The greatest in the martial world.

An overwhelming conqueror who brought the world to its knees.

The absolute powerhouse of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

The only supreme one under heaven and earth.

Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang.

Even he could not have foreseen such a turn of events.

It was just another day when he stepped out for a brief stroll.

Chi Yulang climbed to the peak of Tianlian Mountain, shrouded in gentle mist, and gazed down upon the world.

“Is the martial world really so small?”

As he stretched out his hand, the vast martial world, which had seemed boundless in his youth, now fit within his palm.

In that tiny realm, there was no longer anyone who could stand against him.

The former leader of the Martial Alliance, who had sparked the Great War of Righteous and Demonic, fell with a single strike.

The Black Dragon King of the dark path, struck once, wept and knelt before him.

The sinister Lord of the Soul-Destroying Tower, who manipulated events from the shadows like a puppeteer, begged for his life before even fighting.

Chi Yulang, hands clasped behind his back, let out a sigh.

“They say the peak is a lonely place.”

No one dared challenge him anymore.

None could even meet his gaze.

All knelt in fear before him.

He had grown weary of looking down at the tops of their heads.

What joy was there left in living?

As he lamented, gazing down at the world below, it happened.

Suddenly, the world darkened as if night had fallen, and the earth and sky seemed to invert.

“What is this?”

Before he could fully grasp the situation, he felt a metaphysical force pulling him somewhere.

“You dare!”

Chi Yulang’s thunderous voice shook the earth, causing the mountains, rivers, and trees to tremble in fear.

Instinctively, the Heavenly Demon summoned his energy to resist the mysterious force.

“Who dares to challenge me!”

He sensed an ominous, unfathomable malice in the unknown grip trying to seize him.

Chi Yulang drew upon even more of his power. The profound inner energy of the greatest in the world erupted explosively, resisting the force.

After what felt like an eternity, yet was but a fleeting moment, the tug-of-war came to an end.

The opposing force suddenly released, and Chi Yulang plummeted into an endless abyss of darkness.

When he came to, he found himself alone in the middle of a forest.

“Where am I?”

Calmly, he rose from the ground and surveyed his surroundings.

It was an utterly unfamiliar forest.

The trees were unlike any he had seen in the martial world.

This was certainly not the martial world.

Why? Because no trees in the martial world grew this tall.

For a moment, Chi Yulang looked up at the towering trees that seemed to touch the clouds, then scanned his surroundings.

It was clear this was not Tianlian Mountain, so he needed to determine where he was.

He decided to deal later with whoever or whatever had dared to drop him in this place.

As he explored, Chi Yulang suddenly felt something strange.

The air was unusually dense and pure with qi.

“Good heavens… such abundant qi.”

He couldn’t help but marvel.

The qi here was several times richer and purer than at the peak of Tianlian Mountain, a place said to connect with the heavens.

Then, his eyes caught sight of a plant.

“What is this…?”

He hurriedly approached and examined it closely.

“Thousand-Year Harsuo?”

And not just one, but a cluster of them.

In the martial world, these were treated as rare elixirs. Yet here they were, scattered carelessly by the roadside?

It was so absurd he was at a loss for words.

At that moment, a tremor shook the ground, followed by a loud crash as a tree fell.

It was one of those towering trees that seemed to reach the clouds.

Chi Yulang dodged the falling tree and fixed his gaze in the direction it had collapsed.

A deafening roar accompanied a massive cloud of dust.

But in the next instant, a piercing sound cut through the air, and the dust cloud vanished in a single gust.

Emerging from the dust was a colossal beast.

The creature locked eyes with Chi Yulang and let out a long, earth-shaking roar.

ROOOOAR!

The air vibrated as an indescribable, horrific sound erupted from its maw.

It was a sound so piercing it could rend eardrums.

Far beyond mere noise, it was akin to a sonic attack.

Any ordinary person, or even most martial artists, would have collapsed, bleeding from their ears.

Chi Yulang stared at the roaring beast with a dumbfounded expression.

“What in the world is this?”

The creature had the beak of a bird, with a serpent’s tongue flicking inside.

Its body resembled a massive reptile, adorned with ferocious claws and a menacing tail. That tail had likely swept away the dust cloud with a single swing.

It looked like a mythical beast straight out of the ancient Classic of Mountains and Seas.

The beast, having roared with all its might, charged toward Chi Yulang.

————

Ten years passed.

Sizzle, sizzle—

“Should be cooked by now, right?”

Chi Yulang took a big bite of the roasted meat.

“Mm!”

His eyes widened.

“This tastes absolutely awful.”

The meat was tough and reeked of gamey odor.

He couldn’t help but marvel anew.

How could it taste so uniquely bad every single time?

“How are these creatures all so consistently terrible? No matter how much I eat, I can’t get used to it.”

You’d think ten years would be enough to adjust, but no, these beasts refused to let him.

Even in death, they tormented Chi Yulang.

Crunch, crunch—

Still, he didn’t stop eating.

Bad as it tasted, he had to eat to survive.

In this place, if anything could threaten the Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang, it was loneliness and hunger.

To fend off loneliness and hunger, he consumed the flesh and blood of these beasts.

That was how he had survived the past ten years, and it was a battle still ongoing.

Irritably chewing the meat, Chi Yulang leapt down to the ground.

The spot where he’d been roasting the meat was atop the massive carcass of a beast.

“Now that I’ve eaten, shall I take a stroll?”

Chi Yulang lightly bounded up to the peak of a towering mountain.

‘Lightly’ was an understatement—his peerless light movement skills allowed him to ascend sheer cliffs as if walking on flat ground.

From the mountain’s summit, the surrounding scenery came into clear view.

He was on a vast island.

Some areas were blanketed in snow, gleaming white.

Others were desolate wastelands, while some were sprawling plains.

And where Chi Yulang stood was a dense, verdant forest.

“….”

Ten years had passed since he was cast onto this wretched island.

This cursed place held all four seasons at once, with various environments jumbled together.

It was as if some mischievous god had torn pieces of land from different places and stitched them together.

One moment it was a swelteringly unbearable desert, and the next, a snow-covered mountain.

He couldn’t begin to fathom how such a thing was possible.

Chi Yulang was certain he was the only human on this island.

After countless explorations, that was the conclusion he reached.

No matter how much he searched, there was no trace of another person.

Slumping down, he plucked a flower blooming at the peak and chewed it to cleanse his palate.

The foul aftertaste of the beast’s meat faded slightly.

In the martial world, this flower was called the Moon Spirit Flower, a rare elixir.

Yet here, such precious treasures were as common as dirt.

He was eating a Moon Spirit Flower as a palate cleanser.

It was likely due to the environment.

The island was saturated with pure, abundant qi.

Simply breathing here visibly increased his inner energy.

An ordinary person living here for ten years could reach the level of a first-rate martial artist.

If they could survive, that is.

The unfortunate truth was that the benefits of this environment didn’t apply solely to humans.

Just as rare elixirs grew in abundance due to the rich qi, the island’s beasts also grew terrifyingly powerful in this environment.

They devoured one another, naturally forming a hierarchy of the strong preying on the weak.

It was survival of the fittest in its purest form.

Chi Yulang had adapted to this hellish island.

The island teemed with fearsome monsters, but Chi Yulang was a monster in his own right.

Indeed.

The silent incarnation of destruction, Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang, was a predator even here.

Perhaps because of his ten years surviving in this place, Chi Yulang had achieved a remarkable feat without even training.

He had broken through the barrier to the next realm, one he had thought was the pinnacle of the demonic path.

Yet beyond it, he had leapt to an even higher level.

But Chi Yulang didn’t find it particularly gratifying.

His body, having undergone a transformation, was ready for rejuvenation, but he found it bothersome and meaningless, so he put it off.

“What’s the point of growing stronger?”

Chewing on the Moon Spirit Flower, Chi Yulang muttered with a sullen expression.

What was the use of strength when there was no worthy opponent? The loneliness remained unchanged.

When he first arrived, fighting the unfamiliar mythical beasts had been thrilling for a time.

But that excitement didn’t last long.

Boredom crept back like a shadow.

It began when the island’s creatures started avoiding him.

Chi Yulang looked up at the sky.

The moonlight here was unusually bright, while the sunlight was faint.

He still didn’t know where this place was.

But one thing was certain: it wasn’t the martial world he knew.

Naturally, he had tried to escape the island.

But it didn’t take long to realize it was impossible.

Beyond the blue sea surrounding the island writhed a void-like ocean.

Gazing at the moon, Heavenly Demon Chi Yulang murmured,

“How lonely… even here.”

The moon stirred a flood of memories.

The loyal followers of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

How are they doing?

The nagging strategist of the Heavenly Demon Cult, Chilbok, the Heavenly Tactician.

The Left and Right Guardians of Radiant Light who always bickered.

The adorable Four Heavenly Kings, competing fiercely to earn his favor.

And the cult’s followers, always praying toward the main altar of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

“I miss them.”

As their leader, Chi Yulang hoped they were faring well without him.

Hopefully, the alliance leader is taking good care of them.

“….”

Lost in sentiment as he gazed at the moon, Chi Yulang descended from the peak and trudged back to his ‘home.’

Calling it a home was generous. It was little different from the life of a wild hermit with the sky as his roof.

“Territory” was a more fitting term.

It was the one place the crazed beasts, who attacked anything with teeth, avoided entirely.

At some point, the creatures stopped charging at Chi Yulang.

Instead, they fled at the sight of him.

As a result, they steered clear of the area he claimed, unknowingly forming his territory.

Step, step—

Chi Yulang’s footsteps were heavy as he returned home.

His days were spent hunting beasts to stave off loneliness and hunger, climbing peaks to gaze at the moon, then returning.

These meaningless, repetitive days held no purpose.

“Haa…”

Sighing as he trudged back, something caught his eye.

In a forest clearing bathed in moonlight, there was something new.

Its smooth, rounded exterior seemed made of a material he’d never seen before.

It gleamed with a cold, soft metallic sheen, faintly reflecting the surrounding scenery like the dawn moon.

The streamlined object resembled a large pebble but was big enough for a person to fit inside.

Curious, the Heavenly Demon approached and examined it closely.

Tap, tap—

Knocking on it, he muttered,

“What’s this thing for?”

He had no idea where it came from.

He could only guess it had fallen from the sky, much like he had.

“Fascinating.”

After inspecting the mysterious object from every angle, Chi Yulang dragged it back to his home.