Ascension of Heavenly Demon

“But why ascension, all of a sudden…?”

“I have nothing to do, so I am bored.”

“Ah…”

It was a reason truly befitting him. To seek the final path of ascension, all for the simple crime of boredom.

And so, the Heavenly Demon, Baek Kang-hwi, took residence within the Cave of Grand Ultimate on Mount Wudang. After a long and solitary effort, he finally… achieved it.

Ascension.

Leaving his cherished physical body behind, his essence drifted aimlessly—a fallen leaf carried on the wind, a solitary branch floating upon the water’s surface. It was the drifting of the soul. This, he believed, was the sacred process of shedding his mortal coil to find his true, essential body.

The sensation began as a fleeting, suffocating confinement, a dark and narrow space closing in. But it was followed by an agonizing, crushing pressure, as if his entire being was being flattened, his very essence compressed to the point of bursting.

Then, violently, he was expelled.

Right, how could there possibly be no pain? This was ascension, after all…

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

…Ang?

Something was terribly wrong.

The first sight that met his wailing cry was a low wooden bed covered by a crimson silk quilt. A gentle warmth permeated the air, radiating from a brazier filled with glowing charcoal, and with it came a soft, fragrant scent…

Isn’t this… a birthing room?

And in the midst of it all, a voice declared…

“From henceforth, your name shall be Zhuge Mun-hyeon.”

What? Who? Zhuge?

Something was catastrophically wrong.

Thus begins the story of the Heavenly Demon, Baek Kang-hwi, who, upon seeking the apex of ascension, found only a new beginning… in birth.