Chapter 79: Vengeance of the Heavenly Demon 2

"If I wasn't poisoned, I might have been able to defeat them even though they worked together to kill me. However, I was too severely injured. Despite fighting to the bitter end, I was pursued all the way to the Dark Shadow Mountain at the edge of the Celestial Realm. They finally killed me, but not before I dealt them both severe injuries. Hah! Even if they survived the mortal wounds I left them, they probably wouldn't be able to recover."

Tian Mo cackled for a moment before returning to his somber mood.

"Even though my physical body was destroyed, just before my death, I succeeded in combining both yin and yang elements within me and protected my spirit. Then I fell and somehow ended up here, in this place."

There was a long sigh.

"Tell me, kid…where am I? This doesn't feel like the Celestial Realm. It feels like an isolated pocket of space. Even though the qi here is rich and dense, I can feel…another world just beyond, one that is thin and poor in qi. That's something I haven't felt, not in my entire life in the Celestial Realm. Even though I've been stuck here for millennia, unable to tell what's outside, I surmised that I'm no longer in the Celestial Realm. Am I right?"

I rubbed at my face before nodding.

"Yeah. This is…Earth. It's a normal world…uh, normal as in there isn't much qi or cultivators here. So if people want to cultivate, they would have to come to this Xing Hao Island, which is located in an isolated pocket of space separated from the main world."

"I knew it." Tian Mo sighed heavily. "To think I've fallen this far. Not only did I lose my physical body, I even ended up in a backwater world with not much qi at all! How humiliating! Damn it! Without a physical body, even if I preserved my spirit, I still couldn't do anything!"

"Actually, I'm pretty surprised." I raised my hand, finally relieved that I could raise the issue that confounded me. "How the hell did you not get reincarnated in another body or returned to the past after your death?"

"Huh? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Given the normal, cliché script, after you died because your beloved disciples betrayed you to satiate their lust for power, you should reincarnate in the body of a trash who is either a trash young master of an ailing clan where your family members all abused and bully you, or a trash disciple of some tiny sect where your fellow disciples also bully you and the elders have given up on you. From there, you will use the memories of your time as the Absolute One as a plot-driven cheat to artificially accelerate your cultivation, get rid of your trash label by curb stomping all the arrogant young masters, relatives and fellow disciples who bullied you, slapping the faces of the elders in the clan or sect when their precious sons or disciples come running to them begging for revenge, gain a harem of jade-skinned beauties who somehow have the same heaven-defying talent as you do, raze entire sects or clans who attack you for no reason other than because you somehow offended one of their young masters by solely existing because you fought back when they insulted you or tried to rob you of your cultivation resources or secret skills, or because they desire one of the jade-skinned beauties who fell in love with you and are jealous, deluding themselves into thinking she would marry them if they kill you. All the while you slowly rise through random cultivation stages, kicking the asses of people who are supposed to be at a higher cultivation realm than you as you eventually rise to godhood and get your revenge on the disciples who betrayed you."

There was a long pause. Then Tian Mo finally spoke up.

"I have no idea what you just fucking said."

"That's basically the storyline of 90% of cultivation stories out there. Well, half of them sees you being reincarnated in a modern, urban setting instead, but you will still get a harem of beauties and go around slapping the faces of arrogant young masters from wealthy and influential families…only to find out that there is cultivation in this urban world so that you have somebody to kick around while pretending it's some form of a challenge."

"Kid…just stop. You're making my head hurt. Just…stop. Please."

I shrugged, but obeyed for now. Besides, I was out of breath after ranting nonstop on the clichés and tropes in 90% of cultivation stories. At this point, they were all carbon copies of each other.

Speaking of which, I just realized that I was a marked difference from the trend. Unlike all the other cultivation protagonists out there, I didn't start my journey as a "trash." Nobody insulted me for being trash and looked down on me because I either sucked at martial arts/cultivation or because I was an incompetent son-in-law/young master with a notorious reputation of being useless. In fact, my enemies were so afraid of how powerful I was that they resorted to sending demonic cultivators back in time just to terminate me before I could master my skills and become overpowered.

That was one way of dealing with an overpowered opponent, I supposed. Smarter than suicidal attempts of directly attacking the overpowered opponent in direct combat, at least.

Point was, I started off as a regular dude. Not a "trash" but not some Mary Sue genius either. A normal, average student you could find anywhere. Not even as a pathetic loser who cowered and sniveled as he was being beaten up by bullies. Hell, nobody bullied me, but rather I was the one who stepped in to protect my friends from bullies.

Rest in peace, Pang Zi.

Also, I didn't get cucked because I didn't have a girlfriend in the first place. Like I said, I was a perfectly normal guy who didn't get into those unrealistic situations of an ex-girlfriend cheating on me because I was "poor" or whatever nonsense. If they didn't like me because I was poor, they wouldn't have gone out with me in the first place – much like Na Lan Yan Ran, who made her distaste for me known right from the start. Honestly, those tropes sounded like an excuse for the loser protagonist to take revenge on the bitch who cheated on him later.

Unaware of the various random thoughts running through my mind at light speed, Tian Mo finally spoke up again.

"Anyway, I still bear a grudge toward those treacherous disciples. I've been waiting all this time…" I could hear the maniacal glee in his voice. "Waiting to impart my ultimate skills to someone so that he may avenge me!"

Even though I desired to learn Heaven and Earth Formula, I couldn't help but feel a dreadful chill from his tone. This guy was truly a monster.

"He he! Kid, do you want to be the strongest cultivator in the Celestial Realm?"

"Honestly? Yeah."

"Hah! I knew it. Even though you're highly skilled, but I can see from your injuries that you've just been defeated by your opponent."

"Well, my opponent was a three-meter tall commander-ranked winged demonic tiger. I'm only at the Heaven realm. I'm not trying to make any excuses, but…yeah."

"Ho…? You survived against a winged demonic tiger, despite only being at the first level of Heaven realm? Not bad! Not bad at all! You definitely have talent!"

"No, I don't. All I have is determination and diligence. Talent is the one thing I don't have."

"Perhaps so." Tian Mo didn't deny my correction because he knew I was right. "But even so, you still want to be strong, don't you? You wish to become the strongest cultivator not just in your world, but also the Celestial Realm, right?"

I shrugged. "That's indeed the tempting goal."

"He he! If you step into my demonic realm, then I will teach you the supreme Heaven and Earth Formula! You'll be able to overwhelm any opponent!"

For a moment, I was tempted to agree. After all, this was what I was looking for all this time. I wanted to complete my knowledge of Heaven and Earth Formula. Becoming the strongest was just a side goal, but something that wasn't very tangible and realistic. I had accepted the impracticality of such an ambition long ago, despite Kai Li Si's words. For all his claims that I would become the ultimate cultivator in the Celestial Realm in future, I just couldn't see it happening. Not with my lack of talent and my complete ordinariness.

But those doubts weren't what was holding me back right now. I hesitated to accept Tian Mo's offer because I knew it was a trap. Intuitively, I sensed that he was deceiving me, that he was hiding some sinister secret. Something like fine print…a catch that he hadn't mentioned yet.

As I said before, Tian Mo was literally a devil. I was sure that in return for teaching me the ultimate Heaven and Earth Formula, he would ask for my soul. That if I accepted his offer, I would lose something essential to me…something precious.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if this malevolent demon would seize the chance to control my body and devour my soul, just so he could take his revenge with his own hands. I didn't relish being turned into a mindless puppet, with my soul consumed by him and my body belonging to another person. I would be willingly handing myself over to serve as a vessel just like the poor victims in all those reincarnation cultivation stories.

"What's with your hesitation?" Tian Mo almost taunted. "Don't you want to become the strongest? Then stop hesitating and step into my demonic realm! I'll teach you how to become the ultimate being in the Celestial Realm!"

I scratched my head and shifted my glasses.

"What's the catch?"

"Oh? You seem wary of me." The aura of evil grew even more oppressive, weighing down on me. I tried to suck in a breath, feeling suffocated, but I stood my ground and glared defiantly at nowhere in particular. I wasn't going to be intimidated into giving in. Rather, this sudden hostility further drove home the point that I couldn't trust him.

Then there was a chuckle and the weight lessened.

"You're smarter than I give you credit for. Of course you can't trust me. It would be stupid to believe a random stranger who you've met for the first time. Furthermore, one with such intense demonic qi like mine. I made the mistake of trusting my disciples…only to be betrayed. I learned my lesson the hard way. Seems like you've benefited from my story, at least a little."

I said nothing.

"But kid, you won't be able to gain anything without taking any risks, you know? I know you won't be satisfied with being an ordinary person. You have great ambitions! You want to be the strongest, don't you?"

"Ugh!"

I could feel the wisps of malevolent qi probing at me, but I resisted them as best as I could.

"The qi within you…you have an affinity with my skills. If I'm not mistaken, you have already learned a portion of Heaven and Earth Formula, haven't you? How did you do that?"

"A senior from the Celestial Realm taught it to me. Unfortunately, he died before he could teach me all of it."

Damn it, there was no point lying. Tian Mo had detected my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths.

"Excellent. I don't know how you managed to learn it, but this is destiny. Your senior must have been someone from the Heaven and Earth Sect, a descendant of those who followed me…who followed Li Ru Yue and Yang Lie Shao. Whatever the case, we have a thread of fate connecting us together!"

Right now, I wanted nothing more than to sever that thread of fate.

"If you learn the rest of Heaven and Earth Formula, you'll obtain the supreme power necessary to challenge the heavens!"

Cold perspiration dripped down my face. I gritted my teeth, trying to withstand the pressure from the demonic qi that saturated the cavern.

"Ha ha! Kid, don't you dream of being the strongest in the Celestial Realm? Come in! Be my successor! Avenge me!"

"That's assuming your disciples are still alive. It has been at least two millennia since your recorded death." I shook my head. Tian Mo chuckled.

"Cultivators live very long lives. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still alive after two thousand years. I'm not taking any chances."

"I also don't have any way of getting to the Celestial Realm."

"One thing at a time, kid. Become the strongest in your world first, then you can find a way to reach the Celestial Realm later."

How irresponsible.

"Kid, right now, the pinnacle of cultivation is to master Man and Sword as One, correct? Ha ha ha! Do you want to see what lies beyond that?"

"Heaven and Man as One, right?" I rolled my eyes. "I've heard of it before."

"Excellent! You have impressive knowledge of cultivation too! Hey, kid, I'm liking you more and more. You know what? As a gift, as well as an expression of my sincerity, here's a gift from me!"

Before I knew what was going on, I found myself bombarded by an intense vortex of dense qi.