Chapter 497.11 – Side Story 3 Part 4

The Flame Mountain (4)

-Sizzle!

Heavenly Demon nonchalantly held Iron Fan Immortal’s burning wrist.

Feeling her pride wounded, Iron Fan Immortal tried to increase the heat even further, forcing him to release her grip.

The intense heat caused the stone throne and surrounding area to melt, prompting nearby lesser demons to retreat in panic.

Yet Heavenly Demon remained impassive, seemingly unaffected by the heat.

‘What in the world is this guy?’

Taken aback by his unexpected reaction, Iron Fan Immortal stared at Heavenly Demon as he spoke.

“Are you Hong Hae-a’s mother?”

“Who in the world are you? Why are you looking for my child?”

Like any parent, she fiercely loved her child. So when Heavenly Demon mentioned Hong Hae-a, her face contorted into a fierce expression befitting a rakshasa woman.

Of course, Heavenly Demon paid no heed to this.

“Where is Hong Hae-a?”

“You bastard!”

Iron Fan Immortal’s anger flared at Heavenly Demon’s arrogant attitude, completely ignoring her question and only demanding Hong Hae-a’s whereabouts.

She no longer held back, unleashing her true power.

“I’ll kill you.”

“Boom!”

As soon as she spoke, something erupted from the heated floor.

It was lava.

The lava, bursting forth over ten jang wide, engulfed them instantly, then pierced through the great hall’s ceiling and even the cave of Plantain Leaf Peak as it surged upwards.

“Boom boom boom boom!”

“This is bad!”

“Iron Fan Immortal has finally gone berserk!”

“Everyone evacuate the hall!”

The lesser demons fled the hall in panicked retreat at this sight.

Once Iron Fan Immortal, a Great Spirit Beast on par with the Six Demons, went berserk, the collapse of the hall and cave was practically inevitable.

A simple collapse wouldn’t be a major issue for the high-ranking lesser demons. But if she went berserk, the surrounding area would be consumed by lava.

However,

“Whoosh!”

“!?”

The fleeing lesser demons stopped dead in their tracks.

The lava, which they thought would surely consume the entire hall, began to recede. Then, as the lava subsided, two figures emerged from the smoke: Heavenly Demon and Iron Fan Immortal.

But the lesser demons could only stare in bewilderment.

For Iron Fan Immortal was kneeling, her captured wrist bent at a painful angle.

“Aaaargh!”

“Ugh!”

Black veins, like tree roots, spread from her hand, which had been glowing crimson due to the demonic energy’s invasion.

It wasn’t just demonic energy that had invaded her internally.

A blade-like sword energy was severing her nerves, causing pain so excruciating that even Iron Fan Immortal, who had lived for thousands of years, could barely endure it.

Seeing her convulse as if electrocuted, some lesser demons couldn’t stand idly by and tried to rush in.

“Iron Fan Immortal!”

“Let go of her hand!”

But Iron Fan Immortal gestured for them to stand back, forcing them to halt mid-stride.

“How!”

Iron Fan Immortal shook her head in pain at their anxious gazes.

‘No.’

If they had rushed in out of loyalty, they would have been instantly annihilated by this man’s hand.

Convulsing from the demonic and sword energies invading her body, she looked up at Heavenly Demon.

His eyes remained utterly indifferent.

“Gasp!”

That only increased her terror.

Just who in the world is this guy?

No matter how she looked at him, he wasn’t one of their kind.

‘But he’s far too powerful.’

As someone who had directly encountered the ancient immortals long ago, she knew most beings, but she had never seen such power.

Even her husband couldn’t easily subdue her when she went berserk without transforming into her true form or using the Great Demon-Subduing Treasure, the Plantain Leaf Fan. Yet this man effortlessly suppressed her.

He didn’t even seem to be using his full strength.

‘It’s like… looking at that stone monkey bastard.’

Overwhelming strength.

She had felt that same overwhelming strength from the Stone Monkey Sun Wukong.

A monster that even the Great Strength King, considered the strongest of the Six Demons, couldn’t handle.

A being born from the convergence of all the energies of heaven and earth.

Though the nature of their power differed, this was the first time since then that she had felt such pressure from another being.

“Haa… haa… Just who are you? I’ve never heard of a being like you in thousands of years…”

For a moment, their eyes met.

In that instant, something pierced her mind, and she saw a vast avatar of black flames before her eyes.

Her entire body trembled at the sight of dark flames deeper than the abyss.

What in the world is this?

How can something like this exist within a human form?

“I am Heavenly Demon. I rule over all ten thousand demons, and I am the black flames darker than the abyss.”

“You… just what are you?”

“This is my final act of mercy. If you bring Hong Hae-a and hand over what is mine, I’ll spare your life and your child’s.”

‘!?’

What does he want Hong Hae-a to hand over?

Could he be talking about Him who was said to be sealed by the killing stone?

Then does this guy have some connection to the White-Faced King?

“You. What’s your relationship with the White-Faced King?”

“You have no right to question me. If you don’t accept the mercy offered, you’ll only suffer the consequences.”

“Shut up! Who are you to tell me and my child what to do with Him?”

Heavenly Demon’s eyes turned cold at her outburst.

He had tried to instill fear with overwhelming pressure, but befitting someone who had lived for thousands of years, she possessed strong resolve. Moreover, perhaps due to her maternal love for her child, she fiercely resisted instead.

Though his child wasn’t born yet, Heavenly Demon could somewhat understand her emotional turmoil as a parent with a child.

But then, her entire body, except for the wrist directly invaded by his demonic energy, began to glow crimson as heat surged.

“Sizzle!”

“Neither He nor my child can be touched!”

“Snap!”

With that cry, Iron Fan Immortal grabbed Heavenly Demon’s legs and clung to him tightly.

‘!?’

It wasn’t just heat that was surging rapidly.

It was demonic power.

The fact that it was rising even higher than her original demonic power meant she was converting all of her life force into demonic power.

“Iron Fan Immortal, you can’t!”

Realizing Iron Fan Immortal was attempting a mutual destruction technique, one of the Three Heroes, the gray-haired spirit king Ash-Faced Demon, flew towards her to try and stop her.

“Whoosh!”

“Ah?”

But before he could approach, a curtain of red heat blocked him, preventing him from getting closer.

This was a wall created by Iron Fan Immortal.

Unlike when she went berserk, she was now focused solely on killing her opponent, so she made this choice to protect her subordinate lesser demons.

Of course, this was also to concentrate all the heat in one place to double its power.

Iron Fan Immortal spoke with a determined voice:

“Let’s die together in heat hotter than lava.”

“A sacrifice for your kin?”

“Even if the Heavenly Emperor came, he couldn’t touch my child.”

“Crack!”

Her skin, transformed like lava, split open, and red light poured out.

It looked like it would burst at any moment.

But then,

“Snap!”

Heavenly Demon grabbed Iron Fan Immortal’s face with his palm as she clung to his legs.

Iron Fan Immortal sneered and shouted:

“It’s useless. This is heat from burning all of my demonic power. No one can extinguish—”

“Whoosh!”

Before she could finish, the blazing heat from her surging demonic power began to be rapidly absorbed into Heavenly Demon’s palm.

‘No!’

Just as she was about to explode, the heat rapidly drained away, and she couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

“No! Nooooo!”

Sensing something was wrong, she tried to force herself to explode in this state.

However,

“Whoosh!”

At that moment, her brain was severely shaken by the vibrations through Heavenly Demon’s palm, and she lost consciousness.

Seizing the opportunity, Heavenly Demon absorbed all the heat from her body.

The absorbed heat was truly beyond imagination.

‘Hot.’

Since this wasn’t heat that could be converted into energy within the body,

“Snap!”

He raised his hand and released all the heat.

“Boom!”

The lava-like heat erupting from Heavenly Demon’s hand pierced through Plantain Leaf Peak, even destroying Cuiyun Mountain as it soared high into the sky.

Cheong-ryeong, watching from a mountaintop near Cuiyun Mountain, smirked.

‘So much for ending it quietly.’

“Boom boom boom boom!”

Seeing that red pillar of heat soaring into the sky after smashing a whole mountain, it seemed he was really making a mess.

He had some idea since she was said to be a Great Spirit Beast on par with the Six Demons.

That it wouldn’t end quietly, that is.

It wasn’t long before Iron Fan Immortal regained consciousness.

Having used up all her demonic power, her hair had turned white, and her face was haggard, as if weathered by time.

Of course, even so, she still looked like a noble lady.

But exhausted beyond measure, she was lost in a daze, staring at the sky visible through the gaping hole.

The hole was so large, spanning dozens of jang, that it was embarrassing to even call it a mountain anymore.

‘Ah…’

But more than this, what truly disheartened her was Heavenly Demon’s appearance.

She had tried to cause mutual destruction by exploding thousands of years’ worth of accumulated demonic power, but she hadn’t even singed a hair on his head, let alone his clothes.

‘This… is a being that even He couldn’t handle if he came.’

Iron Fan Immortal had immense pride in her husband.

Wasn’t he the one whom even the ancient immortals couldn’t defeat and had to join forces to seal?

But this man’s strength was truly transcendental.

Even if her husband transformed into his true form and used the Great Demon-Subduing Treasure, the Plantain Leaf Fan, could he really handle this monster?

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t picture such a scenario.

But still,

“What wife, what mother would sell out her husband and child? Just… kill me instead.”

She had no intention of surrendering.

She was simply more worried about them facing this monster than she feared death.

“Step step!”

As Heavenly Demon approached, she took a deep breath, exhaled, and closed her eyes, resigned to death.

Then Heavenly Demon’s hand touched her head.

Is this how I’ll be annihilated?

But then,

“You keep your mouth shut well. I’ll acknowledge that maternal love.”

At these words from Heavenly Demon, she didn’t budge.

She thought there was no way someone targeting her child would show mercy like this.

So she responded firmly.

“Then kill me without dishonoring me.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“What?”

She frowned and opened her eyes.

Heavenly Demon bent down and whispered in her ear.

“As it happens, there are many vacancies for spirit servants.”

‘!?’

What is this bastard saying now?

Spirit servants?

Is he talking about how diviners and Taoists form connections with and control our kind?

Is he saying he’ll do to me what only lower-ranking demons suffer?

Realizing this, her eyes widened in shock, but Heavenly Demon formed a hand seal with his left hand and said with a smile full of malice:

“Let’s see how well Hong Hae-a listens to her mother.”