Chapter 198: Annihilation
“This energy...!?”
The great evil's voice trembled.
Fwoosh.
The tiny ember burning within the darkness flickered once more.
At first, it had been smaller than a fingernail.
But the moment the Origin Demonic Qi surrounding it touched the flame—
HISSSSS!
The black energy began to burn.
“What...!?”
The great evil hurriedly pulled back the Origin Demonic Qi.
Too late.
The fire was already spreading along the black energy.
WHOOOOOSH!
The tiny ember rapidly became a massive blaze that burned across the entire space.
At the same time, the darkness that had swallowed my consciousness was driven back.
Sensation gradually returned to my arms and legs.
“Why...?! Why is that energy inside you?!”
I didn't know either.
But one thing was obvious from its reaction.
The great evil knew this flame.
And it was terrified of it.
The fire surged again.
WHOOOOOSH!
“The Myriad Tribulation Flame....”
What?
Just as I tried to understand the words that had escaped its mouth—
a familiar voice I had forgotten for far too long rang inside my head.
[The ‘Infinite Energy’ dormant within the Awakened’s body is reacting.]
"...!"
My eyes widened.
Infinite Energy?
There was no way I could forget those words.
Before my regression.
At the very last moment, while dying inside the Myriad Tribulation Flame...
I had heard the exact same thing.
At the same time, old memories resurfaced.
Flames rising into the heavens.
The inferno swallowing the entire Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
And my flesh and bones burning inside it.
[Warning! An uncontrollable amount of ‘Infinite Energy’ is affecting the Awakened’s body and mind.]
[Warning! The Awakened’s body and mind are reacting to ‘Infinite Energy’.]
Then the final message I had heard.
[‘Infinite Energy’ is intervening in the Awakened’s fate.]
Immediately afterward...
I began another life.
Wait.
Back then, I hadn't known what those words meant.
I simply assumed it was something related to the ability I possessed.
But now—
the great evil had called the fire burning inside me the Myriad Tribulation Flame.
And that exact same ‘Infinite Energy’ was reacting again.
Don't tell me....
The power that intervened in my fate at the final moment before my regression.
Was that the Myriad Tribulation Flame?
Had the Infinite Energy, the Myriad Tribulation Flame I touched at the moment of death, remained inside me even after my regression?
There was only one thing I could say for certain.
The Myriad Tribulation Flame from that day...
and the fire now burning within me...
were connected.
Then another memory surfaced.
The words of the Primordial Heavenly Demon.
Within you exists energy similar to mine.
So that's what he meant.
But I had no time to keep thinking.
“N-No!”
The great evil's terrified voice rang out.
All the black energy spread around me began retreating at once.
The thing that had been trying to seize my body only moments ago...
was now desperately trying to escape.
“Let me go! Get me out of here!”
The black energy shot upward, fleeing from the flames.
But the Myriad Tribulation Flame immediately chased after it.
WHOOOOOSH!
HISSSSS!
“AAAAAAGH!”
The great evil's scream echoed through the darkness.
I sneered at it.
“Why?”
“What...?”
“You said my body belonged to you.”
"..."
“You're already trying to leave?”
“Shut up!”
The great evil drew up all the Origin Demonic Qi it had left.
But instead of pushing the flames back...
the black energy only made the Myriad Tribulation Flame burn even more fiercely.
WHOOOOOSH!
“This cannot be! I... I cannot end here!”
As I listened to its desperate scream...
the inscription carved into the Heavenly Law Sword came back to me.
天律斷邪 火歸其位.
The Heavenly Law severs evil.
And the flame returns to its place.
Now I understand.
The Heavenly Law Sword had exposed the place where the great evil was hiding.
It had found the root buried deep inside Moyong Cheonhwi's body and severed the connection.
And the final remaining source...
had to be burned away by fire.
Another power left behind by the Primordial Heavenly Demon.
The Myriad Tribulation Flame.
By now, the flames illuminated my entire consciousness.
The great evil's black form twisted within them.
“I am the Heavenly Demon!”
It screamed.
“I am the true Primordial Heavenly Demon!”
Even at the very end...
it couldn't let go of someone else's name.
“No.”
The great evil thrashed wildly.
“You were his remnants until the very end.”
WHOOOOOOSH!
The Myriad Tribulation Flame swallowed the black figure.
“YOU BASTARD!”
The great evil gathered the last of its Origin Demonic Qi.
Useless.
Its black form rapidly collapsed.
Even the energy remaining inside it vanished within the crimson flames.
“I am... the Heavenly... Demon....”
Its fading voice finally disappeared.
Fwoosh.
The final black trace dissolved into the fire.
Everything became quiet.
For a long moment...
I stared at the place where it had vanished.
I couldn't sense Origin Demonic Qi anywhere.
It wasn't hiding.
It hadn't escaped.
This time...
it was truly gone.
It's over.
With that thought...
the fiercely burning Myriad Tribulation Flame gradually shrank.
The flames returned to a small ember.
It flickered once more...
then sank deep into my chest.
My vision brightened.
“Haa!”
The breath trapped in my lungs burst out all at once.
My legs gave way, and my body tilted forward.
Someone immediately grabbed my shoulder hard.
“Mujin! Wake up!”
Jin Gwangung.
It took several breaths before my blurred vision cleared.
The ruined underground facility remained exactly as before.
The twisted iron cages.
The corpses of the black-masked men scattered everywhere.
Everything.
“Han Mujin.”
Dokgo Jinak's voice reached me.
I turned.
He was holding his wounded side while staring at me.
“The great evil?”
I closed my eyes briefly and searched inside myself.
Nothing.
There wasn't even the faintest trace of that disgusting Origin Demonic Qi.
“It's gone.”
Dokgo Jinak's gaze sharpened.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“This time, I'm certain.”
Dokgo Jinak released a long breath of relief.
“Good....”
Only then did some of the tension ease from the others around us as well.
Jin Gwangung tightened the hand gripping my shoulder.
“You brat. There's a limit to how badly you can scare people. Your eyes rolled back and you suddenly collapsed, and I....”
He stopped abruptly.
“W-What? Ahem.”
Then cleared his throat.
“Anyway, if you're fine, that's enough.”
“Sorry.”
“If you're sorry, don't do that again.”
I gave him a dry look.
“I can't promise that.”
“What?”
I stepped aside before his hand could rise.
Then—
“Ugh....”
A groan came from nearby.
Moyong Cheonhwi.
For the first time since the great evil had left him...
his eyes had returned to their original color.
But blood still flowed from the wound across his chest.
His breathing was weak and broken.
I slowly walked toward him.
Moyong Cheonhwi opened his eyes with difficulty.
His unfocused gaze lingered on me for a long moment.
“Han... Mujin....”
I stood before him in silence.
“That thing....”
I knew what he was asking.
“It's gone.”
"..."
“Completely.”
Moyong Cheonhwi closed his eyes briefly.
Then a faint laugh escaped him.
“So in the end... even that power failed to become mine.”
Dark-red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
I looked down at him.
“Do you regret it?”
“Regret...?”
Moyong Cheonhwi struggled to draw breath.
“Even if I could return to that day...”
He paused.
“I would make the same choice.”
"..."
“The opportunity to become so powerful that no one beneath heaven could ever look down on me...”
His lips twisted faintly.
“How could I possibly have rejected it?”
He hadn't changed at all.
Even after losing everything.
Even with death directly before him.
Moyong Cheonhwi still didn't regret his choice.
I stared at him for a while.
“You never change.”
“No....”
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
“Perhaps... that is why I ended up here.”
His already ragged breathing slowed further.
Moyong Cheonhwi forced his eyes up toward me.
“Han Mujin....”
I met his gaze without speaking.
“What are you waiting for?”
His eyes moved toward the Heavenly Law Sword in my hand.
“End it... with your own hand.”
My grip tightened around the sword.
How many times had I imagined this moment since before my regression?
Cutting off Moyong Cheonhwi's head with my own hand.
Making him pay for everything he had taken from me.
I had pictured it countless times.
The tip of the Heavenly Law Sword slowly rose.
But then—
I lowered it again.
Moyong Cheonhwi's brow moved slightly.
“There's no need anymore.”
The thing I needed to cut down was already gone.
The Moyong Cheonhwi before me was no longer someone I needed to raise my sword against.
He was simply a man dying at the end of the path he had chosen for himself.
Moyong Cheonhwi stared at me for a long time.
“That is... your choice?”
“Yes.”
A brief silence passed.
Eventually...
Moyong Cheonhwi smiled faintly.
“I see....”
He said nothing more.
His gaze slowly drifted toward empty space.
“The world... felt as though it was already within my grasp....”
His voice grew weaker.
“If only... I'd had a little more time....”
Those were his final words.
A long breath left Moyong Cheonhwi.
He never inhaled again.
The final light in his eyes slowly faded.
I silently looked down at him.
It was an empty death.
He had sacrificed countless people to take the world.
Thrown away everything a human being should never abandon.
Yet in the end...
he died with nothing in his hands.
I didn't feel anger.
I didn't feel hatred.
Nor did I feel the satisfaction of finally achieving the revenge I'd dreamed of for so long.
It simply felt as though something that had pressed down on me for decades...
had finally disappeared.
And only then did it truly sink in.
It's over.
For a long while...
that thought alone circled through my mind.
Eventually, I raised my head and looked around.
Throughout the ruined underground facility, survivors were helping one another stand.
Jin Gwangung remained right beside me, still watching my condition.
Dokgo Jinak was irritably pushing away Muk Jincheol, who was trying to support him.
On one side...
Sect Leader Cheon Gwangcheon and Master Gonghyeon were tending to the wounded.
I silently watched them.
It was a sight I had never seen before my regression.
Sect Leader Cheon Gwangcheon had been poisoned to death by the Shadow Corps' scheme.
Master Gonghyeon had died in the Shaolin Bloodbath.
And they weren't the only ones.
Countless people had died within Moyong Cheonhwi's conspiracies.
That had been the reality of the past I knew.
But this time...
it was different.
Many were injured.
Many were bleeding.
But they were alive.
The people who should have died.
The people I should have lost.
They were standing here...
breathing before my eyes.
I watched them for a long time.
Then slowly lowered my gaze toward the Heavenly Law Sword.
How much had I tried to change since returning?
How much had I tried to take back?
Maybe...
what I had truly wanted from the beginning was this.
Not killing someone.
But not losing anyone.
Protecting them this time.
I let out a long breath.
Something that had weighed on my chest for so long finally began to loosen.
I looked once more at the people who had survived.
And thought quietly,
This time... I protected them.
Three months had passed since the incident involving the great evil.
The ugly truth behind Moyong Cheonhwi and the Shadow Corps spread rapidly across the martial world.
The traces of the Shadow Corps hidden throughout the Righteous Alliance were uncovered one after another.
The ambush I had suffered at Falling Death Valley.
The bloodshed surrounding the Demon Expulsion Pavilion and Shaolin.
Countless disappearances and deaths.
When it became known that Moyong Cheonhwi had been behind all of them...
the righteous martial world was shaken to its core.
The Alliance Leader, the man who should have led the righteous faction...
had instead orchestrated countless conspiracies and tragedies.
It wasn't something people could easily accept.
For a while, chaos spread throughout the martial world.
But the martial world could not remain frozen forever.
One by one...
the survivors began rebuilding what had been destroyed.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult did the same.
After the existence of the great evil and Origin Demonic Qi came to light, Dokgo Jinak began reviewing the Divine Cult's ancient records again.
Then one day...
a secret message arrived from him.
He told me to come alone to a secluded valley deep in the mountains, quite far west of Kunlun.
He really chose somewhere ridiculously remote.
Just from the location written in the message...
his intention to avoid other people's eyes was obvious.
On the agreed day...
I left Kunlun and headed toward the place mentioned in the message.
After traveling along the mountain paths for a long time, I reached a valley surrounded on all sides by tall cliffs.
It was so remote that there were almost no signs of human passage.
And in the middle of that valley...
a familiar man stood atop a large boulder.
“It's been a while, Cult Leader.”
Dokgo Jinak turned his head.
“You're late.”
“I'm exactly on time.”
“If you arrived after me, then you're late.”
I stared at him.
“What kind of rule is that?”
Dokgo Jinak clicked his tongue.
“Still the same.”
“So are you.”
I gave a small laugh and looked around.
“But was it really necessary to call me all the way out here?”
Dokgo Jinak looked at me as though I'd asked something absurd.
“What, did you expect me to walk up to Kunlun's main gate and announce that I came to see you?”
“Ah....”
Fair point.
Just because we'd fought side by side against the great evil didn't mean the centuries-old relationship between Kunlun and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had changed overnight.
If the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult openly appeared at Kunlun...
there would obviously be chaos.
“Still, I don't think we needed to come all the way into a mountain valley like this.”
“Stop talking nonsense and look at this.”
Dokgo Jinak pulled an old book from inside his robe and tossed it toward me.
Tap.
I caught it.
The edges of the pages had yellowed.
Some of the writing had even faded away.
It was clearly an ancient record.
“What is this?”
Dokgo Jinak answered,
“A record concerning the Primordial Heavenly Demon.”
My hand stopped involuntarily.
