhed in greater frenzy at the smell of blood.
Inner energy fleeing, the Sword Demon staggered. Wrinkles crept across his youthfully aged face.
"May... I go now?"
The noisy hall fell deathly silent at his question.
All eyes turned to the Heavenly Demon.
The old strategist signaled with gleaming eyes too.
Don't let him go. Kill him now.
"..."
In the drawn-out silence, amid suffocating tension.
After countless thoughts, the Heavenly Demon nodded slightly.
"Go."
"Then. Farewell."
The Sword Demon offered final respects, then turned and walked away with heavy steps.
The frenzied gazes of the cult's elite followed his retreating back.
***
Three months later.
Having left the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, Jin Muhon arrived at Unbong Mountain in Unbong County, Hubei Province.
A journey that should have taken half a month had stretched this long, his lost inner energy forcing him to shake off pursuing demonic cultivators.
The Sword Demon, who had weathered countless battles over decades.
Though bereft of qi, his combat experience, physical techniques, and sword mastery alone could claim the heads of most masters.
Of course, if the cult's top elites had mobilized, experience alone might not suffice—but for some reason, they hadn't.
Likely the leader's influence, unwilling to slay his brother.
Or perhaps another had intervened.
"Huuu..."
Warm spring sun bathed the mountainside gently.
Two pristine graves stood side by side, free of weeds.
"Someone's been tending them."
Jin Muhon gazed at the graves with a complicated expression, then brushed the dried blood from his robes and burial clothes.
He tied back his disheveled hair tightly.
Then sat before the mounds and checked the tombstones.
"Mother... Father..."
His childhood home, abandoned young.
After over twenty years, only these two graves welcomed him back.
No tears came.
They had dried to ash and turned to blood long ago.
Slurp.
After proper bows, Jin Muhon poured rice wine bought from the village below over the graves. The aroma tickled his nose.
Then he flopped down beside the mound and gazed at the sky.
A spotless, clear blue expanse.
A peaceful scene he hadn't beheld in ages.
'What now?'
His dantian was shattered, but faint traces of qi lingered scattered through his body.
Enough to rupture his heart meridians.
But ending it like this might sadden his wife in the heavens.
That was when.
Rustle. Rustle. Rustle.
Sounds approached from below the mountain.
Jin Muhon frowned slightly but didn't rise. Likely a passing woodcutter or hunter.
Yet the stranger spoke first.
"Um... who are you?"
"..."
A young woman's voice.
Jin Muhon slowly sat up and looked at her.
Barely eighteen or nineteen.
Shabby clothes, but a clear, beautiful face stood out.
"Over there... are you a mountain bandit?"
The woman cautiously drew a sickle from her basket.
Her slender hand trembled.
"..."
The old Sword Demon would have beheaded anyone wielding a weapon, man, woman, or child.
But not now.
He simply had no desire to see blood even before his parents' graves.
Jin Muhon spoke heavily.
"I'm paying respects to my parents."
"...!"
The woman startled, eyes widening.
"Your... parents?"
"Yes."
Her gaze shook as she eyed the graves, then asked carefully.
"By any chance... are you Jin Muhon?"
"Hm?"
Now Jin Muhon's eyes rounded.
He'd left home before twenty.
Some in the village below might recognize him, but this girl couldn't have even been born then.
With puzzled curiosity, Jin Muhon asked back.
"How do you know my name?"
"...!"
The woman's mouth gaped. She dropped her sickle and basket with a thud.
After a moment.
Her lips parted slowly.
"Un... cle?"
"...?"
Silence fell between them.
White clouds drifted lazily over Unbong Mountain, birds chirping in the quiet woods.
Stunned as if hammer-struck, Jin Muhon was about to speak when.
Rustle. Rustle.
"Hey, Jin girl. What's a lone girl doing in these deserted mountains?"
"Heh heh heh. Gonna pay with something other than money?"
"Hey hey, wait your turn. Me first."
Three rough ruffians emerged from the woods, chuckling lewdly.