Chapter 379: In the Midst of Succession (2)
"Those dissatisfied with the current Cult Leader will be used as shields…."
Cheon Juchun nodded.
"As an opening move, not bad. I suppose I can slightly revise my initial plan."
At those words, Cheon Jumyeong’s gaze sharpened for a moment.
"Do you have something specific in mind?"
"I do. At first, I was going to stir up some light unrest from the inside… Ah, I should probably tell you now."
Cheon Juchun crossed his legs lazily while remaining seated.
"First, I’ll kill Jin Yeomyung and turn the current Cult Leader into a puppet. I explained that much already, right?"
"Yeah."
"But even so, we can’t just drag her down from her position immediately. Because you wouldn’t want that."
"……"
Cheon Jumyeong remained silent at those words.
He didn’t want it. The reason was simple.
"Although the current Cult Leader was crushed under the weight of the previous one’s authority, she also benefited from it. If she’s removed too suddenly, like you said, the throne will fall into ruin."
The prestige of the former Cult Leader, who bore the title of Heavenly Demon, was truly immense.
Trying to oust such a person’s successor immediately might very well cause the entire cult to rise in revolt.
And to suppress that with force would result in an unimaginable amount of bloodshed.
In that sense, Cheon Juchun was surprisingly being quite considerate toward Cheon Jumyeong.
"So, for about three years… you'll act as the regent. After that, you can remove her and ascend to the position of Cult Leader yourself."
"I understand. However…"
For some reason, Cheon Jumyeong kept digging with persistent questions.
"During those three years, what about the vacant seat of the Demonic Faction Lord? Will it just remain unfilled?"
"Ah, of course I’ve prepared for that as well."
Clap!
Cheon Juchun lightly clapped his hands.
"Come in."
Creeeak.
At the same time, the door opened and a young man appeared.
As soon as Cheon Jumyeong saw him, his expression turned icy cold.
"So that’s why you’ve been missing so often lately. You’ve been conspiring with this bastard in a place like this?"
"Haha! Please don’t scold me too harshly. And the one who’s been absent from the Heavenly Thunder Corps often isn’t me, but you, isn’t it? More importantly…"
A crooked smile spread across the young man's lips.
"Aren’t we comrades sailing in the same boat now?"
"The same boat…"
At those words, Cheon Jumyeong laughed viciously.
"Well, you were always a traitor, so it’s not surprising you’d betray again. No, wasn’t betrayal your nature from the start?"
Cheon Jumyeong’s gaze turned to Cheon Juchun.
"You plan to make this bastard the next Demonic Faction Lord?"
"That's right. A direct disciple of the head of Mount Wudang, and a member of the Heaven-Defying Society."
Cheon Juchun nodded in satisfaction.
"Isn’t he the perfect person to disgrace that woman posing as Cult Leader?"
"……"
The young man’s identity was none other than Han Mubaek.
To lose the one you love and be forced to marry someone who’s practically your enemy…
Better to become a puppet — if one still had their sanity, even hell would seem preferable to that fate.
"Three years. If I can drag that damn woman’s life — my blood kin — into hell for three years and then throw her off, I won’t regret paying any price just to witness that moment."
Cheon Juchun mumbled to himself, grinning vacantly as if possessed.
"……"
Cheon Jumyeong looked at him with a cold, emotionless gaze.
Clap!
Snapping out of it, Cheon Juchun clapped his hands again.
"Alright, enough of the happy fantasy. To proceed with the plan, we first need to carefully analyze our enemies' movements."
He called out toward the outside.
"Great Commander of the Divine Ghost Unit."
"Yes, Master."
The current Great Commander of the Divine Ghost Unit — Cheon Hoyun, the ‘Traceless and Soulless’.
The head of the Cheon Clan’s intelligence group was serving none other than Cheon Juchun.
And he even addressed him with the highest honorific, ‘Master’.
"By now, the meeting at the Heavenly Demon Pavilion should be over. What was the result?"
Cheon Juchun was certain he’d receive an immediate answer.
However—
"Um, that is…"
"……?"
This or that, pick one.
A man normally known for being sharp and decisive — and yet now he was stammering?
"The Demonic Faction Lord and the King of Asura… have begun a duel."
“……What did you say just started?”
Everyone in the hall widened their eyes.
Thud–Crash!
A sound rang out that one couldn’t believe came from hitting a person, as Jin Gun-ak’s body was flung away in an arc.
It was a blow that even a seasoned master wouldn’t be able to endure… No, before even thinking of enduring it, the moment it landed, their head would’ve likely burst.
Yet despite taking such a blow, Jin Gun-ak...
“Mm, not bad.”
Even as he was flying through the air, he stroked his beard with a pleased look.
“To think you could master the Asura Spirit with that frail body. You really are my son.”
His Supreme Asura Spirit Fist was flawless.
The principle of One-Point Penetration was embedded properly, and its power was in no way inferior even when compared to that of a peak-level expert of the clan.
“Ah, but I shouldn’t be too happy about it.”
This was supposed to be a moment of discipline.
His firstborn had grown cocky and now treated his heavenly father’s words like dung.
‘I let you do everything you wanted, and now you climb all over me without end? That just won’t do, damn it!’
It was the exact moment that called for a loving beating.
“Hahaha!”
“What’s this? Excited, are we?”
Seeing his son rush toward him at high speed, the corner of Jin Gun-ak’s mouth twitched up slightly.
But that expression didn’t last long.
“Your form’s decent enough, but you’ve still got a long way to go!”
Flash!
As Jin Gun-ak began channeling his qi in earnest, the usual red aura around his body vanished, replaced by a brilliant golden light.
Asura Spirit – Second Stage
Diamond Body
If not for its ominous demonic nature, one might mistake that radiance for the supreme ability of Shaolin.
Boom!
A powerful strike landed on Jin Gun-ak’s abdomen, but—
With Diamond Body unleashed, he didn’t get flung away pathetically like before.
From that alone, I could sense that Jin Gun-ak had truly shifted gears.
‘Diamond Body! At that stage, even properly formed qi strikes barely work.’
Of course, with my current strength, I could break through Diamond Body.
Even if I just unleashed a Heaven-Piercing Annihilation with my bare hands, I could split that much apart easily.
But doing that wouldn’t be proper.
Flash!
If Jin Gun-ak used Diamond Body, then I would respond with Diamond Body as well.
“Huh? You little runt know how to use Diamond Body too?”
Jin Yeowoon, who had begun learning the Asura Spirit before me, was still stuck fumbling at the first stage, Blood Spirit.
“Alright then, let’s die together and see who survives!”
Fired up, Jin Gun-ak hurled his fist with full intent to blow his son’s head off.
This time, I took Jin Gun-ak’s counter directly in the face, my neck snapping violently.
Crack!
The sound of my spine twisting rang out vividly.
But something like that wasn’t enough to shake my will.
‘It’s intense, sure… but compared to Senior Brother Jin… it’s lacking!’
Back when I trained in the Asura Spirit under Jin Gwanchun, I learned firsthand what it meant to nearly die from being hit.
Compared to that time, this was nothing!
Of course, that didn’t mean I could overpower Jin Gun-ak with fists alone.
Crash!
This time, I couldn’t withstand Jin Gun-ak’s punch and got smashed into the cliff’s edge.
“To falter from this much—do you think you could possibly stand against the Cheon Clan?!”
Jin Gun-ak’s follow-up punches rained across my body without pause.
Crash crash crash crash!
With each heavy and dull blow, my body began to sink into the stone.
Even if we were both using Asura Spirit at the same level, the difference in physical class and skill was undeniable.
But—
I had my own tricks.
Grab! Grab!
I read the trajectory of Jin Gun-ak’s punches and latched onto his fists.
“Oh? Trying to go for a power struggle now?”
“Not exactly…”
I forced a smile through the throbbing pain racking my entire body.
“It just feels like I can’t win like this.”
Whoosh!
The golden stream of aura that had been flowing from Diamond Body suddenly began turning black.
“Wha—?!”
The moment he saw that black light, Jin Gun-ak was genuinely flustered.
Reaching the first stage, Blood Spirit, had been impressive in itself.
But reaching this stage, Diamond Body, was already astonishing.
What was happening before my eyes now was absolutely not a realm one could attain at this age.
"...How?"
Asura Spirit was a technique entirely separate from one’s base cultivation.
Of course, to a certain degree, it was proportionate to the current level, but this in front of me wasn’t something that could be achieved through training alone.
Asura Spirit – Third Stage
Demonic Heaven Body
Creak! Crack!
My entire skin began to turn black.
In truth, Demonic Heaven Body had a terrifying weakness — if the process failed, one would die instantly.
Naturally, since Demonic Heaven Body was the realm of true Unity of Body and Qi, where every cell in the body became imbued with the demonic energy of the Asura Spirit and even the soul fused into one.
If the unification failed, paying the price was inevitable!
That’s why Jin Gun-ak, knowing the danger, couldn’t help but show visible unrest.
I didn’t miss that opening and immediately shook Jin Gun-ak off.
Thud!
Swept back by the shockwave of the qi explosion, Jin Gun-ak spoke in a hollow voice.
"I knew you’d lost your sense of fear, but I didn’t expect my son to be such a lunatic."
"……."
"Demonic Heaven Body, huh… Just to attain it, I had to fast and cleanse for thirty-three days, mobilize every elder in the household, and even prepare the inner core of a Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Fire Pear."
Of course, I hadn’t attained Demonic Heaven Body through proper means either.
I had pierced through it using a shortcut Jin Gwanchun had taught me.
If Jin Gun-ak brought out Demonic Heaven Body, then this time I’d truly be overwhelmed for sure.
But then—
"Hmph! That’s enough for me."
Suddenly, Jin Gun-ak withdrew his aura.
"Father…"
"Go."
"……."
"Reaching this level, you won’t die from some random blade. Whether you storm the Cheon Clan alone and die or not, do as you please."
Jin Gun-ak turned his body with a grumble.
It was hard to tell if he was telling me to live or die, but I could sense a certain warmth in those words, the kind only a worried father could convey.
I didn’t lower my head solemnly…
"……."
But then—why was there black qi swirling around the man who had turned his back, telling me to go?
And it looked exactly like mine, the aura of Demonic Heaven Body.
As expected—
"Did you really think it would end thereaaahhh!"
Jin Gun-ak spun around like lightning and smashed me in the face.
Kwaaang!
"Hahaha! Demonic Heaven Body, huh?! To think there would be two of us in one generation who achieved it!"
Honestly, I’d been shocked when I first saw Demonic Heaven Body.
But the truth was, Jin Gun-ak wasn’t the type to care much about how something was achieved.
Regardless of the reason, there was now an opponent in front of him who wouldn’t break even if he threw his full strength at them!
Since achieving Demonic Heaven Body, Jin Gun-ak hadn’t even gotten a scratch on his body unless it was against the Sword Demon or the Saber Demon.
But now he felt pain!
Thrilled beyond belief, Jin Gun-ak lunged at me with wide eyes, nearly flipped in excitement.
"Let’s go all the way then, you damned eldest son!"
"I knew it! You damned old man!"
I, too, had reached the limits of my patience and dropped the honorifics.
Crash crash crash crash crash crash!!
Just when it looked like they might stop, the two father and son clashed once more.
"……."
"……."
With the thunderous noise pounding the eardrums, the Saber Demon finally clicked his tongue as he raised a sound barrier.
"Really… Watching this, I’m reminded again how I kept forgetting that brat was from the Demonic Heaven’s Jin Clan."
It was the first time since the duel began that Sa Myeongnin opened her mouth.
"Shouldn’t we stop them? At this rate, someone’s seriously going to end up a corpse."
"Stop them? How? They’d ignore a river blast and keep fighting. Try to stop them half-heartedly, and you’ll end up getting trampled to death. Can you handle that?"
"……."
Imagining the Saber Demon’s words, Sa Myeongnin quietly shut her mouth again.
Honestly, even if one blasted a Heavenly Demonic Inferno Palm in there, it didn’t seem like they’d take much damage.
She was a wise woman who knew when to remain silent.
And so, the father and son’s fistfight continued long after the sun had set.