By Zephyria 
Dozens of days had passed since they were trapped together in the cave. There had been no progress in finding the barrier, and one day, Ho-yeon began to fall gravely ill.
Mu-gyeong had never encountered a creature so fragile and cold, so he could do nothing but hold the frozen body close to his own burning chest. He wondered if it was because of the fish.
Ho-yeon had said the fish were delicious, so Mu-gyeong had caught and grilled three for him; since then, Ho-yeon had gradually begun to shiver. Before long, he lost consciousness, and his body grew colder and colder.
“Wi Ho-yeon.”
Even as Mu-gyeong brushed his forehead with his hot hand, Ho-yeon showed no sign of waking. Mu-gyeong felt a tingling sensation in his hand and clenched his fist tightly before releasing it.
During his time in the demon-taming cave, he had seen children in the same situation as Ho-yeon many times. Like Ho-yeon, their bodies grew cold moment by moment, and they lost their lives within a few days, or sometimes in as little as half a day. It was a natural law that the weaker individuals perished first.
Back then, it was a sight he had merely glanced at with indifference, but now, he was afraid.
They say fear is only felt toward an opponent stronger than oneself. He had always desired only to surpass such targets and had never experienced any true threat. Yet, an opponent from whom no internal energy could be felt was gifting him an immeasurable fear.
Lest the sound of breathing stop, he focused all his senses on the faint breaths Ho-yeon exhaled.
“Wi Ho-yeon.”
As a parent holds a child, he called his name again and again, trying to melt Ho-yeon within his embrace. But Mu-gyeong knew. Life and death were fates beyond control. Whether one seized the position of the Cult Leader or became the heavenly demon, the power to dictate life was not granted.
He had hoped for several days that Ho-yeon might simply shake it off and wake up after a day’s rest. Though he could not track the exact passage of time, to Mu-gyeong, it felt like an eternity.
Now that even the chattering voice had vanished, he realized how lonely a life the silence he had once been accustomed to truly was. Through Ho-yeon, Mu-gyeong was carving into himself a sense of loss he had never wanted to know.
If it was something like this, he wished he had never known anything at all.
“Wi Ho-yeon.”
The one who had spoken of Baek-ah and the seed-spirit was now trying to die before him. Mu-gyeong traced the pale, blue lips with his fingertips, incessantly massaging and clutching Ho-yeon’s stiffening body.
Why did Ho-yeon continue to freeze even though he shared his body heat? Since consuming the fire dragon’s inner core, Mu-gyeong had been seized by a boiling flame. When he left Flame Mountain and stepped foot here, he was able to breathe more easily for the first time.
Because this place was filled with frost energy, he believed it would soothe his heat; thus, he had planned to extend his reach to the North Sea after taking the demon sect into his grasp.
Of course, the biggest reason was his promise to kill the Palace Master for Ho-yeon. If he did that, the North Sea would inevitably become his.
But that was only a story for when Wi Ho-yeon was alive.
Haa. White breath leaked incessantly from Mu-gyeong’s lips. Just then, while holding Ho-yeon tightly in his arms, Mu-gyeong snapped his head up at a strange sound echoing from somewhere.
It was a resonance so powerful it drowned out Ho-yeon’s slender breathing. Along with it, a vibration that shook the physical body was rapidly approaching. Simultaneously, the sound of things freezing echoed from all directions. The dew that had damply coated the cave walls turned into ice crystals in an instant, like a spreading wildfire.
Crack, crunch. The omens shaking the ground beneath his feet were ominous. As if something gargantuan were howling from the depths of the earth, an extreme yin energy froze the air of the cave in a heartbeat.
Ho-yeon groaned painfully in his arms. His entire body had turned blue, and he suffered with every breath. Since even Mu-gyeong’s heat was being suppressed, Ho-yeon must have been feeling a pain as if his lungs were being torn apart.
Lest he let go of Ho-yeon, he hugged him even tighter and glared with red eyes at the extreme frost energy approaching them.
Ice flowers that stained the floor bluish climbed the walls at a terrifying speed. As even the pond froze over, the place became filled with ten-thousand-year frost, as if it were not a cave but the inside of an ice dragon’s torso.
Rumble, crack! A thunderous roar of the earth twisting and grinding echoed from deep underground. In the aftermath, the stalactites hanging from the ceiling trembled and poured down toward the floor like arrows. It was like a baptism of sharp spears that had held the time of thousands of years.
Before the tips of the spears could touch them, Mu-gyeong released demonic energy from his dantian, and a dark red aura surged up like a tsunami.
Centering on his body holding Ho-yeon, massive demonic energy soared in all directions, staining the surroundings black. The giant stalactites that collided head-on with the demonic energy were pulverized into powder without a trace. The overwhelming demonic energy had conversely shattered the ice spears pouring from above.
Amidst the repeated sounds of impact, the sound of Ho-yeon coughing was heard. It was nothing more than a tiny movement, but because Mu-gyeong was focusing all his nerves on Ho-yeon, he noticed it immediately.
Thin ice began to form on the blood Ho-yeon spat out. Not stopping there, Ho-yeon began to bleed dark red blood from all seven orifices. Mu-gyeong realized that Ho-yeon was suffering because of his own vicious demonic energy.
However, if he withdrew the demonic energy, the stalactites would pierce Ho-yeon. Gritting his teeth, Mu-gyeong gathered the ferociously raging demonic energy back into his dantian in a single breath. Then, he curled his body, embracing Ho-yeon entirely within himself.
He blocked the stalactites pouring down like heavy rain with his entire body. He had mastered the sixth movement of the heavenly demon divine art: golden body, but the only thing he could protect was his own body.
But had he truly mastered the heavenly demon divine art?
Lest a single scratch appear on Ho-yeon’s fingertips or toes, Mu-gyeong stood on all fours, shielding Ho-yeon with his entire body. As their touching bodies separated, Ho-yeon, having lost Mu-gyeong’s body heat, gasped weakly as if his breath were about to stop. Mu-gyeong let out a rough shout and hugged Ho-yeon once more.
Only now did he realize his arrogance. His heavenly demon divine art was incomplete. If he were a true heavenly demon, Ho-yeon would not have suffered from his demonic energy. He wished he had been a member of an orthodox sect instead. If it were clear and pure true qi, like those of the Taoists, rather than demonic energy steeped in killing intent…
Mu-gyeong wanted to reject the essence of himself that he had never once denied.
To him, power was nothing but destruction. But he had not known that destruction alone cannot protect someone. The law of the survival of the fittest, which had been his origin, became a giant wall blocking the path between him and Ho-yeon. For Mu-gyeong, who had pursued only higher realms of martial arts, there was no way to save Ho-yeon.
No, was there truly no way?
Mu-gyeong moved toward a new thought. If he could turn the demonic energy he possessed into pure energy. As he put the thought into immediate action, the true qi of his dantian began to swirl like a storm.
But what exactly was pure demonic energy? Mu-gyeong was still standing before a wall as high as an iron fortress. As he forcibly drove out the negative energy dwelling in his blood vessels, the lost demonic energy began to rage.
Fresh blood flowed from the corners of Mu-gyeong’s mouth. The demonic energy turned into sharp blades, slashing through the blood paths of his entire body. This was the first time he had experienced qi deviation. However, Mu-gyeong did not groan even at the pain that felt as if his body were being torn to shreds. If he did, the demonic energy shredding his body would burst outward all at once and harm Ho-yeon.
He looked down at Ho-yeon through clenched teeth. If not for him, Ho-yeon could not be saved. He was all Wi Ho-yeon had. And likewise, Ho-yeon was all he had.
He gathered his fading consciousness into one point. Instead of forcibly controlling the energy, he completely opened his dantian and drew the rampaging demonic energy inside.
By the time the stalactites that had densely decorated the ceiling had all fallen, the sturdy cave floor cracked like a spiderweb. With a rumbling sound of the earth crying, fissures opened across the entire floor. From those gaps, a deep blue mist surged up like erupting blue lava.
The eternal snow mountains shook violently, and the one standing at the peak of the frozen pole finally revealed itself. The frost energy pouring from tens of thousands of sharp, transparent scales tried to completely sever Ho-yeon’s breath. At the same time, dark red demonic energy exploded outward from Mu-gyeong’s entire body.
The demonic energy wrapped around Ho-yeon as if to protect him, casting an intense sunset in all directions as if to drive away the ice dragon’s domain.
Soon, a powerful frost energy burst forth from the maw of the ice dragon, which had surged up from the deep underground to reveal its full body.
“Fire Dragon! You dared to…!”
However, what the ice dragon encountered was not the fire dragon. The ice dragon had certainly glimpsed the aura of the fire dragon, but the person standing there was a man with fluttering black hair.
“You are…”
The aura of the fire dragon was raging inside the man. Unbelievably, the child of the demon god he had seen at Flame Mountain had subjugated the fire dragon.
Between the jet-black hair crossing the man’s face, a crimson light settled eerily. He held no sword in his hand. However, like the countless stalactites, intangible sword qi imbued with demonic energy densely filled the space where the ice dragon had manifested.
The one who attains great enlightenment is silent; the one who attains the great sword has no sword.
The Way is in the heart, not in the hand.
The realm of the heavenly demon divine art, truly realized, descended upon Cheon Mu-gyeong. Standing before him to protect Wi Ho-yeon, he was truly a high mountain that soared higher than the Taishan Baek-ah had seen, reaching the heavens.
He was one who possessed the power to collapse mountain ranges without exploding, one who had ascended to the great void by his mere existence without needing to boast.
The one who reached the extreme of the demonic and thus erased the demonic within himself.
It was the birth of the true peak of the demonic path, the heavenly demon.
- Heavenly Demon Golden Body: A stage where the physical body becomes as hard as a diamond. It refers to the peak of external arts, reaching a state of immunity to all poisons.