Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 81

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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 81
Gwi-ya-gaek’s words froze the air in Yeonmu Hall.
Trial Passers, just like that.
The carefully built tension shattered in an instant.
The disciples’ faces flushed with fear and anxiety, and heavy silence settled over them.
Yet Gwi-ya-gaek, the very architect of this moment, wore a satisfied smile.
Several instructors shook their heads as if to say there was nothing to be done.
Their reaction, too, was not particularly grave.
Something felt wrong.
A few disciples sensed that strange response.
“One hundred and twenty Trial Passers. As long as you don’t do anything stupid, no one will be eliminated from this exam.”
His voice carried a note of reluctance.
The disciples’ faces went slack as Gwi-ya-gaek delivered the words in a bored, rapid-fire tone.
‘One hundred and twenty Trial Passers?’
‘No eliminations? Everyone can pass the exam?’
“Uh…”
“Whoa—aaaah!!”
No one would fail?
An exam where everyone could pass?!
“This can’t be real! Seriously?”
“Hah, phew! I was trembling thinking they’d cut down a ton of us like they did the first time! Ugh…! My chest hurt from shaking so hard!”
What a stroke of luck.
Maryong Hall held twelve trials in total.
For the disciples to pass even one of them with ease was nothing short of fortune.
“Don’t get too excited, you fools.”
Gwi-ya-gaek’s voice cooled the fervent excitement that had filled Yeonmu Hall.
“We simply place no restrictions on the number of Trial Passers. Ranks will still be assigned according to performance. Once you return, we’ll implement the old Differential Reward System with strict discipline. Remember that.”
For the past month, the disciples had known happiness.
Comfortable sleeping quarters and abundant food.
For disciples who’d been forced to live on rice balls alone because of the Differential Reward System, nothing could have been more welcome.
But now, that luxury would be taken away.
Since it had come to them unexpectedly, they’d expected it would be withdrawn eventually, so none of the disciples were caught off guard.
They merely savored their regret.
Gwi-ya-gaek let out a light chuckle at their muted reaction and continued.
“This exam will take place in Gwi-rim.”
“!”
“…!”
A greater commotion swept through Yeonmu Hall than when he’d announced no eliminations.
“Gwi, Gwi-rim…?”
“So the place where this exam is being held…”
The Gui Hun Ma Family.
One of the Seven Families Three Palaces, settled southwest of Shipman Daesan on Mang-hon Mountain.
A demonic family that studied the realm of the dead rather than the living, researched souls, and made them the foundation of martial arts.
They believed death was not an end.
Rather, death opened a new realm of martial wisdom, allowing one to touch the Ultimate Emptiness that the living could never comprehend.
Thus, they used corpses without hesitation, and it was said they even summoned the souls of the dead.
The realm of the dead.
Moving corpses.
The theft of souls.
Such knowledge beyond reason could only inspire fear and terror in the young disciples.
“The essence of the exam is survival in Gwi-rim. Live until the exam ends, and you pass.”
Simply survive in the forest.
Simple words—the same as what he’d said about the number of Trial Passers a moment ago.
Yet the mood was entirely different.
‘Survive in Gwi-rim…’
‘Among the ghosts and corpse-walkers that fill that place…?’
The disciples wanted to weep.
It would be better to survive among the mad—anything but sleeping alongside spirits that ordinary martial skill could not dispel.
‘I hate this…’
‘I really hate this…’
Whether or not anyone listened, Gwi-ya-gaek’s explanation continued.
“During the trial, Gwi-rim will be divided into four zones centered on a middle point. Each zone will be marked by flags of three different colors.”
As Gwi-ya-gaek spoke, the deputy Am-hyang stepped forward onto the platform, holding three flags.
He raised the green flag.
“First: any idiot alive could survive in this zone. From the forest’s edge to where this green flag is planted is nothing more than an ordinary forest as you imagine it.”
The trainees’ faces brightened rapidly once more.
An ordinary forest!
They would have to forage for their own food, but the mere absence of spirits made it paradise for the trainees.
Deputy Am-hyang then raised the yellow flag.
“The second zone runs from where the green flag marks the boundary to where the yellow flag marks it. In this place, there are specially….”
Gwi-ya-gaek produced something from his robe.
It was a red wooden tablet, the size of two fingers.
“Red Wood Tablets like this are hidden throughout the zone. Whoever finds and brings me a Red Wood Tablet will be granted a lower-grade Demon Spirit Pill after the trial ends.”
“!”
“…!”
Yeonmu Hall erupted in commotion once again.
A Demon Spirit Pill.
A secret spiritual medicine of the Demonic Sect, occasionally bestowed upon trainees who passed Maryong Hall’s trials.
They came in three grades—lower, middle, and upper—and upper-grade Demon Spirit Pills were rare even within the Demonic Sect.
Their efficacy was said to rival even the finest Spiritual Medicines of the Central Plains.
Taking just one lower-grade pill could yield a minimum of ten years of cultivation, refining blood and vital channels while aiding the activation of the dantian—such was the power of these pills.
There were trainees who had entered Maryong Hall solely to obtain a Demon Spirit Pill; their value could not be measured in words.
“Looking at your level, I’d say whether or not you obtain a Spiritual Medicine will determine who passes the third trial.”
The words, tinged with laughter, were no jest.
The trainees gathered here were still newcomers whose level differences could not be called stark.
At their current stage, a gap of ten years of cultivation was the difference between heaven and earth.
If the third trial measured martial prowess, it was obvious that the trainee who obtained the pill would pass.
That meant this trial was not about ‘survival’ but rather about finding or failing to find that ‘red tablet’ held in Gwi-ya-gaek’s hand.
‘I need to find at least one red tablet….’
‘In the end, I have to set foot in Gwi-rim.’
As various thoughts swirled among the trainees, Deputy Am-hyang raised the third flag.
It was crimson.
“The third zone runs from the yellow boundary to the edge marked by this crimson flag. I’ll speak frankly: this zone is dangerous. Enter recklessly and you will lose your life.”
As Gwi-ya-gaek spoke, his expression and voice held not a trace of laughter.
That stern look and tone gripped the trainees with sudden tension.
“Within this zone lies….”
Gwi-ya-gaek produced something else from his robe.
Resting in his palm was a black egg.
It was slightly larger than a chicken’s egg.
The shell was pitch-black, yet its surface was smooth and gleamed with a subtle luster.
Though ordinary in appearance, the trainees recognized at once that this egg was no ordinary thing.
Even from a distance, it gave off such an uncanny feeling that anyone could sense it.
“It is a Demon Beast Egg.”
“…!”
The trainees drew in their breath as one.
Not commotion, not mere surprise, but horror.
What was a Gweijo?
The ruler of Gwi-rim, the force that made Gwi-rim what it was today.
Even a supreme master dared not rampage freely within its domain—the highest being in Gwi-rim.
It was said that Gwi-rim’s Spectral Qi was maintained at its present level precisely because the Gweijo dwelled there.
Yet the Gweijo was famous within the Demonic Sect not solely for its existence.
‘The Demon Beast Egg, which lays but once every thirty years.’
The Gweijo was a spirit creature that fed on Demonic Qi and grew strong.
It altered the forest’s nature and dominated it—such power made it undeniably a Spirit Creature.
Spirit Creatures necessarily harbored Spiritual Medicines within them.
The reason they had never slain the Gweijo to claim its Spiritual Medicine was precisely because of the egg it laid once every thirty years.
“A Demon Beast Egg alone is said to equal the Spiritual Medicine of a Spirit Creature that has lived five hundred years. It is laid after the Gweijo accumulates Demonic Qi in its body for thirty years.”
Yeon-woo turned to look at Sa Ma-hyeon, who had moved to his side.
“It is a Spiritual Medicine incomparable to a Demon Spirit Pill. I’ve heard it contains no less than sixty years of accumulated Demonic Qi….”
Though the martial artists of the Central Plains would not know, for those of the Demonic Sect who accumulated Demonic Qi, no such opportunity existed.
The struggle within the sect over who would claim an egg laid only once every thirty years was fierce enough to draw blood.
Yeon-woo blinked.
“I see.”
An egg laid only once every thirty years.
‘I wonder how it tastes?’
Compared to pheasant eggs, it must be incredibly delicious, right?
Since it’s not something you can eat easily, surely….
‘It must be incredibly delicious….’
Yeon-woo swallowed silently, unnoticed.
Gwi-ya-gaek’s words continued.
“Great danger demands proportionate reward. The final sector holds twelve Demon Beast Eggs hidden within it.”
At the mention of twelve of such precious treasures, the disciples’ eyes gleamed with hunger.
Obtaining a Demon Spirit Pill would grant passage through the third trial, but claiming a Demon Beast Egg—that would truly put one within reach of the Deputy Cult Master’s throne.
Silence hung over Yeonmu Hall.
The disciples’ fighting spirit blazed silently upward.
“Anyone confident enough,”
Gwi-ya-gaek looked down upon that burning fervor and spoke in a voice stripped of all warmth.
“Stake your life and seize it.”

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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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