Chapter 194: The Root of the Great Evil
The Primordial Heavenly Demon?
The instant those words entered my ears, my hand was already gripping the hilt of the Heavenly Law Sword.
Moyong Cheonhwi.
He had also called himself the Primordial Heavenly Demon just moments ago.
And now the man standing before me had used the exact same title.
There was no way it was a coincidence.
I instinctively took a step back and glared at the man.
“What is your relationship with Moyong Cheonhwi?”
“Moyong Cheonhwi....”
An unreadable look passed across the man's face.
“Until just moments ago, I was fighting a man named Moyong Cheonhwi who claimed to be the Primordial Heavenly Demon.”
I tightened my grip on the Heavenly Law Sword.
“And yet you just used the same name.”
I raised the blade toward him.
“Answer me. What exactly exists between you and Moyong Cheonhwi?”
The man's gaze rested briefly on the tip of the Heavenly Law Sword before returning to my face.
“Moyong Cheonhwi is Moyong Cheonhwi.”
Then—
“What has consumed him from within is merely using my name.”
I frowned.
“Consumed him?”
“Are you saying there is something else inside Moyong Cheonhwi?”
A bitter look appeared on the man's face.
“Yes.”
“What you faced outside is Moyong Cheonhwi...”
His voice grew heavier.
“and yet he is no longer only Moyong Cheonhwi.”
Moyong Cheonhwi, and yet no longer only Moyong Cheonhwi?
I turned his words over in my head.
“Then what exactly is this thing that consumed him?”
For the first time, the man's expression turned truly grave.
He stared into the distance for a moment before answering quietly.
“...Something that originally existed within me.”
His gaze drifted away.
There was nothing in this empty space.
Yet his eyes seemed to be looking at something from an unimaginably distant past.
“Over the course of my life, I fought countless battles.”
His voice carried deep regret.
“I killed.”
“I took.”
“I forced others to submit.”
He paused.
“It was around that time that people began calling me the Heavenly Demon.”
A shadow passed across his face.
“As I continued living that way, many things accumulated inside me as well.”
I asked,
“What do you mean?”
“Killing intent.”
“Hatred.”
“The desire to become stronger.”
Then—
“Even the tyrannical desire to place everything else beneath me.”
His expression darkened.
“At first, I saw no reason to be wary of such emotions.”
“The stronger my killing intent became, the more power I desired.”
“The greater my ambition grew, the more I wanted to reach a realm no one else could ever touch.”
His gaze lowered to his own hand.
“Then one day, I had a thought.”
He slowly clenched his fist.
“What if I could turn the killing intent and desire constantly rising inside me into a single form of energy?”
His fingers tightened.
“And if I could make that power entirely my own...”
His voice dropped.
“would I not become far stronger than I already was?”
I stared at him.
“So you actually did it?”
“I did.”
The man nodded.
“The power I created in that way...”
Then—
“was Origin Demonic Qi.”
Origin Demonic Qi.
The same name Dokgo Jinak had told me.
A power whose traces remained only in the ancient formulas of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
A power the Primordial Heavenly Demon was said to have personally erased.
And now I was learning that the man before me had created it himself.
“It was an extraordinarily powerful force.”
He continued.
“For a time, I even regarded it as one of the foundations of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.”
“I left behind formulas explaining how to draw it out and control it.”
Then a faint smile touched his lips.
“It may be difficult to believe...”
He looked at me.
“but I was rather strong in those days.”
"...?"
His smile deepened slightly.
“Even True Immortal Cheongun, whose traces remain within you...”
He spoke casually.
“had we lived in the same era, I wonder how many moves he could have endured against me.”
"..."
True Immortal Cheongun.
A legend of the righteous martial world still called the greatest of all time centuries later.
And this man was wondering how many moves Cheongun could have survived against him?
It was absurdly arrogant.
And yet...
somehow, it didn't sound like empty boasting.
“The problem came afterward.”
His expression grew heavier again.
“The stronger I became, the stronger Origin Demonic Qi became with me.”
He looked into the empty distance.
“At first, it was merely a power meant to strengthen the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.”
“But as I continued using it...”
His eyes darkened.
“at some point, it became completely different from what I had originally created.”
I frowned.
“Different how?”
“It no longer merely strengthened my power.”
Then—
“It began drawing out more killing intent.”
“More desire.”
The man's voice became quiet.
“That was when I realized I could not leave it alone.”
"..."
“Origin Demonic Qi had already grown too powerful by feeding on my strength.”
He continued,
“If things continued as they were, it would eventually stop being a power under my control.”
His expression sank.
“Instead...”
“it would become something that swallowed me.”
He fell silent briefly before continuing.
“Even then, there was already no one beneath heaven who could truly stand against me.”
His gaze deepened.
“If Origin Demonic Qi, which had grown by feeding on my power, eventually consumed even me...”
Then—
“the damage would never have ended with my death alone.”
His voice turned grim.
“It could have become a calamity capable of covering the entire world.”
Only then did Dokgo Jinak's words return to me.
“So that's why you erased the formulas related to Origin Demonic Qi from the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?”
“Yes.”
The man nodded.
“I erased every formula for drawing out and controlling Origin Demonic Qi.”
Then—
“So that no Heavenly Demon of a later generation would ever covet that power again.”
He placed a hand over his chest.
“And I tore away every last trace of Origin Demonic Qi remaining within me.”
His gaze lowered.
“Even the parts intertwined with my soul and energy.”
For a moment, he silently stared at his own hand.
“At the time, I thought that would end everything.”
But his expression soon grew bitter.
“I was wrong.”
I frowned.
“Even after you separated it from yourself, it didn't disappear?”
“No.”
A bitter laugh escaped him.
“In the end, that too was because I had become too powerful.”
His eyes returned to his hand.
“Origin Demonic Qi had grown alongside my power for far too long.”
“By then, it was no longer ordinary energy.”
Then—
“Even after being severed from me, it had grown powerful enough to exist independently.”
Energy separated from the Primordial Heavenly Demon.
Power strong enough to continue existing on its own.
By now...
I could vaguely guess what it eventually became.
“I could not allow something so dangerous to remain in the world.”
His voice was filled with regret.
“I immediately tried to destroy it completely.”
Then—
“But at the moment I tried...”
He paused.
“Origin Demonic Qi escaped from my grasp.”
I stared at him.
“You're saying the energy fled on its own?”
“Yes.”
The man's expression turned distant.
“That was when I finally realized it had already left the realm of ordinary energy.”
He continued.
“A long time passed after that.”
“The Origin Demonic Qi that escaped me was drawn toward the killing intent and desires of humans.”
Then—
“It absorbed them.”
“And became increasingly distorted.”
"..."
“Eventually...”
His voice sank.
“it even developed the will to think and move on its own.”
The moment I heard that...
one name surfaced in my mind.
“The great evil....”
“The great evil.”
The man quietly repeated the term.
Then gave a faint nod.
“Not an entirely inaccurate name.”
At last...
