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Even with the keen senses of the Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art, I couldn’t find the source of the voice coming from within the Gate.

-<You don't need to find me.>-

After that, the air around me became heavy and pressed me down.

“Gasp!”

[Such power! It feels like even my disembodied soul is being restrained. It's been a while since I've felt my blood boil like this.]

Blood boiling without a body?!

The energy was strong enough to bring out the Heavenly Demon’s stubbornness.

The Heavenly Demon's Origin Art also began to seethe, as if it had encountered a formidable foe it hadn't seen in ages.

I managed to quell it by exerting my inner strength.

After a while, space shuddered, and the energy around me began to collect in one place.

Chiyiyiik-

“!!!”

[Ha!]

Space was divided, or more accurately, torn apart, and a man with a familiar face stepped through.

[That guy?]

The Heavenly Demon seemed to recognize him at once.

When he fully appeared, the pressure around me disappeared.

I didn't miss that moment.

“Demonic Demon Skywrecker!”

[Hey, you madman! What are you doing?]

The Heavenly Demon shouted, astonished, but I had already started the form.

Due to the lack of time, I couldn’t form the complete Strong Energy, but I thought it was powerful enough.

The faint energy flew toward the man's waist.

Sgung-

Cutting him in two with one stroke. The man's upper and lower bodies were cleanly separated.

“Fighting is all about the first move!”

[You crazy bastard. I have nothing to say about that.]

Even though I said that, I wasn’t sure I had killed him with the Demonic Demon Skywrecker.

There was no way a guy with such tremendous energy could lose this quickly.

My prediction wasn’t wrong.

-<Hehehe, your temper is no different from that of the Demon God.>-

The man's torso floated into the air.

[This is a terrible sight. Ordinary people would vomit at this, not over a few insects.]

'It's case by case.'

As the Heavenly Demon had said, the man’s appearance was terrifying.

Blood and intestines flowed under his severed stomach.

-<Did you want to cook an intestine soup?>-

I didn't think it was a proper thing to say, given he was just a floating torso.

I couldn't feel the enormous energy that rang through the Gate earlier with his voice, but his presence still weighed down the air around me with gloomy energy.

“Are you saying that as a joke, Choi Yooseong! No, only the shell must be Choi Yooseong.”

Although his appearance had changed a lot, he was Choi Yooseong, whom I once met at the Gate in Gangnam Station.

He appeared before me again.

-<Hehehe, I just borrowed his body for a while. This is still not a place where my actual body can appear directly.>-

“Really? It means you can someday.”

He went silent for a while.

I was still preparing to connect the following form.

-<Hmm. Anyway, I didn't come to fight you, so please put down that bizarre weapon for now.>-

He confirmed what I had suspected the moment he appeared and lost his power.

"It's not that you don't want to fight; it's that you can't—not yet."

The corners of Choi Yooseong’s mouth went up.

"You’re pretty quick."

“Why did you show up?”

-<I just wanted to check your face since you have the power of the Demon God.>-

“Let me ask you one question then. I know you won't answer me, though."

-<Huhu. I can't answer you, but I'll listen.>-

This guy had a warped sense of humor.

“Are you the Gate Manager?”

-<Hoo!>-

He looked interested in my question.

-<I don’t think I need to answer you. Hehehe. As expected, I can't stay with you for long. My business here is over.>-

I didn't expect it, but his response was more than enough to answer my question.

“You stopped by just to see my face?”

-<Consider that a yes.>-

He turned around as if he had really finished his business.

-<Oh, but before I go.>-

He stopped.

-<That Demon God power you have.>-

“What about it?”

-<Hehehe. You will have to develop that power a lot.>-

“Should I take that as advice?”

-<Advice? It could be. Anyway, I hate to be bored. I’ll look forward to it. With that in mind, I will give you a gift.>-

“A gift?”

-<Hehehe, you’ll know when you see it.>-

After saying that, he tore the space apart again and disappeared.

"Hey, you have to take the legs too."

There was no answer. He seemed to have already left.

[It seems those legs are the gift.]

“Oh, no way.”

At that moment, space split again, and a vast hand dragged the legs away.

"..."

[…]

“See? It isn’t.”

[By the way, did you see it?]

“Of course.”

The back of Choi Yooseong's hand also had the mark of the old Wu-Tang Clan.

“What is the relationship between that Japanese hunter, Choi Yooseong, and the Gate Manager? And even the Phoenix Guild...”

[Isn't that something you should find out?]

The more I dug into the Phoenix Guild, the more complicated it became. This wasn’t good.

[Anyway, why did you do that earlier?]

He seemed to be referring to my sudden attack.

“I didn’t think he would die from something like that.”

His energy was intense, but not to the point where I couldn't stand it.

Still, I couldn't guarantee what would have happened if I fought him.

Given that, I thought it would be better to fight from an advantageous position by landing the first strike.

[Your thinking isn't wrong, but consider things further before you attack.]

The Heavenly Demon nagged me for a while, saying I had become arrogant after reaching the state of Harmony.

He said that such arrogance would never help in my future martial arts training.

"Alright. I will be more careful from now on, but why couldn't I hit him with the Demon Dragon Skywrecker?"

[Maybe it's because it wasn’t his actual body.]

“Still, it’s strange.”

It was strange, but it wasn't that there were no results at all.

I found out he still couldn't use his strength correctly in this place and that Choi Yooseong's guild was related to the Gate Manager.

“The feeling when I used the Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art to resist his energy was different from the usual.”

[Hmm, given that he knows about the Demon God, couldn't his energy be related to the Demon God's record left at the main school?]

“Which is?”

[According to the school's records, the Heavenly Demon Mind Moves, the predecessor of Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art, are said to be the methods the Demon God directly passed on. This happened after the Demon God struggled with the wicked youkai.]

“Well, it’s difficult, but I can understand.”

According to the Heavenly Demon, the monsters that had disturbed the Martial World in the past were the same as the monsters coming out of the Gates.

It seemed that the Gate Managers, these beings, had attempted to invade his world by sending monsters. The thing that had stopped it was the existence of a Demon God. Perhaps the Demon God and the wicked beings were incompatible.

Therefore, the Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art had reacted to the Gate Manager’s powerful and incompatible energy.

“I want to know more about that Demon God.”

[It was long ago, so there are no detailed records. There are only scenes drawn with the youkai and descriptions of battles. Other than that, it's what I've already told you.]

“Then there is nothing I can do. I have spent too much time here, so I have to leave quickly. I need to get rid of all the Angel Dust that remains here.”

[That should be delayed a bit. It looks like his gift will arrive soon.]

"Damn it. He doesn't give me a break."

I sensed the appearance of a huge number of monsters as a hole appeared in the sky.

"This is the first time I've seen a portal created inside a Gate."

[It is the same shape as the ones recorded in the old history books in my religion.]

Countless monsters started pouring out of the portal like rain.

“Those who appear like this don’t even give me experience points, and he calls this a gift….?”

Finally, the monsters landed and revealed themselves.

There were different types, from Goblins to Skeletons, but all of them were the monsters that appeared after the First Cataclysm.

[With this much, I should say it’s a complete gift set. There are so many of them. It might be difficult to wipe them all out at once.]

“I should enjoy the gift.”

Instead of the fake Demonic Dragon Blade, I took out the Bone Club.

[Aren’t you just looking for that satisfying feeling?]

“I just brought out a weapon with better attack power.”

[So why are you smiling?]

***

In an unknown dark space, two mysterious men wearing robes watched the situation inside the Gate play out through a crystal ball.

In the crystal ball, Lee Byeong-gi battled against countless monsters.

His body literally flashed here and there, and whenever he moved, the monsters were scattered.

“I wish we could take this opportunity to kill him. It’s a pity that we can’t call a higher-level to summon.”

“I couldn’t help it because I didn’t have enough negative energy.”

“Come to think of it, he wasn’t greatly disturbed by the appearance of the Undead, right?”

"Yeah. If it had been a regular mortal, they would've released negative energy to turn the hunters into undead, but this mortal just cut them down..."

One of the mysterious men tilted his head and watched Lee Byeong-gi in the crystal ball for a while.

"He's definitely an odd one. That combat skill is also from the Demon God.”

“The technique he attacked me with was the same.”

"Hmm… By the way, that mortal’s expression is strange. He seems to be enjoying this.”

“I've seen him act that way before, especially when he was wielding that peculiar weapon. I wonder if the system malfunctioned with that weapon.”

“Possibly. By the way, wasn’t he carrying the weapon of the Ancient Demon God when you went?”

“It was just the same shape, it wasn’t authentic.”

"That’s a relief. If that mortal obtains that weapon as well, it will create setbacks to our plan."

"Even with the strength of my body, I can't be sure who would win if we fought, but if he had the weapon of the Demon God..."

“Actually, his attack dealt major damage to this Mortal's Life Vessel. We have to find that weapon first somehow.”

“If we find Wei Jicheon, we might be able to find it.”

“Well, there are more and more things to do.”

“By the way, how about the support you mentioned last time?”

“They agreed to cooperate as soon as the work in that dimension is finished. Soon, we will be able to increase the number of Gates.”

"Alright. And the system must have sensed some of my power as I passed through the Gate this time. I don't know what the system will do with this.”

“It was an unavoidable decision to see how much of the Demon’s God power he possessed. You had to go and fix the Gate yourself.”

“Do you intend to use this data to create the next Gate?”

“It is impossible now, only for the Third Erosion. I'll have to raise it higher, though. Until then, we need to gather negative energy from the mortals.”

"Alright."

“By the way, how long will you stay like that?”

“Oh, sorry. I will also restore this mortal to its original state.”

“It is a mortal that will be useful in the future. With that form, you will be subject to restrictions on your activities.”

"Alright, I know. I'll be leaving.”

One of them lowered his head and disappeared into the darkness, dragging his severed legs.

"..."

The other mysterious man turned his eyes back to the crystal ball.

In the hazy image, Lee Byeong-gi drove the Skeletons back and smashed them.

The crystal ball recorded all of Lee Byeong-gi's performance and measured his strength.

“Did he leave the Skeletons for last on purpose?”

The mysterious man watched Lee Byeong-gi's battle until it ended.

“That expression is unpleasant. It's like looking at the face of the Demon God.”