The Sword Emperor Transmigrates-Chapter 300

Leonard, having distanced himself from the Celestial Realm, stepped into the one place only he could access—the chamber of the Divine Throne. Without hesitation, he took a seat.

A low, resonating hum filled the air, a sound he had grown accustomed to. Even as an overwhelming flood of information surged into his mind and made his entire upper dantian throb, he filtered out the unnecessary details. His mastery over the world’s governing laws had improved severalfold, allowing him to rearrange poorly flowing ley lines with relative ease.

These were world laws that had been left unmanaged and abandoned for thousands of years. No matter how urgently he worked to restore them, the process would still take at least a century.

...With my command for the Celestials to atone for their actions, I have fulfilled almost all my responsibilities. From here on, I must leave things to unfold naturally based on causality.

Interfering in every matter did not always lead to the best outcome. It was often wiser to make adjustments only where necessary and leave the rest for mortals to handle on their own. After all, an excess of power could trigger unpredictable consequences.

—So, after all these years, you’ve finally found time to rest? Her Majesty may well be envious.

Unlike Leonard, who was forbidden from working any further, Laila had no such limit on her workload. The more she toiled and sacrificed her leisure, the more Arcadia prospered. At this point, even slacking off was no longer an option.

Though she had access to dozens of artifacts and relics that promoted recovery and alleviated fatigue, there was no way they could keep her spirit intact forever.

I’ll have to make time for her to take a proper break one of these days.

Despite suffering heavy losses in the final battle, no external force remained that could threaten the empire. There was no longer any need for Laila to work tirelessly and exhaust herself. And yet, she continued to overwork herself. It was simply in her nature—she was, after all, a sovereign without equal.

Leonard had been passing the time idly, surveying the world from his throne, but as he finished checking the dimensional barriers and the status of the world’s governing laws, a long-forgotten question resurfaced in his mind.

—Now that I think about it, I’ve been neglecting this for quite some time. I was supposed to investigate why I underwent transmigration in the first place.

There had been too many pressing matters to attend to within the Divine Throne, and even using his clairvoyance to observe events across dimensions would be costly in terms of power and time.

Since it was neither urgent nor particularly vital, he had never prioritized satisfying his own curiosity. But now, after years, he finally had the luxury of wasting a little power and time.

Leonard spoke.

—O’ Divine Throne.

A deep hum echoed through the chamber as the world laws responded to his call.

—Tell me the reason I was reborn into this world.

Functioning as the governing mechanism of the world laws, the Divine Throne obeyed his command immediately. Records from decades past began to resurface, allowing him to peer into dimensional archives. The more he thought about it, the stranger the whole situation seemed.

For a soul to transmigrate into another dimension, two separate worlds must both be in an unstable state. That’s the only condition under which such an anomaly can occur.

In a world where the dimensional barriers and governing laws were intact, no souls would ever leak out, nor would any foreign souls flow in. Given the void left by the Divine Throne’s absence due to the God-Slaying War, it was understandable why this world had been affected. However, given that his soul originated from the Central Plains murim, that world, too, must have suffered from a critical defect.

Leonard had once entertained a theory when he recalled the Battle of Zhuolu. He had considered the possibility that the war between Chiyou and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors had resulted in mutual destruction, much like this world’s God-Slaying War.

But upon further thought, he had dismissed the idea. Unlike Arcadia, the Central Plains had endured for thousands of years without any guardians to protect humanity.

—But now, I should finally be able to find the answer.

Leonard’s eyes flickered with a radiant spectrum of five colors. When resonating with the Divine Throne, his Dragon Eyes could peer beyond dimensions and trace the flow of time itself.

Between dimensions, between worlds. A connection—if one could even call it that—existed between this world and the Central Plains murim. And because the reincarnated soul in question was none other than Leonard, the owner of the Divine Throne, he could trace that connection in reverse.

He crossed an immeasurable chasm between dimensions. His Dragon Eyes absorbed the knowledge that barely came into view.

—This... This is the moment when my soul departed? The final moments of the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk and the Heavenly Demon Dan Mok-Jin. The events that unfolded after their battle of life and death began replaying in sequence.

* * *

“The most crucial aspect of the Chaos Origin is purity, while the most vital principle of the Five Elements is balance. Without harmony, the foundation itself becomes fragile. You only formed the framework of your Five Elements Qi after reaching the stage where your sword energy could take shape. The imbalance you carried through your previous realm is now the wall blocking your path forward.”

“...”

The man who had first ignited his fighting spirit—the Heavenly Demon Dan Mok-Jin—offered a few words of advice to the Sword Emperor.

“Whether you choose to live as a martial artist in your next life or not, I hope my words find their way to you. Do not linger in the afterlife, Sword Emperor. Go in peace.”

Standing before the lifeless body of Yeon Mu-Hyuk, Dan Mok-Jin turned away, feeling an indescribable emotion stir within him. It had been a good battle. His blood boiled, and his fighting spirit surged.

The chances of being defeated by the Sword Emperor had been less than thirty percent, but in another sense, that was an astonishing number. For a man who had never doubted his own invincibility, it had been a thrilling miscalculation.

“The Supreme Ten Venerables... the Seven Absolutes... I wonder if the rest of them will be able to satisfy me.”

Under normal circumstances, Dan Mok-Jin would never have developed such a hunger for battle. Born far too powerful, he had never encountered anyone from whom he could learn. But his duel with the Sword Emperor had changed something. He had tasted the joy of dancing on the edge of life and death.

As the awakened Heavenly Demon descended from his mountain, it did not take long before the Heavenly Demon Cult declared war on the Central Plains. The absence of six Creation Realm masters had accelerated a century-long power struggle by over a decade.

Thus began the Great War of Good and Evil.

“I care not for small fry. If even one among you can halt my advance, I may be satisfied and withdraw.” Dan Mok-Jin revealed his true desire for battle, utterly indifferent to the idea of unifying the Central Plains under the Heavenly Demon Cult.

Those who had wielded swords in the Central Plains long enough knew that the title of Heavenly Demon was reserved only for the leader of the Demonic Cult. It was a martial lineage that, if traced back to its origins, had produced the First Heavenly Demon—a figure regarded as an equal to Bodhidharma of the Shaolin Temple.

It was hardly surprising that hermitic masters from various sects would emerge. They were drawn by the sheer challenge of facing the Heavenly Demon’s supreme martial arts rather than any righteous cause such as purging evil and eradicating demonic cultists.

A former sect patriarch from one of the Prominent Sects; a nameless wanderer who had reached the Creation Realm without even earning an epithet; Zhongnan’s First Sword, who had once been defeated by the Sword Emperor and devoted himself to even greater discipline; an unknown monk who had spent a hundred years tending to Shaolin’s Chamber of Repentance; and countless other reclusive masters with unknown origins all converged to stand in the way of that arrogant and overbearing procession.

“Your rigid movements... You have lived in vain.”

The Supreme Elder of the Yellow Mountain Sect was annihilated in three seconds.

“You were decent. Not quite on the level of the Sword Emperor, though.”

The wandering swordsman known as the Wave King, successor to the late Poison Blood Wolf, was torn into ten pieces and left in a pool of his own blood.

“You call yourself the Cloud Sword? I like it. I’ll remember your name.”

A veteran swordsman who had sought revenge for the humiliation he suffered from the Sword Emperor lost the tip of his spear while attempting his ultimate technique against Dan Mok-Jin. For the first time, he paid his respects to the martial artist who had brought his end.

“The Arhat Divine Fist, huh... To have delved this deeply into it, I suppose you deserve some credit.”

In a battle of fists, Dan Mok-Jin triumphed over a nameless monk of Shaolin, smiling faintly as he studied the bruises left on his own forearm. Even with his internal energy and martial intent suppressed, it had been... enjoyable.

Many martial artists challenged the Heavenly Demon, but regardless of differing opinions on their skills, every single one perished without exception. None managed to inflict a meaningful wound. To anyone observing, it was clear that Dan Mok-Jin had already reached the realm of the strongest under the heavens.

“If this continues, the Central Plains will fall into the hands of the Demonic Cult.”

“Using mechanical formations or strategic arrays won’t work against a master of the Profound Realm. We would be lucky if it doesn’t turn against us.”

“We must resort to our final option. Send a message to the Yellow Lotus Temple. We should mobilize the entire Seven Absolutes and have them cooperate with the Supreme Ten Venerables to take him down.”

“That would be a disgrace to our honor!”

“It’s already absurd to challenge the strongest martial artist in the world, a Profound Realm master, in one-on-one combat! Throwing our lives away one by one is meaningless!”

The Murim Alliance and the Yellow Lotus Temple—two factions as incompatible as water and oil—joined forces, convincing their core forces to cooperate. Together, they sent a duel challenge to Dan Mok-Jin, luring him into their carefully prepared battlefield.

The Seven Absolutes had been reduced to four due to Yeon Mu-Hyuk, but they had managed to recruit two replacements. With the six from the Yellow Lotus Temple and nine from the Supreme Ten Venerables, they formed a fifteen-against-one battle formation. Even those who had initially resisted the idea out of pride fell silent once they stood before the Heavenly Demon. At last, they acknowledged the necessity of their tactics.

Dan Mok-Jin had already seen through their intentions. He declared with an air of absolute confidence, “You may all attack at once. If you manage to defeat me, the entire cult will retreat to the Shiwan Mountain.”

“...We will hold you to your word!”

And so, the life-or-death battle between the fifteen Creation Realm experts of the orthodox and heretic factions and the Heavenly Demon Dan Mok-Jin began.

There had been little time to practice their formation, but as Creation Realm masters of their craft, their understanding of formations and martial arts was second to none. They immediately synchronized, unleashing their full strength, even drawing upon their Innate Qi to overwhelm Dan Mok-Jin.

No matter how terrifying Heaven’s Annihilation was, it could only eliminate three or four opponents in a single strike. If over a dozen martial masters counterattacked the moment he used it, even Dan Mok-Jin would be in danger.

“Hahaha! Excellent! Yes! At last, I can feel the thrill of battle tingle down my spine!”

Dan Mok-Jin conjured the form of Asura behind him and immediately unleashed Heaven’s Annihilation, eradicating four martial masters in a flash. He then endured the joint assault of the remaining eleven with his body alone, surviving until his next opening.

He had learned from his battle against Yeon Mu-Hyuk the strength of taking risks.

Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method

Asura’s Royal Dance

Final Finishing Death Strike

Heaven’s Annihilation

In the end, the fifteen martial masters were completely annihilated. When the Heavenly Demon walked away from the battlefield, it was clear he had become the undisputed ruler of his era.

There was no longer a distinction between orthodox and demonic factions. The Heavenly Demon Cult conquered the entire Central Plains, and anyone who dared to resist was crushed under its overwhelming might. The dark age of the Central Plains murim had come.

Even the Imperial Palace, terrified of this new world order, launched an attack with their royal guards, but they were all slaughtered within a single day. Dan Mok-Jin stormed into the Forbidden City and personally ripped the emperor’s head from his shoulders. The world was now forced to acknowledge a simple truth—absolute power could do anything.

The Embroidered Guards, the Eastern Depot, and all other government agencies were obliterated. The entire Central Plains had fallen under the rule of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

“...Tsk. How dull.”

Dan Mok-Jin had achieved the cult’s long-standing ambition. But with no more worthy opponents, the world had become unbearably boring.

“My lord! Urgent news!”

“Speak.”

“The entire world—from the Central Plains to the borderlands and the Shiwan Mountain—is being overrun by monsters! Creatures that even Creation Realm masters cannot easily defeat are appearing everywhere!”

“...Oh?” freewebnσvel.cøm

Hearing the shocking news, Dan Mok-Jin curled his lips into a grin and leaped from his throne. He returned to the battlefield.

Above the heaven, under the heaven, he alone was supreme. He had never cared for power or dominion. From the very beginning, the world had always been beneath his feet. The only thing that made life worth living was the ecstasy of battle—the sensation of standing at the precipice of life and death.

The sight that greeted him outside the palace was nothing short of a scene from hell.

Monstrous beings, the likes of which could only be found in ancient texts like the Classic of Mountains and Seas, roamed both land and sky. These creatures trampled upon helpless commoners and feeble martial artists, devouring their flesh and bones. Their bodies were impervious to blades, their movements as swift as arrows, and their strength capable of shattering steel.

To Dan Mok-Jin, they were nothing more than new playthings.

“Hahahaha! Let’s have some fun!”

The Heavenly Demon plunged into the chaos, slaughtering the creatures in a storm of destruction. He massacred every beast in sight, hunted down demon generals that even Creation Realm masters could not defeat, and triumphed in battles against demon kings so powerful that even he was pushed to the brink of death.

His martial realm, which had stagnated at the peak of the Profound Realm, began to stir. He was inching toward the next stage of enlightenment. At this rate, reclaiming the Central Plains from these creatures no longer seemed impossible.

But people often forgot that the brighter the light of hope, the darker the shadow of despair.

“...Gugh!”

The moment the undefeated Heavenly Demon finally fell, the fragile glimmer of hope was extinguished.

The pinnacle of the demonic race had arrived—a being whose power was so overwhelming that even someone in the Life and Death Realm could not hope to stand against him.

Marapapiyas, the Demon King of the End, the Monarch of Ten Thousand Demons.

He was known by many names, but he was most feared as Boxun, the Demon King embodying the essence of the apocalypse.

The battle was one-sided. With a single strike, Boxun shattered Dan Mok-Jin’s Asura form. With a second strike, he severed both of Dan Mok-Jin’s arms. With the third, he pierced his heart.

So... that’s him.

Leonard’s eyes gleamed as he absorbed the memories of the past, analyzing Boxun’s combat abilities in detail. If Cenn Cruach had been the doomsday entity of his world, then in the Central Plains murim, Boxun had been the instrument of destruction. Though Cenn Cruach’s sheer power surpassed him, in every other aspect, Boxun was the superior existence.

The outcome was clear. Leonard had successfully prevented his world’s apocalypse by stopping Cenn Cruach. But Dan Mok-Jin had failed to stop Boxun, leading to the downfall of the Central Plains.

...What?

Something was wrong. This should have been nothing more than a recorded past, but Boxun’s six eyes turned, locking onto Leonard. There was no mistaking it. That thing was aware of him. The moment their gazes met, Leonard understood the situation.

—Ha! So you see me as prey, too!

Upon closer analysis, Boxun was more akin to Surtr than Cenn Cruach. He had emerged specifically to destroy the Central Plains murim, but despite being born in that world, he had recognized Leonard—who had drifted into another dimension—and sought to hunt him down.

But Leonard was no different. Even if he had separated his past life from his present, the hatred and hostility toward the being that had annihilated his previous world burned fiercely within him. Both entities were beyond space and time, yet they had recognized each other.

For a brief moment, Leonard and Boxun locked eyes in a silent battle of wills.

Flaaash.

The tension snapped. The connection between this world and the Central Plains murim had been severed. Leonard grasped the reason behind it and let out a quiet chuckle.

—So that’s how it is? It’s not time yet.

The link between the two dimensions had always been tenuous at best. It was barely held together by a single thread—one that existed solely because of Leonard. As such, neither side could cross over to the other.

—For now, we won’t have the chance to meet again... but if he forcibly tries to cross over, I can handle it easily. And the same goes for him.

In this world, Leonard wielded power akin to that of a Chief God. However, that was merely a privilege granted to him as the owner of the Divine Throne. In truth, his essence had yet to surpass even the rank of a Great God.

If he were to step beyond this dimension and challenge the native gods of an outer dimension, it wouldn’t take long for his limits to be exposed. Even if he faced the Outer Gods he had fought once before, he would struggle. Forget Balor—even dealing with Hydra, or worse, Monegarm, would be difficult.

He needed to become stronger. As he realized this truth once more, a sharp, beast-like grin spread across his face.

After all, a true martial artist must always have an enemy to defeat, isn’t that right?

Seated cross-legged atop the Divine Throne, Leonard slowly closed his eyes, not that posture mattered. He could have been lying down or submerged in water, and it wouldn’t have made a difference. But this stance had become a habit, and it felt natural and instinctive. As countless martial principles surfaced and settled within his mind, a martial artist’s competitive spirit ignited with the unshakable awareness of his destined foe.

A man who lived by the way of the sword could never escape the cycle of battle, not that Leonard had ever tried to escape it. He trembled slightly, lost in a trance as he envisioned the overwhelming power of Boxun, the enemy he would one day face.

Was it fear? No. It was pure anticipation.

I will defeat the Central Plains’ Demon King with my blade.

And so, the last martial artist of murim swore vengeance. It was a pledge made in the void, a vow to an uncertain future. But the threads of fate had already intertwined, even as Leonard’s and Boxun’s dimensions kept them apart.

A Sword God who had once saved a world and a Demon King who had once destroyed one. By some twist of fate, the two beings had recognized each other’s existence and begun to sharpen their strength in preparation for their inevitable battle.

It was an endless cycle of struggle, a relentless, ceaseless loop that revolved and flowed like the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Turning, ever turning—until the day their destinies crossed once again.