Chapter 25
Where Is My God
[WhereIsMyGod (Beyond-Heaven) has challenged you!]
[Accept?]
[Y/N]
– ???
– Beyond-Heaven?
– Am I seeing this right?
The chat exploded into chaos.
When a Grandmaster had challenged her before, it was shocking enough, but this was beyond all expectations.
In the Arena, there’s a realm often called the Heavenly Domain.
Typically, those at the Master rank and above are considered part of this domain, but even within it, there’s a hierarchy.
Above Master lies Grandmaster, followed by Challenger. And at the very top is Beyond-Heaven.
Literally the ‘Heaven Beyond Heaven,’ this rank is held by the 25 most powerful beings in this chaotic world.
Possessing strength so immense that they’re considered demi-gods, hardly believable as mere humans.
And now, one of these celestial beings from the pinnacle of the Heavenly Domain had descended.
It was as if an immortal strolling among the clouds had come down to the mortal realm.
Why would someone of Beyond-Heaven rank have business with a mere Gold-tier nobody struggling halfway up the mountain?
“Oh?”
Chi Yulang looked at the challenge letter before her with a spark of excitement.
Even she hadn’t expected such a heavyweight to suddenly issue a challenge.
Why did she aim to reach Beyond-Heaven?
Wasn’t it to cross blades with those at the top?
Just as an outsider without connections cannot challenge the head of a great clan, to face someone in Beyond-Heaven, one needed the qualifications to stand at their level.
She had thought it would be a distant goal to fight those in Beyond-Heaven, but now a challenge had come out of nowhere?
To Chi Yulang, it felt like a surprise gift. An invitation to a surprise birthday party.
Her heart began to race with anticipation.
– WhereIsMyGod? That sounds familiar.
– Who was it?
– Isn’t that the Pilgrim?
– Holy crap, I think you’re right.
– It hasn’t been long since the alert went off about him appearing in the Abyss Forest, and now he pops up here?
– What the hell is going on?
“Chilbok, what’s the meaning of this?”
Chi Yulang’s voice trembled slightly.
– [HeavenlyDemonForever] You’ll find out naturally if you accept.
– Accept, my foot!
– It’s obvious you’ll get game over the moment you do.
– Wasn’t Chilbok supposed to be loyal? Why’s he acting like this? Is he crazy?
“Is that so? If you say so, then it must be true.”
Chi Yulang had never once doubted her loyal follower. Not even once.
– No way, is she actually going to press it?
– She’s joking, right?
– This is seriously a bad idea.
– It’s basically suicide.
Click!
[You have accepted!]
– Yo!
– Insane!
[Challenger Enters!]
Suddenly, the sky turned red, and a crimson moon rose.
The world was bathed in red light as the opponent appeared like a sunset.
– Whoa.
– That entrance is insane.
– So this is Beyond-Heaven.
– This kind of performance in broad daylight?
The Pilgrim, cloaked in a deep hood, gazed at the petite twin-tailed girl before him.
Chi Yulang stared back at the flamboyantly arriving opponent with an intrigued expression.
“….”
“….”
Within the deep darkness of the hood, blood-red eyes gleamed, meeting her mysterious purple ones.
He exuded an eerie, inhuman aura, less like a person and more like a vast phenomenon—a natural disaster, overwhelming and incomprehensible.
– So freaking scary, for real.
– Look at that presence.
But our HeavenlyMaiden didn’t care.
“Take off that thing on your head. Let me see your face.”
“….”
After gazing into HeavenlyMaiden’s eyes for a moment, the Pilgrim obediently removed his hood.
What emerged was a middle-aged man with long hair tied back.
His eyes carried the weight of someone who had seen much, filled with exhaustion.
Chi Yulang’s eyes narrowed.
Tilting her head, she asked.
“Sunduk?”
The Blood Pilgrim, or rather, the Blood Demon, smirked at being called Sunduk.
“Sunduk… A nostalgic name. Did Chilbok tell you?”
“No.”
“So, you’re the new leader of our cult?”
Without waiting for an answer, the Blood Demon shook his head.
“No. No way. Our god doesn’t look like that.”
“…What’s wrong with how I look?”
HeavenlyMaiden glanced down at herself, pouting. She thought she looked perfectly fine.
“And you, Sunduk, why are you wearing that stuffy rag? I didn’t know you had such tastes.”
The Blood Demon replied in a somber tone.
“After we lost our god, I wandered like a ghost with my head buried in the ground.”
“Why?”
“How could I face the sky?”
“….”
“The sky after losing that person was so… so empty. I couldn’t bear to look up.”
After staring at the ground for a moment, the Blood Demon looked up at HeavenlyMaiden, who was picking her ear.
“I don’t know how you fooled Chilbok, but it won’t work on me.”
“….”
“If you carry that person’s bloodline, if you’ve inherited their will, then prove it.”
The Blood Demon’s eyes began to glow red.
“Only overwhelming power can prove their divine legacy!”
With a wave of his hand, blood spread out around him. In an instant, the area became a sea of blood.
He stood atop a viscous pool of blood.
“Heaven above, heaven below! Solely supreme! Above all men! That person stands alone under the heavens!”
The entire area was dyed red.
The air grew heavy, laced with the stench of blood.
The bloodlust was so thick that droplets of blood floated in the air.
“There is no deviation in their path, only glory! A foolish servant like me merely follows in their footsteps!”
At the Blood Demon’s gesture, the blood that had spread like an ocean converged into a single point.
“I follow that person without a shred of regret or hesitation. How could that not be sacred faith!”
Heaven-Piercing Surge!
Rumble…!
The gathered blood soared toward the sky.
The sea of blood formed a towering mountain.
Heaven-Splashing Wave!
At the Blood Demon’s command, the mountain of blood that had risen like a peak became a wave of blood, crashing forward to engulf the world.
ROOOOAR!!!
A Mountain of Corpses, a Sea of Blood!
Its power was incomparable to what he had unleashed before Silverwood Forest!
Back then, consumed by a heart demon, he moved like a host of blood. Now, his mind was clearer and sharper than ever.
A force capable of destroying an entire nation!
“Interesting.”
Her purple eyes gleamed.
A towering mountain of blood rose to the heavens and crashed toward her as a sea, yet she merely smirked, as if amused.
Chi Yulang began to dance slowly. Her arms moved fluidly, as if painting with a brush.
Finishing Touch of the Dragon. The painting was completed by drawing the dragon’s eyes downward.
Standing at an angle, Chi Yulang raised her hand, which had been pointing downward, upward.
As if firing a gun, the dragon ascended fiercely.
Sea-Splitting Rising Dragon!
Slash!
The sea of blood parted.
Through the gap, her graceful purple eyes pierced the Blood Demon.
“…!”
Through the brutally torn sea of blood, the Blood Demon’s wide eyes were visible.
Chi Yulang smiled at those eyes, still carrying a trace of innocence.
“Sunduk. How could you use such a terrifying technique? You were just a kid who loved animals.”
“…!!”
In the Blood Demon’s childhood, the first memory that came to mind was a voice as warm as sunlight.
– What are you doing here?
– M-Mother.
Flap!
The birds pecking at the feed in Baek Sunduk’s hand scattered at his mother’s arrival.
– Feeding them again?
– Yes, Mother.
– I don’t understand why you love those speechless creatures so much.
Baek Sunduk smiled, his expression filled with untainted purity.
– Blood is life, isn’t it? Seeing these little lives with blood scurrying about is fascinating to me. They’re cute, too.
– Is that so?
– Yes, Mother.
– If you think so, then it must be true.
The mother and son smiled at each other.
Baek Sunduk spent his childhood diligently training under his mother, the Blood Cult Leader.
Then, the year he came of age.
Baek Sunduk headed to the altar in a cave for his coming-of-age ceremony, where he faced a horrifying truth.
Stab!
– M-Mother…? Why…
– My dear son. My beloved son. If you truly love your mother, give me your body obediently. I don’t want to hurt you.
The coming-of-age ceremony was a ritual to transfer a soul into a new vessel.
His mother, the Blood Cult Leader, was a vile monster who had lived for centuries by transferring her body.
– No, nooo!
– …What?
But what the Blood Cult Leader overlooked was that her son harbored a power far greater than she could imagine.
– AAAAHHH!
– This is impossible!
At the moment his life hung by a thread, the latent power within him erupted, and his consciousness veered in a different direction.
– What’s happening?!
– …! Leader!
– What happened to the Crimson Spirit Succession?
When the Blood Cult members, alerted by the commotion, rushed into the cave, the incident had already concluded.
– Mother… Mother…
Before the dead Blood Cult Leader, her new vessel—Baek Sunduk—knelt, trembling.
Baek Sunduk, with a grotesque expression that was both crying and laughing, looked at the cult members.
– What do I do? I killed Mother… I killed the Leader.
The once-pristine vessel was now stained with red.
– What’s this?!
– Leader!
– It’s not too late! Transfer the Leader’s crimson soul into the vessel!
– Haaah! Die!
The cult members, who had treated him like family, drew their blades and attacked.
Baek Sunduk lost consciousness once more.
Thus, the Blood Demon was born.
He came to his senses after the once-mighty Blood Cult had been annihilated by his hands.
– Where is the Blood Cult Leader?
– I killed her.
– You killed her?
Shedding tears of blood, he spoke before the man who had beaten him back to his senses.
– I killed my mother with my own hands. The cult members, who were like family, all died by my hands.
– I see.
– What… should I do?
– You did well.
– …What?
Baek Sunduk looked up.
His eyes met the amethyst-like gaze of the man looking down at him with hands clasped behind his back.
– If you meet a Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch. If you meet an arhat, kill the arhat. If you meet your parents, kill your parents.
Baek Sunduk stared up at him blankly.
The man grinned and said.
– You’ve finally stood on your own. Well done.
– …
– Have nowhere to go?
– …Yes.
– Will you follow me?
Baek Sunduk hesitated.
– What if I lose myself again?
– Don’t worry. I’ll beat you back to your senses. Just follow my back.
– For how long?
– As long as you want.
Baek Sunduk staggered to his feet and followed him.
The sun was setting in the sky.
The man’s shadow stretched long, looking as vast as a mountain.
It felt like he could go anywhere by following that back.
“Oh, my sole god.”
Baek Sunduk, the Blood Demon, the Southern King of the Demonic Cult’s Four Heavenly Kings, the Crimson Flame Phoenix King, slowly knelt.
Before the Demonic Cult’s Leader and God, Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang, he prostrated himself and bowed his head.
“Receive the humble bow of your lowly servant.”
“Sunduk.”
“Yes, Leader.”
“Raise your head.”
Baek Sunduk looked up at his sole god. Behind her, a blue sky stretched out.
“How is it?”
The sky he finally faced was flawlessly blue.
“It’s blue.”
Clear tears streamed from Baek Sunduk’s eyes.
“So blue it brings tears to my eyes.”
