Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 79

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

Episode 79
It was real.
This madman had truly trusted the child and invited the wolf into the sheep’s pen.
“….”
That reality drained Gwi-ya-gaek’s will to fight in an instant.
The fragments of momentum, collapsed just as swiftly, scattered weakly into the darkness.
A lunatic.
Gwi-ya-gaek’s gaze upon Am-yeong Majun betrayed unmistakable exhaustion.
The one who had risen to the position of Majun by the Heavenly Demon’s choice.
He had known the man’s nature to be peculiar, but to be such a thorough madman—
Yet there was nothing strange about it, truly.
The Demonic Sect harbored many madmen.
For a martial artist who trained in Demonic Arts that scattered the heart and fractured the mind, it would have been stranger if he possessed a firmly anchored sanity.
“Then you are saying…”
Gwi-ya-gaek wiped his weary face.
“That you acknowledge being behind him? Though I confess it makes for insufficient justification.”
“No, no.”
Am-yeong Majun hastily waved his hand.
“I sought only to draw him in and capture him—I did not command him to poison anyone. The poisoning plan, I merely learned of by accident.”
“How am I to believe that?”
“It was a plan undertaken with the Patriarch’s consent.”
“…!”
“If you wish, you may ask the Patriarch yourself.”
Gwi-ya-gaek could not conceal his shock.
To draw Byeok Sa-an into Maryong Hall and capture him with irrefutable evidence.
If that were Am-yeong Majun’s scheme alone, he could not trust him; but if it were the Patriarch’s will, the matter took on an entirely different color.
“I see.”
There was nothing more to verify.
The Patriarch’s authority was not something to be invoked lightly.
All the more so coming from Am-yeong Majun, who held the Patriarch’s exclusive confidence.
And if this truly was the Patriarch’s will, then Gwi-ya-gaek, as the Hall’s master, could raise no further objection.
“I understand.”
“So then, I trust the compensation was handled properly?”
“…?”
“You identified the poison and even synthesized the antidote, didn’t you? Surely that’s too great a merit to pass over in silence?”
Gwi-ya-gaek fell silent.
So that was what he had been after all along.
“…That is a matter of Maryong Hall’s internal affairs. Not something for outsiders to meddle in.”
Am-yeong Majun let out a low chuckle at Gwi-ya-gaek’s dismissal.
“Fair enough, fair enough. You’re right—that’s not something I can meddle in. I understand what you’re saying. I won’t come and go carelessly from now on.”
“….”
“Still doubt in those eyes?”
“I fail to understand why you would even ask to be believed.”
After leaving himself, the Hall’s master, in the dark while perpetrating such acts.
“Now that I have your meaning, please depart. I would prefer we not meet again in such circumstances.”
“That suits me as well.”
Gwi-ya-gaek’s gaze lowered toward Am-yeong Majun.
Am-yeong Majun shrugged briefly.
In the same moment his mouth twisted, Am-yeong Majun’s figure vanished without trace.
Though he himself bore the epithet of Ghost, that movement was truly spectral.
Sigh…
Gwi-ya-gaek gazed down upon Maryong Hall shrouded in darkness.
The full expanse of the Hall, still ablaze with festive spirit, etched itself line by line into the depths of his dark eyes.
* * *
Bang—! Hiss….
At the thick spear shaft blocking his path once more, Yeon-woo’s eyes sharpened.
Yeon-woo fixed his gaze upon his opponent.
Jeok Dae-san.
The trainee, whose build was twice that of Yeon-woo, bore a resolute expression.
His will not to yield an inch of ground was abundantly clear.
“You’ll never break through me. I’ve already analyzed every move you made yesterday.”
Jeok Dae-san’s gaze fixed on Yeon-woo’s feet.
“You’re fast, sure, but your attacks are monotonous. Even countering would be difficult, but someone like you? I could block you for a lifetime. You won’t surpass me.”
At this blunt, unmistakable provocation, Yeon-woo’s expression turned cold.
A lifetime? He’d block him for a lifetime?
When there were still two more opponents waiting?
Yeon-woo glanced to one side of the Training Grounds.
Gu-yeong was there teaching Spear Art to trainees who had finished their bouts.
“Once you defeat them all, I’ll teach you another method.”
That other method meant a way to close the distance.
What Gu-yeong had taught him first was to understand the opponent’s movements.
Of course, that alone had helped tremendously.
“…Not enough.”
“What? I can’t hear you if you’re mumbling.”
Yeon-woo looked at Jeok Dae-san.
“I don’t have time to waste on you. I have to beat you and those two today.”
The other two trainees were also practicing Spear Art not far away.
So that he could move straight into the next bout once Jeok Dae-san was defeated.
Jeok Dae-san let out a small laugh and spoke.
“Do you even know who one of them is?”
“Who?”
“A trainee from Mu-yeong Maga. Same origin as Patriarch Gu-yeong.”
Mu-yeong Maga was one of the Seven Families Three Palaces.
Not a clan meant to produce vessels for the Heavenly Demon, but vessels to serve the Heavenly Demon—a family obsessed with cultivating such servants.
The clan’s specialties were Concealment and Tracking.
To guard their lord’s side like a shadow, they learned first to erase their presence and leave no trace.
What was unique, however, was that they did not restrict the weapons their members used.
Their sole purpose was to nurture talent that would become stronger and serve their future lord, so each person trained with weapons suited to their hand.
Thus, it was said that Mu-yeong Maga possessed martial manuals for dozens of different military weapons.
“And among those, they’re called the finest in Spear Art among all the Seven Families Three Palaces. Just look at Patriarch Gu-yeong.”
“Yeah.”
The only spear technique Yeon-woo had seen was Gu-yeong’s.
But in his current state, he couldn’t even imagine how powerful Gu-yeong’s spear was.
“But he’s not the patriarch, is he?”
Gu-yeong’s the strong one.
If that trainee were as strong as Gu-yeong, he’d be the patriarch himself.
“You complete idiot! Don’t you understand what I’m saying?”
“I really don’t.”
Yeon-woo raised his eyebrow askew.
How was Gu-yeong being strong the same thing as that trainee being from the same clan and therefore strong?
“Besides, I’m not interested in him right now. The one I’m facing is…”
Yeon-woo gripped his axe and took his stance again.
“You. Rock.”
“Rock?”
Feeling Yeon-woo about to move again, Jeok Dae-san took his own stance.
“It seems we don’t understand each other at all.”
Then there was no point in talking at length—it would only wear on them both. If words wouldn’t work, steel was the answer.
“Come.”
…
Yeon-woo’s gaze absorbed Jeok Dae-san’s stance.
It wasn’t only Jeok Dae-san who had come to understand his opponent through their continued bouts.
‘A blocking spear.’
It did not strike back. It did not counter.
It did not follow through.
It only blocked.
It blocked with raw force—so much force that it was nearly impossible to change direction once his axe was committed to that path.
But Yeon-woo already understood something else.
‘I can’t hesitate.’
He was already being intimidated by that force.
Yeon-woo possessed more strength than others his age.
That’s why he’d never faced an opponent stronger than himself.
It was the reason he struggled against Jeok Dae-san, and through struggle upon struggle, Yeon-woo came to understand something.
‘Do as you always do.’
That’s all it takes.
But you’re not doing it.
You shrink before Rock’s overwhelming presence, holding back the stride you would normally take.
That single hesitation costs you the opening, and the opening lost is the opportunity surrendered.
So the problem isn’t your opponent—it’s you.
“Hah….”
Yeon-woo exhaled slowly, composing herself.
‘Rock.’
This match isn’t about breaking the rock.
It’s about leaping over it. So.
‘Do as you always do.’
Like when you moved through valleys and boulders in the mountains.
Breath steady.
Yeon-woo’s eyes held Jeok Dae-san before her.
Held the great stone she faced for the first time.
A faint smile curved the child’s lips.
“…!”
In that instant, Jeok Dae-san felt something shift.
Thud—
‘She’s coming!’
Whoosh—
The spear shaft, twice as thick as those carried by the other trainees, cut off Yeon-woo’s path as she charged forward.
Clang—!
The sound of the blow striking the spear echoed across the Combat Arena, and at the sound, the other trainees looked up from their cultivation toward the two fighters.
Jeok Dae-san had felt a moment of panic, and his strength came down heavier for it.
“….”
Gu-yeong’s gaze, too, fixed on the pair.
Rather, on Yeon-woo, as she pushed off the ground and drove upward.
Thud—
Even before the overwhelming force that shook the Combat Arena, Yeon-woo did not waver.
Did not hesitate.
Crack—!
Yeon-woo’s small foot stepped onto the thick spear shaft.
The very source of the pressure that had forced her back again and again.
“…!”
Jeok Dae-san’s eyes widened sharply.
The very strike he’d used to block her feet each time.
His opponent had feared his strength, had shrunk before it. Or so he thought.
But Jeok Dae-san, merely a trainee himself, could not have predicted it.
‘She cleared it….’
People grow. Every day, every moment.
And the vitality of growth burns with astonishing force and vigor.
How a person could suddenly surge forth in the blink of an eye, achieving growth in a single instant—such a thing was beyond the measure of a trainee who had only recently entered the sect.
“Ugh…!”
Jeok Dae-san’s instinct refused to yield; he lifted the spear shaft upward.
But it only lent momentum to Yeon-woo’s leap.
Whirr—
Using that force to spring high into the air, Yeon-woo spun the axe in her grip through empty space.
At last having cleared the rock, her face blazed with vibrant, living energy.
In that moment, beneath the black mask, Gu-yeong’s lips curved into a faint smile.
Gu-yeong had known it all along.
Jeok Dae-san was the opponent Yeon-woo would struggle against most.
That day, Yeon-woo defeated three trainees.
An achievement five days faster than Gu-yeong had predicted.

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