Chapter 280: The Last Vote (1)

Inevitably, the Demonic Heaven Arts were demonic arts.

Clang!

Murim Alliance Leader Namgung Woon had mocked us, calling us flower sellers. Teacher hadn’t refuted him. Now, the Viper, claiming to be the heir of the Righteous Faction, mocked me the same way, but I didn’t refute him either.

It was fine. I just laughed.

Clang!

Those who blindly swung their swords were merely beginners who had just started walking down their respective paths. Those who practiced their swordsmanship to learn more were intermediates, while those who knowingly used their swords were experts. We all knew this.

Clang!

Despite the hardships of daily life, many people carried yesterday’s pain and today’s fatigue day after day, still managing to find small moments of happiness amid their struggles. We all knew this.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Clang!

They sometimes said that they wanted to die, but their desire to die hadn’t yet led them to carry out that wish. Though they would cry out in pain, their voices hadn’t reached the point of screaming yet. Their moments of happiness lasted only an hour, half a day, or a day. Still, many people lived such lives. We all knew this.

Clang!

The Demonic Heaven couldn’t embrace those brief moments of joy, those small, beautiful flowers. It was too busy to embrace the people of the red dust[1] despite the wish to love, comfort, and kiss them.

Clang!

There were still too many people who screamed.

Clang!

There were still too many people who gazed up at the sky with resentment as they bled out.

Clang!

There were still people who starved to death, died of thirst, drowned in the depths of the sea, froze to death in the harsh winds and snow due to the lack of shelter, perished from poison before they could even leave behind a will, succumbed to disease, beaten to death, burned to death, or who took their own lives.

Clang!

There were many such people.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

“Yes! There are so many! So, so many! Look, Sect Master! You still have one eye left, so look! Do you really think that you can silence these countless screams with the happiness you brought?”

Demonic Heaven Arts.

Fourth Form:

Freezing Death.

The Viper barely managed to block my sword swing. However, that wasn’t it. Not only did I use Idol, but Sympathy, Prayer, Sacrifice, and Salvation flew around in all directions, releasing their shadows.

Whoosh! Swish!

Every time the Viper showed an opening, the demonic swords would turn around and rush in to strike.

“

Ah

, what, the, fuck!”

Clang!

With a movement that seemed almost divine, the Viper kicked away Sympathy, who had been aiming for his nape. However, the movement wasn’t perfect. The sword grazed his neck, and blood gushed out.

“

Huh, hufff, hah. Haaaaaah. Huff, huff, huff, huff!

”

The Viper staggered, but even as he did, he held his sword tightly in both hands. He was already covered in wounds. With his never-ending talk, he pretended like he was fine, but no part of him was unscathed. If not for his superhuman will, he would have collapsed twice by now.

So I laughed. “

Ha

, Sect Master. You can’t defeat me like that. Don’t you get it? Even if you fight me for a hundred or a thousand years, you’ll never be able to defeat the Demonic Heaven.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“You dared to recite the words from the Great War of Good and Evil and call me Heavenly Demon against my will. The war already ended with the Demonic Heaven’s victory, but you disrespectfully claimed that the war isn’t over and challenged me again. Yet this is all you got? I was hoping you would display martial arts skills that would captivate me, even if you don’t end up tearing the heavens apart.”

“I...”

The Viper was breathing heavily. The wounds and blood loss had drained his strength, so his words became faint.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m already...”

“What are you saying?”

“Working.” The Viper stood up straight, grabbing his sword hilt tightly with both hands. He looked up, his eye burning brightly. “I’m working right now, you Second Heavenly Demon bastard.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Working?”

“Work is also a form of karma.[2] It’s fate that weighs down your entire life. You wonder how you ended up here, but it’s a burden that will cling to you regardless. There are so many jobs in this world, and each job carries its own fucking karma. Kim Gong-Ja.”

“Yes.”

“What do you think my job is?”

I frowned. “Your job is being the OJP Sect Master.”

“That’s right, but that’s more like a side job. You’re the assistant leader to all the Five Guilds, but your real job is being the Heavenly Demon. Or being the patriarch of the Death King Clan or whatever you call yourself, right? I... also got a new job recently. Do you know what it is? It has to do with stopping you.”

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what he was saying. “What?”

“To endure you, Heavenly Demon. This is the work I have chosen to do.”

The Viper took a stance, holding up his sword. No part of his body was okay—his ankles, thighs, waist, back, and neck were all wounded. However, the way the Viper stood on both legs was solid, and he confidently held his sword with both hands.

“How is it? Doesn’t it sound fun?”

The smile he wore was also composed.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re right, Kim Gong-Ja. There is too much sorrow in this world, so countless screams go unheard. As long as those echo, the sky will remain a faded Demonic Heaven. Under that Demonic Heaven, you’ll continue to swing your sword and be the Heavenly Demon. But... “

The dirt crumbled under his feet. Suddenly, the Viper lunged at me.

Clang!

I used Sacrifice to block the Viper’s advance. Even though Sacrifice was still a demonic sword that was made from shadow and not metal, the metallic clangs rang out sharply when the two weapons clashed.

The Viper continued to strike. “Yes! People starved to death, I’m aware of that! There are a ton of people who die for freakingly unfair reasons! It’s sometimes so sad that it makes us tear up! But you know what, Kim Gong-Ja? No matter how many tragic deaths occurred last night, we still have to carry on our lives and work! Do you know that?”

I brought in another demonic sword.

Demonic Heaven Arts.

Fifth Form:

Poisoning Death.

Prayer quickly aimed to strike for the Viper’s vulnerable side. Blood gushed from the back of the Viper’s right hand. He groaned and spat out a curse, but his grip on the sword didn’t budge one bit.

He continued swinging his sword with his injured hand as he shouted, “We can’t just keep crying! The weight of everyday life is heavy! It’s so heavy that sometimes it’s suffocating! Even before we start working, our hearts pound with worry as we ask ourselves whether we can get through the day. And even after we finish work, we’re weighed down by thoughts of tomorrow’s tasks! Do you know that our hearts feel crushed and beaten down every single day? It’s really damn hard to spare some of our hearts to cry for you all!”

Clang!

“I’m sorry!”

Clang!

“I’m sorry for being born into this world, where I have to work to barely make the damn ends meet! Demon, I’m sorry! I really am!”

Clang!

“So, let us say we’re sorry!”

Clang!

“How long should we keep apologizing? Until the day when no one cries out for someone else starving to death? Would that be enough? Should we cast off this karma weighing us down, abandon our lives, and join your Demonic Heaven? Should we follow the doctrines and devote our lives until no grassroots die of hunger?

“It’s hard. We just don’t have the capacity or courage. Right now, the only thing that brings food to our table is this hammer in our hands. We’ve only just gotten used to hammering to scrape by barely. This is all we’ve learned, how to steal from the world... We can’t just throw it away to rush toward where we can hear your screams. Every day is filthy, Heavenly Demon. It’s so filthy and exhausting.”

The Viper swung his sword.

Clang!

“I once lived on a farmer’s land and helped with the farm work. Autumn came, and every grain of wheat was golden. It was the season when the golden wheat fields seemed to wave from afar, but then we heard that a typhoon was coming.”

Clang!

“We prepared for it as best as we could, but there was nothing we could do. We gave up on the wheat that the typhoon swept away. After barely managing to save a few bundles of straw, we threw them into the warehouse. Those few bundles of straw were all the farmer’s family had to survive for the next year. The farmer awkwardly smiled, saying it was fortunate that we managed to at least save that much. Then, we heard the news from the neighboring village: an old couple couldn’t escape in time. The typhoon had swept through their house and the roof had collapsed, crushing them to death.”

Clang!

“It’s sad.”

Clang!

“There are people who die unfairly, how can they not? If we can help, we go ahead and offer help. Sometimes we cry, but...”

Clang!

“We still have to work the next day.”

Clang!

“We go out to the blacksmith shops, the fields, the bank, or the mines, doing what we did yesterday. We’ll do the same tomorrow. It’s difficult, but we connect yesterday, today, and tomorrow. As we fear when tomorrow will end, we devote ourselves to this work.”

Finally, the gap between us widened. The Viper backed away and avoided my strike. I didn’t chase after him, instead choosing to allow the newly found distance between us.

Many people were watching our fight—the Black Witch, the Sword Star, the Inquisitor, the Countess, and the Paladin. The Bloodborns, Purens, Shellmounts, Sylvans, and Fingills had followed their parents and gathered around. Estelle, Uburka, and the cultists were also here.

Everyone who had spread throughout the jungle to enjoy the festival had fallen silent as they watched the duel between me and the Viper. Their silence felt heavier than the stillness of the forest.

The Viper breathed so heavily that he struggled to pronounce my name. After several gasps, he finally managed to say it correctly. “Kim Gong-Ja... Heavenly Demon, your presence threatens us.”

I tightened my grip on the holy sword hilt. “Is that so?”

“Yes, we... don’t even have enough tears to shed for ourselves because life is hard. Many of us have never cried for ourselves. We don’t die even though we want to, and we can’t cry even when we want to. There is no reason for that except to survive.

“But... because of you, we have to shed tears for strangers we don’t even know. It’s noble. At first, this nobleness may make us feel good. It’s a tragedy that could happen to anyone, even us, since we’re all people. But we can’t cry forever.”

So many people....

“Because we still have to work. We drink to catch our breath, play go, dance, step out for a walk, and smile at the sight of the season ripening... That is the happiness that we are allowed. We barely managed to gather enough to survive. That happiness is so precious.”

The Viper pointed his sword at me.

“Don’t ruin that happiness. When you approach, the world falls into chaos, Heavenly Demon.”

I fell silent. So this was how the Demonic Heaven could fall into deviation. When the Demonic Heaven saw people ignoring the deaths around them, their blood boiled. Witnessing others simply passing by someone’s death sharpened the Demonic Heaven’s fangs.

When people died unnoticed because witnesses chose to look the other way and made excuses about their ignorance, only to later sympathize by asking if something so tragic really happened, the Demonic Heaven saw red. Though they knew that the people were just ordinary, the desire to kill them all surged within the Demonic Heaven.

There was a time when Teacher fell into qi deviation. During that time, Teacher had broken into a bright smile and killed everyone in front of her.

“You must be the Righteous Path followers sent here to assassinate me. Good. Come at me. Let us cross blades.”

The Demonic Heaven Arts were the demonic arts from the inside out. Those who ignored screams would become bystanders, and those who didn’t save someone from dying were neglecters. No one was truly innocent of the screams and deaths in this world. Therefore, there existed a constant danger that the arts could be used to massacre the entirety of humanity.

“Still,” I said, “I can’t stop. No, I

won’t

stop. If there’s a scream that no one remembers, I will collect it and tell those who didn’t hear it about it.”

“Is it so they would feel guilty?” the Viper asked.

“No, but to tell them to look at the world,” I replied. “This is reality.”

The four swords of shadow—Salvation, Sacrifice, Prayer, and Sympathy—surrounded me to protect me.

“So, please come up to the Tower with me.”

Estelle, my clan advisor, stood behind me. Chief Warrior Uburka stood aside, his arms crossed, while the clan shadow, Kim Yul, leaned against a tree. The cultists were also all lined up in formation, concealed in the jungle’s shadows.

The Viper smirked. “I’ll be your watcher, Heavenly Demon. When your Demonic Heaven becomes too vast to caress small petals, I’ll stop you and show you that there are flowers you overlooked. Whenever you raise your sword and scream into this world, I’ll judge and advise you. Will the people who live be able to endure that scream? Life already crushes and burdens their lives, so will your scream crush their lives even further? Should you raise the sword of the Demonic Heaven? I will judge and advise on all of these questions.”

The Viper.

“I’ll always be by your side and work as a representative of ordinary people. I may not be the protagonist, nor a supporting character, but if the day comes when you fall into aura deviation and stain the world red...”

The OJP Sect Master.

“I’ll cut off your head right away.”

Rao Fan.

“Only then will I be able to defeat you. Do you understand? There is no need to rush in life. Until you are defeated, until your Demonic Heaven consumes you, I just have to watch over you.” He laughed. “Kim Gong-Ja, I will take you as my karma.”

The last follower of the Righteous Path that the snowfield left behind now pointed his sword at me.

“You can test me all you want to see if I’m worthy.”

1. The raw is 홍진(紅塵). It’s a literary term for a secular world. ☜

2. The pronunciation of 직

업

(work/job) is similar to 업(Karma). ☜