Chapter 1

Prologue: The Child Namgung Lost

Thud—

A sword, enveloped in pitch-black energy, pierced Il-hwa’s heart.

Caught completely off guard by the unexpected attack, Il-hwa, who had no time to prepare, let out a stream of dark red blood from her mouth.

“Wh…y….”

Il-hwa looked at the person who had stabbed her with a confused gaze.

Her teacher, who had raised her since childhood and taught her martial arts, and the leader of the Daesura Blood Sect, who had achieved the unification of the martial world.

The Blood Demon.

The sword that pierced Il-hwa’s heart was his.

“Disciple, do you remember what I wanted to achieve through you?”

Since childhood, Il-hwa had heard these words repeatedly from him.

‘Destroy the Namgung. You must break the Namgung’s sword with your own hands!’

She didn’t know why her teacher wanted to destroy the Namgung. Nevertheless, for 25 years, Il-hwa had lived to bring down the Namgung.

She practiced martial arts with the single-minded determination to break the Namgung’s sword. As a result, she was known within the Blood Sect as the Heaven-Annihilating Sword (天滅劍), the sword that could destroy heaven.

Finally, today, the Namgung clan was completely annihilated by her hands.

Il-hwa looked at Namgung Cheong-un, the last sword of the Namgung, lying dead on the ground.

“I have… fulfilled the teacher’s will.”

“Yes. It will finally be accomplished.”

“But… why….”

The Blood Demon’s sword pierced her heart at the same moment Namgung Cheong-un’s breath ceased.

At the end of a long battle, just as she thought she had accomplished everything, the Blood Demon stabbed her heart.

“Why…?”

“Now, in the world, only you remain of the Namgung. Your life must end for my will to be fulfilled. What can I do?”

Il-hwa stared at him with a hardened expression.

“You’re looking at me as if I’m a madman, aren’t you?”

Chuckle, chuckle. Her teacher, who was laughing, had once again seen through her thoughts. As if he knew everything, as if he could see through her mind.

“Do you know who is lying at your feet?”

Il-hwa’s gaze returned to the fallen Namgung Cheong-un. The sword wound that had nearly severed his neck was made by her.

“He is your father.”

“…!”

Il-hwa was confused.

Her teacher, the Blood Demon, was originally a wicked and evil person. He often killed people to replenish his dantian, so she couldn’t believe everything he said.

But.

‘When I think about it, it was strange.’

He, who treated human lives like flies, had called her a disciple and raised her for a long time.

Even when stronger people pledged their loyalty to him, he didn’t abandon her. He persistently made her oppose the Namgung until she brought them down with her own hands.

Why?

Cough.

Dark red blood gushed from her mouth. She was using her inner energy to hold back the wound, but now she had reached her limit.

“Hahaha! How does it feel? To kill your father with your own hands!”

The Blood Demon’s laughter echoed in her ears.

“After telling you that you are his daughter, I withdrew my inner energy. Isn’t that truly pitiful?”

“…!”

Il-hwa recalled the desperate look Namgung Cheong-un gave her just before he died.

The battle was clearly going against her.

After a long battle, Namgung Cheong-un prepared a powerful strike infused with inner energy, and Il-hwa sensed her impending defeat. However, just as he was about to strike, Namgung Cheong-un suddenly stopped.

He looked at Il-hwa with a confused gaze. Seizing the moment, Il-hwa beheaded him.

Namgung Cheong-un knelt on the spot, blood gushing from his neck. His gaze never left Il-hwa.

‘Seol… Hwa…’

Tears streamed down Il-hwa’s face as she recalled his last words.

She didn’t know why she was crying.

Her emotions had been completely destroyed by the accumulation of bloodlust.

Yet, tears still flowed from her eyes.

“Haha, don’t be so resentful. Didn’t you enjoy it quite a bit?”

Her vision gradually blurred as she looked at Namgung Cheong-un’s corpse.

As the Blood Demon gathered his inner energy, the sword that pierced Il-hwa’s heart began to hum.

“I raised you with my own hands for this day. For the moment when the arrogant Namgung would be destroyed by the hands of the Namgung! Hahaha!”

His laughter shook the heavens and compressed the space. The Blood Demon was genuinely delighted.

Il-hwa removed the inner energy she was using to block her wound.

Cough—

Dark red blood gushed from her mouth.

Her body was completely drained, and she had no strength left to lift her arms. The breath she barely held on to was quickly fading.

“Enough… stop… it’s not… amusing.”

At that moment, the Blood Demon’s laughter abruptly stopped.

A dark red aura flickered in his indifferent eyes as he looked down at her.

“I was losing interest anyway.”

A chilling aura swirled around the sword.

In that moment, the Blood Demon’s sword sliced through her body.

Starting from her heart, the sword cut through her shoulder and withdrew, and Il-hwa collapsed, spewing blood.

“It was amusing. Disciple.”

Thanks to you, the Namgung have disappeared from the world.

The Blood Demon’s laughter slowly dissipated into the air.

His steps were light and carefree as he turned and left, abandoning her as she died.

“Cough….”

Dark red tears streamed down Il-hwa’s eyes as she watched the Blood Demon walk away.

‘How foolish.’

What a truly foolish life.

To call him a teacher and follow him without realizing she was being deceived and used.

Why did she live such a foolish life?

Why did she follow someone who knew nothing but blood?

She had lived her entire life for the Blood Demon, to bring down the Namgung, but in the end, all that remained was the laughter of the person she trusted and followed.

All that returned was a miserable death.

All that remained was blood.

Dark red blood stained the entire world.

The smell of the Namgung’s blood, which she had killed with her own hands, surrounded her like a grudge.

In that blood, Il-hwa’s death would also be present.

Thud.

Il-hwa’s body, drained of strength, collapsed.

The Blood Demon’s puppet and the Blood Sect’s young leader, the Heaven-Annihilating Sword (天滅劍) Il-hwa (一化).

Her life, manipulated by the Blood Demon, ended in this way.