Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 60

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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 60
* * *
The martial contest between Yeon-woo and Gwang-oh ended in Yeon-woo’s victory.
The moment Gwang-oh’s body crashed onto the Martial Arts Arena with a heavy thud, every student watching had their mouth fall open in shock.
It was a remarkable duel.
Though the students lacked the expertise in martial arts to understand exactly what had passed between the two combatants, they knew well enough.
The person who would capture the most attention in today’s contest was the first to pass. Her.
Thump—
Yeon-woo leaped down from the Martial Arts Arena with ease.
Gwang-oh, following the instructors’ orders, was carried off by Maryong Hall’s martial artists to the Infirmary.
“Next! Number twenty-eight, come up!”
The contests continued one after another.
Yet the students’ eyes were not on whoever climbed onto the platform next—they remained fixed on Yeon-woo.
Shwish— Swoosh—
As Yeon-woo descended, the students parted before her as if by silent agreement, opening a path.
Unaware of this, Yeon-woo suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Ah….”
The surrounding students watched her nervously from the corners of their eyes.
‘Surely she isn’t… isn’t dissatisfied?’
Fear crept over them—what if she suddenly went berserk with that axe in her hand?—when she spoke.
“I’m starving.”
Yeon-woo rubbed her belly and smacked her lips.
After moving her body for so long, hunger had caught up with her.
“Isn’t it almost mealtime?”
Yeon-woo glanced up at the sun.
“Benefactor!”
Sa-ma Hyeon came running as if he’d been waiting for this exact moment, his feet pounding the ground.
Something was held in his hands.
“Would you care for this?”
Yeon-woo’s eyes lit up as she looked at what he was offering.
Sa-ma Hyeon held a lotus-leaf rice ball, no larger than half a fist.
“Can I really have this? Truly?”
“Of course. I received one myself. I thought you might need it, and I’d even prepared a cloth for you to wipe away sweat, but as expected of you, benefactor—you tore that vicious beast apart so effortlessly!”
At Sa-ma Hyeon’s words, the students trembled without thinking.
His small frame, his boyish appearance, his innocent-looking face—yet the words flowing from his mouth were brutishly coarse.
“Thanks!”
Of course, Yeon-woo paid none of this any mind.
Her attention was entirely absorbed by the lotus-leaf rice ball.
She popped the rice ball into her mouth whole and mumbled as she chewed, asking through her mouthful: “Hwoo-waay-ah-ewh-ay-uh?”

“One of the instructors over there was passing them out. However….”
Sa-ma Hyeon pointed to a spot.
Just as he said, a female instructor was moving between the students, distributing lotus-leaf rice balls.
And from the basket in her hand wafted the rich, savory aroma.
Gulp—
“Me too!”
Yeon-woo vanished in an instant, rushing toward the instructor with blinding speed.
“Oh—!”
Sa-ma Hyeon, who had been about to say something, reached out his hand after her retreating form too late.
But there was no way to stop Yeon-woo as she disappeared so quickly.
Sa-ma Hyeon scratched his head and murmured to himself.
“The benefactor won’t be able to receive one, no matter how hard she tries. There’s no way the benefactor could possibly meet that ‘condition.'”
His voice was swiftly swallowed by the sound signaling the start of the next match.
Soon the clash and crash of combat echoed through the arena—Bang! Crash!—
Sa-ma Hyeon glanced briefly at the Martial Arts Arena as though uninterested, adjusted the small crown on his head, and turned to leave.
* * *
“Cursed instructors….”
The martial contests, which had begun early in the morning, didn’t end until the sun was well past its zenith.
After all the matches concluded, while the Hall Master and instructors briefly conferred on the results, the students took a light rest.
And Yeon-woo’s cheeks were puffed out full.
“You won’t give even one away?”
When you had so many to begin with.
You found so many children to hand out lotus-leaf rice balls to, and you even forced one onto a kid who didn’t want it—
“Me too!”
“Give me one!”
“I’m hungry too!”
“Please?”
Yeon-woo, circling nearby, pretended not to see and refused to hand out even a single one.
Out of sheer spite, he finally tried to grab the basket, but what happened next—
Every time his hand neared the basket, a sharp spin, another spin, and the basket slipped from his fingers.
Yeon-woo glared up at the Instructor on the Elevated Platform, the one distributing the lotus-leaf rice balls.
Her hair hung past her shoulders in tight braids; at first glance she seemed fragile, with the delicate impression of a gentle woman.
As she distributed the rice balls with such a warm smile, you could almost forget and be fooled by her appearance.
A kind Instructor, or so it seemed.
‘I’ve seen your true face now.’
“That’s Instructor Sa-ryeon.”
Yeon-woo’s head snapped around.
A student had approached him without warning.
The student pointed to the female Instructor Yeon-woo had been glaring at just moments before.
“You were watching that Instructor, right?”
“Who are you?”
“Huh?”
The student looked startled.
That he wasn’t being remembered.
Assuming he’d be recognized, he’d approached warmly, but now he introduced himself with an embarrassed smile.
“I’m Baek Yeol-han. I had a martial contest with her before you did—”
Baek Yeol-han glanced around in surprise.
“Come to think of it, when did you get here? What are you doing at the Hall?”
At his side, Sa-ma Hyeon had appeared without a sound.
Sa-ma Hyeon frowned slightly, adjusting his Small Crown with obvious displeasure.
“What business is it of yours that I visit my benefactor?”
“Ah… I thought you’d followed me here—”
“That’s hardly possible. I have no interest in you whatsoever.”
“Haha, is that so.”
Baek Yeol-han laughed awkwardly.
Then he held something out to Yeon-woo.
“In any case, here.”
“Oh!”
Yeon-woo’s eyes widened.
It was the lotus-leaf rice ball that Instructor Sa-ryeon had been distributing moments before.
“You wanted this, didn’t you?”
Yeon-woo grabbed the rice ball eagerly and looked up at Baek Yeol-han.
“How did you know?!”
“All the other students could tell. You and the Instructor were just so—”
“So?”
‘Making such a spectacle of yourselves.’
One lunging to snatch the basket, one refusing to let it be taken.
Their movements were so tumultuous it was impossible not to notice.
‘Actually, it was more entertaining than the martial contest…’
It was merely a battle of wills—one person snatching, the other defending.
But it was an incredible display of Movement Technique and Body Technique nonetheless.
In the end, the Hall Master glared at them for the commotion, so the Instructor stopped.
Anyway.
“Hmm! After the martial contest, I went to check and she gave me one. I’m not sure why, but—”
“You’re better off not knowing.”
At the soft laugh, Baek Yeol-han’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Sa-ma Hyeon.
“What? Are you saying you know?”
“Sa-ryeon—the name means a sinister lotus. She’s famous for appearing modest and gentle on the surface, but being full of tricks and schemes beneath. Every action has meaning, every deed a hidden intent. If you’re fooled by her innocent appearance and let your guard down around her, you might lose your eyes and nose both. She’s someone to watch carefully.”
“Ah.”
“Ah….”
Yeon-woo and Baek Yeol-han gasped in unison.
At their genuine admiration, Sa-ma Hyeon’s shoulders lifted with satisfaction as he adjusted the small crown on his head.
Baek Yeol-han asked.
“So what’s the point of handing out lotus-leaf rice balls?”
“I only give them to students who might die soon.”
“What?!”
Baek Yeol-han recoiled in shock.
“It means I give them to students whose skills are so poor that they’ll either die or be expelled—in short, it’s pity.”
“That can’t possibly be right!”
Baek Yeol-han, who had received the lotus-leaf rice ball the moment he’d approached, couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t lack skill—I just didn’t show it! This is all your fault…!”
It’s because of you…!
“Heh.”
Sa-ma Hyeon let out a thin laugh.
“The fact that you blame others first shows there’s something rotten in you. That’s why you receive the rice ball. Do you understand?”
“!!!!!”
Leaving Baek Yeol-han to rage and shout behind him, Sa-ma Hyeon approached Yeon-woo.
Then he drew something from his robe and offered it.
“I’ll give you mine as well.”
It was Instructor Sa-ryeon’s lotus-leaf rice ball.
Baek Yeol-han pointed at the rice ball and cried out.
“What?! You got one too!”
Sa-ma Hyeon glared at Baek Yeol-han and adjusted his small crown.
“Of course. I’m someone who was rotten from the start.”
So much so that when I got two of them, I gave one away without hesitation.
“….”
Baek Yeol-han’s mouth fell open.
He wanted to shout something, but no words came.
Meanwhile.
“You two….”
Yeon-woo, who suddenly found herself holding a lotus-leaf rice ball in each hand, gazed down at them with glistening eyes.
She then lifted her wavering gaze, looking back and forth between Baek Yeol-han and Sa-ma Hyeon for a moment.
“You’re both such good people…?”
Sharing food like this.
And it was all you had.
Gulp.
Yeon-woo suppressed her emotion and extended her hand to Baek Yeol-han.
“I’m Yeon-woo. Yeon-woo Lee.”
But Baek Yeol-han, unfamiliar with handshakes, simply stared down at her hand in bewilderment.
With one lotus-leaf rice ball in her mouth and another balanced on her head, Yeon-woo suddenly grabbed both their hands with both of hers.
Sa-ma Hyeon looked at her with startled eyes.
Yeon-woo shook their hands up and down eagerly.
“Let’s stay close from now on, us!”
Just as Yeon-woo shook their hands excitedly.
“Focus.”
A sharp voice suddenly filled the Training Grounds.
Every student turned their gaze toward the Elevated Platform.
On the platform, twelve instructors stood in a line with Gwi-ya-gaek at the center.
“I have a sense of your skill now.”
At Gwi-ya-gaek’s words, the students’ faces lit with anticipation.
And indeed, the skills the students had displayed in their duels were more impressive than expected.
Most students already wielded Inner Power, and their weapon-handling and martial arts were clearly of high caliber at first glance.
Truly worthy of Maryong Hall’s reputation as a place where the Divine Cult’s finest talents gathered….
“But as predicted, you’re all pathetic.”
The atmosphere of anticipation that had filled the Training Grounds vanished in an instant.
“Though I’ll admit, there were a few worth watching.”
Gwi-ya-gaek’s gaze lingered briefly on Yeon-woo and several other students before returning to its cold indifference.
“Therefore.”
The corners of his mouth twisted into a cruel smile.
“I will now announce the content of the second test.”

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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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