Chapter 124 – All Martial Arts Under Heaven Originate from the Black Forest

Hans’s historical alteration, having seized dominance over the Black Forest’s entrance and completed his Four-star promotion, was not yet over.

Although the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword had fulfilled two achievements’ worth and could no longer influence his history, in its place, the Heavenly Demon Medallion continued the historical alteration for the 5-Star promotion.

Moreover, because Hans had deployed both the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword and the Heavenly Demon Medallion simultaneously when beginning his historical alteration, the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword also remained in his hand instead of returning to reality.

—Congratulations on your great achievement.

Amidst the Beheader King offering congratulations to Hans, who had transformed into a Death Knight.

Hans’s gaze turned toward his other subordinate Undead.

Because upon becoming a Death Knight, he had realized in what manner they could be combined to evolve them into Death Knights.

“A pity for the Dullahans.”

A Dark Knight forms exoskeletal armor enveloping a Ghoul, and a Wraith becomes the nerve connecting the two, forming a Trinity—that was a Death Knight.

Of course, in this case, the Ghoul had to be an individual capable of manifesting the Monstrous Strength of a Zombie Giant.

And there was the condition that a power like Necromancy had to externally balance the three.

But all those conditions were already satisfied by Hans.

Crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle!

The remaining Dark Knights, Wraiths, and newly joined Ghouls all simultaneously fused and evolved into Death Knights.

The number of Death Knights created this way was twelve.

Moreover, it wasn’t just them who achieved evolution.

Clank clank clank!

The Bone Armored Zombies who had lost their king also fused into one through Necromancy, taking the form of a giant.

Thus, a new 4-Star Bone Armored Zombie Giant was born.

It was not a King, merely a single special individual.

Lower-tier Undead could also undergo artificial evolution through Necromancy.

A Zombie could evolve into a Zombie Mutant by infusing it with a Specter, or into a Ghoul by infusing it with a Will-o’-Wisp.

A Skeleton could evolve into a Skeleton Knight through a Specter, or into a Dark Knight through a Will-o’-Wisp.

Specters could naturally evolve into a Superior Species if forcibly merged together.

The problem was that this kind of forced evolution was not always successful.

Crunch!

If a Zombie’s evolution failed, its flesh aside from bones would vanish, turning it into a Skeleton.

If a Skeleton’s evolution failed, even its bones would vanish, turning it into a Specter, a Ghost.

If a Specter’s evolution failed, its very existence would vanish, returning to nothingness.

But accepting the possibility of failure, Hans continued attempting the evolution of his Undead, replenishing Dark Knights, Ghouls, and Wraiths, and creating Death Knights.

The number of Undead, including Specters, which had reached thousands, was being compressed.

.

.

.

Finally, a total of ninety-nine Death Knights stood in formation behind Hans.

By this time, all Zombie-type Undead had been consumed as materials except for the single Bone Armored Zombie Giant.

The remaining Dark Knights and Wraiths were evolved into Dullahans under the Beheader King’s command.

‘Oh dear. This is getting troublesome.’

For Rough, who was disguised as a Dark Knight, this was bad news.

To become a Dullahan, one first had to behead a Dark Knight.

If things continued this way, he would be in a situation where his head would be cut off.

‘First, buy some time.’

Using Divination to leak a revelation, guiding the evolution to start with other Dark Knights besides him.

Then, at the moment when the evolution of all Dark Knights except Rough was completed, he wished for Fortune.

Whoooosh.

Then, all the remaining Wraiths began gathering in one place, drawn by a strange wind.

Whoooosh!

Thus was born the Specter-type 4-Star Undead ‘Phantom Steed’.

As the ghostly steed trod upon empty air and approached Hans, he tilted his head and then mounted the ghostly steed.

“Lucky.”

A knight needed a mount, after all.

Although a Phantom Steed appeared instead of the Dullahan he originally intended to evolve, Hans instead smiled with satisfaction.

Thanks to all Wraiths being consumed, Rough could remain alone as a Dark Knight.

But his crisis was not yet over.

Hum.

[Conditions met. Rare Skill <Necromancy> evolves into Unique Skill <Hellfire Furnace>.]

The Necromancy skill, whose Proficiency had greatly increased during the process of evolving Undead, advanced to the next stage.

Hellfire Furnace was a skill that formed one’s own hell, contained corpses (Undead) within it, and made their power one’s own.

Slither.

The Undead under Hans’s control sank into a shadow that had transformed like a swamp.

Their shadows had become the gate leading to hell.

And Rough was no exception to sinking into that shadow.

Plop.

Rough was trapped in Hans’s hell.

‘Huh?’

Fortunately, even though it was called hell, there was no particular pain.

Moreover, he could perceive the outside situation through Hans.

And judging that he could escape from here anytime through the Path of the Fairies.

Thud.

Rough decided to just lie comfortably in hell and watch Hans’s historical alteration.

* * *

Hans’s next destination after unifying the Undead at the Black Forest’s entrance was the Black Forest Temple, said to be located at the center of the Black Forest.

Having obtained the Five Elements Corpse Manipulation Art, the original form of the Reverse Tendon Cleansing Marrow Scripture, he wanted to compare it with the real Reverse Tendon Cleansing Marrow Scripture.

‘All Martial Arts Under Heaven Originate from the Black Forest’—as the saying goes that all martial arts in the world came from the Black Forest Temple, the Black Forest Temple’s status in Arthalia’s Murim was very high.

There was even a rumor that the Black Forest Temple’s Seventy-Two Demonic Arts included the martial arts of the Four Great Martial Sects.

This choice also aligned with Rough’s intention.

What Rough sought to gain from Hans’s historical alteration was a variable to counter Asura’s martial arts.

And since Asura’s martial arts originated from the Four Great Martial Sects’ martial arts.

Examining the Black Forest Temple’s Seventy-Two Demonic Arts would yield the answer.

Step step.

The moment they passed the Black Forest’s entrance and entered the depths.

Slither!

A Dark Elf wearing monk’s robes and holding prayer beads revealed himself by climbing a tree.

It was a Black Forest Monk of the Black Forest Temple.

“Patron, why do you seek to enter deeper into the Black Forest?”

“I wish to see the Black Forest Temple and broaden my horizons.”

“The Black Forest Temple does not refuse visitors. Please follow me.”

“Yes.”

Swish swish swish!

Watching the Black Forest Monk’s footwork, which seemed to fold the ground as he walked, Hans also followed behind him.

His body, having learned the Five Elements Corpse Manipulation Art and shared Rough’s <Artisan> through the Hellfire Furnace, had reached a level where it could physically learn movements seen with his eyes.

Swish swish swish!

He could follow without losing the Black Forest Monk.

The Black Forest Monk, glancing back after a while, twitched his ears upon seeing Hans following lightly.

He seemed to know Hans was a peak master, but didn’t expect him to follow his footwork instantly.

“It seems I underestimated you, Patron. I can increase the speed a bit more.”

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

As if his pride was hurt, the Black Forest Monk increased his speed even more.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Hans followed the increased speed without difficulty.

Moving at full speed like that, reaching the Black Forest Temple’s main temple didn’t take long.

“Hoo… Impressive. I didn’t expect you not to even be out of breath.”

“It’s thanks to you leading the way and showing the path, Monk.”

The Black Forest Monk and Hans praised each other and stepped into the Black Forest Temple.

Step.

The moment they precisely took one step past the mountain gate, something previously unseen came into view.

The thick dark clouds always covering the Black Forest’s sky.

A giant tree taking root there and growing upside down suddenly revealed itself.

“That is…?”

“That is ‘Qliphoth,’ the root and origin of our Black Forest Temple.”

Hans’s eyes widened at the form of the Divine Beast, observable only from within the Black Forest Temple.

The Black Forest Monk looked at Hans with a meaningful smile.

At that moment, a sense of crisis surged and alarm bells rang in his head.

But it was already too late.

Plunge!

Along with the feeling of something piercing his crown.

“…Grrk.”

The wisdom possessed by a True God-level existence was being directly driven into his head.

His ears tingled as if they were about to lengthen.

Only now could he understand why the Black Forest Monk had obediently brought a suspicious outsider into the Black Forest Temple.

Because anyone who faced Qliphoth’s True God would mutate into a Dark Elf anyway.

Accepting this mutation wouldn’t be a bad thing for Hans either.

If he became a Dark Elf, becoming a Death Elf, a Transcendent Species of the Heavenly Slaughter Constellation, would become even easier.

But that was not the path of the Heavenly Demon.

“Heavenly Demon… Descend.”

Whoooosh!

With difficulty, the Heavenly Demon Medallion’s equipment skill activated.

On Earth where the Heavenly Slaughter Demon Lord existed, it was a skill to invoke the Heavenly Slaughter Demon Lord.

But this record was from a time when the Heavenly Slaughter Demon Lord did not yet exist.

[Who dares touch the successor of Mara Paphiyas!]

The projection of Mara Paphiyas, the Heavenly Demon of this era and the previous Heavenly Slaughter Constellation, the Heavenly Demon King of the Six Desires, descended upon Hans’s body.

Crack!

The branch of Qliphoth that had been piercing Hans’s crown was completely digested by the Heavenly Demon’s touch.

True to the ruler of the Transformation Self-Existing Heaven, he instantly made Qliphoth’s wisdom his own.

It was like enjoying the fruit of wisdom without paying the price of mutation into a Dark Elf.

‘Lemegeton.’

The true name of the Black Forest Temple’s Seventy-Two Demonic Arts was revealed, and among them, the demonic arts that became the origin of the Four Great Martial Sects’ representative martial arts were uncovered.

From the beast transformation abilities contained in the fifth demonic art ‘Marbas’ and the sixth demonic art ‘Valefor’ came the Wanderer Society’s ‘Beast Instinct Path.’

From the sea-controlling abilities contained in the forty-first demonic art ‘Focalor’ and the forty-second demonic art ‘Vepar’ derived the Haedong Sect’s ‘East Sea Thirty-Six Swords.’

The Reverse Tendon Cleansing Marrow Scripture Hans wanted to see was also merely a martial art created by combining the necromancy-type abilities contained in Lemegeton’s fourth ‘Gamigin,’ twenty-fourth ‘Naberius,’ forty-sixth ‘Bifrons,’ and fifty-fourth ‘Murmur.’

No wonder the original form of the Reverse Tendon Cleansing Marrow Scripture was the Five Elements Corpse Manipulation Art, created from the characteristics of Undead.

Having glimpsed such wisdom from within Hans’s Hellfire Furnace, Rough and Lee Hanseong realized one truth.

‘This… is not Murim.’

The revelation received through Divination and the faintly existing legend of ‘Murim’ from pre-Great Cataclysm Earth in Lee Hanseong’s memory made them recognize the distortion existing in the current Arthalia Murim.

A worldview constructed by the entanglement of distorted symbols and legends.

Naturally, distortion had to exist in Arthalia’s martial arts as well, and such distortion could act as a weakness to be exploited.

‘Originally, the Four Divine Beasts of Murim passed down on Earth were the Azure Dragon of the East, White Tiger of the West, Vermillion Bird of the South, and Black Tortoise of the North.’

But in Arthalia’s Murim, Leviathan, Fenrir, Phoenix, and Qliphoth occupied those positions instead.

Whoosh!

Rough’s Divination, Hyu’s All Phenomena, Lee Hanseong’s Insightful Eye, etc., traced back the process of the Four Divine Beasts concept’s alteration.

The Azure Dragon and Leviathan were altered through the commonality of being dragons and the domain of the sea.

The White Tiger and Fenrir were altered through the commonality of being four-legged beasts and the etymology where ‘tiger’ and ‘wolf’ were equated from the word ‘beom’ (tiger/beast).

The Vermillion Bird and Phoenix were altered through the commonality of being birds and the homophone ‘fire’ between firebird and phoenix.

But the connection between the Black Tortoise and Qliphoth was difficult to easily discern.

‘What connection does an animal have with a tree in the first place?’

Persistently digging through Hyu’s All Phenomena, something that could be called a commonality appeared.

The legends of the World Turtle (World Turtle) bearing the world on its back and the World Tree (World Tree) existing in various myths.

By inserting the story of a tree growing on a turtle’s back in between, the Black Tortoise was altered into Qliphoth.

‘This is sophistry…!’

Objectively, this was a distortion close to force.

Even if commonalities existed, differences were also clear, but ignoring those and taking only the desired parts to alter the concept.

But even if the world’s truth was made of sophistry, one couldn’t simply deny it.

After all, even though built upon sophistry, Arthalia’s Murim was functioning properly.

‘No, rather, this can be used.’

Rough carefully observed the very way sophistry worked and harbored a scheme to reverse-use it.

The martial arts of a world built upon sophistry would similarly easily collapse with sophistry.

The Mount Hua Sect changing to the Volcano Sect, the Plum Blossom Sword Technique changing to the Coal Fire Sword Technique.

The wordplay where Wanderer changes to Wolf Person.

The Hainan Sect changing to the Haedong Sect, the South Sea Thirty-Six Swords altering to the East Sea Thirty-Six Swords.

The sophistry where Shaolin Temple becomes the Black Forest Temple, and Buddhist monks become Black Forest Monks.

As he traced each such distortion one by one, the principle of sophistry was engraved within Rough.

[Conditions met. Rare Skill <Sophistry> blooms.]

Thus, all of Rough’s 4-Star slots were also filled.

The time for Rough’s historical alteration to end was also gradually approaching.