Chapter 52 – Mad Demonic King (2)

The Tiger Demon Stronghold wasn’t just home to bandits; their families lived there as well. And the place where the screams came from was where those families resided.

“What!”

Never before had any martial artist dared to harm the family of a bandit, so Red Tiger was taken aback.

The other bandits felt the same. They rushed down and saw it.

A supreme demonic being, shrouded in darkness and radiating an aura of death. Already, countless civilians lay dead around him.

*He’s dangerous.*

Even though the people he was supposed to protect were dead, Red Tiger couldn’t feel anger. Having experienced countless battles, he could naturally gauge an enemy’s strength, and he realized the being before him was someone he could never hope to face.

But his subordinates, who had lost their families to the demonic being, were completely consumed by rage and charged forward. They failed to notice his power.

“How dare you touch my family!”

A total of seven bandits stepped forward. They mustered all their internal energy and swung at the demonic being.

Just as their weapons were about to strike, black demonic energy erupted and blocked their attacks.

It was as if the energy had a will of its own. Then, it slowly coiled around the bandits’ bodies.

*Crack!*

The demonic energy constricted them tightly, and unable to withstand the pressure, their bodies were crushed into nothingness.

“Kill… Kill… Kill…”

The demonic being spoke for the first time. His voice and the words he uttered made even a veteran warrior like Red Tiger tremble in fear. The being before them was not someone they could defy.

But unlike Red Tiger, the other bandits, enraged by the deaths of their comrades, charged forward, swinging their weapons. No, it wouldn’t be wrong to say they charged out of sheer terror.

“No! We have to run!”

Red Tiger shouted, but it was too late. The demonic energy writhed as if it were a living creature, then split into dozens of tendrils and pierced the necks of the charging bandits.

“Gah!”

The bandits collapsed, coughing up frothy red blood.

“Kill… Kill… Kill…”

The demonic being, repeating only the word ‘kill’, let out another great roar. The demonic energy exploded into hundreds of strands, pouring down upon the bandits.

*Crash!*

The tendrils of demonic energy indiscriminately pierced through everything, making no distinction between the living and the dead.

In the face of such immense power that tore and destroyed flesh, the bandits lost their lives without putting up any real resistance.

Red Tiger, having reached the peak realm, was able to wield his energy to cut down the tendrils, but he was the only one who could.

“What are you! What the hell are you!”

But the demonic being didn’t answer him. Instead, he ignored Red Tiger and began slaughtering the civilians, not the bandits.

“No! Stop it!”

Red Tiger roared, gripping his axe, and executed one of the strongest techniques of the Mad Wolf Axe Arts, the Raging Wind Axe.

Red energy, harmonized with the wind, engulfed the demonic being. The Raging Wind Axe was a technique that thoroughly shredded any opponent caught within it, so Red Tiger believed the demonic being was dead.

But his belief did not last long.

*BOOM!*

The black demonic energy shattered the red energy. The engulfed demonic being was still unharmed and, ignoring Red Tiger, continued to attack the bandits’ families.

Red Tiger tried to stop him with all his might, but it was futile. After an hour, he was the only person left alive in the Tiger Demon Stronghold.

Red Tiger stared blankly at his surroundings as the demonic being slowly approached him.

And then, something surprising happened. The madness that had filled the demonic being’s eyes vanished.

“How does it feel? The result of your actions?”

“You’re the one who did this!”

Red Tiger roared desperately, glaring at the demonic being. In response, the demonic being sneered colder than anyone and stomped on Red Tiger’s head.

“Gah!”

“You should get your facts straight. The rage of the people you’ve plundered and killed has brought about this result. I lost everything to you, so shouldn’t you lose everything as well?”

At the demonic being’s words, Red Tiger was speechless.

Hadn’t he, in fact, killed people just like this?

Red Tiger thought of the words, ‘what goes around comes around.’

“Now you know why you must die, don’t you? But you don’t get to die easily.”

With those words, the demonic being infused his demonic energy into Red Tiger’s body.

“Kuaaaargh!”

The demonic energy clashed with Red Tiger’s internal energy, and the shockwave ravaged his body. Dark red blood flowed from his seven orifices—his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

The pain was so intense that eventually, Red Tiger couldn’t even scream.

A moment later, he bit his own tongue and ended his life.

“Ha… Hahahaha! Honey! Kids! Everyone from the village! I’ve finally gotten my revenge! I’ve succeeded in avenging myself against the villain who drove you all to your deaths. I’ve gotten my revenge!”

At first, the demonic being laughed loudly, but soon, tears began to stream down his face.

“Is this all the time I have? But it’s enough.”

Having avenged his grudge, he let go of all lingering attachments and surrendered his body to the demon.

The man, who had briefly returned to his former simple self, vanished into the darkness, leaving only a mad demonic being that rampaged in a frenzy of bloodlust.

***

The culprit who had killed so many in Sichuan for a time somehow began to rampage in Yunnan. To capture this fiend who indiscriminately slaughtered martial artists and civilians alike, the Diancang Sect, one of the dominant powers in Yunnan, sent its disciples.

“Hah, hah!”

White breath escaped from the woman’s lips. Though the sun was still bright in the sky, puffs of white vapor continuously billowed from her pale lips.

“Senior brothers…”

Tears streamed down her face. The woman couldn’t believe the reality before her.

She and her martial brothers were all first-rate masters, carefully selected by the Diancang Sect.

They could wield sword energy at will, yet they were no match for the demonic being.

In the end, all her martial brothers had lost their lives, leaving only her.

“How can such a demonic art exist!”

The demonic arts the being had mastered were tremendous. The demonic energy moved like a living creature to block their swords imbued with sword energy, or it would lash out like a whip, piercing the necks of her martial brothers.

“Grrrrrr.”

Roaring like a beast, the demonic being looked at the woman. The hand of the demon that had killed so many of her martial brothers reached for her. It was shrouded in dense demonic energy, inspiring terror in her with just a glance.

The woman closed her eyes. Normally, the right thing to do would be to flee and avenge her brothers later, but the demonic being before her was so overwhelming that such thoughts were impossible.

*Senior brothers, I’ll be with you soon.*

With that thought, she waited for the demonic being’s hand to pierce her chest.

*BOOM!*

In that instant, a massive silver energy blast struck the demonic being, sending him flying back, unable to withstand the force.

“Found you, you bastard.”

Hearing the sudden voice of a young man, the woman opened her eyes without realizing it. The young man, noticing her eyes were open, looked at her and smiled.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this demonic being now. What is your name, my lady?”

“Hwi-yeon… My name is Lee Hwi-yeon…”

“So, you are Lady Hwi-yeon. My name is Kang Yu-jin. This won’t take long, so please just wait a moment.”

The young man, who had introduced himself as Kang Yu-jin, wiped the smile from his face and glared at the demonic being.

“You need to disappear.”

Once again, a silver energy blast flew toward the demonic being.

“It’s dangerous! My martial brothers couldn’t win even when they all attacked him at once.”

The woman, Lee Hwi-yeon, warned him, but Yu-jin swung his sword without hesitation, sending the silver energy flying toward the demonic being.

Lee Hwi-yeon was so shocked that a young man, not much older than herself, could use energy blasts that she was left speechless.

Just then, another woman placed a hand on her shoulder. Lee Hwi-yeon thought, though it was hardly appropriate for the situation, that she was beautiful.

“Don’t worry. That man may be the greatest master in the martial world.”

At the words of the woman, Na Ye-jin, Lee Hwi-yeon found herself staring at Kang Yu-jin.

*BOOM!*

The demonic being immediately created a shield of black demonic energy and blocked the silver energy blast Yu-jin had launched.

The demonic being Yu-jin was facing was qualitatively different from the ones that had served as fame and experience points for the protagonists so far.

This was a demon among demons, created by the Heavenly Demon by pouring half of his power into it. It possessed immense strength, enough to be considered to have surpassed the Extreme Demonic (Transformation Realm) and reached the Transcendent Demonic (Profound Realm).

As if to prove it, it easily blocked Yu-jin’s energy blast.

“Well, he has to be at least that strong.”

His attack was blocked, but Yu-jin wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t expected to defeat the demonic being with just that.

“They say the Heavenly Demon created it for amusement, but its power is overwhelming.”

This demonic being, later known as the ‘Mad Demonic King’, was a master whose power was nearly on par with the Ten Great Heavenly Masters.

On top of that, when the Heavenly Demon gave it power, it seemed his own traits were transferred as well, making the being who would be called the Mad Demonic King impossible to kill by ordinary means.

“That’s not the truly frightening part. What’s really scary is that the only will in its mind is to kill the living. And the fact that it learns, despite being a madman, is also terrifying.”

In the original story, the number of people this demonic being killed surpassed the thousands and reached the tens of thousands, which highlighted its danger.

Even the absolute masters among the Ten Great Heavenly Masters hadn’t killed more than a thousand people in their entire lifetimes, yet this demonic being killed tens of thousands in a very short time. Yu-jin couldn’t just stand by and watch.

And most of all, he didn’t like the existence of a being that deviated from his memories.

“A distortion like you must disappear for my future to be peaceful!”

Yu-jin dropped his hand-blade stance. Until now, he had used the sword arts of his clan with his bare hands, but facing this demonic being with those techniques was a difficult task.

Of course, it wasn’t that he wasn’t confident he could win, but it would be foolish to use weaker martial arts when he had stronger ones at his disposal.

*Swoosh!*

Yu-jin executed the Sky-Shattering Demonic Asura Fist and threw a punch. The demonic being quickly raised its demonic energy to form another shield, but Yu-jin’s fist shattered it and slammed into the being’s chest.

In that instant, with a massive explosion, the demonic being couldn’t withstand Yu-jin’s punch and was sent flying, tumbling across the ground.