Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 55

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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 55
Another half hour passed after the second examinee cleared the Illusion Formation.
In the meantime, those who had made it through the Illusion Formation found their seats and began enjoying the banquet.
The examinees were taken aback to discover that the quality of the dishes varied depending on the order in which they’d cleared the formation, but soon enough they were laughing and chattering away with bright faces.
After all, they’d made it into the top hundred and twenty, and there would be plenty of opportunities to climb higher.
Yo-hwa Majun, chin propped against her palm at an angle, looked down at the bustling courtyard below.
“Just as I expected—most of them are children from families of some repute.”
It was an inevitable result; the Illusion Formation could only be cleared in order of martial prowess.
“Look there. Though they placed later, you can still see quite a few faces that don’t belong to the major houses, wouldn’t you say?”
Sama Majun, seated beside Yo-hwa Majun, answered her observation once again.
Yo-hwa Majun’s gaze followed his toward the crowd below.
“Is that so? I’m not one to remember faces that hold no interest for me. But tell me—how do you manage to recognize these things?”
“I simply keep the faces of the major house children in mind.”
Knowing that a child doesn’t belong to a major house was easy enough—it meant their face wasn’t one he remembered.
“And by ‘major houses,’ you mean…?”
“The families registered in the Demonic Sect’s roster.”
Yo-hwa Majun’s lips parted slightly.
Hundreds of families were registered in the Demonic Sect’s roster alone, were they not?
He claimed to know not just the faces of their heads, but of their children as well?
How could he possibly track who was born and raised when?
“You do realize that’s rather frightening, don’t you?”
“I suppose that’s fortunate.”
“My, what an unfeeling man.”
Beneath the Thin Mask, Yo-hwa Majun’s serpentine eyes curved slightly with amusement.
She leaned a touch closer toward Sama Majun.
“By the way, hasn’t it come time for the dear third young master of the Sama Family to undergo his Initiation?”
Sama Majun fell silent.
As if his silence were answer enough, Yo-hwa Majun’s lips curved upward.
“From your expression, it seems he hasn’t arrived yet?”
“…Those without the qualifications naturally fall away.”
In other words, he hadn’t cleared the Illusion Formation yet.
Only a dozen or so examinees remained.
Yo-hwa Majun’s gaze drifted from his hands resting on the armrest to the bluish veins that stood out beneath his skin.
Her lips curved into a smile.
‘Truth be told, I couldn’t be bothered to come.’
But I’m glad I did.
This Initiation ceremony is quite entertaining.
Beneath the Thin Mask, a low humming escaped her lips.
* * *
Creak—
Tap.
A diminutive boy in a long robe that brushed against his feet stepped out through the doorway.
“At last—outside.”
Sama Hyeon, adjusting the Small Crown that kept slipping down, lifted his head and gazed up at the sky.
The sky within the Illusion Formation had been clear and blue, but the actual sky was a somewhat murky gray.
“From the angle of the sun, I’d say roughly an hour has passed. I’m afraid I took longer than expected. I may well have missed the passing threshold.”
Tap. Tap.
Sama Hyeon walked on.
In truth, he could have emerged much earlier.
But the sophistication of the Illusion Formation and the flawlessness of its illusions—indistinguishable from reality itself—had held him fast.
Each time he transitioned from dirt path to stone path, from stone path to ravine, from ravine to river, he lingered long within each landscape, studying the Illusion Formation in depth.
So absorbed had he become in his investigation that at some point he forgot entirely that this was an examination.
“There’s a delicious smell in the air.”
It was only natural that he was hungry; he had exerted his mind greatly.
Sama Hyeon moved toward the Banquet Hall as if drawn by an invisible thread.
However—
“You’re number one hundred and twelve. That was close.”
An examinee who had arrived earlier greeted him warmly with the news of his passing.
That much was fine.
“But isn’t this the Banquet Hall? Why must we sit on these steps and watch others eat?”
The examinee who had announced Sama Hyeon’s passage flinched at his rough tone and edged away.
“Ha, well… the banquet is only prepared for the first hundred to pass through, I hear. And the portions vary. I’m hungry too, but I thought I’d be satisfied just having made it this far.”
“What kind of logic is that, fit only for mockery? You let him pass and now treat him like scraps? Surely reward follows achievement—that’s the natural order. Are you planning to starve him to death this way? If that’s the case, why accept a hundred and twenty in the first place? Why take on twenty more just to let them starve?”
The examinee laughed nervously—”Ha ha…”—and retreated further.
“You must be really hungry, huh?”
“My belly’s glued to my spine—I could clap my ribs together. When the stomach’s empty, the mind won’t work properly, and when the mind fails, a man becomes a fool. I’m becoming a fool, I tell you…!”
Sama Hyeon suddenly seized the Small Crown and began howling, “A fool! Me, a fool…!”
The examinee, now distant enough that two people could fit between them, turned his head away as if they’d never spoken at all.
And he thought to himself.
‘I won’t start conversations with just anyone from now on.’
That was when it happened.
“Want to eat some of mine?”
“…!”
Though he’d said he was satisfied merely with passing, the hungry examinee’s head turned back toward Sama Hyeon of its own accord.
Before Sama Hyeon sat another examinee, kneeling with chin resting in hand.
It was Yeon-woo.
“…What? Just now you said…?”
“I have lots of food left over.”
He gestured behind him with his thumb.
It was the direction where the examinees who’d arrived first were enjoying the banquet.
“If you want, eat. It’s good.”
Sama Hyeon’s eyes gleamed with moisture.
“You’re… you’re offering to share your food with me…?”
“Yeah. You’re the one who explained all sorts of things to me earlier, right? I learned a lot because of you.”
“My… my benefactor….”
Sama Hyeon’s eyes gleamed even brighter.
This time it was a look of profound gratitude, touched with genuine emotion.
“Um, hey…!”
“…?”
Yeon-woo turned his head to look at the examinee sitting beside Sama Hyeon.
The examinee swallowed hard and asked.
“If there’s lots left… could I… could I have a little too…?”
“Me too…! Even just a handful of rice…!”
The examinees beside him, and beside them as well.
All looked toward Yeon-woo with sparkling eyes.
They’d all struggled through the Illusion Formation, but having entered after the hundred-mark, they’d eaten nothing.
The Illusion Formation was inherently treacherous—threats could erupt from anywhere without warning, and wandering through nonexistent space consumed enormous stamina.
For them, hunger was therefore far more severe than usual.
Seeing the desperate expressions of these examinees, Yeon-woo blinked and nodded readily.
“Sure! Let’s all share! There’s plenty!”
And truly, Yeon-woo’s table held enough food for them all to eat their fill.
The examinees, who’d expected to be grateful for mere scraps, were so startled their jaws fell open at the abundance.
‘First place…!’
‘The one who passed the Illusion Formation first…!’
A note of tension crept into the examinees’ gazes as they looked at Yeon-woo.
Where was he from?
Was he from the Seven Families Three Palaces?
To pass first meant he was surely….
But such thoughts didn’t linger long.
“Thank you! My benefactor! I will never forget this kindness!”
Sama Hyeon had rushed to the table and begun eating in earnest.
The examinees crowded hastily around the table.
As Yeon-woo watched them eat with ravenous haste, as if they hadn’t eaten in days, his mouth curved up in a pleased smile.
* * *
Arrogant whelp. Arrogant… arrogant…!
Thump-thump-thump-thump—
Hwan-yeong Majun, draped in a black robe, walked with quickening strides through the rear courtyard of Maryong Hall.
‘How dare he dismiss my Illusion Formation? Some mere pup?’
Right after the exam ended, Hwan-yeong Majun had checked the Array Technique immediately.
If there was something wrong with the Illusion Formation and that bastard hadn’t actually passed through it, he planned to invoke fairness concerns and throw him into an even harsher formation.
He might well die in the process, but during the time Maryong Hall remains open, the death of a single young upstart is hardly an unusual occurrence.
Yet, astonishingly, the Array Technique bore no flaw whatsoever.
Incredibly—the insolent whelp had genuinely seen through the Illusion Formation’s deception.
Crack—
Something shattered within the fist clenched beneath the black robe, the sound brittle and sharp.
‘Unacceptable. That this Illusion Formation, which I myself constructed, should fail against such a mere child…!’
The Illusion Formation created for the Initiation examination had been crafted with meticulous care to sweep away even the Demonic Sect’s elite!
Because he had invested such care, because it was flawless, Hwan-yeong Majun could not contain himself.
Against nothing more than such a wretch….
‘But wait.’
Beneath the black robe’s shadow, dark eyes glinted like obsidian.
‘Problems can be created, can they not?’
After all, it was he who judged whether the Array Technique functioned properly or not.
The Sama Family had no grounds to verify it themselves.
If he were to confirm—if he were to say that a problem emerged at the point when that brat passed through—
‘I could order a second examination, could I not?’
If that were the case, he could send the boy into the Formation teeming with Demonic Beasts and calamities….
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Hwan-yeong Majun, who had been crouching with laughter caught in his throat, suddenly stiffened.
His eyes snapped upward.
Perched upon the railing of the rear courtyard passage, directly before him, sat Yo-hwa Majun.
“Wh-what are you….”
“That idea of yours.”
Yo-hwa Majun’s long violet nails gestured toward him in a languid motion.
“You should let it go.”
“What thought of mine could you possibly—”
“That child.”
Tap.
Yo-hwa Majun rose lightly to her feet.
Then tap, tap, tap.
With slow, unhurried steps, she drew close beside him.
Her smooth voice drifted low into his ear beyond the black robe.
“Darkness incarnate, wouldn’t you say?”

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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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