Chapter 104: Heavenly Demon Tomb

“The Heavenly Demon Supreme… What happened to the Heavenly Demon Supreme?”

“After coming out to see the world after a long time, he got tired, and is just resting now,”

“Is that really true!?”

“I don’t lie with my mouth,”

Qing stated proudly, puffing out her chest slightly.

Which was, technically, true. Qing was only ever honest verbally.

Deception and outright lying weren’t quite the same thing, were they?

She’d never explicitly denied being the cripple who caused all that trouble earlier.

Ji Seungju didn’t bother hiding his suspicion.

From slaughtering assassins to faking a crippling injury (which, to Ji Seungju, had looked entirely real), this woman was fundamentally untrustworthy.

Besides, hadn’t the Heavenly Demon Supreme been cursing this specific girl while acting completely bizarre earlier? It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was pulling the strings.

“Do you have any proof?”

“Ho ho,” Qing chuckled, adopting a faux-regal tone. “Your gaze is quite unpleasant, little one. Do you dare doubt the great Ximen Qing, who now hosts the living incarnation of Ahua Mazda?”

“It’s Ahura Mazda,”

“Eh, close enough. Anyway, proof? Right. Just a sec… Hmm. Uh-huh. Yes. Okay. I’ll do that.”

Qing muttered vaguely, nodding,

As if receiving instructions from someone inside her head.

Ji Seungju hesitated, wavering between suspicion and confusion.

“Alright, listen up!” Qing announced, abruptly snapping back to focus. “These are the words of your Supreme!”

She opened her palm, and the Heavenly Demon Soul weakly materialized above it, emitting a faint, almost sickly glow.

The cultists, who had been nervously shuffling and looking away, immediately snapped rigid, their gazes fixed upon the artifact.

“The Supreme proclaims!”

Qing declared, then clenched her fist tightly.

—AAAARGH!

A bloodcurdling scream echoed directly from the Heavenly Demon Soul itself.

It was undeniably the Supreme’s voice, twisted in unimaginable agony.

The torment of having one’s very soul squeezed was beyond any worldly description—

A pain so profound it would likely kill any living person instantly from shock.

But the dead, unfortunately, lose the privilege of escaping into death.

Of course, Qing had never experienced such pain, so she couldn't truly know.

But judging by the way the supposedly almighty Heavenly Demon was screaming his lungs out, utterly abandoning all dignity and composure, she figured it had to be pretty damn bad.

Serves him right, she thought with grim satisfaction.

When Qing opened her hand again, the triangular pyramid was visibly cracked, shedding fine dust,

Its once-proud radiance reduced to the pathetic flicker of a dying firefly.

Qing beamed, flashing a triumphant smile.

“Since you ignorant fools clearly can’t understand the Supreme’s sacred voice, I shall graciously interpret his meaning for you. The Heavenly Demon says: ‘Today, I, the lowly Heavenly Demon, have committed the grave and unforgivable sin of daring to defy the great and powerful Ximen Qing.’”

She clenched her fist once more.

—AARGH! Kkua-kkeuak! AAAARGH! Uk, uk!

By varying the pressure of her grip, she managed to create a crude, tortured rhythm.

Huh. Maybe the old Heavenly Demon had a hidden talent for music.

“Therefore,” Qing continued her ‘interpretation,’ “none of you are to defy Ximen Qing. You are to serve her well and diligently, according to her wishes. This is the Heavenly Demon’s command to you all!”

Then, she clenched her fist one last time. AAAGH!! With a final, sharp cracking sound, the Heavenly Demon Soul shattered into nothingness.

“The end,” Qing announced cheerfully. “So, you all heard him, right? That’s the deal. Of course,” she added with a wink, “I don’t actually have the talent to understand tortured screams, so I kinda just… winged it based on what I figured he probably meant. What do you think? Sound about right?”

The soul-shattering shriek, even if brief, had been horrifying.

Paralyzed by the sound and the implications, no cultist dared to move or speak.

“Well, we can just ask him again if you’re unsure,” Qing chirped brightly. “Hup! Heavenly Demon Summon!”

And the triangular pyramid instantly reappeared on her open palm, flickering weakly.

“Aah…”

Ji Seungju groaned, despair washing over him.

This was undeniable. The Heavenly Demon Soul, the very essence of their great leader, was being utterly dominated, toyed with like a cheap trinket.

“Stop! Please, stop!”

“Alright,”

Qing conceded easily, crushing the Soul in her fist again.

A faint, choked-off scream, and it vanished.

Okay, so I know how to summon it, but still have no clue how to put it away properly.

Oh well. As long as only the Heavenly Demon himself is suffering, who cares?

“Doesn’t the Demon Cult follow the Law of the Strong?” Qing mused aloud, tapping a finger against her chin. “From what I saw back at the Bliss Palace, seems pretty standard to just kill your superiors and take their spot. So… does this make me the Heavenly Demon now?”

She was mostly just trying to get another rise out of them.

But instead of despair or anger, Ji Seungju’s eyes suddenly flashed with a sharp, calculating light.

“Are you saying… you have inherited everything from… him?”

“You mean, like, this kinda stuff?”

Qing obliged, letting a trickle of the Sky-Rending Demonic Energy flow into her hands.

To be precise, it was just the dregs, the leftovers.

Most of the original energy had been forcefully compressed and sealed away in a corner of her energy center along with the Heavenly Demon's subdued consciousness. Only a tiny fraction had seemingly 'defected' and joined Qing’s own mix of internal energies.

Her hands turned a deep, matte black.

Normally, manifesting internal energy produced a faint glow, allowing one to see the structure within.

But this Sky-Rending Demonic Energy didn’t just fail to glow—it seemed to devour light, painting her skin with a color like a patch of starless void.

And that wasn't all.

From the surface of her blackened hands, countless eerie, blinking eyes began to sprout.

Qing stared down at the most destructive energy under heaven, now coating her own hands, and wrinkled her nose.

Okay, what the hell? This is just creepy and disgusting.

She quickly withdrew the energy.

The Sky-Rending Demonic Energy remnants, having eagerly tried to impress their new master only to be immediately insulted, sulkily retreated back into her energy center.

“Sky-Rending Demonic Energy!” Ji Seungju breathed, his voice filled with awe. “Truly, Your Ladyship has—!”

“Whoa, hold up.” Qing raised an eyebrow. “What’s with the sudden title upgrade? ‘Your Ladyship’?”

Using the extremely respectful suffix /-kkeseo/ was several levels above the standard polite 'you' (dangsin) he might have used before.

It was the kind of address reserved for the highest echelons.

The surrounding cultists heard it too, and a wave of murmuring swept through them.

Qing scowled.

“Look, I have absolutely zero, zilch, nada interest in becoming your new Demon Cult leader, okay? Well…” she paused, reconsidering. “Maybe. Depends on the conditions.”

“What conditions?”

“How about we start with trying to live like decent human beings for a change?”

Qing thought back to her time living among these psychos.

A city of hungry ghosts constantly backstabbing and devouring each other.

Everyone was an enemy; trust was impossible, relaxation unthinkable. Even smiles and conversations felt hollow, just performances mimicking actual relationships.

No one could possibly remain fundamentally good in that kind of toxic environment.

Kindness and generosity require security. They come from a full granary,

Not from people constantly red-eyed, guarding their meager stash.

In a place like that, who could possibly afford compassion?

“The Law of the Strong is officially over,” Qing declared. “You don’t need some stupid rule for that anyway; people naturally listen to whoever’s strongest. And stop all the bullshit propaganda about the Central Plains. Try actually coexisting. Send out letters, whatever. Announce a truce. Tell them you’re gonna try living like actual humans now, so maybe don't try to kill each other on sight anymore.”

Her thoughts drifted to Gyeon Pohee—no, Ximen Hee[^Last Name. First Name. So its' Hee Ximen, if westernised] now—her foolish, not-always-kind Junior-Sister-wannabe who was now her Sister-wannabe.

How many other potential Ximen Hees had existed within this cult? How many had been crushed by it? How many more would suffer the same fate if things continued like this?

This place, this breeding ground for villains, couldn't be allowed to exist as it was.

Wiping them all out felt like too much work, though. And besides, maybe some of them were just idiots corrupted by the system, not inherently evil.

Difficult, annoying tasks like figuring that out should be delegated.

And wasn't there a supposedly smart kid right here?

“That’s impossible!” Ji Seungju protested immediately. “It would shake the very foundations of the Divine Cult—”

“Oh yeah?” Qing cut him off coldly. “You guys think you even have a future? What happens if I just decide to kill every single one of you right now, then waltz back to the Central Plains like nothing happened? Wouldn’t the Demon Cult be pretty damn finished then?”

Silence fell heavy in the tomb chamber once more.

They knew the previous Heavenly Demon Supreme’s power was estimated to be around the Life-and-Death Realm. To successfully absorb and contain that level of power, the vessel—Qing—would logically have to be at least in the Demonic Descent Realm.

Even if Demonic Descent was considered roughly equivalent to the Profound Boundary, most ranked Demonic Descent about half a step higher.

This wasn’t a debate about accepting a new Heavenly Demon anymore.

This was about basic survival.

(In reality, Qing was bluffing her ass off.

She didn't have anywhere near that kind of power.)

Gotta posture like this to get out alive, she thought.

Might as well lay down some terms while I’m at it.

Her body might have been rebuilt by the Heavenly Demon parasite into the latest high-spec model, but her actual understanding, her enlightenment, was still stuck firmly in the late-stage Peak Realm.

DAMMIT! HEAVENS!! she screamed internally.

WHYYYY!!

AM I!!

STILL!!!

NOT!!!

IN THE TRANSCENDENT REALM YET!!!!!

(It was the kind of cry that would likely make the heavens themselves roll their eyes.

'What the hell have YOU actually done to deserve it?' they might ask.)

Out of the forty-seven techniques listed under the Heavenly Divine Art in her status window, all but three were currently locked, just uselessly taking up space:

the Heavenly Demon Internal Art, the Heavenly Demon Overlord Step, and the Heavenly Demon Finger—

precisely the techniques the Heavenly Demon had utilized while in control of her body.

Damn. If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve tried to trick him into using more techniques while he was out.

Ah well. They’re locked, not gone.

Maybe they’ll unlock when my realm increases.

Getting three Purple-tier techniques essentially for free? Complaining would be seriously ungrateful.

Besides, it wasn’t really in Qing’s nature to dwell on loss.

Even before this whole transmigration mess, she was the type to lose something valuable, shrug it off with an ‘Oh well, can’t be helped,’ and immediately start wondering what to have for dinner.

Maybe it was resilience forged from being born with a dirt spoon in her mouth.

“While you’re reorganizing,” Qing continued aloud, breaking the silence, “maybe think about establishing a proper nation? Or at least some kind of formal Religious Sect Alliance? Point is, if you actually have organized power, people are less likely to just beat you up when you go outside your little mountain hideout, right?”

“That’s… not something that can be discussed so easily—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Qing waved dismissively. “That’s for the smart people, like you, to figure out.”

Ji Seungju fell silent again.

You should count your lucky stars, kid, Qing thought, glancing at him.

I’m sparing you mostly ‘cause you seem smart and look kinda frail.

And come to think of it, apart from arguing, you didn’t really do anything to me.

There was, however, someone else present who definitely couldn’t be spared.

Qing looked down at the figure sprawled on the floor—the former Natural Realm wannabe, now just a ‘natural person.’

The wreck of a man, reeling from the double blow of profound mental shock and the complete shattering of his internal energy, stared up with vacant, unfocused eyes.

Qing’s gaze turned cold, vicious. Just as she moved—

“Wait! Please stop!”

“What is it now?” Qing asked, clearly annoyed. “I was just about to have some long overdue fun.”

“He may be… like this now, but he still carries the direct lineage of the First Heavenly Demon!” Ji Seungju pleaded. “As you yourself suggested, if the Divine Cult is to be reorganized, he remains an essential religious figurehead, a necessary focal point! Please, I beg you, show mercy!”

“Tsk.”

Qing clicked her tongue.

Interfering again after she’d just delegated all the hard work? Annoying.

Still… maybe there was a compromise. She asked, a flicker of malicious hope in her eyes,

“Fine. Can I at least castrate him?”

“His bloodline is all that’s important!” Ji Seungju insisted desperately. “Cut off his arms or legs instead, please!”

A slow, predatory grin spread across Qing’s face. “Now that is the best suggestion you’ve made all day.”

She smirked and squatted down in front of the broken Supreme.

Her slender white hand gently, almost tenderly, caressed his cheek.

As the Supreme’s remaining eye slowly started to focus on her—

Qing’s thumb plunged brutally into his eye socket.

“AAAAARGH!”

A raw scream tore from his throat as his eye was gouged out while he was fully conscious.

But the sound was quickly muffled as Qing clamped her hand firmly over his face, thumb and palm locked tight around the socket, pinning his head immovably to the stone floor.

Below the neck, his body thrashed and convulsed violently in pure agony, utterly unrestrained.

Powerless hands flailed, striking and scratching at Qing, but against her Overhaul Rebirth-enhanced physique, they couldn’t leave so much as a mark. Just the meaningless struggles of a broken man.

Finally, a deeply satisfied smile touched Qing’s lips.

The sensation of piercing the soft-yet-firm resistance of the eyeball, the thick, viscous fluids mixing with thinner ones, coating her thumb… it sent a familiar, almost forgotten, thrilling heat through her.

“Still not paying attention?” she murmured sweetly, pressing down slightly. “Want me to pierce the other eye socket too?”

“Ah, it hurts… hurts so much… Mommy, it hurts…”

“Tsk tsk. You need to use polite speech,” Qing chided, her voice bright and cheerful. “From now on, you use polite speech with everyone in the world. You’ve been an ill-mannered little shit your entire existence, so you need to start making up for it now. Gotta keep things balanced, right?”

The Supreme, trembling uncontrollably, forced his remaining eye open, looking up at Qing’s face. Her dazzling, beautiful smile was reflected perfectly in his lone pupil.

“I… I underst… understood,”

“Good boy,” Qing cooed. “That’s right. Who’s a good boy?”

Her thumb popped out of the now-empty socket.

A thick stream of unidentifiable ocular fluid dribbled down his cheek.

“Urgh… kkeup…”

The Supreme bit down hard, choking back the agony.

Qing tilted her head, observing him curiously.

What’s this? He’s holding back his screams? Did it not hurt enough?

Maybe I should have just ripped the whole eyeball out?

But looking at the pathetic state of the Supreme now… he just looked broken. Like a crippled stray.

Remembering the creepy illusion scene also soured her mood completely.

He was just a powerless commoner now. Boring.

Casually, Qing wiped her gooey thumb back and forth across the Supreme’s remaining hair, cleaning off the sticky residue.

“Alright,” she said conversationally while finishing wiping her hand,

“Consider this payback for trying to punch a hole in my stomach and pop my eyeball earlier. We’re even now. From here on out, just behave yourself. Live nicely. Then, if our paths ever cross again, we can greet each other with friendly smiles. You understand what I mean, right?”

Behave, or the next smile won’t be so friendly.

The chilling warning was delivered in the sweetest, most reasonable tone.

The Supreme just nodded numbly, still trembling.

With that, Qing’s lingering animosity finally dissipated.

Geez, he’s completely lost it. Totally broken.

Just from one eye? How dull.

Anyway, revenge had been satisfyingly achieved. Her business here was well and truly finished.

Click, clack. Her shoes echoed crisply as Qing turned and walked briskly towards the tomb chamber’s exit.

“Up we go!” she called out cheerfully. “Well then, I’ll leave the rest to you guys!”

With a final, dismissive wave over her shoulder, she stepped onto the stairway leading out and vanished from sight.

Finally. The end of her incredibly tedious kidnapping ordeal.