Cheon Yu-Jong, also known as the Southern Demon Lord, is the previous 23rd Lord of Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the father of Cheon Yeo Woon. He was one of the Top Five Strongest Masters in the entire Murim and succeeded the title 'Southern Demon Lord' after his father Cheon Inji.
Appearance[]
Personality[]
TBA
Background[]
History[]
His past was very similar to his son, Yeo Woon. He was born from the adopted daughter of the Sword Clan of the six clans. His mother would later die from the mental stress and sorrow due to the constant abuse from the wives of the lord. He was treated badly at the clan by his father's other wife and aunt.
Nano Machine[]
He was a member of the Cheon Family, the highest-ranked family in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Cheon Yu-Jong was born to Cheon Inji, the 22nd Lord of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and his wife, Yeo Haeun.
He was not technically born to the Six Clans much like his son. His mother was adopted into the Sword Clan by the clan leader Kyung Bongang since the clan leader's daughter Kyung Yooeun couldn’t give birth to a child between her marriage with Cheon Inji. But it was not long after adopted daughter Kyung Haeun was pregnant that Kyung Bongang’s real daughter Kyung Yooeun was pregnant.
Cheon Inji recognized both Yu-Jong and Yu-Jing as formal heirs. But even through that, life wasn’t easy. Kyung Yooeun began to treat Kyung Haeun poorly, and so did other wives from other six clans. And although no one knew if that played as a role, Kyung Haeun died before Cheon Yu-Jong could even remember his mother.
In his youth, Yu-Jong was discriminated and look down by his adopted mother who hated the very sight of him and refused to let call her "aunt". But his life was barely as he grew close with his younger brother, Yu-Jing with the two becoming the closets of friends. Yu-Jing would even make a promise to Yu-Jong that he would make everyone in their clan acknowledge his brother when he becomes the Cult Leader which put a smile on Yu-Jong's face.
Eventually, as they grew older, the two entered the Demonic Academy together, however, Yu-Jong faced unfair discrimination from the other descendants of the Six Clans since he wasn't a true descendant of the Sword Clan. Annoyed and enraged at this reality, Yu-Jong trained harder than anyone at the academy and found that he had a talent for martial arts.
In less than three years, Yu-Jong passed the fifth test in the Academy as one of the youngest to achieve such a feat. This act cause Yu-Jing to become jealous at his brother's abilities and started distancing himself. Knowing his talent was the reason, Yu-Jong became depressed and stopped training, choosing to wallow in his sadness, and didn't bother to gather his own force for the Battle of the Heirs. There was one person who wanted to join him: Yeo Bul-Wi from the Buju Sword Clan. Yu-Jong sent him to join Yu-Jing's force but Yeo Bul-Wi refuses.
When the academy is almost over Bul-Wi informed Yu-Jong that other prices including his brother Yu-Jing was planning to kill him. Initially, he didn't believe it but confirm when he spied on them. Only the princess Cheon Yu-Yay from Loyal clan didn't join since she didn't want to become Vice-Lord. Yu-Jong was very angry and disappointed, especially after learning how they badly treated his mother. However, he had stopped training for the past year after reaching Master while other prices had trained became Master level. So Ye Bul-Wi taught him the Blood God Reversion Art, an upgrade version of the deadly Blood Reversion Art. Left with no other choice, and gripped with anger, he used it to kill all the young masters but could not kill his own brother, so he cut his arm off. Yu-Jong was arrested the next day and while in prison, he suffered the horrible side effect of illusions and pain but was able to ease it down after meditating continuously. The leader of the Sword Clan intervenes on his behalf because Yu-Jong had threatened to reveal the research being made on the Blood Reversion Art by the Sword Clan. After he was freed, he didn't want to see Bul-Wi again since Bul-Wi had promised that the Blood God Reversion Art didn't have side effects. Yeo Bul-Wi left after telling him that the addiction is something he can't stop once he starts.
After a year, Cheon Inji took him to the Altar of Fathers and made him the Lord since Cheon Inji believe that Cheon Yu-Yay is too weak to withstand the danger that is coming. Cheon Inji did not go into detail, instead, telling Yu-Jong that he will be responsible for the cult and to ease his anger. Cheon Yu-Jong sword the oath at the Altar and tried, but the anger in his heart did not die easily and could not give any of his wives from the Six Clans love. In addition, since he became lord without preparations, he was weaker than other Elders and is protected by Great Guardian Marakyum, so he spent his all of his time training after finishing his duty as Lord.
Soon, a change happened in his life in the form of a female servant, Hwa Yun. They exchanged words at first, out of amusement, but soon, it evolved into full day of conversation. It was warm and happy, something he had not experienced his entire life and Cheon Yu-Jong fell in love with her. After a few months, Hwa Yun was pregnant and wanted to leave since it was against the cult rules that the Six Clans made. Yu-Jong could not leave his only love and hope, so he opened a meeting, declaring her pregnancy and pressed on with the marriage. However, all six clans rose up and it was so severe that Great High Lord, Cheon Inji came out of his closed room training to mediate a compromise: Cheon Yu-Jong was able to marry her, but she had to stay outside the Lord's palace. Cheon Yu-Jong didn't care and was happy to go to Hwa Yun house every day, hopping it would last forever. Unfortunately, jealousy and hatred began to arise from the wives of the Six Clans, and Cheon Yu-Jong had to appoint warriors to protect Hwa Yun from the harassment.
After a while, Cheon Inji disappeared and was nowhere to be found despite the resources to find him and prevent the information from spreading. The information still reached Power King Hang Yen, and he invaded the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. The war was brutal, and no one could stop Hang Yen, who killed 2 Elders and Cheon Yu-Jing, forcing Cheon Yu-Yong to go to war. Before he left, Hwa Yun fell ill, promising to wait for him. Cheon Yu-Jong led his army to fight Hang Yen's force and fought him one-to-one. Hang Yen was able to dominate because he was inept Enlightened Grandmaster while Cheon Yu-Jong was only at True Grandmaster. To turn the tide, Yu-Jong had to resort to the Blood God's Reversion Art that he withheld from using for 7 years. This gave him enough power to crippled Hang Yen, forced a retreat and he inherit Cheon Inji's title as one of the top 5 martial artists.
His excitement did not last after finding out his wife had died from poisoning. Despite the search, the killed was not found. Cheon Yu-Jong became furious, cutting ties with every wife from the Six Clans. The Poison Clan ended up taking a huge lost for it even though culprit was never found and Demon Doctor Baek Jong Woo’s claim that the poison could be acquired even if it wasn’t for the Poison Clan. The Six Clans most likely could not do much about this since Cheon Yu-Jong had just defeated Hang Yen and inherited the title of the Top 5 martial artists so someone needed to take the fall to appease Cheon Yu-Jong. Baek Oh had to step down from his eldership since he himself suspected the culprit to be his own daughter. Moreover, the side effect of the Blood God's Reversion Art was more severe, causing him to lock himself in training room during his wife's funeral in fear he might kill Cheon Yeo Woon by accident. After a month, it stopped and he came out of training, becoming cold. After he learnt of his wife's oath to the Six Clans of not letting Cheon Yeo Woon learn martial art to protect Cheon Yeo Woon while Yu-Jong was at war, he was certain the killer was in the Six Clans and wanted to kill them but could not because a civil war would destroy the Demonic Cult. He decided to change the cult from the roots by weakening the Six Clans power but had to do it slowly to not weaken the Cult itself. He wanted to take Yeo Woon into his protection, but he knew history would just repeat itself, while making it harder to find the Hwa Yun's killer. He decided to leave his son as bait to protect him and ensure he didn't suffer the same fate as Hwa Yun.
In the next 10 years, the Lord protected Cheon Yeo Woon from the shadow. There was an incident where the Lord's warrior infiltrated Cheon Mukeum's assassin attempt on Yeo Woon to protect Cheon Yeo Woon but were wipe out by a stranger. On the first day of the Demonic Academy, Yu-Jong saw his son, who had inherited many features from his mother, for the first time, but had to look away quickly to suppress his emotions. When Hang Soyu tried to harm Cheon Yeo Woon out of spite, Cheon Yu-Jong had her put under house arrest for a year under the pretext of Hang Soyu disrupting the 1st Test of the Demonic Academy. As soon as he heard Right Guardian's interest on Cheon Yeo Woon, he told Marakyum to inform Left Guardian to ignore academy rules to let Cheon Yeo Woon learn from Right Guardian. He thought it was a good opportunity since he himself could not teach Cheon Yeo Woon without the Six Clans noticing. As Cheon Yeo Woon fought his way through the heirs from the Six Clans in the Demonic Academy, severing Cheon Yuchan and Cheon Wonryou right arm while crippling Cheon Jongsum, the Six Clans could not retaliate under Cheon Yu-Jong's scrutiny. Baek Oh noted that since Cheon Yu-Jong had been trying to weaken the Six Clans, any retaliation by breaking into the Demonic Academy would give Cheon Yu-Jong the perfect excuse to weakened the Six Clans even more. After two months, the Sword Clan tried to harm Cheon Yeo Woon during the 3rd test so Cheon Yu-Jong had the Right Guardian and the guardian army on standby while Left Guardian presides over it to prevent any foul play. This worked well since Cheon Yeo Woon was protected while Cheon Yu-Jong was able to weaken the Sword Sect by arresting their sub-sects since they had broken their promise of ending the research on the Demon Blood Reversal Art. Unfortunately Cheon Yeo Woon misunderstood and thought the Lord was just using him for some grand scheme, resenting Cheon Yu-Jong further, since Cheon Yeo Woon believed that he and Hwa Yun were only pawns in Cheon Yu-Jong schemes to suppress the Six Clans.
After three years had passed Jurkang castle fell to a mysterious clan and Cheon Yu-Jong made a deal with his enemy from the Yulin clan from Forces of Justice to quickly deal with the situation since Cheon Yeo Woon was able to graduate. He was afraid if this war prolonged again, the Six Clan would try to hurt Cheon Yeo Woon like they did Hwa Yun when he was at war 15 years ago. However, the unknown force (Blade God Six Martial Clan) was more dangerous than any enemies he had seen previously, when the Elder forces were not enough, he went into battle with Marakyum. As he was about to kill one of them, Blade Lord appeared and subdue Yu-Jong easily in just 10 moves. As he tried to strike Yu-Jong down, Yu-Jong remembered his wife and son and used the Blood God's Reversion art again. Despite the Demonic Doctor's warning that the side effect would not go away if he used it again, he had to choose if he wanted to stay alive. He didn't remember anything after using it. When he woke up, Marakyum was helping him stand up. He started to see illusions of his dead brother, convincing him to bring balance to the cult again. In reality, he was slowly losing his mind due to the overuse of Blood God's Reversion Art.
As he starts slowly losing his mind, he became even colder and heartless and extremely antagonistic towards every cult member including Marakyum and Cheon Yeo Woon, especially witnessing Cheon Yeo Woon's martial prowess and discovering the 6th floor of the Demonic Academy. It all came to a head when Cheon Yeo Woon stepped in and showed everyone the Heavenly Demonic Sword to inherit the throne. A battle ensues between father and son. Despite Cheon Yu-Jong's injuries and madness, Cheon Yeo Woon had to use the Demonic Energy he inherited from Cheon Ma to balance out the difference in interal qi as well as his 2 most powerful art, Right Sword, Left Blade, and nano's electricity just to subdue him. In the aftermath, he was in such bad condition that the Demonic Doctor did not know how to cure him, prompting Cheon Yeo Woon to look for the Godly Doctor to cure him. Cheon Yeo Woon wanted to hear the truth him his father after learning from Marakyum that he had secretly protect Cheon Yeo Woon from the shadow.
He would recover with the Godly Doctor's treatment while Yeo Woon went on adventures throughout the murim and the empire while making a name for himself. After hearing about it, he looked into the sky, telling his dead wife that their son is so much better than him and feeling proud.
Descent of the Demon God[]
Years after his son Yeo Woon had returned to the timeline, he is seen playing with his five year old Granddaughter Cheon Hye-ryang. After his granddaughter is put to bed for the night, his son shares a drink with him.
Trivia[]
- He was not technically born to the six major clans much like his son. His mother was adopted into the Sword Clan since there was troubles of the clan failing to give birth to offspring.
- He was extremely gifted as a martial artist and is the most gifted out of all his siblings, passing the Demonic Academy 5th test in less than 3 years even without resources of the Six Clans when he was little. It took other princes a whole year to catch up to him after he stopped training, meaning he could very well have followed Cheon Inji footstep and passed the 6th test if he didn't stop training.
- His mother died and a cousin of his on his mother's side started to manipulate him and gave him the Blood God Reversal Technique (upgraded version of the Blood Reversal Technique), basically turning him into a berserker. That cousin continued to manipulate him to the very day Yeo Woon became lord. It was revealed the cousin was just an illusion the Blade God Six Martial Clan used to manipulate him.
- He set a horrible precedent by slaughtering all of the other competitors for the Lord heirship. Only ones that survived was a half-sister that stayed out of the competition and his half-brother in the same clan who he had an arm amputated.
- He had only ever loved Lady Hwa, the main character's mother. He tried to stay away from the MC in fear the six clans might kill his son, and instead, try to protect him from apart.
- It was hinted very subtly that he does care about Cheon Yeo Woon and Lady Hwa before the reveal of his backstory:
- At the academy's opening, Yeo Woon was the only person he glanced at, even though he was in the back.
- When right guardian mentioned that Lady Hwa was the only person the lord loved.
- When the Great Guardian Marakyum ordered the Left Guardian Lee Hwamyung to pretend not to know that Right Guardian Seob meng was teaching Cheon Yeo Woon his technique even though it was clearly against the academy's rules. Great Guardian Marakyum doesn't take order from anyone except for the Lord and he had no reason to help Cheon Yeo Woon.
- It was mentioned that Cheon Yu-Jong kept trying to weaken Six Clans power with every excuse he can even though he himself is from one of them.
- Cheon Jongsum mentioned that Cheon Yu-Jong became furious after Lady Hwa died, cutting ties with every wife from the Six Clans. The Poison Clan ended up taking a huge lost for it even though culprit was never found and Demon Doctor Baek Jong Woo’s claim that the poison could be acquired even if it wasn’t for the Poison Clan.