A long time ago, martial artists of Jianghu used to learn martial arts for their own safety and protection against enemies.

But as time passed, martial arts evolved to kill enemies more efficiently and it grew to be more sophisticated and complicated.

The simple forms became a series of movements, and the breathing techniques represented the basics of internal energy.

Martial artists left heirlooms to the future generations with books and teachings of what they learned, allowing martial arts to evolve.

Martial artists were soon the ones who were more powerful than normal humans as they could run through the trees like the wind, crush stones with their fists, and cut down trees the swing of a sword. They were soon called the people of Wulin.

However, martial artists wanted to become more powerful and they gathered to form clans.

Those who wanted justice and honor called themselves the Force of Justice, and the ones who did not care about using violence and cruelty were called the Force of Evil.

And there were those who sought an entirely different route, seeking only strength. They were called the Demonic Cult.

The current Wulin was in a tight competition between the three forces.

South of Jianghu, there was a place called Ten Thousand Mountains. It was filled with tons of mountain peaks that spread vastly over the land, and this place was forbidden.

It was because this place was the home of the Demonic Cult.

In a deep forest far from the castle of the Demonic Cult, a boy who looked to be in his teens was running for his life.

“UGH!”

The boy was exhausted and heavily panting. His clothes were ripped and his face was full of bruises, showing that he had gone through a severe beating before he had escaped.

“Dammit!”

The boy spat, as he saw five masked men waiting to capture him. He had run so hard for the last thirty minutes, but it seemed he couldn’t get away.

“F*CK!”

The boy held on his trembling legs and glared at masked men. Their faces were covered, but it was easy to see that they all were smirking.

“You did well in running all the way here. Prince Chun.”

“Haha. I almost fell asleep while waiting for you.”

The boy frowned. If they had been waiting for him here, then there was no point for him to continue running in this direction.

The masked men all pulled out their swords from their backs. Their eyes were filled with the intention to kill the boy.

‘What should I do?’

It was his life that they wanted. It didn’t seem like talking to them would work. He had used all of his internal energy to run here, so he had no energy left to run or fight. But even with his death waiting for him, his eyes were filled with anger rather than fear.

“…Why? I gave up on joining the academy already. Why do you want to kill me?”

“Prince… you surely know that all of that doesn’t matter.”

The boy was at a loss for words. He had expected this day to come ever since he was very young, but he didn’t expect it would come even before he joined the academy.

“As long as you have the right to the throne… it is your destiny.”

The other masked men began making comments also.

“Surrender, and we will make this quick.”

“Even if you have peasant blood, we will not dishonor the blood of our Lord.”

The boy then became filled with anger. The word he hated the most were the words that insulted his mother.

‘Damn bastards!’

If he was going to die anyway, he might as well try to fight back. He pulled out a dagger. He had never learned martial arts, however. All he knew was whatever he observed from watching his guard, Warrior Jang.

“Hmm? A dagger? Did you learn something from Jang?”

Sadly, he didn’t. If he really did learn it, the skill would have been very useful here.

“Crude. But your blood speaks it for itself, that you do not cower away at your death.”

The masked men seemed to be very happy. It was better for them to kill someone who would not give up than someone who would beg.

“Kill him.”

One of the men gave the order and the other four attacked the boy at once. He thought he would hold them off for at least a bit, but that wasn’t the case.

“Haaaa!”

“ARGH!”

One of the masked men used his sword hit to strike the boy’s wrist and he dropped the dagger to the ground. His face grimaced and he glared at the masked man, but the man grabbed the boy’s neck.

“Argh…”

“Is it over?”

The boy’s face turned red, but his eyes had not given up yet.

At that moment, another man shouted, “Watch out!”

“What?”

“The dagger!”

A dagger stabbed the man’s chin. The boy had been hiding another dagger, and the attack killed the masked man at once.

‘What…? A mere boy without any martial arts training killed one of my fighters?’

The leader of the masked men who was watching became intrigued. It seemed like the boy was aiming for this from the beginning.

“Damn kid! Get him!”

Another man charged in and kicked the boy, swinging his sword down the boy’s stomach.

“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

The boy had never felt such pain in his life. A searing pain shot up from his stomach and blood soared up from his throat.

‘Dammit… so it didn’t work twice.’

But killing at least one of them made him feel better. He was going to die anyway.

“Aaaaagh…”

The masked man stepped on the boy’s punctured wound and the boy screamed in pain. The ground was drenched with blood. The man could have killed the boy at once, but he seemed to be giving the boy as much pain as possible.

“Slowly… I will give you a slow death!”

The leader didn’t seem to like what was happening, but he couldn’t stop him since it was for the revenge of his teammate. Suddenly…

A bright light shined as if a lightning bolt had struck. When the light disappeared, the masked men’s eyes turned in shock.

“W-what?!”

Blood sprayed up like a fountain. The masked man who had been stomping on the boy had lost the entire top half of his body where the blood was spurting upwards.

“W-what?!”

The boy also was in shock. If he wasn’t wrong, some white light streak had zapped the man and his body melted away.

“It’s him!”

The leader pointed to a certain direction in shock, and there was a strange man with weird clothing. The man then disappeared.

“Huh?”

It wasn’t through any movement skill. It was as if he had turned invisible so that he could not be seen.

Another light then struck another man, killing him also. The only ones left were the leader and the remaining masked man.

‘Someone is helping him… the white light. Is it a beam?’

If it wasn’t an energy beam that was said to be used by highly skilled warriors, there wasn’t anything like it that could instantly melt a human.

The boy had lost a lot of blood, so he would die anyway.

‘We did what we needed. We should retreat.’

The leader tried to send a signal for his man to fall back, but he was then struck with another streak of lightning and he disappeared also.

“AAAARGH!”

The man screamed in panic and tried to run, but he too was struck by the lightning. After all the men were killed, the boy smiled and chuckled, “Hah, farewell bastards.”

Then, a strangely-clothed man revealed himself in front of the boy. He wanted to scream in shock but he had no energy to do so.

“Whoa. So, my ancestor feels better even when you’re about to die?”

‘Ancestor?’

The boy frowned, but he had no energy to speak and his body was growing cold. He had lost too much blood.

‘Am I going to die now?’

That’s when he heard a weird beeping sound. Then he saw something on the silver-clothed man’s wrist and became shocked.

“I wanted to come earlier and teach you how to use it but… oh well.”

The man took out two things from a small bag. One was a syringe. The boy was almost at the brink of death.

“I should hurry.”

The man then injected the syringe at the back of the boy’s ear. He then brought up another syringe and stuck it in the boy’s heart.

“Ugh… it pains me just by looking at it. Anyway… hey, Ancestor.”

The man called out to the boy.

“Please make it right and make your descendant’s life easy, okay? The Nano Machine is the latest one there is, so it won’t be too hard to use.”

‘…What is he saying…?’

And with that, the man disappeared. The boy then heard a strange sound in his ears.

[Serial number: 034-4532-5893. Activating the 7th generation Nano Machine of the Sky Corporation. Scanning the user’s physical data. Now scanning…]

Weird words rang through the boy’s ears and a weird light began glowing from his body. It felt like thousands of ants were crawling over his body and soon the sound came back.

[Scanning complete. Emergency! Emergency! Found a severe wound on the user’s stomach. The blood loss is at 13%. Initiating blood injection and healing for life support.]

And the boy’s body began to change. It was the beginning of his life’s turning point.

Prince Chun had been attacked by masked men and was killed by a sword to the stomach.

Or so he thought… the guard, Jang, ran as fast as he could with his movement skill to find Prince Chun. When he found the boy, the place was littered with dead bodies that were missing their upper torsos. Only one of the masked men’s bodies was intact, but he had been killed with a dagger to his head.

‘It’s the dagger I gave to him.’

It was what Jang had given to Prince Chun on his 10th birthday. He didn’t teach him a single dagger skill since he was made to swear an oath to not teach any martial arts to the boy until he joined the Demonic Academy, so it was astonishing that the Prince had killed even one man.

“Oh… Prince!”

Jang then found the Prince slumped down on the ground. The ground was drenched with blood, hinting of doom.

‘Please…!’

If the Prince to die here, he wouldn’t be able to find the right words to apologize to the boy’s mother. However, something was weird.

“…Huh?”

He heard the boy’s breathing. From the looks of his clothing, it was certain that the Prince had been struck with a sword to his stomach, but his breathing seemed to be normal. Jang went up to him and picked up the clothes.

“Huh? There are no wounds.”

Prince Chun’s stomach was clean of any wounds. It was weird since the ground nearby was full of Prince Chun’s blood.

‘What is it? Hmm… did the Lord…? No. The Lord would not meddle with the fight for the throne… but who killed these men and saved the Prince then?’

His mind was full of questions, but none could be answered. Jang searched the area for a while and soon buried bodies and took up the Prince on his shoulder. He then activated his movement skill to travel toward the Demonic Cult’s castle.

As Jang’s hand touched the boy, something in boy’s head shocked him and deactivated his unconscious state.

[Self-healing mode paused at 80%. Master, wake up please.]

The boy’s eyes opened in shock as he heard a voice ringing in his head.

‘Huh?’

He had to have died from the severe blood loss, but he was alive and someone was carrying him on their shoulder. He looked down and that it was Jang Gageng, his guard.

“Jang!”

The boy’s face brightened up and the cold mechanical voice came back again.

[Confirmed target to be friendly. Deactivating automatic defensive mechanism. Reactivating self-healing mode.]

“UGH!”

And with it, the severe headache struck the boy’s head and he grabbed it with both hands.

“Prince! You’re awake. Are you okay?” Jang smiled and asked excitedly.

“Prince?”

But the boy couldn’t stand the headache and fell unconscious again.

It was the next morning when he woke up from his sleep.

“UGH!”

His body was drenched with sweat. He realized that he was sweaty and he wiped his forehead with his palm. However, he realized that it was not sweat, but something sticky instead.

“Ugh, what is this? Huh?”

He then saw the dark, black liquid on his palm and became shocked. It had a foul stench.

“Ewww!”

The smell was so bad and the liquid covered his entire body as if it had seeped out from his body.

“W-what is this?!”

That’s when the voice came to his head.

[Master. Are you awake?]

“What?”

The voice repeated itself.

[Master. Are you awake?]

“W-who are you?”

The boy got up from the bed and glanced around, but he soon realized that the voice wasn’t coming from outside.

[Master, please calm down.]

‘Is it coming from my head?’

[That is correct, Master.]

“What!”

He only thought the word and the voice seemed to have read his mind. The boy became nervous.

‘Telepathic message? No… it’s not that.’

Telepathy was a skill that highly-trained martial artists used to send messages to others. He had heard one of those types of messages once a long time ago. The message was sent with internal energy, and that made it feel like a wave of energy.

[I am unsure of what this ‘telepathic message’ is, but you are not listening to me through your ears, Master.]

“What! W-who are you?!”

The boy looked up in the air with wide eyes. He thought if one could send a message directly through his head, the one would be very powerful being.

[I am the 7th generation Nano Machine, made by Sky Corporation to serve as a core to support Master’s brain.]

“Wait, what? What are you talking about?”

The boy became pale as what he was being told was beyond his comprehension. The Nano Machine realized that the user did not understand their words.

“Who are you, and what do you want with me?!”

[I am the 7th generation Nano Machine.]

“Nano Ma Sin (Evil God)?”

[Yes. I am Nano Machine.]

The boy’s face turned grim. The Evil God was the being that the Demonic Cult worshipped. The Lord was the one who was given the power to communicate with the said God.

“A-are you really the Evil God?”

He was now kneeling on his knees, asking with a shaking voice. The Nano Machine had understood that the boy had gotten everything completely wrong.

The boy’s name was Chun Yeowun.

He was the member of the Chun family, the highest-ranked family in the Demonic Cult. The Chun family was related to the great Lord himself, and everyone considered them to be extremely powerful. However, contrary to people’s speculations, they were just a part of the six main families that maintained the Demonic Cult.

Chun Yeon was the son of a female slave who worked at the Lord’s chamber and was not from the six families. Although he was the child of a slave, he was still part of the Chun family and he had the right to the throne. Nonetheless, he was not even close to having a chance at taking the throne.

Then what made him fall encounter danger? The reason was with his mother, Lady Hwa. The Lord who did not like any of the six women from the six families fell in love with a mere slave. This made the other wives angry and spiteful. Moreover, their fury didn’t just end there.

Chun Yeowun encountered multiple life threats throughout the fifteen years of his life. He had no chance of succeeding the throne, but he was still wanted for his life due to the anger of the other wives. Since seven days ago, the assassination attempts increased greatly. It was because it was now time for him to join the Demonic Academy and that would test his right to succeed and earn the title to be the Lord’s heir.

If he joined the academy, he would learn martial arts and grow in power to have his own force. And the academy prohibited most outside entries, which would ensure his safety.

That’s why the assassination attempts happened so often.

“D-did you save my life, God?”

Chun Yeowun asked the voice in his head while he laid flat on the ground. The Nano Machine answered.

[If it is about the enemy who tried to kill you, no. But if you are talking about Master’s wound after going into self-healing mode, yes.]

“W-what is a self-healing?”

Yeowun couldn’t understand most of the words that the Nano Machine used. Nano Machine realized that they couldn’t communicate like this.

[Sending basic information to Master’s brain…]

“Huh?”

Nano Machine understood that it needed to find the right words for its master to understand.

[Searching for the right words for the era and culture.]

Nano Machine began searching through words and terms so that Chun Yeowun could understand. After a while, Nano Machine finished selecting the words to communicate.

[Master, I am not the Evil God that you speak of.]

Chun Yeowun became surprised at the sudden change of tone, although it still sounded mechanical.

“What? Then who are you?”

[I am trying to send you the basic information and manual about me to your brain. Will you accept?]

Nano Machine thought it would be easy to send the information instead of talking about it and Chun Yeowun nodded without knowing what it was actually. Then, a video flashed in his brain at once.

His eyes shook rapidly as he looked through multiple video images and soon he felt dizzy. He bent over and kneeled down to the ground to vomit.

“Ugh!”

[It is a natural reaction after receiving information through your brain. You will not feel dizzy the second time around.]

Chun Yeowun recovered from the dizziness and got up.

“What is going on?”

It was hard to believe. He had not seen or been taught anything, but he now knew about the machine created with highly-advanced technology installed in his brain.

“Nano Machine?”

[Yes, Master.]

“Is it true that thousands of machines are now embedded in my body?”

[That is correct. 6 billion, 482 million, and 40 thousand nanomachines have now been placed into your body.]

Chun Yeowun didn’t feel good about having something weird in his body, but he now realized what he was dealing with was not a human nor a god, but a machine.

He felt relaxed by the fact and asked, “If I want, can you get out of my body?”

[As you saw through the information that was sent, I am programmed to only be extracted outside the body in case you die.]

Therefore, the machine was bound stay until Yeowun died. He couldn’t understand why this had happened.

“Who put you into my…”

That’s when someone knocked on the door to his room.

“Prince. Doctor Baek is here.”

It was Jang’s voice. Yeowun wasn’t sure about how he should explain the fact that he was talking with a machine, so he stuttered, “S-stay quiet for a while.”

[I can read your thoughts to communicate, Master.]

“I get it. Just be quiet.”

[Going into silent mode.]

Yeowun got back on the bed and laid down with the blanket over his body. The door opened and a middle-aged man, Jang, and an old man with long white hair came in.

“The Prince seems to be asleep so we will… huh? Prince!”

Jang found Yeowun looking at him from the bed and quickly ran up to him.

“Are you okay Pr- ugh!”

He then placed his hand over his nose because of the terrible stench coming from the Prince.

“What’s going on?”

Yeowun forgot what happened to his body because he had been talking to the Nano Machine. The black ooze that came out of his body was too terrible to smell.

“Hmmm?”

Doctor Baek then walked up with an interested look on his face. He was the designated doctor for the Lord of the Demonic Cult, and was nicknamed Demon Doctor in the cult.

“Prince Chun, we know each other, don’t we?”

“Of course, Doctor.”

There wasn’t anyone in the cult that didn’t know about the doctor. Also, Yeowun had met him when his mother was sick.

“Give me your hand. Let me feel your pulse.”

“T-that’s…”

His hand was sticky from the ooze so it was embarrassing to show it to him. The doctor said it was okay he reached out so that Yeowun could give him his hand. The doctor checked his pulse for a while and opened his eyes in astonishment.

“This is very interesting.”

“What is it? Doctor Baek, did something happen to the Prince?”

Jang asked with a frown, but the doctor shook his head and smiled, “No. This is very good actually.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The entire body has been cleansed of any dirty substances and his energy flow has been activated. Did he consume a special kind of medicine or something?”

Yeowun was confused.

“You now have the perfect body to train in martial arts.”

“What?”

Yeowun then understood what the doctor said and became shocked. The black ooze that came out from his body was actually the dirty substances stuck inside his body. What was better was that his energy was now flowing, so he could now learn how to use his internal energy.

‘Hey, Nano Machine. Did you do this?’

[…]

[Deactivating silence mode?]

‘…Yeah.’

[Deactivated. Yes, Master. The nanomachines have extracted the unnecessary substances from your body and have reshaped the blood, muscles, and joints to best fit your body shape.]

‘…Wow.’

Yeowun assumed that it was probably because of the Nano Machine, but it was even more shocking to hear it from the Nano Machine itself.

‘Are you really not a Ma Sin (Evil God)?’

[I am a machine, not Ma Sin, Master.]

The Nano Machine answered with its mechanical voice.