Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 24

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

Episode 24
Snap—
Yeon-u flicked his blade.
Lightly, using his index finger just as Un-hyeon had done.
And then the string—
“Not even close, Yeon-u.”
Un-hyeon rapped Yeon-u on the crown of his head with a sharp knock.
“Ow!”
Yeon-u rubbed his throbbing scalp and turned to face Un-hyeon.
“Why can’t I do it?”
“Did I not tell you? It’s a matter of experience.”
Un-hyeon raised the hand holding the wooden sword.
“I have held a blade for more than One Gapja—sixty years. How could you, who have only just picked up a sword, hope to compare?”
Un-hyeon’s lips quirked upward in an amused smile as he looked down at Yeon-u’s pouting face.
“You must have misread my form. Come, watch again.”
Un-hyeon grasped the wooden sword with both hands.
Holding it tightly as if he were a boy learning swordplay for the first time, he drew the blade down in one broad, smooth arc from overhead.
“Strike down like this. If you can sever the string, it matters not whether you are slow or swift, whether you put force behind it or strike gently.”
Yeon-u gripped the sword and followed suit, slashing through the air.
“Like this?”
“Yes. But remember this: a blade swung without purpose cuts nothing. So even if you swing once, pour clear intent into that strike.”
“I will cut that string.”
“That is the spirit.”
Un-hyeon patted Yeon-u on the head and stepped back.
“Now, try again.”
“Yes!”
Yeon-u took his place before the string with solemn determination.
Gripping the sword with both hands, he cried out and brought it down, and the string—
Ping—!
The string was wound so taut that the wooden sword bounced clean away from the impact.
The rebound sent Yeon-u, still mid-swing, staggering back, where he froze.
A brief silence hung in the air.
Then he attacked again and again: slash, slash, slash!
But the string refused to give way as easily as he’d hoped.
He went on bringing the blade down, strike after strike.
After a long spell of effort, Yeon-u’s spirits had sunk so low that he hunched down among the bushes, hugging his knees, muttering to himself.
“Yeon-u has no talent…….”
The wooden sword lay abandoned some distance away.
At the sight, Un-hyeon laughed lightly and spoke.
“If I thought you’d succeed easily, I would not have set it as a goal. If you manage it before the day is done, I’ll roast that pheasant meat you spoke of wanting for dinner tonight.”
“…!”
Yeon-u’s eyes flashed as he turned to look at Un-hyeon.
“…Really?”
“Yes.”
“All right!”
Yeon-u sprang to his feet and snatched up the wooden sword again. The fire had reignited in the boy’s eyes.
And after one double-hour had passed.
As the dinner hour approached, Un-hyeon was butchering the pheasant meat as promised when he sensed a presence and lifted his gaze.
Yeon-u was approaching with confident strides.
‘He’s done it, it seems.’
Un-hyeon looked up at the sky.
‘About one double-hour, then.’
Longer than he’d expected.
Yeon-u had strength; he’d thought the boy would finish quickly. That it took this long was surprising.
‘Perhaps….’
Did he truly lack talent for the blade?
He’d hoped the boy would succeed on his first try.
“Grand-fa-ther-r-r-!”
Yeon-u approached with proud, strutting steps.
“Ta-da-!”
In the child’s hands, two precisely divided pieces of thread fluttered gently.
“Excellent. Well done.”
Un-hyeon nodded in approval and spoke.
“Now go help prepare lunch. The firewood has run low—fetch some more, will you?”
“Yes! All right!”
Yeon-u set the Wooden Sword aside and dashed toward the back of the house, his feet pattering rapidly.
Un-hyeon examined the thread he’d received from the boy.
Throughout it were countless tiny marks showing how diligently the child had struck it down.
‘He hasn’t taken any shortcuts.’
Most children would have grown lazy or found another way to snap the thread if no one was watching—all for want of meat—but Yeon-u had done no such thing.
The boy was always this way.
Whether Un-hyeon watched or not, he might complain, but he never cut corners.
Even if it took a Double-hour to snap a single thread.
‘Hmm.’
Crack! Crack!
The sound of wood being split echoed from the back of the house.
Un-hyeon found his thoughts wandering.
‘Surely the boy knows how to chop firewood?’
Before Un-hyeon had arrived here, the house had been stocked with firewood.
During his recovery, when he’d been nursed by Yeon-u, he’d seen that the boy prepared the firewood himself.
Though they didn’t light fires as often now, so there was no need to chop wood daily.
‘Still, I’ve heard the sound from time to time.’
But since he’d grown stronger and gradually taken over the meal preparations, he hadn’t seen Yeon-u chopping firewood anymore.
The more he thought about it, the more curious he became.
‘Cutting wood should use force in much the same way as what the boy learned today.’
Yet it took a Double-hour just to snap a thread….
“Hmm….”
Had he asked too much of the child?
Un-hyeon set down what he was doing and headed toward the Back Yard.
He went intending to tell the boy to stop if the task would take too long.
“……!”
What Un-hyeon witnessed then was beyond belief.
A swift motion—
Yeon-u hefted the small Axe.
Then, without hesitation, he brought it down.
A sharp crack—
Astonishingly, a log as thick as Yeon-u’s own torso split clean in two with a single blow.
Un-hyeon’s jaw fell open at the sight.
Coincidence? Mere chance?
But before that thought could even finish forming, it happened again.
With an unconcerned expression, Yeon-u stood each split piece upright and cleaved them again—crack! Split!—into halves.
When he lifted the logs he grunted with effort, but when he swung the axe, it was nothing short of deadly precision in a single stroke.
The way he kicked the split wood casually into a pile even looked elegant.
A light exhale—
Yeon-u wiped the sweat beading on his forehead and gazed down at the firewood he’d chopped.
“Is this enough?”
“……!”
Un-hyeon had no time even to be shocked before he hurried back to his place, lest the boy notice him.
Rapid pattering footsteps—!
“Grandfather—!”
Listening to the delighted voice of the child running toward him, Un-hyeon’s thoughts grew grave.
‘Perhaps…….’
His eyes dimmed with a distant light.
* * *
The next day.
“Take it.”
Yeon-u stared hard at what now lay in his own hands, just as he had the day before.
“This is….”
Yeon-u’s head tilted in puzzlement.
“A Wooden Axe?”
“A wooden axe,” he said.
“A wooden… axe…?”
Un-hyeon nodded.
An axe’s power comes not from the blade’s edge but from the force of the strike itself, so normally one didn’t train with wooden versions.
But there was something he wanted to test.
“Come this way.”
Un-hyeon led Yeon-u forward.
There, as yesterday, was a string connecting two wooden blocks.
“Sever that string with it.”
“Yesterday a sword, today an axe?”
“That’s right.”
This was no ordinary wooden axe.
Like the wooden sword Yeon-u had used the day before, it had been specially carved with a blunt edge.
“Try it.”
Yeon-u positioned himself before the string, then—
“Hah!”
He raised the wooden axe and brought it down lightly.
With a soft snap, the string parted.
He’d succeeded on the first attempt.
‘As I thought.’
Every martial artist has a weapon that suits them.
Some favor the sword, others the spear, the bow, the dagger, and still others strike with their bare fists.
Among all those weapons, the sword and unarmed combat stand as the supreme disciplines.
More people study them universally, and because so many masters have devoted themselves to perfecting these arts, martial knowledge runs deeper in these paths.
Yet that does not mean martial arts other than sword and fist are weak.
‘In fact, an unfamiliar discipline often catches an opponent off guard.’
Among those called the Ten Greatest Masters Under Heaven and the Five Great Immortals, many are martial artists who wield weapons other than sword and fist, and for good reason.
‘A martial artist’s level depends on how they temper and refine themselves, not on which discipline they pursue.’
In other words, there was no necessity for Yeon-u to learn only the Sword Technique.
He had hoped to pass on his own blade to the boy.
‘But my desires don’t matter now.’
What mattered was Yeon-u’s growth and achievement—raising his chances of survival.
To accomplish that, choosing a weapon that suited him now was the right course.
“Yeon-u. Bring me the axe.”
“The axe? Why?”
“There’s somewhere we need to go.”
Un-hyeon brought Yeon-u, axe in hand, to the Stream Bank.
A shallow stretch where the water ran just below Yeon-u’s waist.
“Wade in.”
“…? All right.”
Yeon-u complied, stepping into the water without hesitation.
Shortly after, Un-hyeon drew his blade and swung it lightly toward a nearby tree.
A log as thick as Yeon-u’s torso came apart with a crisp crack, splitting into lengths perfect for firewood.
“Wow—”
Un-hyeon picked up two of the pieces and waded into the water.
He set one log in front of Yeon-u with a splash, then positioned his blade vertically to hold the buoyant wood beneath the surface.
Yeon-u blinked as water droplets scattered across his face.
“Split it.”
“…?”
Yeon-u looked up at Un-hyeon, clearly puzzled.
“Chop the firewood.”
Yeon-u’s brow furrowed as he pointed down at the submerged log with one finger.
Un-hyeon nodded.
“I noticed yesterday that splitting wood seems to be your strength.”
“Well, yes.”
That much was true.
“Show me.”
Yeon-u’s brow deepened as he stared at the log sunk beneath the water’s surface.
“Show me what you can do.”

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