Beads of cold sweat ran down his face. His trembling pupils and the hand clutching at his dantian showed that the giant figure was crumbling slowly, proof that my plan was working perfectly.

‘It’s working after all.’

I had wondered what I would do if it didn’t, but it seemed that the versatility of demonic energy was broader than I’d expected.

As I examined the fallen Tang Deok, I recalled the reason why he ended up like this.

Tang Deok's subordinate—whose name I can’t even remember, whether it was Julbok or Jungbok—I corrupted him into a demon. I had set one purpose: if that subordinate returned to Tang Deok only to be killed by him, the demonic energy would spread.

It was a plan that took advantage of the fact that when a demon dies, the demonic energy within them disperses to their surroundings.

As I approached Tang Deok, I checked my own condition. Though the plan had worked, there was one issue.

‘This is a bit tough.’

It was proving rather difficult to fully utilize the demonic energy I had placed in Tang Deok.

I had felt it with the Black Dragon Sword as well—the higher the opponent's level, the harder it was to restrict them with demonic energy.

Still, it was much better than the pressure Tang Deok must have been feeling. I approached him, trying to appear as unaffected as possible.

“Nice to see you.”

“…”

Tang Deok looked at me with trembling eyes. The demonic energy constricting his body must have been deeply unsettling.

“…What did you do to me…?”

“Do you like the gift I gave you?”

“You bastard…!”

Tang Deok’s face twisted as he yelled at me.

“Did you poison me?!”

It seemed he thought I had poisoned him. Well, in a sense, demonic energy could be considered a kind of poison.

‘He’s really pissed.’

I could feel his fury, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. For him, poison was like a dagger.

He had a body that could never develop immunity to poison, and that was a point of deep insecurity for him, born from the very family name he carried.

Smiling at him, I responded.

“So what if I did?”

“You bastard!”

Boom—! Tang Deok’s body erupted with force. Even with his body bound by demonic energy, his energy was still overwhelming. His aura wasn’t far off from that of the Black Dragon Sword.

This indicated that Tang Deok, too, was a martial artist of the Hwagyeong (Flower Blooming) stage.

As I observed and gathered more information about him, Tang Deok growled and questioned me.

“Are you in league with the Poison King?!”

The unexpected question made me tilt my head.

“Why would you think that?”

Tang Deok sneered as he replied.

“Only that cursed family would use such poisons!”

“Such harsh words. You were born into that family too, weren’t you?”

“You dare…! How dare you compare me to them?!”

“Well… you’re not part of them anymore, I suppose. They discarded you long ago.”

“…”

My words made Tang Deok grit his teeth.

“How much do you know…?”

“Not that much, really…”

If I had to answer how much I knew…

“The Cheonmu Body Creation Plan.”

“…!”

The moment I said that, Tang Deok’s eyes widened, and his body began to tremble. He hadn’t expected me to know about that.

‘Not that I wanted to know about it either.’

The Cheonmu Body Creation Plan—the name alone is enough to make you wonder what it’s about. But the deeper you dig, the more foul and ugly it becomes.

It was the title of an experiment conducted by Tang Bisung, a master from the previous generation and the former leader of the Tang Clan, known as Dokgun (Poison Lord).

Tang Bisung loved the Tang Clan more than anything. He valued its prestige highly and dreamed of elevating it to even greater heights.

And he had always wondered: what was the fastest way to achieve that? The answer was simple.

In a way, it was a straightforward logic.

The quickest way for the Tang Clan to rise to the top was to possess the strongest martial artist in the world.

Despite the clan’s prestige and reputation, none of the Four Great Clans were considered the best, precisely because they lacked an absolute powerhouse.

At that time, the era of the Three Supremes had begun, marking a golden age for orthodox martial arts. Yet, it was also a time without a singular dominant figure—the strongest in the world.

The Three Supremes—the Sword Supreme, the Conqueror Supreme, and the Celestial Supreme—each dominated their own spheres, but no one could definitively say who was the strongest among them.

There was no clear answer to who was the undisputed number one under heaven. The masters operated in their own domains, and no one felt the need to establish an order.

It was a time of balance, called the era of the Three Supremes, a peaceful period.

But Tang Bisung was dissatisfied with this.

He likely thought that during this window of opportunity, someone from the Tang Clan should claim the top position.

He knew it wasn’t possible for him personally. Tang Bisung was aware of his limitations and planned for the future instead.

That was the origin of the Cheonmu Body Creation Plan.

The term Cheonmu Body refers to an individual blessed by the heavens with an exceptional physique and talent. Someone with a body perfect for learning martial arts, a mind suited to understanding it, and a massive dantian for storing qi.

A person with the ideal qualities to become a martial artist.

That’s what the Cheonmu Body was.

Tang Bisung wanted to raise such a person within the Tang Clan.

His goal was to create a future Cheonmu Body, make them the number one martial artist in the world, and elevate the Tang Clan to the greatest among the Four Great Clans.

That was his ambition.

However, this plan, filled with grand ambition, took a rather cruel form in practice.

A Cheonmu Body cannot simply be acquired by wishing for it.

It’s not called a once-in-a-thousand-years talent for nothing.

Instead of relying on such slim odds, Tang Bisung sought to artificially create a Cheonmu Body.

An artificial Cheonmu Body—a contradiction in terms.

That’s what I thought at first.

And the method was indeed as grotesque as it sounded. Even I was appalled when I learned of it.

Tang Bisung kidnapped orphans from across the martial world, gave them the Tang surname, and locked them underground.

And then…

‘He injected them with the blood of demonic beasts.’

He forcibly infused the children with the blood of demonic creatures.

It sounds unbelievable, but the records confirmed it.

Demonic beasts possess incredibly tough and resilient bodies, far superior to humans. Among them, Tang Bisung chose primates—beasts most similar to humans—and injected their blood into the children.

The result? What do you think?

Of course, they all died.

It was a natural outcome. Demonic beasts are fundamentally different from humans, even in the color of their blood.

When humans were forcibly infused with large amounts of demonic beast blood, their bodies couldn’t withstand it, and they went into convulsions before dying.

I discovered this information in my previous life when I found the underground chambers of the Sichuan Tang Clan. Deep within, I uncovered records of these events.

Thousands of pages documenting these horrific experiments were found.

If you count the missing records, there could be even more.

So how many lives were sacrificed for Tang Bisung’s ambitions?

The youngest recorded child was five years old, and the oldest was ten.

Children that young were killed for Tang Bisung’s ambition?

I don’t know all the details, but standing in front of me was one of the victims of those experiments—Tang Deok.

I also recalled the final notes at the end of those thousands of records.

Amid all the failures, one subject had survived the infusion of demonic beast blood.

By all logic, it should have been impossible. How could a human survive such an infusion? It defied belief.

But the records were clear.

Successful blood fusion. Increased skin toughness and significant muscle enhancement—those were the notes.

I didn’t know what method had been used, but Tang Bisung’s experiment succeeded.

According to the records, the subject possessed a body close to the Cheonmu Body that Tang Bisung had envisioned.

But in the end, the subject was marked as a failure.

After thousands of experiments, why label this one a failure?

The reason was simple.

‘Lack of immunity to poison.’

That was the experiment’s goal.

Tang Bisung wanted a Cheonmu Body that could master poison techniques, essential to the Tang Clan.

And in that regard, the subject was a failure.

Despite having an extraordinary body, the subject couldn’t develop immunity to poison.

It seemed absurd that someone with such an exceptional physique would end up with this result, but that was reality. Tang Bisung had recorded it as a failure.

Even though the body was remarkable, Tang Bisung repeated countless experiments to try and instill poison immunity, but all of them failed.

According to the records, Tang Bisung eventually ordered the subject’s termination.

But I was certain.

The subject of that experiment was standing right in front of me—Tang Deok.

‘The name recorded was Tang Deok.’

There were many with the name Tang Deok, and I hadn’t reviewed all the records, but the traits matched.

The name was Tang Deok.

A body with absurd strength, nearly indestructible.

Unable to develop immunity to poison.

Filled with hatred for the Tang Clan.

It was clear who he was.

“A failed attempt at creating a Cheonmu Body. That’s you, right?”

“…You… who are you?”

“Who am I?”

At Tang Deok’s question, I paused to think.

Who am I, indeed?

For some reason, I found myself hesitating over what to say. Then, without thinking, I muttered a word.

“Cheonma (Heavenly Demon).”

“…What?”

“Oh, don’t mind that. It just came to me suddenly.”

Why did I suddenly think of Cheonma? I wasn’t sure.

I had blurted it out without thinking, but Tang Deok nodded slightly as if understanding.

“A demon sent from the heavens… It suits you.”

“What the…?”

Why was he suddenly insulting me? I couldn’t figure it out. A surge of irritation rose within me, but I suppressed it.

Creak.

Tang Deok, gripping his spear tightly, began to stand.

“And I now see… that you are connected to the Poison King.”

“…”

That wasn’t true, but I didn’t bother to deny it. I didn’t think it would change anything.

And even if it didn’t matter…

‘It wouldn’t change the outcome.’

The important thing here wasn’t that.

Tang Deok raised his spear and pointed it at me as he spoke.

“You will die here by my hand.”

Even though he was struggling against the demonic energy, his fighting spirit hadn’t waned.

In my past life, even after I gouged out one of his eyes, he had that same relentless spirit.

“And the descendants of that damned Poison King will die by my hand as well.”

His hatred for the Tang Clan ran deep.

I could understand why—if I had gone through what he had, I might have lived for vengeance too.

The bandits who had gathered under him…

‘All of them shared a grudge against the Tang Clan.’

Though they appeared to be bandits, they were, in essence, spirits of vengeance, seeking retribution.

Whether they, too, were victims of the experiments, I didn’t know.

But I didn’t care.

I didn’t think the Tang Clan was blameless. What they had done was horrific, and they deserved to be condemned and face vengeance.

But…

‘I don’t care.’

I wasn’t interested in that side of things. Tang Deok’s anger, his thirst for revenge—I understood it, but…

‘It doesn’t concern me.’

Harsh as it might sound, I had something more important than that.

It might seem cruel, selfish, or even twisted, but I didn’t care.

I just had to protect what I needed to protect.

Tang Deok was merely a pawn for me to use in that goal.

As I was thinking, Tang Deok continued speaking.

“And the Poison King’s daughter, is she with them as well?”

Hearing Tang So-yeol’s name made me frown.

“Her, too, will—”

“Hey.”

I cut him off, and Tang Deok looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“That’s enough.”

“What?”

“I need you alive for now, but…”

Suppressing the emotions boiling up inside me, I forced myself to stay calm.

I wanted to go over there and snap his neck, but…

I had to hold back.

“If you keep talking, I’ll have no choice but to kill you. So, shut up and get ready to fight.”

“…”

Sigh.

At my words, Tang Deok let out a short breath, then tightened his grip on his spear as his aura spread.

Even with the demonic energy coursing through him, he could still generate this much power…

Something was off. The demonic energy I had infused into him wasn’t fully manifesting.

Could it be…

‘Is it because of the demonic beast’s blood?’

That might be it. Demonic energy originates from the Cheonma, but it’s also present in demonic stones. His blood might have some resistance to demonic energy.

So, would fighting Tang Deok without fully manifesting demonic energy be too difficult?

As I watched him carefully, I came to a conclusion.

‘I’ll just have to find out.’

I wouldn’t know unless I tried.

That was my decision.

In this life, I hadn’t had many chances to fight martial artists who had reached the Hwagyeong stage.

At best, I had faced the Black Dragon Sword, the White Heavenly Sword Master, and my father.

Compared to those, fighting Tang Deok felt more comfortable.

I also wanted to properly test myself after reaching the Hwagyeong stage.

‘It doesn’t matter if I kill him.’

That one thought was already a big help.

Of course, I wouldn’t kill him since I still needed him, but knowing that I could was liberating.

“This time, I won’t go for the eyes.”

“…?”

Tang Deok gave me a puzzled look.

“I just thought… your eyes look a little tempting.”

“You bastard…”

Thinking it was a provocation, Tang Deok immediately charged at me with his massive body. I grinned and summoned all the demonic energy I had.

In an instant, the demonic energy filled a part of my heart.

Crack—!

I felt my whole body surge with power, releasing energy from within.

I started with…

Black Heaven .

I erased the stars from the sky first.