Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 105
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Crack—!
The moment Yeon-woo brought the axe down with all her strength, the magic arts binding the Strange Bird’s legs shattered completely.
At the same instant, a sharp light burst through the split vines.
“Ah!”
Despite the brightness of midday, the glaring light stung her eyes, and Yeon-woo squeezed them shut.
Her energy drained away.
She should have had strength left—she’d rested and struck only once—yet it was pouring from her body in an instant.
Yeon-woo staggered.
And in that moment when her mind began to blur—
“…!”
Something warm caught her.
‘The Mother Bird?’
It felt like a bird’s wing, like a soft down quilt, or perhaps like being cradled in clouds.
Yeon-woo surrendered herself entirely to that warmth and gentleness.
A dream, though she wasn’t asleep.
Within that incomprehensible inner vision, a voice endless in its tenderness reached her.
— Young and innocent soul who understands life and death. Your goodness has set me free.
Yeon-woo blinked.
She was standing.
And before her stood a small red bird.
‘The Small Bird.’
— That’s right. I am the young bird you remember. And I am also her mother.
‘Huh?’
Yeon-woo tilted her head in confusion.
The same bird as the small one, yet also the mother? What did that mean?
As she tilted her head in bewilderment, a soft, low chuckle rang out.
— Will you walk with me for a time?
In that moment, Yeon-woo’s surroundings transformed.
Whoosh—
A cool breeze swept across, and the sound of leaves rustling filled the air.
From somewhere came the laughter of children running and playing, and the murmur of women conversing.
Before she knew it, Yeon-woo stood in the heart of an unfamiliar village.
‘Where is this?’
Yeon-woo understood.
This was not reality. Yet it seemed far more real than the Illusion Formation she had witnessed before.
— This is my inner vision. A past of mine that I had forgotten.
‘Small Bird!’
The Small Bird had appeared at Yeon-woo’s side.
The Small Bird chuckled softly at Yeon-woo’s delighted reaction.
— Come this way.
The Small Bird led Yeon-woo onward.
Yeon-woo followed the Small Bird toward a house with a large gate standing before it.
And there, to her astonishment—
‘The Mother Bird!’
The Mother Bird with whom she had just been speaking lay there.
The Mother Bird occupied the entire courtyard, sleeping peacefully with a serene expression.
Yeon-woo was about to approach the Mother Bird with joy when—
Patter-patter-patter—
A child came running out from inside the house.
Yeon-woo stopped in her tracks.
The child passed in front of Yeon-woo and ran toward the Mother Bird.
The child paid her no attention whatsoever.
— It’s because this is an inner vision. The child cannot perceive you. She is only a fragment of memory.
‘Ah.’
Yeon-woo wanted to ask what a fragment of memory meant, but held her tongue.
The child was poking at the Mother Bird’s beak.
“Jujak, Jujak! Where is Father? Tell me where Father is! Please?”
After a moment, the Mother Bird opened her eyes.
Pale flames flickered within the crimson eyes that slowly opened.
“Will he not come today either? Hmm?”
Jujak tilted her head back with a soft motion.
For a moment, Jujak’s eyes gleamed beneath the sunlight. Then she lowered her gaze to the child and spoke.
– He will come today. I sense his presence not far to the north.
“Really?! Truly?!”
The child’s face brightened at once.
“I must tell Mother!”
And with that, the child bolted away in a thunder of footsteps.
Jujak’s crimson eyes followed the child for a moment.
Then, with a soft rustling—
Jujak rose from where she stood.
Her presence seemed far more imposing than the Mother Bird Yeon-woo had ever seen.
Her wings unfurled.
Jujak soared into the sky.
As her great wings beat, a fierce wind rose with her.
Yet it touched no one and nothing around her.
– Come along.
The Small Bird and Yeon-woo followed in Jujak’s wake.
But the moment they began to follow, they already stood atop a towering rocky cliff.
A densely forested ravine spread below the cliff’s edge.
Jujak stood at the cliff’s end.
And beside the bird stood a man.
“The view is splendid, is it not?”
In response to the man’s question, Jujak gazed down at the forest.
The densely clustered trees seemed to pulse with a darker energy than any other woodland.
– Do you find favor in this forest?
“Yes.”
The man laughed softly.
“There is a peculiar energy flowing through it. As you well know, it suits my martial arts perfectly.”
– I see.
After gazing at the forest for a moment, Jujak nodded faintly.
– Yes. That may well be so.
“Jujak.”
The man turned to face her.
“Will you truly abandon this worthless wretch?”
Jujak’s crimson eyes held the man within them.
She had met him when he was of the lowest station among humans; now he was the head of a great house and the master of a major school.
“Only because you stood by me have I reached this place. Without you, I wonder if I could even find the right path forward.”
– You will find it.
“Jujak…”
– I have been your companion, nothing more. I have never been your guide. That you have come this far is the fruit of your own choices.
“But…”
Jujak cocked her head slightly.
– You grieve as though you will never see me again. From where does this dread spring?
“I am afraid.”
The man lowered his head.
In the eyes of the world, he commanded thousands of martial artists as their master; before this great bird, he was merely a child.
On the day he had lost his home and wandered lost, trembling alone in the forest with loneliness, his small shoulders had shaken.
“I have lost my parents, lost the grandmother who raised me, lost my dear friends. I fear… that you too will leave my side forever…”
– Child.
Though he had long since entered middle age, Jujak still called him by that name.
Because the man wished to be seen as young, in Jujak’s eyes he remained small and lonely still.
– Do not fear. I will walk with you until the day you complete your wandering across all the world.
“Will you not stay? Must you go?”
– …
“Could you not remain as you are now, always at my side?”
– …
“The courtyard is small, I know. I will move to a larger place. No—I will build a garden greater than any estate under heaven. Please… stay.”
– You know that is not the reason.
“….”
– I was born to soar through the heavens. To survey all under heaven, to read its currents, and to flow with them as one.
“….”
– To linger in one place does not accord with my nature.
“….”
The man could not lift his head easily.
Jujak spoke to him in a soothing tone.
– Once each year, I will return. This I promise.
And shortly after, the man’s eyes reddened as he lifted his gaze to meet Jujak’s.
The man pointed toward the forest and spoke.
“Before you go, might you purify that place? I wish to make it my home.”
– That much is no difficulty.
“Thank you… Jujak….”
The man bowed deeply toward Jujak, his fists pressed in respect.
In that moment, Jujak’s gaze turned toward the direction where Yeon-woo and the Small Bird waited.
Those red eyes, flickering with inner light, seemed somehow pained.
‘…!’
Mother Bird…!
Yeon-woo thought he understood.
She couldn’t leave.
If she went there, surely…!
– But she did.
Yeon-woo turned to look at the Small Bird.
In the Small Bird’s red eyes, fixed upon Jujak, there was only pain.
– She loved that human so deeply, held him so dear in her heart. That is why she went. And then….
The Small Bird turned to face Yeon-woo.
– When she finished the purification and sought rest, she was captured. Because she believed in him, she harbored no suspicion.
Thus did Jujak’s feet become bound to this forest by the very human she loved.
Robbed of her true form by a power of great magic, she lived for centuries — for that human, for his descendants, for their descendants’ descendants.
– Another original body, created to escape this place. That is me. The Small Bird as you remember her.
In that instant, the Small Bird’s form grew larger.
– I am her child.
The Mother Bird now stood at Yeon-woo’s side.
Face to face with her own past.
– Yet even this true form could not break free from the chains of that magic. It was you who lifted that inescapable yoke from my shoulders.
The Mother Bird — Jujak — looked down at Yeon-woo.
The landscape around them had shifted once more in the meantime.
Back to that gentle place of moments before — where forest and village and temple hall existed no longer.
Yeon-woo blinked.
‘So now… I can leave?’
– Yes. Thanks to you, I have finally reclaimed my true self. Now I must depart this place.
Back to the heavens as they were.
Back to that sky where I once soared free.
– Thank you.
Yeon-woo smiled brightly.
‘I’m so happy I could help Mother Bird.’
Though he had no clear sense of what exactly he had done, Yeon-woo simply felt joy.
Joy in the fact that he had been of service.
Then, as if something occurred to him, he turned urgently to the Mother Bird and asked.
‘But then… what happens to the Small Bird now?’
Will she disappear?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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