Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 37

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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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Episode 37
“I ask once more. Did you truly meet the Emperor’s Sword in this place?”
Rustle—
Ho Yeon’s gaze wavered as he stared at the blank paper before him.
With trembling hands, Ho Yeon took it from him.
“This is… this is….”
“Nothing was written here from the beginning.”
From the moment Ho Yeon had handed over what he claimed was a letter from the Emperor’s Sword.
When he saw the empty page, he’d thought perhaps the Emperor’s Sword had circumstances he couldn’t put into words.
So he’d followed Ho Yeon, and come this far—
“Young Master of Namgung….”
Myung Hyun Jin In rubbed his furrowed brow with a weary expression.
“It seems you are quite exhausted.”
“That… that can’t be….”
Ho Yeon’s hand holding the paper trembled.
“I hear that since you set out on this search, you haven’t been sleeping properly. Perhaps you should return and rest first—”
“That can’t be true…!”
All of it a lie?
The days he’d spent with his father were lies?
“I truly met my father in this place!”
And he’d seen it clearly.
His father’s life being threatened by someone.
“Please help me…!”
The expression on Ho Yeon’s face was desperate.
So desperate, so raw with anguish, that even Myung Hyun Jin In and the martial artists of Kunlun were taken aback.
“I beg you! He must be near. Please help me find my father!”
“Young Master….”
Myung Hyun Jin In and the Kunlun martial artist exchanged an awkward glance.
Myung Hyun Jin In looked up at the sky.
The day was already fading.
There was no way they’d make it back before nightfall.
Myung Hyun Jin In released a low sigh.
“…One night only.”
Ho Yeon’s face brightened rapidly.
“Thank you…!”
* * *
At that same moment.
Tap-tap—tap-tap—
Un Hyeon was racing through a deep valley studded with enormous boulders.
“….”
Un Hyeon’s sharp gaze read the traces of those pursuing him from behind.
‘Thirty, perhaps.’
Quite a gathering. But then again.
‘Compared to Seol Hun San, their numbers are meager.’
Tap—
Before he’d sent Ho Yeon to Kunlun.
From the conversations of the Wave Path Sect’s martial artists, Un Hyeon had learned that the sect master would come to kill him soon enough.
And in that battle, his son’s life might well be endangered.
With his body as it was now, Un Hyeon could not face the Wave Path Sect and protect Ho Yeon.
So he had made his choice.
To remove Ho Yeon from this battlefield.
‘Forgive me, my son.’
Even though you looked upon me with such longing and hope.
‘I no longer have the strength to protect you.’
The Blank Letter he’d sent to Kunlun’s sect master was for that reason.
Though he wanted to believe, and thought he could trust, there remained a doubt in his heart.
A thought that it might endanger his son—so he could not afford to leave any trail.
Tap—
Un Hyeon came to a halt.
In the depths of the valley, at a place where he could advance no further.
Whoooosh—
Twilight light filtered through the crevices that formed the valley, casting its glow across Un Hyeon’s back.
Yet shadows already pooled at his feet.
The sun was sinking, and darkness was settling over the valley.
….
Un Hyeon turned around.
The soft glow of sunset pouring down, and the valley it illuminated.
And beyond the valley’s rim, dark figures rising into view.
The Wave Path Sect’s martial artists who had been pursuing Un Hyeon all along.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
A booming laugh echoed through the valley.
Un Hyeon looked straight ahead.
At the bend of the valley, beyond that point, several more figures emerged.
And standing at their center—
“Have you wandered into your own grave? Emperor’s Sword!”
A man whose frame was broader than the others, his thick arms covered in countless scars.
He wielded a short blade in both hands—crude as a kitchen knife—and butchered his opponents with savage ferocity, earning himself a notorious epithet.
The Wave Path Sect Master, Gwang Cham Do.
“Well, what a perfect place to die! Screams would echo beautifully here, and blood spilled would trouble no one.”
Gwang Cham Do laughed with a cackle, swinging his blade.
A frivolity unbecoming of an Orthodox Sect martial artist.
Murder gleamed in his eyes.
“Has it been since Huk San that we’ve met?”
Shring—
Un Hyeon drew his sword.
He raised it toward Gwang Cham Do.
“Yet you’ve kept your seat as Sect Master, even after driving your disciples to their doom.”
“A dismissal for such a trifle? My martial art is simply extraordinary.”
“That day, eighty percent of the Wave Path Sect was annihilated.”
Gwang Cham Do let out a low chuckle.
“Disciples gather quickly enough.”
“Will it be the same today?”
Gwang Cham Do’s brow furrowed slightly.
“What?”
“You use those who follow your will as expendable tools, cast them aside—and yet call yourself the master of a sect! How can you?”
Gwang Cham Do’s expression hardened.
Then, covering his eyes with the flat of his blade, he burst into wild laughter. “Kha-ha-ha!”
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding!”
Beyond the blade’s edge, Gwang Cham Do’s eyes flashed with malice.
Gwang Cham Do raised his blade toward Un Hyeon.
“Things are different now! Today, you are the prey, Emperor’s Sword. Not the Wave Path Sect!”
Un Hyeon’s gaze turned cold and distant.
Shhhhh—
A blue aura swirled and rose around Un Hyeon.
“It is you who are mistaken.”
Un Hyeon was now shrouded in the shadows cast deep within the valley.
Beneath that darkness, blue eyes blazed.
“It is not I who has wandered into a grave, but you.”
Swoosh—
Un Hyeon assumed a combat stance.
“I will claim the neck I could not sever at Huk San this day.”
Ssss-ssss-ssss….
The aura that had risen around Un Hyeon like heat shimmer gradually intensified, soon whirling around him in a fierce vortex.
Even in the darkness, the blue aura’s overwhelming presence made Gwang Cham Do swallow hard.
“They said he was dying…”
What kind of presence did a dying man possess?
Every hair on his body stood on end, his skin prickling from the sheer force of the aura.
A savage smile spread across Gwang Cham Do’s lips.
“This won’t be enough to settle for the Emperor’s Sword’s granddaughter.”
Gwang Cham Do took his stance.
A voice so loud it made the veins in his neck stand out rang through the valley.
“You brats! Time to hunt a tiger!!”
And in that same moment—
Whistle-whistle-whist! Slash!
Dozens of Flying Blades came hurtling from all directions of the valley.
Every one of them aimed at Un Hyeon’s vital points.
“Hah!”
Un Hyeon tightened his grip for an instant. Then—
Boom!
The Internal Energy swirling around him exploded outward in all directions at once.
A burst of Qi Aura.
The incoming Flying Blades lost their force at the sheer pressure and tumbled down, clattering.
Hiss…
Un Hyeon examined the fallen blades.
The edges of the Flying Blades were coated with Deadly Poison.
Snap!
Un Hyeon kicked off the ground and launched forward.
His blade pointed toward Gwang Cham Do.
‘Today I’ll finish you once and for all.’
This unfinished debt would be settled at last.
The inherited martial art of the Namgung Clan’s patriarch.
The Emperor’s Sword Form!
Shriek—
His eyes gleamed with a sharpness fiercer than ever before.
* * *
Whoosh—
Yeon Woo gazed toward the direction from which the wind was blowing.
She still held Gu Young’s hand.
“What is it?”
Gu Young followed Yeon Woo’s gaze.
It was just an ordinary forest—no sign of anything amiss, nothing strange at all.
“Did you sense something odd?”
“Hmm…”
Yeon Woo shook her head.
“No… it’s nothing. Let’s go!”
Gu Young nodded.
The two descended the mountain hand in hand.
Yeon Woo had grown weary from climbing and descending the cliff face, so she’d asked for his hand.
“Say, sir.”
“It’s Gu Young.”
“What does Gu Young mean?”
“It means the shadow of a dog.”
“A… dog bastard…?”
“Where on earth did you learn such language.”
Yeon Woo averted her gaze awkwardly.
In her previous life, beyond the small window, she’d often heard men stumbling about call each other that very name.
Of course, since she’d seen them hitting one another and speaking harshly afterward, Yeon Woo dimly understood it wasn’t meant kindly.
“Is that your name?”
“I have another name.”
“What is it?”
Gu Young fell silent for a moment.
As Yeon Woo turned to look at him, waiting for an answer that wouldn’t come—
“…Lee Beom.”
“Hmm?”
“Lee Beom. That’s my name.”
Lee Beom… Lee Beom… Beom…
Yeon Woo rolled the name softly on her tongue, repeating it quietly.
Whether from embarrassment, Gu Young’s ears had flushed slightly red.
“…Just call me Gu Young…”
“It’s beautiful!”
Yeon Woo grabbed Gu Young’s hand and pulled hard.
“…!”
Caught off guard, Gu Young’s eyes went wide as the child dragged him beyond Huk San.
“Your name is pretty too!”
Gu Young’s brow furrowed slightly.
“It’s Gu Young. And ‘mister’? I’m barely….”
That was when it happened.
“…!”
Gu Young’s head snapped toward one direction.
The forest—the same way Yeon Woo had been looking moments before.
“Barely?”
Crack-crack. Crackle-crack.
‘Something’s coming.’
Gu Young seized the Spear Staff he’d lashed to his back.
He bent one knee into a crouch, never tearing his eyes from the rapidly approaching presence.
Gu Young gripped Yeon Woo’s shoulder.
“Can you run alone?”
“Huh—?”
Suddenly—?
“Down this path toward the government garrison. Don’t look back. Don’t stop. Do you understand?”
“….”
The lightness drained from Yeon Woo’s face.
Beyond Huk San, she met his hardened gaze and nodded.
“Impressive.”
Gu Young smiled faintly.
Then he rose at once and turned to face the direction from which the presence drew near.
Whoosh!
The black Spear Staff swept through the air.
Gu Young gripped the staff and focused on the approaching presence.
“Go.”
Bang!
Yeon Woo began to run.
As the child’s presence receded, Gu Young’s gaze sank into shadow.

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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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