Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 3

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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 3
The Demonic Cult maintains a foothold in Shipman Daesan, in the northwestern reaches of the Central Plains—a power from beyond their borders.
There was a time, long ago, when the Demonic Cult and the Central Plains martial world exchanged contact, but three hundred years ago, for reasons unknown, that intercourse ceased entirely.
According to legend, the Demonic Cult suffered a thorough defeat at the hands of the Central Plains and was sealed away.
In exchange for sparing their lives, they swore never to set foot in the Central Plains.
And yet that pact was struck three hundred years ago.
The Demonic Cult of today is merely a race of blood.
Beings who live by pure instinct—only the strong survive, and the weak are culled.
And they are nothing but raiders from beyond, casting their gaze toward the Central Plains.
Cunning and deceitful beyond measure….
“If you can move, at least earn your keep.”
Ungrateful….
“How much longer are you going to steal my food?”
“…….”
Yun Hyeon fell silent.
No—he had nothing to say.
The child’s words were entirely correct.
Someone provided food in abundance, yes, but it was the child’s own portion.
All this time, the child had been giving up his share to Yun Hyeon.
‘Ungrateful—’
Was it the Demonic Cult that deserved that name? Or was it himself?
‘I was wrong.’
Whatever else this child of the beast-like Demonic Cult might be, he was a savior of Yun Hyeon’s life. This manner of conduct was no way to treat a benefactor.
“Forgive me. You’re right. Tomorrow I’ll go out and find food myself.”
The child snorted, breath sharp through his nose.
Then he padded over to Yun Hyeon’s side and plopped down on the floor beside him, offering a rice ball as he always did.
As Yun Hyeon accepted the rice ball, he glanced at the child’s satchel.
Today too it was stuffed with unidentifiable grasses.
“Where do you go each day, wandering so far?”
“The mountain.”
“Why the mountain?”
“Just? I was bored.”
“So you gather medicinal herbs.”
“Medicinal herbs?”
“Those things there.”
Yun Hyeon gestured toward the child’s satchel with his chin.
Most of the plants were unfamiliar to Yun Hyeon, but he had occasionally noticed medicinal herbs mixed in among what the child brought back.
Since eating what the child brought made his body feel impossibly light, the rest must surely be medicinal herbs as well.
“It’s remarkable. You know nothing of medicinal herbs, yet you gather them every time.”
“I just pull up the ones that smell good.”
“Smell good?”
The child nodded, rice grains clinging to his mouth.
“There are lots of things in the mountains that smell good. It’s fun to go around picking them up.”
Ah, I see.
“You must have an excellent nose.”
So the child distinguished medicinal herbs by scent?
He had never heard of such a gift in a person, though he had read of it in books.
In the distant past, a sage named Baek Yak Seongsaeng was said to possess such a keen sense of smell that despite his blindness, he could discern all things by their scent alone.
‘And Baek Yak Seongsaeng was known to excel at gathering medicinal herbs.’
How exactly a refined sense of smell served in distinguishing medicinal herbs from poisonous ones, he could not say.
Yet it was hardly impossible.
“Tomorrow I shall follow you out and see for myself.”
“You want to come with me?”
“Yes.”
“Do as you please!”
The child cried out as though he cared not at all, then turned his head sharply away.
Yet his legs swung freely beneath him, and the faint smile tugging at his lips betrayed that he was quite pleased by the prospect of company.
In that moment, he was merely an ordinary child.
Not a beast, not a raider—merely a pure and innocent child.
“Now that I think on it, I don’t know your age or your name.”
“Hmm?”
“How old are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
Had his parents never told him his age?
“I think I counted up to five, but I forgot after that. It’s been a while since I forgot.”
The child counted on his fingers as if reckoning, then tilted his head.
“So five and five more—is that ten?”
Yun Hyeon, watching the child’s confusion, thought better of pressing further and changed the subject.
“Well then, what is your name? I am Yun Hyeon.”
“Yeon-u. Yeon-u.”
“Yeon-u, is it? A lovely name. Did your parents give it to you?”
At the casual question, the child’s expression darkened noticeably.
“……?”
Yeon-u, who had been staring at Yun Hyeon, suddenly leaped up and descended the wooden platform.
He seized a satchel and bolted toward the back of the house, disappearing into the woods without a backward glance.
Yun Hyeon gazed after him down the path for a long moment before understanding dawned.
‘Fool.’
“I’ve made a blunder.”
* * *
Tap—tap-tap—tap—
Yun Hyeon pursued Yeon-u swiftly through the forest.
Inner Power was beyond his reach, but a body honed by a lifetime of discipline could keep pace with a child climbing a mountain without difficulty.
“What a lovely scent!”
As they ascended, Yeon-u would occasionally dart off to dig up medicinal herbs or gather fruit.
The child’s sense of smell appeared sharper than one might expect.
“Hmm.”
As Yeon-u vanished once more, Yun Hyeon surveyed their surroundings for any sign of movement.
“It’s only fair.”
If one could move, it was natural to earn one’s keep.
Having spent so long as the head of his house, receiving its honors, he had forgotten that simple obligation for far too long.
Crackle….
The presence of an animal stirred in the distance.
Yun Hyeon’s hand moved to the hilt of the sword at his hip.
His lowered gaze suddenly sharpened, gleaming with intent.
* * *
Crackle—crackle—
Over the dancing flames, rabbit and bird meat sizzled as they roasted golden brown.
Dusk settled, and the aroma of roasting game filled the courtyard.
‘My hands remember well.’
He had thought that, after so long idle, hunting would be difficult, but his body felt surprisingly light.
‘Thanks to Yeon-u.’
Yun Hyeon picked up a well-cooked rabbit leg.
He turned to offer it to Yeon-u when—
“Gasp!”
Yun Hyeon drew in a sharp breath.
Yeon-u had crouched beside him, drool streaming freely from his mouth.
The child’s eyes were fixed entirely on the rabbit leg in Yun Hyeon’s hand.
Yun Hyeon looked between the meat and the boy, then extended the leg toward him.
Yeon-u gazed up at him, still drooling shamelessly.
“Can I eat it?”
“Eat as much as you like.”
What followed was swift.
The moment Yeon-u took the rabbit leg from Yun Hyeon’s hand, he began devouring it eagerly.
Yun Hyeon, watching the child devour his meal, picked up another piece of meat for himself.
“Pass me some salt. Sprinkle it while they cook, and the meat will taste even better.”
“Here.”
As Yun Hyeon seasoned the meat sizzling over the flames, he watched the child eat with quiet contentment.
Somehow, sharing a meal with this boy no longer felt strange at all.
Now, the thought of being without him stirred something not unlike longing—a peculiar feeling indeed.
“From the start, I’ve noticed you have quite the appetite.”
“I nearly starved to death.”
“Hah—have you truly gone so hungry before?”
“I was always hungry! Before, and now!”
“But surely someone provides your meals?”
“Not for long. Mother sold me not long ago.”
Yun Hyeon’s brow furrowed slightly.
Was the child joking?
“Sold…? Your mother sold you?”
Yeon-u took a large bite of meat and nodded.
“Yeah. With that money, she’s going to the Central Plains to live. She says there’s much better food there than here.”
“What?!”
Parents selling their own child?
Not content with the sale, abandoning the child and leaving?
Yun Hyeon, raised in the shelter of the Nangung clan’s shadow, could not even imagine a mother abandoning her child and departing.
Yun Hyeon turned his body in shock and asked.
“Who—who did you sell you to? Surely not to the one who brings you food every day?”
“To that person’s master.”
“Master? You have a master?”
“Yeah. He’s really wealthy! His house is huge.”
“This is no time to marvel at such things! Why on earth did he buy you?”
A parent who sells their child is one problem, but what possessed someone to purchase a child with money?
“He’s going to send me to the Maryong Gate in place of his own family’s child.”
“The Maryong Gate…?”
“It’s where you take a trial to become the Heavenly Demon. I don’t know what a Heavenly Demon is, but he said it’s a very high position.”
Yun Hyeon’s mouth fell open.
He had heard of it.
The Demonic Cult gathers children and conducts trials to select the strongest among them.
From those selected, they select again the strongest, and again, until finally the one who survives rises to the position of Heavenly Demon.
It is the Demonic Cult’s own method of selecting a leader, following the Law of the Strong.
But still.
“Why would he send you in his place?”
Wouldn’t any member of the Demonic Cult desire to become the Heavenly Demon?
If it is a trial to select the Heavenly Demon, it represents a chance to become one.
Why would someone forfeit that opportunity by paying to buy another child to send in their stead?
“People die there.”
“What…?”
“All the children his family sent before died. That’s why he’s sending me instead. He wants to protect his family’s children.”
Now Yun Hyeon understood everything.
A child living alone without parents.
A being who brings that child food every day.
The Demonic Arts Manuals placed in the room.
‘In other words, Yeon-u is a sacrifice.’
He could not know how the trial is conducted, or what cruel methods it employs.
But the Demonic Cult is a place where the strong survive and the weak are discarded.
Isn’t it an inhumane place where the weak are not even treated as human?
In the process of filtering out the strong, one could regard it as inevitable that young children—the weakest of all—perish.
If mixed into that process is a requirement to send a child, a necessity that cannot be refused.
‘Then it would be possible for someone to buy and send another child in order to protect their own family’s child.’
And Yeon-u is a victim of such abuse.
‘This is something the heavens and earth themselves condemn.’
How could those who commit such acts be called human?
Truly, they are demons wearing the masks of men.
‘But.’
Now that he knew, he could not stand by and allow this to continue.
“Yeon-u.”
“Hmm?”
Yeon-u turned to look at Yun Hyeon.
Round, blinking eyes sparkled with innocent purity, as though the child knew nothing at all.
“Come with me to the Central Plains.”

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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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