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the Corpse Demon Sect... its appearance in history was sudden around 40,000 years ago. It is said that the founder of this sect found an ancient legacy of this art, and there are even those who say that it is merely a branch sect of a higher power from the Central Continent.
Its first appearance in history caused bloody massacres in cities and villages far from the center of the Empire, even though the Corpse Demon Sect was only a mid-ranked sect or perhaps even lower than that within the Demonic Path filled with sects and schools far stronger than the Corpse Sect.
The Corpse Demon Sect was the most troublesome; statistics indicate that it is responsible for more than 20% of all attacks of the Demonic Path on the Astrea Empire and other kingdoms.
That was due to their corpse cultivation art, as they need fresh blood to make their puppets stronger—and is there anything better than fresh human blood?
They are like a tumor in the Eastern Continent; their strongholds have been destroyed countless times, but no one knows where their main headquarters is, so they always return and take revenge. Even within the Demonic Path, they are a source of annoyance to lower-ranked sects and schools.
The reasons for their attacks on cities can be summarized in collecting the blood of the inhabitants, and the second reason is purification...
The Corpse Demon Sect has followers estimated in the hundreds of thousands, so they purge the weak either through life-and-death battles within the sect, where the strong survives and the weak becomes food and the foundation for the growth of the strong… or the second method, which is sending them to cities to face the students of the Four Academies or the knights of the Empire.
The Corpse Sect does not care about the death of a few thousand; even if one person survives, it does not matter. They believe that the strong will live, while the weak does not have the qualifications even to live...
It is not only the Corpse Demon Sect that thinks this way, but all sects and schools in the Demonic Path share this same thinking.
This is because they follow the Evil Ruler. The ideology of the Evil Ruler for his followers is simple: the weak were created to be devoured by the strong. They are merely livestock waiting for slaughter. The world deserves to be lived in only by the strong, while the weak have no place and must be purged from this land.
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Aeon was waving his black sword infused with aura toward the corpses. The corpses were like tofu before Aeon's blade, being cut with complete ease. As soon as the Demonic Path noticed Aeon's danger, they split some of their forces and surrounded him, but Aeon was like a phantom among them, easily avoiding their attacks, and each strike destroyed a corpse.
Despite the strength of the corpses, they were not alive; their movements were rigid and easy to predict, especially for someone experienced like Aeon. Every time he destroyed a corpse, the controller of that corpse would scream in pain and cough blood. The disciples of the Corpse Sect tied their souls to the puppets, and once the puppet was destroyed violently, it caused a violent backlash to the controller and threw their soul into chaos... in the end, Aeon was cutting off a part of their soul connected to the corpse. The pain resulting from that could not be imagined.
The number of corpses surrounding Aeon decreased rapidly, and the pressure on him lessened. Once a corpse was destroyed, that person's power dropped to less than half or even less than a third.
During the fight, Aeon tried to spread his senses and carefully search for the source of this threat, but this chaotic battle of Core Opening rank users was shaking the space and scattering others' auras, so he could only find the general location, not the exact place—otherwise he would have gone there from the beginning... and this person did not seem to care about these disciples who were dying constantly.
Aeon continued moving across the battlefield and fighting at the same time while searching for the owner of this aura. This continued for several minutes when he suddenly smiled.
"Found you!"
Aeon exploded his aura and pushed away the corpses surrounding him, then raised his sword above his head and condensed his aura to the maximum before bringing it down forcefully.
"Sword that cuts the sky!"
The blade shot out in the shape of a crescent over 10 meters long, leaving a long crack in the ground and cutting everything in front of it, whether Demonic Path disciples or their corpses—they were cut smoothly.
The sword wave continued toward its intended target when a hand suddenly appeared and struck the crescent from the side with the palm, forcefully changing its direction, and it faded after exhausting its power.
"You clown monkey, can't you dance quietly over there without disturbing my nap?" a lazy voice came from ahead. Only then did Aeon see that person.
It was Nick, the genius disciple of the younger generation.
He was sitting lazily under a tree, wearing the same clothes as the disciples of the Corpse Sect. He was unusually tall, over two meters, but extremely thin like branches. His face was pale, his cheekbones were very prominent, and the most notable feature was the fangs protruding from his mouth. He was from the vampire race, with long white hair and dark black eyes... but he was not the one who redirected the blade—it was the one beside him.
More precisely, it was not a person but a corpse. This corpse was different from the other corpses of the Corpse Demon Sect disciples. It was smaller, while other corpses ranged between two to three meters in height and were bulky. This one was under two meters and thinner, yet the pressure emanating from it was many times greater than the others. Aeon smelled danger from this corpse—but the danger coming from the person in front of him was several times stronger.
His senses, sharpened over the years, told him that this person had the ability to kill him.
Aeon placed his sword on his shoulder and said with the same laziness:
"Well, I don't like people watching me like I'm a clown, so I came here to teach this intruder a lesson and discipline him instead of his parents."
Nick's gaze turned cold.
"All you had to do was jump like a monkey here and there until this trial ended and return to your academy quietly, but it seems you are courting death by provoking me here."
Although Nick called Aeon a clown, he did not lower his guard. After all, he was an expert who carved his path through blood and bones. His senses also warned him that the person in front of him was very dangerous, but he was using psychological tactics to place himself above him—but it seemed that this did not affect Aeon.
Aeon said with annoyance, as if he had run out of patience and started speaking nonsense:
"Are you going to fight or what? Or you know what? Just tell me your name—I don't kill nameless people."
Nick's gaze grew colder, but he did not respond. Instead, he ordered his corpse to attack. He would test the waters first and then decide.
The corpse rushed powerfully toward Aeon and threw a punch at him, while Aeon was still in the same position, holding his sword on his shoulder. He extended his palm forward and blocked the strike. The moment the corpse's fist touched Aeon's palm, he twisted his hand slightly; his arms trembled and his clothes fluttered—yet he did not retreat even an inch.
Nick's eyes shrank when he saw this scene and immediately understood what happened.
Aeon had absorbed the force of the punch and redirected it into the ground. The corpse's fist sank like a mud bull entering water, disappearing without a trace.
This meant that Aeon's physical strength was at least equal to that of his corpse, and he had precise control over every inch of his body.
Nick ordered his corpse to attack again, unleashing a torrent of strikes. Aeon stored his sword in his spatial ring and entered into a fistfight with the corpse.
Dodge, dodge, strike.
Dodge, strike.
Aeon always avoided the corpse's blows by just an inch and delivered powerful hits whenever an opportunity appeared.
Honestly?
Aeon could actually destroy the corpse, even if it required some effort, but he was doing this to study it. It was the first time he encountered such a corpse—it was as if it had real combat experience, not just a lifeless battle puppet. He wanted to discover how far these corpses could go in terms of threat.
Two minutes passed like this when the corpse suddenly extended its hand, and a blood-colored spell appeared in front of it.
Aeon's eyes shrank sharply. He had never seen a corpse capable of casting spells… this went against common logic. You can inject soul and mana into a corpse—but not will.
Will is what makes a spell alive and moving; otherwise, it would collapse or be extremely weak.
Sometimes you see people like Alice, Aeon, and other trainees loudly calling out the names of their techniques—it is not just for show. It has a psychological role: first drawing the spell in the mind, then shaping it with the soul, then infusing it with mana as a vessel, and finally will as the trigger.
For example, if the caster has a violent will, the spell becomes more aggressive but less precise. That is why you may see different people using the same spell, yet each one differs due to the variation in will.
So Aeon could not understand how a corpse could cast a spell. Even if Nick controlled it, it should be impossible—because will cannot be applied outside one's body.
Aeon had no time to think when short arrows formed from blood shot toward him at high speed. He quickly dodged them, but one arrow grazed his arm. To his shock, the blood at the wound began to fluctuate chaotically, causing his aura to waver slightly. He quickly circulated his spiritual power, sealed the wound, and purified it as he saw crimson smoke rising from it.
"Damn!!" Aeon said in surprise.
But suddenly, a figure appeared behind him and tried to grab his waist. Aeon reacted faster—he twisted his body, flipped in the air, and placed his hand on the head of this second corpse that had appeared from nowhere.
Aeon was hanging upside down, using the corpse's head as a platform. He leaned forward slightly and drove his knee into it with force, deforming its face from the impact.
As soon as Aeon landed, several blood arrows attacked him again—but this time not from the first corpse, but from a third one that had appeared.
All the corpses had similar pressure despite slight differences in appearance.
Aeon performed several backward flips, avoiding the arrows that struck the surrounding trees, then steadied himself and looked at Nick behind the three corpses.
Aeon said:
"It seems you enjoy hiding in the back."
Nick replied with disdain:
"Even though a tiger uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit, killing you quickly would kill all the fun, so there's no harm in enjoying this a little."
Aeon responded as he drew his sword:
"Then don't blame me for destroying your little toys."
The black sword became covered in a bluish-white aura.
Aeon dashed forward forcefully as the three corpses attacked at the same time. He released a crescent blade horizontally this time, forcing the three corpses back, leaving long cuts across their chests, exposing white bone.
Nick was shocked. This attack was several times stronger than Aeon's previous crescent strike… then he quickly realized that Aeon had been playing with him. The first attack had been deliberately weaker to give the impression that this technique was only at that level—while its true power was far greater.
"You dare toy with me, you filthy insect?!" Nick shouted furiously. Being toyed with by mere livestock filled him with disgust and humiliation.
"Oh, did you figure it out… I thought you'd only realize it in your grave," Aeon said mockingly as he continued fighting the three corpses.
"Good… good! I'll show you the consequence of provoking me!" Nick roared fiercely as he waved his hand.
Four more corpses appeared—at the same level as the three Aeon was fighting.