Ten Thousand Mountain Peak,
Under the eclipsed sun, a massive battle deciding the fate of this world was taking place. The Righteous Murim Alliance and the Evil Faction, united by desperation, waged war against the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, turning the battlefield into a scene of utter destruction.
Slash Clang Gsssk.
Corpses piled up as the sound of clashing swords rang throughout the battlefield. Hundreds of thousands of martial masters were still engaged in the bloodbath, desperate to kill each other.
As time passed, the number of cult members began to decrease under the overwhelming force of the alliance.
"Die, you demonic bastards!"
"I'll kill all of you evil bastards and serve justice!" a young martial artist of the Murim Alliance faction shouted.
"Eugh. Cowardly bastards. How dare you talk about justice when you attacked us out of fear of our Cult Leader?" one of the cult martial artists shouted angrily, feeling disgusted by their hypocrisy.
Clang! Clang! Slash!
While the battlefield was accumulating blood, high above the ground, within the clouds, dozens of superhuman martial masters were surrounding an old man who looked to be on the verge of death. Yet they were cautious of him, for he was the reason for this war and the strongest under heaven—the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, Cheon Ma-Jeong.
Cheon Ma-Jeong wore torn, deep-dark robes embroidered with golden eastern dragons. His long white hair and beard were disheveled, and his entire body was covered in fresh blood.
He briefly swept his gaze around, taking in their fearful expressions, before looking back to his left side, where multiple dark green, transparent panels were floating.
[Warning: Innate energy remaining — 7%]
[Forced use will reduce Soul Essence vitality]
[Time remaining until the seal on Soul Sea Essence is lifted: 93,616,894]
Originally, no mortal in this world could stand against him, even if they all came at once. However, his Soul Sea Essence was currently sealed, forcing him to rely on his innate energy. And now, with only 7% of innate energy left, it was a forgone conclusion that he would die here. But even in the face of death, there was no ripple in his heart. His gaze was quiet; his dark Crimson eyes, void of emotion, looked at them with indifference.
'Those devillike eyes...' Seeing his gaze, everyone present frowned.
"Heavenly Demon, hand over the Immortality Scripture, and we will send you off painlessly." the leader of the Murim Alliance said, his expression cautious.
"Vile demon, just because you wanted to gain immortality, you went and killed thousands of people. You even burned my entire clan. Today, I will take my revenge on you."
"Demonic bastard, stop resisting. Hand it over. Today, the whole world has combined just to destroy your demonic ambitions."
"You motherfucker bastard, years ago you deceived and manipulated me into killing my sons and husband, just so you could cultivate your demonic sorcery. Now I will kill your family and sate my thirst for revenge."
"Amitabha. You have committed such heinous deeds—marrying hundreds of women just so they could give birth to your children, only for you to use their hearts as ingredients for your evil ambitions…" The Shaolin Abbot said, shaking violently as tears flowed from his pure, luminous eyes. "Amitabha… May their souls be guided to peace."
The dozens of martial masters kept venting their anger at Cheon Ma-Jeong, but he showed no expression.
He looked down at the battlefield. The eclipsed sun was reflected on the blood-soaked battlefield like a mirror. He laughed before slowly lifting his head toward the eclipsed sun,
"Life is a dream within a dream."
As he said this, memories of his previous life on Earth and his current life in this ruthless world flashed before his eyes. He was originally from a planet called Earth. There, he was known as Keith, an average teenager with a loving and happy family.
His mother was sweet and caring; his little sister was bright and full of energy; his father, tall and strong, always protecting them, was the best father one could imagine. It was a warm, complete, blessed family.
But fate is often cruel to those who smile too brightly.
The tragedy began when Milly, his little sister, fell from the balcony and died a gruesome death.
Her death shattered the family, especially his mother. She couldn't bear the pain and did the unthinkable.
She hanged herself… Unable to bear the weight of grief, she departed for the land of no return.
Before dying, she left a short note—her final words:
"Forgive me, my love… Forgive me, my precious son. I tried… I really did. I really… tried. But I can't breathe without her. Someone is choking me. I can't… Every corner of this house whispers her name… and I… I am too weak to face a world without her. I'm sorry… for leaving you behind."
Both Keith and his father were devastated. Keith believed she had abandoned them—that she hadn't thought of her son or the man who loved her. In his eyes, her final choice felt like selfishness and betrayal, not grief.
"Suicide doesn't ease suffering; it only moves the pain to those who live."
From that day on, both began living a gloomy life, blaming each other for their own powerlessness, until another tragedy befell them.
Keith's childhood congenital heart disease worsened, and he required a heart transplant. However, they didn't have the necessary money.
At that time, the son of his father's company CEO had accidentally run over a student and needed someone to take the blame. Even though Keith was against it, his father offered himself to take the blame, in exchange for full treatment for his son.
Thus, his father went to prison, and Keith started receiving treatment. Everything was going well, until one day a mysterious man sneaked into the hospital and kidnapped him.
The mysterious man took him to an abandoned house and brutally beat him for days before killing him.
Ironically, the mysterious man was none other than the student's father—the one whose son the CEO's son had accidentally killed.
Since Keith's father took the blame, the victim's father kidnapped Keith to exact revenge for his child. This was all to make Keith's father feel what the victim's father had felt.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Keith told the truth about the agreement his father had made with the CEO, but the mysterious man dismissed his words and revealed his revenge plan.
He had planned to kill Keith, hang his body at the spot where the accident had occurred, and confess his crime—so he could be sent to jail, where he would kill Keith's father.
After revealing this plan, the man followed through and killed Keith mercilessly.
"Fate rests between the two fingers of Heaven. He toys with it as he wills, savoring its helplessness."
This death left an unfair taste in his heart. To die unjustly because of a false confession—pathetic, truly pathetic.
As he accepted his end, cruel fate transmigrated him into this Murim world—a fantastical realm reminiscent of ancient China, where one could attain superhuman strength through the mastery of martial arts.
By cliché, he had entered the body of a young boy incapable of learning martial arts. Yet, having been transmigrated with a mysterious system window, he gradually gained unparalleled strength,walking the path of a demon in a world that fed on his softness.
In time, he became the strongest under the Heaven. People gathered around him, calling him Cheon Ma (Heavenly Demon) the man who brought the Heavens down to Earth.
After gaining everything, he craved to become an immortal being—not for living eternally, but to break free from mortal limitations, allowing him to pursue his own ambitions without the constraints of aging or suppression. Essentially, immortality represented ultimate freedom and limitless possibilities for him.
Thus, searching through the system, he finally obtained one of the gods pieces—one of the Nine Elden Aspects: the Boundless Scroll.
In order to awaken it, he had to sacrifice a large number of people under various conditions. This made the already resentful Murim world even more furious, but they were powerless to do anything. All they could do was wait for Cheon Ma to die of old age.
Cheon Ma succeeded in awakening it, but before he could cultivate it for himself, the Heavenly Principle took notice of him. Since it went against Heaven, the Heavenly Principle temporarily sealed his Soul Essence Sea, making him unable to cultivate it further.
Meanwhile, through the intervention of the Celestial Immortals, the Murim world heard of Cheon Ma's possession of immortality and his powerlessness, making it the best chance to eliminate the disaster and seize the rumored Immortality Scripture for themselves. They gathered their forces and invaded the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
And now, Cheon Ma-Jeong stood surrounded by those insects.
"I am a cage, in search of a bird..." He spoke this metaphor from Earth and took something out of his System Inventory. It was a white pearl. As soon as it appeared, its aura brightened the whole area, clearing the crimson hue and slowly dissipating the unsettling eclipse.
This was the Boundless Scroll, one of the Nine Elden Aspects.
The dozen of martial masters surrounding Cheon Ma were strongly repelled far away. Cheon Ma was also being repelled by the force, but he stretched out his hand and touched it with the tip of his finger, making him look like a god reaching for the Forbidden Fruit.
"DEMON GOD."
Seeing this majestic scene, the demonic cult members bowed their heads in reverence, while the allied force members were uneasy.
Just then,
"Immortality Scripture!! The Buddha's treasure!" the Shaolin abbot shouted, recognizing this mysterious pearl.
Hearing the abbot's words, the allied force martial masters recklessly charged at Cheon Ma with eyes filled with greed and fear.
"Heavenly Demon!!"
Seeing their approach, Cheon Ma-Jeong sneered.
"Fools."
Ding!
[Detonating the Boundless Scroll]
[Warning: Error 404]
[Warning: Error 404]
[Error 404]
[Bypassing plausibility]
KRA! Boom!
The explosion was immediate.
The deafening roar shook the earth. The ground cracked, the sky fell, and raging flames engulfed everything.
The prosperous world was blown to bits. A massive shockwave tore across the cosmos, announcing the end of the Murim world—erased even from the Akashic Records.
[Anguished fallen]